The Senate and Titanic´s Orchestra

When the Titanic, that ship that could not sink even by the hand of God, hit an iceberg – as James Cameron tells us – the water began to seep from the bottom up. The first class felt the shock of the impact, but continued drinking whiskey and champagne while workers and third-class passengers began to drown.

 As the water rose, more people drowned, until chaos reached the first class. The official reaction of the ship was to save the richest first, the poorest always died. More poor or less poor; it didn’t matter.

Without a doubt, one of the most unforgettable scenes of the film was the reaction of the musicians. In the midst of absolute chaos, on the eve of their death, the orchestra continued playing as if nothing happened.

 Chile is like the Titanic, the poor dying in debt; the rich drinking whiskey and champagne, as if nothing happened; the officers, headed by the President, trying to save the privileges of the rich; and the Senate playing the violin, discussing useless bills, while the country is sinking; the poor die and the rich are saved.

The analogy is inevitable, because in the middle of this deep social crisis, the -still – President Piñera has decided to promote a social agenda – against society – that seeks to put cold cloths, so that the establishment can continue doing business using the social rights that citizens demand; the Universal Nursery Room bill, which commercializes primary education and the Minimum Salary Subsidy, which will be paid with the same workers’ money, are just two examples of this.

The reaction of the Senate, when discussing this ridiculous and disconnected agenda, is the same as that of the orchestra: keep doing what you have always done, even when It makes no sense.

That is why we do not stop shouting out loud, in the Senate´s Hall and in every room of this congress that it is drowing. We must stop playing the violin and send the only lifeguard that can guarantee a way out of this crisis: a Constituent Assembly.

The situation is pretty clear: the Government is surpassed, with a President whose hands are stained with the blood of bullets, torture, rapes; with a political team that is unable to process this crisis, that cannot or does not want to understand citizen demands and that, given the commodification of life, proposes more commodification.

Institutional policy is surpassed and has entered its terminal phase. If the President does not step aside and the Senate pushes for a Constituent Assembly, violence will erupt, which is nothing but the wrath of the poor due to poverty and lack of basic social rights.

May all of us, also the senators, resign, so that the peoples of Chile decide on the Chile that will reborn, after this Chile that is agonizing, dies.

Alejandro Navarro Brain

President Human Rights Committee

Senate of the Republic

Chile