Story of a drug addiction

By Pablo Gomez Ayerbe (undergraduate FIGRI student)

Let’s begin by telling this is not a personal story but of my best friend. Our story together began in school two small brats that had just left the nest and thought they could take the world on their shoulders. we were both driven by the obligation that we had to change the world we were political addicts always thinking of the best that we could do to help society, but don’t worry this story is more interesting than two kids with an addiction to politics, this is a more obscure and dark addiction, one that is harder to forget.

As two 14 year old ignorant boys we didn’t have the educational bases to be able to orientate our ideas in a decently coherent way. I for one started getting involved with social rejects which further on I would introduce to my friend. My friend, on the other hand, began to look towards music that only showed hatred and disgust towards everything. I don’t know about you but I think this is a rather bad combination. The Funny thing about this story rejects attract other rejects. Both of us had the same name, long hair, bad ideas, well you get the point.

Time went by and both of us got more and more involved in this subculture known as “punks”; each time the people became more and more social rejects with more bizarre looks than the last one. My friend and I were both from good schools and well positioned families and we were both in the wrong place. For me this lasted more or less one year, and I managed to have some badass “friends” if you can call them that; but my friends involvement, with this subculture took him deep in for at least 2 years if not more, after the first year is when everything began to get more and more gloomy.

After I left this life style, and decided to go towards a more posh life style my friend and I drew considerably worlds apart. He left school and stopped talking to all his long life friends, and that I when the real addiction began, the addiction to drugs. First he began with hard liquor, then some other type of drugs such as marijuana, cocaine but his real favorite time drug was glue, more commonly known as Boxer. This is used by people on the street to forget about their hunger, but my friend wasn’t in need of that he had a good home to get to; he only had really bad influences and made stupid life choices what a better combination than that to end up in rehab.

It wasn’t easy to get my friend into rehab; it took a lot of bad things to happen, especially the threat of being thrown into family care, for him to reconsider the idea of being put in rehab. Time went by; to be precise 6 months went by. A process in which I and almost all our friends accompanied him through. Now a days I can say proudly that he has completely recuperated doesn’t consume absolutely anything and has a scholarship at his university, after all sometimes life does forgive and we can have a second chance.

One small detail I forgot to mention is that I left that world because I noticed that it was no necessary to dress or act like a clown to have a political ideal or an interest to help society, besides the fact that with that way of dressing how was I going to find a girlfriend ever.

First day in Colombia after the World Hip Hop Dance Championship - Las Vegas, Nevada

By Laura Pava (undergraduate FIGRI student)

I’m here sitting in a classroom, listening to everyone talk about the homework they didn’t make, the financial analysis of an enterprise and what are they going to have for lunch… what they don’t know is that my head hasn’t arrived from the United States. I can’t stop dancing in my mind, so I put on my headphones and start humming “Love never felt so good” by Michael Jackson. 

 There are two types of persons in this world, those that when they arrive from a trip show everyone their photos, talks a little about the experience and continue with their normal life, and those that stay with mental disorder for about two weeks more, thinking and feeling that they are still on the trip. 

 I look down and see my red Hip Hop Vlado shoes and realized I’m part of the second group. 

Traveling to Las Vegas is amazing by itself but being there representing my country – you have to agree with me – is difficult to overcome. The strange thing is that when I think about the city, I don’t remember the great lights, the casinos and not even the famous strip, unlike I remember the hotel’s lobby, the places where we rehearse and the scenario where we saw the best Hip Hop dance crews of the world.

I was under 21 then you might wonder - "who in this world travel to Las Vegas being a minor?!?" - and that is right, I couldn’t even get a beer while I rehearse, but that’s ok, I went to the craziest city in the whole world to drink Mountain Dew. 

We stayed at the Red Rock Hotel, Resort-Casino-Spa, I repeat, RESORT-CASINO-SPA and what did we use? The lobby and the halls to rehearse, I didn’t even get to enjoy the most fabulous pool I’ve ever seen, but that’s fine I danced next to the casino – before they ask me to go-, ate a hamburger in front of the professional betting area, and for you to envy me more, I saw the “Caesars Palace” when the movie “What happen yesterday” was recorded but I couldn’t enter because I had to take another dance workshop. So, that’s right.. I didn’t get to know real Vegas, I don’t have a lot of pictures of the casinos or a t-shirt, I didn’t get to bet nor drink a margarita and I didn’t get crazy and drunk. I went to Las Vegas to get to know Pacman, Parris Goebel, Shaun Evaristo, Ian Eastwood and Bryan Puspos I traveled to watch Royal Family dance, to cry with my crew when we go up on the stage and learn how to be a better professional. 

 My body still feels the adrenaline when I remember the words “And representing Colombia, please welcome, D-three” and the moment when we stand on the famous scenario of the World Hip Hop Dance Championship. 

 Maybe it is not the ideal travel for everyone, but is the ideal experience for a dancer. 

 I stand up. The class is over. I can´t walk normally then I continue dancing through the stairs while everyone looks at me in a weird way … Dear students and colleagues I’m sorry but I will have this mental disorder for about a week more, maybe a month or maybe a year, but if you see me dancing around the university you should know I have no problem with you joining me.

Why does Bogotá need Broadway Plays?

By Juan Pablo Martínez (undergraduate FIGRI student, level 4 English)

Some of the greatest experiences are capable of changing your whole life for one moment, and plays are able to do this.

Bringing over some of these plays would maybe show us in Bogotá some different cultures that could improve the way that we look at this kind of art. Culture is a very important thing for our lives, and people who don’t like to read should find different ways to appreciate it.

One case is “Les Miserables.” This tragic musical is charged with drama and music, and has many fans around the world. It’s about a man who steals some bread for his nephew, and when he is running away with the bread, the police catch him, and put him in jail. Because of this, he then has to serve a jail sentence of fifteen years. When he gets out of prison, he decides to be a better person, and he forgives all the people that have hurt him.

He goes to a beautiful town and some time later, becomes the mayor. One day he walks through a street full of prostitutes, and he sees one woman crying in the street because she has a terrible life. He takes her to a hospital, and she tells him that she has a child, but she is dying. After this, he travels to another town to find her. He discovers that she is so famished and he decides to adopt her.

It’s a great story that teaches us about different kinds of lives.

Why are People usually uncomfortable about everything?

By Katherine Barón (undergraduate Social Communication student, level 4 English)

Normally, people aren’t happy about the things that they have; we often love the things that other people have, but not our own things.

Women, for example, love other women’s hair, or their lives, or their boyfriends, or bodies, and so on and so on! Of course, the exact same thing happens with men.

It’s a normal thing in our society, but it isn’t good. We really need to think about it, because it’s really nice to love our own things, and this means being confident about ourselves, but this scenario is far away for us.

Even for me, it’s a problem, and the funniest thing is that I don’t even know why! Whoever you are, you just need to ask yourself these questions: “am I happy with the things I have?”, “am I happy about how I really am?” When you do this, you’ll probably see that the answers are not positive.

So, be happy with everything that you are, and just when you can finally be happy, you can see the big changes in your life and see the beautiful things that surround us in the world. That is the best advice for all of us students!

I’m a vegetarian, not a terrorist!

By Isabella Sánchez Bolívar (undergraduate FIGRI student)

Most of you might think that the hardest part of being a vegetarian is eating out at restaurants, eating at friends’ houses, getting enough proteins and vitamins or finding vegetarian products, but that isn’t true. The most difficult part of being a vegetarian is dealing with the prejudice that society has.

Every time I tell someone I am a vegetarian, people treat me like a terrorist. First, they start with their interrogation, asking questions like: “why are you a vegetarian?”, “how long have you been a vegetarian?”, “if you don’t eat meat, what do you eat?”, “don’t you miss meat?” After answering all their questions (which I have to say I have answered thousands of times), they begin to criticize me and judge me. According to them, not eating animals is stupid because it won’t stop the mass killing of animals.

Not only that, but they also ask, “animals are delicious, so why are you so stupid to stop eating them?” I won’t talk about the reasons why I and millions more people around the world are vegetarians because that is not the purpose of this article, but if there is something that really upsets me, it’s people trying to convince others to do or not to do something. I strongly believe that everybody is free to think and do whatever he/she wants to think or do if it doesn’t affect the lives of others. That’s why I can’t stand it when they try to convince me to eat meat again because I never try to convince anybody to become a vegetarian. It is a personal choice.     

That’s why being a vegetarian in Colombia is not that easy and it is not because of the reasons you could imagine.

It is because the hardest part of being a vegetarian is dealing with people who just don’t understand. 

The modern slavery: sex trafficking

By: Camila Giraldo (undergraduate FIGRI student)

Sex trafficking, a form of slavery and involuntary servitude, occurs when people are forced or coerced into the commercial sex trade against their will. It results in serious human rights violations, involving individuals profiting from the sexual exploitation of others and having severe physical and psychological consequences for its victims. Although anyone can become a victim of sex trafficking, it mainly affects women and children (according to the U.S. State Department, 600,000 to 800,000 people are smuggled across international borders every year, more than 70% being women and half being children), and it is the main type of human trafficking, because approximately 80% of trafficking involves sexual exploitation.

This global crime arises from the need and desire of people to have a better life. Usually poor, vulnerable and unemployed women from unstable countries are lured by offers of well-paid work offers in bars, restaurants and hotels in other countries, with the fake promise of a better life. They travel with false documents through an organized network which transports them to the destination country. Last year, Dayana (19 year-old girl from Risaralda – Colombia) received a unique offer that would change her life: a job as a receptionist in a port in Panama with a really good salary, but when she got there, the trafficker (a man known as “Ruben”) took her passport and forced her into a terrible situation.

Once the victims fall into the trap and they find themselves forced into sexual slavery, they are held in constant fear and inhumane conditions (lack of food, poor health conditions, degrading living conditions, etc.). This is an obvious loss of freedom, dignity and identity for the individual, where they’re unable to exercise their rights. In the case of Dayana, she was locked with 11 other girls in in a small room without any kind of light or ventilation, and the traffickers used belts and all kinds of violent weapons to control them when they didn’t follow the rules. In addition, they never received a penny for their forced job as prostitutes.

In Colombia, there have been 147 cases of sexual exploitation over the last four years, principally from Valle del Cauca, Antioquia, Caldas, Risaralda, Quindio, Cauca, Cundinamarca, Córdoba and Nariño. In recent years, the fight against trafficking has been a priority for Colombia. Between 2010 and 2014, the country signed five bilateral cooperation agreements with Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Honduras and El Salvador to prevent, investigate, protect and assist the victims and in June of this year decree 1069 of 2014 was sanctioned with this objective. Despite these initiatives, there’s a poor level of assistance for victims, because according to Colombian law they’re not the centre of the policies, only witnesses and collaborators of the State against organized crime, leaving aside the part of human rights.

As can be seen throughout the article, sex trafficking is a form of modern slavery, where victims, with the promise of good jobs and better opportunities actually get forced into prostitution or other types of exploitation, living in inhumane conditions and fear. As well, it represents a serious violation of human rights that affects almost every country in the world, including Colombia, where every year approximately 147 cases of sex trafficking are seen.

The Fantastic World of Photography

Article and photograph by Yuli Andrea Robles Gordillo (undergraduate Social Communication student, level 5 English)

 

Colombia, a dream! By: Yuli Robes .Youth Award II- Fine arts on the photography contest Fotofauna XXVI 2014.

It’s easy to see that some people consider photography to be just a technical tool; in fact, many people believe that photography is something simple. For example, my dad uses a camera only for family photos, and uses a photo only for his identity card or his passport, but photography goes beyond that.

Photography is a technical tool, but it is also so much more than this. Through time, this has been one of the best ways of expression, which shows our imagination and creativity, a creativity that is possible to reflect with this art.

Photography is as special as a book, but it is also different! Have you ever seen a photo that transports you to another amazing time? This is the most important factor in photography: it helps us not to forget our special memories, whether these are good memories or bad memories.

In the same way, Photography has presented news and important situations for humanity. Photography has made history, has made families, friends and societies, but more than all this, photography has the unique and wonderful possibility to freeze time forever.

On the other hand, theory and technical concepts are important and in some cases difficult, but in my own experience I can tell you that the most significant aspect when you want to take a photo is that you love the place, person or thing that you will take a photo of. With this beautiful art, you can learn to see the true essence of existence, and you can appreciate all the simple but indispensable details of your life.

Definitely, photography is the best option to appreciate your life, to relax and to show all your talent and love for all the wonderful gifts that are around you!