Back in for a bit

Well, I was pretty sick last week which is why I didn't post much, but I'm almost back to full health. There's a lot going on right now (obviously) so posts will probably be sporadic for a couple more weeks.

My Spanish is progressing slowly. It's pretty difficult as everything is in Spanish and it can be, at times, pretty frustrating. But, I know that it's working because I'm starting to understand more and speak a little bit.

I encountered something the other day, however, that was totally disturbing. My Spanish teacher, a 40ish woman, showed us pictures of guerrillas and then proceeded to claim that the guerrillas were very poor and had waning strength in the countryside. When I asked about their involvement in cocaine trafficking, she claimed that they were not involved. She was adamant and my ability to explain my point in Spanish was extremely limited, so I let it go.

But I didn't want to. It's entirely problematic to realize that some Colombians think that the FARC is a weak force not involved in narco-trafficking. There can be nothing further from the truth. The guerrillas were weak and turned to coca as a source of income. At first, they "taxed" coca farmers and traffickers; later, they got directly involved in the trade. There are very few people that would disagree with that and they're probably all sympathizers.

I guess my point is that I have quickly realized that Colombians generally have vastly different views of guerrillas, paramilitaries, the US, and the role of their own government. This is a nation that has been involved in some type of violent internal struggle since inception and everyone has a different view of how, who, why, and how much. That's dangerous. It's much more difficult to assign blame, prosecute the guilty, and prevent future violence if the population is essentially totally uneducated about the root causes, the players involved, and what is necessary to stop the violence. That worries me.

My perception of Bogota and Colombia in general is that it's a pretty nice country with wonderful people. There's too much pollution (more on this later) and it definitely has class issues (more on this later too), but generally, Colombia is on the way up. Whether that continues is entirely dependent on the choices of the population. Colombia has all the natural resources, skills, and ambition to be an economic star in South America. But, that sentence could have been written in 1950 and there are no guarantees things will continue as they are. I hope progress continues, but I'm not so confident.