Being a Colombian

What does really mean being a Colombian?

Social researchers who wanted to define it, with difficulty have managed to only a few brushstrokes. The ordinary people can barely make a list of strengths and weaknesses. Even literary characters have tried to answer it, one created by Jorge Luis Borges, gave a very general answer, but somehow contains a profound truth: "Being Colombian is an act of faith."

Despite these difficulties, finally came to light the characteristics that define us. First, the Colombian is traditional and so his list of priorities. The priority of every Colombian is the family. Most take their decisions according to the values that gave the family, feel that parents should be loved and respected. Also it has been proved that for 90 percent of Colombians God is very important

It is an extremely difficult task to describe what specifically a Colombian is but in few words a Colombian always wants to make his or her parents proud, gives everything to others even if he or she doesn’t have it and even if they live in some kind of poverty the election of being happiness will always prevail.

In Colombia two politicians kidnapped by the FARC in Nariño are released.

A city councilman and a candidate for a mayor of a town in the Colombian department of Nariño, were finally free on Sunday after six days of being abducted by suspected guerrillas of the FARC.

On July 12, suspected guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia intercepted in waters of the Pacific, two boats and kidnapped 20 people.

A day after rebels let in liberty 18 of the 20 people who made captives as they navigated the Bay of Tumaco, a town on the Pacific coast in Colombia. This information about how many people is still being kidnapped by the Guerrilla is still being normal for many Colombians. We sometimes as Colombians tend to accepts violence and we get used to live with it. Which one would be worse? Accept to live that way and don’t do anything or being a group of rebels without solid ideals?

A new Colombian movie called: All your deads

The makers of 'dog eat dog' have found another strong image to summarize the Colombian conflict and they are trying to portray it in this new film.

The beginning of this story starts as Salvador, a farmer that usually rises to work in the fields like every day. But one day just a few steps inside the cornfield he comes face to face with a mountain of dead bodies. It's Sunday elections in this town that is locate in the Valley of Colombia. Everything in the town suggests that it is a voting of life and death.

Colombians usually complain because the movies that are shown to the world are usually about drug dealing, corruption or about the violence of Colombia and they blame these movies for being the reasons of why people think so poorly about Colombia. I do think there is so much more that meet the eye in Colombia and that in fact people should know more about it but at the same time its also important to show the reality of our country and make the Colombians wake up and decide to change it.

The Colombian company Ecopetrol is listed as one of the 500 largest companies in the world.

The Colombian company Ecopetrol is listed as one of the 500 largest companies in the world.

The oil company first entered the prestigious Fortune ranking produced at the position 444. This company is the only Colombian company in the listing. Walmart is number one on the planet.

This is the first time of any Colombian business to be in the list of the 500 largest in the world. While the Walmart supermarket keeps being the number one all over the world. The next ones are Royal Dutch Shell Oil and Exxon Mobil.

Walmart, it’s the largest company in the world and had managed to regain first place in the "Global 500" of last year,. The company climbed to the top of the rankings after scoring sales of U.S. $ 421,849 million and record profits of 16.389 million.

Colombian investment abroad is being increased

Long time ago, years ago, when there was talk of investing in real Colombians in Panama City and Miami, it was suspected that some of that money came from drug cartels. But the reality is that today Colombian investments abroad are many, legitimate and growing faster and faster.

Colombian companies are opening their wallets, buying companies abroad and investing in sectors such as electricity, credit cards and banks and oil industries.

In Bogota, the president of the National Association of Financial Institutions, Sergio Clavijo, said that one of the biggest reasons Colombians are deciding to invest their money outside the country is because the high taxes at the local level.

Colombians should use the bicycle daily.

Given the traffic chaos of Bogota, many people are promoting the use of the bicycle. The artist David Byrne will be in Colombia on July 23 to promote the activity.

David Byrne is a former leader of the rock group Talking Heads, he is a complete artist in addition to some music, installations, films, books and blogs. He recently added to his resume a new activity: Defender of the bicycle. It was something spontaneous, which emerged when he decided to blog about the experience of riding on his own in New York, the city, and others. Then he wrote a book called the Bicycle Diaries that now experts from many parts of the world have as a reference.

Now he travels all around the world with planners and traffic experts discussing why cities should be friendly with this means of transport. This will happen in Bogota on Saturday July 23 at the Convention Center Gabriel García Márquez with the forum that is called "Cities, bicycles and the future of mobility", with Enrique Penalosa. This event is not only essential for Bogota but also will serve to launch the Spanish version of his book .

More woman in politics?

More woman in politics?

The reform in Colombia about having a big change in politics had included the controversial 'positive discrimination' in favor of women: in all its lists of candidates for councils, assemblies and Congress, the parties should include a female every 30 percent. Some people argue that there are already so many women in politics and will include the obligation to make a lot of 'fill' in the lists. Others, however, believe that they do exist, but the policies of many parties think that there is necessary to have a balance between man and women. And others see it as a necessary evil to encourage participation of women in politics. And there are even those who argue that the text of the law says "genres" and "women" should be counted in this total. In any event, controversial or not, there is already a rule to try to hasten the day when you have more than 30 percent of women in politics by choice.