Dictators, gangsters and gun-toting guerillas all seem to have a fondness for facial hair — specifically above their upper lips. But why?
Tag: colombia
-OpEd- BOGOTÁ — Feminism is an acidic drink, strong, seething and so concentrated that it should be sipped at a pace suitable for each person’s palate. There is no key or magic recipe that makes you a feminist and nobody has the absolute truth on how to most effectively pursue the cause. What is certain, […]
Three men tied the knot in a city-sanctioned ceremony that protects inheritance rights of this self-proclaimed ‘polyamorous’ family.
-Essay- BOGOTÁ — A theology teacher I knew used to tell me, a mocking grin on his lips, “you’re the last communist left,” to which I would reply, smiling, “and you’re the last evangelist.” In today’s upside-down world of thieving politicians and self-righteous saints, corrupt and holy men, such concepts as communism have lost their […]
Colombia may have massive shale oil and gas reserves that could cover the decline in its crude output, but environmentalists are raising alarms.
-OpEd- BOGOTÁ –– For some time now, Latin America has not figured on the U.S. State Department’s agenda. If the continent did appear, it was at the bottom of the government’s list. This indifference has only grown starker since Donald J. Trump moved into the White House. This state of affairs is neither good nor […]
A Colombian NGO is hoping football could turn former communist guerrillas into peaceful citizens — and maybe even sporting stars.
When El Espectador’s Aldo Civico spots a former henchman of the Medellin drug cartel in a restaurant, enjoying a meal and the well wishes of patrons, he wonders if something has gone terrible wrong with society at large.
As the Rainbow Warrior III traverses the Strait of Magellan, its crew shows what it means to defend the natural world on a daily basis.
A deadly flash flood and landslide in southern Colombia is a brutal reminder that people can’t take the environment for granted.
-OpEd- BOGOTÁ — There is a curious new twist to a longstanding political phenomenon, and we see it popping up around the world. Provocation and outrageous behavior is switching sides. Crossing the line has been a part of culture since poets like Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine, with their disheveled hair and shabby clothes, used […]
Rural physician Julián Ramírez recounts the spectacle of desperate survivors streaming into a hospital in Mocoa, devastated by the deadly mudslide on April 1.
Brought on by relentless rain and an overflowing river, a devastating landslide over the weekend has left at least 250 dead in Mocoa, Colombia. The front-page headline Monday of La Opinión declares that the tragedy could have been predicted. Situated in the Andes mountains in southwestern Colombia, the region is particularly prone to natural disasters. […]
We have already been revealed, both our leaders and ourselves, by writers of the past.
Murderous paramilitary organizations that formed in the 1980s were supposedly dismantled. Elements, however, continue to live on through what the government now calls Organized Armed Groups, or GAO.
-OpEd- BOGOTÁ – We often confuse a phenomenon with its causes. We’re in the 21st century but we still believe that the problems we face are due to political personalities, whether it’s Donald Trump in the U.S., the combative former president Álvaro Uribe here in Colombia or Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela and so many others […]
Repatriating people like Ismael Arciniegas, a Colombian executed in China for drug smuggling, could create a perverse incentive.
Beyond the Filippino leader’s inciting vigilante killings of drug dealers, Colombian leaders who have long battled the narcotics trade might study his other ideas.
Bolivian president Evo Morales has been criticized for his supposed ‘cult of personality.’ But he is no Donald Trump.
Irrational anger is turning ordinary individuals into system wreckers when they are seduced and provoked by demagogues.
[dailymotion //www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x55f778 expand=1] Goodbye 2016: A Zapping Video Year In Review by Worldcrunch
-Analysis- BOGOTÁ — A majority of gay and lesbian students in Colombia feel unsafe in school and almost a quarter of them miss classes because they fear getting bullied, a survey by two non-profits found. Sixty-seven percent of LGBT secondary schoolchildren feel unsafe at school, according to the poll by advocacy groups Colombia Diversa and […]
BOGOTA — Freeze! The Mannequin Challenge, the latest internet craze where groups of people make a video of themselves frozen in time, has an unlikely new participant: the Colombian rebel army FARC. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which has spent much of the past half-century waging a bloody insurgency and holding hostages for […]
-Analysis- In his half-century as leader of Cuba, Fidel Castro oversaw grand changes on the island. In the wake of his death, new changes may — or may not — be on their way under the helm of the late leader’s brother, President Raul Castro. Nowhere is the future more uncertain on the island nation […]
A town in southwestern Colombia is trying to clamp down on catcalling — “piropos’ (compliments) as they’re known locally — that is all too common in a country long plagued by machismo. In a rare public move against sexist behavior, the mayor’s office in Timbío, in the department of Cauca, recently issued a “non-binding” decree […]
People should not dismiss the meaning of a spate of shocking electoral results, for the world may be entering a period of democratic decline.
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On This Day – November 13
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIIAm5rbHpM expand=1]
-OpEd- BOGOTÁ — The Democratic Center, a right-wing political party led by Colombia’s former president Álvaro Uribe Vélez, was vehemently opposed to the peace deal with the country’s largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The accord to end nearly a half-century of conflict, which was ultimately rejected in the surprise […]
For famed Colombian artist Doris Salcedo, sewing a vast sheet with the names of victims of the country’s civil conflict is a sprawling but humble attempt at some form of salvation.
Momentous national referendums in Colombia and Britain have shown how dangerous it can be to put complicated decisions in the hands of a fickle populous.
The great paradox of our time is that we’ve never had access to so much information, and yet have never been so badly informed.
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Santos, An Awkward Nobel Peace Prize
The committee that awards the Nobel Peace Prize does not approach its task the way the Academy assigns the Oscars. The Nobel is not a trophy to crown an achievement as much as a message … or more precisely, a “shot in the arm.” The Nobel committee has long made it clear that they choose […]
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From Brexit To Bogota, What’s Next?
The first instinct is to make the connection. During the referendum in the UK back in June, the cooler heads, the let’s-try-to-work-together folk, the conventionally wise were supposed to win. But, in the end, the people advocating for Britain to “Remain” in the European Union lost. And those calling for Britain’s exit, or “Brexit,” prevailed. […]
-OpEd- BOGOTÁ — Colombians have now had their say, voting Sunday to reject the peace deal signed between the government of President Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), intended to end more than 50 years of fighting in the country. The No vote triumphed against all odds it seems, against […]
-OpEd- BOGOTÁ — On Sunday, Colombians will decide whether to ratify a peace deal that makes the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, lay down their arms. But if that happens, what will the future of FARC look like? Will it become a socialist party like the one that has driven Venezuela into an […]
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Colombia, Now To The People
SPOTLIGHT: COLOMBIA, NOW TO THE PEOPLE When Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos signed an agreement yesterday with top rebel FARC commander Rodrigo “Timochenko” Londoño, the pair used pens made from the casings of bullets. It was a powerful piece of symbolism as the last major war in the Americas appeared to draw to a close. […]
Decades of war between FARC guerrillas and the government seem to have made aggression a widespread social trait in Colombia that’s reflected in cases of domestic violence, bullying at school and a tendency to talk tough. The peace deal could help
El Tiempo — Sept. 26, 2016 “Peace after 267,162 dead,” declares the stark headline on the front page of newspaper El Tiempo on Monday as Colombia gets ready for a historic accord between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The Latin American country has seen war for 52 years in a […]
More and more coffee growers are going organic in Colombia. A boost for the environment, the trend is also improving lives, as producers in the coastal Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta can attest.
Decades of civil war have ravaged Colombia’s environment and undermined opportunities at oil exploration. Now with peace looming, big and small firms alike are ready to pursue the government’s “sustainable” energy plan.