Stop! Don't bin that food!

So Colombians throw some 9.76 million tonnes of food in the rubbish bin each year. That's over 200 kilogrammes per person, if it were divided equally, which of course it isn't (witness the country's many homeless scavenging through bins as proof of that).

Un-egg-ceptable!

Obviously enough, such food waste isn't unique to here, it happens across the globe, especially and unsurprisingly among those who aren't staring at bare plates on a regular basis — lucky to have plates that they are. 

Yet it should hit home more in countries such as Colombia where the sight of malnourished and starving people is never too far away.

The thought of binning food brings me back to my younger days. When my siblings and I were reluctant to finish a meal we were given, our mother, in her bid to make us eat up, would say 'think of the starving children in Africa'. 

Although it was said in good faith, the strategy was pretty useless all the same. It wasn't like the already prepared food we didn't eat was going to be of any help to those starving in Africa and elsewhere. Indeed, as my brother used to cheekily say, he was refusing to eat as a symbolic gesture to those deprived.

It took a few years for us to truly understand the point of our mother's message, even if it wasn't and isn't of any practical help to the people actually in need of the food: we should be grateful that we have something to eat.

However, many of us appear not to be grateful going by the waste figures above.

Alongside immediately dumping good leftovers in the bin, you’ve got the commonplace practice of storing cooked food in the fridge or wherever with the idea of consuming it at a later date. 

In my experience, in my ongoing house-sharing years I've found that this rarely sees the light of day again — well, only when it's being dumped after acquiring some sort of new biological culture. Come on guys, give me the leftovers and I'll gladly scoff them down — save money and cooking time.

It must be pointed out here that when you're buying food only for yourself or just a few other adults, limiting waste is, or at least should be, a little easier. It gets somewhat trickier when you're feeding children, as I experienced when helping to look after my nephews last year. 

I had guidelines to follow but it was either a case of the less common 'we haven't enough' or the more usual 'we've too much/we don't want any more' (yet, funnily enough, there was always room for sugar-laden delights). After a while I just put on less for me, let the lads eat, and then take their leftovers, which would normally suffice.

It all pretty much aligns itself with my current practice of eating to hunger rather than the clock (breakfast excepted) and/or taking small portions; try to eat well, but not to excess.

Private food waste aside, it is in the public domain — fast food outlets, restaurants and the like — where, arguably, you have the biggest culprits in this regard. You can't blame the businesses in question entirely. 

If their customers leave behind grub, too "proud" to ask for a doggy bag as you'll often see, what can they do about it? Dishing out smaller portions is one solution anyway — that'd do a good few already well-fed people no harm at all.

The idea isn't that we should all return to a subsistence existence, although at our current consumption rates for a range of finite resources that mightn't be such a bad thing. It's more a case of being a little more efficient in both cooking and eating. 

A situation where we're binning perfectly good — or what once was perfectly good but was just left to waste — food should never arise.
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Vanquishing the 'ver-men'

A significant factor in man's ability to obliterate his fellow man, as has happened on countless occasions, is to view him as less than human: mere vermin to be exterminated.

Such a mentality is usually witnessed amongst competing cultures or races; the different and inferior others. It is not, however, exclusive to inter-racial conflicts. It exists within cultures, too, where you have an unwanted subgroup that is, in the least worst instance, pushed to the margins.

'I hope they give the dog some food.' (Photo from Facebook.)

In terms of Colombia, it's a question of 'where do you start' as regards these inferior groups. Perhaps that's another reason why little is done to accommodate them, there are just too many — that and, of course, the fact that a lot of them are not only seen as a subgroup but subhuman as well. 

Indeed, a street dog generally has a greater chance of being shown some sympathy and nourishment than any of Colombia's numerous destitute. Stories about abused dogs — terrible as they are — tend to make headline news here more frequently than the ongoing human hardship.

Now, while the problem is easy to identify — Bogotá's streets are full of 'ghastly' homeless to name but one type of the country's neglected — finding a solution is far from straightforward. How do you improve the lot for people who just don't fit with the dominant, capitalist system? The old saying of 'give a man a fish, he has food for a day; teach a man how to fish and he has food for life' springs to mind.

Yes, education is a help, yet there's a high chance that any 'fish' many of the less well-off Colombians might catch would be just exploited by greater powers higher up the chain of command. This scenario isn't exclusive to Colombia either. In a global context, with a rapidly growing population, the gap between the minority haves and the majority have nots is expanding in tandem.

There is a plausible school of thought arguing that this is just the way things are. The laws of nature suggest there are those who dominate and those who are subjugated. What's more, even if there was a magical solution where the globe's most impoverished were instantly upgraded to a Western middle-class standard, at current consumption levels we'd also need a few more planets magically created in order to sustain us.

Thus, the hope must be that scientific advancements lead to far more efficient ways of going about our daily lives, progress that not only improves conditions for those already living relatively comfortably, but that boosts society as a whole.

On the flip side, if very little changes, the ranks of the global have nots looks set to swell to a point where trying to cater for them will become unsustainable. Save for a planned culling and/or a deadly world war, a systematic neglect may prove the best solution; left to die, quite literally. The doctors might have the cure but it's felt the patients aren't worth saving.

All you have to do is make sure you're on the doctors' side and not seen as one of those surplus-to-requirements 'ver-men'.
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Bogotá's 'dark side' rises

There is no doubt that Colombia's image has changed, in a positive sense, over the last number of years. 

Not only has this happened from an external perspective, where this naturally stunning country was once seen as a war zone and best to be avoided, but also internally. 

Many Colombians now have a desire, and more importantly feel safe enough, to travel around and see the many sights this land has to offer; and on that front it has few equals.

Above is as good as it gets for some of Bogotá's homeless.

From a personal perspective, a few minor-ish incidents aside, I've generally felt largely safe here, be that living in Bogotá or travelling independently to various parts of the country.* 

Of course, at times it can be a case of ignorance being bliss. In terms of the capital city, since my first arrival in 2009, I've wandered about in areas that many longer-term residents, with memories of a not-too-distant deadly past, wouldn't let a rat roam in. 

For sure, I've heard the stories, but I find it best to judge from personal experience in the here and now, along with my gut instincts. Such an approach generally sees me right.

To this end, I had always found Bogotá's historic centre, La Candelaría, as safe as any inner-city neighbourhood can be. 

However, since returning to live there after a spell in some different sectors, it seems that there has been a growth in "less-desirable" types floating about the area. And, at the risk of being biased, their focus appears to be on the ubiquitous extranjeros (foreigners) in this part of town. 

That's largely due to the mistaken (on this writer's part anyway) belief that many of us have lots of cash to spread around. Not unlike many things here, they're honing in on the wrong targets really. How about trying to get the city's and Colombia's wealthy ruling classes to start doing something meaningful for you?

So while huge strides have been made to make downtown Bogotá more welcoming to both locals and foreigners, there is a danger that authorities are taking their collective eyes off the ball. In fact, I'm beginning to feel safer in what is generally recognised as much more of a crime hotspot, La Perseverancia barrio.

One of the potential reasons for this noticeable increase in insecurity in the centre is linked to the attempts to clean up the notorious Bronx barrio a little further to the south. Despite the optics and political backslapping, it really has been a case of just scattering a deprived, disgruntled and potentially dangerous bunch of people across the city. 

The real social problems at root are what need to be addressed. City and government policy thus far is akin to spraying a shot of air freshener into an overflowing sewer. 

Now, lest I be accused of always finding problems but rarely offering solutions, here are a couple of simple things that could offer at least some modicum of improvement.

Bogotá: Getting 'darker' and more dangerous by the day?

For starters, provide some basic shelters across the city for the many homeless to rest, wash themselves, go to the toilet. It's not the most welcoming environment for tourists and residents alike to witness homeless people relieving themselves in public in broad daylight. 

With time these shelters could even be turned into something like soup kitchens – the costs shouldn't be excessive. Once established and, hopefully, being utilised, such places could start providing basic education and other training programmes, as well as offering drug-addiction services.

Furthermore, for the moment at least, a more visible police presence, especially at nighttime, would be helpful. And on what should be a less-taxing note, ensuring all street lights are in working order would aid in reducing the number of dark corners for ladrones (robbers) to hide behind.

Whether the political will exists to undertake such modest measures is questionable.

What is certain, however, is that the heretofore favoured policy of ignoring or just moving the problem won't make it go away. 

Come on guys, get those heads of yours out of the sand. If not, the shiny new positive image will continue to fade.

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*For a previous post detailing one of these previous incidents, see Fighting for 'Free Bogotá'.