colombia

I'm absolutely disgusted by some of the lies that have been posted on here. I can understand people praising Colombia, but why lie? That's what I don't understand. Norak claims drugs aren't as available as in 1st world nations, yet strangely journalists who go to the city slums ALWAYS report people out of their heads on basuco, crack, blow or cocaine. Why is it whenever I see the barrios of say, Medellin on some documentary (which isn't very often believe me), people are snorting or smoking stuff like it's going out of fashion? Very strange. Almost as if there's a cover up. I read on a website a while back that some Colombians are in denial about this. They'll angrily deny there's a drug addict problem to your face while getting high on a joint. That's not me saying that it's someone else. Another fib Norak told was crime is mainly in rural areas when most murders are in urban, and most of it is by common criminals. Bogota is actually MORE dangerous than most cities of it's size too. Not sure what he/she was going on about there. Which brings me on to another liar - J.B. again. He's another who talks as if Colombia's on the news all the time. Where on EARTH do people get this from?? Do a Google search on murder rate with the US then compare with Colombia and see how many results come up. In other words, don't pretend Colombia's violence is some well known phenomenon because it isn't. J.B. also lied about Colombia being safer than South Africa and Venezuela. Brazil I'd agree with, but the year prior to J.B.'s definition (2003) Colombia certainly was NOT safer than South Africa and Venezuela. Why did he say it? You tell me. Now let's look at his ridiculous argument about Washington being more dangerous than Bogota, we'll use 2003 stats again. How BIG is Washington compared to the Colombian capital, particularly the figure he's using? 44 per 100,000 for a city of half a million people compared to Bogota's 23 per 100k amidst SEVEN MILLION, yet if we use the ENTIRE metropolitan area of D.C. (five million) the rate goes down to 9 per 100,000. I'll go further. If we compare the Bogota suburb of Soacha (300,000+) to the core city of Washington, it's murder rate is HIGHER at 47 per 100,000. These are far more like for like comparisons. You see where this is going? It's crafty and I see it all the time, let's compare apples with apples. Yes, Bogota is much, MUCH safer than it was in the early 90's, but I think a city of seven million that still had 1,372 murders in 2006 would only be considered safe by idiots. Don't get me STARTED on the brutally violent cities in the Valle del Cauca province! Dave, just ignore these politically correct arse-kissers. I'm interested in facts and I hope people rate me on my content, not my shitty attitude. Thank you and for the record, Colombia is MUCH safer since Uribe became president...but STILL a violent place, so keep your wits about you.