Betancourt's Role and the Shortcomings of Gringo Media

I'm going to depart from the facts for a little commentary on two points related to Friday's march...

First, why was Betancourt leading the rally from Madrid?

Betancourt is rightfully seen as a hero in this country. Her endurance and survival have made her a powerful symbol of strength in the face of the violent elements that have held this country hostage for so long.

Betancourt is French-Colombian and after her release she returned to France to recover and reconnect with her family. That sounds like an excellent and appropriate idea. In fact, I wouldn't blame her for never wanting to return to Colombian again. However, she is a strong leader and realizes that she is in a unique position to lead the public in resisting FARC and the other armed actors in Colombia.

If she weren't planning on returning to the country, then leading the rally in Madrid makes complete sense. The French and Spanish in particular have stood by the Colombians in denouncing FARC and they are strong international partners on this issue.

However, Ingrid came back on Saturday. Why not return a day earlier and lead the marchers here? This is where the conflict is and, while cultivating European support is a worthwhile endeavor, at the end of the day change must come from withing Colombia. This is where the work must be done.

I assume there are serious security concerns that would prevent Betancourt from making such an open public appearance in Colombia. Regardless, I think from an organizing standpoint, public knowledge that she is here and unable to safely appear in public is a much more powerful draw for people to join in the protests. At the risk of sounding too harsh, a rally in Madrid is effectively an empty gesture and more of a photo-op than a real political organizing strategy. But you do get to kick it with the Spanish foreign minister.

Anyway, this is only the beginning of her leadership on this issue and I trust she knows what's she doing much better than I. I look forward to watching and reporting on her work here.

Second point, English language media coverage of Friday's protests.

Nearly all the English language coverage of the marches framed them as solely anti-FARC in nature. As someone who was here on the ground I have to say that this is a pretty egregious misrepresentation of reality. Now, I'm not a reporter nor am I an expert on the internal conflict here in Colombia, however any person who has decent eyesight and a basic understanding of Spanish could see that, while the majority of signage and slogans were anti-FARC, there was a very noticeable contingent of people protesting other guerilla groups, paramilitary groups, and ongoing human rights abuses by the Colombian military.

I'm told many people here use the term FARC to mean guerrillas in general and anti-FARC could be broadly understood to mean anti-guerrilla. However, focusing only on guerrillas means you are gravely oversimplifying the nature of this conflict. Framing the conflict in this way amounts to nothing less than poor journalism.

I think the best frame I've been exposed to is this: the conflict can be best characterized as armed actors (i.e. guerrillas, paramilitaries, and government security forces) assaulting the peace and human rights of the civilian population. In other words, its the guys with guns against everybody else. Who's 'side' the are on is largely irrelvant. All sides have been linked to hundreds of instances of murder, kidnapping, and other atrocities.

For some good background on the armed actors, check out this report by Amnesty International.

Taking it to the Streets: 'Colombia Soy Yo'

Yesterday, thousands of Colombians across this country and the globe took to the streets to protest the ongoing kidnapping, violence and other atrocities being committed by the armed elements of within the country. Clad in white t-shirts declaring 'Colombia Soy Yo' (I am Colombia), protesters most notably directed their ire towards Las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) which holds an estimated 750 individuals in captivity.

However, its important to note that protesters also carried signs denouncing other guerrilla groups such as the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), paramilitary groups such as the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), and human rights abuses carried out by the National Army - reflecting the complex nature of the internal conflict.

In Bogotá, Carrera 7 was shut down for much of the afternoon as protesters march along its length. Many held photographs of family members who have been kidnapped or otherwise victimized in Colombia's decades-old internal conflict. This is the third march of this kind in 2008.

A rally in Madrid was led by former FARC captive and former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who was freed in a daring resuce operation several months ago. Word also came this morning that Betancourt will return to Colombia tonight for the first time since she was freed from capitivity.

Gringo media coverage:

BBC News

Associated Press

Ed. Note: This is the first mention I've made on Colombia's internal conflict. In the near future I will put together a post with a brief history and current status of the conflict.

Getting Around: Taxis

If buses are the lead in the dangerous dance of Bogotáno traffic, their more graceful and agile partners are certainly the many tiny taxis jamming the streets. While the buses dominate the road way, the cabs are capable of weaving in and out of the way of their larger companions by utilizing some of the most spectacular death-defying maneuvers. These guys have to be some of the best drivers on Earth.

The cabs here are plentiful and, in my experience, relatively cheap. You can get halfway across the city for about ten thousand pesos (or a little less than $5 USD). Thanks to the numbered streets, its pretty easy to communicate where you want to go even if your Spanish, like mine, is poor.

Just like buses, the density of cabs makes them pretty easy to grab on any street corner. However, one of the nicest features of the cab companies here are their automated phone ordering systems. They have easy to remember phone numbers like 1-222222 or 1-444444. Even easier for the foreign visitor is the fact that you don't have to speak to anyone if you are calling from a land line. Just acknowledge you want a cab and they send it to the address associated with the phone number.

Once you climb into your cab and give the driver your destination, you'll notice one major difference from cabs in the U.S.: the size. Happily, the entire fleet of cabs in Bogotá (and cars in general - another post!) is made up of small, fuel-efficient vehicles. This is a big contrast from the full-size, gas guzzling Ford Crown Vics that are the standard in the U.S. While the extra leg room is nice, the recent rise in the price of gasoline has been devastating for cab drivers in Chicago and around the U.S. further driving up the cost of cabs via government imposed fuel surcharges. This is much less of an issue here.

Once the cab starts rolling down the calle, the thrill ride begins. I recommend not paying attention to some of the moves your driver will pull, ignorance is indeed bliss. In a city where the lanes painted on the road seemed to be considered wholly decorative, cab drivers are the masters of squeezing through any hole, cutting off any bus, and making turns onto any street from any lane (amazing!)

After dark, red lights are optional and more often than not you'll find your driver disregarding them completely. I'm told this is legally sanctioned to help avoid robberies but it takes some getting used to.

Not only do drivers engage in this truly impressive behavior, but many of them embrace it. I've been in more than one cab that is suped up like a rally-car, complete with racing-style gauges and steering wheels. Incredible.

After my first few rides, I've left fear in my rear-view mirror and have come to really enjoy and respect the skills of these drivers.

My Colombian Thanksgiving and a Word on Indigenous Peoples

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It is delightfully unfettered by divisive religious, material, or patriotic considerations and instead focuses solely on the commonly held important things in life: family, food, and football. Much to my surprise, I was able to score a turkey and a pan big enough to roast it in yesterday and was able to pull off a modest but satisfying turkey day meal with a few close friends.

While our deepest associations with this holiday have to do with quality family time, eating too much, and being trapped in airports or on the highway, my passing of the day outside of the United States has caused me to reflect on the historical foundations of the day and its place in the U.S. national identity, which in turn lead me to more questions to ask as I seek greater understanding of Colombia.

Anyone who has passed through grade school in the U.S. has had the experience of fashioning crude Pilgrim and Native American headgear out of construction paper (that most versatile of media) and re-enacting the First Thanksgiving. A warm and cozy display of inter-cultural harmony and brotherhood celebrating a successful harvest and survival in the New World.

What's left out of these adorable stagings is any recounting of the hundreds of Thanksgivings that followed that first one at Plymouth Plantation. The next few hundred years were marked by the near total destruction of Native American culture in North America through violence, persecution, disease, and aggressive expansionism by European settlers. Its an area we more often than not leave out of our national story and would just as soon like to forget (as evidenced by putting Andrew Jackson on the twenty dollar bill.)

Now I'm not trying to get up on a soapbox and preach about what we all know to be clearly recorded history. What spending Thanksgiving in Colombia made me think of is what I perceive to be the vastly different historical experiences of the indigenous people of Latin America versus Anglo America.

There is one statistic in particular that outlines this question with crystal clear relief. In Colombia, about 82% of the population is of mixed Amerindian and European ancestry and another 3.4% is of fully indigenous heritage. In the United States, those numbers are 0.9% and 0.74% respectively. The map below shows the level of indigenous population in the Americas. A full breakdown of these numbers for the Americas complete with sources can be found here.



Now, this difference is of course news to no one. However, this blog is about my journey towards deeper understanding of Colombian culture. Learning about the influence of both historic and contemporary indigenous populations on this country's culture is a vital part of that journey. Furthermore, I believe a comparative approach that explores the differences between Latin American versus Anglo American experiences with their respective indigenous populations will serve to greatly enrich the discussion. As such, I am officially adding this to the list of areas in which I want to cultivate deeper understanding via this blog.

Is there an anthropologist in the house? If anyone reading has any insight or resources to share, please leave a comment!

Getting Around: The Bus

For my first installment on getting around Bogotá, I've decided to tackle the most frequently used (and most fearsome) mode of transportation: the bus. In my opinion, this absolutely has to be number one on the 'things-that-are-different-about-Bogotá' list.

The bus system consists entirely of privately owned and operated buses. These machines come in every conceivable make and model, from modern to medieval, but all have one thing in common: heavy diesel exhaust. For me, this is probably one of the things I noticed first about the city. Every busy street is consumed by a cloud of particulate matter (look no further than the inside of your nose for proof).

During the day, major thoroughfares are clogged with, in my estimation, 50-75% bus traffic. To the novice rider, such as myself, the chaos is daunting (I've only recently worked up the courage to ride the buses on my own).

In addition to the sheer volume, knowing which bus to take is equally overwhelming. The routes are indicated on nearly imperceptible signs placed in the windshield. While I'm told some numbering system for these routes exists, I have yet to meet a local who can explain it to me. Instead, one must rely on the street names and neighborhoods listed on the signs.

All of this takes place in the context of no actual bus stops. Potential passengers must take it upon themselves to locate the proper bus and simultaneously attract the attention of the driver. Didn't get their attention? No worries, another bus will be along in about five seconds. This is where the density and organic nature of the system is at its best. During peak hours, it seems a seasoned rider can catch a bus from anywhere to anywhere in less than five minutes.

Ok so you've located the right bus and flagged it down. Here comes the fun part:

Stepping on-board you are confronted with your first obstacle, a turnstile (what you thought you could just walk on??) Before you have time to pass through, and while the door is still open behind you (they never close), the driver hits the gas and starts shifting gears (all the buses are manual transmission). Hold on tight because I've heard people have been tossed off and even killed by the combination of open doors and grinding gears. But hey, if the driver can shift gears, make change for your fare, and keep an eye out for more passengers all at the same time...you should be able to pay and go through the turnstile without falling out onto the street. If multi-tasking isn't your thing, take a cab.

If you happen to be on a bus with an open seat, good luck if you are over six feet tall. The seats are cramped to say the least.

Once you are settled, its time for the on-board entertainment. On the bus I rode yesterday, I was entertained by a women selling incense, a man selling colored pencils, and two clowns - each with a well rehearsed, non-stop monolouge (that I guess was funny since I couldn't understand what was said but everyone was laughing).

As noted above, there are virtually no bus stops. So when its time to go, you just have to hit the stop button and the driver will let you off whereever you want.

All of this for about 60-70 cents.

While the private system has its perks in terms of convience, the jobs it provides, and its colorful character, I have to say I prefer the publicly owned and operated bus system I left behind in Chicago - if only for the lame reasons of saftey and pollution control.

I've asked some friends about this and apparently policy makers in Bogotá feel the same. However, the bus operators are extremly well organized and capable of holding the city hostage by striking and blocking the streets. I am told this is the biggest obstacle towards reforming the system.

So for now, get your pesos ready and hold on tight.

U.S. - Colombia Free Trade Agreement

I want to start wading into the murky waters of the controversial free trade agreement between the U.S. and Colombia. Now, I'm far from an expert on international trade and this agreement in particular has so many moving parts and implications that I don't think I have a deep enough understanding to form an opinion, but I think its worth trying to pick apart for a couple of reasons.

First, the ties between the U.S. and Colombia run deep. From the Colombian perspective, the U.S. is by far its largest trading partner in terms of both imports and exports. In 2007, 35% of Colombian exports went to the U.S. and 26% of imports came from the U.S. While Colombia is a much smaller trading partner from the U.S. perspective, it ranks in the top five in another category - recipient of U.S. foreign aid. Before the U.S. invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, Colombia was behind only Israel and Egypt as a leading recipient of U.S. foreign (i.e. military) aid and U.S. governments and businesses have been meddling in Colombia for well over a century (two dramatic examples here and here).

The second reason I think this is important to understand is that the agreement was wielded by both Democrats and Republicans as a political bludgeoning device during the most recent election cycle - with the GOP accusing Democrats in Congress of evoking the specter of economy-killing protectionism and the Democrats declaring that the GOP's willingness to sign a deal despite Colombia's human rights record is proof positive that Republicans are just bad guys.

My sense is that both sides where oversimplifying and politicizing this issue during the campaign season. However, the fact that the U.S. media was discussing U.S.-Colombian relations beyond the perennial issues of cocaine and violence is a heartening development. It's an opportunity to expand awareness and understanding.

So here we go...

Brief background: Using the so-called 'fast-track' bargaining power given to him by Congress, President Bush entered in to free-trade negotiations with the government of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe (that's him in the shades) way back in 2004. A deal was reached in 2006, just in time for the newly elected Democratic congress to deny ratification of the treaty. The deal has been in political purgatory ever since and, as mentioned above, was given new life as a campaign issue in 2008.

Proponents argue for the ratification of the treaty for several reasons. Supporters in the U.S. say existing bilateral agreements already grant Colombian exports free access to the U.S. market, by and large. The same cannot be said for U.S. exports to Colombia. This was the main case made by John McCain and his (failed) campaign. Other arguements focus on the need to strengthening the existing alliance with a friendly country in an increasingly unfriendly corner of the globe. Furthermore, these voices, echoed in a recent New York Times editorial, claim the U.S. needs to 'walk the talk' on free trade if it wants to remain credible in global trade talks.

My understanding of the arguments of pro-free trade Colombians is that an agreement will mean more jobs and foreign investment in Colombia and access to cheaper imported consumer goods. In a country with an official unemployment rate at almost 10% (and believed to be much higher by many), the promise of more jobs is indeed a powerful incentive.

Opponents of the agreement, both in the U.S. and Colombia, say that ratification would be tantamount to the U.S. turning its back on Colombian labor leaders who have been the targets of violence and assassination by anti-union elements in Colombia. Others believe that the U.S. should use the leverage provided by the agreement to pressure the Uribe administration to fully investigate and prosecute human rights abuses by the army and paramilitaries (a topic I'll go into in other posts).

Another argument against the agreement that I haven't seen in the U.S. press but have come to understand here is related to agriculture. Free trade would mean cheap U.S. agricultural products could flood the Colombian market and put domestic producers out of business. The price of many of these U.S. products are kept artificially low by inherently anti-free trade U.S. agricultural subsidies. Indeed, we need look no further than the disastrous impact of subsidized U.S. corn on domestic Mexican producers in the wake of NAFTA to get a sense that this is a legitimate concern.

This last argument is the case put forth by much of the anti-agreement graffiti one sees across the city. The picture to the right is a play on the spanish acronym for free trade agreement (TLC - Tratado de Libre Comercio) meaning 'time of peasant tears.'

This is just my first swipe at this issue. Think of it as my initial brain-dump. I hope to gain more insight as I dig deeper. More to come...

Getting Around

According to this list, Bogotá is the ninth most densely populated city in the world with approximately 13,500 Bogotános per square kilometer. This puts it well ahead of Tokyo and New York City, which are numbers 50 and 112 respectively. While this measure fails to capture the nuance of temporally and spatially localized densities (like, say, Manhattan between 9 and 5 during the work week), I still think its pretty clear that there are a lot of people everywhere in Bogotá and that this presents this city with a host of serious day-to-day challenges.

Case in point: getting around. This week, I'm going to be doing a series of posts on transportation in Bogotá: buses, bikes, taxis, walking, and the TransMilenio rapid transit system.

Buckle up.

This is indeed hallowed ground...

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In the post below, I wrote about where Bogotá is situated on the globe and within Colombia. Now I'm going to talk about where I'm currently situated within Bogotá.

Like most big cities, Bogotá is a city of neighborhoods. For the time being, I'm staying in a neighborhood called Bavaria. You may be asking yourself why a neighborhood in a Latin American city is named after a region of Germany. I was wondering the same thing. I was delighted to find out that it was in this part of the city that the first brewery in the country was established back in the 19th century, the brewery eventually grew in to Bavaria, SA and was the tenth largest brewer in the world before being purchased by uber-brewer SABMiller. I am trying to honor this legacy by drinking as much Club Colombia as my budget can afford.

But I digress...

My apartment in Bavaria is situated where one of the busiest streets in the city, Avenida Caracas, meets Calle 32. Bogotá is organized in a (sort of) grid of numbered streets and avenues (calles and carreras) similar to New York City. My spot on the (sort of) grid puts me about a mile or so north of the main downtown area, el centro.

This part of the city is defined by one thing, construction. Not unlike my former home of Chicago, Bogotá is experiencing a rapid re-development near the center of the city typified by luxury condo high-rises (I can see four going up on my street alone.) In addition to new buildings, new sidewalks promise to help alleviate heavy weekday pedestrian and vehicle traffic.

More to come...

A bit more about the blog and a geography lesson

As I stated in my kick-off post, I hope that this blog will document my journey toward greater understanding of Colombia and Colombian culture. I further hope that this blog will be developed in a manner so that it can be read both chronologically, for those interested in watching my experiences here unfold in a narrative fashion, or utilized as a reference guide indexed by labels tagged on each post, for those seeking what I hope is helpful and accurate information on the topics I will be addressing.

Ok, enough ‘blog philosophy’ …just had to get it out there for my own sake. On to substance!

My base of operations in Colombia for the foreseeable future will be Bogotá, D.C., the nation’s capital and economic center. Depending on who you ask, Bogotá is home to anywhere from 8-10 million people, or a little less than 1 in 4 Colombians. I’ll be discussing population and demography a bit later on but for now I want to focus on one of my favorite subjects, geography.

Nestled in the Andes on a high mountain plain, or sabana, Bogotá is the third highest capital of any nation at approximately 8,500 feet elevation. (Another way to think of it is that standing in Bogotá your head is about 6,500 feet further from the center of the Earth than the top of the Sears Tower in Chicago…even more if you account for the planet’s bulge near the equator.) The lush green mountains that circumscribe the city rise, at their highest, another 1,500 feet towards the heavens, towering over the tallest of the city’s modern skyscrapers.

Bogotá is situated near the geographic center of the Colombia, resting in the eastern of the three main mountain ranges, or cordilleras, that give the country its unique topographic character. (This reality has played an integral role in the city’s development as well as Colombia’s overall economic and political development, a fascinating topic that I will be delving into at great depth in future posts.) This location puts the city about four and a half degrees north of the equator. The combination of elevation and latitude make for a very potent dose of UV rays from the sun with the ability to burn this gringo’s skin beet read in about 25 minutes without protection.

This mix is also responsible for Bogotá’s mild climate. Generally speaking, daytime highs range between 60-70 degrees Fahrenheit with overnight lows around 50-60. Its far-South latitude means Bogotános experience a wet/dry cycle rather than the ‘seasons’ we gringos are accustomed to up North.

Bienvenido a Colombia

So, what's this blog all about?

Well...recently, I've moved from Chicago to Bogotá. Like most gringos, my Spanish is terrible and my knowledge of Colombian culture is even worse. Nevertheless, here I am. Throwing myself under the wheels of the bus. I hope this blog will document my headfirst dive into this amazing country - every step, stumble, and stagger along the way.

Bienvenido...