Que pasa en el mundo hoy?

What happened in the world today?



After the intense week that followed the FARC killing across the border of Ecuador, and then Venezuela, Ecuador, and Nicaragua cutting off diplomatic ties with Colombia, things are looking up.

The singer Juanes said he was offering to give a free concert on the border between Venezuela and Colombia.

"Como colombiano quiero extender mi mano derecha a todos mis hermanos ecuatorianos y mi mano izquierda a mis hermanos venezolanos" (As a Colombian I want to extend my right hand to all of my Ecuadorian brothers and my left hand to all of my Venezuelan brothers)

And soon enough, Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela ended their border crisis at a summit, and broadcasted all 3 presidents shaking hands on television across Latin America.

Ojala que things keep improving!

I Spy: So many things wrong with this picture

Santos, speaking on television today, said 16 other [FARC] rebels, including Reyes' female partner, were killed when Colombian planes fired upon the camp in Ecuador from within Colombian airspace.
-bloomberg.com

Really? You shot over the country lines but then entered afterwards to retrieve the body? Really? This sounds more like a game of capture the flag. The conflict of facts on this particular subject is evidenced in all of the news articles. I think it also begs the question: Why is there never clear information released from any party when it is a matter of the Colombian government and the FARC—it makes it difficult to pick a side, or find legitimacy on either side.

I don’t know that I would call the attack “fair play” as far country borders go, however I do believe that:

Colombian officials have long complained that Ecuador's military does not control its sparsely populated border and has not tried to remove rebel camps.
-CBS

If Ecuador is not going to monitor it’s borderlands, and instead has let the FARC set up shop, wreaking havoc in Colombia from Ecuador, I don’t think that qualifies it as a neutral zone.

Chavez called the Colombian government "a terrorist state" as he sided with the leftist rebels it has battled for decades, saying its military "invaded Ecuador, flagrantly violated Ecuador's sovereignty."
-CBS

Chavez is legitimately crazy. When I was in Colombia (summer 2007), if Colombians were gathered in a public area anywhere for longer than 10 minutes, someone would inevitably yell “Fuck Chavez!” I think they were on to something.

The slaying of Reyes and 16 other guerrillas, Chavez said, "wasn't any combat. It was a cowardly murder, all of it coldly calculated."
-CBS

Clearly the intention was to kill these FARC members, would combat have improved the situation? Were you looking for an epic battle scene?

Chavez interrupted his program Sunday for a moment of silence in honor of the slain rebels.
"We pay tribute to a true revolutionary, who was Raul Reyes," Chavez said later, recalling he had met rebel in Brazil in 1995 and calling him a "good revolutionary."
-CBS

A true revolutionary…the same one who:

Colombia's prosecutor's office said Reyes was wanted in connection with more than 120 different criminal processes, including 60 charges of murder and four for kidnapping.

President Hugo Chavez ordered tanks and thousands of troops sent to Venezuela's border with Colombia on Sunday, accusing his neighbor of pushing South America to the brink of war and saying his government's embassy in Bogota will be closed.
-CBS

Chavez actually threatened war if a similar occurrence would take place along the Colombian-Venezuelan border. It seems like Chavez likes the prospect or idea of war…he is legitimately crazy.

It is also rumored that Ecuador is going to send troops to their border with Colombia. It is already nearly impossible for the majority of Colombians to leave their country because of the country’s regulations; they don’t need more border reinforcement. And what will happen when people who have been displaced because of the violence of the FARC show up at the border to escape it (as thousands already have), will the border controls from Venezuela and Ecuador send them back?

His death is likely to intensify a struggle for power within the half-century-old peasant movement to overthrow the government, said former Colombian President Ernesto Samper.
-bloomberg.com

This issue is so complex and has so many parts of it that are unexplainable, I wish there was some solution at hand for mi pais. I think the fact that this conflict is a half-century old with the FARC definitely speaks to how far off course they are today. The FARC was initially established as the military arm of the Colombian Communist Party. Today they are a left-wing guerilla, recognized as a terrorist organization by many, and in control of 15-20% of Colombian territory. They started to out to protect the disadvantaged, and now their violence has driven millions out of their homes, I would argue creating more disadvantages. I have friends whose land was taken over by the FARC, I don’t know why they think that would help in the creation of equal opportunity for all citizens. The FARC was also established to take action against a government who was not providing equal opportunities for all of its citizens. The government has taken huge strides in the time since the FARC was established, now making public education, healthcare, public works projects, and social improvement efforts at the top of their agenda. Success has manifested itself differently across the country, but I would argue that Medellin is it’s best example (which I will write more about in a future post).

After years of debating how to assess the government's response to the displaced, government findings presented early this month revealed -- quite amazingly -- that more than 80 percent of displaced people in Colombia now have access to health care and education. Eighty-one percent of newborns to children 7 years old have received all their required vaccinations, and 86 percent between 5 and 17 regularly attend school.
-Washington Post (y que bonita: http://www.ligademujeres.org/)

After all of this, I still know that there is a lot of corruption and scandal in the Colombian government that is not just related to the FARC. The FARC also inspired the AUC and other right-wing paramilitaries, who were partly created to protect themselves from the FARC. With a right-wing agenda there is often overlap between the government and the paramilitaries that can spur collaboration between the two, or cause the government to turn a blind eye to the injustices of the paramilitaries. However, taken for face value the government should theoretically be opposing both the paramilitaries and the guerillas. Instead they sometimes collaborate with one and fight the other, while the two are constantly fighting…makes for an unproductive situation.

Ay. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Cumbia Steps

As I step out of the taxi the aroma of cinnamon and filth dances in the air, cumbia (1) steps that seem to be choreographed for the smog. The smog that inevitably comes along with a developing city nestled in the valley of fourteen mountains, and that will without a doubt turn tissues black for people who don’t call this place home.

“Chiquita grande, agua: cien pesos, gringa, gringa, promoción, mona linda!” (2) Hundreds of calls fill the air, some people want to sell me things, and others just want to call attention to the obvious contrast I create walking down the street at five feet ten inches tall with pale skin and green eyes. It is enough to make people stop in their tracks and stare for a straight half hour, should the time and situation allow. But let’s be honest, it’s Colombia, and time always allows.

While my presence warrants double glances from every passerby, no one seems to notice the shantytown next to the river that is set against a backdrop of the latest government-built parque (3) complete with seven fountains, three sculptures, and a bamboo forest. This seems to create a more weighty contrast than my five-ten frame could ever carry. But, as a barefoot African woman selling fruit from a basket on her head brushes elbows with a man, briefcased and business suited, everyone continues their daily dance, unquestioning. Maybe it’s because they already know the steps, or maybe their feet just can’t escape the rhythm.

1. Cumbia: a type of Latin-American dance music of Colombian origin, similar to salsa and using guitars, accordions, bass guitar, and percussion.
2. Little, big girl, water: one hundred pesos, foreigner, foreigner, sale, cute light skinned girl.
3. Parque: Park









This was the submission I made to a new publication they're going to have on campus about international experiences called Souvenirs. I had already written that piece for my creative writing class last semester, and I figured it'd be good marketing for AIESEC. All of you other UW AIESECers reading this, submissions are due by Feb. 22-- and they can be writings or photos from any type of international experience...ask me if you want more details!

Grid Systems

I met a woman from Colombia yesterday at the Global Dialogues event that AIESEC co-sponsored. She has been living in the States for seven years but is from Bogota originally...so we of course had the obligatory "Rolos son frios" conversation (translation: people from Bogota are cold--that is the rumor/saying within Colombia). Of course, because she is Colombian her warmness was actually overflowing...in the fifteen minutes that we chatted we exchanged emails and planned to get together to hang out and cook Colombian food (read: arepas, yay!!). Apparently her friend sells arepas, postobon, etc. etc so I'm pretty pumped about that.

It was funny to read Katy's blog about Colombia (she's studying in Ecuador right now, but took a weekend trip to Bogotá)..."The city. It tops my favorite latin american city i've been to thus far. There is a grid system- streets were numbered and made sense."

It made me think about the street system of Medellin. I remember reading in Lonely Planet before leaving that all calles ran in one direction and carreras in the other, and they were numbered increasingly or decreasingly depending on direction. I thought, "Okay, I got this, it seems easy enough."

When I got to Medellin I was initially frustrated to discover the simplicity of the system was not as Lonely Planet had described, especially because directions are not one of my fortes. There really is nothing systematic about Calle 42, having Calle 42A, Calle 42AA, and Calle 42B after it and before Calle 43...especially since the very next block could very well just be Calle 44. Who's deciding which streets will be lettered, and with how many letters, and where do I find this information out?!

I learned that I had to start drawing my own little mental map, or be content with wandering around Bello for an hour to find my house, because it took me awhile to realize that the street that connected to the street I lived on had a random gap in the middle, where you needed to walk up 1 street and over 2 to get back on it--always an adventure.

Now that I'm back in Madison, one of the things that I miss most about Medellin (and other places I've visited) is the lack of organization, the absence of a perfectly functioning grid system. I like the chaos that comes with not being able to walk around "the block." I miss the freedom of being surrounded by my favorite 4th grade geometric shapes, because sometimes I just want to walk around the hexagon, rhombus, or triangle.

Katy was pretty right on when she said: "I swear its the people that make the experience...I didn't just fall in love with city, the food, the countryside- but i feel in love with the warmth of the people and i know i will return."