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Indigenous guard from Cauca (Photo: El Turbión newspaper via Indymedia Colombia)

Two main issues have been central on the indigenous demonstration held in Colombia these days. The first one is their demand for more protection from the Colombian State because of the indigenous people murdered by the groups fighting in the Colombian internal armed conflict. The second one has to do with their constant and almost eternal fight for land.

It is true that, due to some of the customs the indigenous communities have, there are reasons to question the way how they and their discourse have inserted into a global context flavoured with "correct multiculturality" (with racism still alive and kicking in the world), which contradicts or reassert their claims and life projects. Political "correction" stands everything. But, beyond antropological and cultural questionings, related to the way indigenous people behave and Western society’s behaviour toward them, let’s be honest, today more than ever, interests and claims by the indigenous communities in Colombia are worthless. Right now it is worth to question the real role of indigenous fight into the Colombian and global environmental discourse.

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Luis Carlos Sarmiento Angulo is Colombia’s most important banker. Therefore, he is interested in the courts to work fine. His banks’ legal processes, small seizures and unpaid mortgages are a big piece of his business.

In what kind of country private citizens "suggest" the President to declare a state of emergency, him rushes to obey and no one succesfully stands on his way? In a country torn into pieces. I mean, in Colombia. Here —as showed last week— democratic guarantees matter far less than the so-called investment trust. No matter what rights are to be ridden roughshod over, to Mr Uribe the important thing is the rich to be still richer.

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On 7 July 1948, the assembly of the recently founded Major Division of Colombian Football, Dimayor, created by the representatives of the clubs that had acquired the status of professionals (that is, the ones where the footballers received a salary to carry out their activity), determined that since August, they would hold an annual football championship of first division in Colombia, with the participation of teams coming from the most important cities in the country.

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Crossposted on iCommons

Promotion for the movie Perro come perro (Carlos Caicedo, Flickr / CC-BY-NC-SA licence)

Despite interesting movies and efforts in Colombia no film industry in the true sense of the word has really evolved. During the 80s a public institution, Focine, provided support for some productions but it was not viable financially and had to declare bankruptcy during the 90s. In 2003 the "film law" (Ley 814 de 2003). offered important incentives, in the form of tax deductions, to companies and individuals who fund film productions, in an effort to boost the industry.

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In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court of Colombia, the highest criminal judicial tribunal and Cassation Court (deals with the Cassation procedures also known in other juridical traditions as right of appeal on points of law), determined that in order to establish a criminal violation of copyright, it is necessary to find if the criminal conduct is for profit-making, if it causes effective injury and if the intention is to cause harm on the right holder.

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This article has been cross-posted from iCommons

This is the story of the tropical reinvention of "Captain Copyright", a cartoon superhero who was suppose to devoted his life to teaching children the virtues of copyright. The brainchild of a Canadian government campaign that appeared in the end of 2006, "Captain Copyright" was usually portrayed flying on the scene in which someone published research without proper credit. In the website dedicated to Captain Copyright, the campaign offered educational resources to be integrated into the classroom’s of Canadian school children.

The classroom exercises that Captain Copyright taught young children generally reinforced the limits that copyright imposes on the conduct of people and failed to address other aspects of copyright, such as exceptions in favour of everyone in society, the public domain, the ability to share, and so on. At that time, commentators like Professor Geist pointed out: "there is no reference to user rights, which are particularly relevant in the education context." He concluded: "Our children need to develop love for learning, a passion for creativity, and appreciation of art and science. The exercises that are offered do not provide any of that. Instead they reduce Canadian copyright to levels not seen before. They are so shameful that they should not be included in any classroom in the country." The campaign had to be ended, months later in 2007.

Recently, the Colombian National Planning Department (DNP) will submit for approval to the National Council for Social and Economic Politics (CONPES) a document on intellectual property that takes upon Captain Copyright’s idea of protection and enforcement of copyright. As it happened in the case of Captain Copyright’s materials, this document emphasis the possibilities of developing Colombian competitiveness and development only on the limits side of the equation, without watching all the other issues that influence the maintenance of a balanced system of creativity.

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It is a cruel truth. It should not be this way, but it is like this. Along the history, and in crucial situations, politics interference in sports, besides of being inevitable, has brought more negative than positive elements for an activity that, by definition, is peaceful and looks for the harmony among human beings, in addition to provide a good physical shape, fame and recognition for those who practise it and entertainment for those to follow it as spectators.

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In his editorial column at El Tiempo, the leading Colombian newspaper, Guillermo Santos described the dream home in terms of technology, mentioning a number of technical features that should have a home properly connected with today`s technology.

In order to describe the need and potential of having a hard drive shared by the family members he said that "at home one handled many files, including MP3 music downloaded from the Internet," and he adds: "it is an act that violates the intellectual property rights, and it is illegal".

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A pine plantation in Carimagua (Meta Department, Colombia), 2005

I attended the relevant presentation of the book: “Agrofuels filling tanks, emptying territories” (Agrocombustibles: Llenando tanques, Vaciando territorios) embodied in the campaign of the same name spearheaded by Censat - Agua Viva and the Process of Black Communities (PCN). This book (which I strongly recommend to read if you want to approach from several perspectives to this particular subject), discusses the striking environmental impact and the conflicts generated by the invasion of "agro-business", which are leading mega-projects of mono-crops farming for the production of fuels in Colombia.

The bold proposal embodied in the article written by Hildebrando and Irene Vélez about the construction of a Movement of Victims of Climate Change has called my attention. They dared to propose and basically launch the concept “agrofuels” to replace the fallacious word "biofuels", cited as the spearhead of an alleged salvation strategy toward climate change and the reduction of Greenhouse gases (GHGs) when it’s well known that the word “biofuels” make reference to the perpetuation of unsustainable practises that have shaped the global environmental crisis of nowadays.

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28 October 1972 is a date that breaks apart into the history of the Colombian sport. That memorable night, Antonio Cervantes, Kid Pambelé, defeated Alfonso Peppermint Frazer in an overwhelming way in Panama City and got for the very first time for Colombia a world title of boxing.

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