Stories from Quick Reads and Colombia
“Muito Obrigado, Brazil”
Colombian student Juan Pablo Ramírez blogs his opinions, mainly about football and politics. He shared his farewell to 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, and called it “the best 21st century World Cup”, because of the many records broken and the many surprises this tournament brought. Like Colombia qualifying to quarter...
Palestinians are Friends with Journalists
Marcelino Torrecilla N. has started a series in Spanish called Stories from Gaza. The first installment by this United Arabe Emirates based Colombian was published on El Tiempo of Bogotá and tells a story of two Gulf News journalists in Abu Dhabi. Taking pictures in the Gulf is challenging and...
FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 Already Ancient History
Caligo, author of Spanish blog La ilógica (The ilogical) and Colombian fan, shares his final thoughts about 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil. The mentions the highest points of the tournament: the German champions, the flaws on the Argentinian team, the outstanding Colombian James Rodríguez, Brazil humiliation by the German crew,...
In Love With a Porn Star?
Psychologist and many blogs author Johanna Pérez Vásquez writes on her blog Sexo sin maquillaje (Sex without make up) about sex without worries, taboos nor prejudices. On this post, she raises a question Can a porn actor be in a platonic relationship with a woman?: Una mujer puede elegir como...
Reflections From a Chronic Pedestrian
From Bogotá, the author of blog Juglar del Zipa remembers his childhood without a family car, among other things he hadn't at home that made him the “weird guy of the class: elder dad, wasn't a football fan but enjoyed classic music, hadn't been baptized… and didn't have a car!”...
The Inca Road Is a New World Heritage Site
For the first time in the 40 years of World Heritage convention, six countries united to submit a joint application to designate a cultural site as world heritage. Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru requested that the Incan Road be included as a cultural heritage site. The announcement was made in...
Reasons to Cheer for the Ivory Coast in the World Cup
On the website LaMula.pe, Juan Carlos Urtecho explains his reasons for supporting the Ivory Coast in the World Cup match with Colombia on Thursday, June 19: Desde que les ganaron a Japón en su debut, los marfileños se han vuelto mis preferidos en este mundial. […] Uno escoge a sus...
The Influence of the World Cup in the Colombian Election
Image by Globovisión on Flickr. CC BY-NC 2.0. On the blog Trayectoria Económica (Economic trajectory), Daniel Bustos writes about the recent presidential election in Colombia and analyzes a series of factors that, in his opinion, influenced the results. This includes the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil: El sabado no fue...
Journalist: Colombia's President Was Reelected Because He Campaigned on Peace
Journalist Natalia Bonilla writes on Ser Cosmopolita (Being Cosmopolitan) about the results of the run-off in Colombia's presidential election on Sunday, June 15. For her, the peace discourse was fundamental for the reelection of president Juan Manuel Santos: “Paz”, la mejor palabra en su publicidad. Su repetición durante la campaña eleccionaria fue...
Tejo, Colombia's Explosive National Sport
Tejo or turmequé, a national sport in Colombia since 2000, has its origins in other game played in the Muisca community, which inhabited the Bogotá savannah 500 years ago, as Spanish journalist Jose Sanchez Hachero blogs on Los Mundos de Hachero. Back then, the game was known as “zepguagoscua”. Tejo...
Reflections of a Colombian Voter During the FIFA World Cup
On the blog Filosofía de a pie (Pedestrian philosophy), Alejandro Martínez notes that “the T-shirt is the flag”, amidst the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil and the Colombian presidential election, about “the wicked association of football and politics”: La televisión y la prensa han catalogado a estas elecciones como las más...
Colombians Reelect President Juan Manuel Santos
With 98 percent of the votes officially counted in Colombia's presidential election, incumbent President Juan Manuel Santos (nicknamed Juanpa) has 5.7 percent more votes than his opponent Oscar Iván Zualuga: Ganó ‘Juanpa’. http://t.co/lZQ5PWMPQD pic.twitter.com/x3XImN3mHO — El Espectador (@elespectador) junio 15, 2014 ‘Juanpa’ was elected. Zuluaga reconoce derrota y felicita al...
Dubai and Arab Culture From a Latin American Perspective
He is a college professor of Colombian origins who is fascinated by Arab culture. Marcelino Torrecilla's purpose is to “describe sociocultural experiences in United Arab Emirates and their relevance with Colombia”. Narrating his own stories in Dubai, he explains why this capital is an open door city [es]: En el...
The World After Snowden, as Seen from Colombia
Colombian activist Pilar Sáenz [es] writes on Las 2 Orillas [The two shores] an article titled Year 1 AS (after Snowden) [es], in relation to the first anniversary of the leakings by Edward Snowden. El 5 de junio de 2013 fue el día en que algunas de las teorías de...
The Importance of Maths in Education
Carlos Thompson from The Chlewey Blog writes [es] about the importance of teaching Maths in Colombia in relation to the poor performance the country had in international tests of quality of education [es]: Las matemáticas dan mucho más que la capacidad de contar las vueltas en una tienda; o las...
Reconsidering Educational Tasks
School teacher Marcela Gómez writes [es] on her blog Las notas de clase de Marcela Gómez [Classnotes by Marcela Gómez] about the challenge of motivating her students to learn more and reconsidering educational tasks: Ahora, se ha entendido que la educación depende tanto de la persona que llega a motivar...
Environment and Colombian Presidential Candidates
Yolima Vargas Garzón blogs [es] on Conspiring for a better world that she invited the candidates in Colombian presidential elections to answer two questions related to environment, and not all of them answered. One of the questions: Are you willing to change country's history by putting the environmental component as...
Colombia: Three Weeks Away From a New Election
Madame Web writes [es] on her blog La Lógica de mi Papá about the time left for the second round of presidential election in Colombia: We are three weeks away for the 60% who decided not to vote gets convinced of voting… We have also three weeks for the former-president-now-elect-senator...
60% of Electoral Abstention in Colombia
Daniel Bustos blogs [es] on Trayectoria Económica about the abstention figures on the recent Colombian presidential election: Nationwide, the abstention was an important actor on this election; in fact, it was the winner of the first round, with 60,15%, something none of the winning politicians is reflecting on yet, at...
Colombia: Post Election Mess
On Mil para Siempres, Camilo Andrés writes [es] about his deception with the results of presidential election in Colombia: I woke up today with that post election mess many of us have today, although we faithfully believed in our convictions and voted as we thought would be best for the...
Colombia: Voting for War or Peace
Journalist Natalia Bonilla writes [es] on Ser Cosmopolita about Colombia presidential election on Sunday, May 25, with a result that has raised a dilemma for Colombians: Oscar Zuluaga and Juan Manuel Santos, won yesterday the first round with 29% and 26% of the votes, respectively. However, the victory for one...
