About 9am I heard fireworks from the factory. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard that.
When we went out to feed the dogs this morning we found one
of the potted plants had been dug up.
Teresa said Peter did it. I guess
he was bored.
That was funny.
Teresa couldn’t find the cell phone.
Laura called the number from her phone and we were walking all around
the house trying to hear it ringing. (My
problem is I can’t usually hear it anyway because the ringer doesn’t work right
and I have a small hearing loss for the upper ranges. (Things like women’s voices. Lol)) Finally Laura found it in one of the bags
Teresa had packed for things to give away.
I connected my laptop to the TV and for a few hours played some
oldies music from my iTunes collection.
I updated my debit card information on Amazon.com and Apple
iTunes. I had already updated Barnes
& Noble for my Nook books. I may
have missed something but I’ll find that out later.
More comments on the home invasion:
ParadiseLost: Some 80 posts in and this is obviously going
to be an important thread that will be referred to by people in the future
wondering whether it is safe to come to Medellin. On that basis I think it
might be useful to suggest some aspects that aren't included in the comments.
Before I start I want to say that I have great sympathy for Andersen and what
he went through. I've communicated with him a couple of times, never met him but
I've read his blog on a fairly daily basis. What occurred was of course
terrible, however perhaps we need to think about how representative of Medellin it is. There was
an earlier post where it was mentioned that someone from a bank had been mugged
in Oviedo. That
caught my attention - it's one of those places you go where you believe that
you will be safe. However if the example had been about someone being mugged in
El Centro then
we all would have skipped to the end of the sentence. Being mugged in El Centro isn't uncommon
and it's an area one needs to take particular care with. Oviedo isn't (or wasn't). Andersen in
reporting his incident suggested that the finca of his gf was around Medellin. No one asked
where it was. While I agree that nowhere in and around Medellin is without its
risks we all would probably agree that there are areas where it would probably
be less safe for people and expats more specifically to live. I can only go on
what Andersen detailed in his blog. The property I think is probably fairly
remote off a main road. Each and every day getting up the road to the finca
seemed to involve keeping aggressive dogs away and even driving up to the Finca
in a taxi and sometimes had issues with the quality of the road. The property
is I think in the Caldas area. It's not a gated property and there's no
landlord on the property. I'd make a bet that he was the only gringo in the
area. Reading his blog I think I'd argue that Andersen isn't totally
representative of the wider ex-pat community here. I know that when I used to
read of his adventures I considered him pretty brave to be doing what he was
doing. Where he was - and he never spoke of any security arrangements - could
arguably be said to be a more risky environment than most expats have in Medellin. Of course
there's no reason why Andersen should not expect a peaceful and safe life
wherever he lives. This isn't a criticism of him more an observation as others
talk about a wider Medellin
issue that reasonably you have to look at the specific situation. Andersen may
correct me and point out that in fact the finca resembled Stalag XIII with
machine guns and searchlights on towers surrounding the property; but I don't
think that was the case. Another issue is the transmittal effect of the
internet. When I first came to Medellin
most of what I learned was in conversation with the rather sociable Scot who
used to run a pub off Parque Lleras which he now has a coffee house. Many of
you probably know him. So if there was a crime he might tell me about it. Now I
access this forum and have a wider set of data points. So on this thread
everyone who has been aware of an crime incident can reference it whereas people
who aren't aware of any tend to post 'zero'. That doesn't suggest that the
reports of crime aren't correct or that they're not indicative of some increase
in the problem. It's just difficult to know how much of an increase there is in
crime. That's not 'whitewashing the situation' or trying to argue that Medellin is safe to
protect any property investments I have - it's just a recognized trait of the
internet. What there is in Colombia
at the moment is the basis for an increase in crime. There are many reasons but
I'll focus on one, and one that people may consider strange; inflation.
Inflation is running YOY at around 8.5%, well ahead of where the government
would want it. Much of the increase has come from the movement of the dollar. Colombia
imports so much stuff that the huge changes we've seen in the exchange rate
have driven that inflation rate. What is interesting is that arguably the
number could be much higher, but in this world of generally low inflation it is
a concern. Inflation in particular hurts poor people. Someone on the minimum
wage in Colombia
(as many are) struggles to make ends meet. Add inflation and what was a
difficult task can become impossible. In those situations - without any other
alternatives - crime tends to increase. Here I'm not being an apologist for
crime in Colombia
or anywhere else. What I am saying is there is likely links between high
inflation and crime. So what does that suggest for the future? Will inflation
continue at the current levels, increase or decrease? Now that the Peso has
strengthened a little, potentially inflation should drop. Products that were
imported at the lows of the peso (that yellow bottle of American mustard sauce
that you buy) it should be cheaper going forward. That should reduce inflation.
Interestingly a strengthening peso generates a sort of inflation for expats as
dollars buy less. And as we know the bottle of mustard probably isn't going to
reduce in price - at least in the short term. However in the system, because
prices have been going up there's going to be wage inflation as people try to
catch up with the increase in prices. So what happens is potentially more
inflation and therefore more crime. Equally while inflation is high currencies
usually do not increase in value. So, there's a bad circle that emerges there
as the peso could weaken again and create more inflation. Bottom line, until
the economy improves and inflation falls, expecting crime not to increase may
not be realistic. All we can do is either leave (which is unfortunate) or
continue to reassess our risk and the measures we take to remediate it.
Fecherklyn: Excellent posts from La Piranha and
ParadiseLost. I hold my hand up, I am currently feeling very pessimistic about
living in Medellin (and Colombia), particularly from the point of view that I
KNOW how to live here in such a manner as to remove risk.....but I am fed up
with constantly making my daily plans on that basis and then constantly looking
over my shoulder, or reining in my desire to tell every other driver to obey
the Code of Driving. In fact, why do laws exist in Colombia, most people feel no
compunction about ignoring them. "Yes", I am in a bitter mood about Colombia at the
moment and perhaps I will be over it next month if the sight at the end of the
tunnel appears a little closer. ParadiseLost makes the good point in asking if
security is worse now than before, or is it simply better "exposed"
in today's media/internet coverage. I can buy that, but I can extend the
question to other areas of daily life in Colombia....corruption, wealth
distribution inequality, etc. In my mood today, I see no improvement, quite the
contrary in fact. Put all the factors together and the answer to the equation
seems rather clear; the light at the end of the tunnel seems to be getting more
distant, than closer? Am I blind to the positive reasons to live in Colombia?......"No",
that is what has kept me here 14 years. The real problem is balancing the good
and bad points.
I admit with taking some liberties in improving the spelling
and punctuation of the above posts.
At 1:25 it started raining but stopped 10 minutes later.
Teresa talked to someone and reported that her cousin is in
a very bad state with cancer and she wants us to go visit him. I understood she wants to go now. I turned off my computer, put some things
away but found I didn’t have anything appropriate to wear. While I waited for Teresa to find me a pair
of jeans and shirt I laid down on the bed for a minute. She joined me a few minutes later. I got up about an hour later and she got up a
few minutes after that. I understood she
didn’t insist on going out today because it was “too cold”.
Teresa went upstairs and I helped her bring down a wooden
storage shelf. It was actually made of
particle board and I helped her break it down for firewood.
I watched Get the
Gringo (7.0) from my hard drive.
T-shirt of the day: Not for sale.
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