One might think these are the monies Columbia teachers made per month. They are not. These are the salaries recruited American teachers receive in pay. (click here)
Cost of Living per month $500 to $900 US
Average Monthly Pay $500 to $900 US
It seems as though President Juan Manuel Santos isn't sincerely interested in his people. What is he doing in office then?
President Juan Santos entered office in 2010, but, he engaged government positions in 1991as the very first Minister of Foreign Trade. He was educated by a wealthy Columbia family in economics in London after four years in Kansas. He created his own political party. He is basically an emperor in Columbia. He is mostly unchallenged in his power and he has no taste for treating the Colombian people well.
May 5, 2015
Over 330,000 teachers (click here) will continue to strike in Colombia after a 20-hour round of talks between the government and the Federación Colombiana de Educadores (Colombian Teachers’ Federation—FECODE) failed to produce an agreement. The results of the meeting were announced yesterday by the Defensoría del Pueblo(National Ombudsman’s Office), which is mediating the negotiations.
The strike, which began on April 22 and centers around teachers’ demand for higher salaries, better health services and the repeal of teacher evaluation, is affecting an estimated 9 million-plus students, who have not attended class since the strike began. After nationwide protests late last month, Colombian Minister of Education Gina Parody seemed to discount the possibility of resuming negotiations until the strike ended. Protesters marching on the Ministry of Education were greeted by a banner strung across the ministry’s façade that read: “Let the children return to class.” “My urgent plea is to not affect the children,” Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said at the time. “The children should not have to pay for the consequences (platos rotos) of these protests.”...
There is a long history of the Colombian government waging war in FARC. The previous President to Santos where he was involved with the administration killed innocent people in raids on FARC. There was a significant culling of the Columbian military by the previous President as well.
7 May 2009
By Jeremy McDermott
...In recent days another three colonels (click here) have been arrested, bringing the total number of military personnel captured to at least 22.
The "false positives" scandal has revealed that the army murdered civilians, who were then dressed in rebel uniforms or given guns. They were then presented as guerrillas or paramilitaries killed in combat.
These allowed units to fabricate results, and officers to gain promotion.
The number of victims is believed to be in the thousands....
Then it is a wonder why FARC still exists.
The problem within the military is well known. It can be called corruption, but, it was the way power existed in Columbia. The people were constantly under attack and deaths were enormous. It has gone on for decades. It was the way people existed in Columbia.
There is a peace process supposedly with FARC now and a sticking point is the demands for compensation of victims by FARC. It seems as though their are victims on both sides of the peace treaty and the Columbian government needs to resolve their deaths as well. The negotiations are taking place in Cuba. The USA should request a presence at the table to bring talks to a close.
FARC has to end it's presence in Columbia. This is 2015 and the Colombian children need to be the paramount concern of the country.
The child migration occurred further north than Columbia, but, the treatment of children in Columbia are as much a horror.
The current President is misdirecting his focus to his specialty of trade, AND NOT ECONOMICS. The Columbia Free Trade Agreement has to come into question. I don't know why it exists. Marco Rubio was the primary mover of the trade agreement and that was from his first days in the US Senate. Maybe he was prey to a President desperate for some kind of influence within Columbia. There should not be a Columbia Free Trade Agreement especially considering FARC is still strongly influential in the county. FARC will build an infrastructure to feed off the trade agreement and it will undermine the government again and the killing will resume.
Regardless, the internal economic structure has to be addressed and I can't think of a better place than teachers. The teachers have to be afforded a salary they need for their own families and that is case in point. If teachers are receiving good wages, the Free Trade Agreement will provide an economy that FARC will harness and prey once again on the people. Just because the corruption has been cleaned up within the Columbian military/police doesn't mean FARC's memory of power has faded.
Columbia sincerely needs the USA at the negotiations table. The USA has to capture the culled corruption and maintain it. Last I checked there were Special Forces in countries such as Belize. It would be well considered to move some muscle to Columbia to protect the people and bring the refurbished police to status.
President Santos is going it alone for some reason and he appears to be losing. He is staving off economic success for teachers while pretending there is an answer in a peace agreement with FARC. He is trying to starve FARC at the cost of the economic condition of his people. Basically, Santos is hostage to FARC and FARC is winning. By the fact teachers are being held economic hostages makes me believe FARC has already won the war and the peace process is simply a way to more and more infrastructure advances because of the Columbia Free Trade Agreement.
These trade agreements are absolutely toxic to countries where paramilitary organizations have control. The same toxic mix is noted in the Dominican Republic, however, there is no paramilitary, however, there is greed that is further impoverishing the people. The people are not receiving benefits from the trade agreement because the provisions of enforcing humane conditions and fair wages are completely absent. These are relatively small countries and their poverty is not that difficult to address as long as their wages and benefits are not absorbed through corruption of the agreements.
Fair Trade Farmers in Colombia (click here)
Fair Trade Organization have to be talked to by the US State Department. These organizations have been in the trenches with THE PEOPLE long before any free trade agreement. In recent years, there has been an undermining of the coffee trade THE PEOPLE were carrying out to improve their lives. There has been other issues such as a coffee tree blight, however, WALL STREET has sought their own type of "Fair Trade" coffees by establishing plantations. Those plantations are far easier to corrupt by organizations such as FARC because the economic power becomes concentrated away from the people and into the treasuries of organizations such as FARC.
...Coffee has been a vital source of rural development income in this nation, the second largest coffee producer in the world, home to about 560,000 coffee farms. Railroads and roads were built to move coffee from the cool slopes of Antioquia and its southern neighbors to the Pacific coast, where ports were built to ship it out. Coffee proceeds financed the development of such other exports, as well as rural clinics and schools. Colombia's coffee belt became one of the richest and most stable regions of the country.
Small farmers have always been the dominant mode of production, in contrast to other Latin American countries where large plantations controlled the growing of such commodities as coffee, sugar, and bananas. Today, 96 percent of the country's coffee farmers tend plots smaller than seven acres....
The entire circumstance in Columbia is compromised by the free trade agreement. The monies are suppose to benefit the people and they are not. Santos has to begin an enforceable peace treaty and RETURN the economic strength of coffee TO THE PEOPLE.
There is no reason Columbia cannot enforce a peace treaty with FARC since the police have been culled of corruption. The struggle will be sincerely daunting especially with a free trade agreement in place, but, that is the reality and if FARC cannot not be brought under control and quality of life returned to the people then the Columbia Free Trade Agreement has to be repealed until more reasonable circumstances are brought to the people.
And for the record, Hillary Clinton did not vote for the Columbia Free Trade Agreement and Bernie Sanders is one of a bilateral group of Senators already examining the wrongful course of the same Columbia Free Trade Agreement. The State Department has a group of Senators very interested in Columbia's circumstances and should bring at least a Democrat and Republican to the peace tables of Columbia with negotiations ongoing in Cuba.
Cost of Living per month $500 to $900 US
Average Monthly Pay $500 to $900 US
It seems as though President Juan Manuel Santos isn't sincerely interested in his people. What is he doing in office then?
President Juan Santos entered office in 2010, but, he engaged government positions in 1991as the very first Minister of Foreign Trade. He was educated by a wealthy Columbia family in economics in London after four years in Kansas. He created his own political party. He is basically an emperor in Columbia. He is mostly unchallenged in his power and he has no taste for treating the Colombian people well.
May 5, 2015
Over 330,000 teachers (click here) will continue to strike in Colombia after a 20-hour round of talks between the government and the Federación Colombiana de Educadores (Colombian Teachers’ Federation—FECODE) failed to produce an agreement. The results of the meeting were announced yesterday by the Defensoría del Pueblo(National Ombudsman’s Office), which is mediating the negotiations.
The strike, which began on April 22 and centers around teachers’ demand for higher salaries, better health services and the repeal of teacher evaluation, is affecting an estimated 9 million-plus students, who have not attended class since the strike began. After nationwide protests late last month, Colombian Minister of Education Gina Parody seemed to discount the possibility of resuming negotiations until the strike ended. Protesters marching on the Ministry of Education were greeted by a banner strung across the ministry’s façade that read: “Let the children return to class.” “My urgent plea is to not affect the children,” Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said at the time. “The children should not have to pay for the consequences (platos rotos) of these protests.”...
There is a long history of the Colombian government waging war in FARC. The previous President to Santos where he was involved with the administration killed innocent people in raids on FARC. There was a significant culling of the Columbian military by the previous President as well.
7 May 2009
By Jeremy McDermott
...In recent days another three colonels (click here) have been arrested, bringing the total number of military personnel captured to at least 22.
The "false positives" scandal has revealed that the army murdered civilians, who were then dressed in rebel uniforms or given guns. They were then presented as guerrillas or paramilitaries killed in combat.
These allowed units to fabricate results, and officers to gain promotion.
The number of victims is believed to be in the thousands....
Then it is a wonder why FARC still exists.
The problem within the military is well known. It can be called corruption, but, it was the way power existed in Columbia. The people were constantly under attack and deaths were enormous. It has gone on for decades. It was the way people existed in Columbia.
There is a peace process supposedly with FARC now and a sticking point is the demands for compensation of victims by FARC. It seems as though their are victims on both sides of the peace treaty and the Columbian government needs to resolve their deaths as well. The negotiations are taking place in Cuba. The USA should request a presence at the table to bring talks to a close.
FARC has to end it's presence in Columbia. This is 2015 and the Colombian children need to be the paramount concern of the country.
The child migration occurred further north than Columbia, but, the treatment of children in Columbia are as much a horror.
The current President is misdirecting his focus to his specialty of trade, AND NOT ECONOMICS. The Columbia Free Trade Agreement has to come into question. I don't know why it exists. Marco Rubio was the primary mover of the trade agreement and that was from his first days in the US Senate. Maybe he was prey to a President desperate for some kind of influence within Columbia. There should not be a Columbia Free Trade Agreement especially considering FARC is still strongly influential in the county. FARC will build an infrastructure to feed off the trade agreement and it will undermine the government again and the killing will resume.
Regardless, the internal economic structure has to be addressed and I can't think of a better place than teachers. The teachers have to be afforded a salary they need for their own families and that is case in point. If teachers are receiving good wages, the Free Trade Agreement will provide an economy that FARC will harness and prey once again on the people. Just because the corruption has been cleaned up within the Columbian military/police doesn't mean FARC's memory of power has faded.
Columbia sincerely needs the USA at the negotiations table. The USA has to capture the culled corruption and maintain it. Last I checked there were Special Forces in countries such as Belize. It would be well considered to move some muscle to Columbia to protect the people and bring the refurbished police to status.
President Santos is going it alone for some reason and he appears to be losing. He is staving off economic success for teachers while pretending there is an answer in a peace agreement with FARC. He is trying to starve FARC at the cost of the economic condition of his people. Basically, Santos is hostage to FARC and FARC is winning. By the fact teachers are being held economic hostages makes me believe FARC has already won the war and the peace process is simply a way to more and more infrastructure advances because of the Columbia Free Trade Agreement.
These trade agreements are absolutely toxic to countries where paramilitary organizations have control. The same toxic mix is noted in the Dominican Republic, however, there is no paramilitary, however, there is greed that is further impoverishing the people. The people are not receiving benefits from the trade agreement because the provisions of enforcing humane conditions and fair wages are completely absent. These are relatively small countries and their poverty is not that difficult to address as long as their wages and benefits are not absorbed through corruption of the agreements.
Fair Trade Farmers in Colombia (click here)
Fair Trade Organization have to be talked to by the US State Department. These organizations have been in the trenches with THE PEOPLE long before any free trade agreement. In recent years, there has been an undermining of the coffee trade THE PEOPLE were carrying out to improve their lives. There has been other issues such as a coffee tree blight, however, WALL STREET has sought their own type of "Fair Trade" coffees by establishing plantations. Those plantations are far easier to corrupt by organizations such as FARC because the economic power becomes concentrated away from the people and into the treasuries of organizations such as FARC.
...Coffee has been a vital source of rural development income in this nation, the second largest coffee producer in the world, home to about 560,000 coffee farms. Railroads and roads were built to move coffee from the cool slopes of Antioquia and its southern neighbors to the Pacific coast, where ports were built to ship it out. Coffee proceeds financed the development of such other exports, as well as rural clinics and schools. Colombia's coffee belt became one of the richest and most stable regions of the country.
Small farmers have always been the dominant mode of production, in contrast to other Latin American countries where large plantations controlled the growing of such commodities as coffee, sugar, and bananas. Today, 96 percent of the country's coffee farmers tend plots smaller than seven acres....
The entire circumstance in Columbia is compromised by the free trade agreement. The monies are suppose to benefit the people and they are not. Santos has to begin an enforceable peace treaty and RETURN the economic strength of coffee TO THE PEOPLE.
There is no reason Columbia cannot enforce a peace treaty with FARC since the police have been culled of corruption. The struggle will be sincerely daunting especially with a free trade agreement in place, but, that is the reality and if FARC cannot not be brought under control and quality of life returned to the people then the Columbia Free Trade Agreement has to be repealed until more reasonable circumstances are brought to the people.
And for the record, Hillary Clinton did not vote for the Columbia Free Trade Agreement and Bernie Sanders is one of a bilateral group of Senators already examining the wrongful course of the same Columbia Free Trade Agreement. The State Department has a group of Senators very interested in Columbia's circumstances and should bring at least a Democrat and Republican to the peace tables of Columbia with negotiations ongoing in Cuba.
