Colombia Calling - The English Voice in Colombia

'Romantic, adventurous and thrilling ... remarkable' Telegraph  'Vivid, fast-paced and wonderfully ambitious … Patria teems with alternative stories of a continent’s life and peoples' New Internationalist In late 1869, Richard Francis Burton stepped ashore in Southampton, fresh from a sightseeing tour of bone-strewn South American battlefields. The most lethal conflict ever fought on the continent was still stumbling to its gory conclusion. But if the celebrity adventurer expected to be mobbed with reporters, he was disappointed. Burton was ‘mortified’ to perceive how oblivious his fellow Britons were to ‘perhaps the most remarkable campaign fought during the present century’. Tales of Dr Francia – Paraguay’s dour, iron-willed dictator for almost thirty years – had once piqued the public’s curiosity. But the country had since ‘dropped clean out of vision. Many, indeed, were uncertain whether it formed part of North or of South America.’ He found ‘blankness of face’ whenever Paraguay was mentioned, ‘and a general confession of utter ignorance and hopeless lack of interest’. Over 150 years later, the amnesia persists. If South America is a forgotten continent, Paraguay has fallen off the map altogether. Foreigners often confuse it with Uruguay, in many ways – a secular, liberal, World Cup-winner – Paraguay’s opposite. The world takes Paraguay’s drugs, beef, soybeans, migrant labourers, cleaners and midfielders, but has blanked out their distant source. In London, Madrid or New York, this might be understandable. But Paraguayans have long felt isolated and ignored even by their neighbours. In an aphorism so often repeated it has taken on the character of a curse, Augusto Roa Bastos – the country’s most famous novelist – described his nation as ‘an island surrounded by land’. So, we discuss and end up philosophising about Latin America's place in the world, Lawrence's adventures across the region, Colombia, Paraguay and his new book, "Patria, Lost Countries of South America." https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/435719/patria-by-blair-laurence/97818479246…

It has become a cultural phenomenon in Colombia, beginning first in Bogota before branching out to Medellin, Cali, Lima (Peru) and now Cartagena...everyone knows all about Gringo Tuesdays. So, this week, coinciding with the launch of Gringo Tuesdays in Cartagena, we speak to co-founder Travis Crockett about how the business has grown, the differences in running events in each location, how they survived Covid and where they plan to expand to next...hint, two more overseas locations. This is a good news story about some entrepreneurs that took a punt on an idea and it worked, becoming one of the most unmissable nights for language exchange and then latin-style partying in Colombia. Tune in to hear about "bio pong," yes, you read that right, not "beer pong," but "bio pong," and other anecdotes from 13 years of running Gringo Tuesdays.  We wish them all the best on this next venture in Cartagena. The Colombia Briefing is reported by Grace Brennan.  https://www.gringotuesdays.co  and support us https://www.patreon.com/colombiacalling

After nine years away, Tim Buendia, has made it back to the town of Aracataca - birthplace of Gabriel Garcia Marquez - and it seems timely with a new series based on the author's opus: "One Hundred Years of Solitude" due to be aired on 11 December 2024 on Netflix. Tim, an adopted son of Aracataca, is perhaps singlehandedly responsible for his tireless work in bringing international tourism to the birthplace of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Colombian Nobel Prize winning author. And it was all falling into place with tours, a steady stream of visitors and significant press coverage...and then he left.  We discuss what this return to "Macondo" or Aracataca means to Tim, how he has been working diligently in the interim years to continue promoting Aracataca, about his poetry and a new art gallery he is inaugurating in the town. Check out the website: https://www.thegypsyresidence.com The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart. 

Hello and welcome to another episode of Colombia Calling – I’m Emily Hart and this week we have something a little bit different – the radical linguistic technique which is building peace - personal and political - all over the world, and the inspiring woman bringing it to Colombia. 

This week, I have with me Camila Reyes Azcuénaga – the founder of Resuena, the organisation bringing the school of thought known as ‘Nonviolent Communication’ (NVC) to Colombia, a way of structuring our thoughts and communications to prevent and heal conflict, breaching the divides of culture, politics, and identity. 

Developed in the late 20th Century by psychologist Marshall Rosenberg, NVC now has trainers and centres in more than 60 countries around the world. This simple technique aims to humanise the ‘other’, and forge communication, collaboration, and trust – from our daily life, to our work, and well beyond. 

Camila studied law and political science and worked with indigenous communities and landmines here in Colombia, but felt the country needed a more fundamental change than she could achieve with that work. She left Colombia in search of something which would shift the paradigm of violence and conflict entirely. 

After stumbling across Nonviolent Communication training during Occupy Wall Street, she felt she’d found what she was looking for – she spent years training and finally returned to Colombia, founding Resuena in 2011, running free workshops for years.

Resuena has now trained thousands, from institutions like the United Nations, the Truth Commission, and the Search Unit for Missing Persons, to grassroots social leaders in conflict-stricken areas of Colombia’s South-west. The group helps people to navigate interpersonal relationships and conflicts, as well as maintain cohesion within movements and groups. 

Through guided discussions, participants are trained to identify the patterns of behaviour that divide them and weaken their collective campaigns and processes, and then to replace them with a focus on acting from common ground. This year, Resuena also launched the ‘Sowers of Nonviolent Communication’ network – so that trainees can go into their own communities and pass on the training. 

So today, Camila is going to give us a masterclass in these techniques and their underlying ideas, talking us through the four steps – observation, feeling, need, and request – along with some everyday examples. She’ll then tell us about her amazing work in some of Colombia’s most difficult contexts, and why this work is so necessary not just for the country – but for all of us.

On Episode 541 of the Colombia Calling podcast, and given the current COP16 in Cali, we revisit our conversation with special guest Ole Reidar Bergum - Counsellor for Climate and Forests/ Consejero de Clima y Bosque - Royal Norwegian Embassy in Bogotá, who joined us to speak in-depth and openly about the tragedy of the rampant deforestation taking place at the moment in Colombia. We discuss the causes and results and what the Norwegian government, along with other collaborators, are trying to do to prevent an area the size of Bogotá being deforested each year. The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart. Be sure to check out her substack: https://substack.com/@ehart

Colombia stands out for its excellent healthcare and is rapidly becoming another destination for medical healthcare. Thinking of a tummy tuck, a hair implant, some dentistry or more? Take a look at the options, go through a reputable agency and take a holiday at the same time. This week, we speak to Kirby Braddell of Medical Tourism Packages, to talk about what is offered in Colombia. https://www.medicaltourismpackages.com/ The Colombia Briefing is reported by Grace Brennan.

This week we get on the line to Naresh Dahal in Kathmandu to compare and contrast the tourism practices and politics in both Nepal and Colombia. Naresh is local travel specialist in Nepal and can assist with customising and tailor-making a tour and holiday suiting your travel needs, so he’s a man in the know. Whilst the countries may seem incredibly different from one another, we discover there to be some striking similarities as well. Join us for a pleasant conversation from Bogota to Kathmandu.

"South London has a serious problem with knife crime." This week we discuss how Henry May arrived in Colombia and ended up being a mover and shaker in the education world here. After a life-changing experience involving a tragedy relating to one of his students in South London, Henry questioned his life choices in education, leading him to consider other avenues. Read on to find out more about Henry. Henry May is a Social Entrepreneur from the UK currently living in Colombia where he currently serves as the CEO of Coschool, an education business focused on Social & Emotional learning in K-12 education. Henry has been recognised as a “rising star” of Colombian business by Dinero magazine and as “The teacher closing the inequality gap” by El Tiempo newspaper. Coschool is a social enterprise in Colombia that designs and implements methodologies for developing social & emotional skills in youth & teachers in the post-conflict country Henry's Coschool seeks to generate an impact on people through its programs, strengthening socio-emotional skills, contributing to their well-being and empowering them as agents of change. Coschool was selected by HundrED as one of the top 100 innovative global organizations that are transforming education through their proposals in 2020 and 2021. Located in Finland, HundrED seeks to spread ambitious and pedagogically sound innovations. In Latin America, only 8 projects were chosen, 2 of them from Colombia. Coschool was selected for being a pioneer and for its ability to create a scalable impact.  https://coschool.co The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart. 

Petro's first two years as president have been marked by tension between him and various media sectors. He has repeatedly denigrated journalism critical of his government, labelling those responsible as “liars” and “scumbags” who are just trying to undermine his administration.

Petro’s attacks began after the Bogotá-based news magazine Cambio published an article by political reporter Maria Jimena Duzán on 23 June in which she raised questions about the possibly fraudulent manner in which the brother of the president’s chief of staff had obtained public contracts. 

The president responded on his X account by branding Duzán’s reporting as “Mossad journalism” and suggesting that she was involved in a disinformation campaign designed to hurt his government. Duzán said she received threats after this post by the president.

Since the start of the year, Reporters Without Borders has registered two journalists killed in Colombia in connection with out their reporting. while FLIP (Colombian Foundation for Press Freedom) has registered 330 other press freedom violations, including 133 cases of threats, 43 verbal attacks and 11 physical attacks. Of these attacks, 81 were perpetrated by government officials and 69 by armed groups, which highlights the complexity of combating this growing phenomenon in Colombia, one of the most dangerous countries in Latin America for journalists.

In Colombia, the media confront opposing realities. In the nation’s capital there is virtually no censorship or threats against the media. However, Colombia’s regional media outlets face many pressures, according to the FLIP based in Bogotá. In the last four years, FLIP has documented an annual average of 200 threats against journalists, a number that has been increasing steadily. 

Angela Alvarez is a natural-born storyteller, her latest venture of the podcast: "When Home is a Foreign Word" is testament to this. In fact, there's no way we can keep on topic - is there ever one? - and we enjoy a far-reaching conversation, a great deal of laughs about life and death in Colombia (the funny side), the origins of the word syphilis, identity and witchcraft. Angela states, when we discuss what it means to be an immigrant, "humans are reliable narrators of their own existence," and then we plunge into a conversation which I count as one of my favourite in over 500 episodes broadcast on the Colombia Calling podcast. The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart. Her Substack can be found: https://harte.substack.com/ Please consider supporting our podcast: www.patreon.com/colombiacalling   Tune in, you'll not regret it.