Greetings from Bogotá, which is as different to the green, clean ambience of Mykanos as one could imagine. I came to water the plants on the balcony. They seem to weather lack of attention for two or three weeks quite well so I will be back off to the Bush and the verdant valley that we inhabit.
I have been meaning to write this for quite some time but there always appeared to be a newsworthy event just about to happen that might be worthy of inclusion, so I delayed to see the outcome.
I would love to say that it was an appreciation in coffee prices or an increase in harvestable coffee but neither would be true. The weather is affecting the coffee and the international commodity markets are affecting the price. It’s not good … as bad as it was a decade or so ago when we staged the Paro Cafetero (Coffee Strike) … but we hope the major cosecha (harvest) in a few months will prove beneficial to both … and to us as a result.
What has been very newsworthy, due to its ubiquitous presence, is international sport.
I was here in Bogotá in July, watering the plants, when we had:
– the Tour de France cycle race 2024 in Italy and France,
– the 2024 Championships Wimbledon at the All England Club,
– the UEFA European Football championship 2024 (Euro Cup) in Germany
– the Copa America football championship 2024 in the USA.
The sports fans amongst you will probably know that Wimbledon, Euro Cup and Copa America all had their finals on the same day, 14th July.
The cycling was of major interest but as it was not lead or won by a Colombian, as it was in 2019 by Egan Bernal, it was of diminished attraction.
The football, however, was a completely different matter.
As I say in my book:
‘Pretending that football can be ignored here is like trying to pretend that Colombians don’t like music, or that the atmosphere doesn’t contain oxygen (although at the higher altitudes it contains less than I like).’
Football is a real passion here with a multitude of followers (male and female) who share that passion. The Euro Cup was of passing interest, but the Copa America was another thing entirely, especially as Colombia moved through the ranks, winning as they went.
I am not a great football fan, although I inevitably became interested as England and Colombia won their way through to their respective finals.
On the evening of July 14, after Spain defeated England in the Euro Cup, it was Colombia’s turn to face Argentina for the Copa America in Miami. The match started an hour late, which I thought was very Latino until it was announced that some 10,000 Colombians without tickets tried to get into the match, storming the gate, and many were successful.
Meanwhile, here, passion was building in intensity. A big viewing site had been set up in Parque 93 just one block away and crowds had been amassing all afternoon. I stayed at home and watched the families and groups of fans, dressed in yellow Colombian football shirts and carrying noisemakers of various sorts, trooping in vast numbers down Calle 92 towards the park. We do not have television so did not follow the game but it is always obvious when goals are scored in important matches from the excited cheers that emanate from neighbors and neighboring streets whenever the favoured team scores. Many had football final parties organised in their homes,
I always remember how the city of Naples shook in 1986 when Italy scored against Argentina in the first round of the World Cup in Mexico. I thought it was an earthquake produced by Vesuvius but it was just the population of Napoli exulting in a goal.
I was expecting something similar to rumble the neighborhood when Colombia scored against Argentina but that did not happen. Only one goal was scored and that was by Argentina, in extra time, and not a squeak was heard from the amassed crowds. They all seemed to slink away in silence, and it reminded me of the last lines of T.S.Eliot’s poem ‘The Hollow Men’ …
‘This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but with a whimper.’
I felt for them but, as I said earlier, I am not a great football fan.
Many years ago, John Lyttle, a journalist for The Independent in the UK, wrote a column describing the differences between ‘straights’ and ‘gays’. One of his observations was that ‘Straights rush to see new films about lesbians, whereas gays rush, with lesbians, to see new films’. The one comparison that particularly amused me was on football, which he suggested that straights saw as ‘a battle of strength and a titanic struggle for supremacy between warring tribes, whereas gays saw football as a chance to see Ryan Giggs’ thighs’.
This was a fairly radical thing to say at the time, as everything was much more discreet, and Lyttle became quite infamous as an openly gay proselytizer of the alternative lifestyle.
About the same time I was doing a job for drinks giant Diageo, writing a video being made by friend and collaborator Richard Tierney. We were briefed by the man who thought up Baileys Irish Cream for IDV (International Distillers & Vintners) before it became Diageo. His idea came out of a triumvirate of circumstances: the desire for a low alcohol drink that women would buy, tax breaks for anyone producing in Ireland, and a glut of milk in the EU.
Launched in 1974, Baileys reached the 1-billion-bottles-sold mark in December 2007 and took just 12 more years to notch up a second billion in sales. Available in 160 countries worldwide, Baileys inspired a new category of drinks. It requires more than 200 million liters of fresh Irish milk annually to produce enough cream to keep up with sales.
He also showed us the new (then) television ad for Chivas Regal. It was intended to position it as a more relevant contemporary luxury whiskey and featured three macho men in checked shirts trout fishing in the mountains, drinking Chivas on the rocks. “Why three men?” I asked. Because two might look like a couple, and people might think they were more than friends. Heaven forbid someone might think they are gay.
Times have changed over the years. Take the Olympics for example.
In 1984 and 1988 Greg Louganis, the US diver and arguably the greatest diver of all time, won Olympic Gold but he only came out as gay in 1994.
In 2008, Gold medal winning Australian diver Matthew Mitcham was the only openly gay athlete in the Beijing Olympic Village, which was hosting 10,899 athletes.
And in 2024, the UK’s Tom Daly, competing in his fifth Olympics, won yet another medal, with his husband and two children in the stands cheering him on.
As I noted, times have changed somewhat and one only needed to see the Opening Ceremony of the Paris Olympics (one week after the football) and the segment celebrating diversity and inclusivity to witness how much. The segment was heavily and wrongly criticised for being a disrespectful send-up of Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’ (as if Dionysus / Bacchus attended the Last Supper?).
Some 29 million people worldwide witnessed LGBTQ+ people being extravagantly recognised.
Does it matter? Well yes, funnily enough, but it is nothing new here in Colombia.
Back in 2012 the Mayor of Bogotá had posters put up on the city’s bus stops saying ‘En Bogotá se puede ser … Lesbiana, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenerista’ (In Bogotá it’s OK to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender). The posters carried the seal of the Mayor and guaranteed equal rights for the diverse.
Haven’t seen anything like that at bus stops in London or Sydney so far, but then I haven’t been there for a while.
And it wasn’t just feel-good PR.
For a long time civil servants, government employees, members of the police and the military gained a 30% salary increase on getting married, one assumes to encourage legitimate population growth and to help them fund children, wives/husbands and homes. Well, same sex married couples now receive it too, one assumes to encourage adoptions, and to help fund partners, décor and exotic holidays.
Moreover, after 15 years of public service, married couples receive a grant towards acquiring a house. The housing subsidy for military personnel in Colombia in 2023 was 121 million pesos for officers, 54 million pesos for non-commissioned officers and executive level, and 47 million pesos for soldiers, agents and professional marines. The subsidy is intended for the initial payment of the home and can be complemented with mortgage loans or with the member’s savings.
The first subsidy granted to a gay couple, both of whom were police officers, was celebrated with a ceremony (perhaps not surprisingly) at the Parque de los Hippies in Chapinero in Bogotá.
Not bad for a macho, Latino, patriarchal country that was previously very critical and hostile to any sense of unorthodoxy.
Unorthodoxy is something with which we are very comfortable. We are not team players, and never have been. At school I avoided cricket, rugby or soccer and did swimming and fencing instead. Adriano was a runner. Feeling different was a natural outcome of being in a minority but as I write in my book, that can be incredibly liberating and a very positive benefit when one becomes comfortable with it.
So all the football fans can follow their teams and share the ecstasy of victory or devastation of defeat with the masses with whom they share their enthusiasm.
As for me, I want to be back in the bush; having breakfast each morning in the kiosk; saying G ‘day to cats, dog, ducks, geese and guinea fowl; marvelling at the abundance of avocados, cherry tomatoes, squashes and a melange of lettuces; and partaking of Adriano’s culinary expertise after enjoying a G&T as the sun sets behind the Cordillera Occidental (the Western chain of the Andes).
I could do a lot worse.
Love from him and me
Barry
