Why is Colombia lagging behind in social protection?
The Republic of Colombia (as it is institutionally called), is one of the most beautiful countries in the world, in our opinion, it is a country of rich and multiple diversity, whose society is made up of many ethnic groups, in which the mestizo population from of the mixture of European and native population, thanks to the process of discovery and conquest.
A good Colombian will always stand out for his jovial, cheerful and endearing character, but hey, those are the consequences of living in a country full of many cultures.
But this is only one side of the coin, because on the other, not everything is so nice and we are referring to all the internal problems of the country, whether they are political, economic or socio-cultural, this speech, essay, investigation or whatever you want to call it. It will probably generate nuances of intolerance, delegitimization and will even awaken the ignorance of many, based on the premise that there are "others" who are designated as enemies of democracy and institutionality and even solidarity, it has begun to consolidate a narrative that is on the rise, which justifies acts of violence.
Colombia is a State in South America, whose history has been full of political, social and economic problems, including corruption, violation of human rights, drug trafficking, among others.
In fact, Colombia is the western nation with the worst human rights record, according to the data offered by the rights reports carried out by the United Nations (UN). The guerrilla, corruption, the production and trafficking of narcotics have marked the country in a negative way and this mark translates into multiple social problems that aggravate the already precarious conditions of the country. In recent years, the country has been recovering. However, with so many problems to deal with, improvements have been quite slow.
Among some of the problems that we will talk about, the main one and one that has sadly stood out in Colombia for many decades is corruption, a social and political problem that not only occurs in government entities, but also in important multinational companies.
One of the most remembered cases of corruption was the financing of paramilitary groups from the 20th century, where politicians established illegal relations with paramilitary groups in order to illegally control the labor movement, the formation of unions and the right to protest were prohibited. Through the terror instilled by armed groups, this corruption conflict is closely related to drug trafficking and subversive groups that have caused so much damage to our country.
As a result of this problem, we also find unemployment, the results of INFOBAE for September 2022, at a national level weighted at 10.7%, which is also related to the reduction in aggregate demand, because as the population income decreases, people's purchasing power dwindles and poverty levels increase in consequence, due to the fact that a part of the economically active population does not receive any salary. Furthermore, depending on the level of unemployment and its duration, unemployment can become not only a social problem, but also a public health one.
One of the most present problems in our society is discrimination. Just in 2011, the Colombian State enacted a law against racial, gender, religious, and sexual orientation discrimination, among others. A law was even created against femicide, whose sentence is from 21 to 50 years, without the possibility of appealing a sentence reduction. However, there are still cases of discrimination, the most frequent being those involving unequal treatment of women. On the other hand, there are isolated cases of discrimination in terms of religion and likewise there is the situation of human rights, which is described as the worst in the world Western Hemisphere. Despite the fact that the constitution of this State guarantees the basic rights of the citizen, the reports made by the United Nations Organization show that the country presents many problems in society.
Leaving aside all percentage and quantitative areas and reflecting on our humanity and the behavior of our society, it takes civic awareness, tolerance, respect and many other values to be a country of union and example.
“I’m very boring: I believe in life, I believe in others, I believe that this story must be fought for the people, I believe in a country at peace, I believe in democracy, I believe that what happens is that we are in the wrong hands, I believe that this has salvation ”. Jaime Garzó Forero.
“Yo soy aburridísimo: creo en la vida, creo en los demás, creo que este cuento hay que luchar por la gente, creo en un país en paz, creo en la democracia, creo que lo que pasa es que estamos en malas manos, creo que esto tiene salvación”. Jaime Garzon.
By Daniel Cano Ch., Fernando Manjarrés M.,
and Sofía González Díaz, Step 10
