gatogris has left 261 comments

gatogris comments on Need advice/tips to have a great time in the Coffee region of Colombia

For kids, riding up to the Valle de Corcora in one of those tricked-out Willys Jeeps is fun. Also, there are some excellent mellow little horse trails in the Valle de Corcora made for kids, if they're not too little, and if they are, they can always ride with you. The horses are very safe and the guides are good with kids. There is also a very cute spectacled bear that you can visit just a 45-minute walk outside of Manizales, not in a zoo cage, but in a nice friendly reserve. I also agree with Jenny6 that the ecological park/preserve in Manizales proper with ziplines and a museum full of dead snakes and other creatures is really cool, and the staff is very friendly. Pereira and Armenia are fly-overs. Enjoy!

gatogris comments on More Immigrants saying "Hasta La Vista USA" & Going Back Home

Interestingly enough, corresponding results can be found for studies of Latino immigrants in the US.

gatogris comments on More Immigrants saying "Hasta La Vista USA" & Going Back Home

Several large-N research design scholarly studies published in the past couple of years indicate that the increasing presence of Muslim immigrants has lowered crime rates and stabilized social indicators among poorer sectors of the population such as amount of time spent among family and school attendence. ips.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/25/1/97 www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2006.00227.x www.palgrave-journals.com/cep/journal/v5/n3/full/6110099a.html www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpl/soth/2005/00000023/00000002/art00005 Apparently, the overwhelming majority of Muslim immigrants to Western Europe tend to be orientated towards what in the U.S. are referred to as 'family values' - meaning they place a high priority on traditions, ethical and religious imperatives, and the stability of family life. Rates of divorce, child runaways, percentage of unemployed who are not actively seeking employement, and even voter apathy (which I found surprising) are remarkably low in the communties which participated in these studies compared to national averages in France, Germany and Sweden. In other words, the actual numerative data emerging from these communties suggests that Muslim immigrants are by many measures 'better' citizens, at least according to current standards, then their 'native' counterparts, suggesting that these countries should loosen immigration restrictions dramatically. As far as more qualitative evidence goes, contemporary French social historian Christophe Charle argues that, in the long term, as immeditae social frictions taper off, the influx of Muslim immigrants to France will provide a revivifying injection of energy while at the same time returning France to a balance with its own conservative traditions. muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_social_history/v037/37.1charle.html His German counterpart, Klaus Burkhardt, concurs about the situation in Germany. links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0042-062X(197623)9:22.0.CO;2-B As far the claim about 80% of European rapists being Muslim, no one should take that seriously. Its meant to be funny, but obviously is kind of a clunker as far as jokes go.

gatogris comments on I'm betting desi'll love this one. ;)

Which point, I suppose, brings us full circle, in the sense that the FARC, inspired by others but also by conditions evident all around their own land, originally believed, probably with some justification, and certainly with plenty of thereotical support, that armed rebellion was the only way to address this problem so "deeply engrained." Did the FARC have other motivations in 1964, such as self-aggrandizement, the habit of violence, personal power, the addiction to the ferment of action, and just downright stubborness? Definitely. So did Che Guevara. Does this fact mean that this completely discounts the role ideology played in their original efforts? No. Does this mean that all ideology put into practice fundamentally leads to a zero sum game, us against them, death to the unbeliever? No. The problem is not that they were evil in chosing to fight a guerilla war (although perhaps it could be argued from an ethical standpoint that they have since crossed this line), but rather that it turned out that they were wrong about what was good for Colombia, and could never bring themselves to admit it, preferred instead to fight to self-annihilation and to great cost to those they claimed to represent rather than look this fact in the face. But this historical travesty should never indicate that ideals have no place in politics. Such a position would be cynical and self-serving in the extreme. Ideals have every right to be present in the discussion.

gatogris comments on More Immigrants saying "Hasta La Vista USA" & Going Back Home

Canada has the highest per capita net immigration rate in the world. In 2007, 250,640 people immigrated to Canada. U.S. Census Bureau figures show that the U.S. population grew by 2.8 million between July 1, 2004, and July 1, 2005, breaking all previous records, most of which was due to immigration. In the ebb and flow of mass numbers of people, it is easy to be decieved by impressions. Immigration is here to stay for the long term. But remember, the global volume of immigration is high in absolute terms, but low in relative terms. The International Integration and Refugee Association estimated 190 million international migrants in 2005, less than 3 percent of global population. The other 97 percent still live in the country in which they were born. Most scholars agree that the impact of recent immigration on national economies is negligible. The economic impact becomes signifigant only ofter immigrant settle and become repatriated, over a period of years, making it extremely difficult to measure. The Middle East, small areas of South East Asia, and a few spots in the West Indies have the highest numbers of immigration populations recorded by the UN Census 2005. Not the U.S. and Canada or Western Europe. The anti-immigration ranting by ignorant fear-mongers like Lou Dobbs in the U.S. and Jean Marie Le Pin Europe is racist grandstanding, nothing more.

gatogris comments on Amnesty International Report on Colombia: All parties violate human rights

HRW and AI are key players in a broader (and relatively recent) movement towards the recognition of the importance of human rights worldwide. No one who isn't either a raving sadist, a complascent John Birch society contrarian, or not the sharpest tool in the shed would like to imagine the world without organizations such as these. Even a dungeon like Uzbekistan formally acknowledges the moral authority of AI. That said, Juance is absolutely right in that claims of state-paramilitary collusion should be carefully documented and substianted, as was the case with HRW's excellent 2001 report on the "6th Division (http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/colombia/)." If these claims are not supported by evidence (and remember, evidence under human rights law includes testimony of victims, so the burden of proof is a little softer) than the ethical standing of these groups can be blunted and their political efficacy decreased. The real question is when will legal instruments such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, both of which have been ratified by 85-90% of nations worldwide, be granted legal teeth? Will we ultimately need some kind of global cops to enforce these measures, rather than just naming-and-shaming groups like AI and HRW?

gatogris comments on I'm betting desi'll love this one. ;)

Labeling someone an idealist allows the labeler to don the mantle of pragmatist, a rhetorical tactic particularly common in certain typecast gender relations, as in "Well now Wilma, I understand you want to help but dadgum it, the world just doesn't work that way little missy." This technique is particularly common in cases where the "idealist" has ideals and is arguing that they be implemented, and the "pragmatist" has a certain agenda that he wishes to hide. As in, "yes Dr. King you have a noble and idealistic cause, but these things take time to put in to practice. We must be patient (when JFK was concerned about losing political support in the South)." Who get's to decide what is "truly possible?" Ghandi led a non-violent, successful independence movement in a country saturated with centuries of blood and oppression. Lord Grenville, against all expectations, led a movement to abolish the British slave trade in 1807, a trade which was immensly profitable for England as a whole and to him personally. After enduring generations of an institutionalised racist regime of systematic oppression and domination, South Africa did not erupt into civil war as many expected. Could certain members of the FARC rejoin Colombian society in a productive fashion after decades in the jungle? If history is any guide, hell yes. Will they? Well that is where the debate gets interesting.

gatogris comments on farc web page

We should not be surprised that the voice of the FARC is being oppressed - large media conglomerates are the running dogs of a fascistic or capitalistic repressive state regimes, and both organizations are bent on promoting their corresponding interests over and above all others by crushing the voices raised against them. The FARC's website is an outgrowth of the struggle of the workers against the reactionary bourgeois ideologues and the cosmopolitan ‘capitalist-roaders’ arrayed against them, a true vox populi, and it is through the disciplined implementation of modernizing technologies, such as the internet, that the proletariat (led by a vanguard of the communist party - the FARC) will mobilize the necessary tools to protect and further their own interests. When not under direct threat of the government jackboot, the FARC uses their website to forcefully thwart the false consciousness promulgated by the decadent elites and the brownshirt rabble controlled by Uribe, educate each other about class-based issues, and to build solidarity around socialist realism, further connecting their faithfull viewers to Marxist-Leninist concepts of the dialectical worker-capitalist conflict underpinning modern society. Workers of the world, unite!

gatogris comments on i am starting my own site pow wow it will be uncensored

A lot of people on this board seem to have a great deal of affection for one another, despite the casual calumny. I hope it doesn't schism so far it can't be brought back.

gatogris comments on farc web page

Like Auden wrote at the onset of WWII: "I and the public know What all schoolchildren learn, Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return."

gatogris comments on Obama speaks about Cuba, Colombia, and Latin America

Supporting Obama, Hillary, and other presidential candidates (see Bush's victory as related to how many people filled in his name when asked to name "the candidate you would most like to have a beer with"), is largely a question of style. Substance is notoriously difficult to measure without the clarity of hindsight. There are three key talking points that Democratic political candidates emphasize when talking with the electorate. Most candidates (good ones anyway, like one of the two we are left with) often reveal an in-depth knowledge of their constituents’ problems, particularly financial difficulties; they work up righteous anger by emphasizing how those problems are caused by elite groups aquiring wealth on the backs of ordinary people; and they unveil detailed policy proposals that, if passed, would supposedly address these problems and put the powerful groups in their proper place - at the service of the people they claim to represent. Obama usually doesn't do any of this. He tends to downplay his intelligence and not overwhelm his audience with political jargon. He doesn't point fingers as much as other candidates, and he tends to talk about difficulties in the passive voice, identifying a general national malaise, even going so far as to suggest that our problems have been in part created by our own actions. As a campaign strategy it has been strikingly effective. Obama is a conciliator most off all. This is why I support his candidacy. My personal belief is that all particular policies aside, the political culture of the US has become highly polarized, even fragmented, and is at times in danger of descending into factionalism (evidence of which this site is only one among an enormous number of examples), which I believe could have seriously bad long term effects for the nation as a whole. Obama's stated position (which if you wanted to, you could connect to the slogan "Change you can believe in") and his admittedly limited track record, both point to a commitment to attempt to address this trend. If he succeeds with this project while in office, even if only to a limited extent, the US will be a happier and a stronger country.

gatogris comments on ELN

The ELN arose out of a combination of groups involved in La Violencia and politically disenchanted students and recent college graduates in the Santander Department who favored a Cuban-style revolution in Colombia. Formed in 1963-64, the Cuban orientation of the ELN contrasts with the FARC, influenced by Soviet politics via the CCP. Cuba provided money and supplies that helped to form the ELN and offered ideological orientation. The leaders of the ELN claimed to use violence to achieve political objectives, and those objectives, although forwarded by educated university graduates, were to improve conditions of rural peasants and fight against the oppressive system which perpetuated their misery. The educated leadership found that instead of attracting peasants to the military struggle, it drew armed recruits that came from the same pool of bandit groups which formed the FARC, which of course influenced its organizational culture. The ELN successfully attracted followers during its early years; its most notable member, the charismatic priest Camilo Torres, was killed in combat and quickly became a celebrated martyr. In the early 1970s, however, the ELN was torn by bitter internal disputes and was practically wiped out by the Colombian Army. In the 1980s it was reborn under the leadership of a Spanish priest, Manuel Perez, with the help of millions of dollars from German contractors who had been hired to build an oil pipeline, and whom the ELN extorted with threats of kidnapping. Later, the ELN began to feel the direct effects of repression--mainly in northern Colombia--from rightwing paramilitary self-defense groups. Feeling squeezed militarily and excluded politically, the ELN resorted to terrorism. During 1999, they hijacked an Avianca airliner and took its 70 passengers hostage; then they kidnapped more than 150 churchgoers one Sunday in Call and demanded ransom for their release. In general, the FARC is more involved with the narcotics industry than the ELN and it earns a larger portion of its revenues from the production of illegal drugs. The ELN tends to earn much of its revenue through extortion. For example, on 65 different occassions in 1997 alone, the National Liberation Army (ELN) attacked the pipeline installations of Colombia's state-owned oil company, Ecopetrol. Since 1986, the ELN has carried out 636 pipeline bombings, which have cost Ecopetrol an estimated $1.5 billion in revenue. It takes money from businesses not too attack them.

gatogris comments on Obama speaks about Cuba, Colombia, and Latin America

Your so right. Better dead than red. Let's ressurect ol Joe McCarthy and blacklist all the 'fellow travelers!'

gatogris comments on Chicha drink

Hey whatever floats your boat, do whatever you want but do no harm. Maybe those of you who are into 'golden showers' would feel comfortable in the Bolivian highlands with all those Indians hosing away.

gatogris comments on FARC admits death of ‘Manuel Marandula’

You think he went out like Nelson Rockefeller? In flagrante delicto?

gatogris comments on "'Tirofijo is dead' says Minister of Defense"

The FARC is seriously on the wane. The bounty collected on Ivan Rios, the kangaroo trials against its own members, the unrelenting pressure, the last vestiges of external support melting away, the withering away of an animating ideological platform, the shift in the center of gravity in the cocaine trade, all these factors and more are accelerating its demise. It turns out that, according to Reyes' computer, Tirofijo was still very much in control of major tactical decisions, so his death only adds to this list. The real question is how much longer can their centralized organizational structure last. Major divisions will be disbanding sooner than many suspect. An indigenous NGO operating on the Easternmost Vaupes river has repented signs of major dissent in one of the largest contingents of FARC soldiers.

gatogris comments on

According to the British SAS instructors at AKE group, in combat scenarios (assuming a moving, evasive target) a handgun (even a fancy Sig or H & K) has an average effective range of 15 feet. This includes combat trained veterans who fire hundreds of rounds a week. This detail alone would seem to indicate a mendacious prevaricator attempting to hoodwink through casuistry. A warm, steamy pile.

gatogris comments on Obama speaks about Cuba, Colombia, and Latin America

Some people think that Kennedy's sit-down 'negotiation' with Kruschev, the first of the cold war between US and USSR leaders, directly led to an escalation in tensions and ultimately the Cuban missile crisis, because Kruschev perceived JFK as vulnerable and soft. Pastranita the mariposa certainly didn't get anywhere with Pedro Marin. Therefore, some believe, screw negotiation, it has no function in the world of realpolitik. This is the viewpoint that condemns Obama's willingness to negotiate with all comers, an argument based on the notion that negotiating with bad guys empowers them, as this Open Letter referred to above claims. But what's the other option, ignore the Iranian Mullahs or Castro II? Grab your scrotum, squeeze, stick out your tongue and flip them the bone? C'mon. It's not about whether or not to negotiate, its how to go about it. Camp David was a handjob, but the Dayton Accords stood. Caguan was a dog-and-pony show, but the M-19 came in from the cold.

gatogris comments on Chicha drink

At least in Colombia they don't use human urine as the fermenting agent as they do in Bolivia. I had trouble getting it down when in the highlands outside Potosi I saw a guy drinking from a gourd while happily passing gas and micturating into a vat of crushed corn. But I guess its the ultimate in recycling.

gatogris comments on Earthquake!

Nice to have a tremor once in a while. It reminds one of the precariousness of existence. But I'd rather not be here for the big one.

gatogris comments on Tayrona still over run with Israelis?

And the Butcher of Beirut became Prime Minister for five years...

gatogris comments on Tayrona still over run with Israelis?

Every fight for freedom includes a few regrettable instances. Hey, you know, mistakes were made.

gatogris comments on Tayrona still over run with Israelis?

Israel is a still small light of freedom, a valiant underdog surrounded by slavering carrion-eaters. Remember Ben-Gurion, the lion of Judea, a reborn David of the Maccabees! Stouthearted Sharon, routing the cowardly Egyptians on Yom Kippur! The one-eyed Moshe Dayan, stalwart and haughty, a noble bull elephant scattering the cowardly hyeneas of Egypt, Jordan and Syria on the Golan Heights. Think of the lightning raid on Entebbe! Israel is a brotherhood of bravery and will never be bowed. Nor will it permit Zionist conspiracy theorists to drag its name through the mud.

gatogris comments on Come see Piedad Cordoba speak tomorrow

Not quite the donneybrook after a Chelsea match, more the squeeling, simpering and bickering of three 8-year-olds on a long drive in a car with no AC.

gatogris comments on Free Trade Agreement not likely

Rubito's point, if the logic is a little slapdash, remains entirely valid. Pulitizer Prize winner Jared Diamond's book "Collapse" is about exactly this, and is chock full of meaty historical evidence. It begins with the tales of a number of historical collapses in different civilizations, including the extinction of the Easter Islanders, remembered now for the wierd stone heads they left behind on their Pacific island; the fall of the Mayan cities that were once the bustling core of the New World's most developed indigenous civilization; and the continues with the mysterious vanishing of the Viking colony on Greenland after having survived for 450 years as Europe's most remote outpost. In all these cases, Diamond diagnoses a similar pattern of ruin caused by civilization: environmental destruction (usually following the pattern of deforestation leading to soil erosion, food shortages, caused by Rubito's 'poor farming practices,' and eventually social and political crises), worsened by other factors like climate change, shifting trade patterns and shortsighted or greedy leadership. Diamond shows that these ancient examples may hold a lesson for our environmentally challenged world today. He argues that current environmental problems include the same ones that I listed above, plus four new ones: "human-caused climate change, buildup of toxic chemicals in the environment, energy shortages and full human utilization of the earth's photosynthetic capacity." Many of these problems, he adds, are expected to "become globally critical within the next few decades." "Much more likely than a doomsday scenario involving human extinction or an apocalyptic collapse of industrial civilization," he writes, "would be 'just' a future of significantly lower living standards, chronically higher risks and the undermining of what we now consider some of our key values. Such a collapse could assume various forms, such as the worldwide spread of diseases or else of wars, triggered ultimately by scarcity of environmental resources." Already, he argues, social and environmental problems have dovetailed into a collapse in some abused and damaged third-world countries. He shows that environmental problems and resulting land and food shortages (again, 'poor farming practices') played a key role in fueling the nightmarish bloodletting that turned Rwanda in the 1990's into an abattoir, and that environmental destruction, including 'poor farming practices' was a major contributer to Haiti's scorched earth devolution. So hey, maybe Rubito is out there perusing many 'ancient texts,' muttering to himself and thumbing the crackling vellum parchment like a true wise old scholar, thinking profound thoughts about the Queen of Sheba and the land of Punt (thought by some scribes to be ancient Ethiopia).

gatogris comments on Juanes negociaría con la guerrilla si fuera presidente

In politics, judgement is at least as important as issue knowledge or experience, as inexperienced politicians themselves always trumpet. If judgement is a key part of the qualifications for high-level decision-making, than perhaps Juanes' ill-advised blurtings serve to disqualify him. My 5-year-old goddson likes to talk about what would happen "if he was president" too. But I think his tendency to gleefully shoot his own loving family with a bow and arrow for fun might cause some alarm in Narino Palace.

gatogris comments on Come see Piedad Cordoba speak tomorrow

According to minutes #2000179, February 28, 2008, session 132 of the Colombian Congress, Piedad Cordoba said "las FARC degraden a sí mismos con sus propias prácticas despreciables" and voiced support in debate for a (admittedly half-cocked) proposal to have a petitition signed by at least 51% of Colombians asking the FARC to dispand. Remember William Jaramillo Gómez, her old mentor from her lawyer days back in Medillin, is no friend to the FARC. Things are not always what they seem.

gatogris comments on Wind Sports in Colombia

In Cabo de la Vela, the winds are primarily from the east, but watch out when they back around to southeast - it creates chop that can really screw up your ride. As you know the wind speed is related to how quickly the water warms up in relation to the air, so in the Guajira, its best to get started kind of early, cause the wind can get too strong in the afternoon (stay away from bootleg whiskey!) But count on wind... If you want a more technical definition as to why, here you go: the Guajira Peninsula is the locus of particularly strong upwelling because it protrudes into the Caribbean Low-Level Wind Jet and its west coast parallels the direction of the strongest winds. The year-round upwelling varies with the wind forcing: strongest in December–March and July, and weakest in the October–November rainy season. The east–west temperature, salinity and density front that delimits the upwelling lies over the shelf edge in the east of the peninsula but separates from the south-westward trending topography to the west. A coastal westward surface jet geostrophically adjusted to the upwelling flows along the front, and an eastward sub-surface counterflow is trapped against the Guajira continental slope. The undercurrent shoals toward the western limit of the upwelling, Santa Marta, beyond which point it extends to the surface. Some of the westward jet re-circulates inshore with the counterflow but part continues directly west to form an upwelling filament. Much of the mesoscale variation is associated with upwelling filaments, which expel cooler, chlorophyll-rich coastal upwelling waters westward and northward into the Caribbean Sea. Freshwater plumes from the Magdalena and Orinoco rivers influence the area strongly, and outflow from Lake Maracaibo interacts directly with upwelled waters off Guajira. Another important factor is the Aeolian input of dust from the Guajira desert by episodes of offshore winds.

gatogris comments on Come see Piedad Cordoba speak tomorrow

Boy, Piedad really seems to bring it out in people, doesn't she. Whaddya suppose it is? The turban? Latent misogeny? Some percieved slight to nationalist pride? Her unrepentant refusal to be bowed?

gatogris comments on Hooters Bogotá

All the waitresses at Hooters look like lactating mothers. Does the success of Hooters tell us anything about ourselves? Food and breasts in the same package? Just like being an infant. What a relief to be able to forgoe adulthood.

gatogris comments on Juanes negociaría con la guerrilla si fuera presidente

You are certainly spot on about Elvis' talent - he really was quite an insipid musician and unappealing person, as his 'late-stage,' Vegas-era obesity and borderline pedophilia attest. Moreover, he earned his obscenely huge income loff of the creative sweat and authentic writing prowess of black artists, who remained dirt poor and unrecognized. He never acknowledged his outrageously large debt to their efforts, an unforgiveable lapse. However, I was referring to the sociological impact his songs had on a stunningly huge audience. Elvis' success was a feat of mass marketing (thank the Colonel) more than anything else, but a feat nonetheless.

gatogris comments on Come see Piedad Cordoba speak tomorrow

Thanks you.

gatogris comments on Best Hostal in Colombia?

Alma, its been a little while so I couldn't tell you who's up there right now, but I think its time for me to head back pretty soon and recharge, ya know? Let me know how it goes.

gatogris comments on Juanes negociaría con la guerrilla si fuera presidente

Well, CG, I don't have a particularly high opinion of Juanes, but recent songs that changed the world include: Elvis Presley's "That's All Right," the first rock-and-roll song, a genre which led directly to a relaxation of strict sexual mores. Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind," just one example of the many protest songs that fanned the flames of popular protest worldwide in the 60s and 70s. Lewis Allen's "Strange Fruit," about lynching in the south had a direct impact on popular perceptions of racial intolerance. Bob Geldof's Band Aid and its trademark song "Do they know its Christmas?" raised $300 million dollars for charity in Africa, "We Are the World," Michael Jackson's similar project, and, as for in Latin America, "Cantaré, Cantarás" which raised an enormous amount for underprivaleged children and helped raise awareness about their plight, as well as various musical projects that galvinized international support to end apartheid in South Africa, etc. Looking farther back, Mozart's "Cosi fan Tutti" (in particular the libretto) and Beethoven's Ninth are both considered to have directly impacted the lives of their contemporaries. I think the key here is that a musician best changes the world by making good music, the music is the message ya know, not by stepping up on a soap box and making silly pronouncements.

gatogris comments on Best Hostal in Colombia?

If you like wierd, and I kinda do, go stay at the Atlantis Organic Farm, a cult commune run by Jenny James, an Irish expat matriarch. Here's the commune's website with instructions how to get there: http://www.atlantiscommunity.thinkhost.net/atlantis2.html And here's a compelling and grim story about it: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/screamers-cultist-meets-grisly-end-in-columbia-634935.html

gatogris comments on Juanes negociaría con la guerrilla si fuera presidente

Anyone who looks as good in leather pants as he does is eminently qualified to lead a negotiating team. He could even use the line "we must never negotiate from fear, but we must never fear to negotiate" in a song. I'm sure the sight of him mincing around with his shirt open to the navel and his firm, sleek haunches in all that glistening leather would cause the FARC delegation to melt sighing into his arms. And when he opened his moist, pouting lips and released his orphelian, nightingale-esque, sweet dulcet voice, well, that would be all she wrote for the FARC. They would mob him shrieking like Beetlemania teenyboppers circa 1965. After all, like the man said, "Music hath charms to soothe a savage beast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak."

gatogris comments on Volunteering in Colombia's National Parks

I had a buddy who volunteered in Nevados - reportedly, an outstanding experience.

gatogris comments on Come see Piedad Cordoba speak tomorrow

Well actually her topics include: The impact of urbanization (as I'm sure you already know, Colombia is possible the most urbanized of all Latin American countries, with 77% of its people living in cities and towns and more than 30 cities with over 100,000 people according to the 2005 census) on the more than 35% of the poulation aged 14 and under combined with troubling political indicators including political apathy and falling levels of job creation for the youth could cause a huge sector of the population to become increasingly disenfranchised. She intends to set forth a three-pronged plan to bring the youth into the politcal process and include them in any humanitarian accord. Also, despite constant rosy rhetoric to the contrary, she and her advisors will point out that underlying spending pressures will widen the public-sector deficit in 2008-09, Colombian GDP growth will slow following a cycle of monetary tightening and the impact of a forecast US recession, from 7.5% in 2007 to 5% in 2008 (around potential) and 4.5% in 2009. Following the recent revision to the global forecast for oil prices, the current-account deficit is now forecast to remain below 4% of GDP in 2008-09. Some prognosticators forsee a seizure in capital markets, and the possibility that Colombia will be unable to meet its external financing needs. Furthermore, the Central Bank kept its intervention rate unchanged, as interest rates appear to have peaked at 9.75%, creating difficulties among the struggling middle class to raise their standard of living. Again, she plans to offer some budgetary suggestions to ease the impact of this forecast on her core constiuency, lower and middle-class Colombians. But your right, its better to make fat jokes than try to think about this stuff. It makes my pea brain hurt.

gatogris comments on Colombia (Fusa)

Yep, living in one of those units might make a person want to eat a gun.

gatogris comments on Colombia (Fusa)

The most fun thing about fusa is the name - its a tin-pot one-horse rinky-dink town with a handful of dirt farmers, one torn pool table and a very low gene pool. If you like to sit in a plastic chair and stare numbly into space until your brain turns to pudding, than it is the place for you. As Manco said, it has become a waystation to places that themselves are extremely uninteresting - there's no there there. Colombia, on the other hand, is good times and you will be quite safe simply by taking reasonable precautions. Leave the full-body condom at home.

gatogris comments on Wind Sports in Colombia

Just up from Bahia Suroeste in Providencia there is a stretch of fairly shallow water with rock steady winds this time of year...the best damn kiting next to Tenerife or the Magdalenes, absolutely primo prime...get ready to have your hair blown back!

gatogris comments on Come see Piedad Cordoba speak tomorrow

Robi, I'm not sure there will be anything available online, but I might be able to provide a brief snyopsis if you are interested.

gatogris comments on Come see Piedad Cordoba speak tomorrow

Ahhhhhhhh. Sinking into the familar warm bath of finger-pointing and playground taunts. It must be with a sense of comforting relief, rather like a satisfying bowel movement, that the conversation turns back to the banal "I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I" levels so much easier than actually mustering the effort to express any sort of reasoned opinion.

gatogris comments on Come see Piedad Cordoba speak tomorrow

Ah, but that's just my point. The function of outliers in a democracy is to galvinize and moblize public opinion, as Walter Lippman points out. In other words, the fact that some Colombians get a little worked up about her (is the mirror clear enough for you to see?) is precisely the point. Where would Uribe be without his gadfly? Verlaine without Rimbaud. Vive le difference!

gatogris comments on Come see Piedad Cordoba speak tomorrow

Raise the level of your discourse, gentlemen. She is.

gatogris comments on Tayrona still over run with Israelis?

Do you think it smacks of anti-Semitism? You're probably right. However, it is kind of interesting in that it presents the classic paradox of discussions about Israeli national identity. Because citizenship to Israel can be granted based on an ethnic claim, characterizations about the 'nature' of Israelis can immediately be linked to lurking prejudices against Jews, especially when stereotypes about Israelis play into ancient and vicious bromides about Jews, such as miserliness (see the $2 a night anecdote above). Therefore, while it is entirely acceptable (and encouraged) to rail against Americans pubicly in the new global discourse, it is suspect to launch generalized attacks on Israelis, because it may reflect racial/ethnic prejudice rather than merely national distaste. We should thank the Israeli nation-state for presenting us with this interesting thought experiment.

gatogris comments on The Economist: Just how much help has Hugo Chávez given to Colombia's guerrillas?

Vladimiro, precisely, the true extent of actual flows of matériel or funds may never be known, but what does seem to be certain is the FARC were/are having a hard time establishing working alliances in the sense of producing anything other than concordant dialogue. Chavez is crafty, and skilled at maintaining his balance by keeping others (Uribe, Bush) off-balance, and I suspect that once again his promises and assertions were just that. There may have been some infusions of briefcases of cash (party favors, more or less) and even a few high-level meetings but I don't think that Chavez would have seen actually attaching himself in a meaningful way to the guerilla's operational and tactical infrastructure as in his best interest.

gatogris comments on Alternatives to Andres Del Carne Res?

billyb, a Freudian slip, the truth is some of us like the taste of milk fed horseflesh, hot sizzliin Black Beauty, and not just the Afghans and Mongolians among us...

gatogris comments on

Kalder, how about that time honoured old saw from England, that great sea-going nation of "rum, sodomy and the lash" that goes, as the sailor in Fanny Hill says, "any port in a storm..." And doesn't the phrase "sweet bugger all" also originate in merry old England? Hmmmmmmm.

gatogris comments on Alternatives to Andres Del Carne Res?

I hope this is not redundant but there is a place on the road to El Calera where they have some of the most tender flame roasted beef I have had outside of Argentina called "El Tenero." On the right weekend or a holiday it is packed with Colombians, and apparently they get their beef from a local guy who feeds his steeds milk. Thin sliced veal with onions and capers is also available for a price. Best in the late afternoon with an excess of Aguilas and a glass of Chilean Syrah with the meal.