The End of the Trash Museum

Cyclists outside the Trash Museum back in the days of its full glory.

Bogotá's least popular anti-museum is no more.

The Trash Museum asks you what you're doing to the planet.

The Trash Museum, founded decades ago by the son of an upper-middle-class Bogotá family, became a regular stop on our bike tours, as well as a source of discord in its quiet Teusaquillo neighborhood.

As I heard the story, Antonio went to study in paris, where he rebelled against consumerism and wastefulness. He retunred hom, filled his family's house and yard with garbage. The museum became a landmark for bike tourists, but an eyesore for its neighbors, who at least once tried get to get Antonio evicted.

The house's front 'yard' was hidden behind a jumble of paper, plastic, boards and old shoes, decorated

'We are the trash culture!'

with signs denouncing mankind's wastefulness and announcing the planet's environmental collapse. 'How many of these objects came from your house?' asked one hand-scrawled sign. 'This is the way the world is,' announced another.

Passers-by contributed their own pieces of trash and even wrote their own statements. Sometimes, Antonio left his front door wide open, for anybody to enter and experience the museum's trash-packed interior, where he actually hosted friends.

The 'museum' even attained a degree of officialness. It was on Googe Maps and received an award from the Ministry of the Environment for environmental education.

"He was strong; a straight shooter." Antonio's brother gives us the sad news. But I suspect that the neighbors were relieved. 

A daring tourist ventures into the museum.

And Antonio certainly had his admirers, including his brother, who described him as "strong" and "a real straight shooter."

But, as much as I agree with Antonio's ideas - Bogotá's streets, sidewalks and waterways are strewn with paper and plastic from unnecessary packaging left over from mostly unnecessary products, which will either end up rotting in the Doña Juana landfill or float into the ocean, where animals will swallow it and choke to death.

A recognition from
the Ministry of
the Environment.

But Antonio, with his ways of antagonizing people, was not the best messenger. And I´m not sure whether his 'museum' was the product of principle, or just the rationalization of laziness. After all, Antonio spent his time indoors drinking himself to death.

Neither was he a particuarly pleasant person. Once when I stopped in front of the house with a bike
tour, Antonio Emerged from a amidst his trash and greeted us with an 'Heil Hitler.'

Later, we asked him what he did for a living.

"I'm the new Adolph Hitler," he told us.

About ten days ago, Antonio died, most probably from all of his drinking. His brother is clearing out his house and yard - a monumental task - and plans to rent out the property. Check it out soon on air BnB.

Hard at work clearing out the museum.

Ready to cart away the trash.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Colombia's Evolving Ways of Death

Check out these incredible graphics generated by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluations, which show how Colombians - and everybody else - dies, by gender, in different decades, and analyzed in different ways.

The graphs track Colombia's health and even political evolution. Notice how violent deaths (rose colored bars on top) drop, while chronic illnesses such as diabetes leap (thank cars and McDonald's and Co.). AIDS (bright yellow) barely registered in 1990, but has since exploded into a major cause of death and disability. On the other hand, diarrhea killed lots of kids two decades ago, but has been reined in, altho it's still deadly.

Their software allows you to see the loss-of-years charts by gender (males are much more violent), by different decades and different countries. Thanks to Caracas Chronicles for turning me on to these graphs. On their site, you can see how violence has exploded in Venezuela during the Chavista years.

The first graph below shows how many years of life Colombians lost to premature death and disability in 2010 (for those without a magnifying glass, the bottom line lists age groups and the vertical one on the left years of life lost):

In 2010, above, fewer Colombians died violently compared to earlier decades, but more were killed and disabled by diabetes (dark green) and cardiovascular (dark blue) diseases.

And in 2000:

In 2000, above, many Colombians died violently (rose bars on top) and you can see the 'war deaths' in red at the very top. AIDS has appeared.

And back in 1990:

Back in 1990 fewer Colombians died of chronic diseases like cardiovascular problems and diabetes, but diarrhea (yellow bars on left) was a huge killer of children. But diabetes (dark green) is a minor killer.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Dying on Bogotá's Streets - Quickly or Slowly

Passers-by discuss the death of a two-year-old girl, who fell to her death thru the manhole, then uncovered, Saturday afternoon. The man on the left said that whoever stole the sewer lid was guilty of accesory to murder. 

While her mother entered a plastic jewelry shop and her grandmother became distracted, two-year-old Michel Dayana chased after pigeons Saturday afternoon along the Eje Ambiental in central Bogotá.

But, shortly before, somebody had stolen the cover from a manhole. Tiny Michel fell inside. And, despite the heroic efforts of a street vendor, police and a soldier who all crawled down into the noxious underground tunnel, where the sewage-saturated San Francisco River flows below the avenue, the girl drowned and her body was recovered several blocks away.

Michel's tragedy is only the latest and most dramatic accident caused by the innumerable holes which make Bogotá's streets and sidewalks into obstacle courses in which a twisted ankle or knee is the lightest penalty for unwary.

A plastic 'non recyclable' manhole cover.

This particular tragedy can't really be blamed on the city government. Reportedly, the metal manhole cover had been stolen only a day or two before, one of thousands which disappear from Bogotá's streets every year. The thieves take the lids to nearby scrap dealers and sell them for perhaps 40,000 pesos. The city has purchased 'Non-Recyclable' plastic lids, which seem to last longer, but are still sometimes stolen and trafficked to other cities.

Stealing sewer lids is a crime. But those who pry the lids

A lidless utility box on
a Bogotá sidewalk.

off of the streets, likely at 3 a.m., are probably drug addicts who won't be dissuaded by any punishments. Others are professional thieves with trucks who never ever seem to get caught. A more effective response would be to punish the scrap dealers who buy these and other illegaly-obtained objects. Recently, thieves even stole much of the structure from a pedestrian bridge to sell.

Catching the scrap dealers wouldn't be difficult, either. Police could just send an apparent drug addict to the dealers carrying a sewer lid to sell. Nobody has a right to be offering a sewer lid. The scrap dealer who buys the lid would get fined and his business shut for a month.

While I discussed the tragedy with some some passers-by, a TransMilenio bus drove past, blasting us with toxic diesel smoke. Two young girls covered their faces and ran off. Michel's tragic death got a lot of attention, as it deserved. But what about the thousands of slow deaths caused every year by Bogotá's uncontrolled air pollution?

A TransMilenio bus drove up the avenue, spewing toxic smoke over us. 

The two girls fled the fumes. 

So did these, covering their mouths. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours