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June 04, 2009
The Park of Dreams, 11-year-old assassins and Botero´s Fat Birds
Today I attended a coordinating meeting at the recently inaugurated EPM library downtown. EPM - Empresas Publicas de Medellin - is Medellin´s public utilities company. For many years it has been the pride of Medellin, an honest, well-run organization in an otherwise anarchic city. EPM guidance, leadership and expertise has been crucial to the success of many of Medellin´s Strategic Projects, including the library which bears its name.
The EPM library is located right in front of the mayor´s and governor´s offices in a large plaza that used to be one of Medellin´s many equivalents of Skid Row. It was inhabited mainly by street children, drug addicts and criminals and was the epicenter of the urban decay that gradually engulfed most of downtown Medellin. The plaza is now El Parque de los Deseos, or the Park of Desires/Dreams/Ambitions, which is an open, well lit area surrounded by refurbished and equally well-lit pedestrian corridors which have restored downtown Medellin´s traditional commercial dynamism.
The library is at one end of the park, surrounded by fountains. It has mostly science and engineering books, several high-tech computer clusters, and some media labs and auditoriums. It is heavily guarded but inside the atmosphere is inviting. My coordinating meeting lasted from 8 AM to 12:30 PM, and during that time I saw people of all ages come to learn computer skills from dynamic teachers, read periodicals and books and enjoy a clean, quiet and air conditioned oasis in Medellin´s hot, humid, loud and dynamic downtown area. I don´t quite know the history of the library, but I am quite sure it was funded by the city and EPM. Indeed, the city administration has never lacked money; the money was simply badly managed and often stolen. Similarly, EPM is a very lucrative enterprise and is quickly expanding into information technology and cell phone service and even starting some operations in Venezuela and Panama. EPM simply needed a city administration they could trust and respect, while the city needed the honesty and clarity that the past two administrations have provided. Recently, EPM and the city administration have worked together very well on their common goals of providing Medellin residents with basic services.
More than anything, the library is a sign of the city´s optimism. The areas around it are still dirty, somewhat dangerous and inhabited by some of Medellin´s most marginalized people: internally displaced persons, drug addicts, street children and the disabled. Still, the library and the park offer an atmosphere that could not be more different from the plaza of a few years ago. The area now inspires respect and a sense of belonging. The mere presence of a free, inclusive educational institution in the heart of the city seems to have changed local behavior. As I left the meeting, a local homeless kid kindly was walking past some of the EPM employees watering plants outside the library with large, elaborate hoses. He kindly asked for his daily 'shower' and thanked them as he walked away, shaking himself dry. So far, people seem to respect what the city has built for them in the Parque de los Deseos. Just a few years ago, this was an area where benches and street signs were ripped apart to be sold as scrap metal. Now, in the very same place, there is a multimillion dollar computer and library complex.
Nevertheless, it is difficult not to notice that these projects can solve only some dimensions of Medellin´s many problems. The poverty and violence in which many people grow up still prevents them from enjoying many of the resources that the city administration is attempting to offer. The Strategic Projects and other symbolically important initiatives have definitely done a great deal to stop the cultural cycle of structural violence, crime, mistrust and exclusion which used to characterize areas like downtown Medellin where people of all social classes interact. However, they have only started to deal with Medellin´s more concrete problems.
Yesterday, just in front of my apartment building, two young hitmen - one of them 11 years old - shot and killed a local lawyer who was 8 months pregnant. They were both caught, and local doctors quickly performed a C section on the victim, saving the baby. The phenomenon of teenage hitmen, known as sicarios, used to be widespread in Medellin and even developed into a local subculture with its own religious mythology and vocabulary. This year´s 66% increase in the local homicide rate has some people nervous that the city may return to its brutal past.
Indeed, as I am beginning to work on some of the details of Medellin´s social programs, I realize how difficult it is to serve so many needy people. Many more are arriving every day driven by poverty and violence in the countryside. Medellin Solidaria, which is supposed to work closely with 45,000 of the city´s poorest families, is taking quite a while to take off and we don´t quite know exactly how to achieve our still vague goals.
Judging from what people tell me, however, Medellin residents understand that the city is off to a good start. If anyone complains about crime, poverty, traffic, unemployment, or any other social problem, they are quick to point out with the local pride that characterizes Medellin that they love living here, that it is the best city in the world (regardless of whether they´ve been anywhere else), and that the city´s problems were far more acute before Fajardo and Salazar.
One interesting initiative that is inspiring confidence in this administration is community-based policymaking. The Fajardo administration brought urban development policies to neighborhoods where the state was previously absent. Now, the Salazar administration is striving for many local policies to be decided by the community itself. All over the city, at bus stops, on billboards and on thousands of flyers, signs explaining the community policymaking initiative have replaced the typical cigarette and beer ads. The Salazar administration seems to be aware that a major challenge in Medellin is simply to make sure that people know about the resources available to them.
This very moment I am working on moving Fernando Botero´s birds. Botero, a famous local artist whose satirical sculptures and paintings feature exaggeratedly obese people, has famously painted Pablo Escobar and the abuses at Abu Ghraib. One of the round bird sculptures he donated to the city was damaged in the late 1990´s in a bombing linked to local organized crime. He made a nearly identical one and placed it beside the damaged sculpture in a main plaza in Medellin. The Salazar administration moved both birds to Medellin´s new convention center as a symbol of Medellin´s transformation for the IADB assembly which took place here a few months ago, and I am in charge of making sure they get back to the Plaza Botero, where all of Botero´s other donated sculptures are. For a picture of Botero´s birds, click here: http://www.historiadeantioquia.info/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/dsc_2507.jpg
Posted by Pablo Rojas at June 4, 2009 05:17 PM
Comments
Hola pablo, Esta muy interesante tu blog.
Saludes Pedro
Posted by: Anonymous at June 5, 2009 05:52 PM
