The Sewers of Bogota

[Aspiring Humanist]

http://www.vbs.tv/watch/balls-deep/sewers-of-bogota
This video shows the utter hopelessness and desperation of the street children and homeless in Columbia and how they have to resort to living in the sewers to avoid the police and paramilitary death squads who frequently kill or maim those who are "due for social cleansing" one of the homeless men described how the paramilitary came into the sewers and poured gasoline on a little homeless girl and set her on fire.

This video is pretty graphic and very depressing, shows footage of the human waste people are forced to live in, may not be sfw

Might be the wrong section I'm posting this in, sorry

[bcbm]

i just finished the book "planet of slums" by mike davis, it talks about the conditions nearly a billion people living in slums have to contend with. its pretty disgusting and almost unimaginable. really a testament to how completely insane the current economic system is

[RedSonRising]

Colombia is going through hard times right now, even more than usual. Who knows when my people's situation is going to get better between the clusterfuck of human rights abuses within the armed conflict and destitute poverty all over the country.

[OhYesIdid]

Fucked up. Watched the whole thing and sick to my stomach. Not as depressing as it is enraging, though.

[Gorra Negra]

Colombia is going through hard times right now, even more than usual. Who knows when my people's situation is going to get better between the clusterfuck of human rights abuses within the armed conflict and destitute poverty all over the country.

We've been going through "hard-times, even more than usual" for a while now, a LONG while.

The video itself is some-what old, I saw it a while back; still pretty good though. The situation for the rural communities is beyond compare to this.

[NoOneIsIllegal]

Colombia has always been America's other war. The one you won't hear about, even though the country receives top-notch money, orders, and training from the US and CIA. The only other higher contenders, IIRC, are Israel and Egypt. So, technically, they receive the most military aid and training in the Western Hemisphere.

The US has always made new reasons to continously intervene in Colombia: from the Cold War, to guerillas (FARC), to the drug-trade (a whole falsified/misleading story in itself), and now the War on Terror.

It's truly a disturbing place :(

edit: 666th post \m/

[~Spectre]

Having taken a few trips to Bogota, I can tell you that it's completely surreal.

Homeless children are all over the place. You see, like something out of Oliver Twist, people in business suits get angry when their young children want to give the homeless people some money.

"It's a scam, that person is probably loaded doing this!" Is literally what people say. They don't just say this, they believe it. I've heard the "he's not really a beggar" thing before, but never this wide spread and earnestly believed.

It's an incredibly satrified society. All the bourgeoisie live in highly guarded apartment buildings in gated subsections of Bogota. Men with assault rifles at the entrances.

I was at a supermarket, and I paid for some goods with a credit card. I had to show ID, so I handed the cashier my American License. It has the little holographic lines, which the girl thought was absolutely the coolest thing ever. She called the other girl in the next register to come look. I made a few friendly comments to try to strike up a conversation with them, and just the sound of my voice shocked them. I was wearing a suit so I looked like part of the elite. The girl actually looked scared. Like I must only be speaking to her because I was angry and about to smite the commoner. It took a few more jokes on my end to see her facial expression change.

Surreal.

[RedSonRising]

We've been going through "hard-times, even more than usual" for a while now, a LONG while.

The video itself is some-what old, I saw it a while back; still pretty good though. The situation for the rural communities is beyond compare to this.

What I meant was, with the massive amounts of floods and the recent crackdowns on dissent, which have been pressed even more recently, the situation for the poor hasn't gotten any better.

[Gorra Negra]

Having taken a few trips to Bogota, I can tell you that it's completely surreal.

Homeless children are all over the place. You see, like something out of Oliver Twist, people in business suits get angry when their young children want to give the homeless people some money.

"It's a scam, that person is probably loaded doing this!" Is literally what people say. They don't just say this, they believe it. I've heard the "he's not really a beggar" thing before, but never this wide spread and earnestly believed.

It's an incredibly satrified society. All the bourgeoisie live in highly guarded apartment buildings in gated subsections of Bogota. Men with assault rifles at the entrances.

I was at a supermarket, and I paid for some goods with a credit card. I had to show ID, so I handed the cashier my American License. It has the little holographic lines, which the girl thought was absolutely the coolest thing ever. She called the other girl in the next register to come look. I made a few friendly comments to try to strike up a conversation with them, and just the sound of my voice shocked them. I was wearing a suit so I looked like part of the elite. The girl actually looked scared. Like I must only be speaking to her because I was angry and about to smite the commoner. It took a few more jokes on my end to see her facial expression change.

Surreal.

Yes, class-ism is so thick you can cut it with a knife. I just arrived from there back to the states and I was so disappointed by the extreme sexism of society and how even the people I was around were so classist and apathetic to their own country and its situation.

Now when did your story happen? The Colombia national ID has a holographic design of its emblem, and I've had mine since 2004. Yet again, I wouldn't be surprised of anything that comes out of that place. ANYTHING, not even holographic amazement.

[Gorra Negra]

Also, what part of Bogota have you been staying at? I was fairly surprised, and I say fairly, because if someone follows the politics of the city would see that the last two administrations has had two things as a priority and that is home-lessness and hunger. So I did see homeless indigenous people at transit stations but not as much as you would expect, as a matter of fact I've seen more homeless people in downtown Atlanta.

[~Spectre]

Also, what part of Bogota have you been staying at? I was fairly surprised, and I say fairly, because if someone follows the politics of the city would see that the last two administrations has had two things as a priority and that is home-lessness and hunger. So I did see homeless indigenous people at transit stations but not as much as you would expect, as a matter of fact I've seen more homeless people in downtown Atlanta.

I've been going periodically for several years. The last administration was too corrupt even by Colombian establishment standards. The transit stations have become prime stick-up targets, and homeless children are still everywhere.

A lot of it, I'd imagine, is the additional refugees from Uribe and Santos' assault on Colombians outside the cities.

[Gorra Negra]

I've been going periodically for several years. The last administration was too corrupt even by Colombian establishment standards. The transit stations have become prime stick-up targets, and homeless children are still everywhere.

A lot of it, I'd imagine, is the additional refugees from Uribe and Santos' assault on Colombians outside the cities.

I don't know about that, the uribe administration was extremely corrupt. More than half of his ministers are now linked to some type of scandal not to mention his minister of agriculture who could be facing 15+ years for corruption.

I think you may be staying in some area which I have not been to(that's why i asked), which is strange since I stayed in a pretty working class area and I have friends that live in relatively "middle class" areas and I did not see what you have mentioned, specially in the transit stations and its surroundings, since there is always police presence around those areas. Like I said I've seen more homeless people in Fatlanta than in Bogota.

[Gorra Negra]

Still nothing Spectre, or like I thought you're just pulling shit out of your ass to look knowledgeable?