Michell Bachelet just came to my attention due to a diplomatically polite knock down of Gordon Brown, the UK PM.
Our correspondent said Mr Brown, who is the first UK prime minister to visit Chile, is a particular admirer of Ms Bachelet, who has spent much of her country's copper wealth on relieving poverty, investing in public services and improving education.But she went on to say that because of decisions made in the good times, Chile had prepared for the bad.Who is this woman?
Chile set up two sovereign wealth funds to save and later invest the proceeds of its recent impressive growth.
"I would say that because of our decision during the good times, we decided to save same of the money for the bad times," Ms Bachelet told the news conference in Santiago.
"And I would say that policy today is producing results. So when we develop our fiscal stimulus plan, we could make one that is 2.8% of GDP."
Afetr the Pinochet's coup in '73
Michelle Bachelet and Ángela Jeria (her mother) were then separated from each other and submitted to interrogation and torture. Michelle Bachelet was held along with eight other female prisoners in a cell with bunk-beds, while her mother was held in "the tower," an infamous area within the camp. Later, both mother and daughter were moved to the Cuatro Álamos detention center, where they remained until the end of January.
Once freed, Bachelet and Jeria traveled to Australia as exiles. From there, they continued on to East Germany, where Michelle Bachelet studied German, in Leipzig, and then enrolled at Humboldt University medical school in Berlin.
Then she came back to Chile. Studied, participated on the health needs of Chile. Then in 2000 she was named Minister of Health.
Then named Defense Minister from 2002-2004. She was the first woman both in Chile and in Latin America to hold such a position.
During her tenure as Defense Minister, Chile’s rules about obligatory military service were modified in key ways, the role of the Ministry and the government in military affairs was strengthened, and equal-opportunity policies were instituted for women in the military, the Carabineros Police and the Investigations Police.
Chile also dispatched peacekeeping troops throughout the world and forged closer ties with other Defense Ministries throughout the Americas. The military worked to reach compliance with the Ottawa Convention as well, destroying mine fields in Chile and disposing of its stock of landmines.
Then she was elected president of Chile and in 2007 she
.... took on the Roman Catholic Church and right-wing opposition there by signing a decree that the morning-after pill be available to girls as young as 14, even as the Constitutional Court of Chile ruled that she could not do so. In the same week, however, Bachelet held a special ceremony in La Moneda, Santiago’s presidential palace, celebrating new laws that ensure that working mothers can nurse their children in the workplace, even when there is no daycare center on the premises—another long-time taboo in Chile’s traditionally Catholic, patriarchal milieu. Moreover, Bachelet affirmed that her administration was “guaranteeing that people have the tools to exercise a loving, spiritually strong maternity or paternity, and allowing the bonds between mothers and children to be enriched.”
Say that again Michelle! That people have the tools to be good parents? You mean tools like guaranteed daycare for all Chilean children, which you have instituted since you became president in March, 2006? You mean a national healthcare system that is now “looking forward to an unusual surplus of funds for 2008 and is currently evaluating how best to spend the unexpected additional money”? And what about the unprecedented pension plan your administration is implementing which guarantees that no one need retire in poverty and that every person over 60 will have all necessary health care for free? And those generous student loans that can be partially re-paid through community and professional service instead of graduating from college with a life-sentence of debt servitude? And the generous new tax credits and guarantees you are now offering to small businesses?
Well it looks as though she has managed her country's finances quite well. And the care of its citizens also. Oh my. What a woman can do.
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