49
minorities, would have to be chosen by the citizens so that they could represent all the
inhabitants and each portion of the territory in their varied alternatives and points of view.
Together, all these small municipalities could form a Citizen Assembly fromwhich the great
guidelines for the development of Easter Island would emanate, which would act as the
base and guide for the Confederation.
As well, this assembly would submit its plans and accomplishments every year for the
general approval of this Assembly.
Easter Island is a unique territorial and cultural phenomenon in the world. Easter Island
is historical and prehistoric pride for Chile. For those characteristics, the government of
Easter Island can be an absolutely different government from the rest of the territory, that
adapts to its special conditions and that can project that pride of the past, to the present
and the future.
The seven islands must arise simultaneously since their objectives are deeply interlaced.
The prosperity, the development and the happiness will be obtained if it advances in unison.
With equal investment, but with greater multiplying factor, there has to be a change from a
social administration to an administration of economic investments of growing economic,
social and cultural results. With imagination, knowledge and efficiency that way must be
discovered.
Today [1982], Easter Island causes mixed emotions in those who live there and in those who
visit it. All are marveled and lamented simultaneously. As opposed to the administration of
a distant past, takes place a great disappointment for the present and a tremendous doubt
about the future.
- That it is destroyed, that it is robbed, that it is lost...
- That they are lazy, that they do not collaborate, that there are no means...
- That there is no transport, there are no tourists, everything is so expensive...
- That work is made without studies, that there are only studies and nothing is done...
- That they are mistaken, that they are capricious, that they are no good, that nobody
is asked...
- That everything has to be done...
- That nothing has to be done...
- That nothing else can be done...
Easter Island is a box of unworked and very deteriorated treasures, that many people
partially perceive, but that will be definitively lost if the goldsmiths who can polish them
and obtain from them the wonderful jewels that it contains are not found.
The intellectual challenge, to solve the problems of Easter Island is really complex, but
surely the solution must be very simple.