Corona Virus in Colombia
It has been a tough few weeks and I fear that things are only going to worsen for the forseeable future here in Colombia. Perhaps President Duque acted in time (and if so, he is to be roundly applauded) to stem a massive transmission of the Corona Virus here, but my worry is that we are witnessing a 14 day delay between contagion, diagnosis and hospitalization.
This means then that we are only just seeing the transmissions of Covid19 which occurred in mid-March, and this in turn means that all the knuckle-heads (and forgive me if you are guilty) that decided to travel over the long-weekend of the 23rd could still have spread the virus to other as yet unaffected regions and the results are yet to surface.
Additionally, there are reports that Bogotanos are fleeing in the cold hours of the morning with their families in the early morning, to evade the police, to nearby towns and celebrate the Semana Santa holidays. This is both frustrating and reflects the irresponsibility of various sectors of society.
Colombia Calling
The podcast continues in a similar vein and of course we have been pursuing topics which can incorporate and educate a little more about Colombia and the virus.
We started the month with:
314: Medicinal Cannabis in Colombia
315: The significance of Colombia’s golden generation of cyclists
316: The problem with Cauca, Colombia
317: Scandals, corruption and the corona virus in Colombia
318: Women for Coservation in Colombia
These have all be incredibly popular episodes and my heartfelt thanks and gratitude to Breedco, Matt Rendell, Elizabeth Dickinson, Adriaan Alsema and Isabella Lara Cortes for their time to speak to us.
Incredibly, the Gorgeted Puffleg hummingbird is critically endangered and found only in a tiny part of Colombia. This beautiful bird is named after Isabella Lara Cortes
April will continue in the same vein and we have Toby Muse, who you’ll remember from Ep302, planning on returning to talk about the reception of his book Kilo and of course further thoughts on the evolution of the cocaine trade and indeed, President Trump’s plan for Venezuela and his general’s bold claims which seem to re-ignite another “war on drugs,” to justify a way to finally change the regime in Venezuela.
Adam Navarro-Lowry, who has been researching his family roots in Ambalema, Honda and Mariquita will be sharing some of his updates too, from his quarantine location in the Candelaria in Bogotá. If you need refreshing, he unearthed a whole host of genealogical discoveries in May 2018 on Ep228.
Of course, there’s Episode 319 to be released on Tuesday and we have English writer, Peter Dale on the show reading entries from his insightful “Quarantine Chronicles.” There’s a good story behind these ruminations and you can also tune in and enjoy his Covidiary on InstagramTV.
As always, please let me know if you have anyone in mind who might be an appropriate guest for the show, in particular I am seeking an economist who might be able to clarify some of the situations that Colombia may face in coming months. I wrote piece about the struggles likely to be encoutered by the travel and tourism industry here and would like to build on this.
Thank you in advance.
Stay safe, stay healthy, self-isolate, social distance, wash your hands
and
Thank you!
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