Studies show that pesticides sprayed on crops are poisonous and that we are ingesting these toxins with our food. Perfect examples are the corn and soybeans Colombia imports from Argentina.
Tag: colombia
Meet Alondra Metaute, a 38-year-old woman who wants to shake up a sleepy Colombian town.
Gangs extort at leisure in the El Salvadoran capital, making a mockery of police and the state. Could this again happen in Colombian cities like MedellÃn?
BOGOTA — It is no easy task trying to talk about the errors of Pope Francis. The achievements of Argentina’s Jorge Bergoglio, both in words and deeds, have been frankly quite startling. Acts of humility by the Supreme Pontiff have had a tremendous public impact, like kneeling to wash and kiss the feet of prisoners, […]
A Bogota-based NGO is helping some 30 farmers to sell organic produce directly to consumers. An oasis of clean food in the face of rising agrobusiness dominance.
-OpEd- BOGOTA — When I hear about people now selling marijuana legally in the United States, I think of all our fellow Colombians who have died over the years fighting America’s absurd war on drugs. I think of Luis Carlos Galán and Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, two politicians gunned down by drug traffickers, and I imagine […]
Latin America is starting to measure happiness or “well-being” levels to gauge social trends and set public policy. Surprising results in Cali, Colombia.
Colombia’s health minister has opened up to euthanasia and imposed new bans on herbicides — news in a conservative country, and one so close to the U.S. for so long.
-OpEd- BOGOTA — Once upon a time our cities had physical spaces and institutions that allowed people of different social groups to mix and interact, at least to a degree. Downtown cafés attracted politicians, intellectuals, traders and students. Churches — back when people still attended mass in significant numbers — were another place where people […]
El Tiempo, April 16, 2015 “Airstrikes resume after FARC massacre,” the front-page headline of Bogota-based daily El Tiempo reads Thursday, alongside a picture of Colombian soldiers retrieving the bodies of their comrades who died in an ambush by the rebels late Tuesday in western Colombia’s La Esperanza. At least 10 soldiers were killed in the […]
Modern life, with its rules and material rewards, has robbed people of the most basic sense of happiness. What do we have to lose by ridding ourselves of so many imposed ideas?
He may be a genius, but the legendary physicist is using his renown to hock an outlandish idea that humans must go to space to survive, a notion that only betrays Hawking’s own arrogance.
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Rehabilitated Ocelots Freed In Colombia
BOGOTA — Colombian authorities released two ocelots back into the wild on March 25, after they were nurtured for six years in a rehab center designed to resemble their natural habitat, El Espectador reported. The 8-year old cats were set free in the Monquentiva reserve outside the town of Guatavita northeast of Bogota, as a […]
BOGOTA — Researchers at Colombia’s Universidad del Valle recently discovered a new species of orchid as part of their investigation into how global warming affects the plant. But unfortunately, their research across the country also revealed that at least three species of local orchids registered during the 19th century are now extinct. The new orchid […]
-OpEd- BOGOTA — As unlikely as it may sound, many of the countries we closely associate with planning and foresight are turning their attention to Colombia for inspiration on how to address the parallel problems of industry pollution, energy production and food security. The South American country boasts enviable geographical and climatic conditions, exceptional biodiversity and above all, a varied and preponderant farming sector. Together these factors are sparking talk about what some call the “new economy” or “bioeconomy.” This new way of looking at economic growth may help rectify the serious environmental harm done by the excesses of the […]
Pope Francis has been surprisingly progressive on such issues as gay rights. But so far he’s taken the hard line on denouncing drugs. That could change if he sees that legalization is the best chance for reducing violence.
Juan Pablo Escobar has dug up many memories about his notorious father, the late Colombian gangster Pablo Escobar. He is conscious of the crimes, but also that his was a loving father.
As a Colombian gay marriage debate illustrates, Western societies have historically despised male homosexuality more than lesbianism. Why is that?
Bogota residents are increasingly braving reckless car drivers, crime and pollution to cycle their way through the Colombian capital. It’s one way people are taking back public spaces.
MEDELLIN — Crimes being committed by some of Colombia’s 38,000 convicts on prison leave have become an almost “daily headache,” with some returning to a life of lawlessness despite wearing electronic tags or bracelets. The need to keep closer tabs on prisoners who have been granted leave has led two prison authority (INPEC) employees and […]
Demonizing the rich, a pastime of Colombia’s political Left, doesn’t help social progress. Yes, the rich must pay a high share of taxes, but capital and opportunity cross borders like never before.
The Netherlands, a major consumer of sustainable coffee, is helping to make production in Colombia more environmentally friendly for the benefit of grower and drinker alike.
BOGOTA — The significance of Uber goes well beyond its specific function, which is to connect willing drivers with people who need to move around in a safe, comfortable and punctual manner. The deeper message of the controversial digital application — and others like it — is in the changing way labor and service markets […]
Images are spreading of extreme cruelty to animals at the corralejas, a version of bullfighting in remote areas of Colombia. Social media can be both enemy and friend for animal rights activists.
Is this the rise of another Hugo Chavez for Latin America?
Despite FARC declaring a ceasefire, peace won’t come to Colombia until warring parties in decades of civil war admit to all the people they’ve kidnapped, tortured and killed.
Another so-so summit on the climate, and another set of tepid, if not useless, commitments to curb emissions. If the governments can’t get it together, the people must act on their own.
The decision by the United States and Cuba to restore diplomatic ties looks like good news for now: for Cuban families, for regional democracy and for peace in war-torn Colombia.
Colombians seem to worship all things Anglo-American, “Miami-style” most of all. It’s a sign of our own socio-cultural shame and some appalling choices made by past governments.
BOGOTA — Authorities in Bogota are banning road and building construction across 14 square kilometers (5.4 square miles) in the Colombian capital, in a bid to create the largest urban nature reserve in Latin America. New restrictions will turn a sector of the existing Thomas van der Hammen Reserve into a “biodiversity corridor” spanning Guaymaral, […]
The U.S. President has shown a mix of political pragmatism and historic vision in pushing forward in the face of a backward-looking Congress.
The kidnapping of a Colombian general is the clearest sign that FARC guerrillas may have entered in peace talks, but have yet to give up their war mentality and false populist ideology.
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In Search Of Unity On Latin America Trade
With the region still divided into different trading blocs, Chile is leading efforts to bring Latin American nations together for a joint policy to expand global trade.
The fact that people are buying cars is touted as a good sign for the economy, which you can think about while you’re stuck in traffic or breathing in rising pollution.
The idea of today’s neuroscientists and radical secularists that human beings are nothing more than cell matter is not only arrogant, it is a theory that is self-defeating to the core.
Six years ago, people thought the endangered hawksbill sea turtle had become extinct in one of its habitats, the American Pacific coast. But, as it turns out, they haven’t quite yet. After several were spotted months back in Colombia’s Gorgona national park, Colombian investigators and collaborators from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) began searching for […]
Carmen Tulia Ortega recently came face-to-face with a former paramilitary chief responsible for some of the deaths of her loved ones. No, she did not forgive him.
The news in numbers…
CESAR — Without saying a word, which none would have understood anyway, Guneymaku Chaparro, an Arhuaca Mamo or spiritual leader, and Tenzin Priyadarshi, a monk and disciple of the Dalai Lama, took each other’s hands and lightly put their heads together to say good-bye. It was the end of a meeting that the northern Colombia […]