The Tragedy Continues

     Since I watch many foreign newscasts, I can make comparisons and grade them. I would give Spanish TV an A and Colombian TV a D for disgraceful. While the country's survival is at stake, Colombian TV devotes the first ten minutes to sports (usually soccer) and also the last five minutes. Today the lead story was the selection of a coach.
     Meanwhile, the national tragedy unfolds. As part of a master plan to wreck the country, electric pylons near the Pacific port of Buenaventura were blown up, and another whole section of the country was left without power. The port city of Cartagena was cut off by the troubles.
     Spain is eager to play the peacemaker in Colombia, and it invited guerrilla and government leaders to visit Europe. The former were taken in a special plane from a jungle airport to Bogota. Probably for some it was their first airplane flight and for all their first visited to Europe. The group flew on an Iberia plane to Madrid for talks at the airport and then, thanks to the Nobel Committee, to Oslo and later Stockholm. Apparently other European countries showed no interest. Probably most Colombians had misgivings about guerrilla leaders being given semi-official status. The scheme may work. It may not.
     Queen Sofia is head of a charitable foundation which arranged for fifty children to travel around the world preaching peace. A year or two ago children from all around the world were taken to Europe, where they met with government leaders to express their longing for peace and democracy. An expensive operation, it does not seem to have done much good.
     Fidel Castro, who supports the guerrillas, scored another publicity coup by offering fifty scholarships to Colombian students to study medicine in Cuba. The comments were music to his ears, admittedly not as sweet as his own words.

Ronald Hilton - 2/3/00