A Strange Spot to Hula Hoop

This young woman chose a strange spot to hula hoop, underneath a massive machine working on the bridge replacement on Seventh Ave. Her escapade was evidently part of a school project, as a friend was videotaping her.

In contrast to the circling hula hoop, work is actually progressing on the way-behind-schedule and far-over-budget bridge work, part of a project to extend TransMilenio to the airport. The new bridge is supposed to be operational in a few weeks. But even when TransMilenio begins running on 26th St., it will use only two stations, because the rest either have construction problems or have been vandalized during the long wait to be put into operation. And, several more stations must still be built to reach the airport. Conflicts between different levels of government have delayed that work, which is supposed to start before the end of this year.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Day of the Music

Folia, who play classical music from the 18th-century, perform in front of the Teatro Colon.  

Today was officially Music Day in Bogotá, with groups performing in different places. Folia, who play centuries-old baroque classical music, played some beautiful numbers in the entrance to the recently-renovated Teatro Colon on Tenth St. in La Candelaria.



A group of children from from an arts foundation Philadelphia, USA and a town in Cundinamarca doing a bike ride with Bogota Bike Tours stopped to listen. Some of the kids, I'm afraid, wanted the orchestra to switch to hip hop or reggaeton.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Grafiteros Move Off the Walls and Onto Paper

Bogotá's colorful and outspoken graffiti scene has moved from walls to paper and cyberspace, with a book and website displaying the work of four of the city's most talented and productive grafiteros: Toxicomano, Guache, Lesivo and DJLU. 

The book, called Calle Esos Ojos, is available at the Casa Ensamble Theatre, in Teusaquillo, when not sold out. Ask for Fraudio. The graffiti artists' excellent website, strangely, has an English name: www.bogotastreetart.com

Toxicomano paints a wall beside Bogotá's Planetarium. 

Happy fish off of La Septima. 

A portrait of Jose, the rapper of La Candelaria, on cement and on paper. 

A common figure around Bogotá, thanks to Toxicomano. 

'Now I can see,' by Toxicomano. 

A bullfighter backdropped by the Bogotá city center.

A mural made by the four street artists inside La Casa Ensamble. 

Another mural made by the four street artists inside La Casa Ensamble. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours, which offers Graffiti Tours.

A New Beginning for the Bullfighting Stadium?

No bull here: Playing in the stadium's sand. 

Today, Bogotá's Institute of Sports and Recreation (the IDRD) put on a cultural/artistic festival in the Plaza de Toros, which, if Mayor Petro has his way, will host no more toros. Certainly, the mimes, dancing, art and sandboxes provided a very different atmosphere from the mauling and killing of animals.

Still, bullfighting and other activities aren't mutually exclusive. In normal years, the bullfighting season lasts only a month and a half, and it's a real pity that the handsome plaza sits empty for most of the rest of the year.

Mimes play tug-of-war.

An Afro-Colombian dance troupe did its thing. 

No protesters today. A bored line of riot police outside. 

Photographing a mime. 

The sign denounces mistreatment of animals. 

Writing notes on a wishing tree. Many of the messages called for an end to bullfighting. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Gen. Santoyo, Part of a Trend

United States charges of drug trafficking and collaboration with outlaw groups against (retired) Gen. Mauricio Santoyo - once a high police official and even chief of security for Pres. Alvaro Uribe - have rocked Colombia.

But perhaps they shouldn't be such a surprise.

After all, drug money has corrupted governments all over the world. 

- In 2008, Mexico's drug czar Noe Ramirez was arrested on charges of taking bribes from drug cartels, the highest ranked of a long series of Mexican corruption cases.

- U.S. authorities have also charged high Venezuelan government officials with collaborating with drug cartels, accusations repeated by an ex-judge of Venezuela's Supreme Court. Similar accusations have been made against high Dominican Republic government officials. More generally, U.S. government reports charge that many governments in Central America and the Caribbean are rife with drug corruption. 

- Of course, corruption isn't limited to the developing world. U.S. police and border agencies at many levels have been corrupted by an inundation of drug cash, which can make a low-level official's salary look like pocket change. However, in the U.S. corruption hasn't reached the levels of some Latin American nations, where government agencies cease functioning.

Corruption is a less-apparent impact of the War on Drugs. It debilitates societies, destroys government function, destroys citizens' confidence in government, turns law enforcers into criminals' allies.

If drugs were legalized, all this money which now corrodes society (not to mention murdering and terrorizing) could be used to pay taxes and employees, strengthening society's institutions.


Uruguayans are evidently thinking about this, which is why Uruguay's government has plans to market marijuana itself. I'm not sure why that sounds radical, since for many years U.S. states ran the whiskey business thru government-owned stores.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Skater Power!

Skater power! A group of young skateboarders rallied on Plaza Bolivar today demanding a skate park in USME, a poor area in South Bogotá. Bogotá has a dynamic skater culture.

After the rally, several went skateboarding on this graffitied, mostly vacant government building on Seventh Ave. 

Oops!

An Important-Looking Man in a suit showed up and told the skaters to go away. 

Adios Amigos!

Leaping on Plaza Las Nieves.

Skater love. 

Related Post: World Skateboarding Day

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Mr. Freedom of Information is Going WHERE???

Assange: Persecuted or persecutor?

The news that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is seeking political refuge in Ecuador is the last piece of evidence of Assange's moral emptiness.

Assange may have done the world a real service with Wikileaks by revealing wartime abuses and financial amorality. But it always seemed evident to me that the man who wanted all 'information to be free' was happy to free information only as long as it satisfied his worldview and didn't inconvenience him. Remember, after all, how heatedly Assange complained when embarrassing facts about the Swedish charges of sexual abuse against him were leaked.

And the government data he posted online seemed to be overwhelmingly about the U.S. government and corporations. But what about embarrassing data about authoritarian governments in Asia and the Middle East?

Odd couple: Assange and Ecuadorean
President and media repressor Rafael Correa.

Assange's claims that the court case against him was persecution also rang hollow. Assange was accused of rape and other sexual crimes by two Swedish women who had been his supporters and intimate friends. That doesn't sound like a Washington-backed conspiracy. And Sweden isn't known particularly as  a corrupt nation or a United States puppet. Why doesn't Assange go to Sweden and face the sort of open, public trial which he would certainly demand for people whose crimes Wikileaks revealed.

But Assange's decision to seek refuge in Ecuador is more telling. Ecuador's president Rafael Correa has been widely criticized by media and human rights organizations for using legal mechansims to repress criticism of his government.

When a free speech defender seeks protection from a free speech repressor, what does that tell us about him?

Once Assange gets comfortable in Ecuador, expect Wikileaks to get active again, now backed by Correa's oil money and filled with anti-U.S. revelations.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours