Colombia - Essential Social Issues Part 1

Move to read about Colombia?If you observe commercials on some of the local TV channels, tune in to sports radio, begin to see the Travel & Living funnel locations on cable TV, you can certainly get prepared to go to Colombia despite its well-deserved reputation for violence, kidnapping, and drug trafficking. This is not to mention the on-going civil war raging between Colombia's government, Para-military forces like the AUC and Guerilla military forces like the FARC. Let us not your investment murder and crime rates.Nonetheless, after considering the post "20 Reasons Not to Maneuver to Dubai" in a ELT community on the web, I thought I'd have a picture at a similarly-themed post working with various facets of Colombia. Now do not misunderstand me, I've lived in Colombia for the past 12 years as a foreign language with my Colombian wife teaching English. I pay taxes, medical insurance and retirement through the Colombian systems. I still live here and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, nonetheless it is exactly this understanding bred from a long time living and working here that empower me to write about this country.Here's the first five of my 20-item list and short commentary:1. In several places there are NO or very few government services.Streets are pot-hole-riddled and what there are of streets are usually a mess, but drivable. All through peak times of vacation, huge traffic jams, multiple setbacks and over-burdened transportation systems and services are common place.2. The environment, while warm in many areas, can differ to extremes.Summer months from June through August can be cruelly hot in some areas and unseasonably great in others. You will need a sweater or jacket in Bogota and air-conditioning in Cali, Cartagena and other cities.3. There is the constant threat of earthquakes.Most of Colombia from the Pacific coast to the central highlands and past has experienced disastrous earthquakes that may arise during any time of the afternoon or night. I have lived through serious early morning tremors that cracked walls and tumbled ceilings to nighttime quakes the made properties uninhabitable and caused the seemingly super-natural spark of quake lights to look round the town of Cali.4. There's the constant risk of volcanic eruptions.Several of Colombia's many volcanoes have been in active or semi-active position. The most news-worthy of these being Galeras Volcano, found beside the town of Pasto inhabited by a lot more than 400,000 people, in the southern element of the state. Alerts and evacuation "threats" are becoming so widespread that people seldom pay them any attention until ash and gas spew forth from the summit. Colombia's toughest devastation was the exploitation of Armero, an entire city of more than 23,000 residents almost all killed in a single night - buried under a eruption-caused mudslide more than forty feet deep. Other Colombian volcanoes include snow-capped Nevada Ruiz, also with current eruptions, and Purace.5. You can find sometimes regular failures of water or power services.We have attended storing and gathering rain water. This way, once the water supply "fails" or fades for any purpose, we still possess some water available for cooking, bathing, washing and cleanup. Sometimes the failures are released. Sometimes they're not - catching the unwary unprepared. These "waterless" intervals may continue for hours or days - sometimes you just never know.In part two of this multiple-part sequence, we'll continue to study what personally I think will be the 20 most critical difficulties with Colombia that keep it a "third world" nation. Your views, remarks and feedback are accepted. See you next installment.