Mentality (the bright side)

Colombia has all kinds of climates and thermal floors. You'll be  surprised by how fast you can go from 86°C to 0°C (or equivalently, from 83F to 32F), you may take around hour and a half with a car, between zones with these quite different temperatures. For some reason, exactly the same turns out to happen with the brightness of people mentality.

Road tripping in Colombia es undoubtedly a must-have experience*. From mountains to deserts, nature shows its beauty without repairs. It was road tripping also that I discovered how warm and full hearted some colombians are, despite their frequent circumstances of poverty and minor isolation. I'm talking about the man peeling off mangos or the woman selling out typical colombian snacks aside the road. For us who need to have it all in order to be happy, they're a remarkable example of how life can be lived without expectations or ambitions.

In the middle of social resentment and inequality it is outstanding to continuously find hard working people, who daily wakes up at 3 am and walk for hours only to see trucks and cars get passed, hopeful of being bought one piece of food. It is even more remarkable as they keep smiling and joking for entire days. Doesn't this surprise you?? To be honest, sometimes I can't get it.

On the other hand, the typical colombian child is quite convinced that life will be a pretty rough road. This is due partly to pessimistic parents and the rather pressuring environment. The child's response varies significantly, but within a small fraction of the young population this encourages and unimaginable trend of evolution. 

You may have not noticed it, but Colombia has often had one or two podium players in the world Math competitions. The drive for not getting stuck in cultural and social paradigms is what gets colombians to be internationally famous pop stars, scientists and sportsmen/sportswomen. Who would have thought? Social inequality is the context in which those who want to do a quantum jump up have an opportunity to make big differences in their lives, as they keep a hard and sustained effort. This effort along with the newly gain support in the country, brings the platform on which their dreams come true on a global scale.

I knew you would enjoy this one a bit more. I could keep writing about the bravery and strength of many colombians, who despite suffering violence and/or poverty, keep ahead living with great mood and enthusiasm, contributing to society and leading the nation to a better living.

*By the way, you not only can, but should road trip in Colombia. Quit that ancient fear of being robbed or hijacked or whatever. After world war II, it may have taken a decade for the world to know Germany as generally non-nazy. It's time you forget about CNN and Hollywood doctrine, to give yourself a second chance with Colombia. 

Mentality (the dark side, sorry)

This is my first post about Colombia, my native country. I would like to write about one of the issues most concerning me, mentality. By mentality I mean an attitude, the standard thought that gives rise to the standard action. I've always dealt with brutal honesty, so please expect nothing else and know I'm sad and grieving over these facts.

Later on I'll describe how mentality in Colombia slows economy down and prevents social, cultural and
financial paradigm shifts.

Imagine you're in Bogotá, Colombia. A stranger comes by and you decide to ask about an address, say. The response you may get and the kindness you perceive is mostly a function of your nationality. Nothing strange so far, this happens everywhere! What a shame, really. Now, what if I tell you that being colombian is exactly what triggers an apathetic, almost rude, answer? Strange isn't it?? Well, if you're a foreigner in Bogotá, you may be the best of the best, the greatest, kindest person around for everyone. This is how lonely planet reviews assert colombians are quite nice and warm, something feeling extremely false and fantastic as a native.

Every citizen is proud of his/her country and often has a favorite nation to be disrespectful with. I don't need to mention any examples, they're all over, even approved by the local national governments. In Colombia, every colombian thinks our country and our people is our enemy:

* Every other colombian is about to piss you off, rob you, hijack you or assault you. This implies you have the justified reaction of not wanting to talk to anyone, right? Well, maybe not right.
* Everyone is not trustworthy, except the one distrusting. I will call this "The colombian paradox".
* Everything happening in the life of a colombian is the fault of the government, the major, etc...
* Everyone thinks he/she is smarter than the rest. This is where conflict really reproduces as a bunch of rabbits.

As colombians, we share the global common denominator of fighting for whatever we can. That is, sports (soccer, most of all), politics, money and religion. The difference is that while fighting we may kill each other, despite almost all of us have the same government, the same national soccer team and guess what, the same religion (a different saint or virgin, though). We are the top of the top in complaining, we share the same complains by billions and yet we kill each other. We see in the other what we erroneously think we don't have ourselves, the worst we do have.

I don't really think all colombians are fools. We have nobel prizes, world renowned scientists, artists and much more. The problem is not our intellectual coefficient, our problem is that we reflect as society our inner resentment, envy, pain and repression from many years of war. As colombians we have no sense of belonging to our country, no matter how much we scream when Colombia's national team scores a goal. We can only unite under a flag of particular set of damaging institutional beliefs, while we battle against each other for having different, equally harmful, dogmas about politics, soccer, etc..

A society unable to rely on itself as a base for economic and social constructs, is sentenced to being identified as "third world" and keep poverty and violence at the root of all dysfunctions. As usual, media plays a huge role in this trend. Popular tv channels sell violence and perversion all the way during peak hours. They profit from violence because that's all they care about and that's what we are.

You may identify global descriptions here, not a surprise. I would like to be wrong, but in Colombia violence is extrapolated, in every sense, in every action. Right now I can only think of extremely religious countries as being equally or more violent. We've made soccer a religion, politics a religion and we are among the most religious catholics in the world!

Scarcity is our real flag, we can only see scarcity because we don't live in harmony. Unconvinced of the importance of giving and sharing, one is always struggling to get something and keeping it from others and suffering is inflicted from whatever viewpoint you take.

We'll be in that day in which chaos will make evident, what inner peace couldn't: that we all depend on each other and that the only way out is collaboration, tolerance and understanding.

Ok, enough said. In my next post I'll move on to outline the less common positive aspects of mentality in Colombia, hoping that you enjoy that one much more.