An Update from the Void

caslug says on Oct 31, 2005, 15:09:

the other week in the cali newspaper.. reported that 40 people were murdered in ONE WEEK in cali! That's just REPORTED number, granted most/if not all of it happen in areas that tourist/foreigner NEVER venture. That's still a high number irregardless. BUT i would say, Cali is "FAIRLY" safe if you have your wits about you and don't venture into areas you shouldn't go, or meet people you shouldn't meet.

b bruce says on Oct 31, 2005, 16:41:

Good to hear you are alive and well! Best of luck on your move south. Perhaps when you are settled in we can get the South Florida PBH crowd together in Miami for dinner and drinks. I am in Key West, but it's always nice to get off the rock once in a while! Viva Colombia!

platano says on Oct 31, 2005, 16:47:

Lionheart, welcome back! Does your friend's name start with a D, and did she study law at la universidad libre in Cali? Is she from Nariño? I think I know her, or maybe lots of indigenous women are practicing law in Cali? Is she a salsomana? Anyway, send her my best... very tough times in Cali now with the resurgence of los traquetos.

Plátano X
Oxigeno Verde ¡Libertad por Ingrid y los demás!

plátano

calipro says on Oct 31, 2005, 19:48:

Welcome back Lionheart.... "Bottom line ... it would make her position even more difficult if a gringo would be hanging out in her presence, not to mention my own safety and well-being."

But I still see you are as clueless as ever. hehehe!!

Well now that you are moving to South Florida you will be able to work up the nerve to make a few weekend trips to Cali without pissing your pants. LOL !!!

Anyway good to have you back, Really!

caslug says on Oct 31, 2005, 20:52:

there was an incident at my buddy's.. apartment on saturday night. My buddy(gringo) had a few of us other gringos over to party with some colombainas, one of the gals brought her amigos. Who happened to be traqerto(bad spelling)-gangsters, of course my buddy's wife(colombian) didn't invite the guys. Anyway, they were hitting on some gals and one drunk gringo took offense(probably thinking, worse case it'll end in fistacuff). Well, to his and everyone suprise, one of the col guys pulls out a gun and threaten him with it. The col wife step in between the gun and the drunk gringo and defuse the situation.

Well when we told our COL teacher this story, he shook his head and said that the COL guy would be VERY stupid to CAPPED a gringo(foriegner) because capping a foriegner brings LOTS of heat down on the criminals. For most part thugs, leave gringos alone UNLESS gringo is going OUT of his way to look for trouble. they might rob us or beat us up, but killing us not in their mindset(UNLESS they're drunk, crazy, or you're doing something YOU SHOULDNT BE DOING)

BTW, my buddy wife has a contract out on her, but that didn't stop my buddy(obviously gringo) from walking around el centro or going about his business. heck he stayed in her house(in a bad part of town) for THREE months before moving to a much nicer area.

So i think you(lionheart) are blowing the security situation out of proportion, if you're REALLY concern, you can still down and just hangout in Hotel Intercontinential(TONS of security/police presences) and NEVER leave the hotel room(hmm..not a bad idea! ja,ja). That way your GF and you will be VERY safe, not to mention your GF will be VERY satisfied! ja,ja And when you feel safer you can venture to avienda nine(many very expensive restaurants and upper-class folks.

Lionheart says on Nov 1, 2005, 00:55:

you guys didn't get it the concerns are about the lawyer's safety, who already needs security entails often enough, not about my safety. Apparently you guys don't understand what kind of people a defense lawyer has to represent, traveling to prisons and danger zones for interviews and crime research, negotiating with rebels and narcos. She resently told me about a re-enactment of a crime scene which required military and police to close off the area, so the judge would even go there.

She really doesn't need a gringo hanging around and be worried about him adding to the danger potential and raise more attention to her person. She is already scared enough about her kid's safety.

No need to tell me about how to be cautious anywhere, your haughty comments are not required. Instead you should bow your heads to her for the work she does, trying her best to represent the law in a vastly lawless country. Plenty of lawyers, attorneys, and judges have lost their lives for their duty to the country they love.

P.S. her name does not start with a D.

kat1 (Moderator) says on Nov 1, 2005, 01:34:

I do understand Lionheart, As I said here in PBH before my mum is a lawyer she can't exercise her career at the moment because she is working with the government, but before that job she used to do the same as lionheart girlfriend (my mum is defense criminal lawyer too), and she did have some threatening call during her practice. I remembered when I was a kid somebody calling her and saying telling her to watch for the kids when they were going to school.(I remembered the case she was defending but too long to explain) the job she has the now is not as dangerous as the other one but still have it risks, so much that she doesn't allowed us to visit her there, no even my brother or dad, her job is one hour by plane away from home and she comes home every month for two weeks, she doesn't tell anyone where she works just her closest friends that she has a daughter in the USA and one in the UK She said she feel more comfortable knowing that nobody knows about her private life and where she lives.
So I think lionheart girlfriend feel much relaxed if she knows that he is safe in the USA and she doesn't have to worry about him there enough she has with her own son safety to worry about somebody else and even if he said that he would be all right still it would be a worry to her.


Welcome back Lionheart

engage brain before opening mouth

cochopechocho says on Nov 1, 2005, 03:12:

lionheart There are lots and lots of very nice, beautiful women in Cali.

Why would you mess around with one that has a target on her back?

kernow62 says on Nov 1, 2005, 04:02:

Lionheart I know where you are coming from, my wife and her family are almost all lawyers, most do not practice that area of law for the very reasons you mention. Those that did have moved into government positions which still isn't the safest job, but still an improvement. They also had a conflict morally with defending people who they knew were guilty of terrible crimes. It is a very stressful job.

dwmte says on Nov 1, 2005, 05:49:

yo, lionheart... nice to 'see' your voice again. i, too, have been gone for months dealing with 'just another day in suck city'.

sorry to hear about the straits your friend is in. that can be a pain in the ass in new york, miami, los angeles, etc. in colombia, it's a whole other story. it's brutal mean and without bounderies.

i sympathise with her and her situation and commend you for keeping your nose/ass out of sight. no pun intended.

colombia requires all of us to make dead-serious decisions all the time we're there. when i was last living in los llanos (llano grande) my land lord put a fricken gun to my head and i was able to talk myself outta the shit which was getting deeper by the second. it was the ability to make split-second, appropriate decisions that got me out alive and able to get me and the family outta there.

anyway, glad to hear you're coming to florida, we need a little life here. i'm 'stuck in lodi'...that being daytona beach (daytona the dull). i finally got my passport issues resolved and am once again a travelable gringo.

post me if you have time...dwmte at bellsouth.net.

douglas

platano says on Nov 1, 2005, 06:07:

"Target on her back"... I'd much prefer an educated Caleña with a social conscience and a responsible job (even though it comes with a target on her back), to one whose primary concerns are plastic surgery and dollar signs on her front.

P.S. to DW: Nice to "hear" your voice here again, too since you are someone who has actual boots on the ground experience of non-urban Colombia.

Asalam waleikum, brother dw!

Plátano X
Oxigeno Verde ¡Libertad por Ingrid y los demás!

plátano

dwmte says on Nov 1, 2005, 07:50:

yo platano... hi, guy...i've been following the lucha on several of your posts. especially the beauty pagent in the slam post. now i think it's down around child molestation. talk about metamorphosis. all that aside, it's a good thread, i've enjoyed it.

where's colombiano x and gomezman? havent seen their posts since i've been back.

i got my passport back and when i get some money, i'm gonna take a break and go back to the promised land for a week or two...without the family. they've gone back for the past five years several times a year. me, without passport, the only place i could go was to the wc.

hope all's well with you and the lady. keep in touch.

douglas

platano says on Nov 1, 2005, 07:54:

Dw, PBH was hurting gomezman in the blood pressure area, and ColX bailed when somebody came down too hard on him, though speculation is he is around under a new name. Gotta split, unfortunately (or fortunately) I have a day job.

Plátano X
Oxigeno Verde ¡Libertad por Ingrid y los demás!

plátano

kernow62 says on Nov 1, 2005, 08:01:

ColX is lambasting folks with insulting private messages apparently. Gomez is still posting though not as much lately.

Gomezman5 says on Nov 1, 2005, 14:58:

Hi...Lionheart.......AND....G5's BP is fine....... Well....welcome back Lionheart and hello Douglas (what happened to you?)

I pop in, here and there. I needed a break but the BP is under control. Exercise, and weight loss make a difference. Being on or off PBH does not affect it all that much.

As to Lionheart's situation, it's the same type of stuff I hear all the time. And that is why I don't live in Colombia and for the forseeable future would not even consider living there. The cheering squad will come on here and say a bunch of nonsense that amounts to pure denial, but if it makes them feel good by talking themselves into living a fantasy, then so be it.

I just got a PM from a guy who told me the same about his legal problems in Bogota. He own an apartment building but lives in the US/ The property manager steals from him, and he/she also rents to bad tenants who either don't pay the rent, or the rent gets stuck in the hands of the property managaer. The lawyer who is charged with evicting the tenants has taken the guys money, but has performed poorly or done little to assist the owner. In the meantime, the tenants.....for over a year, still occupy the property without paying rent. Coruption like this exists on so broad of a scale, resulting in an utter breakdown in a functioning society where laws have little meaning, and the mechanism for invoking the rights one might have under the law are non existant, therefore making Colombia as problemsome as ever.

So there you have it. Same G5, telling it like it really is. And yet, hardly a week passes on this board that someone (almost always a foolish Gringo) makes a post inquiring about buying property in Colombia and asking about how good of an invetment it is.....

Incredible

utopiacowboy says on Nov 1, 2005, 20:45:

You're right, G'man. Lionheart's story of his girlfriend had the ring of truth but of course he gets ridiculed for it here.

Disclaimer: any comment I make is inane and is not to be taken seriously, and is so patently ridiculous that no one should take it seriously, even as an insult.

Rubiazo says on Nov 2, 2005, 00:38:

Defense lawyer what an ugly job in any country. I don't think any money is worth having to be a part of that profession. If they were halfway honest in law school there about what was waiting for people after passing the bar, I bet they'd have a 99.999% dropout rate!

Miguel says on Nov 2, 2005, 02:49:

Welcome back Lionheart And a quick report, that it's November and I STILL have habaneros growing in the garden, and about 500 in the freezer!

Hunter says on Nov 2, 2005, 07:12:

UC & G5 Looking through the posters on this thread, I see more people agreeing with Lionheart, I suggest you do a quick count.

Hunter

Gomezman5 says on Nov 2, 2005, 07:46:

Well..... Who could not agree with Lionheart. But this is old news....really it is. I remember talking to Lionheart about this almost a year ago....just after I arrived here. He was telling me, and presumably others about the situation in Cali and in particular his wife. He was optimistic though. I was not and I even told him that he had rose colored glasses on. Lionheart is a good guy, with a real heart (Maybe a Lion's heart). But, sometimes you have to do a reality check. He is here and she is there. He has business he needs to tend to here. And that business with the radio and related involves money. She has a law practice there. OK, so let's say she is able to abandon her practice (that in itself is a bad statement about Colombia) in exchange for a government job. Do you think the threat to her, and him as well is going to just go away over night? Does anyone on this site dare think that way? If they do, then they are fools. These are not corner street thugs like the gamines of Bogota, or the thieves of Mexico City. These killers are extremely well funded and organized. If they want ya, they will get ya. Count on it.

Also, if the woman comes here what will she do?? One thing is certain. She can't be a lawyer here. She will have to go through a course of study, exams and related that would take many years and cost the kind of money that she almost assuredly does not have. There is not a state in thiscountry that will grants reciprocity and admit a person to the bar by virtue of them having a license to practice law in a foreign country. Also, every state I know of requires you to attend an ABA certified law school...and I don't think the ABA has been certifying law schools in Colombia of recent.

The bottom line is that if there was ever a case of someone being geographically undesirable, this is it. Sometime, you just have to be practical in life. You have to call it for what it is, as opposed to what you want it to be. Time to move on.

Hunter says on Nov 2, 2005, 07:50:

G5 I couldn't agree more.

Hunter

kernow62 says on Nov 2, 2005, 08:30:

Tale of the brave Lionheart. Lionheart visits his beautiful novia.
In the land they call Colombia,
He got shot to ribbons,whilst visiting her.
So now she wears him in her hair!

Bad poem, bad taste. Liverpudlian humour, adapted to this post.

Lionheart says on Nov 3, 2005, 00:09:

a great one kernow british black humor is the best ...

but right now I am more worried of receiving a strand of her butt-long pitch black hair as souvenir.

As correctly noted by several posters, being a defense lawyer sucks everywhere, but especially in Colombia. If you have to defend a narco you might get shot if you loose. I recall posting an incident here where a female lawyer got gunned down in Cali. Or your family is threatened if you refuse a case. Handling guerrilla related crimes involves trips to the danger zones and putting friends and family at risk of kidnapping. Now the traquetos (gangs) of Cali have introduced a new danger ... if you loose you don't get paid, and enemy gangs might gun you down for representing a gang member and incriminating the other gangs.

Gomez, I got that PM as well from that house owner. My friend keeps telling me about those corrupt lawyers, this just confirms it. She does do some house management herself, and is helping with a house purchase for a PBH member right now, but the official rates are so low, she can't make a living on that stuff - no wonder some lawyer/managers open their hands in many directions. But she also refuses to leave Cali for family reasons ... she is stuck there mainly because of the kids' father and her parents not accepting the divorce.

She told me she would try to quit ... but the way things are going, I think they won't let her quit ... she is a good defense lawyer.

Well about the other thread on selling children, it is true. Btw, Antigua raised the age of consent for girls from 13 to 16 last week, tossing several of their husbands over 21 into jail now .... go figure. In Central America it is common that poor families sell their daughters for about $5000 each, you get discounts if you take her sisters too. A young girl (6-8 I think) was raped by her uncle while babysitting in Cali ... the father is a friend of my lawyer friend. The uncle didn't get a long jailtime, the laws suck, but he didn't live long enough to be released. Child molestation and rape is frowned upon in jails around the world, and it is easy to drop a few hints when you visit clients almost daily, and they owe you. But that is nothing special for Colombia, I can tell the same story about a case in Portland, Maine.

I was told to move on ... over the past 3 years we have become the best friends and we feel a platonic love for each other, since more wasn't possible, yet. Nobody knows what the future will hold for us ... but we will stay friends. As adults we have talked about the situation and we will wait and hope. Maybe we will just agree on spending a vacation together at some secret location. Is is better than flying down on weekends to get a quick screw? You betcha! Too bad those bedhoppers will never know how good sex is between soulmates who understand what no limits mean. I feel sorry for ya guys.

Miguel ... send me a few dozen of them habañeros when you are back, I'll make you a killer sauce for xmas, and that is meant literally ... PBH wants to see your ashes!

kernow62 says on Nov 3, 2005, 15:47:

Lionheart went to visit his novia.
In the land they call Colombia,
He got shot to ribbons there.
Now she wears him in her hair!

I think it is an improvement on the hastily penned original.

The premise is actually from an old comedy record from Liverpool.

Little Johnny went away to war.
He got shot to ribbons.
Now I wear him in my hair.

Rubiazo says on Nov 3, 2005, 20:42:

Lionheart How do you know the bedhoppers aren't having that kinda sex too AND getting variety? :)))))))