My PWP

STILL FRAGMENTS

Some time ago I was asking myself how members of the Congress make for knowing what the people’s needs are, whether they are not exactly ordinary people; I mean, most of the population in Colombia are poor and these special citizens have all the opportunities for a life style with privileges. So, how can they understand what people live without their same opportunities? That is to say, Congress members usually are in the capital city, frequenting the best and more expensive places, with big cars and fine clothes; I guess their children go to elite schools and private universities, very often abroad. That is all ok considering that anyone has the right to live it up, but if you are working for the country and you know that poverty exists in every region, that there are kids begging on the streets, unemployed women head of family, homeless persons walking around, peasants without land to work and so on… thus where are these people’s rights left? They also wish to live it up, or at least have a modest life, with an assured meal three times a day, an assured school for their children, an assured job for going on and an assured medical assistance. How do members of the Congress help to those situations earning what they earn, moving around their privileged social circle and living the same comfortable experiences day after day?

Answer: They do not help enough. Just like everyone, I said “it’s not fair” and I kept on my way.
I know many people have thought something like this once in a while, but we also know deep inside ourselves that one alone cannot change the system, so we don't even try. We prefer not to expect anything from the Congress, politicians or the law, for the better.
However, there are moments, occasions in which some persons decide to agree on their need of acting and do not allow to die the opposition, the resistance to injustice and the voice of people who live and suffer but it is not heard. Or sometimes this voice can be heard, for instance during elections, when politicians are in small towns asking for votes, but after the results of those elections promises seem to be forgotten and you think: if they are who got the tools to change the life style of those people who vote for them why nothing gets better?
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Last Friday, October 8 was the opening of The Congress of the Peoples in Bogotá; the idea was to create a mandate made by the people from the masses in which the community would legislate, would order the territory, the economy and the way to govern themselves.
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The Congress was organized by axes, distributed in seven working tables according to the major concerns of the people, these were:

- Land, territory and sovereignty.
- Economy for living and against the dislodging.
- Nation building for a good living.
- Culture, diversity and shared ethics.
- Life, justice […] politics.
- Rights violation and unfulfilled agreements.
- People’s integration and globalization of fights.

Most of the crowd were indigenous communities, especially from the Colombian southwest, as we know, indigenous in Cauca are one of the best organized movements in the country; you could realize that they were strong promoters of the event.

Next to the indigenous communities there were afro communities, peasants, students, “mototaxistas”, LGBT community and people concerned with the event, as well as journalists following the sessions. But these journalists belonged to a sort of independent press, maybe to ONGs, because there was no presence of Caracol or RCN at all.

All the axes were based in severe problems which concern for people’s well-being and the idea was to find a solution together; changes will not be done immediately but at least persons must begin to look for them. The plan was to identify first how the region had contributed to the axis, then what to do in the face of those current troubles and finally how do the people can organize themselves.

Many situations emerged in common in the different axes. That is, every concept was connected to each other: the act of living implies to deal with justice, culture, territory, rights, and so on. In consequence, a variety of similar problems were mentioned on several occasions, such as the recuperation and release of the earth and its natural resources because of the importance in both the native conception of earth as a Mother and the need for preserving the means in existence for sustainability.

This was perhaps the strongest point remarked during the Congress: territory. “Land is neither for buying nor for sale, land is for liberating it and defending it”. That is the speech which constantly sounded around; indigenous people, peasants and population from rural areas have been the victims of forced displacing, by reason of armed movements or multinational companies, the first ones for drug trafficking and the second ones for exploitation of the environment. They reject both. These people feel forgotten and isolated because the government knows this but does not offer a fair solution, we can see that. There are hundreds of people on the streets begging for surviving. Citizens do not differentiate among drug addicts, wanderers or displaced persons, and that happens especially in the capital city, where the law provides them with a basic supply and lodging into cheap hostels, endowed with mats which are 1 centimeter thick.

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