…Only South Americans?
The Telegraph - Colombia shows South Americans how to vote
Many South Americans feel, with justice, that the organs of the state are abused by one clique or another for private gain. Their cynicism is caused, in other words, not by economic deregulation, but by its precise opposite: excessive state power.
A government that owns large industries and has many vehicles for patronage will almost by definition be more corrupt than a slimmed-down state of the kind that Mr Uribe is building in Colombia. And sleazy governments tend to be anti-American for the simple reason that blaming outsiders is the first resort of any administration that wishes to distract attention from its own peccadilloes.
Why can’t they show us how to vote too?!
Yet, as Mr Uribe has shown, it is possible to break the cycle. It is possible to safeguard property rights, create security of ownership, attract investment and, thus, boost growth. Doing these things is a better guarantee of popularity than any amount of revolutionary rhetoric.
I hear Bogotá is lovely.
May 30th, 2006 at 3:28 pm
Anytime you see organs and government in the same sentence it’s time to take cover, laugh and burrow.
May 30th, 2006 at 9:51 pm
Organs of Government: though only those of the digestive system actually function.
The main local paper in Colombia The Spectator (www.elespectador.com) is an excellent free market, (classical) Liberal publication (Spanish only, though). I had not checked up on it for a while, so the re-election of Uribe was (excellent) news to me.
Any country that produces a Shakira is worth checking out. The men are handsome also (eg. Juan Pablo Montoya the F1 driver) - the Spanish/native mix worked well.
May 30th, 2006 at 10:32 pm
My name is Inigo Montoya…
I had no idea Shakira was Colombian. But then, I’ve never been overwhelmed by her.
Do you speak Spanish?
May 30th, 2006 at 10:48 pm
Por supuesto, sé hablar español. Y tú, una mujer de Mexifornia ?no lo hablas? !Qué lástima!
May 30th, 2006 at 11:01 pm
Well aren’t I impressed. I had no idea.
May 31st, 2006 at 2:15 am
Shakira’s father is Lebanese (but living in Colombia), mother Colombian. There is a large Lebanese population in Colombia for some reason.
May 31st, 2006 at 4:21 am
Probably more to do with events in Lebanon than Colombia, one imagines.
May 31st, 2006 at 9:08 am
That is so bizarre… Lebanese? How long has this whole drugs “insurgency” been going on? Cuz, lovely though it might be, Colombia doesn’t exactly sound like the sort of place one wants to relocate too, especially if one is relocating because one already might have a statistical probability of getting oneself blowed up. Then there’s the volcanoes.
May 31st, 2006 at 11:50 am
I spent a grad-school summer at Notre Dame through the Pan American Institute for the Political Sciences. A few of us gringos shared classes with about 40 Colombians (and a sprinkling of Mexicans,Spaniards, Italians). Most fun summer of my life. They were serious students, but also notable for taking no coaxing whatsoever to break into the merengue (on a weekend outing to the beach, we stopped to let one car gas up, and everyone else spilled out to dance in the lot while we were waiting). Their national motto could be: “First, we must dance.”
Also, several of my lasting friendships from that summer were with people who live in Medellín. My friends are not at all sensitive to teasing about drug cartels, but you’d better not mess with Juan Valdez. They take their coffee very seriously.
May 31st, 2006 at 1:54 pm
Haha!
Ah, the merengue… How I love it…
June 1st, 2006 at 12:40 pm
I no sooner wrote that you’d better not mess with Juan Valdez when I heard a report that they’re searching for an actor to replace the guy who’s always played him.
June 1st, 2006 at 8:06 pm
I heard that too! Or, specifically, I wrote that last comment, went into the other room to watch Brit Hume (at 6, 3) and saw on the crawl that Juan Valdez had retired after 37 years and that they would be searching for a replacement soon. I almost ran in here to provide an update but then was rather uncertain to what degree of sorrowfully respectful I should aim for.
June 2nd, 2006 at 5:52 am
I thought Juan Valdez was a Cuban.
June 2nd, 2006 at 9:38 am
Ooh better lay low.
June 2nd, 2006 at 2:11 pm
It’s “rich Colombian coffee.” Just doesn’t sound right with “Cuban.”
June 2nd, 2006 at 2:54 pm
As much as I love and respect Sr Valdez, I can’t drink Colombian coffee. It makes me feel like someone’s sitting on my chest. Which, according to PSAs from the early nineties, is a bad thing.