I came across this post by accident, while looking for a Linux Group in Medellin. I lived in London and Barcelona, after leaving my home town in south Brazil (state capital named Florianopolis, small town, small people, small minds). I thought we where kind of half-civilized in Brazil about pedestrians and general traffic issues, but it was a grateful surprise to see, in London, that, for a 3rd world country, we are up to most of the standards. Things reached a European level by now: like in the U.K., now everybody has to stop when you cross the roads (and the vast majority of the do it – amazing!). English drivers are the most polite and respectful I have met until now. You do not mess with pedestrians in London, they have cameras, a keen police (keen folks are dangerous, they tend to do their jobs) and reasonably fair and good Courts. All in all, U.K. is a country to live if you want law abiding, respectful and polite buggers. When I moved to Barcelona, I thought I was back in a 3rd world country while crossing the streets. It seems Italians (my father is Italian), Portuguese, Greek and Spanish are amongst the worse in Europe. Holidays in Spain have a high rate of highway body count. Spanish men are keen on racing and tuning cars, and more than often they kill people while speeding in remote countryside roads. They complain a lot about traffic laws, they refuse to pay the fines, and Spanish Courts are permissive, to say the least, about these road psychopaths. Spanish police often kicks your ass for nothing if they catch you breaking the law, but they tend to close their eyes about speeding, because people are often considered not guilty of speeding in Courts, so why bother? After leaving London, I had to get used to the idea of being a target again. And I thought that maybe, just maybe, we where not so helpless in Brazil, considering the fact that I started felling safer crossing the roads and avenues in São Paulo, for instance, than in Madrid. Then I met my ex-wife, who is Colombian. She said she felt safer in Barcelona than in Medellín. I thought it was an exaggeration. Now I live in Medellín for almost three years, and I know what she meant: the very moment I arrived in the country, I was shocked about the killer traffic. Took me about a year to get used to it, and my hope came back when I visited Bogotá, where drivers are a bit more respectful (“So, it is possible? I mean, Colombians and cars? Do they… you know… work together?”). Everything said by Steven is absolutely true. Colombians are lovely people. Most of them. They work hard, they are friendly, and they are ready to help, even if they are far worse broken than you. But Colombia is at war. It messes up peoples’ views about everything. Sometimes, right is wrong, and wrong is common, and so on and so forth. The Government uses the war to justify human rights’ violations, corruption, you name it. The guerrilla and paramilitary groups use the war excuse to commit atrocities (the price to pay for the war, they say – and you pay, even though you did not order the extra prawns, or even were at the restaurant). The population, by and large, do not have good examples set from the ones who are in charge. Colombians tend to resist the laws and ordinances, they do not believe the laws serve them, which is true, it is a kind of private law, if you are rich and/or well connected, the law serves you. If not, you go to jail because of a chicken theft. If you have a SUV, you can afford the lawyer as well. If you own a motorcycle, most probably you will sell it to pay for a crash and many other fees that tend to accumulate if you do not plead guilty in first instance. With this kind of law, you will be willing to break them hard and good. I try to avoid taxes as much as I can, for instance, because most of the taxes in this country end up financing the army instead of feeding, healing and educating the People (yes, with a capital P, this strange creature nobody knows but everybody talks about).Or they end up as automatic weapons in the hands of the paramilitary groups (death squads), which are well connected to the Government. I have read the past comment advising Steven to “travel more, learn more”. Usually, Colombians are proud of their heritage, and refuse to admit that “there is a problem”. It is more or less like in Spain during Franco’s reign of horror: “It is all well in Spain” (Colombia is not too far from being a dictatorship, it is a cardboard-and-sticks-glued-with-spit kind of democracy – everything works, more or less, but the Government and the Official Institutions). They are brainwashed on a daily basis by the media which is aligned to the Big Interests, they refuse to acknowledge their own dead ones as victims and not criminals, and when doing so, they tend to blame the guilty on someone else, like children. The most common excuse is “everybody does the same, so why not me?”. I have seen people using cell phones while driving, I have seen red lights ignored. I have seen a large truck mincing an imprudent motorcyclist (it is not a pretty sight). I have seen people driving in the wrong way to get a shortcut. I have seen more than once people bribing traffic wardens in order to escape Court or fines. The list is big. The worse of all are the bus and taxi drivers, they tend to think they own the streets and do not care about anything else. They usually are supported by the ones who are covered by private law: the bus companies are dominated by the paramilitary groups, and the taxi drivers buy cheap stolen gas from the paramilitary as well. I really believe that these folks could live in one of the best country in the world, if it was not for the war. It is an invisible civil war that tend to radicalize everything. It is brother against brother, father against son, and everyone is invisibly plotting (apart from the guerrillas and the Government who wear uniforms – most of the time). They do not have good examples set by the Government, which frankly is a Joke (another capital letter, they deserve it). They do not have means to right the wrongs (private law rules). They do not know even who is in charge; in some areas (mostly urban centers) is the Government, but mainly the guerrillas or paramilitaries everywhere else, although it changes constantly – yesterday’s king might be today’s corpse floating in the river, there is a new king today with new rules, and it is capital punishment for those who disobey them. I am not justifying the attitude, but I understand why they act like that. The worst problem in Colombia is the radicalization of the conflict, some kind of Bush-like line of thought that goes “you are either with me or against me, there is no neutrality sort of thing”. You are utterly forced to take sides, and sometimes it implies breaking the law. But it is not only driving that they became lawbreakers, is almost everywhere. Also there are a lot of outdated, complicated, stupid laws that tend to make their lives more and more difficult. On the other hand, those laws do not apply to rich and powerful people. Nobody in Colombia believes much in laws or even in the Government. To say that the Government is a fraud is one thing, which I can understand, who are we supposed to complain to, if we can end dead by doing so? But another completely different story is to deny the problem, as if ignoring it would make it disappear. This is why I think the comment advising Steven to learn more and travel more is out of place, not to say rude. There is a problem – there are several problems! –, which could start being solved by simply admitting the problem itself. I love this country and the people but, oh boy, it is a mess. It is not their fault, either. It is cultural (almost 200 years since independence with nothing but internal, bloody struggles), and somehow “cultural” excuses a lot of bad things (although I do not agree with this, it seems to me it is an easy way out – you do not want to correct your ways, you say it is cultural). But in the end, we are all humans, prone to make the most horrible mistakes, despite (or because) of our good intentions, story of Humanity sort of thing. We all should care more about the ones who are in a defenseless situation, because we have the means to help ending their suffering, and everything else is bullshit. The situation in Colombia would be funny if it wasn’t sad, no one in the world deserves what is going on here. Actually, the fact that this country works at all is an amazing proof of this people’s hope, and their capacity to keep trying to sort things out. I would have given up by now, I am not as strong as them, and there is a limit to misery (it does not apply to Dick Cheney, he is limitless in the amount of misery he can spread around him). It will take a long, long time to clean it up. Shame none of us will be alive to see the results which (I take it for granted) will be awesome.
I came across this post by
I came across this post by accident, while looking for a Linux Group in Medellin. I lived in London and Barcelona, after leaving my home town in south Brazil (state capital named Florianopolis, small town, small people, small minds). I thought we where kind of half-civilized in Brazil about pedestrians and general traffic issues, but it was a grateful surprise to see, in London, that, for a 3rd world country, we are up to most of the standards. Things reached a European level by now: like in the U.K., now everybody has to stop when you cross the roads (and the vast majority of the do it – amazing!). English drivers are the most polite and respectful I have met until now. You do not mess with pedestrians in London, they have cameras, a keen police (keen folks are dangerous, they tend to do their jobs) and reasonably fair and good Courts. All in all, U.K. is a country to live if you want law abiding, respectful and polite buggers. When I moved to Barcelona, I thought I was back in a 3rd world country while crossing the streets. It seems Italians (my father is Italian), Portuguese, Greek and Spanish are amongst the worse in Europe. Holidays in Spain have a high rate of highway body count. Spanish men are keen on racing and tuning cars, and more than often they kill people while speeding in remote countryside roads. They complain a lot about traffic laws, they refuse to pay the fines, and Spanish Courts are permissive, to say the least, about these road psychopaths. Spanish police often kicks your ass for nothing if they catch you breaking the law, but they tend to close their eyes about speeding, because people are often considered not guilty of speeding in Courts, so why bother? After leaving London, I had to get used to the idea of being a target again. And I thought that maybe, just maybe, we where not so helpless in Brazil, considering the fact that I started felling safer crossing the roads and avenues in São Paulo, for instance, than in Madrid. Then I met my ex-wife, who is Colombian. She said she felt safer in Barcelona than in Medellín. I thought it was an exaggeration. Now I live in Medellín for almost three years, and I know what she meant: the very moment I arrived in the country, I was shocked about the killer traffic. Took me about a year to get used to it, and my hope came back when I visited Bogotá, where drivers are a bit more respectful (“So, it is possible? I mean, Colombians and cars? Do they… you know… work together?”). Everything said by Steven is absolutely true. Colombians are lovely people. Most of them. They work hard, they are friendly, and they are ready to help, even if they are far worse broken than you. But Colombia is at war. It messes up peoples’ views about everything. Sometimes, right is wrong, and wrong is common, and so on and so forth. The Government uses the war to justify human rights’ violations, corruption, you name it. The guerrilla and paramilitary groups use the war excuse to commit atrocities (the price to pay for the war, they say – and you pay, even though you did not order the extra prawns, or even were at the restaurant). The population, by and large, do not have good examples set from the ones who are in charge. Colombians tend to resist the laws and ordinances, they do not believe the laws serve them, which is true, it is a kind of private law, if you are rich and/or well connected, the law serves you. If not, you go to jail because of a chicken theft. If you have a SUV, you can afford the lawyer as well. If you own a motorcycle, most probably you will sell it to pay for a crash and many other fees that tend to accumulate if you do not plead guilty in first instance. With this kind of law, you will be willing to break them hard and good. I try to avoid taxes as much as I can, for instance, because most of the taxes in this country end up financing the army instead of feeding, healing and educating the People (yes, with a capital P, this strange creature nobody knows but everybody talks about).Or they end up as automatic weapons in the hands of the paramilitary groups (death squads), which are well connected to the Government. I have read the past comment advising Steven to “travel more, learn more”. Usually, Colombians are proud of their heritage, and refuse to admit that “there is a problem”. It is more or less like in Spain during Franco’s reign of horror: “It is all well in Spain” (Colombia is not too far from being a dictatorship, it is a cardboard-and-sticks-glued-with-spit kind of democracy – everything works, more or less, but the Government and the Official Institutions). They are brainwashed on a daily basis by the media which is aligned to the Big Interests, they refuse to acknowledge their own dead ones as victims and not criminals, and when doing so, they tend to blame the guilty on someone else, like children. The most common excuse is “everybody does the same, so why not me?”. I have seen people using cell phones while driving, I have seen red lights ignored. I have seen a large truck mincing an imprudent motorcyclist (it is not a pretty sight). I have seen people driving in the wrong way to get a shortcut. I have seen more than once people bribing traffic wardens in order to escape Court or fines. The list is big. The worse of all are the bus and taxi drivers, they tend to think they own the streets and do not care about anything else. They usually are supported by the ones who are covered by private law: the bus companies are dominated by the paramilitary groups, and the taxi drivers buy cheap stolen gas from the paramilitary as well. I really believe that these folks could live in one of the best country in the world, if it was not for the war. It is an invisible civil war that tend to radicalize everything. It is brother against brother, father against son, and everyone is invisibly plotting (apart from the guerrillas and the Government who wear uniforms – most of the time). They do not have good examples set by the Government, which frankly is a Joke (another capital letter, they deserve it). They do not have means to right the wrongs (private law rules). They do not know even who is in charge; in some areas (mostly urban centers) is the Government, but mainly the guerrillas or paramilitaries everywhere else, although it changes constantly – yesterday’s king might be today’s corpse floating in the river, there is a new king today with new rules, and it is capital punishment for those who disobey them. I am not justifying the attitude, but I understand why they act like that. The worst problem in Colombia is the radicalization of the conflict, some kind of Bush-like line of thought that goes “you are either with me or against me, there is no neutrality sort of thing”. You are utterly forced to take sides, and sometimes it implies breaking the law. But it is not only driving that they became lawbreakers, is almost everywhere. Also there are a lot of outdated, complicated, stupid laws that tend to make their lives more and more difficult. On the other hand, those laws do not apply to rich and powerful people. Nobody in Colombia believes much in laws or even in the Government. To say that the Government is a fraud is one thing, which I can understand, who are we supposed to complain to, if we can end dead by doing so? But another completely different story is to deny the problem, as if ignoring it would make it disappear. This is why I think the comment advising Steven to learn more and travel more is out of place, not to say rude. There is a problem – there are several problems! –, which could start being solved by simply admitting the problem itself. I love this country and the people but, oh boy, it is a mess. It is not their fault, either. It is cultural (almost 200 years since independence with nothing but internal, bloody struggles), and somehow “cultural” excuses a lot of bad things (although I do not agree with this, it seems to me it is an easy way out – you do not want to correct your ways, you say it is cultural). But in the end, we are all humans, prone to make the most horrible mistakes, despite (or because) of our good intentions, story of Humanity sort of thing. We all should care more about the ones who are in a defenseless situation, because we have the means to help ending their suffering, and everything else is bullshit. The situation in Colombia would be funny if it wasn’t sad, no one in the world deserves what is going on here. Actually, the fact that this country works at all is an amazing proof of this people’s hope, and their capacity to keep trying to sort things out. I would have given up by now, I am not as strong as them, and there is a limit to misery (it does not apply to Dick Cheney, he is limitless in the amount of misery he can spread around him). It will take a long, long time to clean it up. Shame none of us will be alive to see the results which (I take it for granted) will be awesome.