NPR series on poverty, civic education in Bogota

I was skeptical about poverty simulations when I first heard about them in this NPR story of the day: A City Steps Up: Savannah Confronts Poverty (listen here). But then I listened to a Savannah banker describe his reaction:

I had no clue....I was totally blown away. I had no clue as to what a person in poverty deals with until I went through this simulation...what was surprising to me was what those people deal with on a daily basis. You've gotta get some place before it closes but your only transportation is the bus, and the bus may not get there before then. You run into another person in your neighborhood; he holds you up because he needs the money for his family.

He is asked what he did when he left the simulation: "...I contacted some of the simulation leaders, and I said, we can't leave it here -- what is the next step?" As part of a city effort to deal comprehensively with poverty, he joined a team charged with solving basic problems, in his case setting up accredited daycare centers with the help of business leaders.

For more information about poverty simulations, click here and scroll down.

Facilitators say significant attitude changes can occur during the brief but intense simulations. Many participants report that they gain a better understanding of the obstacles faced by low-income families. --------------

A friend told me recently a little about her experiences in a reconciliation class that trains mediators here in Bogota: "In the classroom, you have professionals in the same course with people who are essentially illiterate. Yet everyone has the same right to express their opinions, no matter how 'important' or 'humble' they may be." I wonder what long-term effects, if any, these courses will have on the social fabric of Bogota. This woman, a middle-class professional in her thirties, was visibly excited by the prospects. She invited me to attend a class with her in May, so I'll have a better idea of how it works then. We seem to have given up on adult civic education in the states, whereas in Colombia people latch onto the concept as having the potential to resolve conflicts that often escalated into violence.

I read today that one cause of urban violence being perpetuated over generations in Colombia is abusive child-rearing methods. I have seen/heard some of this, I'm sad to say, and it seems fairly pervasive. People who have been displaced from other parts of the country because of the conflict (or civil war, if we're really going to call it like it is) are more likely to be abusive towards their children as a result, thus bringing the cycle with them to the city, already not exactly a peaceful haven.

Although I should note the news in El Tiempo today that Bogota experienced its safest trimester in seven years: during the first three months of 2006, there were 310 homicides in the city, 128 less than the same period during the previous year.