02 December 2006

Rain, rain rain.
"The whole conviction of my life now rests upon the belief that loneliness,
far from being a rare and curious phenomenon, is the central and inevitable
fact of human existence."What did I read there? The Wolfe man again in dedication. Travis Bickle knows the rain that I mean. It's definitely the wet season when I touch ground in Barrranquilla. Mi tierra querida. The troops are out on the streets again and all the way from the airport the soldiers are on every street corner as if to welcome me. They are stop and searching, Barranquieros spread-eagled against walls getting the bad man pat down. I guess they don't want to take any chances when I'm in town. Of course it's Uribe again. He always seem to time his visits to coincide with mine. It's election time now though and he is doing a little band-standing. The thought of a Colombian general election is almost as exciting a prospect as Carnival. It's going to be an exciting visit this time. Not only the elections but Miss Barranquilla is running for Miss World in Las Vegas. I try to up myself a little on Latin American history a little more each time I visit. I learned that the current president Uribe had his father kidnapped and despite paying the ransom got his Dad back in chunks on the doorstep in a dustbin bag. It's hard to be optomistic about the thoughts of any political reconciliation. The fact that he even acknowledges the para-militaries is something of kindness. The good that has been slaughtered in this country beggars all belief. I've recently read the biography of that head job Escobar. The murder of Luis Carlos Galan.  Probably the best hope this country ever had. The shoe shining comedian whose name I do not even remeber. To even excercise political comedy can cop you a head shot from the cheerless armed actors here, who coke or Bush driven run rampant in this wonderful country. I wonder who is buying all these bullets? Wonder if anyone like Galan  will ever come again. Ingrid Betancourt is still in the hands of kidnappers if she is even indeed alive. It will need bags of that Colombian resolve and conviction. Oh and yes, a world that even gives a fuck. That would be a nice one. I managed to get down to the University for election day but was too chicken shit to take photos of the hordes of might morphin' power rangers lining the streets. But fuck that, the amazon will be gone in it's entirety in twenty years, all eyes on Iraq and Afghanistan That's a fact. Britain is shovelling more up it's nose than anywhere outside of the US. Makes a change from sniffing Yankee bum i suppose. This may be as as good as it gets. Wake up and smell the coffee my friends. It's probably Colombian. End of political ranting. Uribe won. Miss Barranquilla didn't.