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tropicalshirt comments on Why Colombia is poor

gato Thank you for your very informative and intelligent reply. I agree completely with your comparison of Canada being more apt, I was thinking of Australia as a better comparison, though perhaps you can compare the United States on a more historical study than its present position. I don't agree with what you propose as the reasons for this chasm though. You do mention the power of the elites being centralized in an incredibly small number of families which is the main point of what I think. I believe more in the grand forces and the power that it wields. What is more interesting than this is what has not been mentioned yet. The racial factor. Look at Latin America and of course this elite is white. In Brazil and Colombia the majority is not white. In Canada and Australia the majority are white. Look at how Australia and Canada treated and treat their indigeniuos people, not good. And sure Brazil and Colombia has treated its native people very badly in pursuit of development. But Canada and Australia remain predominantly white whilst both Brazil and Colombia are not. The view of these elites of the majority of their populations is I would argue negative. If Canada and Australia were in the same position I'm sure their elites would be just as ugly. What I am saying is that Brazil and Colombia are poor because the elites look at their populations and don't want them approaching anything at all near educated or developed. They don't give a fuck for them.

tropicalshirt comments on Why Colombia is poor

makopp5 You could write a post Why is Colombia happy but as Fagin says in the musical version of Oliver Twist, "In this life one thing counts, money in the bank, large amounts." Give me happiness anytime and a beautiful woman (with lots of money).

tropicalshirt comments on Why Colombia is poor

Gato I'm not a fan of Fukuyama and the end of history line. But Latin America is an area that has gotten such little media attention in recent years and I'm glad to see a book like this bring up the region. Apart from a shimmering play of chaos math vectors and valences, I would be really interested in what you think the answer to the question is?

tropicalshirt comments on Why Colombia is poor

Desi I always looked at Brazil, that is the place I know best, and thought that the elites in Brazil together with the Westerrn Governments, were together getting rich from Brazil and neither were interested in creating a fairer Brazil. I'm sure this is true. But should you foremostly look within the country and question what is going on? On whom do you place the responsibilty for the creation of a fairer country? That country itself or other countries??? In 2003 I was living in Brazil when the Iraq war started. The media coverage was huge and it led to literary every second person asking me, "What did I think of THE war?" Well I knew of a few wars going on at that time, the largest being in the Congo with 3 to 5 million attributal deaths, so whilst that is a global media issue, I used to respond, which war? (i'm one for conversation no doubt...) and tell them I'm more interested in Brazil. The public protests I saw all over Brazil and the constant focus by the people on Iraq was never remotely matched by anything I saw in Brazil on any Brazilian issue. And there are a few. But look, change can happen when the people show this type of mass committment to something local. It happened in Brazil when the people put the pressure on President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. It just has to be an issue in this way. The problem being, as this book tells it, one elite is replaced by another. Brazil did get Lula in the end, but his promised TAX REFORMS (important) etc??? They look doomed. From what I have looked at I think this book differs from the Galeano book and fits better with my experience and views of Latin America, a place I like more than England or any other European country. I haven't read the Galeano book and thank you for pointing it out.

tropicalshirt comments on Why Colombia is poor

Thanks to you all too. The point I never concurred with was the pointing of the finger at external powers robbing these countries. I know colonists went to grab the riches, and I think today that external countries are happy for the current situation to continue where money flows from there to them and Colombai, Brazil etc to remain poor. But it does so beacuse of the internal and considerable powers WITHIN Colombia, Brazil etc Fukuyama points out in his conclusion, "no political system can work can work without the support of informal norms. If politicians are willing to bend the rules to get their way, if judges and lawyers routinely accept bribes in return for certain outcomes, if the police look the other way... then no system of rules and incentives will function properly." The elites in Latin America are entrenched. Does it suit these powers to have no more slums? Does it suit them to have an educated population? Does it suit them to have no more corruption?

tropicalshirt comments on Why Colombia is poor

"This indispensable book ends the debate over why we Latinos are not rich Americans: It's not our culture, religion, intellects, or even the U.S. that keep us behind. It's our defective institutions. So let reform begin. Thanks to Fukuyama and his distinguished colleagues, governments have no more excuses to avoid legal change."--Hernando de Soto, author of The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else

tropicalshirt comments on Why Colombia is poor

For me that last effect is key, a major segment of the population does not realize its potential. Then they also do not realize their countries potential, how great it is, and I don't mean via nationalism.

tropicalshirt comments on

dwmte when are you and me going to go out to eat??? i'll get the drinks and you get...

tropicalshirt comments on

seriously, the urine drinking is something i am now considering... the idea is drinking one's own urine appears to stimulate the immune system, the urine being a record of what is going on wrongly inside of us. putting it back in makes the immune system deal with the problems recorded in the urine. i have no problem with the idea.

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i could manage it with chips, but otherwise... twice! some guts I think.

tropicalshirt comments on Writing a spicy story

not half enough good writing on latin america in english! ok, now I'll stop!

tropicalshirt comments on Writing a spicy story

some great ideas here i got to say about the mining (mononoke) and the distrust in the Colombian culture destroying peoples lives (vicshere). too many gringo ponces in south america, worst still are the ones with their writing as art aspirations, but like your ideas!

tropicalshirt comments on Writing a spicy story

some of you may not know the well known story of trolls... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll

tropicalshirt comments on Writing a spicy story

travellernorway ah... my norwegian friend! i wish you good time in colombia, many spicy stories, and a warm welcome to all your brothers, in norway! LAND OF THE TROLLS!!!

tropicalshirt comments on Accordion Inspired Techno

adrimm in argentina lots of tango electronica music. in brazil lots and lots of bossa/samba electronica, mostly very popular in Europe and maybe sampa in brazil, but not much elsewhere. may i recommend tom jobim lounge, bought in fortaleza in 2005, available as an import http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tom-Jobim-Lounge-Various-Artists/dp/B0002TL96S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1235078925&sr=8-1 tracks 8,9,10,11, and 12 the best. one thing of note on this subject is the phenomena of tecnobrega in belem do para http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/7872316.stm brasil has some great cities: recife, joao pessoa, sao luis, belem etc etc i know es colombia aqui mas brasil o pais do meu coracao!

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dwmte i'm a regular on organic watercress, buffalo milk, sheeps yoghurt, flaxseed oil etc but placenta stew... beyond my expertise sorry!

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pow wow great topic. i am an expert on nutritional health and firmly reccomend the following text, "The Water of Life." http://www.amazon.co.uk/Water-Life-Treatise-Urine-Therapy/dp/0091906601/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234816417&sr=8-1 i'm not one for hot drinks usually ;-)

tropicalshirt comments on Robi666...

ok, i spoke too soon!

tropicalshirt comments on Robi666...

ok, thanks. but still no steamy chicas here!

tropicalshirt comments on Robi666...

"he felt PBH was not the right place for him" i guess because it was was felt what he was saying was wrong and he was asked to change??? what else? this site is like a telenovela but without the steamy chicas. Que triste!

tropicalshirt comments on Metaphor about the people who trash colombia on these boards

I think what people are arguing about here is quiet petty really: food, family and personal preference etc I prefer the arguments about social conditions, poverty, economics and injustice, though these seem to be far fewer (I will add I prefer anything about chicas as well...) All of you really know no country is better than any other and it is just personal preference. I don't think just because you are or are not born in one country or the other that you do or don't have a right to criticise. I'm a Londoner and I don't particularly like London or England. I prefer Scotland and Brazil, and even then apenas nordeste do brasil. I would say Colombia is a great country because it has great people, and of course big problems, and I think most people would agree. Friends, family, jobs; all these may fuck you up in life. Good weather, the kindness of strangers, beautiful women and an interesting life where people mix and are outgoing; these things stay with you.

tropicalshirt comments on Colombia and Racism

Obama is black though of course a mixed race person is mixed race. Why? Well the experience they get through life from people of being mixed race, is generally going to be of one side only, the experience of being black not the experience of being white, just like was pointed out by the enlightened amigos above!

tropicalshirt comments on Colombia and Racism

Simon Slaves were taken to Argentina. That is a fact. From the Cambridge History of Latin America, "The incidence of slavery was greatest in the towns, especially Buenos Aires. In 1810 there were 11,837 black and mulattos in Buenos Aires, or 29.3 per cent in a population of 40,398, and most of the blacks were slaves" What is harder to know is what exactly happened to the black Argentinian population. "Marvin A. Lewis, author of Afro-Argentine Discourse: Another Dimension of the Black Diaspora,..[says...] that "there was an official, concerted effort to eliminate the blacks from Argentine society."

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wow what a great read! coco bongos what a great name!!!

tropicalshirt comments on Colombia and Racism

koma Racism in latin america is not a dumb oxymoron and it has a long historical argument. The dumb domination is skin colour and they, the same people, can choose their ancestors (Spanish/Portuguese colonialists to whom they distance themselves) to be the son of bitches as well. In Brazilian history when slaverly was abolished in 1888 a large workforce was created but instead of using it a policy of "branqueamento" was implemented, i.e. whitening. Because of this sizeable non-white population, the Brazilian elites sought to whiten Brazil by promoting European immigration. Most of the immigrants went to the south and south east of Brazil and with it most of the public spending and investment of Brazil. "In 1923, one Brazilian congressman declared that "Black Brazilians will disappear within 70 years". A renowned author, Afranio Peixoto in one of his writings said: "In 200 years, the black eclipse will have passed entirely."" "According to the journalist Lourdes Teodoro, in 1945 the Brazilian immigration policy declared the need to "develop within the country's ethnic composition, the most convenient characteristics of its European descent". In 1966, adds Teodoro, a Foreign Ministry leaflet proclaimed that the Brazilian population was white with a minute population being of mixed blood. Just as recently as 1988, the country's white elite was discussing deliberate sterilisation among black women to stop blacks from becoming a majority." These are just a very, very few of the many historical arguments. I know far more about Brazil than Colombia and since you mention Latin America I felt I could comment. Famously, Brazil has the second largest black population in the World after Nigeria. Like Colombia, I think the cafe con leche idea is strong among many people and how they identify themselves. But I've felt the whole idea dosen't reflect reality. I was living in a northeastern Brazilian city for six months during the 2006 elections. There were big parades everyday for different political groups and every night they turned into parties. Frankly, I was sick of them blocking the roads every night and thinking anything would change, most of the people in the parties I noticed were white and they seemed only to come out at night. I got stuck behind one party one night and got talking to a street cleaner about politicos (never saw a white street cleaner in my time there). There were a line of billboards behind us, some were of fashion models and others of politicians. I said to the cleaner, have you ever noticed all of the politicians and all of the models are white? He looked at the posters a while and said," er no? but its true there all white." And I said have you ever noticed every newsreader and every telenovela is white? Again the same answer. And I said, and you know why should it bother me, but it does beacuse nobody is asking the right questions of these fuckin politicos and the white fuckin models are so much more fuckin feia than the morenas!!!

tropicalshirt comments on Beatings and abuse made Barack Obama’s grandfather loathe the British

history and human nature dwmte7. guess what you can expect in the future??? er... more of the same! the wars, torture, rape, murder, injustice, hypocrisy and selfishness are always going to overshadow the good things, but... theres always family, the kindess of strangers, latin american bunda, brazil, hot weather, mountains and fishing (feel free to add anything to said list). So in other words, your own happiness! (selfishness?) tasco, the only euros are the monetary ones. there are no euros people. you could write europeans. its dosen't offend me, it just dosen't exist. I SAY NO TO EUROS!

tropicalshirt comments on

Laziness is always a downfall. Glad your OK.

tropicalshirt comments on

GOBBLEGOBBLE! Sorry CobbleCobble! There are the Tigre River Delta tours very close to the city. http://www.inargentinatourism.com.ar/en/buenos_aires/delta_tigre.php For a more urban activity may I suggest (at no liabilty too myslef or any other invloved whatsoever and so say all of us on the bus) crossing the Avenida 9 de Julio in the center of Buenos Aires, it is one of the widest streets in the world, with some eighteen lanes of traffic. It usually takes a pedestrian at average walking speed 2 to 3 green lights to cross. Try crossing the lot as the green lights starts to blink?

tropicalshirt comments on Greetings to everyone!!

kat They used to put resources into it, today they do the opposite.

tropicalshirt comments on Greetings to everyone!!

Mononoke28 Scotland (part of the UK ( sorry unsure how ignorant about this you are :-) )has plenty of snow, roughly November to April. In the mountains, on the tops, some snow is still there in June. http://www.mountainhiking.org.uk/scotland-mountains/index.shtml

tropicalshirt comments on Greetings to everyone!!

Uncle Fester! Welcome on board captain!

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What depot you working out of tenga? Can't believe there were no buses today, absolute disgrace. Are the buses running tomorrow?

tropicalshirt comments on Hey Gringo....

shortiao The only place I got called gringo during a trip to Colombia was Santa Marta. I've always seen its use as taking a position of superiority, albeit not financial etc, just that your a foreigner and I'm not. I never think any big deal of it anyhow. It always adds some colour anyhow, "Ese es un gringo de mierda!" As such with the above definition I used to think these latinos, when they are foreigners are they gringos? Barring the actual history of the word, (bad speaker of Spanish or whatever blah, blah, blah) where I work in London there are Ecudaoreans, Colombians, Brazilians, Paraguayans and Venezuelans who I have all called gringo! Am I not alone in thinking I'm right??? " I suspect this comes as a bit of a surprise to any latinos who might be reading this, but in Brazil, "gringo" is even applied to foreigners hailing from other parts of Latin America. The Rio daily newspaper O Povo recently ran a front page item detailing an attempted mugging of an American by three Ecuadorians in Tom Jobim airport. The headline? "Gringo rouba gringo" ("Gringos steal from gringo")." "...all foreigners are gringos but some gringos are more gringo than others." Olhe aquele gringo! Eh hilario a forma que ele tenta falar portugues!

tropicalshirt comments on Trips from Medellin

12,000! Lousy moderfoquers!!! me cambio que putas!

tropicalshirt comments on Trips from Medellin

35,000 from Mar Adentro. Don't pay more in case they try 50,000. Personally, the first island is nice but they only stop there for the aquarium, the rest is a luxury hotel. The rest...nothing so special. The best thing is just enjoying Tolu, which is not about the beaches.

tropicalshirt comments on In Colombia, Newfound Wealth Masks Poverty

dwmte7, spot on. The powers that be do not want that change, same as Brazil etc. I've no doubt that living conditons rise compared to 20 or 30 years ago with more consumerism, technological goods etc but fundumental change, and for a huge mass of people, never. In Brazil its said the country was fucked as they never developed the interior, treated it like backward and always looked to Europe from the coast, so the poor flocked to the coast to live in favelas. What they looked to as backward and frightening was the interior but also the people, they never developed them, interior or not. In Colombia this article seems to blames it on the conflict. "United Nations data show that Colombia remains one of the world's most unequal societies - a root cause of the country's 45-year-old conflict." Cartagena is a strange one, the old historical centre is such a poster project that I really didn't feel ANYTHING at all of the poverty.

tropicalshirt comments on Trips from Medellin

Brasilia or Rapido Ochoa do the trip to Tolu. Price quoted was 70,000 something with both of them. The same price quoted there and back. I tried everything to get the price down both times but flash my ass, I really did, but I got told this route is set price. I said, "SET PRICE!!! I WOULD LOVE SET PRICE SO I DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS CHIT. I SAID THEY GOT SET PRICES IN BRAZIL, THEY GOT SET PRICES IN PARAGUAY AND THEY GOT SET PRICES IN VENEZUELA, BUT IN COLOMBIA THEY BARGAIN THE FARES." I nearly flashed my ass then, but really it was no big deal and nobody was too bothered. I was just trying to get a deal. I think the price was 77,000 with either. In the end I took the bus to Monteria first. None the less, I have very fond memories of Tolu: The bus rep had to come and drag me to get the bus back to Medellin in Tolu as I was listening to some great live music on the street just outside left of the station. Great music, absolutely great, about 5:30 Sunday afternoon.

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That said, the best thing about this site is the ability to debate in a forthright manner. Too many gringos in South America are ponces.

tropicalshirt comments on Laidoff and ready to live-out a dream and teach English

cmedley18, You American right? (ohhh you so big americano!) You no speak Spanish? (no es probelma justa-speaka-likah-dis) Your not a teacher? (no problem amigo, just use your BS) Life is too short, GO FOR IT! YEAH!

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tenga The more I think about it, people may love free speech, but this site is the best resouce you can come across on Colombia for foreigners and needs moderation due to its size and success. This site clearly flourishes and it flourishes all the more with the more people who use it rather than a few with freedom of speech (think of the increase in interest, tourism and foreigners moving to Colombia). Its been an important resource for many and will probably become even more important.

tropicalshirt comments on

tenga flip hole, there was a young man from Medellin, who invented a wank**g machine, one day it broke down, and whipped his balls to cream.

tropicalshirt comments on Just wanted to say THANK YOU to the PBH community before I disappear...

No time to post on PBH? No inclination to post on PBH? Other priorities? Thats a sudden change of heart. Maybe your just an all or nothing kind of monsieur, hey? Good luck in Barranquilla.

tropicalshirt comments on

He who controls the mob controls Rome.

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MEDO!, MEDO!, MEDO!, MEDO!, MEDO!, MEDO!, MEDO!

tropicalshirt comments on Cartagena misery masked

La Huella I think your story about the toothpaste is, as robi wrote about some of the information here, out of date, considerably so. I was in Cuba last year, still very different (imagine mixing Communism and the Carribean), but a tube of toothpaste won't get you more than clean teeth.

tropicalshirt comments on Cartagena misery masked

Tasco Cheers Terry dosen't think Cubans enjoy a good life. Perhaps only the idiotic would think that. Cheers Terry is not the idiotic. He thinks, "a very poor Cuban in a shit barrio has a safer and better quality of life for his family than his identical counterpart in Colombia." Sorry to repeat all this. It seems idiotic.

tropicalshirt comments on

Anybody in Candelaria sees a small, devious looking character walking towards them, carrying a bottle, bruised and bloodied and... wearing an eyepatch, watch out!

tropicalshirt comments on

Londres! "Que!!!" Inglaterra! "Donde???" Donde va la cocaina! "ah..., si senor, se, el capital del uso cocaina yo se, yo se, disgusto" http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/london-is-worlds-cocaine-capital-468670.html

tropicalshirt comments on

Unlucky Johnny. Something similar happened to me once in Argentina with three druggies, real gone characters, as far as you can imagine. Tried to rob me, I punched one in the head and cut my hand on their teeth. Felt just like you, and felt real sick thinking about cutting my hand on some real druggies teeth. Can't win. Hope you carry on enjoying Colombia, I am sure you will. London is cold, boring and even the Colombian filth have never heard of it!

tropicalshirt comments on Monteria, bumming around

quantum Hotel Alcázar - Cra. 2 No. 32-17, 30,000 for room with fan. Lots of other cheap options, try Hotel Americano - Calle 32 No. 1-65, or Hotel Central - Calle 34 No. 3-44.