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Drogami wokół Bogoty. Podróże po nowej Kolumbii
Przez lata Kolumbia była „narkopaństwem”. Dziś uważa się ją za jedną ze wschodzących gwiazd na gospodarczej mapie świata. Gdzie leży prawda? Pisarz i dziennikarz, Tom Feiling, przemierzył ją wzdłuż i wszerz. Dotarł do miejsc, jeszcze do niedawna zbyt niebezpiecznych, ażeby doń podróżować. Rozmawiał z wieloma Kolumbijczykami, od byłych partyzantów FARC przez tamtejszych nomadów aż po milionerów. W swojej ważnej, szokującej, bywa, że ironicznej, nigdy zaś powierzchownej opowieści, którą zatytułował „Drogami wokół Bogoty”, udało się mu rozsupłać gmatwaninę potarganego krajobrazu kolumbijskiego i stworzyć urzekającą syntezę reportażu, książki podróżniczej i historycznej.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
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March 27, 2019
Beautifully Written
I was given this book by a colleague at work to supplement my internship there. It's a wonderful NGO called 'Children Change Colombia' that works to reintegrate children back into society after the de-mobilisation of the FARC, as well as protecting children's rights across the country in various ways (among other things within it's 20 year history). If you care about Colombia or it's people, please consider donating to the charity as the people there really do care for the country and its people (link below).
As for the book itself? I read a travel diary earlier this year called 'Tibet, Tibet' that managed to be a history lesson, cultural study and travel diary rolled all into one book. I loved it. Short Walks From Bogota does for Colombia what this book essentially did for Tibet. Take a complicated country, with complicated issues and break said complications down for a foreigner to understand clearly. What I really appreciated most about Tom Feiling in his book, is his fearlessness to call out ALL sides (including the USA government) for the various horrors visited on the Colombian people. For that I thank him.
I can't recommend this enough.
http://www.childrenchangecolombia.org
I was given this book by a colleague at work to supplement my internship there. It's a wonderful NGO called 'Children Change Colombia' that works to reintegrate children back into society after the de-mobilisation of the FARC, as well as protecting children's rights across the country in various ways (among other things within it's 20 year history). If you care about Colombia or it's people, please consider donating to the charity as the people there really do care for the country and its people (link below).
As for the book itself? I read a travel diary earlier this year called 'Tibet, Tibet' that managed to be a history lesson, cultural study and travel diary rolled all into one book. I loved it. Short Walks From Bogota does for Colombia what this book essentially did for Tibet. Take a complicated country, with complicated issues and break said complications down for a foreigner to understand clearly. What I really appreciated most about Tom Feiling in his book, is his fearlessness to call out ALL sides (including the USA government) for the various horrors visited on the Colombian people. For that I thank him.
I can't recommend this enough.
http://www.childrenchangecolombia.org
February 12, 2016
I think it is time to get the cat out of the bag, talk about the big pink elephant in the room, and come out of the closet (again). Over the past few months I’ve been making somewhat cryptic posts about having limited time remaining with my book collection - truly cryptic posts for the many of us on Goodreads who are lovers of a good sized personal library. Here’s why. In a mere 84 days I’ll be moving to a brand new country on a brand new continent learning a brand new language - a newness entire to me. I’m moving to Colombia.
Here I hope to take in a language, a people, a rhythm, a sense of the future and hope and life that my North American, middle class living has made difficult for me to appreciate. Colombia is going to be an escape for me, lasting at least a year and maybe longer, and helping me get a stronger sense of who I am, what I can live without, and what I need to do in my life. It will allow me to explore some ideas and creativities that the sheer expense of North America doesn’t allow. It will, ultimately, be good. I think.
Reading lists for Colombia aren’t exactly numerous, which is ok - it seems as though this part of the world doesn’t have a ton of work translated into English. Gabo, of course, is in spades, and Alvaro Mutis even has a recently completed collection of his work put out by NYRB, and then there is the more recent arrival of Juan Gabriel Vasquez, all of whom I have read or intend to read in the next 74 days. Then there is a small collection of memoirs that pop up on lists, sometimes a book or two analysing the state of paramilitaries and government and drug wars in the country, a few tomes trying to make sense of the complex history, and then, on every list, is this book. Short Walks from Bogota.
To say the least, I wasn’t exactly surprised when my local big box book store didn’t have it in stock, but I don’t expect much from them. I was, though, pleasantly surprised when my local library did have a copy, which I grabbed and started reading while walking home sliding on slippery, ice-caked sidewalks and doing my best not to slam my face into the ground, all the while chuckling at the thought that the treachery of ice doesn’t exist in Medellin but is, actually, a wonder of grand proportions, if I am to trust Marquez.
To be honest, the book starts off strong and then trails off into something that loses its heart in the middle, and then, in the final ten pages, tries to reorient itself in something that sounds a little too kitschy for its own good.
The beginning is fun and fascinating, even beautiful. Tom, the author, talks about his personal history with Colombia - he is a long-time admirer of the country and its people. And you get that sense early on - he has a good understanding of the state of things, and for much of the first three or four chapters the book feels like it is going to become an attempt to explain the people of Colombia. How I would have loved to have heard about that - and effort to explain how the people of Colombia remain so remarkably resilient despite the many crises that have plagued their day to day lives, so many efforts by so many groups to make their living unbearable. Are they even resilient? Or are they actually just getting by? I’m not sure. I wish I knew.
Somehow, in the middle of the book, Tom gets completely distracted from exploring the people of Colombia and, instead, decides to use them as weak vehicles to explain the political and military history of Colombia for the past 70 years. Oddly enough, he doesn’t tell it particularly well, and even a close reader like myself comes away without the sense that I understand the history particularly well. Maybe that was the point - Colombia is complex. But there are better ways to tell that story than by talking about the rich, the powerful, the generals, the presidents, the men. I wondered for much of the middle, and right to the very end of the book, where the voice of Colombia was in this book about Colombia.
I can’t fault him for his politics, though, and it is clear that this passionate man is wanting to see some degree of justice in a country so consistent in its ability to not achieve any. He seems to be as frustrated as a Colombian by the corruption, the human rights abuses, the enormous class divide, the displacement of millions of people, and seems to have a sense that things could be dramatically better - particularly better if the divide between the classes wasn’t so acute. And so I appreciated reading a book about Colombia from the perspective of a fellow leftie. If only it was a book written about the people it would have been much better. Maybe, even, if he was written out of the book a bit more - though I don’t think Tom is the issue here so much as his feeling that he has to write a history of Colombia for Colombians.
I suspect they have those stories bottled up inside them.
I remember when writing my first, second, and third drafts of my first graduate thesis, my advisor kept coming back to me with comments about my conclusion, saying that I was making grand statements about human nature (or the nature of the humans I studied) for which I had no real evidence. I didn’t much like this. I was convinced that I had presented plenty of evidence towards these ends but had saved developing them for the very end - these discussions about the humanity of these people was actually the heart of my argument. But ultimately he was right, and I realized it after my fifth draft, and I started correcting it, and suddenly I started having a good deal more success with my work.
I thought the same of the ending of this book as my advisor had thought of my work.
Lots of statements about Colombia and Colombians, about their very own form of happiness, about their very own sense of resilience and heart, about their means of organizing life and of preserving themselves, about the role of family, about the grand divide, about joy, but so little discussion about any of these in the heart of the narrative that it all seemed somewhat disconnected from the rest of the work. Like a curve ball. Like reading the middle of this book was a waste of time.
Thankfully it wasn’t - I know more about Colombia now than I did two weeks ago, and I guess that is what I wanted. Kind of.
Here I hope to take in a language, a people, a rhythm, a sense of the future and hope and life that my North American, middle class living has made difficult for me to appreciate. Colombia is going to be an escape for me, lasting at least a year and maybe longer, and helping me get a stronger sense of who I am, what I can live without, and what I need to do in my life. It will allow me to explore some ideas and creativities that the sheer expense of North America doesn’t allow. It will, ultimately, be good. I think.
Reading lists for Colombia aren’t exactly numerous, which is ok - it seems as though this part of the world doesn’t have a ton of work translated into English. Gabo, of course, is in spades, and Alvaro Mutis even has a recently completed collection of his work put out by NYRB, and then there is the more recent arrival of Juan Gabriel Vasquez, all of whom I have read or intend to read in the next 74 days. Then there is a small collection of memoirs that pop up on lists, sometimes a book or two analysing the state of paramilitaries and government and drug wars in the country, a few tomes trying to make sense of the complex history, and then, on every list, is this book. Short Walks from Bogota.
To say the least, I wasn’t exactly surprised when my local big box book store didn’t have it in stock, but I don’t expect much from them. I was, though, pleasantly surprised when my local library did have a copy, which I grabbed and started reading while walking home sliding on slippery, ice-caked sidewalks and doing my best not to slam my face into the ground, all the while chuckling at the thought that the treachery of ice doesn’t exist in Medellin but is, actually, a wonder of grand proportions, if I am to trust Marquez.
To be honest, the book starts off strong and then trails off into something that loses its heart in the middle, and then, in the final ten pages, tries to reorient itself in something that sounds a little too kitschy for its own good.
The beginning is fun and fascinating, even beautiful. Tom, the author, talks about his personal history with Colombia - he is a long-time admirer of the country and its people. And you get that sense early on - he has a good understanding of the state of things, and for much of the first three or four chapters the book feels like it is going to become an attempt to explain the people of Colombia. How I would have loved to have heard about that - and effort to explain how the people of Colombia remain so remarkably resilient despite the many crises that have plagued their day to day lives, so many efforts by so many groups to make their living unbearable. Are they even resilient? Or are they actually just getting by? I’m not sure. I wish I knew.
Somehow, in the middle of the book, Tom gets completely distracted from exploring the people of Colombia and, instead, decides to use them as weak vehicles to explain the political and military history of Colombia for the past 70 years. Oddly enough, he doesn’t tell it particularly well, and even a close reader like myself comes away without the sense that I understand the history particularly well. Maybe that was the point - Colombia is complex. But there are better ways to tell that story than by talking about the rich, the powerful, the generals, the presidents, the men. I wondered for much of the middle, and right to the very end of the book, where the voice of Colombia was in this book about Colombia.
I can’t fault him for his politics, though, and it is clear that this passionate man is wanting to see some degree of justice in a country so consistent in its ability to not achieve any. He seems to be as frustrated as a Colombian by the corruption, the human rights abuses, the enormous class divide, the displacement of millions of people, and seems to have a sense that things could be dramatically better - particularly better if the divide between the classes wasn’t so acute. And so I appreciated reading a book about Colombia from the perspective of a fellow leftie. If only it was a book written about the people it would have been much better. Maybe, even, if he was written out of the book a bit more - though I don’t think Tom is the issue here so much as his feeling that he has to write a history of Colombia for Colombians.
I suspect they have those stories bottled up inside them.
I remember when writing my first, second, and third drafts of my first graduate thesis, my advisor kept coming back to me with comments about my conclusion, saying that I was making grand statements about human nature (or the nature of the humans I studied) for which I had no real evidence. I didn’t much like this. I was convinced that I had presented plenty of evidence towards these ends but had saved developing them for the very end - these discussions about the humanity of these people was actually the heart of my argument. But ultimately he was right, and I realized it after my fifth draft, and I started correcting it, and suddenly I started having a good deal more success with my work.
I thought the same of the ending of this book as my advisor had thought of my work.
Lots of statements about Colombia and Colombians, about their very own form of happiness, about their very own sense of resilience and heart, about their means of organizing life and of preserving themselves, about the role of family, about the grand divide, about joy, but so little discussion about any of these in the heart of the narrative that it all seemed somewhat disconnected from the rest of the work. Like a curve ball. Like reading the middle of this book was a waste of time.
Thankfully it wasn’t - I know more about Colombia now than I did two weeks ago, and I guess that is what I wanted. Kind of.
December 10, 2014
Columbia. Just the very name brings up images of drug cartels, paramilitary gangs, and a country on the brink of chaos. And in the past this was true, thousands have been massacred, or killed in fighting between rival gangs and the state, or have just disappeared; either by the state or they happened to be in the way of powerful peoples interests.
But Columbia is starting to change. As it stumbles from terrorism to democracy and slowly opens it arms to foreign visitors, Feiling returns to this scarred country. based in Bogota, he ventures to places that have not been accessible until recently. He meets the last nomadic tribe, former guerrilla fighters, and some of the new crop of millionaires who are riding high as the economy grows at an unprecedented rate. Travelling through the lush landscape and thick jungles, he contemplates the new state of the nation, from the unrelenting poverty gaps between the elite and the populace, the historical context of how this country got to where it is now and the fragile future that it faces.
It is a fascinating book, densely packed with facts and background detail, it never looses sight of the struggle that the people still face, with the spectre of the past looking over them. Even though this can be a brutal place to live, they still manage to be happy in the face of all this. They have a long way to go to reach stability, but they have taken those first important steps.
But Columbia is starting to change. As it stumbles from terrorism to democracy and slowly opens it arms to foreign visitors, Feiling returns to this scarred country. based in Bogota, he ventures to places that have not been accessible until recently. He meets the last nomadic tribe, former guerrilla fighters, and some of the new crop of millionaires who are riding high as the economy grows at an unprecedented rate. Travelling through the lush landscape and thick jungles, he contemplates the new state of the nation, from the unrelenting poverty gaps between the elite and the populace, the historical context of how this country got to where it is now and the fragile future that it faces.
It is a fascinating book, densely packed with facts and background detail, it never looses sight of the struggle that the people still face, with the spectre of the past looking over them. Even though this can be a brutal place to live, they still manage to be happy in the face of all this. They have a long way to go to reach stability, but they have taken those first important steps.
December 2, 2018
Bądźmy szczerzy. Z czym kojarzy się nam Kolumbia? Z kokainą, z nielegalnymi organizacjami zbrojnymi, z ciągłym poczuciem zagrożenia? Na pewno znamy również Shakirę, Pablo Escobara i Gabriela Márqueza. Być może wiemy również o kolorowym miasteczku kolonialnym Salento, o magicznej Las Lajas lub bajecznym Jeziorze Guatape.
Z mediów nadal wynika, że lepiej odpuścić sobie wyjazd do tego państwa. Wojny gangów i karteli narkotykowych przecież wciąż mają tam miejsce. Czy tak jest jednak naprawdę? Na co powinniśmy być przygotowani przed podróżą do Kolumbii? Czy ten kraj w ogóle zaczyna się zmieniać?
Muszę przyznać, że ta pozycja przyprawiła mnie o mocne bóle głowy. Tom Feiling rzuca czytelnikowi pod nogi kłody w postaci długich zdań przepełnionych datami i nazwiskami. Tej książki nie można czytać ot tak. Wręcz przeciwnie, trzeba się maksymalnie skupić na tym, co autor chce nam przekazać. Co prawda przemierzamy wraz z nim interesujące zakamarki slumsów w Bogocie, dzikie połacie dżungli czy małe kolumbijskie wioski, ale to nie jest wcale taka przyjemna wędrówka. Męczy ona niesamowicie, zmusza do bycia na wysokich obrotach i ciągłych rozważań na temat przeczytanych treści.
Poznajemy południowoamerykański kraj, który pomimo trudnej sytuacji na arenie międzynarodowej, bardzo szybko rozwija się pod względem gospodarczym. Widzimy ludzi pochodzących z różnych warstw społecznych. Biali członkowie bogatych elit przeplatają się na kartach tej książki z osobami, które każdego dnia walczą o to, aby mieć co włożyć do garnka.
Odniosłam wrażenie, że z tej pozycji wcale nie można wyciągnąć niczego nowego. Czy wynika to z nagromadzenia dużej ilości informacji historycznych? No cóż, Tom Feiling zrzucił na mnie całą masę politycznych zagadnień, przez co poczułam się przytłoczona ich ciężarem. Duża część tej książki poświęcona jest Rewolucyjnym Siłom Zbrojnym Kolumbii, czyli grupie partyzanckiej, która przez około 50 lat walczyła z rządem. Poznajemy historie jej członków, z którymi autor miał okazję porozmawiać podczas swoich wizyt. Słyszymy o porwaniach, odcinaniu kończyn i innych okropnych działaniach wojennych.
Powiem tak. Sam temat jest interesujący, jednak sposób jego prezentacji mnie do siebie nie przekonał. Nie wiem, czy jest to kwestia wydania, czy samego stylu pisania autora. Książkę czyta się naprawdę ciężko a do tego bardzo powoli. Nagromadzenie tych wszystkich historycznych, politycznych, ekonomicznych faktów sprawia, że odnajdzie się w niej jedynie ten, kto po prostu lubi taką tematykę. Czy jest to reportaż? Myślę, że nie. Tom Feiling często porusza jakieś ciekawe zagadnienie, ale po krótkiej rozmowie z bohaterem porzuca je na rzecz kolejnych faktów dotyczących historii. Wynika zatem, że jest to bardziej książka podróżnicza. Ale czy na pewno? Autor opowiada o swoich obserwacjach i przeskakuje z miejsca na miejsce, ale nie wnosi żadnego świeżego spojrzenia na nowoczesną stronę Kolumbii. Mnie ten tytuł skojarzył się z obszernymi podręcznikami do nauki historii, które niby zawierają mnóstwo informacji, które mogłyby zaciekawić czytelnika, ale z tajemniczych względów tego nie robią. "Drogami wokół Bogoty. Podróże po nowej Kolumbii" czytałam przez blisko dwa miesiące. To powinno być najlepsze podsumowanie mojej opinii.
P.S. Daję dwie gwiazdki, ponieważ pomimo całego zmęczenia wynikającego z czytania tej książki, nie mogę powiedzieć, że mi się nie podobała.
Z mediów nadal wynika, że lepiej odpuścić sobie wyjazd do tego państwa. Wojny gangów i karteli narkotykowych przecież wciąż mają tam miejsce. Czy tak jest jednak naprawdę? Na co powinniśmy być przygotowani przed podróżą do Kolumbii? Czy ten kraj w ogóle zaczyna się zmieniać?
Muszę przyznać, że ta pozycja przyprawiła mnie o mocne bóle głowy. Tom Feiling rzuca czytelnikowi pod nogi kłody w postaci długich zdań przepełnionych datami i nazwiskami. Tej książki nie można czytać ot tak. Wręcz przeciwnie, trzeba się maksymalnie skupić na tym, co autor chce nam przekazać. Co prawda przemierzamy wraz z nim interesujące zakamarki slumsów w Bogocie, dzikie połacie dżungli czy małe kolumbijskie wioski, ale to nie jest wcale taka przyjemna wędrówka. Męczy ona niesamowicie, zmusza do bycia na wysokich obrotach i ciągłych rozważań na temat przeczytanych treści.
Poznajemy południowoamerykański kraj, który pomimo trudnej sytuacji na arenie międzynarodowej, bardzo szybko rozwija się pod względem gospodarczym. Widzimy ludzi pochodzących z różnych warstw społecznych. Biali członkowie bogatych elit przeplatają się na kartach tej książki z osobami, które każdego dnia walczą o to, aby mieć co włożyć do garnka.
Odniosłam wrażenie, że z tej pozycji wcale nie można wyciągnąć niczego nowego. Czy wynika to z nagromadzenia dużej ilości informacji historycznych? No cóż, Tom Feiling zrzucił na mnie całą masę politycznych zagadnień, przez co poczułam się przytłoczona ich ciężarem. Duża część tej książki poświęcona jest Rewolucyjnym Siłom Zbrojnym Kolumbii, czyli grupie partyzanckiej, która przez około 50 lat walczyła z rządem. Poznajemy historie jej członków, z którymi autor miał okazję porozmawiać podczas swoich wizyt. Słyszymy o porwaniach, odcinaniu kończyn i innych okropnych działaniach wojennych.
Powiem tak. Sam temat jest interesujący, jednak sposób jego prezentacji mnie do siebie nie przekonał. Nie wiem, czy jest to kwestia wydania, czy samego stylu pisania autora. Książkę czyta się naprawdę ciężko a do tego bardzo powoli. Nagromadzenie tych wszystkich historycznych, politycznych, ekonomicznych faktów sprawia, że odnajdzie się w niej jedynie ten, kto po prostu lubi taką tematykę. Czy jest to reportaż? Myślę, że nie. Tom Feiling często porusza jakieś ciekawe zagadnienie, ale po krótkiej rozmowie z bohaterem porzuca je na rzecz kolejnych faktów dotyczących historii. Wynika zatem, że jest to bardziej książka podróżnicza. Ale czy na pewno? Autor opowiada o swoich obserwacjach i przeskakuje z miejsca na miejsce, ale nie wnosi żadnego świeżego spojrzenia na nowoczesną stronę Kolumbii. Mnie ten tytuł skojarzył się z obszernymi podręcznikami do nauki historii, które niby zawierają mnóstwo informacji, które mogłyby zaciekawić czytelnika, ale z tajemniczych względów tego nie robią. "Drogami wokół Bogoty. Podróże po nowej Kolumbii" czytałam przez blisko dwa miesiące. To powinno być najlepsze podsumowanie mojej opinii.
P.S. Daję dwie gwiazdki, ponieważ pomimo całego zmęczenia wynikającego z czytania tej książki, nie mogę powiedzieć, że mi się nie podobała.
November 24, 2012
The catchy title of this book is a bit misleading: the author travels quite a way from Bogota and often by public transport. But no matter, he sets out to give an impressionistic portrait of modern Colombia and its recent past, and he succeeds. It's likely that someone reading this book will have a desire to find out about the country based on some kind of prior interest - a wish to go there, knowledge of its drug wars or its guerilla fighting, or interest in its ample literature. Feiling won't let you down.
I've made a brief visit to Colombia, and from this and my own knowledge of Latin America his impressions of the country ring true. He does rely quite a bit on published sources, but then Colombia's violent past is pretty complex, and he gets away with recounting the history by interweaving personal experiences of the people he meets on his 'walks'.
His liking for the country is clear, even if his frustrations are also evident. He has created a readable and informative book, of which I think most Colombians would not be ashamed and with which they may even be pleased.
I've made a brief visit to Colombia, and from this and my own knowledge of Latin America his impressions of the country ring true. He does rely quite a bit on published sources, but then Colombia's violent past is pretty complex, and he gets away with recounting the history by interweaving personal experiences of the people he meets on his 'walks'.
His liking for the country is clear, even if his frustrations are also evident. He has created a readable and informative book, of which I think most Colombians would not be ashamed and with which they may even be pleased.
October 8, 2018
I had a nagging feeling when I started the book that it might prove too dry for me. Unfortunately, I was right. Others have described his style as journalistic, which I found a euphemism for dull. Moreover, I found the tone of the book unrelentingly grim. Writing this review to warn others who have doubts about starting it, or are tempted to bail on it as I did.
October 19, 2012
Not what I expected. I am about to embark on a trip to Colombia...and this book filled me with some negativity and trepidation. Some of the historical references in the book were helpfu - albeit from a European's perspective.
September 30, 2025
I read this book five years ago when it was seven years past its publication date and enjoyed it though, because I had other sources of information on life in Colombia, I enjoyed and thought it well written I also thought it was not very deep or interesting and already more-or-less out-of-date. I have an in built prejudice against most travel books because they date so quickly and unless the author is of a chameleon nature, they are often superficial. This goes even more forcefully for books on almost any Central or South American country but it is almost a truism where books about Colombia are concerned.
To understand Colombia you don't need to read A Hundred years of Solitude but you should know who Jorge Eliécer Gaitán was because his assination in 1948 is at the root of Colombia's 20th century history, in a sense far more than narcotics (anyone interested to learn more should read the incomparable 'The Shape of the Ruins' by Juan Gabriel Vasquez).
Of course you can learn things from these books but you can learn a lot more by reading much better books.
I give it three stars because it wasn't as useless or mediocre immediately upon publication. You can throw a loaf of bread for being stale but you can't blame for loosing its freshness.
To understand Colombia you don't need to read A Hundred years of Solitude but you should know who Jorge Eliécer Gaitán was because his assination in 1948 is at the root of Colombia's 20th century history, in a sense far more than narcotics (anyone interested to learn more should read the incomparable 'The Shape of the Ruins' by Juan Gabriel Vasquez).
Of course you can learn things from these books but you can learn a lot more by reading much better books.
I give it three stars because it wasn't as useless or mediocre immediately upon publication. You can throw a loaf of bread for being stale but you can't blame for loosing its freshness.
November 18, 2019
I close this book and have this weird emotion. I’m still trying to figure it out.
Before I opened, I felt embarrassed. Embarrassed at my lack of knowledge of Colombia. To me, Colombia is a narco-state where murder is common and included soccer players who conceded own goals. And the author revels in this embarrassment:
I daresay most of the millions of casual cocaine users don’t know much about Colombia either.
But I’m a good boy. At least, I'm a mostly good boy who is willing to learn. And apparently I’ll discover more about life in general visiting Colombia than Norway:
I was reminded of something that a friend had once said to me: ‘If I go to Norway I can see that their experience isn’t a universal one. No Norwegian lives like poor Colombians do. But go up to the Zona Rosa in Bogotá and you can see that the people live there much as people do in Norway. That’s why what’s happening in Colombia is of more universal importance than what’s happening in Norway because we have first, second and third worlds living side by side’...
…though maybe I am not feeling that voyeuristic.
If you want to feel pain, read this book. Or parts of it. There are some heartbreakingly sad stories from Maria and Mary and Teresa and Mira. There's a straightforwardness and restrained emotion to their retellings and, for a lack of a better phrase, these are the high points of the book in terms of impact. Attempts to lighten the mood don't go so well. For example, it's apparently. unfair to categorise Colombia as the kidnapping capital of the world. After all, there are countries with worse rates, like... Venezuela and... Haiti. The author has quite a glass half full take on the inability of the Colombian state to control internal violence:
When there is no police officer to turn to, people become surprisingly well mannered.
My emotional compass is also confused by the author's unforced curmudgeonness. One time he wonders if Carlos is jealous of him because the author has managed to be published. Another time he groans inwardly at the fearfulness of the gilded youth like Katalina. Eating at the McCormicks reminds him there is no Colombian Jamie Oliver. Vallenato music isn't as good as the blues as the music isn't sad enough. A hotel with marble in it is deeply pretentious. Sometimes you wonder why he's even there:
There was next to nobody there and nothing to do. The following morning, I watched a pelican fly by. In the afternoon, I watched two dogs mating on the beach.
Perhaps his purpose is to stare at the Colombian people. Some have eyes like Sophie Loren and could be models, or flawless skin. Some get less favourable reviews like the man as paunchy as a bull. A woman is doughty. Another looks to have had too much plastic surgery. Then there's Flor, whose girth was so perfectly round that her behind and belly were effectively one and the same. There's a running commentary that just feels a bit shallow, and wouldn't be made if he was travelling through a Western country:
She had high cheekbones, a wide Asiatic face and beautiful, open brown eyes. I watched the glistening skin on her jaw as she turned to look the way we'd come, her slender neck and the outline of her breast where the afternoon light passed through her dress.
This is about someone he twice refers to as a girl.
The lack of editorial control also leaves me feeling confused. He tells us that Colombia is a microcosm of the world with a white skinned elite. But, he wants to make clear, the civil war is not ethnically driven. But, he must then remind us, the ruling class is white. So I have no idea what he means. And these unfinished thoughts continue. While only 170 people survived a 16th century jungle expedition, the author boldly leaves it to the reader to calculate the starting number. Apparently more Britons than Colombians died fighting the Spanish, which is surely only true by taking the narrowest and most heartless definition of "fighting." And most egregiously, the author in 2010 sees two boys who look about 10 years old, two boys who were also born no later than 1989. I guess the fountain of youth truly is to be found in Colombia.
This is a book written by a foreigner with a relatively deep knowledge of Colombia. His experiences may even be the most accurate depiction of the country. But it feels passionless, skating along while reminding us that Colombia rains quite a bit and has leaky buildings. This was not the book I was looking for.
I guess that weird emotion I am feeling... ...is disappointment.
Before I opened, I felt embarrassed. Embarrassed at my lack of knowledge of Colombia. To me, Colombia is a narco-state where murder is common and included soccer players who conceded own goals. And the author revels in this embarrassment:
I daresay most of the millions of casual cocaine users don’t know much about Colombia either.
But I’m a good boy. At least, I'm a mostly good boy who is willing to learn. And apparently I’ll discover more about life in general visiting Colombia than Norway:
I was reminded of something that a friend had once said to me: ‘If I go to Norway I can see that their experience isn’t a universal one. No Norwegian lives like poor Colombians do. But go up to the Zona Rosa in Bogotá and you can see that the people live there much as people do in Norway. That’s why what’s happening in Colombia is of more universal importance than what’s happening in Norway because we have first, second and third worlds living side by side’...
…though maybe I am not feeling that voyeuristic.
If you want to feel pain, read this book. Or parts of it. There are some heartbreakingly sad stories from Maria and Mary and Teresa and Mira. There's a straightforwardness and restrained emotion to their retellings and, for a lack of a better phrase, these are the high points of the book in terms of impact. Attempts to lighten the mood don't go so well. For example, it's apparently. unfair to categorise Colombia as the kidnapping capital of the world. After all, there are countries with worse rates, like... Venezuela and... Haiti. The author has quite a glass half full take on the inability of the Colombian state to control internal violence:
When there is no police officer to turn to, people become surprisingly well mannered.
My emotional compass is also confused by the author's unforced curmudgeonness. One time he wonders if Carlos is jealous of him because the author has managed to be published. Another time he groans inwardly at the fearfulness of the gilded youth like Katalina. Eating at the McCormicks reminds him there is no Colombian Jamie Oliver. Vallenato music isn't as good as the blues as the music isn't sad enough. A hotel with marble in it is deeply pretentious. Sometimes you wonder why he's even there:
There was next to nobody there and nothing to do. The following morning, I watched a pelican fly by. In the afternoon, I watched two dogs mating on the beach.
Perhaps his purpose is to stare at the Colombian people. Some have eyes like Sophie Loren and could be models, or flawless skin. Some get less favourable reviews like the man as paunchy as a bull. A woman is doughty. Another looks to have had too much plastic surgery. Then there's Flor, whose girth was so perfectly round that her behind and belly were effectively one and the same. There's a running commentary that just feels a bit shallow, and wouldn't be made if he was travelling through a Western country:
She had high cheekbones, a wide Asiatic face and beautiful, open brown eyes. I watched the glistening skin on her jaw as she turned to look the way we'd come, her slender neck and the outline of her breast where the afternoon light passed through her dress.
This is about someone he twice refers to as a girl.
The lack of editorial control also leaves me feeling confused. He tells us that Colombia is a microcosm of the world with a white skinned elite. But, he wants to make clear, the civil war is not ethnically driven. But, he must then remind us, the ruling class is white. So I have no idea what he means. And these unfinished thoughts continue. While only 170 people survived a 16th century jungle expedition, the author boldly leaves it to the reader to calculate the starting number. Apparently more Britons than Colombians died fighting the Spanish, which is surely only true by taking the narrowest and most heartless definition of "fighting." And most egregiously, the author in 2010 sees two boys who look about 10 years old, two boys who were also born no later than 1989. I guess the fountain of youth truly is to be found in Colombia.
This is a book written by a foreigner with a relatively deep knowledge of Colombia. His experiences may even be the most accurate depiction of the country. But it feels passionless, skating along while reminding us that Colombia rains quite a bit and has leaky buildings. This was not the book I was looking for.
I guess that weird emotion I am feeling... ...is disappointment.
October 8, 2021
The funniest part of this book is near the end where he asks someone at a Christmas party, after dancing, how Colombians can be so cheerful in such a violent country, and unsurprisingly, the person doesn't want to talk about being cheerful in the face of violence at a Christmas party.
In all seriousness; super interesting, and he's a great travel writer. I'll definitely read Tom Feiling's cocaine book.
In all seriousness; super interesting, and he's a great travel writer. I'll definitely read Tom Feiling's cocaine book.
August 6, 2024
This is now quite outdated (im hoping ??) so not sure if the nerves it’s given me for the trip were intended or still valid ? Idk it’s difficult with countries with such complex recent pasts/hidden presents as an outside bc how immersed can you ever be and when can you try to enjoy a place for the good bits and nature ?! While ofc trying to be conscious of the real structures hmm! Good to get some background
August 5, 2019
This book provides a great perspective on the transformation of Colombia over the past few decades, through the eyes of an outsider. Feiling's conversations and experiences as he travels throughout the country expose the complexities of effect of the country's tumultuous history on the spirit of its people. Fast-paced and well-researched, I recommend it to anyone who has spent time in Colombia!
September 15, 2014
Superb primer on modern Colombia by an author who has spent a lot of time in the country over the last 15 years. Tom Feiling may not have a lot of time for Garcia Marquez, indeed he goes so far as to propose alternative fictional visions by Hector Abad Faciolince and a completely unknown writer-friend. But he is peerless when discussing the complicated political history of Colombia, especially the blood-curdling violence that has become synonymous with the country in the last three decades. Violence, it transpires, is nothing new - built into the very foundations of the country, spanning the breadth of the 20th century, and continuing right up to the present day. All that tortured history Feiling outlines with a clarity that merits unstinting praise; it comes in very handy when you are trying to figure out right and left, guerrillas and paras and narcos, FARC and ELN and UP and AUC, all apart from each other. Making such sense of this tangled web is an achievement in itself.
What Feiling also shows is the unblinking ferocity of a landed elite that must be unrivalled in its taste for blood, even in a continent as historically cruel as Latin America. True, the armed left were corrupted from the inside out by the narcos. But it is at times physically difficult to read of the right-wing paramilitaries' extermination campaign against the guerrillas and the civilian politicians of the UP, let alone the horrific fate of those innocent campesinos who had the temerity to 'think left' or just the misfortune to live in the wrong place at the wrong time. Trade unionists, teachers, NGO activists - all have their cards fatally marked in Colombia. This is truly a state that has forgotten the distinction between military target and civilian protester, where the masses seems to live in a permanent state of siege. Any hint of organized opposition is conflated with a putative Marxist takeover; hence, elimination of opponents is the only solution. I am not aware of any other Latin American country that is so comprehensively at war with its own citizens. The paramilitaries, the bandas criminales, call them what you will, but their function remains the same. Pinochet killed 3,000 in Chile, the Argentine generals liquidated 30,000. But the Colombian establishment and its armed thugs have conspired to murder and disappear more than 200,000 of its fellow countrymen. All this in a country with a continuous democratic tradition 200 years old!
One wonders if economic growth will really make any difference. I am a firm believer in a certain level of per-capita GDP being absolutely necessary before society mobilizes to swap the old order for a more just one. (Which too may regress eventually, witness the USA and the UK). But will a country as grotesquely unequal as Colombia ever get to that point? Feiling is full of righteous outrage, as befits someone who loves the country deeply and always has time for its common people and its incredible landscapes. He tries to end the book on a note of optimism, but one can't help but feel that it's all a little forced. We'll have to see in another 5-10 years. But how to live with so much impunity in the meantime, so much historical injustice? That's what I can't process in my head, those psychic scars. I think back to the Colombians who loiter around the Elephant & Castle shopping centre in London. All those men guzzling beer on the balcony, who knows what unspeakable tragedies lie buried in their backgrounds?
This sobering account serves as an antidote to the touristy propaganda put out by the state and by clueless Western journos that one often comes across when researching Colombia. If only all travel writers had the integrity and diligence of Feiling. No shallow impressions here; a book like this one puts 95% of the 'travel literature' out there to shame. Here's a man who not only knows the language and history and culture in and out, but has taken the trouble to read widely and interview indiscriminately. On top of that, he has the spirit of adventure that takes him to the farthest-flung places - what can beat those descriptions of travelling by boat through the waterlogged countryside to the old city of Mompos, or reaching the desolate extremity that is Cabo de la Vela. Those passages will linger long in the mind, but the real reason to read and cherish this book is Tom Feiling's angry outsider, tirelessly travelling and trying to see and make others see, trying to understand and make the rest of the world understand the true face of today's Colombia.
PS The link to the Independent's Green War article did raise eyebrows - a couple of sentences that were too similar for comfort...
What Feiling also shows is the unblinking ferocity of a landed elite that must be unrivalled in its taste for blood, even in a continent as historically cruel as Latin America. True, the armed left were corrupted from the inside out by the narcos. But it is at times physically difficult to read of the right-wing paramilitaries' extermination campaign against the guerrillas and the civilian politicians of the UP, let alone the horrific fate of those innocent campesinos who had the temerity to 'think left' or just the misfortune to live in the wrong place at the wrong time. Trade unionists, teachers, NGO activists - all have their cards fatally marked in Colombia. This is truly a state that has forgotten the distinction between military target and civilian protester, where the masses seems to live in a permanent state of siege. Any hint of organized opposition is conflated with a putative Marxist takeover; hence, elimination of opponents is the only solution. I am not aware of any other Latin American country that is so comprehensively at war with its own citizens. The paramilitaries, the bandas criminales, call them what you will, but their function remains the same. Pinochet killed 3,000 in Chile, the Argentine generals liquidated 30,000. But the Colombian establishment and its armed thugs have conspired to murder and disappear more than 200,000 of its fellow countrymen. All this in a country with a continuous democratic tradition 200 years old!
One wonders if economic growth will really make any difference. I am a firm believer in a certain level of per-capita GDP being absolutely necessary before society mobilizes to swap the old order for a more just one. (Which too may regress eventually, witness the USA and the UK). But will a country as grotesquely unequal as Colombia ever get to that point? Feiling is full of righteous outrage, as befits someone who loves the country deeply and always has time for its common people and its incredible landscapes. He tries to end the book on a note of optimism, but one can't help but feel that it's all a little forced. We'll have to see in another 5-10 years. But how to live with so much impunity in the meantime, so much historical injustice? That's what I can't process in my head, those psychic scars. I think back to the Colombians who loiter around the Elephant & Castle shopping centre in London. All those men guzzling beer on the balcony, who knows what unspeakable tragedies lie buried in their backgrounds?
This sobering account serves as an antidote to the touristy propaganda put out by the state and by clueless Western journos that one often comes across when researching Colombia. If only all travel writers had the integrity and diligence of Feiling. No shallow impressions here; a book like this one puts 95% of the 'travel literature' out there to shame. Here's a man who not only knows the language and history and culture in and out, but has taken the trouble to read widely and interview indiscriminately. On top of that, he has the spirit of adventure that takes him to the farthest-flung places - what can beat those descriptions of travelling by boat through the waterlogged countryside to the old city of Mompos, or reaching the desolate extremity that is Cabo de la Vela. Those passages will linger long in the mind, but the real reason to read and cherish this book is Tom Feiling's angry outsider, tirelessly travelling and trying to see and make others see, trying to understand and make the rest of the world understand the true face of today's Colombia.
PS The link to the Independent's Green War article did raise eyebrows - a couple of sentences that were too similar for comfort...
August 7, 2018
A lot of insights about the situation in Colombia. It's history, culture, and many attempts to explain the various difficulties Colombia has had over the years, with conflicts etc. Colombia remains a bit of a mystery, an idiosyncratic country in many ways. A lot of this seems to come from the fact that the country is controlled effectively by a very small group and there is limited social mobility for people who also seem to have on the whole relatively little desire and ambition to advance their social position. Other than those who choose to advance themselves via various illegal means near the bottom of the social hierarchy, joining groups promoting violence, for instance, as maybe their only opportunity to get somewhere in life. Yet through all of these difficulties Colombians remain generally as very happy and friendly people.
As he says near the end: "My time in Colombia had been a welcome break from life in London. While sociable, they weren't ones for the gossip and backbiting I overheard on British streets. There was none of the cutting sarcasm or self-deprecation that comes with British company. Despite their country's fearsome reputation, Colombians seemed more hospitable, better mannered, and kinder - both to themselves and others - than a lot of British people." (pp 265)
I would concur in these sentiments from my experience in Colombia.
There are not many resources out there in English for good insider information about Colombia, as it is now, and its recent history. The only thing missing here is the fact that Colombia is changing so quickly and this book is now a long way out of date for the latest news. I would be interested to see an update or some other similar book to explain recent events with Petro, a former guerrilla running for president against Duque, who won in the end. From my own experience while there many Colombians felt they were left with a difficult choice between extreme right wing, conservative figure of Duque and extreme left figure Petro with a dubious background as member of a guerrilla group M-19 in the 1980's. Colombians from my experience feared going a similar way to Venezuela. Yet at the same time there does definitely seem to be a growing left wing movement now in Colombia in the mainstream. The longer that things remain more or less peaceful, the more these movements will develop in the coming years.
As he says near the end: "My time in Colombia had been a welcome break from life in London. While sociable, they weren't ones for the gossip and backbiting I overheard on British streets. There was none of the cutting sarcasm or self-deprecation that comes with British company. Despite their country's fearsome reputation, Colombians seemed more hospitable, better mannered, and kinder - both to themselves and others - than a lot of British people." (pp 265)
I would concur in these sentiments from my experience in Colombia.
There are not many resources out there in English for good insider information about Colombia, as it is now, and its recent history. The only thing missing here is the fact that Colombia is changing so quickly and this book is now a long way out of date for the latest news. I would be interested to see an update or some other similar book to explain recent events with Petro, a former guerrilla running for president against Duque, who won in the end. From my own experience while there many Colombians felt they were left with a difficult choice between extreme right wing, conservative figure of Duque and extreme left figure Petro with a dubious background as member of a guerrilla group M-19 in the 1980's. Colombians from my experience feared going a similar way to Venezuela. Yet at the same time there does definitely seem to be a growing left wing movement now in Colombia in the mainstream. The longer that things remain more or less peaceful, the more these movements will develop in the coming years.
October 15, 2019
I'm tempted to cast Tom Feiling as an outsider who has no business writing a book about another country; however, I think he attempts to do so in a respectful manner. The majority of the content - apart from some sweeping statements that he makes about Colombia - is based on direct quotations from Colombians with whom he interacts or from history books. However, as someone who lived and worked in Colombia for two years myself, I did find it surprising that he didn't know what some basic things such as ahuyama were. It also makes me wonder about his ability to understand some of the complex topics discussed in some of his interviews without plugging in some of the holes himself. Some of the accents in Colombia can be rather thick, even after 'brushing up on his Spanish,' as Feiling describes himself as doing early in the work.
My larger problem with the book, though, is that it's boring. It's part history, part journalism, part travel blog, and part personal essays. The structure doesn't necessarily condemn it to being boring, but the way in which the book was formatted had me struggling to push through the final chapters.
My larger problem with the book, though, is that it's boring. It's part history, part journalism, part travel blog, and part personal essays. The structure doesn't necessarily condemn it to being boring, but the way in which the book was formatted had me struggling to push through the final chapters.
October 23, 2014
Part travelogue and part political history lesson, Short Walks from Bogotá was as illuminating as it was entertaining. I highly recommend the book to anyone who is curious about the country or is planning on visiting.
Although the book is very straightforward in its descriptions of the challenges the country faces and the threat to its very Democracy due (in large part) to a long history of class inequality, the author also does a great job of describing the pride the people feel for Colombia. He mentions towards the end of the book how he was once thanked by a Colombiano for visiting the country, and it made me remember the surprise I felt when a shopkeeper said the same thing to me during my first visit to the country. That's really how the people are.
This is the best book for a traveller to Colombia that I've yet read for someone who wants to learn more than just what's in the guidebook
Although the book is very straightforward in its descriptions of the challenges the country faces and the threat to its very Democracy due (in large part) to a long history of class inequality, the author also does a great job of describing the pride the people feel for Colombia. He mentions towards the end of the book how he was once thanked by a Colombiano for visiting the country, and it made me remember the surprise I felt when a shopkeeper said the same thing to me during my first visit to the country. That's really how the people are.
This is the best book for a traveller to Colombia that I've yet read for someone who wants to learn more than just what's in the guidebook
March 23, 2016
Unfortunately this didn't live up to the high expectations I had after Feiling's fabulous, five-star 'The Candy Machine'.
I feel a bit cheated in the sense that this is less a Journey in the New Colombia but a Journey into Colombia's Dark Past. It looks backwards rather than at the current state of play and is overwhelmingly a description of violence in Colombia. I didn't get any sense of hope or change for the future, which, as a resident of Colombia, is what I feel.
If you are interested in Colombia's history and learning more about guerrillas, paramilitaries, politics and the army, then I think you will enjoy this far more than I did. I did learn quite a bit from reading this book, such as origin of the name of the barracks where my brother-in-law is based, but on the whole each disparate chapter was a long and depressing read peppered with some irrelevant details in the attempt to steer it towards the genre of travel writing.
I feel a bit cheated in the sense that this is less a Journey in the New Colombia but a Journey into Colombia's Dark Past. It looks backwards rather than at the current state of play and is overwhelmingly a description of violence in Colombia. I didn't get any sense of hope or change for the future, which, as a resident of Colombia, is what I feel.
If you are interested in Colombia's history and learning more about guerrillas, paramilitaries, politics and the army, then I think you will enjoy this far more than I did. I did learn quite a bit from reading this book, such as origin of the name of the barracks where my brother-in-law is based, but on the whole each disparate chapter was a long and depressing read peppered with some irrelevant details in the attempt to steer it towards the genre of travel writing.
July 13, 2013
I knew that this book was no travel guide, and I was looking forward to reading some insightful comments on contemporary Colombia that go beyomt the usual touristy stuff and the things that get into the news. It was a real dissapointment - in every page I could feel that it was written by a journalist of average skills, with a keen eye for everything sensational, bloody, violent, horrible. Don't let the book format fool you - you will get a written format of some news special, with some academic style review of Colombia's troubled past and present. What I found especially irritating was the authors smug know-it-all self righteousness, and the way he openly despises the more privileged part of society, generally viewing everything from a superior vantage point of the spoilt white First World man.
July 20, 2020
https://yocatsbooks.wordpress.com/202...
I wrote a review on my blog explaining the issues I had with this book.
I wrote a review on my blog explaining the issues I had with this book.
June 25, 2023
I learned a lot about la violencia. I must admit I would not have read this book had it had a title reflecting la violencia; I had been expecting more of a tour book. I enjoyed how he describes his travels to different places, so the history presented is lively. Feiling includes many personal interviews with victims and perpetrators. I was intrigued by the top emerald dealer from Japan. He chronicles the violence from the Spaniards till 2010, including the brutal ways people were murdered with tongues pulled through throats, stones put in guts and then sunk in rivers...truly horrific.
I was struck by this quote from a woman, Mira, running CARE Centre for Reconciliation and Reparation in Antioquia and whose children and husband were murdered within days of each other:
"It's not a bad thing to have feelings of hatred or to want revenge,' Mira told me. 'The question is: what do you do with those feelings? An eye for an eye is the worst thing you can do. That just means that everyone becomes blind. Committing yourself to non-violence doesn't just mean that you don't throw the stone. It means convincing the man with the stone in his hand not to throw it. If we can just exercise some self-control, we can build ourselves a house with those stones. We can start building a different kind of country.'"(172).
He also talks about music, ie vallenato and how Colombians are one of the happiest people in the world according to the Happy Planet Index, despite la violencia and tend not to dwell on their problems according to a Colombian he interviewed (262). However, they are the least trusting (263). He notes that family is highly trusted and those outside it not. "Spending time with members of your family requires you to show great tolerance for the expectations and demands of others. It also means sacrificing a lot of freedom, in return for which you get great security. 'But feeling secure doesn't take up much of your attention,'Giovanny said, 'so my family spends a lot of time watching the TV together..."(263). He observes a lack of solitude in Colombians, a lack of activities requiring isolation(264) and were not bothered by "lonely ambition"..."They seemed to have little interest in self-expression, self-discovery or self-anything for that matter(264).
I also appreciate the early history of Colombia. I did not realize the British had been contracted by Bolivar (a small amount) to fight for independence. There is a British cemetary in Bogota.
I was struck by this quote from a woman, Mira, running CARE Centre for Reconciliation and Reparation in Antioquia and whose children and husband were murdered within days of each other:
"It's not a bad thing to have feelings of hatred or to want revenge,' Mira told me. 'The question is: what do you do with those feelings? An eye for an eye is the worst thing you can do. That just means that everyone becomes blind. Committing yourself to non-violence doesn't just mean that you don't throw the stone. It means convincing the man with the stone in his hand not to throw it. If we can just exercise some self-control, we can build ourselves a house with those stones. We can start building a different kind of country.'"(172).
He also talks about music, ie vallenato and how Colombians are one of the happiest people in the world according to the Happy Planet Index, despite la violencia and tend not to dwell on their problems according to a Colombian he interviewed (262). However, they are the least trusting (263). He notes that family is highly trusted and those outside it not. "Spending time with members of your family requires you to show great tolerance for the expectations and demands of others. It also means sacrificing a lot of freedom, in return for which you get great security. 'But feeling secure doesn't take up much of your attention,'Giovanny said, 'so my family spends a lot of time watching the TV together..."(263). He observes a lack of solitude in Colombians, a lack of activities requiring isolation(264) and were not bothered by "lonely ambition"..."They seemed to have little interest in self-expression, self-discovery or self-anything for that matter(264).
I also appreciate the early history of Colombia. I did not realize the British had been contracted by Bolivar (a small amount) to fight for independence. There is a British cemetary in Bogota.
March 24, 2024
Things have changed quite a bit since this book was written but with that in mind it still has relevance today as background reading. Politically, I mostly agree with the author’s take on Colombia, and culturally also but to a slightly lesser degree (spot on talking about the food but not so much on the character of Colombians, who are, despite his claims, generally sarcastic and gossipy). There are moments when it seemed like the author didn’t have the information quite clear (most notably when talking about Vallenato) and when discussing Uribe - a very divisive character - he appeared to vacillate depending on who he had last spoken with. Generally an enjoyable and well-informed read but it could do without the offensive paragraph on page 222 where he describes perving over an indigenous woman on the bus. Apart from that a good snapshot of Colombia just over a decade ago.
August 9, 2024
Hmmm... De manier waarop deze Britse journalist over Colombia schrijft lijkt meer op een beschrijving van een ramptoerist die een eenzijdig beeld van Colombia neerzet, dan dat het echt laat zien hoe het land door de Colombianen beleefd wordt. Natuurlijk is de geschiedenis van Colombia sterk beïnvloed door de strijd tussen de overheid, guerrilla groepen, paramilitairen en onschuldige burgers er tussenin, maar er is weinig nuance, veel bias in de geïnterviewden en niet sterk onderbouwde argumenten over hoe het land nu verder moet.
June 1, 2017
Eye opener. . .
August 9, 2020
Shockingly condescending
April 1, 2024
Worth the read for the historical context on Colombia’s history. Didn’t love the writing and structure
March 13, 2019
This book is an interesting look at modern Colombia, but man, it is really all over the place and the author is just a liiiittle too self-satisfied.
December 11, 2025
gave good context for a lot of what we saw / learnt / heard from people in colombia, but some parts were way way too tangential and dry for my little inattentive, rotted brain
February 24, 2019
So first, the positives. “Short Walks from Bogota: Journeys in the New Colombia” is pretty well written, a relatively easy read. Parts of it were informative and certainly the author traveled around the country, if missing most of what he saw out there.
Now the problems, which are too myriad to count so I’m just gonna focus on a few. The first problem starts with the title. This book is not about “the New Colombia” – it is a regurgitation of the old one. There are two Colombias really; one pre-Uribe, and one post. This book is about pre-Uribe; before the country entered what history will probably consider its golden period, thanks to the policies of ‘democratic security’ that Tom Feiling so derides. The issue really with Feiling’s travels and perceptions is that they are so fantastically one-sided as to be risible. I am not going to go through the book to pick out all the cases when he lambasted the government (specifically the Uribe administration; he seems to be ok with Santos though Santos was far more part of the ‘olgarquia’ that he blames for all of Colombia’s problems than Uribe ever was), because that would require rereading parts of it and it was bad enough once. But here are some gems: “The Colombian government has never objected to terrorism per se; what they object to are the ‘enemies of the state’ who sometimes, but far from always, take up arms against it.” He goes on to call Colombia a ‘genocidal democracy’ (what could that even mean??). As for the FARC? “…the FARC’s military offensive doesn’t help…” Doesn’t help? 60 years of abducting children, terrorizing villages, destroying livelihoods, kidnapping businessmen – no, Tom, that certainly ‘doesn’t help’.
Sigh. The main problem with this naïve narrative is that it basically follows the same line of all socialists; that the main problem with the FARC was their (defensible but unfortunate) use of violence to achieve their aims. There is no understanding that those aims are so brutal and horrible as to make the total war waged against them not only legitimate but necessary. Oh, don’t take my word for it – go to Venezuela today, where the FARC’s “guy in Caracas” did win a vote. Venezuela is now the worst country in the world – with perhaps the dubious exception of North Korea. Four or five million have fled; 300,000 have been murdered for any reason you want to imagine; trillions of $$ have been stolen or are missing; it is the biggest drug transit country; thousands of people are systematically tortured in prison; and they are on the verge of (or perhaps already well into) the first famine in modern Latin American history (with the exception perhaps of the Periodo Especial in Cuba, another FARC wet dream).
I’m not gonna try and be baited into the “well, but what about the AUC and the ‘paras’”, etc. Of course the war was horrible; of course the paras and extra-judicial kills are terrible. We will not engage in logical fallacies people use to pretend that when I criticize the FARC I’m actually a fascist (incidentally called a ‘tu quoque’ fallacy). Our own American civil war was terrible and, ya, General Sherman in today’s terms might be considered a war criminal. But we had to do what we had to do to free the slaves. If we listened to the French socialists bemoaning the poor south against the might of an oppressive north, we’d still have slaves today. These foreign pedantic apologists for those who would do tremendous evil, if only they had the chance (a chance they have had in Caracas), need to consider – they are part of the reason Colombia cannot put an end to its nasty entrenched wars. Books like “Short Walks from Bogota” do more harm than they do good.
Now the problems, which are too myriad to count so I’m just gonna focus on a few. The first problem starts with the title. This book is not about “the New Colombia” – it is a regurgitation of the old one. There are two Colombias really; one pre-Uribe, and one post. This book is about pre-Uribe; before the country entered what history will probably consider its golden period, thanks to the policies of ‘democratic security’ that Tom Feiling so derides. The issue really with Feiling’s travels and perceptions is that they are so fantastically one-sided as to be risible. I am not going to go through the book to pick out all the cases when he lambasted the government (specifically the Uribe administration; he seems to be ok with Santos though Santos was far more part of the ‘olgarquia’ that he blames for all of Colombia’s problems than Uribe ever was), because that would require rereading parts of it and it was bad enough once. But here are some gems: “The Colombian government has never objected to terrorism per se; what they object to are the ‘enemies of the state’ who sometimes, but far from always, take up arms against it.” He goes on to call Colombia a ‘genocidal democracy’ (what could that even mean??). As for the FARC? “…the FARC’s military offensive doesn’t help…” Doesn’t help? 60 years of abducting children, terrorizing villages, destroying livelihoods, kidnapping businessmen – no, Tom, that certainly ‘doesn’t help’.
Sigh. The main problem with this naïve narrative is that it basically follows the same line of all socialists; that the main problem with the FARC was their (defensible but unfortunate) use of violence to achieve their aims. There is no understanding that those aims are so brutal and horrible as to make the total war waged against them not only legitimate but necessary. Oh, don’t take my word for it – go to Venezuela today, where the FARC’s “guy in Caracas” did win a vote. Venezuela is now the worst country in the world – with perhaps the dubious exception of North Korea. Four or five million have fled; 300,000 have been murdered for any reason you want to imagine; trillions of $$ have been stolen or are missing; it is the biggest drug transit country; thousands of people are systematically tortured in prison; and they are on the verge of (or perhaps already well into) the first famine in modern Latin American history (with the exception perhaps of the Periodo Especial in Cuba, another FARC wet dream).
I’m not gonna try and be baited into the “well, but what about the AUC and the ‘paras’”, etc. Of course the war was horrible; of course the paras and extra-judicial kills are terrible. We will not engage in logical fallacies people use to pretend that when I criticize the FARC I’m actually a fascist (incidentally called a ‘tu quoque’ fallacy). Our own American civil war was terrible and, ya, General Sherman in today’s terms might be considered a war criminal. But we had to do what we had to do to free the slaves. If we listened to the French socialists bemoaning the poor south against the might of an oppressive north, we’d still have slaves today. These foreign pedantic apologists for those who would do tremendous evil, if only they had the chance (a chance they have had in Caracas), need to consider – they are part of the reason Colombia cannot put an end to its nasty entrenched wars. Books like “Short Walks from Bogota” do more harm than they do good.
September 15, 2020
I traveled all over Colombia when I was in the Peace Corps 1975, including living with a family in Bogota. . My brother has a long term relationship with a Colombian woman and her children and grandchildren. Our experiences come from actually living with Colombans. So from the first pages I had reservations when the author began his journey by "brushing up on his Spanish." He never interviewed anyone except in English and they were people who were referred to him. He lived in hotels and spent his spare time reading "A Thousand Years of Solitude." He also admits he had a "research assistant." The book reads like a cut and pastepastiche from Wikipedia, Newswork. He could have stayed at home.
Incredibly he never talked to any journalists from Colombia, a country on the top of the list for journalist homocides. The author never expresses any curiosity about the culture or every day life. If you want to visit Colombia here are three things you need to know.
1.The plumbing. Do not expect hot water. Colombians cannot flush toilet paper down the toilet. Expect to discard it in a can. Washing machines are so expensive they are out of range for even the middle class . Most Colombians wash their laundry by hand or hire a muchacha .
2. The geography. The Andes run from north to south and are actually three parallel ranges. Most of the population has always been concentrated around the mountains or in the valleys between the mountains. Most Colombians do not own cars. Bogota is cold, dreary, and always rainy. The people are somber and introverted. It looks and feels like industrial Germany. The coast is a different country altogether. It is more like a Carribean-Afro culture. This is the Colombia that most tourists are acquanted with from cruise lines visits. This is the land of carnival. Unlike America most of Colombia is basically inhabitable because of jungle, insects, no roads.
3. Sprituality. The Protesant Reformation never touched Colombia. I never knew how much America is a Protestant country until I lived there. American government, education, culture , capitalism, work ethic, is a product of Protestantism. The Catholicism absorbed the indigenous religions and you cannot understand Colombians without understanding the indigenous spirituality which is very much alive there. Non Latinos can never escape their stereotyping of Colombians because . they have no other frame of reference.
This author never learned anything new from his experience because he has no curiosity or humility.
If you want to read about the real Colombia I suggest "Dancing Feat : One man's mission to dance like a Colombian." by Bannion, available on Amazon. You will get a worldwind tour of the real Colombia. It is hilarious and riveting. A really bingeworthy read.
Incredibly he never talked to any journalists from Colombia, a country on the top of the list for journalist homocides. The author never expresses any curiosity about the culture or every day life. If you want to visit Colombia here are three things you need to know.
1.The plumbing. Do not expect hot water. Colombians cannot flush toilet paper down the toilet. Expect to discard it in a can. Washing machines are so expensive they are out of range for even the middle class . Most Colombians wash their laundry by hand or hire a muchacha .
2. The geography. The Andes run from north to south and are actually three parallel ranges. Most of the population has always been concentrated around the mountains or in the valleys between the mountains. Most Colombians do not own cars. Bogota is cold, dreary, and always rainy. The people are somber and introverted. It looks and feels like industrial Germany. The coast is a different country altogether. It is more like a Carribean-Afro culture. This is the Colombia that most tourists are acquanted with from cruise lines visits. This is the land of carnival. Unlike America most of Colombia is basically inhabitable because of jungle, insects, no roads.
3. Sprituality. The Protesant Reformation never touched Colombia. I never knew how much America is a Protestant country until I lived there. American government, education, culture , capitalism, work ethic, is a product of Protestantism. The Catholicism absorbed the indigenous religions and you cannot understand Colombians without understanding the indigenous spirituality which is very much alive there. Non Latinos can never escape their stereotyping of Colombians because . they have no other frame of reference.
This author never learned anything new from his experience because he has no curiosity or humility.
If you want to read about the real Colombia I suggest "Dancing Feat : One man's mission to dance like a Colombian." by Bannion, available on Amazon. You will get a worldwind tour of the real Colombia. It is hilarious and riveting. A really bingeworthy read.
April 10, 2023
I started this before I visited Colombia, read it in Colombia and finished it some months after returning home. It's excellent. There are strong travelogue elements, well-written and idiosyncratic (I like the chapter where he goes hiking for days with an old friend, an intellectual and sometime novelist, and by the end of all the chat about politics and poetry, has decided the guy is actually a prick and they don't like each other.)
It's VERY heavy though, on the politics and history - which I loved, but won't necessarily be to everyone's taste. He's a mostly very good guide through the sea of acronyms of the Colombian civil wars - I got slightly lost and weary occasionally but mostly it's well-explained, well written and with plenty of human interest. I'm no expert in Colombian politics or history so I can't really speak to the accuracy of everything, but he paints overall a convincing portrait of a country in which control of land, the drug trade, and the will to power have fuelled situations of extraordinary and perpetual violence. He also emphasises a favourite theme of mine - the sheer difficulty (impossibility?) of imposing centralised state authority from Bogota onto one of the most geographically diverse and difficult terrains on the planet, and the folly and violence involved in any attempts to do so.
It's often a grim book, but clearly imbued with love of a country I also fell in love with. It only fed my fascination with Colombia, a mark of very good travel writing.
It's VERY heavy though, on the politics and history - which I loved, but won't necessarily be to everyone's taste. He's a mostly very good guide through the sea of acronyms of the Colombian civil wars - I got slightly lost and weary occasionally but mostly it's well-explained, well written and with plenty of human interest. I'm no expert in Colombian politics or history so I can't really speak to the accuracy of everything, but he paints overall a convincing portrait of a country in which control of land, the drug trade, and the will to power have fuelled situations of extraordinary and perpetual violence. He also emphasises a favourite theme of mine - the sheer difficulty (impossibility?) of imposing centralised state authority from Bogota onto one of the most geographically diverse and difficult terrains on the planet, and the folly and violence involved in any attempts to do so.
It's often a grim book, but clearly imbued with love of a country I also fell in love with. It only fed my fascination with Colombia, a mark of very good travel writing.
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