helen has left 56 comments

helen comments on

it happened about three blocks from my house and a block from my office. i felt in my stomach and it was pretty damne scary....as for the dog, poor thing...

helen comments on

what an amazing article.

helen comments on Something Needs to Dramatically Change on This Website

´´I'm still waiting for any of you mental midgets who agree with her to PROVIDE ANYTHING OF SUBSTANCE FOR THE FORUM. Funny how all the retards who are defending her have little or no posting history. Part of the solution of part of the problem?? I wonder......´´


good grief! mental midget? retard? you have such a lovely way to describe the women on this forum. i assume you are talking about women - both colombian and non - you charming man you.....and frankly, why would anyone with a brain even the tiniest bit larger than yours post anything here to have it ripped apart by you. And now we have people cutting and pasting from other sites! hell. this is totaly unpleasant. i haven't opened a thread before and have just stared posting. it think i will stop. it's not worth it.

helen comments on Something Needs to Dramatically Change on This Website

...niether for that matter is colombia.

helen comments on Something Needs to Dramatically Change on This Website

i didn't perceive it as such, hence the hehehehe that followed the comment. gringas in colombian kitchens? not sure what gringas cook but not keen on sampling that delicacy. the US, as britain, is not know for its culinary excellence.....

helen comments on Avianca - Domestic So Expensive?

has there ever been a time where the prices for airine tickets bought in colomnia were more expensive for non residents like in argentina?

helen comments on Something Needs to Dramatically Change on This Website

if that was meant as a jibe, bugger off! hehehe. if not, i don't want to talk about recipes, unless you have something fabulous. i guess we could get controversial on that though. let's talk about men versus women in the kitchen. women in the kitchen at home, men in the kitchen in restaurants...

helen comments on New article about Colombia

thanks goose and caslug

i have been looking into all the military contracts, the local and US, for some time and it strikes me that there is so much money being made in the fight against both the drug traffickers and irregular groups that there is too much to lose by ending the wars on both. that's not meant to say that there isn't real desire to make things right here, it just seems the powers that be, irregular as well as official, will do their upmost to prevent it happening. war is huge money.....

helen comments on Something Needs to Dramatically Change on This Website

are we still at this bashing stuff? let's close this thread and move on. we all have learnt, i hope, something from it. i have. i am not groaning unecessarily and bitching about other people's opinions or lives, simply expressing a wish that we can discuss something more fulfilling. now, practice what you all preach. if you don´t like BX´s opinions don't focus on them. she is entitled to them, as am i and as you all are entitled to yours. i will try and ignore what i don't like from the threads from now on. now you all do the same. we are heading to 200 posts on this one thread and we have not moved on at all. circles and circles in the words of the great tori amos. there were very few people on this thread that listened to the original point, discussed it sensibly and established some sort of common ground. i know there is common gound. i have read many of the threads prior to this and know that so many fundamentally agree with with what she has to say, whether or not you like her tone. so stop bashing and let's move on.....i'm sure that was her intention in the first place. i hope as a woman that i am not sexist, so let's hope the guys contributing aren't too.....let's move on!

helen comments on Something Needs to Dramatically Change on This Website

....oooh, one more thing. i also find it condesending to repeatedly bring up that women are thinking about it in first world and third world terms. i for one am not.....

helen comments on Something Needs to Dramatically Change on This Website

ok, yes, some of the language is somewhat aggressive, but even the comments you point out are not attacking the women personally. seriously. there was not in my view personal statements against you or your girlfriends, she even said in there - i think - that it wasn´t agaisnt the the bulk of the posters. it was more the constant use of this post to look for women, which is what irritates me too. that's all. i have no problem with guys coming to colombia or going anywhere else in the world to meet women, just don´t subject us all to the gory details. yes, we can all just ignore them, but we don´t. it's like slowing down to look at a car wreck, we secretly are intrigued with being grossed out. anyway, i just feel that all the posts deteriorate into mud slinging and unpleasantness. someone said yesterday i seem young by the way i write, well i am 36 soon, and if that's young great, but i would never sink to all the nastiness that seems in my view to be incredibly immature....anyway, that's my opinion for what it is worth.

helen comments on Something Needs to Dramatically Change on This Website

wow, this is still a hot topic. i just went through all bx comments in this post and i'm baffled as to where you see her attacking attacking wives and girlfriends....this seems to have deteriorated into an attack on her, anyway just an observation

helen comments on New article about Colombia

"The U.S. provides military aid under the guise of fighting communist guerrillas, narco-trafficking guerrillas, or terrorist guerrillas, depending on the political season."

I am writing a piece on who benefits from the war, and I'd be interestd in your thoughts on this. Guise, meaning false appearance, pretense? What do you think the U.S. is really up to?

helen comments on New article about Colombia

hi, interesting. where did this take place? what neighborhood i mean....

helen comments on Something Needs to Dramatically Change on This Website

what foul langualge?????? crap is about as foul as i got. anyway, brit, not govt, journalist. young? 36. anything else? anyone want to guess my height?

helen comments on Something Needs to Dramatically Change on This Website

.........anyway, what a great post. Nice to see everyone getting along. Just one thing, I have been reading this site for a while and you are right, I haven´t posted much, a few times at the most. I shall from now on. I will thrill you all with my witty repartee and educated opinions. So often though I don´t get into things for this very reason, too may insulters here and it's a bit of a drag watching people's thoughts dragged apart by some pretty unpleasant posters. That is not the majority of you I add. I am not a burn my bra women's libber, niether am I here condemning the site or most of the contributers. I am purely expressing a point that there is too much junk here, that is all. Anyway....

helen comments on Something Needs to Dramatically Change on This Website

i am not from the US, I live in Colombia, i have been living and working in South America for 10 years. Stop jumping to conclusions.

helen comments on Something Needs to Dramatically Change on This Website

ok, ws244, you have proved the point for everyone....there is a moron amongst us.....bye everyone

helen comments on Something Needs to Dramatically Change on This Website

women talk about sports, work, politics and money too you know

helen comments on Something Needs to Dramatically Change on This Website

that´s not the point...the point bx is making is about this website. it´s a mess. full of crap. arguments between posters, gross guys seeking women. yes there are men genuinely looking for women but this isn't the place to do it. full stop, ya esta! enough! this site wasn´t designed for that sort of business. there are other places to go to seek out women. the thing that grosses me out is that it's the same guys every day responding to these questions. then they complain about it.....

helen comments on Something Needs to Dramatically Change on This Website

calipro

you are so right hhahahahahahahhahaha, nothing like a fews glasses of vino to oil the whinge pipes

helen comments on Something Needs to Dramatically Change on This Website

BxUnika


don´t stoop. there are loads of us who feel the same. so let's chat

helen comments on Something Needs to Dramatically Change on This Website

one must learn to rise above taking umbrage

helen comments on Female softball in Bogota?

don´t know, but i´d be up for it....

helen comments on Something Needs to Dramatically Change on This Website

biggest willy, sorry

helen comments on Something Needs to Dramatically Change on This Website

BxUnika

i 100% agree with all you say! bravo! however, i read this site daily and virtually never write on it. Perhaps we women should start contributing something to it, say something interesting, boot out the tossers purely by our interesting conversation.....there is so much drivel here and it is thoroughly boring. i have no idea why i read it, honest. the arguments between petulant little boys over, let's face it, who has the bissgest willy, is just beyond the joke. so come on girls, humiliate these fellas off the site or to contribute something worthy by getting wise ourselves and helping make the site better...

helen comments on Safety in Colombia

jeeze i cannot believe glasgow is being compared to medellin on safety issues. i grew up going to glasgow and go back frequently still. while it was definitely a dodgy place 20 years or so ago, it has imprved no end. it's an amazing place - as is medellin - but nowhere near the danger scale of medellin, not even the gorbals. i was in medellin on monday and while things have certainly improved, it is still a pretty dangerous place if you aren't careful. glasgow is not in the same league at all. there are certainly areas in glasgow that one may have trouble, but one can't compare the poverty and suffering in medellin that in many cases leads to crime and violence, to anything in glasgow. i went through the hillside shanty towns of medellin on monday for an article i am writing and it is not at all like anywhere in glasgow. there is poverty as far as the eye can see in medellin and that is not the case in glasgow.

helen comments on Places to live in Bogotá...any suggestions?

hi, try www.metrocuadrado.com there are loads of places on there tho they tend to be through agents

helen comments on Bogota to Ecuador

I have been twice from Bogota to Quito and never spent more than about US$200. You could maybe fly to Quito then take a bus.....

helen comments on Christmas in Colombia

teddy, did you have fun in bogota? i didn´t last year and went to cartagena for new year which was a bit of a crock....i´m in colombia this year for both holidays and am buggered if i know how to make it better. if you don´t have loads of family here it seems a bit hard. most of the places i hang out in bogota closed last year for xmas and the place i ended up in with colombian friends was so full i could hardly let my stomach out....thoughts for this year?

helen comments on Exit taxes for Colombian citizens

it´s $50 to leave if you are colombian or a foreigner living in colombia. foreigners get it cheaper if they prove they are tourists and in the country a short time. i know this because i just coughed up that small fortune a week ago.....

helen comments on Peso bid 2292 ask 2295

i can't see the peso weakening this year at all. i think it will hover around the 2,300 level with ganas to strengthen further. only central bank intervention is going to prevent it settling around 2,200

helen comments on Suggestions

before the crisis i would say BA was totally safe. but after that, crime went through the roof and there were loads of incidents of shootouts in totally public places, bad guys coming into restaurants and robbing people at gun point etc. in short, it got very dodgy. the police were pretty useless too, so often things would escalate after their arrival. express kidapping became the rage too. i honestly feel a load safer here in bogota. i know there are places one has to be careful here, but there doesn't seem to be that menace in bogota that there is in BA. now, the rest of colombia is a different matter. argentiina as a whole is much safer, just not BA. still, it would never stop me going back to live. bus trips are totally safe. you can travel through argentina with no problems at all....

helen comments on Suggestions

i lived in BA, which really is a great city. the food and night life is among the best in latam. there's exceptional fishing in argentina. you can go pretty much anywhere and there is soemthing amazig to see. it's among the most beautiful countries i have been to. i am actually looking into real estate right now and tho prices have gone up since the crisis they are still pretty cheap. as RUV said, the Argenties aren't quite as friendly as the colombians, but i think that's just a first impression. the portenos from BA can be arrogant but once you get to know them they have the coolest most sarcastic and witty sense of humor and are very loyal. i love it.

helen comments on Suggestions

also.... it's not easy anywhere in south america to get a job unless you are sent there from overseas, but there are loads of foreigners in argentina working in all manner of industries. obviously there is teaching english, but beyond that there are many foreign companies which do hire foreigners locally as long as you have the right qualifications and can speak the lingo.

helen comments on Suggestions

i lived in argentia nine years before moving to colombia. it's an amazing place. it has everything from jungles in the north, the andes, desert, brilliant buenos aires, all the way to the glaziers in the south. right now it's pretty cheap too compared to colombia. i plan to go back after my stint here and settle there for good.

helen comments on Heeeelllp placing calls to a bogota cell phone

you don't need the 1...011-57-300 blah blah blah

helen comments on

no, economic strength:

Improved security will boost investor confidence and lead to
an annual economic growth rate of 6 percent within two years, up
from about 3.8 percent last year, Barco said. That pace of
expansion will attract more foreign investment to the $91 billion
economy, allowing the government to begin reducing dependence on
U.S. aid, she said.

helen comments on Falling DOLLAR, Strong PESO

I don't think the peso will weaken anywhere near 2,600/2,700. carrasquilla says the peso is so strog because of the dollar but the dollar has strengthened so much already this year, and the peso is still strengthening. remitances are starting to fall a bit and the peso is still hovering just above 2,300. we will have loads of dollars coming in this year and next from the bavaria sale and that will make things worse. i read one analyst who reckons the peso could strengthen further by the end of the year to 2,200 per dollar. a nightmare.

helen comments on

aid i interviewed carolina barco a few months back and she said she wants less dependence on US aid in 2 years. ``What we are trying to do is become absolutely self sufficient. We do not want to become dependent on their support. But to reach the level of strength and control, we need them to stay the course with us a while longer,'' she said.

helen comments on colombian shares on the new york stock exchange

i spoke to the president of the bolsa here recently and he said one of his aims is to encourage more local companies to issue ADRs. This is part of his plan to raise Colombia's profile to forign investors, which would in turn attract more liquidity are encourage more companies here to list locally and issue bonds.

helen comments on colombian shares on the new york stock exchange

Cemento Argos or its newly merged unit Cemento del Caribe said it may sell ADRs soon

helen comments on Departure taxes

i've travelled a great deal and repeat that el dorado is extremely expensive compared to most airports. that's all....jeeze

helen comments on Departure taxes

there is no choice. my comment is totally valid. i travel a lot and never have i paid such a lot of money to leave a country and seen so little invested in its airport. i don't know if the cash is spent on security or what but it's certainly not spent on making the experience nicer for travellers.

helen comments on Departure taxes

taxes are horribly expensive for such a dump of an airport

helen comments on

i moved from 6 to 4 a week ago. i hated living in six. the people treat you like scum even if they have no idea who you are. i got complaints that my dogs peed in public places!!!! where the hell else are they suppposed to pee????? anyway, very happy to be in 4 now even though i don't have armed gurads on every corner.

helen comments on article from el tiempo

absolutely, this will all go away after loads of noise and the funds will be there

helen comments on Looking for a puppy

Two of my dogs were dumped on the street when they were about 30 days old. they would have died withiin days doubtless. they are the smartest, most resilient little buggers and virtually never need to go to the vet - unlike the boxer who seems to get everything possible. Adopt a dog and give it a chance...

helen comments on article from el tiempo

i just spoke to the US embassy and they say nothing is frozen yet

helen comments on Looking for a puppy

Totally agreed, though vets here usually buy from breeders too. they do at least make sure the puppy is healthy etc. Make sure you get a dog that will fit in your house/apartment. don't go for a big one just because you like them. i have a boxer and two little things i picked up in the streets of buenos aires. the boxer is fine because i have a house with a garden and someone to walk him. but if i was in an apartment he would go potty....