Fantasy Football Rankings?

Can coach Jose Pekerman, an Argentinian,
bring back Colombia's glory days?

Barring collapse, Colombia will soon qualify for a direct spot in next year's Football World Cup - for the first time since 1998.

Colombia might just possibly be entering into another period of football glory, similar but healthier than the cocaine cartel-financed 1990s, when Colombia was one of the sport's giants. As a populous, soccer-crazy nation, Colombia has every right to rival Italy, Spain and Argentina.

But is Colombia there already? I don't think so, despite the national team's number five place in the FIFA's world rankings.

Does anybody really believe that Colombia is better than soccer monster Brazil, which has won five

Can it really be? FIFA ranks
 Colombia above Brazil!

world cups? Or perennial contender Netherlands? What about the United States, which looks to qualify easily this year? And is Colombia really better than every single African national team? After all, this is a team which just a few weeks ago lost to laggard Venezuela.

Colombians should be proud of their team's imminent qualifying (but without forgetting that education, health care, peace, child nutrition and many other things are more important than sports), but without being overconfident. One day, perhaps, Colombia will return to world football royalty.

We'll know a bit more after tomorrow's match against Chile in Barranquilla.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

What do the Madres Comunitarias Want?

Madres Comunitarias protesting today on the steps of Congress on Plaza Bolivar. 

 The Madres Comunitarias, women who take care of neighborhood children in their homes, have been protesting for months. But, during the last several days, many have gone on strike, and today groups of madres occupied churches across the country.

Nationwide, there are almost 80,000 Madres Comunitarias, who are employees of the ICBF, the Colombian Institute for Famly Wellbeing. They turn their homes into neighborhood day cares, generally in poor areas. But they complain that their pay is poor, while their responsibilities are great, that their jobs are informal and that they do not receive pensions, even after decades of work.

Blowing the horn for Madres' rights.

Santander is pesent!

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Is This Really Still October?

A Christmas tree rises on Carrera Septima, near the Centro Internacional.

It makes it hard to believe we're still in early October when Christmas trees and decorations are already going up around the city. City officials explain, I understand, that Bogotá contains so many parks and plazas that they have to start way early in order to have the city decorated with Christmas cheer by early December. 

It's an entirely separate question, of course, whether the government of this supposedly secular nation should be in the  Christmas business at all.

Christmas decorations in the Parque de la Independencia.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Are Animals People Too?

'Break the chains of animal slavery.' I thot that by definition 'slavery' referred to people. 

Animal rights activists, some quite radical, staged yet another march today from La Plaza de Toros to Plaza Bolivar. Activists deserve our admiration for caring and getting off of their butts and speaking out.

However...my attention's always grabbed by the way these people generally attack bullfighting - even tho Bogotá's mayor has banned it here - while ignoring much greater cruelties such as cockfighting and factory farming, which continue virtually without criticism. 

Some of the marchers also called for 'animal equality' - yet, I saw only people walking leashed dogs, but not the reverse. While we're on the subject, how can I make myself equal to my goldfish?

Marching for animal equality - but they don't say equal to whom.

A bloody bull.

A bull's head rides above the crowd.

People walk their dogs on leashes. But, if animals are equal to people, shouldn't the dogs be walking the humans?

'Free the captain.' Does this refer to the Greenpeace activists arrested the other day by Russia?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Is Bogota a Smart City?

Bogotá tomorrow? A futuristic urban vision at the Smart Cities Conference.

The Smart Cities Conference in Corferias ended yesterday with talks about water management.

But Smart Cities are still, with isolated exceptions, a fantasy. And Bogotá is not one of those exceptions. A decade ago, the city was seen as a pioneer, with its bike lane network and TransMilenio express bus system. Today, TransMilenio is in a perpetual crisis, many bike lanes are neglected, and the city has not adopted new methods for managing waste, traffic, energy and other urban issues.

A smart city has intelligent traffic lights which give priority to mass transit. (Not in Bogotá.) A smart city has a flexible electricity grid, which charges different rates depending on demand. (Not Bogotá.) A smart city has permeable street and other surfaces to let rainwater sink into the soil instead of filling waterways with pollutants. (But not Bogotá.)

For its part, the Smart Cities Conference exhibited some cutting edge concepts which aren't likely to be adopted here soon. And, lamentably, for an event supposed to protect the environment, many exhibitors seemed to believe that the best route to reducing one's impact on the world is thru more consumerism.

Samsung natural gas-powered washer and dryer on display. I asked the young woman what the most energy efficient method was for drying clothing. 'With natural gas,' she replied. I guess she's never heard of a technology called 'the clothesline'.

An electric car on display. Unfortunately, most of the taxi drivers who were recently issued electric cars quickly returned them. Meanwhile, more than 100,000 conventional, polluting, traffic congesting private cars enter Bogotá every year.

A taxi blocks a TransMilenio bus in central Bogotá. Smart cities enforce laws against stopping in intersections and have systems to give priority to mass transit. 

A display shows the environmental and economic benefits of natural gas driven vehicles. Unfortunately, the Colombian government recently gave in to public pressure to cut gasoline prices.

Collecting huge sacks of trash in front of a McDonald's in downtown Bogotá. A smart city would impose economic penalties on big trash porducers.  

Trash overflows from a bin labeled 'Environmental Management System.' Smart cities have banned or taxed packaging such as plastic bags and styrofoam, but Bogotá has not.  

WOMA, a Medellin design company, invented this system for bus stops in which passengers are supposed to pedal while waiting. But if you're willing to sit and pedal, then why not ride a bike there in the first place?

Jane Martin, an architect from San Francisco, California, described a program in which residents can break thru sidewalks and parking lots and plant urban gardens or ornamental plants. The policy, called Plant SF, not only adds green spaces, but also makes the ground permeable, allows rainwater to enter the soil, reducing flooding and pollution.

A San Francisco sidewalk transformed by urban planters.

A photo Jane Martin took in La Candelaria during a recent rainstorm, when waters backed up sewage into the streets.

The interior of Corferias. Why didn't they build it with transparent roof panels to let in sunlight and cut the electricity bill. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Uribe's Unlikely Comeback

Alvaro Uribe: Once and future king?

Ex-Pres. Alvaro Uribe is being investigated for paramilitarism by courts in both Bogotá and Medellin. So is his brother Santiago.

Both security chiefs who served during Uribe's presidency are in prison, for drug trafficking and paramilitarism.

A paramilitary leader imprisoned in the U.S. testified recently that his group gave "total support and collaboration" to Uribe's presidential campaign.

A prominent member of Uribe's Centro Democratico political party - a stand-in for Uribe in the presidential elections - was arrested in late August, accused of paramilitary ties.

And Uribe is still fighting accusations from the huge wiretapping scandal during his presidency, which some compare to Watergate.

So, it's quite a time for Uribe to choose to make a political comeback.

But that's exactly what the ex-president aims to do with his Centro Democratico political party, with which he is running for Congress.

Jose Obdulio Gaviria, source of constroversy.

Uribe has, characteristically, not retreated an inch in his own defense. He published Twitter messages headlined: 'Why I am a Paramilitary.' The messages responded to seven specific accusations, including that he collaborated in the paramilitaries' birth when he was governor of Antioquia Department and that, also under his governorship, authorities stood aside when paramilitary death squads massacred 15 peasants in the town of El Aro in 1997. Uribe denies having collaborated at all with paramilitaries.

Uribe, however, attracted even more controversy by including his long-time advisor Jose Obdulio Gaviria in his party's list of congressional candidates. Gaviria, inconveniently, happens to be a cousin of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, who was shot down in Medellin in 1993. According to some reports, Gaviria helped his murderous, narcotrafficking cousin.

Uribe carries the flag for his
Centro Democratico party.

Despite everything - including his own efforts to sink his campaign - Uribe's comeback may succeed. Paradoxically, Uribe's favorability rating is still above 60% - far higher than that of Pres. Santos, whom Uribe chose as his succesor, but now vehemently opposes on most issues.

Were eight years enough of Uribe? Not quite.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Tragedy Takes the Man Who Made the Green Men

Olave with some of his figures in his workshop in 2011.

Olave's Banana Republic.

Painter and sculptor Jorge Olave, probably the La Candelaria neighborhood's best known artist, who was probably best known for the green figures on balconies and rooftops around the neighborhood, was found dead in his workshop this weekend, apparently the victim of a homicide.

Olave created much more than the green figures which made him locally famous - and generated more than a few bizarre theories about their origin and meaning. (They were created in the mid-'90s. modeled after local residents.) Some of his figures were created from plastic resins, others from recycled materials. He also painted impressionistic scenes of La Candelaria, as well as works which suggest Andy Warhol. His creations also included critical social commentary.

Along with his children, Olave also created a 'Graffiti Art Shop' below his workshop on Carrera 3, where they sold often satirical, sometimes Banksy-style prints.

An image from a 2011 exhibit by Olave
about neglect in La Candelaria.

Olave sold works internationally and did exhibitions in the United States and Europe. He was also a great promoter of neighborhood culture and always welcoming to strangers interested in visiting his workshop - even when they were not likely to buy anything.

When I learned of the murder, I sent a text message to Olave's daughter Laura lamenting her father's death and calling it "a great loss for La Candelaria."

"It's a great loss for the world," she wrote back.

Police are investigating Olave's killing, according to press reports.

An Olave figure by the La Candelaria neighborhood City Hall.

Olave in 2011 in his workshop's stairwell.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours