Bogota

Our first few days on the delegation were spent in Bogota where we met with a variety of individuals and organizations involved with human rights work in Colombia.  These meetings helped clarify for us the current situation in Colombia with regards to the economy, the people of Colombia, and the natural resources that have made Colombia so desirable.  

While Colombia is a country that attracts international business on a large scale and has many resources to offer the world, the majority of people of this country have not benefitted from these markets and in many cases have been exploited by multinational companies whose interests lie in economic and monetary progress.  

Below is data relevant to some of the issues we were being exposed to.

Today, about 50% of Colombia's population lives in poverty.   In 2000, only 18% of the population was living in poverty.  Why has the poverty level grown so much?  

Over the same time period from 2000 - 2009, Colombia has seen a rise in GDP.  If GDP is rising why also is the percentage of those living in poverty rising?  The wealth that many multinational companies gain from business in Colombia has not spread to its population.  This type of economic activity is evident in the city of Bogota where you can see beautiful, high rise buildings and expensive shopping centers at one end of the city and squatter settlements without running water or electricity spreading over the hills at the other end of the city.    

Check out the website below to investigate more about the data.

( http://www.indexmundi.com/g/g.aspx?c=co&v=69)

The above questions and data gave us an introduction to the complicated situations in Colombia.