Making it in Medellin

There's something going on here which isn't talked about. It's ingrained in this city's core and accepted as part of life by the people who suffer it's various indecencies and by those who profit from it. Some are born with it, others, like Pablo Escobar, are born without it and earn it through action. It is what keeps people saying todo bien in the streets while their professional or familial lives crumble and dissolve. It is the enemy of merit. It is rosca.

The dictionary defines it as 'the thread of a screw' but it's more commonly thought of as 'influence'. Americans, like myself, have trouble understanding the version of rosca that exists here. In Boston and other American cities, getting a job or being promoted usually depends on your abilities, relevant experience and contacts. Here, you can scrap the first two on that list in most industries. Here it doesn't matter what you've done or if you're more deserving than someone else or if you're more qualified; what matters is who you know. Nepotism, favoritism, biases and partiality are accepted parts of the game. In order to move up and accumulate power, you have to satisfy certain individuals.

Please take a moment to consider what it would be like to live inside this system. You work, effort, suffer, sweat and bleed your way through life without reaping rewards. You are principled, ethical, value oriented and 'good' and watch as your asshole neighbor or classmate or colleague or family member cruises to a good salary and passing grades while you remain stagnant. If you find your way into a position based on your abilities, it will be ripped away from you, you will lose your livelihood when a person who is more connected is 'recommended' for the position.

How does one accumulate rosca? By doing favors. The mafia bosses, politicians and the police/armed forces control the Central Bank of Paisa Rosca, and they are the people who need to pleased. If you work at a publicly funded university, for example, it's the city councilmen, the mayor's staff members or the local representatives.

The group that is not mentioned above is that of the powerful private citizens. They no longer actively control the flow of drugs through Medellin or the city government of Envigado or La Policia of Itagui or Bello but who can still make regular withdrawls from the Rosca Bank. It's this group that perhaps does the most harm in present day Paisa society. They're unmarked, without uniforms. They're sitting next to you at the bank or in the park. They are one of the reasons why citizens avoid substantive conversations regarding the many persistent evils of their city. There is a 'fear of the other' that runs through, not under but through, regular interactions here. Paisas spend time with family members and two or three good friends - nobody else can be trusted enough to allow for an honest exchange of criticisms, commentary and observations.

There were over 1,200 homicides last year in Medellin alone. Increases in violence in the barrios. Severe lack of medical services. Lack of educational resources for children. Children being abandoned on the streets by parents who can't afford to support them. Intellectuals and professionals who are prisoners within their national boundaries, unable to secure visas and passports. These issues not only aren't spoken about on the streets or in the panaderias, they also aren't reported in the news. Last night I asked two executives from a publicly funded energy and communications company based in Medellin, why it is so difficult to find unbiased media sources in Colombia. They chuckled and told me that here, being in the middle is not an option. The independent, investigative reporter can't survive. It's not that he can't get his writings published - he'll be killed.

And even as I write this I have, in the back of my head somewhere, a muted voice asking what I'll get out of publishing this on the web and if it is worth the potential risks. It seems far fetched; a neighbor finding out that I keep a blog, reading it, passing the info along to an interested party, and so on. It is far fetched, but not impossible, that there could be a backlash against this piece. Either way, it has taken my over a year to realize how this city is run and now that I know I can't just stay quiet.

It's disappointing and troublesome for the future of this scarred country. People are living in various degrees of fear of their neighbors, of their colleagues, of their 'friends' and of the police.