Pity the Colombian ruling class, what a burden they have created for themselves

Colombians who have traded death like a commodity for political and financial gains are now the same people that choose to talk about life

The same people who turn a blind eye while we breathe filthy air, are the same people who choose not to pedestrianize city centers, choose not to offer subsidized public transport and choose not to move polluting factories far from low-income residential areas. People die. These people are mostly poor people.

The same people who control traffic congestion according to number plates, are the same people who hoard multiple polluting SUVs per household to bypass their own laws and move higher and higher up the mountains, away from the smog. People die. These people are mostly poor people.

The same people who turn a blind eye while we fill our bellies with inflammatory foods, are the same people who choose not to incentivize the health food industry and choose not to dis-incentivize the processed food industry. These are the same people who profit by doing absolutely nothing while generation after generation, Coca-Cola, Postobon, Frisby, Zenu and others buy their way into the minds of children and those with insufficient education to free themselves from relentless propaganda. People die. These people are mostly poor people.

The same people who send poor young men to war to fight other poor young men — are the same people who even with the benefit of hindsight, even with impossibly high civilian casualties — even in the event of a costly military stalemate — insist that — the pros outweigh the cons of the lives that have been lost. And above all — reject the notion that appalling education, abject poverty and astonishing inequality is a breeding ground for conflict and the resulting civilian deaths.

The same people who have ignored and seemingly promoted death or traded life expectancy like a commodity for political and financial gains are now the same people that choose to talk about life. And, as they run for the hills — they impose measures that result in businesses closing, poor people being evicted from their homes, parents abandoning their children, young children being prostituted and rampant violent crime.

The same people who now shut the city down are the same people that abandon the city in their SUVs and leave for their private estates — where a feast awaits. We have had to watch it on instagram.

The same people who now talk about life before the economy are the same people that pre-Covid didn’t give a shit about the poor man’s health because it was — unquestionably — too expensive.

The same people who patronise the poor and say things like, it’s time to use your savings — have no concept of what it is like to not have savings — because they have never not had savings. These people have more money than they know what to do with — that is the definition of what it means to have savings.

The same people who shut down small businesses are the same people who insist that the business keeps paying its bills knowing that this will kill the business — and these are the same people who will offer high-interest loans in order to pay the bills and save the business. If this is not a Cartel, I don’t know what is.

The same people who keep the public schools closed are the same people that keep the private schools open — and if and when they close their private schools — these are the same people who have a private tutor for their children.

And, when the system finally collapses, these are the same people that will quickly abandon their city and their country for luxurious condos in Miami Beach.

If the same people that make decisions — are not the same people affected by these decisions — but are the same people that — in many cases — benefit from these decisions — how can this persist?

When Covid has finally gone, will the poor be remembered and reimbursed? Will there be some kind of recognition that the lives of these people were trashed for the preservation of everyone else? No, there will not.

Pity the Colombian ruling class, what a burden they have created for themselves.