The Australian and the Chilean Bicentenaries (1988 and 2010)

Abstract

Two events in 2010 framed the Chilean Bicentennial in uncertainty: Chile suffered its second worst earthquake and tsunami, and an accident involving 33 miners who remained trapped for two months underground after a collapse in northern Chile. ¹ Both events became the two most visible stories about Chile in the Australian press in 20 years: Australia was the seventh country in terms of the number of stories published related to the miners between August and October 2010 (Bazán 2010: D13). The Chilean discourse of exceptionality around economic progress was subverted because of poor mining safety standards, and, in the case of the tsunami, a late warning that could have saved many lives.