The Students March

'Colombia on a war footing for education with dignity and liberty.'

Today, thousands of students - mostly from public universities - marched for more funding for public education.

A pair of indigenous women.

Racing down Carrera Septima.

Run, run, run!

'Education equals peace'.

'There are no virgins in this march, because the government screws us every day.'

'More money for education, less for the war.'

The communist flag, of course.

'Education is a right, not a privilege.'

Don't miss a photograph.

Sena students accuse their managers of corruption.

Encapuchados, the 'hooded ones.'

Che Guevara, naturally.

Indigenous activists block Carrera Septima.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Cheating Season

With studies heating up in Bogotá's universities, the cheating industry is also booming.

Whether you need a thesis done, or just an essay, rhese folks will do it for you. And they make no bones about cheating: Our company 'will replace the student,' promises one flyer.

'Want to escape that pressure?'

If I had an internet place or a photocopy shop near a university, which depended on university students, I think I'd feel ashamed and embarrassed to allow one of these ads in my business. After all, I'm damaging and making worthless the educational industry upon which I depend. It makes me wonder why the universities don't pressure to have these things removed, altho if they did most interested students would likely find the same services on the Internet, anyway. (Or, maybe the universities like these services: They make their students seem smarter.)

But couldn't the universities take other, more aggressive measures, such as employing a confederate to carry out a sting operation. I suppose the usefulness of that would depend on whether or not ghostwriting students' papers is prohbited. Cheating, certainly, is against university rules. But does helping students cheat violate those rules?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Non-P.C. Forum

The Freedom Forum was held in the old Jockey Club
building off of Santander Plaza in La Candelaria.

When it comes to youth protest, usually the targets are pretty clear: The U.S. government, the World Bank, big business, Israel, etc. etc.

And there's plenty there to protest about, particularly with the current administration in Washington. But there's plenty to protest against in other places. So, it's refreshing to see young people taking on those other targets.

And some of those young people got their say this week at the College Freedom Forum, hosted this year by Bogotá's Rosario University. They included Abdalaziz Alhamza, a young Syrian, who talked about the horrors ISIS is committing against his country's people; Kimberley Motley, a U.S. citizen who is a pioneering defense attorney in Afghanistan, where just being a woman is a challenge, much less a foreigner who is of Korean and African descent; Cuban freedom activist Kimberley Motley; Mexican anti-drug prohibition activist Lisa Sánchez; and Ukranian anti-corruption activist Yulia Marushevska.

Significantly, the participants, four of the five of whom are women, don't seem to belong to any single ideology. Instead, they fight against severe social problems and straight-out evil.

Of course, the College Freedom Forum, and its sister organization, the Oslo Freedom Forum, as well as their sponsor, the New York-based Human Rights Foundation have been linked to islamophobia for criticism of repressive governments in Moslem nations. The Rights Foundation "has been described by the Cuban state media as a CIA front, labeled “imperialist” by the Ecuadorean president, and declared “enemies of the state” by the Venezuelan propaganda machine" says the Huffington Post. But, sadly, many Moslem-majority nations do have repressive governments. And Cuba, Ecuador and Venezuela, which label themselves lefist 'revolutionaries,' have all committed serious violations of human rights.

For its part, the Rights Foundation says it promotes an open society and opposes authoritarianism. It's hard to argue with those values.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Does Being Pilo Pay Off For Colombia?

Scholarship students from the Ser Pilo Paga.

Ser Pilo Paga, the government program which gives scholarships to Colombia's best universities to top students from poor families, is paying off for the country.

That's according to Los Andes University economics professor Fabio Sánchez, whose study was financed by the National Planning Department. Sánchez reported that before the Pilo Paga program, only 28% of students who scored in the top 10% in the Saber 11 test went on to get a university education, and only 7% got into the top, or 'accredited', universities.

Those are mind boggling numbers. Looked at in reverse, they mean that 72% of top-scoring students didn't go on to university at all, and 93% of top-scoring students don't make it into top universities.

You can bet that the underlying dynamic there is economic. The talented students who don't get into

But who does it pay most?

universities lack either the money or connections to do so, while many low-scoring but wealthy students undoubtedly do go on to study in good universities.

That means a huge amount of wasted talent, and is probably a big reason why poverty here is so stubborn and innovation rates low.

In fact, another recent study, by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), criticized Colombia's huge gap between poor and wealthy, and said that the nation's economic growth has benefited the poor little.

Better education for students from poor families could help change that, and Sánchez's study found that Pilo Paga helped increase access to higher education for those 10% of top-scoring students from 28% to 60%, and that the percentage entering those top 'accredited' universities skyrocketed from 7% to 53%.

The program has thus increased the social variety of universities like Los Andes, whose students previously came overwhelmingly from wealthy families.

Los Andes universit:
Muy Pilo!

All of which are impressive numbers, if they're accurate.

However, there's a reason someone should double check Sánchez's results. Sánchez's employer, Los Andes university, happens to be a major beneficiary of the Pilos Paga program. According to a column by Pablo Correa & Tatiana Pardo Ibarra, an editor and a reporter for the El Espectador newspaper, respectively, Los Andes has been by far the biggest beneficiary of the Pilo Paga program - so much so that in 2015 its rector called it "the most public university in the country."

Today, an impressive 35% of Los Andes' incoming students are part of Pilo Paga. Yet,the university raised its tuition by 5.3%, 6.9% and 9.6% over the last three years. As a result, Los Andes receives far more Pilos Paga money, even tho other universities such as La Javeriana and La Salle enroll more students from the program.

Others question whether the government should be using public funds to subsidize some of the country's most elite institutions while public universities suffer severe deficiencies. (Los Andes does differ from other private universities in that it has no owners, and its profits are all supposed to be reinvested in the university.)

Pilo Paga has provided scholarships for 31,000 students at a cost of a half trillion pesos. Might it have been better to have instead invested that money in the struggling public universities, which enroll primarily students from poorer families?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Whose Green Space Is This?

Green soon gone? A park in peril.

For as long as I've known the area, neighbors as well as students have used this green space at the upper end of Jimenez Ave. alongside the Universidad de los Andes to walk their dogs, play football, etc.

A doggie conversation in the park.

However, I recently learned, from a university employee and neighbors, that Los Andes plans to replace the park with a mostly cement plaza as part of their new building project, which however does include lots of new green space inside the university.

I have no idea who owns or administers this space, but it is clear that, over the years, residents have come to depend on it as their neighborhood park. There isn't much other useful green space nearby, of course. The area in front of the Quinta de Bolivar is hilly and has a reputation for muggings. The green patches in the Plaza del Periodista are roamed by drug pushers, which scares others away.

The university plans to replace the
police bunker with a new building.

For the university to unilaterally remove the grassy areas, without public consultation, seems abusive and high-handed, and perhaps even illegal.

This is not the only damaging project being carried out by a university in La Candelaria. On the hills above the neighborhood, the Externado University is constructing two huge towers, turning the green hillsides into cement walls.

One would have hoped that leading universities, which teach about sustainable development, preserving the environment and improving quality of life, would apply those values to their own actions. One would hope.

Lots of cement, little green, in the university's vision. (Photo: Facebook)

An overhead view. (Photo: Facebook)

These new apartment towers nearby will soon fill with students - who will also want green space.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Bogotá's British Moment

Bogotá's not going to become a British colony, or change its official language to English. But a flurry of events have made this a somewhat British moment for Colombia's capital.

Thanks Avianca. Recently, Avianca started non-stop flights between Bogotá and London. A long haul.

Business is Great. The UK government is marketing the country as a gateway to Europe for Colombian businesses.

The UK set up a website promoting trade between the two countries.

And, not long ago, Britain's education ministry opened an office in Colombia to recruit students for UK universities.

Despite the distance between them, Colombia and Britain's ties go way back. The British sent a British Legion to fight against Spain alongside Simon Bolivar's armies. (There is still a British Cemetery in Bogotá, beside the Central Cemetery.) Later, British recognition of the newly independent states was crucial in their being recognized by other nations.

Colombia and Britain have warm relations today in part because of geopolitical and geographical coincidence. London argues that history and population trump geography in its claims to the Falkland Islands, which are located off of the coast of Argentina, which also claims the islands and calls them the Malvinas. Using somewhat similar historical arguments, Colombia claims the San Andres archipelago, off of the coast of Nicaragua, which has a rival claim to the islands.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A New Life for the Old Slaughterhouse II

The front of Bogotá's old slaughterhouse, soon to be a library.

After many years of abandonment, Bogotá's old slaughterhouse, on Carrera 13 and Carrera 31, has found a new calling: It's to be the Universidad Distrital's new library and cultural center.

Opened in 1926 and shut in 1978 because of its unsanitary conditions, it latered housed people displaced by the bulldozing of the old Cartucho neighborhood. The restoration cost 28 billion pesos and lasted about two years.

Sadly, the slaughterhouse's closing didn't end the slaughtering of animals for Bogotanos' diets.

See pictures here and an article here. And pre-restoration photos here.

Hopefully, the new library will revitalize the run-down neighborhood. 

I suppose that this structure behind the slaughterhouse building was used to observe the doomed animals. Now, it's to be an observatory for the stars, instead. 

Plaza de Ferias. Paradoxically, the animals on the plaque above appear very tranquil.

The old chimney still rises above the building.

Two photos of the slaughterhouse lot pre-renovation:

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours