“It’s not as bad as they say, is it? All the movies about Colombia focus on the violence, the conflict, the drugs…they show chickens on buses and burros in the streets.” Not one, not two, but three Colombians expressed this idea to me today. Two taxi drivers and a friend. And these are not just today’s talking points; this is a recurring concern among Colombians concerned about how their country is perceived from the outside.
The thing is, these images have some basis in reality. I haven’t seen any live chickens on the buses of Bogotá, but there are burros trotting down even the busiest main avenues, at rush hour even.
Yet at the same time, Bogotá is a grand city like New York, Boston, Chicago… Somewhere between 7 and 10 million people live in high-density apartments and high rises in the city center, in single-family homes on the north end, and houses built with their own two hands on the south side. And tiendas, tiendas, everywhere. One can live a very normal, even happy life here completely independent of the grisly scenes one sees in the newspaper, or avoids seeing, of the violence that still grips much of the countryside.
The director of the Fulbright Commission in Colombia gave a talk this past week (that I did not attend as it interfered with class) about various political science models as they apply to Colombia. The lone conservative Fulbrighter (or so we’ve christened him) apparently spoke about the success, in his view, of Plan Colombia. The cities are safer, he said (everyone, I mean EVERYONE, tries to claim responsibility for the drastically reduced murder rate in Bogotá). My brave and honest roommate, always remembering the plight of the worst off among us, noted fervently (I’m told) – people are being assassinated in the countryside – does that mean nothing?
The violent nightmares I had in Atlanta have changed background scenery. Now instead of single shots, there are burst of gunfire in my dreams. Sometimes I’m supposed to be protecting someone and am unable to do so. I wake up scared, but try to remember what the taxi drivers are always telling me – it’s not so bad here, in Bogotá. We are not who they say we are.
What they are really saying is, I’m tired of all this - the conflict, the violence, the death. I’m sick of war being front-page news. I want some peace.
Total number of initiatives each year
from Conciliation Resources
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