SO SIMILAR, YET SO DIFFERENT

No, it is not the land itself that is different or the flags

The flags are very similar but that’s where the similarities end.

Chile has one of the most diverse climatic regions of almost any country on earth. You can go from extreme dessert to frigid tundra; from sunny beaches to snowy mountains and it is the narrowest country on earth.

Texas has a more uniform climate and not many geological features that set it apart from any other ordinary vanilla state. But in comparison to Chile, Texas might just as well be on the moon. What makes these differences?

Dallas

The people make the difference for one thing; even though Chile, once considered a bastion of machismo and Latino homophobia it has evolved into a very accepting society, teeming with highly educated individuals who are respected for their intellect and their intellectual endeavors.

While Texas languishes in a wilderness of ignorance, superstition and downright racial and sexual intolerance; which may be due in part to the deep religious roots with Evangelical-Fundamentalist ramifications that permeate the whole state.

It is not based on economics this remarkable difference while Chile has a very impressive GNP of $228 Billion PPP dollars, current prices – 2009 (Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators) Texas moved from the ninth largest economy in the world to the eighth according to Gross National Product (GNP) statistics from the World Bank Atlas for 2000. With a 2000 Gross State Product (GSP) of $725 billion, the Texas economy is more than three times the size of the Russian economy, and also outpaces the GNP of countries like Canada, Brazil, Korea, Argentina and of course Chile.

Santiago de Chile

The great nation of Chile is now tackling the issue of equal rights for gays. Unlike in the United States, people there are a bit more open minded and a lot more educated; notwithstanding the opposition from the Catholic Church which most Chileans seem to profess but are not exactly fanatical about.

The highest court in Chile will hear a protection demand from the Homosexual Integration and Liberation Movement, and three same-sex couples. They want the court to both strike down the nation’s opposite-sex definition of marriage on constitutional grounds and negate a Chilean law that blocks the recognition of same-sex marriages conducted abroad.

We are going to wait for the outcome and then formulate an opinion; but if they are anything near as their neighbors to the East the Argentineans; who now have equal rights for same sex couples, then without a doubt Chile too will become a country in the ranks of those that have fairness and equality.

Reliable sources say that SAME SEX MARRIAGE in Chile is just a matter of time, to occur before the year is over. Chile then will join the three other Spanish speaking nations to legalize same sex marriage: Spain, Argentina and Mexico City (limited to the capital) while Texas will probably lag behind and will be the very last of the states to guarantee equality to all its citizens.

PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Santiago_do_Chile.