Thank you for this reflection, which I find so inspiring. It resonates on so many levels, and vividly demonstrates the shortcomings of imposing a framework on what strategies *should* be pursued to "fix" a particular problem (e.g., violence). The meanings of (safe) space and place for recouping the identity of a community - its pride - cannot be overstated. I think this is an excellent example of an innovative approach to an ostensibly intractable challenge...one that could not be carbon copied and applied elsewhere, necessarily - but that is just the point!

Thanks for your amazing article on Medellin! Truly inspiring!

We're starting to plan and develop a small training and cultural centre in a rural area 10 miles south of Gaborone. Your article gave us lots of ideas.

Now if we only had a few mountains to stick cable cars on!

Thanks again for making such a difference through articles like this and your wonderful work on CI !!!

Ross

I was really impress with the article on Scaling Steep Slopes because it makes me to know that there is hope for other impoverished nations. If only the people of those nations could be selfless and opened to other development strategies. This has uplifted my day knowing that third world countries CAN be known for positive thinking and non-voilence.

Thanks CI

I found the article about Medellin heartening, uplifting and inspiring. But while I read and rejoiced, a little nagging voice kept asking how this jives with Uribe's repressive government and the current drive to pass a Free Trade Agreement during a lame duck session. What's good for business and tourism isn't always good for people. Uribe has the worst record in Latin America for unionist killings. To bring down those numbers, family members of unionists have now been targeted instead. It looks good on paper but the reality is even more harsh.

Likewise, "economic gains" aren't always gains in self-sufficiency. In other countries like Peru, when the economic gains were broken down, they were shown to create more disparity between relatively well-off urban dwellers at the expense of indigenous highland residents. The rural poor create the "new wealth" through farming and mining, which is exported for money, which is used by the city-resident landowners to buy services and imported goods. The cycle is one that first suctions up the real wealth - food and goods - from the poor, sells them to the highest global bidder, and trickles the money back down. But it never reaches those who created it in the first place.

In Colombia also, indigenous communities are being brutally evicted from lands they hold title to, which is given to "rehabilitate" ex-paramilitaries on palm oil plantations. This increases economic growth and gives those who've committed violent atrocities some "green" retraining growing biofuels. After they've done one last job...

If Medellin is able to do all this without interference from the government, the cynic in me says that it serves their interest. While the rest of Latin America is "the most exciting place in the world," as Chomsky begins his recent article, I wonder if Medellin is Disneyland South - a show piece built on exploitation, cranking out "a small world after all" a little too shrilly.

Tereza at retrometro.com

In my dreams, in all of our dreams, this is what we would wish for - the revival of old fashioned community, and at the heart of this is culture; cultural activities that bind people together. I would dream of this in South Africa, but sometimes it seems that the very culture that should bind us together is what separates us. Who can agree on what the Springbok team should be called? Should we ever perform Shakespeare? Should ngoma dancing be done by women? Is virgin-testing abusive to young women? What should we call that street - after whom and why? Is Afrikaner nationalism worse than Zulu nationalism? Did Xhosas get a better deal under Mbeki's leadership? Why do whites care so much about their dogs and cats? And so it goes on and on...

Mistrust, disrespect, tribalism, prejudice, and blatant ignorance. That's our only united cultural currency.