There
has been a lot of fanfare about Colombia turning 200 next year. No
doubt, that is a big number, and the country has not been lacking in
demonstrations of national pride. There have been concerts and parades, the Bogota mayoralty sent about 40 hot air balloons flying over
the city, and a group of policemen and soldiers were to travel, on
horseback, along the same path followed by Simon Bolivar’s men during
the independence war. Between now and July 20, 2010, and especially next Friday on the 190th anniversary of the Battle of Boyacá, Colombia will not tire of reminding itself that she is an old lady.
But to me, Colombia’s 200th birthday reminds me of some other things, too. With a country so chronically
torn apart by violence, a nation that has seen so many dark hours of
uncertainty and death, we Colombians should be proud that our
motherland has weathered these storms and lived to tell the tale. This is not an entirely happy birthday, however. The
fact that the memorial march that followed Bolivar’s voyages was
attacked by the ELN, was a reminder that Colombia can still not celebrate its existence in perfect peace. Although I try to avoid clichés, it is hard not to think that 199
years ago our forefathers started a war for the nation’s independence,
and yet, the country keeps on bleeding itself out –albeit at a lesser
rate than in the past.
Another reason not to be so cheerful during this anniversary,
or perhaps a bit pensive, is Colombia’s mediocre economic performance.
Our soon-to-be-centuries-old nation is still struggling to create a
functioning economy that can
provide all its members with a way to make a decent living. Although
Colombia’s economic history has been one of slow, but sustained
economic growth, with few interruptions, our country’s ability to
produce wealth leaves much to be desired. In real terms, Colombia’s income per person today is about eleven times bigger than that of the early 1900s. (back in 1905, the average Colombian earned US$648 a year; in 2007 she made about US$7007, using constant dollars). Compare that to South Korea, for instance, which has been able to multiply the average income of its inhabitants by a factor of 23 (up to US$24,000) during that same time span. Hong
Kong, with no other significant natural resource besides a harbor, has
done it by a factor of 28 (reaching about US$40,000). Although these
cross-country comparisons are not always accurate or desirable, they
make you think, no doubt. At 199, Colombia still is a lower-middle
class woman.
What a contrast there is between this 200th
birthday party and that of the United States in 1976. Those thirteen
colonies that declared independence in 1776 and proclaimed a
constitution twelve years later spent the next twenty decades building
up the wealthiest, most powerful nation in history. By 1976, with the
Watergate scandal and the War in Vietnam behind it, the United States could proudly say that it had tripled the size of its territory (at the expense of many others, we should add), and created a large, prosperous society where the rule of law prevailed. It
is striking that by that date, the US had not seen an act of war on its
territory since Pearl Harbor, and before that, since the end of the
Civil War in 1865. What a contrast, indeed.
Of course, comparing oneself to those who have done it better than anyone else can never be fulfilling. Perhaps, besides making you sigh, it is totally pointless. But in any case, Colombia’s 200th birthday should
be an opportunity for all of us to think where our country is going,
and where it should be. Being incredibly optimistic, if everything goes
right, if a “Colombian miracle” is to happen, we would reach South
Korea’s present living standards by 2035 (twenty five years, that is
the time it took the Koreans to get from where we are now to where they
are today). That is unlikely to occur. The Colombian economy is overregulated and begging for tax relief. Our government keeps taking too much money from ordinary citizens and spending even more of it, harming everybody in the long run.
The World Bank believes that it is easier to do business in other 52 countries than it is in Colombia.No “confianza
inversionista” (investors’ confidence), to use President Uribe’s language, can
beat that statistic. Moreover, Transparency International’s Corruption
Perception Index gives Colombia 3.8 points on a scale from zero to ten,
with zero meaning most corrupt. And
although there has been great success in recent years, Colombia is
still the world’s largest cocaine factory, and its humanitarian tragedy
remains the worst in the Western Hemisphere.
But
we cannot give up. Truth be told, Colombia today is more livable than
it has been in the past twenty years, so there has been considerable
progress. And although Colombians should celebrate and rejoice about this
once-in-a-lifetime celebration, no party should distract us from the
huge amount of work there is left to do. There is no doubt in my mind
that Colombia can be fixed. I simply hope it does not take another 200
years.
Author Gustavo Silva is Colombian and studies
Public Policy and International Affairs at Princeton University in the
U.S. He has his personal weblog.
