a little bit o' politics

after a month almost entirely cut off from all news sources, i'm racing to catch up.  there were no papers, internet, phones, TVs, or radios at the convent, so the extent of my news knowledge comes from a handful of headlines my mom texted me: 

"Violence in Abyei, Sudan--30 killed."

"Tunisia's government fell yesterday"

"Mass protests in Egypt"

my initial insightful analysis was: WTF, north africa?

it feels so strange to be here, on the other side of the world.  almost literally.  if my school could afford a world map, and if i folded it in half, the regions might just touch.  but here i feel so very out of touch.  

this is a troubling trend, that places i go tend to wind up breaking into massive political unrest not long after i leave--kampala, cairo, and even the border towns in mexico where i used to volunteer are now seeing their fair share of violence and instability.  i guess that's partly because the places i choose to go tend to be somewhat politically unstable to begin with.  but i sure hope this trend doesn't continue, and i don't leave disaster in my wake when i head home from colombia.

it was so strange to sit in my dorm last year, in the throes of thesis writing, glued to the bbc site, watching the riots unfold in kampala.  "hey, i remember that shoe store!" i thought as i watched.  "we used to pass it on the way to that great coffee shop and... oh god someone just set fire to a car in front of it.  and military police are chasing him away... and hey, my buddy used to live in that suburb they're talking about and... and are those bullet holes in the front doors there?..."  

it's the same with cairo.  as i watch the al-jazeera coverage, the choppy internet hangs up frequently, giving me plenty of opportunity to pause for reflection.  "i remember walking across that bridge, with my buddies from the hostel on our way to a bar, and now you can't even see across it for all the smoke and tear gas.  and i saw an awesome dance performance in that building over there... and oh god now there's blood splattered on the pavement outside and people collapsed by the side of the road."

there's been a good deal of protesting in bogotá recently, too.  nothing near as severe as north africa, but some people say it was inspired by the recent global wave of protests.  i think that might be a bit of a joke, though.  colombians protest, strike, and demonstrate a lot in general.  unions are incredibly strong here, which is one of the problems with the education system--the teacher's union is so strong that it's pretty much impossible to fire a teacher, no matter how terrible (s)he is.  there was a political cartoon in the paper the other day--i wish i could find it online.  anyway, the gist of it was that two people were talking about current events:
A: Venezuela should take a leaf out of Egypt's book.
B: What do you mean?
A: After Chávez has been in power 30 years, they should protest his dictatorial rule, too.

there was a riot about a week ago here in bogotá, in which angry protesters attacked a transmilenio (bogotá "subway"/bus network) station, about 2 km. north of where i live.  no one was killed, but several people were injured and they pretty much destroyed the station.  i'm not entirely sure what the asks were, but they were protesting some policies of the national customs and tax agency.  the rioters were apparently youth, involved in "buying and selling;" my host mami says there's some speculation that exactly what they were involved in buying and selling wasn't strictly legal. 

now there are mass protests in the streets again, this time from the cargo industry.  the truckers have been on strike for months, and in the past two weeks have taken to the streets across the country.  again, i'm no expert on their asks, but they're protesting government taxes on transit and shipping, and are supposedly trying to hit hard at the coffee export sector, which will strike the biggest blow to the economy.  they've set up roadblocks throughout the city.

most of the protest activity has been centered around the avenida de las americas, a good 5km. north of me.  once again, i'm saved by the fact that i live in an even sketchier part of the city than where all this crazy is going down!  i keep getting emails from the state department warning me to steer clear of those areas, as things could get violent.  i kind of doubt they will, though.  i think the government is gonna have to cave; they can't remove the protesters by force, it just won't work.  if they try things could get ugly, and i don't think santos wants that on his newly-reign-holding hands.

nevertheless, we decided to postpone our weekly gringo hang-out until the protests are over--it's safer and honestly transport is rough enough in the city without giant truck roadblocks.  my friend lynn lives right by one of the main intersections where they're protesting and said that it's kind of drawn the area to a halt.  there are huge crowds of people in the intersection day and night--protesters and onlookers and people trying to find a way through.  some people have been mugged in the melee, but that's not so much an indication of political violence as opportunistic crime; muggings are all too common here.  there was a confrontation between a group of protesters and the police recently--when the truckers refused to clear the street, the police fired tear gas at the crowd, and the protesters responded by throwing rocks back at them.

the schools in the area have kind of drawn to a halt, too.  lynn is able to walk to school to teach her classes, but most of her students aren't--in each class of 40 odd students, 6 or so will show up, the rest simply can't get there.

now i'm all for people expressing their political beliefs, exercising their right to assemble and make their voices herd.  i've been in, and organized, a number of protests myself.  but i'm not such a fan of the way these folks are going about it.  it seems... a little obnoxious to me.  peaceful protests, great.  violent protests, not so great.  demonstrations that clearly express your position, great.  even strikes, to show the importance of your work and the need to respect your demands, great.  but barricading public roads, preventing kids from going to school, and in general taking your anger at the government out against the common people, not so great at all.