Colombianos love their ‘Caliwood’

I learned something movie-related about Colombia this morning, which is fitting considering the name of this blog. One of our teachers, Oscar Mora, said that Cali has a nickname – un apodo, as they say in Spanish – which is “Caliwood.”

The name comes from the fact that the people here love movies and because, apparently, they have many more alternative filmmakers here than Bogotá. Or at least that’s what I understood from what Oscar said in Spanish. I’ll get him to talk more later.

As for class this morning, our teacher Harry Córdoba took us through more language basics, explaining the basic symbols that hablantes de español use, such as the tilde (or accent) or the diacrítico (the squiggly line above the ñ), and other aspects of the basic structura de la lengua.

I wish I had taken classes from this guy 40 years ago.

Then we sat through an introduction to Colombian economy given by a professor named Alejandro Castro Zuleta, who tried in 90 minutes to gives us an overview that some students might spend a whole semester learning.

Here are some high points:

Colombia is the 25th largest country in the world (in terms of land area).

Colombia boasts an average temperature of 22.5 degrees Celsius (about 72.5 degrees Fahrenheit, though, to be honest, no such temperatures were apparent this morning. In fact, the classroom was so cold it felt as if we were sitting on an ice floe).

With more than 43 million inhabitants, Colombia ranks third in population density among America Latina nations (and 29th in the world).

Some 76 percent of Colombianos live in urban areas (the four largest cities are Bogotá, Medellin, Cali and Baranquilla).

The average monthly salary of a typical Colombiano amounts to about $300 in U.S. currency.

Ten percent of the richest Colombianos make 53 times more that the poorest 10 percent of Colombianos. In all of North America, by comparison, the top 10 percent make only 20 times as much as the bottom 10 percent.

(BTW, Sr. Castro took these figure from the textbook Introducción a la Economica Colombiana, written by Mauricio Cárdenas.)

One of the most interesting statistics was this: While it takes an Australian eight minutes to earn enough money to buy a kilogram of rice, a Colombiano has to work 16 minutes to purchase the same thing. A Kenyan, by contrast, has to work an entire hour.

All things, then, are relative. Besides, I once read that 50 percent of all statistics were wrong, and that the remaining half were made up on the spot.

I think that statement has about a 60 percent chance of being correct.