"Development is essentially amoral"

Jonathan Gleenie has posted a very controversial essay for the Guardian's Poverty Matters blog that contains the above statement. Glennie addresses what happens when a country moves up the economic ladder but does so at the expanse of human rights. The county Glennie uses as an example is Colombia, where former president Alvaro Uribe Vélez moved businesses into areas where people had to flee because of the threat of violence.

Imagine a situation in which millions of people are displaced from their land by violence or the threat of violence. The land is taken over by businesses that develop mega plantations to produce bananas, palm oil, or, yes, coca. Jungle is cleared for cattle rearing. Mines are dug to extract copper, gold, emeralds or oil. The manufacturing sector, which creates jobs and strengthens the middle class, fails to advance while resource extraction and export, which employs very few and fills the pockets of the wealthy, is the key plank of development strategy.

Private investment flows in, which some analysts think is vital for development. Exports lead to economic growth, which many commentators seem to think is synonymous with development. Meanwhile, as human rights are ignored in order to quell social conflict, claims are made that the state finally controls its territory. An ex-president begins a world tour to explain how he did it.

So what happens to the displaced rural communities? Some are wiped out, especially the indigenous groups, who slowly become extinct. Others go to towns and cities, where they have no cultural or political identity, and may live in misery or are dependent on others. Ironically, they often have better access to basic healthcare and education, which are more prevalent in urban areas. And their incomes may increase, as they join the labour market rather than depend on the land. Of course, as the cost of living is higher, they are in truth poorer - but the statistics that make up MDG1 look rosy.

Crucially, the children of internally displaced people, like the children of refugees, may do much better than their parents. In a sense, then, development is taking place, because the next generation is better off according to basic development indicators.

The model of development I'm sketching here is, in my view, the one Uribe chose, and which his successor, Juan Manuel Santos, is continuing. It is a caricature, of course, and the reality is far more complicated. For example, the urban security achieved by Uribe has indeed led to increased investment and tourism, which is important. A balanced assessment of his time in office needs to acknowledge some steps forward.

But Colombia is fundamentally an example of how development can be unethical. Millions have been displaced, thousands killed, tribes wiped out, all in the name of development. Development can be carried out with justice, respect and dignity for the poor. Or it can be carried out with violence, displacement and the suppression of human rights. Development indicators can be met with a focus on jobs and equality or, bypassing these, with patriarchal handouts and the delivery of basic services without affecting fundamental power relations.

Colombia, the world leader in displacement from political violence

More people are forced to flee their homes in Colombia than any other nation in the world. According to the United Nations refugee agency, Colombia has more displaced people than Sudan, Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of the forced displacement occurred during a decades old political armed conflict.

Most of the people who were displaced in Colombia had their own farms and comfortable lifestyles. Once they are forced out they are introduced to poverty, with over 70 percent living below the poverty line.

From the Inter Press Service, writer Helda Martínez gives us some more statistics of the displaced within Colombia.

Some 5.2 million people were displaced from rural areas of this South American country between 1985 and 2010, according to a report released Wednesday by the Consultancy on Human Rights and Displacement (CODHES).

This figure confirms that Colombia still heads the list of countries with the greatest number of people forced to flee their homes by political violence, as indicated in 2009 by the UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency.

The study "Consolidation of What? Report on Displacement, Armed Conflict and Human Rights in Colombia in 2010" was completed in the final stretch of the government of Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010), the authors say.

"Unlike his predecessor, President (Juan Manuel) Santos is fomenting social and political dialogue, including the question of peace on his agenda, and vindicating the victims," they stress.

"It is early to know whether the shift will be permanent," but the hope is to achieve "a non-military solution to the conflict that has been bleeding this country dry" since the early 1960s, the report says.

In the last 25 years, the war has forced "11.4 percent of the population to change their residence, because their lives, physical integrity or freedom were threatened," says the 140-page report, published in Spanish.

Half of the total population of internally displaced persons fled their homes during Uribe's two four-year terms in office.

cholera fears come with flooding in Colombia

Flooding in Colombia has brought with it fears of new cholera cases. From the Latin American Herald Tribune, we find out more about the emergency.

Several reservoirs in Colombia are at the limit of their capacity amid the worst rains on record, and one has already overflowed, while the government acknowledged Friday that it fears a possible outbreak of cholera.

The catastrophic situation that much of the country is going through, in which 271 people have died and more than 2 million are affected, according to the latest official report, has become even more threatening in the northwestern province of Cordoba.

There the Urra Dam overflowed and in turn caused the flooding of the Sinu River, which inundated the homes of at least 2,000 families in several municipalities and in Monteria, the provincial capital, according to Mayor Marcos Pineda.

President Juan Manuel Santos was to visit Friday the municipality of Lorica, Cordoba, where he plans to announce new measures as part of the emergency decreed to combat the effects of the devastating rains.

What happened at Urra could be repeated at another nine hydroelectric dams that generate 84 percent of the energy consumed by Colombians, the daily El Espectador said Friday.>

Video: Opportunity microcredit in Colombia

From Opportunity.org, a story on providing microcredit and micro-savings to people in Colombia.

The slow reduction in Colombian poverty

Colombia has been able to drop poverty levels, albeit slowly. Eight years of relative peace and a flurry of foreign investment has instead grown inequality in the nation. The inequality is highlighted by a farming assistance program that only gives grants to the big farms who are already well off.

An upcoming election might expose Columbia's poverty problem to the world. President Álvaro Uribe may be voted out by a frustrated public. The US has strong ties with Uribe, who uses US cash to fight the nation's drug trafficking.

From this Washington Post article, writer Juan Forero gives us some stats on Colombia's progress.

To its supporters in Washington, and to investors the world over, the Colombian government touts its success in delivering blows to a guerrilla movement that once seemed invincible, an effort carried out with $7.3 billion in U.S. aid since 2000. The economy has since flourished, more than doubling output since 2002, when Uribe took office. Foreign investment in Colombia is the fourth-highest in Latin America.

The other Colombia is one of rising inequality, the only major country in Latin America in which the gap between rich and poor has increased in recent years, according to a report by the U.N. Economic Commission on Latin America. The percentage of Colombians who are indigent also rose, from 20.2 percent in 2007 to nearly 23 percent in 2008, nearly double the region's average.

The guerrilla conflict, meanwhile, has uprooted 5 million people in 25 years and has helped ensure that more than 60 percent of rural Colombians remain poor, according to Ricardo Bonilla, an expert on poverty at Bogota's National University.

The number of Colombians in poverty did fall from 51 percent in 2002 to nearly 43 percent in 2008, according to the Economic Commission, but the contrast with big Latin neighbors is sharp. In Brazil, more than 32 million have joined the middle class since 2003, and in Peru poverty fell from 55 percent in 2002 to 36.2 percent six years later.

The Colombian government says that under Uribe, per-capita social spending has doubled, millions more children attend public schools, and a cash-transfer program went from covering 220,000 families to nearly 3 million.

"Now we are reaching millions of people that are under a well-structured and maintained social protection network," said Diego Molano, the government's top anti-poverty official.

Marcelo Giugale, the World Bank's director for poverty reduction in Latin America, agreed, saying that reducing poverty by more than 1 percentage point per year, as Colombia has done, "is respectable."

The Microcredit Summit Campaign meets in Colombia

The Microcredit Summit Campaign is now holding a conference in Colombia. Conference attendees are talking about ways to expand microcredit, despite the global recession getting in the way. Some ideas are a stock exchange that deals only in stock for microcredit banks, and changing some countries laws that make the very practice of microcredit illegal.

A lucky student from Indiana University got to travel to Colombia to cover the summit. From the Indiana Daily Student, reporter Nathaniel Kenninger gives us this summary.

“The challenge is finding a way to give the more than 1 billion people who still lack financial services in the world a helping hand especially as microfinance and microbusinessmen are being greatly affected by the world financial crisis,” said Reynold Walter, executive director of Fundacion de Asesoria Financiera a Instituciones de Desarrollo y Servicio Social in Guatemala.

Some of the recommendations discussed at the summit to increase the poor’s access to financial services include using technology to create cost-effective e-banking, creating a stock market that trades only in microfinance and microenterprise organizations, and creating a legal framework for the microfinance industry.

“Microfinance doesn’t have a home or regulatory framework to allow for sustainability,” Yunus said. “Taking savings as a microfinance institution is an illegal activity in many countries, and these antiquated laws must be changed.”

Speakers cited the ongoing worldwide financial crisis as reason to take drastic action soon.

“The financial crisis has shown the world that microfinance is how the world should do banking,” said Elisabeth Rhyne, managing director of the Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION USA, an American microfinance firm. “(Microfinance) has a way to change how private industry does business and how to work toward full financial inclusion. In short, microfinance shows how business can have a soul.”

The summit also had sessions on how to improve transparency in interest rate pricing, integration of microfinance with health care, use of technology for greater efficiency and how microfinance institutions can have a positive impact on gender equality and the environment.

380,000 Colombians forced to flee due to armed conflict

380,000 Colombians have had to flee their homes due to the continuing armed conflict in the country. Since, 1997 the numbers have reached 2.9 million people. These numbers are disputed by the government of Colombia, but aid workers and reporters say that the displacement continues in Colombia's rural areas.

From the BBC, reporter we learn more of a survey of the displacement from a human rights organization.

The Centre for Human Rights and the Displaced, Codhes, says this is a 25% rise on 2008 and brings the total displaced since 1985 to 4.6 million.

Government officials say the number registered as displaced has risen.

But they say the Codhes total includes figures from previous years and those falsely claiming compensation.

In its annual report, Codhes says 2008 saw the rate of displacement rising to levels last seen in 2002, the worst year on record when 410,000 people were forced to flee.

According to its study, 380,863 people had to leave their homes or places of work as a result of the armed conflict between guerrillas, paramilitary groups and the security forces.

Codhes says that between 1985 and 2008, 4.6 million Colombians have been uprooted.

"The great majority live in severe conditions of poverty," the Codhes report said, while their own land and property had fallen into the hands of others in a "de facto expropriation".

Taking up fighting in a war to escape poverty

For some desperate for a way out, going to war could seem like a good option instead of suffering from poverty. Similar to in the states where a homeless person will commit a crime in order to get into jail, for a warm bed and three meals a day.

In Columbia, children a preyed upon to enter a rebel fighting force. The child soldiers join to escape poverty, parental abuse or for revenge.

In this Bloomberg story, we read of a former child soldier named Juan, who surrendered to the Colombian army after fearing for his life. Writer Helen Murphy also gathers statistics from Human Rights Watch for her story.

“I couldn’t take the fear and hunger any more,” recalls Juan, a physically and emotionally scarred former child soldier who turned himself in to Colombia’s military in 2008 after escaping from two years with the drug-funded rebels. “The army bombed us every night and I was afraid.”

As the world seeks to prevent the use of minors in armed conflict, thousands -- some as young as 11 -- bear arms in Colombia’s illegal forces, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch. The global financial crisis may increase the pool of willing recruits: With more rural Colombians facing poverty, it may be easier for the rebels to replace members killed or captured in President Alvaro Uribe’s attacks against them.

Young prospects “come from poor and brutal backgrounds, where even armed combat seems a better option, and the FARC is happy to take them in,” says Philippe Houdard, whose Developing Minds Foundation in Miami Beach, Florida, helps fund a home in Colombia for former child combatants, some of whom were forced into service.

‘Appalling’ Abuses

While the scope of the problem worldwide is impossible to gauge, Lucia Withers, acting director of the London-based Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, says youngsters are always involved in wars in some way. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Feb. 12 said the use of child soldiers is “one of the most appalling human-rights abuses in the world today.”

Once the killing starts, “they are thrown into extreme stress,” says Maggie Mauer, a Coral Gables, Florida, psychologist who has studied Colombia’s former young fighters. “Some told me they lost control of their bowels in combat. But they are not allowed to be afraid; they would be ridiculed by those they depend on for survival.”

Juan, who bears a deep gouge down his left cheek, joined the FARC, Colombia’s largest illegal armed group, when he was 14. Like most young recruits, he came voluntarily with the promise of adventure and a better life away from destitution. He also wanted revenge on the army for killing his older brother, another child soldier.

Millennium Goals’ progress disputed

from the Latin America Press

Susan Abad.

Discrepancies in measurements cause varied opinions on goals’ completion

Only seven years away from the end of the term given to complete the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) — which 189 countries pledged to reach to alleviate poverty in a historic meeting carried out in New York in 2000 — there is still no consensus in Colombia on whether all the projected goals will be reached by 2015.

Due to differences in the methods used by the National Department of Planning (DNP, for its initials in Spanish) and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to measure the goals’ indicators, there are varied assessments of the eight agreed upon goals: to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure environment sustainability; and establish a global partnership for development.

“We currently have three levels of national indicators: those from the DNP, which has 31 indicators, those from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and those managed by the UNDP (51 indicators). The three, in many cases, do not measure exactly the same and the sources are not always the same,” explained José Fernando Arias, Social Development director of the DNP.

Government optimism
César Caballero, UNDP coordinator for the Millennium Project goals, confirms that the first goal of reducing poverty in Colombia to 28.5 percent by 2015, “seems unlikely to be reached,” and explains that the reason he holds this pessimistic projection is because “in 2002 we had 52 percent poverty and now, despite having advanced, we are at 45 percent poverty.”

The DPN, however, projects that by 2010 poverty will decrease to 35 percent, which would make it likely to arrive at 28.5 percent by 2015.

Arias further claims that not only will they reach the goal to reduce extreme poverty to 8.8 percent — which was at 20.4 percent in 1991 — but he hopes to go beyond the projected goal and reach 6 percent by 2015.

Another concern for the UNDP is achieving universal primary education. In 1992, the illiteracy rate between the ages of 15 and 24 — one of the indicators agreed upon — was 3.7 percent in 1992, which would hopefully go down to 1 percent by 2015.

Caballero estimates that “the illiteracy rate in this range in 2006 was 2.1 percent, and following that current reduction trend would mean that the illiteracy rate of that range reaches 1.6 percent in 2015.”

But the DPN projects that the illiteracy rate for this age range will be 1.4 percent in 2010, implying that the goal of 1 percent could be met by 2015.

The UNDP expert says that they additionally fear incompletion of the fourth goal — regarding the reduction of child mortality —to have 95 percent vaccination coverage for children younger than 5 years through the Extended Immunization Plan. But for the DPN, this goal will be achieved by 2010.

Both organizations coincide, however, in their concern for promoting gender equality and empowering women due to the increase in violence against women and for their sparse political representation in parliament — two important goal indicators. Caballero says that “women make up 50 percent of the population and there are hardly 12 percent women parliament members.”

Policies not enough
One issue the DNP and UNDP undoubtedly coincide on is the immense inequality between the rural and urban areas, even within the same departments in Colombia.

“The averages of goal reaching are pushed by the big cities, but the rest is really trailing behind,” said Caballero, who added that if the rural areas and less-developed departments were measured separately, “it is likely that none of the MDGs would be achieved in these places.”

Likewise, Arias claimed that “the MDGs will not be completed in the straggling zones of Colombia nor any other country in the world. What we can do is to make a great effort to reduce the regional and societal gaps.”

But national policy is not enough to reduce the gaps, said Caballero.

“It is essential to implement regional policies and projects that are based on regional realities. Departments and towns must be reached so that these policies are flexible in practice and can be adapted to each of the issues,” he said.

For this reason the UNDP assists mayors and governors in the most vulnerable regions and, by adapting technical experience to their reality, helps them to identify initial indicators as a base from which they can design their own policies for social development.

In the meantime, the DPN has a Transfer Monitoring System, which serves to assign resources to towns that lag behind and supervise the use of these resources in key sectors such as health, potable water and education.

“We will not achieve anything by having a fair assignment system if the spending is not done well,” said Arias.

Only seven years away from the end of the term given to complete the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) — which 189 countries pledged to reach to alleviate poverty in a historic meeting carried out in New York in 2000 — there is still no consensus in Colombia on whether all the projected goals will be reached by 2015.

Due to differences in the methods used by the National Department of Planning (DNP, for its initials in Spanish) and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to measure the goals’ indicators, there are varied assessments of the eight agreed upon goals: to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure environment sustainability; and establish a global partnership for development.

“We currently have three levels of national indicators: those from the DNP, which has 31 indicators, those from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and those managed by the UNDP (51 indicators). The three, in many cases, do not measure exactly the same and the sources are not always the same,” explained José Fernando Arias, Social Development director of the DNP.

Government optimism
César Caballero, UNDP coordinator for the Millennium Project goals, confirms that the first goal of reducing poverty in Colombia to 28.5 percent by 2015, “seems unlikely to be reached,” and explains that the reason he holds this pessimistic projection is because “in 2002 we had 52 percent poverty and now, despite having advanced, we are at 45 percent poverty.”

The DPN, however, projects that by 2010 poverty will decrease to 35 percent, which would make it likely to arrive at 28.5 percent by 2015.

Arias further claims that not only will they reach the goal to reduce extreme poverty to 8.8 percent — which was at 20.4 percent in 1991 — but he hopes to go beyond the projected goal and reach 6 percent by 2015.

Another concern for the UNDP is achieving universal primary education. In 1992, the illiteracy rate between the ages of 15 and 24 — one of the indicators agreed upon — was 3.7 percent in 1992, which would hopefully go down to 1 percent by 2015.

Caballero estimates that “the illiteracy rate in this range in 2006 was 2.1 percent, and following that current reduction trend would mean that the illiteracy rate of that range reaches 1.6 percent in 2015.”

But the DPN projects that the illiteracy rate for this age range will be 1.4 percent in 2010, implying that the goal of 1 percent could be met by 2015.

The UNDP expert says that they additionally fear incompletion of the fourth goal — regarding the reduction of child mortality —to have 95 percent vaccination coverage for children younger than 5 years through the Extended Immunization Plan. But for the DPN, this goal will be achieved by 2010.

Both organizations coincide, however, in their concern for promoting gender equality and empowering women due to the increase in violence against women and for their sparse political representation in parliament — two important goal indicators. Caballero says that “women make up 50 percent of the population and there are hardly 12 percent women parliament members.”

Policies not enough
One issue the DNP and UNDP undoubtedly coincide on is the immense inequality between the rural and urban areas, even within the same departments in Colombia.

“The averages of goal reaching are pushed by the big cities, but the rest is really trailing behind,” said Caballero, who added that if the rural areas and less-developed departments were measured separately, “it is likely that none of the MDGs would be achieved in these places.”

Likewise, Arias claimed that “the MDGs will not be completed in the straggling zones of Colombia nor any other country in the world. What we can do is to make a great effort to reduce the regional and societal gaps.”

But national policy is not enough to reduce the gaps, said Caballero.

“It is essential to implement regional policies and projects that are based on regional realities. Departments and towns must be reached so that these policies are flexible in practice and can be adapted to each of the issues,” he said.

For this reason the UNDP assists mayors and governors in the most vulnerable regions and, by adapting technical experience to their reality, helps them to identify initial indicators as a base from which they can design their own policies for social development.

In the meantime, the DPN has a Transfer Monitoring System, which serves to assign resources to towns that lag behind and supervise the use of these resources in key sectors such as health, potable water and education.

European Aid Still Trumps Tourism in Colombia

from Deutsche Welle

The Colombian government has launched a charm offensive aimed at luring international tourists. But it's no easy task as violence, drugs and poverty remain even as the country has entered a relatively peaceful time.

Cartagena, its graceful city center hugging the Caribbean coast, is a colonial-era jewel encircled by modern day poverty and persistent violence. Home to more than 1 million people, the city illustrates the complex situation faced by Colombia as it tries to return to normalcy after decades of armed conflict.

The United Nations World Tourism Organization met in Cartagena this week and Colombia officials were eager to change perceptions of the country. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, whose law-and-order policies have brought some stability to the country, bore the message that his country was ready for European and American tourists to arrive and open their wallets.

"You are visiting a country that has suffered greatly, but has a tremendous amount of hope," he said.

Real world problems

But even as delegates met, the reality of life outside Cartagena's heavily-guarded convention center seeped in and painted a bleak picture of life with few public services and no police protection.

Between 2 million and 3 million Colombians have fled their homes to escape ongoing paramilitary hostilities and are living in extreme poverty in the suburbs of cities such as Cartagena. Newspapers also regularly carry reports of murders and other drug-related violence.

Uribe said he knows it's news like this which has kept the number of Europeans who visit Colombia each year small: about 125,700 arrived in the first nine months of 2007. Most came from former colonial power Spain.

"Terrorism puts a stop to all our possibilities," he said referring to fighting between left-wing guerillas, right-wing paramilitaries, the military and drug lords. "Without terrorism, we'll have tourism. Without terrorism, we'll be happy."

Some positives, many problems

The Colombian government points to statistics which show that in recent years the murder rate has been cut in half and kidnappings are down 75 percent. The country is also experiencing an economic boom officials hope will help bring in tourist dollars and help meet an ambitious goal of attracting 4 million foreign tourists to the country by 2010.

The economy had 6.8 percent growth in 2006 and is headed for 7.48 percent this year. In Cartagena, luxury hotels are springing up and it's become a routine stop on the Caribbean cruise circuit.

But even as the tourist industry proclaims its slogan, "Colombia, the only risk is wanting to stay," and luxury hotels spring up along the country's beaches and growth heads to 7.48 percent this year, the government acknowledges that parts of the country are not safe for visitors.

EU aid a lifeline to locals

While the Colombian government said that eventually tourism will improve people's lives, it will remain dependent on international development aid.

The European Union will provide 160 million euros ($216 million) in humanitarian aid to Colombia between 2007-2013. But unlike the United States, which focuses on giving money to fight Colombia's illicit drug trade, the EU will direct aid directly to victims and non-governmental organizations which help them.

European donors are a lifeline for many local aid organizations in the country, but money -- from both tourism and the government -- doesn't always appear as promised, said Maria Amparo Gomez, a Dominican nun who runs a school in Cartagena.

Colombian Ambassador Asks US Congress To Support Trade Deal

from NASDAQ

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The Colombian government Tuesday asked U.S. Congress to support a free trade agreement between the two countries, arguing that economic development is the best way to curb violence in the region.

"This is a precious opportunity to promote peace and economic opportunity and poverty reduction in our hemisphere," Colombia's Ambassador to the U.S. Carolina Barco Isakson said during remarks at a panel discussion on trade sponsored by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

The Bush administration has negotiated free trade agreements with Peru and Colombia to replace a temporary program of trade preferences extended to the drug-producing Andean region. Ecuador and Bolivia also benefit from this program, which must be renewed periodically.

Trade analysts say the U.S. Congress is poised to approve the free trade agreement with Peru amid bipartisan support. Peru's legislature has approved changes to the agreement designed to strengthen labor and environmental protections demand by Democrats as a condition for ratification.

Few Republicans are expected to vote against the agreements because there isn't significant opposition from particular industry or agriculture groups. U.S. imports from these countries are now mostly duty-free.

Sentiment has been strong for a free trade agreement with Panama, although, political friction over the recent election of a legislator accused of killing a U.S. soldier has eroded that support.

Most vocal opposition in the U.S. Congress has been against the trade agreement with Colombia, where Democrats say union leaders are targeted for assassinations by paramilitary groups.

Barco said the violence against union leaders is a reflection of the extremely high level of general violence in the country, which has improved over the past five years as the economy improved.

Five years ago, Colombia recorded 33,000 homicides annually, including 200 labor union leaders, Barco said. Last year, there were 17,000 homicides, including 20 labor leaders, she said. Most of these 20 were teachers working in areas of high violence, according to Barco.

Meanwhile, the government is providing extra protection for groups particularly targeted, including councilmen, mayors, labor leaders and journalists. About half of the spending on this protection goes toward security for labor unions.

"Colombia is thoroughly committed to reducing violence in our country and providing protection for special groups," she said.

Deputy U.S. Trade Representative John Veroneau, also appearing on the panel, said the trade agreements would help reduce, not increase, inequality in South America.

"In a closed society, the elite will do well; openness, transparency, and rule of law is progressive," Veroneau said. "These FTAs give an opportunity to help that effort."

-By Elizabeth Price, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9295; Elizabeth.Price@ dowjones.com

Legwork on the road from poverty

from The San Francisco Chronicle

Dance school gives young Colombians upward mobility

Jens Erik Gould, Chronicle Foreign Service

Cartagena de Indias, Colombia -- In a dim practice space tucked into the colorful colonial district of this popular tourist center, a dancer wears a black T-shirt that reads, "Dream as if you'll live forever; live as if you'll die today."

Alvaro Restrepo, 49, who leads his dancers to extend their muscular torsos and outstretched legs to the baroque melodies of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, has taken that quote from actor James Dean to heart.

Dance is precisely what he's using to rescue youths impoverished or displaced by the country's brutal 4-decade-old civil war. Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, Restrepo's Colegio del Cuerpo, or College of the Body, is part of a growing wave of programs across Colombia that are helping embattled children develop a way out of conflict through love of the arts.

His dance academy has been honored by the United Nations as an alternative for conflict resolution in war-torn areas and praised by the contemporary dance world for its cutting-edge choreographies. Its best dancers have performed across Europe and Latin America, and made their U.S. debut in New York last month.

"They've had the opportunity to become citizens of the world, and this is something that's not usual in this kind of society," Restrepo said in perfect English with traces of both U.S. and British accents.

His program is taking on a crisis that stumps governments and nongovernmental organizations around the world: How to rescue children who grow up in bloody conflicts or destitute poverty. Colombia, which has more than 3 million internally displaced people -- the world's second-largest displaced population, after Sudan -- is a most troubling case.

At an early age, many Colombian children are forced with a terrible decision -- either earn money by joining a death squad or drug gang, or remain poor and vulnerable to such groups.

Some of the academy's young dancers live in Cartagena's sprawling shantytown called Nelson Mandela, named after the South African leader. It is home to thousands of displaced people from the surrounding region, and until recently the slum had no running water, electricity or public transportation. Right-wing death squads have targeted residents and dumped their victims on slum streets.

Restrepo's school is one of the few vehicles for helping children in violent Nelson Mandela escape such poverty.

Take Viridiana Calvo. At 10, criminals killed her father. Soon after, her mother, a cashier, lost her job after the supermarket where she worked was bombed. Out of money, the family moved to Nelson Mandela. Viridiana stopped going to school.

Fast forward eight years and the tall, fair-skinned 18-year-old prances gracefully across stages on several continents. Her dedication to dance has earned her a spot in the school's professional dance company, a scholarship and a monthly salary, which has helped her family move to a safer area.

"I owe all of this to the College of the Body -- to be able to tell you that I believe I can live with dignity," Calvo said.

Victor Cassiani, 17, and his family moved to Nelson Mandela after armed groups fighting over turf forced them to leave their rural farm whose corn, plantains and cassava harvests were their livelihood. "We can't go back because those groups kill," Cassiani said.

Having lost everything, three generations of his extended family now crowd into a tattered wooden shack deep among the shantytown's disorderly hovels and muddy roads. His grandfather, who sells vegetables in the city market, and mother, a maid, said the dance program will bring Victor an opportunity they never had.

"Before you had to have money to be able to pursue a profession," said Eluterio Cassiani, the grandfather. "That's why I tell him to keep going so he'll be a great person who everyone admires."

This depressed area with mainly African Colombian residents is also a stark reminder of the social rift that divides Cartagena, which is essentially two cities in one. The better-known side is the historical walled city that tourists flock to, a UNESCO World Heritage site and vacationing spot for such renowned figures as Colombia's famed author Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the country's mostly-white elite. Between the two is an entrenched racism that still festers in a city whose role as a major slave port once made it a lucrative hub for the Spanish crown, historians say.

The dance school, which includes many African Colombians, aims to mend the divide, and has met resistance not just because of class conflict. Cartagena is used to traditional music such as the cumbia and the Caribbean genre known as salsa -- not the eclectic movements of contemporary dance.

The elites "have tried to ignore it," Restrepo said. "But I think it's becoming more and more difficult to ignore. In a way I think it's a project that's contributing to change the mentality of the city."

Nothing seemed further removed from violence and poverty than contemporary dance when Restrepo, a protege of world-renowned American dancer Martha Graham and other innovators of modern dance in New York, returned to his native Colombia two decades ago.

Restrepo performed internationally until he teamed up with French dance director Marie-France Delieuvin to build the Cartegena academy, believing that "arts were a very good tool for helping kids."

Last year, the Japanese government and the World Bank signed an agreement to give academy students not only dance classes, but courses in ethics, drug prevention and sex education to more than 3,000 of the city's poorest children. Sponsors also include the Swiss UBS bank, a German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim and the Ministry of Culture.

Meanwhile, Restrepo and his dancers resist being labeled a social experiment, insisting they be recognized foremost for their high artistic standards.

"When we show the company we don't want (people) to come see a social project," Restrepo said. "We want them to come and see great dancers."