US democracy drags on. But decorum is dead

@wwaycorrigan

[For an audio/vlog version of this story, click here.]

Hubris. Melodrama. Scheming and screaming. Refusal to accept one's errors. Refusal to accept defeat.

Kamala Harris or Donald Trump: Which one is the greater threat to democracy? (Photos from X and Instagram.)

No, I'm not referring to South American football teams — although, all the above do apply to them. I'm referring to US presidential elections; those of recent vintage at least.

Fat chance

Watching the Democrats and Republicans battle it out is akin to two schoolyard bullies facing off. 'Yo momma's so fat' sort of stuff. OK, you're right, that might be a bit unfair to the inventiveness of some of those fat-momma quips.

It can make for compelling viewing for sure. Yet, it doesn't inspire confidence that the world's most powerful country has competent leadership.

The June debate between the now-retired candidate, President Joe Biden, and the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, was unedifying. Hey, a real axis of evil — China, Russia, Iran and North Korea — may be threatening the West but how well would their leaders do facing into a par five in inclement conditions? It's pointless having a good shot on the battlefield if you can't shoot your way around a golf course, you know?

At least Biden can focus more on his golf game — or simply just try to focus — now that he's no longer in the race to prolong his stay in the White House. Trump, though, will — or should, anyway — be spending less time on the tee and more time on the campaign trail.

'Whatever Harris decides to discuss, her big problem is that she's not an orator.'

His fiery rhetoric is, um, par for the course. He had promised a toned-down, more unifying style in the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt on him. Trump saying this is one thing. Delivering it, quite another. A slightly milder speech than normal at the Republican National Convention aside, his tone remains more bellicose than benign.

Calm-ala Harris?

In such an atmosphere, adopting a less hostile approach when trying to win over those crucial swing voters makes more sense, one would think. It remains to be seen if Trump's new opponent, the presumptive Democratic Party candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, goes for such a strategy i.e. focusing on policies and plans rather than ad hominem attacks. The early signs are that she'll play the man more so than the ball.

One area where she might offer something different to both Biden and Trump is in the god talk, as in having less of it. At times I wonder what's the point in having these elections if it's all in the hands of the Almighty. Many of the USA's political heavyweights reference their Christian god more than the average Islamic fundamentalist mentions Allah.

This isn't necessarily a problem, particularly if it is accompanied by concrete proposals. However, the god talk rings hollow in the toxic political climate of today's USA.

Nonetheless, Harris is going to be on safer ground talking about gun control rather than god control. Jesus is still a big vote-winner in American politics.

Whatever she does decide to discuss, her big problem is that she's not a talented orator. Well, she's not an orator full stop. (Or period, as our US friends say.)

A dying democracy

Thus, the Harris handlers will most likely advise her to stick to the well-tried but not altogether trusted line that 'Trump is a threat to our democracy'. Keep it simple, stupid.

A fresher, smarter approach would pay greater dividends, but that's probably beyond Harris's ken. Or maybe she'll show us in the coming weeks some political acumen that has heretofore remained hidden. It has been a crazy election cycle after all.

Yet, the constant over these last few years has been the vitriolic nature of US politics. This isn't going to change anytime soon.

Some argue about just how democratic the USA is, but it's certainly no dictatorship. Its version of democracy is still alive. What is dead, or dying in any case, is decorum in political discourse.

And with the death of decorum, decline or dictatorship is not far behind. Or both.
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Apartments of pain, cafés (and panaderías) of creativity

@wwaycorrigan

[For an audio/vlog version of this story, click here.]

For the second time this year, I find myself in the privileged position of looking after a fancy Bogotá apartment for a few weeks while its occupants are on holidays.

Work from home? No way! Work from a café is where it's at.

To give some idea of the apartment's opulence and, more tellingly, an indication of the scale of Colombia's inequality, the monthly rent here is roughly the same as the country's annual minimum salary. Its location in a high-stratum neighbourhood plays an important part in this inflated rent. Let's just say it's a bit beyond my means and that of most Colombians.

Home is where the backpack is

So in contrast to Garth Brooks, who felt the need to tell the world through song that he's got friends in low places, I'm letting it be known here that I've got friends in fairly high places. OK, I have written about my acquaintances in Bogotá's low places yet because I also usually reside in such barrios populares, I don't need to make as much of a song and dance about it as Mr Brooks has. My riff-raff credentials require little verification.

Now, a mixture of uncertainty about my future in the Colombian capital and the need to keep costs down as I go through — what's that it's called these days? — ah yes, an economically inactive period has meant that I haven't looked for anything close to permanent accommodation.

Through invites and a room deal reached with a friend who owed me money, Bogotá has been my main base without my having to find a new place since I returned to Colombia in February this year after a three-month visit to Ireland. I have been, quite literally, living out of my backpack.

Yet, once this apartment-sitting stint is done, I face that perennial headache: finding somewhere suitable to live.

The room with the friend who owed me money is an option but it's far from ideal. This is because, for one, the room is tiny. I also don't want to apartment-share anymore.

'In the place where I sleep, cook and clean, I find it hard to do other tasks that require concentration. It's why I've never liked the work-from-home concept.'

For sure, finding my own place in Bogotá isn't, ostensibly, that complicated. The problem is my aforementioned uncertainty about my being here coupled with the higher costs of solo living. Fully or even half-furnished apartments are hard to find. Taking an unfurnished one and making it liveable would only make sense if I were certain that I'd be in Bogotá for at least another year.

So this brings us back to renting a room in shared accommodation. What I hate the most about such arrangements are kitchen clashes. I want the kitchen to be unoccupied and clean when I need to use it. Living with others means this is far from a given. Sharing with those who like to booze at home is another risk.

Café concentration

My dislike of house-shares aside, I'm not one who enjoys spending a lot of time inside my residence anyway. I get cabin fever if I don't get out regularly. This is irrespective of where I am.

For example, my current temporary accommodation is close to ideal for me — the biggest snag is that the area is a bit too tame for my liking — yet I couldn't stay in it all day. (I just like that feeling of returning to the apartment and knowing that I have it all to myself.)

OK, there's nothing strange in wanting to get out and about. Yet, my issue is that in the place where I sleep, cook and clean I find it hard to do other tasks that require a bit of concentration, some deep thought. It's why I've never liked the work-from-home concept.

While I may be devoid of paid work right now, writing this blog still requires a bit of concentration. Honestly, it does. And even when it comes to reading, I find that I can focus better on text when I'm out as opposed to sitting at home.

That out place isn't just any random spot either. Cafés, coffee shops and, more commonly in a Colombian context, panaderías are my concentration hotspots. I find libraries a little too staid — unless I need a lot of silence — while the commercial air of shopping centres, or malls if you prefer, is off-putting; it's a bit too much.

There's something about cafés and their equivalents that hit the Goldilocks zone.

Creative commons

I'm not alone in feeling this. There's actually a term for it, the coffee shop effect, where many of us are seen to be more creative and have greater concentration in such places rather than working from home or in an office. For a more detailed background on that, see the BBC article Why you’re more creative in coffee shops.

In brief summation, it has to do with the mild background noise and constantly changing environment — in terms of people coming and going — of coffee shops that act as stimuli for creativity. The sameness of being at home or in an office can impinge upon our creativity and ability to focus. It certainly seems to be the case for me anyway.

So while the apartment I'm currently and temporarily looking after has pretty much everything I need, it simply can't replicate the coffee shop/panadería effect.

Thankfully, though, panaderías are ten-a-peso in Bogotá. What I consider satisfactory accommodation is far scarcer, particularly when one is on a tight-ish budget.

Thus, the panadería pondering is unlikely to cease just yet. The answers to one's problems may not be found at the bottom of a beer bottle but perhaps solutions may be forthcoming with a cup of coffee in a public setting.
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Shunning la Selección Colombia

@wwaycorrigan

[For an audio/vlog version of this story, click here.]

Sports fans — as in those who faithfully support a team — and a balanced, unbiased stance rarely play well together.

Many of la Selección Colombia's supporters are insufferable. (Image from Facebook.)

'My team, good. The team we're playing against, bad.' That's generally how it goes. Facts get discarded or are at least explained away by some intricate, yet utterly ludicrous, verbal gymnastics.

Departing from the faithful

It is fanaticism after all. Displaying doubt or accepting criticism means one is not a true believer. Once one takes that leap of faith, the only way to stay suspended is to fully buy into the creed.

Of course, sport deals predominantly in the physical and the here and now, unlike religious faith, which is very much metaphysical and independent of time, until Judgement Day, that is.

What's more, facts, stats, and delivering something tangible and understandable in the moment play significant roles in sport.

Thus, being a 'see no evil, hear no evil' blind sports fanatic is more difficult to justify. Or at least it should be.

Many, though, enter into what I consider to be Faustian-esque fanaticism, particularly with football, or soccer if you prefer. It certainly has evil elements to it.

Insufferable Selección support

Now, while the uncritical mass support for the Colombian men's national football team, la Selección (or la Sele for short) as it's affectionately called, rarely results in acts of violence against non-believers, it does get rather nauseating all the same.

Rather than being something to be admired, it often comes across as immature. The media not only fans the flames of this football fawning but also engages in it itself.

OK, I've never been a, um, fan of the contrived impartiality some other national media outlets try to implement but refusing to see any faults or shortcomings in one's own team is a worse trait.

Such behaviour ensures many la Selección fanatics are both bad losers and bad winners. There's no sense of perspective.

For sure, this isn't exclusive to Colombia. I've unfortunately been in the presence of some Argentineans when their football team is playing and they're arguably more insufferable. And many of my fellow country folk can be the same, just not usually with soccer.

'I can more readily get behind Bogotá's Millonarios football club because I know not everyone in the vicinity will be backing my side.'

The thing with Colombia and most other South American countries is the intensity of fanaticism. I'd wager that about 95 per cent of Colombians enthusiastically support the national team and of that number, perhaps three out of every five are insufferable fanatics.

In the likes of Ireland, a range of sports vie for the nation's undivided attention, so there tends to be fewer insufferable fanatics of any one pursuit. In addition, in Ireland, cynicism and indifference are commonplace, particularly amongst the older generations.

Blind indifference

Thus, Colombia's all-behind-la-Selección approach is a little too much for me. OK, when the team advances in a competition the giddy excitement is understandable, but even in rather meaningless friendly games the enthusiasm is usually excessive. It's why I find it hard to support them.

Well, also at play is that I'm usually uncomfortable when I find myself siding with the majority. For example, I can more readily get behind Bogotá's Millonarios football club because I know not everyone in the vicinity will be backing my side.

It must also be noted that I can often be more critical of those who I want to see do well than those for whom I care little.

Plus, as I age, I question myself more as to why I waste my energy and time supporting individuals or teams who don't know or care about me, something I touched on in Bogged down in Bogotá.

The default mode for many foreigners who make Colombia their home is to mimic the masses and go all in for la Sele. I, too, have played that game. It's one of the quickest ways to win the favour of the locals, ephemeral and shallow as that will most likely be.

These days, however, I'm more comfortable declaring my indifference. This stance is made easier seeing how some of my more respected Colombian acquaintances are also quite indifferent to the team's fortunes.

Bet on Colombia

Now, I shouldn't need to refute here the idea that my indifference to la Selección means I dislike Colombia in general. Some more immature, myopic types will, however, draw that conclusion.

In Loving Colombia, Seventh heaven: Seven benefits of living in Colombia, and many other posts I've given various reasons why I like Colombia. My more than 12 years being based here also shows that I have much time for this country.

Also, I'm not completely immune to all the hype and carnival atmosphere that surrounds a Colombian football match, particularly the kind that comes when the team plays well and progresses in tournaments, as it is at Copa América 2024 as I write these lines. (And no, I'm not trying to jinx them.) One would have to live in solitude in some isolated outpost not to feel the fervour

It's just that I can't get that emotionally involved in the games without a blood connection or something to that effect. And nowadays I'm less inclined to feign fanaticism just to get along. I do, though, still like to watch the games in a public setting. Doing so with less intense, more learned Colombian supporters is a help. Such types do exist.

One way I could force myself to be a more enthusiastic fan is by betting money on the team. Become a fool and a fan in the one go, so to put it.

Although, I think it's best to stick to my intelligent indifference for now.
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Respite from uncertainty (and Migración Colombia's online system!) with residency

@wwaycorrigan

[For an audio/vlog version of this story, click here.]

So after more than 12 years of having Colombia as my main base and ten years of various work visas, I've finally managed to get residency.

'Relax, you've got residency now.'

Truth be told, since securing a two-year M visa as an independent worker in 2022, residency wasn't a major priority.

Revel in residency

An M visa puts one on the road to residency. For most who have such a visa for work reasons, that road is a five-year one i.e. after five years of consecutive M visas — no breaks allowed — one can then apply for residency.

Thus, getting back on an M visa after the weaker V visa (effectively a tourist with official permission to do certain work) I had from 2020 to 2022 meant I was rather relaxed about my situation compared to the more troubling visa-application times in 2020 and 2021 (for some background on all that, see Colombia's tough love).

Nonetheless, the M visa I had was due to expire in November this year, so I was facing into another nervy renewal process — one just never knows. (After being granted — largely hassle-free — four year-long visas as an independent worker from 2014 to 2018, the process then got more complicated, as I explained in Colombia's independent work visa: ¿Vale la pena?)

Now, though, with my R visa approved — that's R for residency, in case you're not following — a nervy November is less likely. (I'm sure there'll be something else I'll be nervous or worried about, it's just unlikely it'll be visa-related.)

The biggest benefit of such a visa, as I see it at this stage in any case — no, it's not that I can now vote in local elections — is that I can leave Colombia for up to two years with no change to my legal status. It might seem strange that I'm highlighting this as a positive after just getting residency but I'm referring to the flexibility/freedom it offers. An M visa, in contrast, is invalidated if one is out of Colombia for more than 180 days.

'I wonder if Migración Colombia is cursed. It did, after all, come into being on Halloween 2011.'

Linked to this, I've always had this concern — justified or otherwise — about having difficulties with my bank if I no longer have a valid Foreigner Identification Card, cédula de extranjería. It was with my cédula de extranjería that I opened my current Colombian bank account and they can be quite bureaucratic here about such matters. 'Oh, the ID you have linked to this account is out of date. We can't let you access your funds so.'

Flawed system

Bureaucracy and the cédula de extranjería bring us on to Migración Colombia, the entity one goes to for said cédula once the visa department at La Cancillería, the Ministry for Exterior Relations, has granted a visa.

Migración Colombia is under the control of La Cancillería but at times its processes make one feel that it operates in a completely different dimension to the ministry.

In my December 2022 post, Lending Migración Colombia a helping hand, I tried to do just that, lend the body a hand, by highlighting some frustrating flaws in its online system. My article — surprise, surprise — didn't have the desired effect.

The same blind spots I mentioned back then are still present. Or not present, as it is.

Now, though, in addition to the information-light email replies to users of its services, there are a couple of more headaches — for those dealing with the Bogotá office in any case.

That all in-person procedures, bar picking up a new cédula when it's ready, must first be booked online isn't a major deal in itself. It beats, in theory, waiting in line physically. For the Bogotá office, due to demand I surmise, the window to book appointments opens at 5 pm on Sundays and, by all accounts, closes in a matter of hours.

One is thus advised to be ready to enter the booking system as soon as the clock strikes five. The thing is, it seems the system just can't cope.

System overload.

On the two occasions I had to use it over the last few weeks, the first couple of hours I spent simply trying to enter the website were largely a waste of time. At times it did feel like progress was being made, I'd pass an initial step or two but then the system would crash and I'd have to start all over again.

For fear of missing out on reserving an appointment, especially for registering my R visa and with it applying/paying for a new cédula to reflect my changed circumstances, something that has to be done within 15 calendar days of getting a visa, I didn't take a break from trying to enter the system.

On reflection, it seems that one would be better off waiting until 7 pm. It was only after that time that I started to make progress. Yet, as mentioned, there's the fear of entering the system too late. 'Sorry, all appointments have been booked out for this week.' There is probably a sweet spot timewise, I'm just not sure where it is.

The Cursed

And now, having completed the process, I don't really care. As things stand, I won't have to deal with Migración again, in this sort of way that is, until May 2029. Who knows what my circumstances will be then?

Therein lies another benefit of my R visa: not having to use Migración Colombia's online system for years to come. I'm fairly sure it's already taken, if not quite years, certainly months off my life.

Even what had previously been a rather simple procedure, checking if my new cédula was ready, turned out to be more complicated than I remember it before. It took me a long time to find the appropriate online page. In mitigation, I was searching on my phone. Perhaps the website is more easily navigated on a PC or laptop.

I do wonder, though, if Migración Colombia is cursed. Or better said, it puts a curse on those who use its services. It did, after all, come into being on Halloween 2011. Certainly, all the drama I've had with it has been akin to some slapstick horror show.

Migración Colombia: A Nightmare on Bogotá's 100th Street (Calle 100). Box office potential that.
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From Cool to Fool Britannia | Letter to the editor

@wwaycorrigan

Oh those heady days of 1990s Cool Britannia. The Oasis-Blur rivalry, Girl Power one could genuinely believe in with the Spice Girls, and Western innocence that we'd reached the end of history.

How wrong we were. Specifically for Britain, nay the United Kingdom, ahead of its general election on 04 July, the choice is a full return to the Blairite Revolution started in 1997 or continued Conservative Party incompetence.

My latest letter, published in the Irish Examiner on Wednesday 26 June, looks at this bleak choice for the UK through a pop lens. Pop goes Britannia, so to put it.

The letter is at https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/yourview/arid-41423608.html or see the copy of it below.

Fool Britannia

Round by round we go. Oh no!

@wwaycorrigan

[For an audio/vlog version of this story, click here.]

A customer enters one of his regular cafés. He sees some familiar and not-so-familiar faces. On ordering his brew, he also asks the attendant to serve out another round of drinks to the clientèle present, to be put on his tab.

Round-buying drives some people round the bend.

How many times have you seen this happening in a café, restaurant or other similar establishment?

I can't recall it ever happening in my panadería offices in Bogotá. OK, on the very odd occasion I've received an impromptu invite for a coffee but never have I seen a fellow regular wander in and order drinks for all present.

Proper order

Yet, there's something about places that sell and serve alcohol that sees some people go invite crazy — and that's before the booze has gone to their brains. Also, we're talking here about seasoned drinkers who should know better, not once-a-year tipplers.

Such types seem incapable of simply ordering their own drink and no more. It's not proper order if one orders just a solitary drink when in the company of others.

Now, this behaviour would be very welcome if it didn't come with an expectation that everyone else should rally round the round. But it usually does. What's more, one risks insulting the first round-buyer by politely declining the offer.

I struggle to understand this mindset. Or, more accurately, I struggle to understand why certain men — for it's almost always men, especially in Colombia — feel compelled to buy rounds in the first instance. The practice adds another reason for potential conflict in an environment where conflicts can flare up at, quite literally, the drop of a bottle. Or often for much less of an offence.

'Forking out for the fornication partners of others is something that particularly annoys me.'

I figure there's a machismo element to it. In a Bogotá context, this manifests itself as the big man about the barrio, splashing the cash. To a point, that is. Because when the big man starts waiting for others to contribute, he becomes a little smaller in the eyes of both the freeloaders and the more independent-minded drinkers who happened to get caught up in his generosity.

Pay more, drink less

I can understand and even support round-buying when everyone is drinking at pretty much the same pace with the same brew. Or at least a drink at the same price.

This, however, is rarely the case for me. In Colombia, I prefer to drink the bigger presentations. They usually give you more punch for your peso. For example, a 330 ml bottle can be up to double the price per millilitre compared to a 750 ml or litre bottle. Yet, many Colombians opt for the 330 ml bottles. Even in Ireland, my pint of choice was regularly more economical than that of my boozing buddies.

Thus, seldom have I broken even when I get stuck in rounds. Indeed, I've often spent more than double the price of what I had actually drunk. The aforementioned freeloaders are usually to blame for this. These freeloaders are generally made up of barrio bums and female companions of other male imbibers. Forking out for the fornication partners of others is something that particularly annoys me. (It's got to the stage where I'll avoid a watering hole if I see certain round-buying types there.)

Rounds can also be worth it when it's a pay-as-you-order system and the payment method is cash only. The latter is certainly commonplace in Colombia — cash is still king here — yet it's the tab system that dominates in standard tiendas and barrio bars. Pay when you finish up, not as you go. Or, in some cases, pay when you have the money. (See Colombia's credit contradiction for more on the country's taxing tab culture.)

So the hassle of handing out change for each individual order doesn't arise in an average drinking setting in Colombia. In my native Ireland and other high-income nations where card/digital payments have taken over, paying as you order isn't as much of an issue as it might have been in the past.

With all that in mind, rounds should be the exception rather than the norm. And they should be more frowned upon than they currently are. #JustSayNo.

Nonetheless, if somebody wants to buy me a beer or whatever with absolutely no expectations that I'll buy one back, I won't say no to that. It would be better, though, if they treated me to lunch or a coffee or three. It's not more beer that I'm in need of these days.
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Beware the sly left

@wwaycorrigan

Below is a copy of my letter to The Irish Times — a slightly edited version as it is — where I give my thoughts on the results of the local and European elections in Ireland, held on 07 June 2024.

The letter, published in the paper on 12 June, can also be found at https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/2024/06/12/elections-choices-and-consequences/.

The sly leftists are taking over.