Chile: A resilient nation
by Beatrice Karol Burks
On hearing the news that an 8.8 magnitude earthquake had hit Chile on Sunday morning my first thought was log on to Facebook and look for news from friends I made while living there in 2007.
They beat me to it: despite the fact that many telephone lines and water mains were out of action, Facebook was a hive of activity with people reporting that they and their families were safe and well. They used Facebook to communicate not only with absent friends and siblings living abroad, but also to communicate their safety and whereabouts with each other, offer help and let people know where emergency support camps were.
One message read:
“IMPORTANT: Do you live between the sixth and ninth regions [in Chile] and have wifi? Open the access to your wifi and remove your password, there are people who need to contact their relatives, watch the television and locate help centres. (Copy this and post it to Facebook, Messenger, Fotolog and Twitter)”
Social networking is caricatured and criticised as the perfect medium for the egocentric. No one – nearly no one - likes to know what you had for lunch or what your pet hamster is doing. But they might like to know that you’re alive. Word that a British couple in the Chilean surfer town of Pichilemu were ok first emerged via Twitter.
Demos has been following the vital role that forms of collaborative mass communication can serve in disasters for a few years. Resilient Nation detailed the power of Twitter to help organise response to the UK’s flooding and wild fires in California. There might be an imbalance in the quality-to-quantity ratio on Twitter and Facebook, but don’t exile them to land of self-indulgence and frivolity just yet.
Miguel Ferrero
Great article
thanks to Facebook I was able to inform my cousin living in New Zealand and unable to contact her mum (living in Santiago) for three days that my auntie was ok. I was able to contact her the next day from Australia where I live since 1991
Sergio Albornoz
Gracias Bea, esta todo muy bien.
Facebook me ayudo mucho a estar en contacto con mis amigos y asi ellos pudieron avisarle a mi familia que estaba bien.
Tengo un Iphone y así pude conectarme mientras tuve bateria y señal en donde estábamos.
Los telefonos colapsaron unos minutos después del terremoto pero la red de datos funcionó siempre.
Gracias a la tecnologia, pude informar todo lo que veia.
Lo que me parece mal es que no hayan telefonos satelitales en las oficinas de emergencia o en los cuarteles de policia en todo el pais, eso si muy necesario en caso de emergencia.
Un abrazo muy fuerte.
Un abrazo.
Miriam
Very interesting blog Beatrice! it rang true of my experience last Saturday and the days that have followed.
On hearing that my beloved Chile had been hit by such a severe earthquake (and we were only there a few weeks ago), after hours of desperately trying to reach relatives and friends on the telephone -we managed to make contact with family in the north via Facebook -and they were then able to confirm that everyone was ok in Santiago. We had an even longer wait to hear news from for close friends who were holidaying in Concepcion -only to hear on their Facebook update that they had had a very lucky escape.
Even before the telephone lines were re-established, we were able to chat and message family and friends.
Huge relief all round -and being a very low user of the Facebook website -for once, I became very grateful for its existence...