NGK Cultural Bridge Fellowship 2006

Wow – It is such a great feeling to have finished my first year of the MPA/ID program and to have left Boston for Bogotá. I was last here in Colombia in 2004 and have been looking forward to getting back ever since.

In this, my first ever blog entry, I want to provide a brief overview of Colombia and the work I will be undertaking. I am here for 10 weeks – 8 weeks working in the Congress of Colombia and another two weeks of traveling.

Colombia

Colombia is situated in the north of South America with coastlines on both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea (see attached maps).

The population is approximately 43 million, consisting of 58% mestizo, 20% white, 14% mulatto, 4% black, 3% mixed black-Amerindian and 1% Amerindian. Ninety per cent of the population identifies themselves as being Catholic.

I have had so many great experiences with different Colombians during past visits and my opinion is that they are a wonderful mix between the more reserved Andean cultures to the south and the more gregarious Caribbean cultures to the north. Whatever it is, it makes for a very friendly and interested people.

From a development perspective, GDP per capita (ppp) in Colombia is $7,100 (compared with $31,900 for Australia, $41,800 for the US and $2,900 for Bolivia), with economic growth of 5.1% during 2005. The poorest 10% of households control 7.9% of total household income and the richest 10% control 34.3%. The Colombian Government estimates that 49.2% of Colombians are living in poverty.

Principal exports include petroleum, cafe, coal, cut flowers and apparel.

More information on Colombia can be found at http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/co.html

Internship

The internship that I am undertaking is with Senator Rafael Pardo of the Congress of Colombia and requires that I analyze different peace policies from an economic perspective. The current approach to securing peace has often been examined/criticized from a human rights perspective, but there is little information on the economic impact of different policies. The results of the internship should be interesting to the Colombian Government, academics, donor organizations and NGOs.

The internship appealed to me because it will enable me to apply the economics training that I have undertaken in the MPA/ID program during this year. I have always worked in the private sector so I am also really looking forward to getting a taste of political life. With this in mind, it is a really interesting time to be in Colombia. The current President (Álvaro Uribe) amended the Constitution last year so as to permit him to run for another term. He won the next election only a couple of days ago (in the first round) with a 62% majority and a mandate to continue his approach to combating each of the guerrilla and the paramilitary groups.

Other objectives that I hope to fulfil over the next couple of months include:

• Learning more about development issues in areas suffering from armed conflict.
• Developing my Spanish to the point where I can work in a professional capacity in Spanish-speaking countries.
• Getting to know as many different people as I can, hopefully from the public and private sectors, from areas affected by the conflict, military personnel, and others trying to cope with living in a relatively insecure environment.
• Finalizing a topic for my second year policy analysis thesis.

NGK Cultural Bridge Fellowship

As a means of enhancing this internship experience, I was fortunate enough to be accepted as a Nancy Germeshausen Klavans Cultural Bridge Fellow. This program is managed by the Kennedy School’s Women and Public Policy Program (WAPPP) and will involve me meeting regularly with a female peace builder during the course of my internship, as well as working to increase the participation of women in conflict-stricken areas (such as Colombia).

As part of this program, I will keep a group of friends and colleagues informed as to how my internship is progressing through this blog. I also hope to give a more detailed presentation when I return to the Kennedy School in the fall.

The peace builder with whom I will be working is currently traveling in Chile and I hope to be able to provide more information on her, as well as Senator Pardo, after we meet next week.

Anyway, enough for now.  Any comments and questions will be much appreciated!

This entry gives a brief description of where I am living and with whom.

Five years ago I was lucky to stop and chat to a Colombian photographer while on top of a mountain in Peru. Although Jairo was returning to live in California, he gave me his family’s phone number in case I passed through Colombia.

I ended up spending nearly two months in Colombia, and all but the first night staying with Jairo’s family, traveling with his younger brother, Julian, and visiting other places recommended by them.

Julian picked me up from the airport a week ago and it was great to see everyone again. We then headed out the next day for a Colombian barbeque in the mountains overlooking Bogotá which was great fun. People often say that Bogotá is not a very beautiful city but I think there are parts, such as among these mountains and the colonial parts of the city, which are quite pretty.

The home of Jairo Snr, Myriam, Julian, Natalia and 7 very spoilt cats was always pretty busy but this year it has an additional member, 15 month old Maria Sue.

In addition to catching up with such good friends, it has been fantastic to share thoughts with Julian who now works for the Office of the President on a program against illicit cultures. In particular, he is responsible for alternative development initiatives (‘alternative’ to drug trafficking and extortion?!), including the monitoring and evaluation of projects. He tells some amazing stories of traveling all across the country, of negotiating with the paramilitaries, and of being shot at while flying by helicopter to various sites – apparently it is more effective to sit on top of your bullet proof vest than to wear it across one’s chest!

The house is, however, on 127th street (and my work is on 8th street) which means traveling for over an hour to and from work each day on public transport. As it turns out, Julian was thinking of moving so the two of us are going to rent an apartment around 60th street from this weekend. The trip to and from work has not been too bad but it will be good to have an extra half an hour or so at the end of each day.

Regarding the public transport system, I was surprised on my first day of traveling to work when an attractive Colombian girl offered to hold my satchel, but I put it down to me being a pretty irresistible bloke! This rather biased version of events was shattered the next day when another person offered to hold my satchel and I quickly realized that passengers with seats tend to hold onto the belongings of passengers who are standing. It is a really nice gesture that I suspect would never happen in Australia or in the US.

I also had an old man come up to me the other day and ask me for directions! Either I am doing a reasonable job at fitting in or the poor bloke’s eyesight was not too good. As it turned out, his question related to my bus stop so I was actually able to answer him correctly.

Finally, I put my name into the ballot for the NY marathon before I left the US so I am keen to arrive back much fitter than when I left. Unfortunately, the only park I have managed to find so far is not much bigger than a largish house block and which seems to have been claimed by a pack of dogs. I have, however, been getting up early and doing numerous laps until I get dizzy! Bogotá is also quite high at over 2600 meters above sea level which makes running difficult. Either that or I am even more unfit than I first thought.

Enough for today. I hope to give more details about my particular project and the people I will be working with in the next entry.

I thought I would use this entry to discuss a little about my project and some of the issues I am grappling with. 

As I have mentioned previously, the main purpose of the JPL is to govern the demobilization of both paramilitary and guerrilla groups. Although the paramilitaries are actively discussing giving up their arms and receiving certain benefits in return, the guerrilla groups have not expressed any interest in being involved.  

In addition to the provisions relating to demobilization, the JPL states that victims have the right to reparation (consisting of compensation, restitution, rehabilitation, guarantees of no repetition and satisfaction). A victim is defined as a person who individually or collectively suffers direct harm as a consequence of criminal actions by illegal armed groups. The harm can include temporary or permanent injuries, physical, psychological or sensory disabilities, emotional suffering, financial loss, or infringements of fundamental rights. 

The Constitutional Court has also made preliminary comments on the law, further broadening the definition of victim to include family members of the immediate subject of a criminal act. 

To estimate the potential value of this liability, I have started to categorize all possible victims and the different types of direct harm they might suffer. For example, there are estimated to be 2,459,613 displaced persons in Colombia, usually rural landholders who have been forced to leave their land by paramilitaries or guerrillas and head to urban slums. Such people could suffer a range of harm including property loss, physical or psychological injuries, loss of future income, costs associated with transferring to a new location, and loss of cultural activities or traditions, etc. 

It is difficult to start to estimate the cost of repairing victims under the JPL, however, because each person I speak to has a very different interpretation of the meaning of the reparation provisions, not to mention how the JPL will be implemented in practice. Some people argue that the right to reparation will only apply if the paramilitaries responsible for harm to a victim choose to demobilize. Further, the head of the National Commission of Reparation and Reconciliation has cast doubt on whether displaced persons are in fact victims (?). I also need to give further thought as to which categories of loss or harm are ‘direct’.  

At the moment I am thinking that I will estimate the cost of the Government’s obligation in its broadest form, and not try to guess what resource constraints or limitations will apply in the future. I would like to make the final estimate user-friendly in the sense that if any constraints or limitations are found to apply, it will be easy to adjust the final estimation for such developments, i.e. subtract the amount attributable displaced persons if the JPL is not found to apply to them. 

Looking at how these broad legal obligations could fit with the economic and political constraints might make an interesting SYPA/thesis this coming year.

Any thoughts or suggestions on anything above will always be welcome!

On to other things, I got quite a shock when I heard that Senator Pardo was one of three senators who was sent a letter bomb last week (see http://eltiempo.terra.com.co/judi/2006-06-17/ARTICULO-WEB-_NOTA_INTERIOR-2954830.html). Apparently the letter got delivered to a different Rafael Pardo by mistake. It does not pay to have the same name as someone important in this country.

Finally, it has been great to be in South America during the World Cup. Although Colombia did not qualify, people are still going nuts. We have a tv in the office which has been going almost non-stop and no senators showed up to what was meant to be a full meeting of the Senate until one of Brazil’s group games had finished. Unfortunately Australia was put out by the Italians this morning (by a terrible refereeing decision)!

Until next week.        

Apparently when you enter another decade, the Colombians refer to it as arriving at the next floor.  This week I had the pleasure of arriving at the third floor!

To celebrate, a group of us met on Friday night for a few Australian wines (not easy to find here!) and then went to a restaurant on the outskirts of Bogota called Andre’s Carne de Res.  People had mentioned that this was a not-to-be-missed experience but I was really unprepared for just how much fun it was going to be.  The place doubles as a restaurant and bar, and is full of different Colombian objects and people (literally thousands).  We were served fabulous Colombian arepas (tortillas made from maize, with cheese, ham, avocado or mushrooms on top) and vast amounts of bbq meat.  The food was then cleared away and everyone danced on the tables until well into the morning.

I got up early the next day (feeling my age!) and was picked up by Carolina and her family who I was put in touch with by my classmate Laura Ardila.  It was a long weekend in Colombia (the fourth long weekend in my five weeks here) and we headed out to their farm near Viota, a couple of hours from Bogotá.  It was also the weekend of the Festival of San Pedro in Viota which meant that there were parades of horses, the throwing of flour, a beauty pageant and lots of music and dancing. 

It also turned out to be the birthday of Carolina’s father and so we had a joint celebration consisting of an afternoon bbq and then relaxing in the pool or in one of the hammocks.  In the evening, a band arrived, fireworks were set off, and we danced barefoot by the pool until midnight.  A group of us then headed into town and kicked on in the streets for a couple more hours.

It ended up being a wonderful weekend with really great people and lots of typical Colombian food and activities.

I was also able to have some really interesting conversations with Carolina and her family about their experiences with the guerrilla and paramilitary groups.  Apparently Viota was one of the first locations where the guerrilla was active and has always been considered a particularly strategic part of the country because of its proximity to Bogotá (an ideal location for holding people who had been kidnapped in the city). 

A few years after purchasing the farm, the family was approached by members of the FARC who demanded an extraordinarily high amount of money in exchange for their keeping the peace in the community (and for not otherwise kidnapping family members).  The father in the family arranged a meeting with the leader of the FARC to negotiate a more feasible amount, but was then repeatedly harassed for more money by both members of the FARC and general delinquents.  The situation became unbearable and there was a period of six years when no member of the family was able to visit the farm.  Most of the local institutions were also thought to have become connected to the FARC in some way or other and the local economy and the general quality of life were effectively paralyzed.

Apparently towards the end of these six years, a paramilitary group was able to enter the region and assassinate members of the community who were thought to be supporting the FARC (which itself was based in the mountains surrounding the town).  Without a solid communications network in Viota itself, the guerrillas were soon defeated.  Unlike many other regions where similar confrontations have occurred, the paramilitary group also moved on and was replaced by a more significant police presence.  People have started to return to the town and it was certainly buzzing this weekend.

It appears, on the face of it, that it has been a relatively successful transition to a more peaceful environment.  The conflict and each guerrilla or paramilitary group are, however, heterogeneous across regions and similar strategies have led to disastrous results elsewhere.  It is also incredibly difficult to try and weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of what would surely have been a brutal means of dealing with the problem compared with an on-going guerrilla presence in the town. 

The more I learn about the conflict here the more questions I seem to have! 

I know it has been a while since I have posted an entry on my blog!

I have been frantically trying to finish my report in time to allow me to travel a little before returning to Boston. I have therefore spent way too much time in front of my computer and not nearly enough time practicing the salsa, etc!

Senator Pardo’s terms as a senator concluded on 16 July so the office was packed up and I then worked from home. This morning I met with him to present my final report and I am looking forward to having another chat after has had time to read the report more closely.

My final report consists of a summary of the JPL and a review of other studies which estimate the costs incurred by particular categories of victims, i.e. those who have suffered death or physical injury, forced displacement, kidnapping, landmine incidents or property damage, etc. There is very little consistency across these studies, with each covering a different group of victims, looking at different periods of time and being subject to different assumptions. The different estimates, even within the same category of victims, are incredibly diverse.

To arrive at an estimate of the cost of repairing victims of the conflict, I extrapolated the results of each of these studies so as to cover the period from 1964 to 2005 and converted the figures into Colombian pesos of 2006. I then selected what I thought to be a reasonable combination of these different estimates so as to cover the universe of victims and reparable harm. Adding up these estimates gave me what I have called a ‘feasible estimate’ of the cost of repairing all victims of the conflict of between 55,525,477 and 96,340,358 million Colombian pesos of 2006, approximately US$23,000 – 40,000 million.

I then allocated responsibility for this figure between guerrilla and paramilitary groups, which turned out to be approximately 65% and 35%, respectively. This is important because only groups that choose to demobilize are required to repair victims. At present, most paramilitary groups are expected to demobilize but no guerrilla groups have expressed any such interest.

I have had some really positive responses from different people. The Conflict Analysis Resource Center has made me a Research Associate as a result of my investigation (with Professors James Robinson and Robert Bates also involved in the Center’s work). They are hoping to publish my report and use an agency to promote it to different media organizations, all of which is pretty exciting.

I have also had regular contact with the head of the National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation who is responsible for the implementation of the reparation provisions of the JPL. It will be fascinating to see how the reparation process plays out given different resource and political constraints.

Tonight I head off to the Caribbean coast for a week or so before returning to Bogotá for a couple of days. I promise at least one more update before I leave.