Gangs in Colombia

The importance of the public attention to the “ganger” phenomenon is out of doubt. There is a part of the violence that can’t be included in the strategies of the armed organizations. The city gives attestation of that, and there, the gang makes an important role. Any purpose of peace must pass by the war actors; all thought, the peace process of Colombia has to pass by a reconstruction of the coexistence in the city, place where the 70% of the population lives and where the gangs are an agent of the first order.

The investigations show that only in Bogotá, Medellin and Cali, might be about 22 thousand young persons immersed in the illegal activities that goes over the simple ganging. In the locality of Ciudad Bolivar, there are 186, and 162 in Kennedy. There are some gangs in high strata, but the most complex situation happens in Ciudad Bolivar, where about 186 gangs are registered, and some of them work not only with drugs, but also with theft and murder.

The gangers fall apart of the family in the middle of a conflict, they retire from the school at a young age, and they try not to be included in anything that respect to the society. The empty made by the institutional poor, gets full of alternative contents. The first is the group of friends where they invest more and more time.  A nearby and familiar group is a necessity, especially if it is composed by people with similar life speciation.

The drug habit is decisive because it has consequences: the theft and violence are the principal effects. Another is the feeling of necessity to look for the resources to continue with the vice. The theft is part of the initiation rites and is a power of the gang. In this way, the violence is necessary, the ganger train in a violent conflict because the surviving of the group resides in him. The gangers use to use tattoos, the gang has a link with a specific dominated territory which give them the identity; nobody pass through the territory without the permission of the gang. They have a place in the street for permanence and another one for meetings.

In Colombia, the gang has a marginal aspect because the armed conflict does not let them more tan it. In the Colombian penal code, the gang is not mentioned any time. It is considered like an administrative fail. The ganging is not sanctioned officially, but the police hunt and punish the faults associated with crimes against life, patrimony and punish too the crimes related to drug traffic. In result, there is no any regional report of ganging in Colombia.

Normally, the gangs are discriminated by the use of drugs, tattoos and the use of White armors. They walk in groups and they are recognized in the neighborhoods because they are very violent. Is very understandable why these groups named gangs are discriminated.

In my perception, these gang groups, are not treated as it should be, the goberment and the society has left a lot of space to them, contribuding in part to the increase of the guerrilla groups. These people are young colombians that does not have a guide, with problems in their family, and the lack of support of the society press them to go to the streets and take it out with drugs and delincuence. I do not try to justify their acts, but I think that these people just try to get respect of  “the other people”, “the ones who belong to the society”. Is very important to find a balance between guide and punish to solve this problem and help these people, and at the same time help the comunity and help Colombia.

References:
http://noticias.univision.com/america-latina/el-salvador/article/2005-04-22/mas-de-800-pandillas-en#axzz1sGtM2ycy

http://www.caracol.com.co/noticias/judicial/pandillas-siembran-terror-y-desolacion-en-varias-ciudades-del-pais/20080313/nota/562521.aspx

http://www.elplaneta.co/video/narcotr%C3%A1fico-y-pandillas-en-colombia

Hi People, today I'm gonna talk about the Marriage of different cultures, hope you to enjoy. 

The cultures are icon of differences and singularities, which involve groups of people in specific prototypes with specific parameters. In this way, the difference between cultures can result for some people; something motivating that encourages learning about something different tan the daily things or can also result in brushes or problems. All the things referred before can be lived in a marriage between couples of different cultures.  It happens because they must learn to coexist with some characteristics of the culture of their pair, even if they don’t agree with these characteristics. If some couple can’t endure the situation, the relationship can be in troubles.

Another important fact in this topic are the parents friends and in general the closest people that determine the culture of each one. When someone is going to marriage, this entire people have an opinion to the situation of build a marriage with different cultures. It would be acceptation or denegation, bur the unique two people who can decide obviously with the permission of God, can be the couple.

A clear example of this was showed in the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”, that shows a very hard situation. The problem began when Fotoula “Toula” Portokalos, which belongs to a Greek family, start a relationship with the North American Ian Miller. First of all, Toula want to meet Ian, but she also feels fear because she knows that think in a relationship with him can be a bad idea. The fear of Toula is caused by the custom that her family has of not marriage with people of different cultures tan the Greek. Over time, some close people to the family, start showing their favor to the relationship and some others don’t support the idea, fact that makes Toula feel undecided, even with the security and conviction of Ian. The fact that most affect Toula in This moment is the denial of her father, who shows irritating with the relationship for a long time. Finally, the couple take the determination of go over and show to everyone that the difference of cultures is not a fact when two people fall in true love and decide to wait and learn to coexist. With this decision, the parents of Ian and Toula accept the marriage and they learn to coexist too.

In conclusion, “the culture is knowledge that no one has to remember, it flows spontaneously, and it doesn’t have any sense to fight with its naturalness. We must show our own culture respecting and learning about the cultures of others."

hi people!!

I have been reflecting about the endangered cultures, the analogy between the degradation of the ecosystem and the degradation of the culture. most people focus in the problem of the environment, but they don't know that the problem of the cultures and languages is in a status much more critical.

Sometimes people say that it would be nice to have an unique and universal language, but they don´t know about the consequences that this might cause, to understand that, we have to know that language is not only a couple of words, language is a combination of skills that each person has in orden to express himself. Making a relation based in diversity, we can see the diferent biological species as a biosphere, and in the same way we can see the diferent cultures and ideas of the diferent people arround the world as an ethnosphere. The definition that Wade Davis (anthropologist, ethnobotanist, writer and photographer) provide in the video "Dreams from Endangered Cultures" is, "the sum total of thoughts, dreams, miths, ideas, inspirations, intuitions brought into being by the human imagination since the dawn of consciousness".

In the article "the death of language", we find the opinion of an expert about the hole that is being made in our society with the "death" of cultures. "What we lose is essentially an enormus cultural heritage, the way of expressing the relationship with nature, with the world, between themselves in the framework of their families, their kin people, " says Mr Hagege a French linguisty, describing the magnitud of the problem that we are increasing every time we forget about every language and culture.

I think it's very important to conserve and protect the diferent languages, cultures, customs, and expressions that are spread arround the world because it's a way to be diferent and it's a way to be inspired to learn about diferent thing than the things that we see every days. It's important to listen to other people and respect what they think and it's importante to know that no one has to be judge base on their rase or ideas.

Hello buddies, my name is Daniel Betancourt and I was borned in Bogotá. I'm studing third semester of industrial engineering. I'm in this course because I think english is a very important language in all countries arround the world and it will help me to find some better work opportunities in the future. I like to listen music in english, and sometimes I like to search  for the lirics and learn the pronunciation of the artists. The purpose of this blog is to talk about the different holidays or special dates that we have during the year and some tips about what to do in that dates. I hope that you enjoy posting and planing all the parties and celebrations to relax a little about the universitiy.