@radiobrendan One of the most frustrating things non-natives, especially Westerners, in Colombia (and other similar countries) have to put up with is the arbitrary ‘foreigner tax’. This is basically the additional cost put on to a host of goods and services simply...
@radiobrendan As a Westerner living and working in a ‘developing world’ country, earning what is considered locally a decent enough working-class wage, one of the difficulties with this is when you return to your country of origin. The ‘living within your...
@radiobrendan As the old saying goes, ‘Ignorance is bliss.’ While there may be times when this is not the case, more often than not it holds true. You can’t really get upset, worry, whatever, about something you are completely unaware of. Yet these days, with...
@radiobrendan Most visitors to Colombia have at least heard of, if not visited, Ciudad Perdida, the Lost City. Tucked away high up in the Caribbean coast’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, you could call it the Colombian version of Machu Picchu, one that outdates its more...
@radiobrendan It’s fair to say that the name Roger Casement means very little, if nothing at all, for the vast majority of Colombians. There’s no surprise in that really, especially considering that in his native Ireland, despite Casement being one of the most...
@radiobrendan While there are those who take a zero-tolerance approach to relationship cheating, there are others who give it something of a scale of seriousness. True enough, a willingness to give some leeway in the event of a breach of trust might reflect that you weren’t...
@radiobrendan Let’s face it, the United Kingdom — the parts of it that matter in England and Wales anyway — has never really been that pushed on the European Union. One foot in, one foot out kind of job. So should the UK’s electorate do the, um, honourable thing...
@radiobrendan Taking into account the grand history of our planet, it doesn’t take long at all for us humans, judging by behaviour anyway, to feel that certain things are indisputably part of where we are from. ‘It is what it is, and that’s just that.’...
@radiobrendan Big city life, somewhat paradoxically, can be quite solitary. There are people all around us, yet as we go about our business they may as well not exist — indeed at times we might wish that to be the case. In this regard, Bogotá is no different to any other...
@radiobrendan We’ve all had our ‘horror’ stories when renting rooms, especially in shared accommodation — those of us who have to endure such things, that is. In a (slowly) developing city such as Bogotá, less-than-positive experiences in this regard are...
