Bogota Blogger

The disparity between the rich and the poor here is startling to me–I knew it existed, and I know it exists in many places, but living with it on a daily basis is a whole different thing. The Colombian economy, however, is said to be booming, and by all the macro-economic standards, I imagine it is. I wonder about individuals, though, and how quickly and how much life (economically) is improving for the 95% of people here who are not rich.

I’ve felt since I first came here that, if the rich were willing to allow a middle class to develop, life for them would also improve dramatically. Lots of the rich here are very well-educated, and I’m sure they can theoretically understand that as well, but on the practical level, they’re not willing to give up their dirt-cheap servants and ability to earn money in a system that gives them every advantage. Opportunity here is minimal, to my way of thinking, though I’m sure it’s a much better situation than might be found in lots of other parts of the world, including most of Africa and Asia. (I recently spent ten days at a conference with a friend who’s living in Pakistan, and his stories put mine to shame.) Still, though things may be improving, the Colombian economy is open to very few–education and hard work don’t very often lead to success as they would in a G-8 kind of world. I know personally a couple of engineers and economists who can’t find work of any kind.

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