Santiago it’s an incredible contrasted, enormous town… So contrasted that you actually are suddenly into a Manhattan-like area, then suddenly into a Bangladesh-like ghetto area… and you feel this impotence, this horrible powerlessness of not being able to fix it with a simple go… You feel you would like MONEY to be like icebergs, so itt could melt with the warming of the Sun, and so water will reach every home… cos there certainly are homes with not enough water, while there are others unnecessarily covered with it… (Watch out, I’m not talking about politics, please, I want to ask you politely to stay away from it, I don’t want we to talk about it, if possible)
You get surprised seeing Mercedes cars BIG models costing thousand and thousands of dollars here and there, and besides it a couple of children wearing rags, other stilling or sniffing glue… I’ve never seen such a huge contrast as in Santiago, in no part of the world, the differences between the reach and the poor here, are, to say the least, extreme… to such and extreme, it’s extremely sad. I’ve seen poorness and richness mixed, like in Spain, France, etc., but never seen such an extreme.
Music shops are rather antique and small; even the bigger ones are still small if you compare them to what you find in the UK, not to say Canada or USA. They have the necessary, that’s it. If you need something special, like… let’s say… a 6 strings Yamaha guitar bass, you would have to ask for it and wait for about 4 weeks till it arrives. You’ll have to pay 18% + 6%, + shipping yourself, over the tag price. Guaranty will become a real issue there, cos salesman will through you up their unashamed and ridiculous “3 month guaranty”, (not for everything anyway, most things get 1 year, if you are lucky enough) for products that actually have 3 or even 5 years guaranty, like Logitech mice for instance, but not here in Chile. My new MSI video card, actually has 3 years guaranty, but they give you only a 3 months guaranty…
It’s hard to say what I’m going to say, cos people is nice here, my wife herself is Chilean too, I live here and love people in here, but unfortunately, they are extremely disorganized. For example, it’s hard to find somebody coming to your home at time… they always arrive late, what they say may be or may be not, when you are searching for reliability.
On the other side of the coin, you’ll find the MOST gentle and polited people on earth if you ask a question or need anything at all as a foreigner. All foreigners are surprised at how incredibly attentive and serviceable the attitude of most Chilean people is.
People here really enjoy parties, parties here are not just parties, they are “BIG FIESTAS” that may finish exceedingly late, let’s say 8 in the morning of the following day… so they don’t get up, they just follow the happenings of the following day… Uff… Yes! That’s what I call a party man!
Back to business, unfortunately, salesman do not know what they are selling if you talk about computer technology. Most of them really do not know. Like everywhere in the world, of course, there are exceptions, but here in Chile the owners do not tend to instruct their workers so the problem is not the salesman itself, but the owners of the business which are careless about everything else, but money. If you ask for instance, about HDDs, they will tell you about their speed (those who know much), and their capacity. They don’t really know about platters, or special specifications, differences between them, it really is rare to find somebody knowledgeable in those matters to guide and help you buying what you need.
Nevertheless, all this is changing slowly, but it’s certainly changing cos Chile is growing to a certain extent fast. Technology, as I say is just beginning to be here, but as the country gets richer, more experts are visiting the place to teach, to help and to doing business as well. This is saving everything!!! For instance, there is a Macromedia Center in Santiago that teaches you all their programs and this is nice. They are a branch of Macromedia from USA.
Well, the time for the first chapter is up, so see you later…
Fascinating stuff Nestor. In the end did you like Santiago despite its highs and lows ?
On a much, much lower scale I lived for many years in inner-city Sydney (Darlinghurst, Surry Hills/Redfern) and the mix of people, virbancy and nightlife really appealed to me. Sometimes chaos and certain degree of tension can be invigorating. But too much...?
Of course here I am talking about something very different than desperate poverty versus riches.
Also I think the essence of a civil society is organisation. For example, a friend of mine knows quite a few people in Kenya. One of these Kenyans came to visit in Sydney - he had *never* been outside of Kenya or Tanzania, and suddenly he is in my apartment, 30 floors up in Sydney.
He had been there two days. I asked him what was the one thing that really struck him about the city. Well, it was not the buildings, people, shops, cars or anything like that, it was the fact that the harbour ferries left *exactly* on time. He was extremely impressed that when the timetable said they would leave, they did - no matter whether they were full or empty.
Also Nestor, can I ask you about drugs and corruption in Santiago ?
I'm very interested in that subject since I think that corruption is the worst evil. Once people stop doing their jobs and let money take over from duty and responsibility, then IMHO everything goes downhill fast... I hate those movies where someone pulls out $100 and bribes a waiter or clerk - this is encouraging terrible attitudes.
As for Australia I have never come across a situation where a bribe was needed or expected.
Of course I did like Santiago… Santiago has million on things, it’s massive and there is place for whatsoever to take place. I’ve been there many times already and it’s fascinating… Unfortunately smog is killing people, cos most of the city moves through very old and badly guarded busses. There are more than 7.5 million people, so… what do you think… Enormous! You should see the city at night, from the mountains there is a see of tiny lights covering a large surface surrounded by very height mountains “Los Andes”, always snowed on their top, beautiful.
You have to be kidding when asking about corruption and drugs in Santiago… Well, everybody knows that big cities are always sort of paradise for drugs… Santiago it’s not different to this respect. There are many problems with drug-traffickers and the like… many gangs and fights and dead people, etc. Yes unfortunately drugs are one of the big problems in Santiago.
Corruption? Uffff… Well, you are talking about a country that has just came out of a dictatorship so… there is a great rebelliousness going on, particularly within youth. Politics is quite rotten, despite the fact that the present government is doing extremely well and working hard. There are, yes, many corruption problems. But, Santiago is Santiago, it’s a different world from the rest of the country.
Hello Nestor, just to say that you could be talking about Lisbon and portuguese exactly the same way. Maybe there is not so great contrasts like over there 'coz there are not many rich people and there are many poor people called middle-class. Lisbon no where gets Manhattan style places but no third world too. Advantage of being near to Europe...
but also there are not 6 string Yamaha basses and even not any CW distributor all my gear has been bought online and I can't hear, try, make questions or call for help about any shop around.
Now I must wait for your next episode.
cheers
hey, I went to lisbon last year! on a trip with my grandma! hehe. Well, you guessed right. We just toured the whole place and I don't remember a thing.
Hi, Ken!
You should have told me before you come, I can't believe you didn't meet me with your Grandma
Joke apart, Lisbon as a city has nothing brilliant at all but if somebody tell you where to go there are lots of beautiful places to see. Though this seems a second and a half world country...
There was a man who is a retired engineer I met over there in Santiago… He seemed to be a very polited nice man… We talked about technology and computers, about the latest discoveries and the so… it was an very interesting conversation in fact.
Out of the blue, I realised he was actually building computers a selling pieces as well, being an intermediate between USA and Chile… Well, I thought: “Great, this is my opportunity, cos he is going to bring us everything we need, this is exactly what I was looking for”.
He proposed for me to give him a list of the items, I gave him the list and he looked very pleased about it cos of course, it was a nice business for him too, we both were pleased to have met. Among other things, the list had a couple of Western Digital Caviar, Second Edition, the 8Mb buffer version, and many other quite special items and you know we need, for our special Pulsar Systems.
The conversation finished about 2 in the morning, and it was nice to find somebody interested in technology… But, you know… women are always much more intuitive than us, men, and my wife told me: “Hey Nestor, I’m sorry, but I don’t really like this guy, I think he’s not clear, not clear at all in fact. You have to be careful with hime”. I was surprised, but it’s not the last time she’s right about something she intuits… so, I was careful, but surprised for this.
Before living the conversation, I asserted: “Well, it was great to find somebody to buy all the things I need from, cos they are specialized items and nobody had them in the whole of Santiago (never again will tell this to a salesman). But, please, make sure you consult me BEFORE buying anything, cos depending on the prices you give us, I’ll buy from you or not, you know… this is business and obviously, if I find something cheaper I will go for it, you understand me”. To what he answered: “Yes, of course, no problem… I’m going to phone you tomorrow morning to let you know the prices you have requested”. I fortunately insisted with a smile: “It’s very important for us to know beforehand the prices, febore you ask for them to USA, cos you know, I’m in a quite short budget for everything so please, tell me something before buying, right?”… “Yes, yes… no problem, I’ll call you tomorrow as I said, to tell you which are our prices”.
I let my phone on, all night and through the following day, to make sure I would not miss any important call from him, telling me the prices… But… he didn’t call. As I understood, if he didn’t call it was because he was unable to find the items I needed. I had just two days left to buy everything, and to stay out of your home for too many days is expensive too, so I bought all I fond as a replacement. For instance, instead of a Matrox 550 or 650, I’ve got an MSI FX5600, instead of the Western Digital SE drives I wanted, I’ve got a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 for the primary, plus a Seagate Barracuda V SATA for the secondary Audio only; instead of and Antec case, a Thermaltake, etc., etc… I had to decide everything fast. Fortunately, I had been reading all the reviews in the net, absolutely everything about everything I wanted to buy, and their possible substitutes, and I have to confess that I enjoy extremely much reading reviews, particularly when the person is objective, deep in tech and passionate about what he is doing. I could read for many hours if I had the time… Yes, I like those horrible LONG, VERY LONG reviews that tells you the sense of life included on it as a final word of kindness and some macrobiotics as a good bay… whatever…
It passed one day… two days… and thee days after our conversation with the engineer…
We were getting ready to go, so it was not a day to buy anything else cos it was Sunday, we were carefully packing everything to get home, and nevertheless we had no more money… All the pieces were already chosen and taken. The engineer was already out of my mind, and all I could think about was… “Dear dear… this system is gonna fly, I’m going to be crazy happy with it… wow… 6 years without upgrading… always with Windows 98SE, wow… everything is gonna fly now… I’m going to be able to use many VST instruments at the same time…”, etc., etc… (Whom wouldn’t think about this in such a situation… I you wouldn’t , go to a psychologist cos you have a problem)
Well, yes… you guessed well… the engineer called u telling this: “Hello, how are you, bla bla bla… I’ve got all you asked for” // “Oh no… I’m sorry, but I’ve already bought everything!” // “I don’t think this is a good behaviour from you Nestor, cos you told me to buy everything for you, and I have even the two Western Digital you asked me, they will be here in about 15 days.” // “Well, I’m truly sorry you bought the items we talked about, but remember I told you clearly, and repeatedly, to not to buy anything till you gave me the prices… Unfortunately you never called me.” // “But what do you think I’m going to do with all this now, this is yours and now you don’t want it”. // “I don’t now anybody in the world that would buy without knowing the price, at least, not street people like me. You should remember what I told you, I told you clearly not to buy till giving me the prices… I was a mistake to buy without asking me” // “So you are not going to get what I’ve been spending money for, do you? This is out of order Nestor, you should do something about this. This is no possible”.
I couldn’t but to get a bit indignant, to be honest telling him the truth he was trying to hide from us cos he was clearly playing a dirty game, his voice became different, like hesitant and some unsteadiness was clearly showing through, he was without a doubt lying to us. So I said: “Look, I can see the game you are playing, you bought first everything without telling us anything, cos you didn’t want to trade with prices but for us to accept them as you please. You are trying to get us emotional so we buy you what you bought, well, quite frankly, this is dishonest from you, and from now on we don’t want to continue doing any business with you, sorry”. He went blank and couldn’t’ speak for a while, cos what we were saying was unfortunately true! He finished saying: “Ok, this is all right, perhaps I should have told you something bla bla bla…”
The world is so small some times you know? We came to know that this guy, the famous tricking engineer, was known to have some particular problems with this kind of things thanks to a friend who curiously by chance new him, so we finally knew the truth about his try, which reassured us cos we were nevertheless sad for the happening, and so we could sleep in peace this night, despite.
Other guys were selling Kingston 512MB DDR3200 memory for 20.000 pesos! As you understand, this would be the equivalent of only $27 USA, a ridiculous price of course… for such a great memory! Well, they just did colour photocopies onto a special sticker paper, and glued it onto the memory to “make it become” a Kingston brand new memory…
There are small shops selling you computer systems that are tweaked to show you, via software, more memory , more disc space, etc., than what you actually get, so you buy an expensive computer, and you get a cheap piece of crap, unacceptable and unbelievable.
WoW - good reading! Very well felt by your wife. And very well dealt with by you afterwards. Have you thought of turning him in to the police?
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No, the situation was not as bad as that nevertheless… it was dishonest doing it, it’s true, but you cannot call the police only because of this… I think he’s not really a bad man, but his way of selling is inappropriate, tricky. I don’t think he would sell me something broken or something like that, he just tried to sell his stuff forcing us, that’s it. It’s bad enough for us not to be ever else in touch with this person, but not as bad as to ruin his life, not at all. It's just one more of the many behaving this way...
all my gear has been bought online and I can't hear, try, make questions or call for help about any shop around.
