@wwaycorrigan [Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.] It’s not exactly a case of hit-and-miss for me when it comes to visiting random Colombian pueblos. When an escape from Bogotá’s badness and madness is needed, pretty much any town will suffice. It is the getting away that matters more so; the destination […]
@wwaycorrigan [Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.] For some business people, the customer-is-always-right mantra is seen as a golden rule. It makes sense on numerous levels. For many if not most businesses, the goal is not only to keep current customers onside...
@wwaycorrigan [Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.] Getting used to the cultural quirks of one’s adopted land can take some time. Indeed, there are certain mores that the outsider may never fully understand or accept. From a Colombian perspective, this blog...
@wwaycorrigan [Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.] As has been well documented on this blog, I’ve visited several rather similar Colombian towns — pueblos — over the last few years. Now, some cynical types might say that all Colombian towns are pretty...
@wwaycorrigan [Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.] On occasions, according to some mental health experts, it can be good to just do nothing. Or the very bare minimum in any case. Indeed, the deft Dutch have a term for it: niksen, which literally means ‘to...
@wwaycorrigan [Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.] Colombian tax reform. Many have tried it — or at least given helpful suggestions — but few have had much lasting success. The mere utterance of the phrase sends some folk into a paroxysm. In 2021, planned...
@wwaycorrigan [Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.] One trend I’ve noticed in Colombia’s low-lying lands — lower than Bogotá that is — is that even rather small towns have a more sinister side to them compared to their loftier equivalents. I refer to locations in what is called tierra caliente, literally […]
@wwaycorrigan [Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.] ‘Being alone in Colombia is such a waste.’ That was the reaction of one Facebook user to my recent post, ‘Set on singlehood‘. What particularly caught my attention was the inclusion of...
@wwaycorrigan [Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.] So the last bastion of conservatism and right-wing populism in Latin America has fallen. Colombia has chosen a leftist president for the first time in its history. The rains that fell incessantly on the capital...
@wwaycorrigan [Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.] A few weeks back, on one of my pueblo escapes from Bogotá — to La Paz, Santander, precisely speaking — I had an interesting conversation with a man about Colombia’s less well-off. He was of the opinion that one couldn’t objectively class the majority […]
