Extraordinary facts through simple things
I couldn't imagine that at that very moment, when the old plane landed, my life was going to change forever. We had landed in the middle of the jungle, in Inírida, the capital of the Department of Guainía, on the border between Colombia and Venezuela. That year, 1996, the Colombian state had started a process related to the regulation of broadcasting services. This new legal framework recognized Community Radio as a public arena for democracy building. Our mission, as a part of the Ministry of Culture, was to provide tools to community groups so that they could create and develop spaces to achieve citizen participation and empowerment. Guillermo picked us up and immediately took us to the school which operates the community radio station, Custodia Estéreo, which covers the municipality of Inírida.
On the road, we were greeted by something really impressive, an enormous snake that was actually standing up trying to cross the road. This kind of snake is called Talla X because their size is “extra large” and they are considered extremely dangerous. I was terrified to see it, but it was much more surprising to realize that Guillermo did not seem to notice the snake. A few days later, I understood how relative one’s sense of priorities can be when living in a very complex context. In this region of thick jungles, the beauty of the tropical rain forest coexists with the great challenges of Colombia’s contemporary history. The region has been impacted by the lethal effects of drug trafficking, the presence of illegal armed groups, the marginalization of Indigenous groups, the illegal exploitation of gold, the ongoing movement of black markets and contraband, and the degradation of the environment. Under these circumstances, how could it be expected that Guillermo would be startled by a snake? I understood that Guillermo didn't need big events to be surprised, in fact, he had the gift of recognizing extraordinary facts through simple things.
We arrived at the school and Jeanine, who was my boss at the time, started the workshop talking about community radio. She explained how the school's new radio station could become an opportunity for young people to express themselves and to be taken into account by the rest of the community. Guillermo and his students knew it very well. Although expression can seem to be a simple thing, he understood that, in fact, in that context, it was an extraordinary fact. The kids began to talk and discuss, and within hours they were strongly arguing their ideas. Four days later, they had produced their own radio programs about their own concerns. They talked about theirs dreams; they told us that they didn't want to live their lives as coca pickers or raspachines, as there are called in Colombia. They told us they didn't want to be part of a stupid armed conflict which had only left death, pain and destruction. They said in their radio programs that they just wanted to study, have good jobs, love somebody, be happy. They were not asking for extraordinary facts, they were asking for simple things – that in Iníridas's context – seemed impossible.
When the workshop ended the students were very proud that their programs would be heard by all the people in Inírida. They were aware of the power involved in saying things in the public sphere, especially in a place where the public sphere was minuscule. They knew they were empowered in their ability of influence regarding matters of collective interest. But they also knew that if they wanted to be heard, they had to produce quality programs, and this involved developing their skills to tell stories. They would have to study and make better use of their school. Their teacher, Guillermo Pérez, knew it very well, so he had set up the radio station in the school. We returned to Bogotá and I understood that a new path had appeared to me. A new path that would lead me to work, to this day, linking communication, citizenship and rights.
After our visit to Inírida, Jeanine and I went to many villages and towns to conduct training workshops and boost the organizational processes of community radio. We also went to those places to learn about how different contexts, with different problems and needs, could enrich new public policies in the field of culture and citizenship. It was a very long journey as part of the Ministry of Culture which, in my case, lasted nearly a decade. Then the trip has continued, but from Caracola Consultores, our own organization.
During the past 18 years, we have witnessed the growth and consolidation of a movement of public and citizen communication. To date, there are 650 community radio stations in Colombia grouped into 26 organizations through which they can dialog with government institutions. Some of these radio producers have entered the field of video production and, in some cases, have created schools that teach children to tell stories through media production. In all cases, some more developed than others, these are communication spaces to discuss matters of collective interest at the local level. In addition, Colombia has a broad institutional and regulatory framework that allows the government to respond to the needs of this sector. All of these factors have made community radio, and citizen communication processes, strategic scenarios to build democracy and human rights enforcement. Of course, not everything is easy, in fact, it is very difficult. Community radio faces great challenges related to communicating in contexts where illegal armed groups operate. Community radio stations work in small towns where it is nearly impossible to achieve financial support. It is also difficult to find skilled people to produce programs, and even more difficult to involve people from organizations in the production of programs from their own perspectives.
On the way I got to learn about amazing experiences around the country. Like Guillermo, I learned how to see extraordinary facts through simple things. All these years, working with communities, I have continued learning how to surprise myself with even the tiniest expressions of life. Many of these communities have found unusual ways to continue living their lives, even in the midst of armed conflict, corruption, poverty, drug trafficking and neglect by the state. Community radio stations and, in general, community communication spaces, operated directly by common people, have been a stage to collectively discuss these ways of seeing and living life. Telling a story about how to build a toy boat and make it float down the river is a strong assertion of collective resistance in Belén de los Andaquíes (Departament of Caquetá), a context where illegal armed groups are pushing for control of daily life, even in the smallest details.
More directly, and in those places where it has been possible, community radio has been used to talk openly about armed conflict and its effects. In 2008, the community radio station in Sardinata, a small town in the Department of Norte de Santander, won a national radio award, granted by the Ministry of Culture, for producing a program about forced displacement. Through the story of a peasant family who was forced by paramilitaries to leave their land, the program explores this problem from different points of view. It was produced within the framework of the Citizen Radio National Strategy which promotes the empowerment and strengthening of rights, involving citizens in broadcasting.
In all these years those of us close to the Colombian community radio movement have understood that the power of citizen and public communication is that people can express themselves in the public sphere, no matter whether it is through radio, video, film, theater or any other means of expression. In Montes de María, a region beseiged by paramilitaries in 2002, a citizen communication group challenged the violence through a film club and a good dose of imagination. This organization, called Colectivo de Comunicaciones Montes de María, created “The Itinerant Film Club: The Purple Rose of Cairo.” It was a kind of traveling cinema that toured the region showing popular films and short documentaries that they had produced themselves. The films were projected at night on several bed sheets that had been sewn together and served as a movie backdrop.
At 6 pm, just at curfew – imposed by the paramilitaries – people took to the streets en masse to watch the movies while armed men could do nothing to stop them. People took advantage of the films to meet, talk and get together again. The armed men saw it as a seemingly harmless act, but actually it was a subtle form of peaceful resistance. From that moment on, the film club has reached the far corners of Montes de María and other regions, even though there are still armed groups trying to control these territories.
Soraya, the director of the communication group, and my good friend, told me how they have had to transport all of the equipment in a wooden canoe for hours to reach the small villages that are on the banks of the Magdalena River. Even today, the film club is used in teaching strategies on human rights and citizen empowerment. At this point the film club has accumulated a large number of short documentaries produced by people in the communities. In 2010, the Colectivo de Comunicaciones organized the Audiovisual Communications Festival in which documentaries produced by peasant victims of armed conflict were presented. For the first time, the region could see and hear the stories of the victims, told in their own language and from their own points of view.
In Colombia, the community radio movement has promoted a broader movement of citizen communication. It is a movement interested in using communication for social change. Thousands of citizen voices that build citizenship through their everyday stories... that’s what this movement means.
Much has been achieved, but more remains to be done. In just a few days my partner Jeanine and I will start a new project that seeks to promote human rights in communities that have been affected by armed conflict. Talking about human rights in conflict affected contexts can be dangerous. Dangerous for us and dangerous for people who will participate in this project. Therefore, it is very important to find, always with communities, subtle ways of telling and talking about rights. One way, that has worked in the past, is trying to address human rights from a positive perspective, not from a perspective of violations. In these contexts, reporting and responding to the violation of human rights is the duty of other sectors like the military, the justice agencies and NGOs specializing in this field, not citizen communication.
When we speak of a “positive view,” we mean focusing on human rights as a set of values including respect, tolerance and empathy, the ability to put oneself in another’s shoes. But also human rights as a knowledge and skill set that allows one to use this knowledge in specific situations. We want to provide tools for people to recognize human rights in daily experiences: going to school, meeting friends, commenting on what happens in town, going out at night, having a good job, making decisions about one's body... hundreds of experiences that express and evidence the exercise of human rights. Rights we have by the mere fact of being human...that is what dignity means.
But, we know we can't overestimate the power of communication. For stories about human rights to have a positive effect on communities, they must be combined with security strategies, the effective presence of state institutions, and the strengthening of the civil society organizations. Citizen communication is one piece in the machinery of democracy. A very important piece, but to make the system work and have an environment that guarantees human rights for all people, working with the other parts is needed.
Although we have spent many years working in this field, the challenge remains immense. We know that working in these conditions, in the midst of conflict, we cannot always expect linear progress. Many times we have to return to adjust strategies with the people of the communities, because they are the only ones who know what is most appropriate at any given time. We also know that the strategies should include the progress and collective learning in each community. We are not inventing anything new, our task is to recognize the specific lessons learned about how to live even in the worst conditions – something really extraordinary for us – and try to extend, strengthen and amplify them through community communication strategies.
Our work is still to recognize extraordinary facts through simple things. Muchas gracias
 |
| Foto: Carlos Eduardo Álvarez Chalarca |
On the road, we were greeted by something really impressive, an enormous snake that was actually standing up trying to cross the road. This kind of snake is called Talla X because their size is “extra large” and they are considered extremely dangerous. I was terrified to see it, but it was much more surprising to realize that Guillermo did not seem to notice the snake. A few days later, I understood how relative one’s sense of priorities can be when living in a very complex context. In this region of thick jungles, the beauty of the tropical rain forest coexists with the great challenges of Colombia’s contemporary history. The region has been impacted by the lethal effects of drug trafficking, the presence of illegal armed groups, the marginalization of Indigenous groups, the illegal exploitation of gold, the ongoing movement of black markets and contraband, and the degradation of the environment. Under these circumstances, how could it be expected that Guillermo would be startled by a snake? I understood that Guillermo didn't need big events to be surprised, in fact, he had the gift of recognizing extraordinary facts through simple things.
 |
| Foto: Carlos Eduardo Álvarez Chalarca |
We arrived at the school and Jeanine, who was my boss at the time, started the workshop talking about community radio. She explained how the school's new radio station could become an opportunity for young people to express themselves and to be taken into account by the rest of the community. Guillermo and his students knew it very well. Although expression can seem to be a simple thing, he understood that, in fact, in that context, it was an extraordinary fact. The kids began to talk and discuss, and within hours they were strongly arguing their ideas. Four days later, they had produced their own radio programs about their own concerns. They talked about theirs dreams; they told us that they didn't want to live their lives as coca pickers or raspachines, as there are called in Colombia. They told us they didn't want to be part of a stupid armed conflict which had only left death, pain and destruction. They said in their radio programs that they just wanted to study, have good jobs, love somebody, be happy. They were not asking for extraordinary facts, they were asking for simple things – that in Iníridas's context – seemed impossible.
 |
| Foto: Donaldo Gamez |
When the workshop ended the students were very proud that their programs would be heard by all the people in Inírida. They were aware of the power involved in saying things in the public sphere, especially in a place where the public sphere was minuscule. They knew they were empowered in their ability of influence regarding matters of collective interest. But they also knew that if they wanted to be heard, they had to produce quality programs, and this involved developing their skills to tell stories. They would have to study and make better use of their school. Their teacher, Guillermo Pérez, knew it very well, so he had set up the radio station in the school. We returned to Bogotá and I understood that a new path had appeared to me. A new path that would lead me to work, to this day, linking communication, citizenship and rights.
After our visit to Inírida, Jeanine and I went to many villages and towns to conduct training workshops and boost the organizational processes of community radio. We also went to those places to learn about how different contexts, with different problems and needs, could enrich new public policies in the field of culture and citizenship. It was a very long journey as part of the Ministry of Culture which, in my case, lasted nearly a decade. Then the trip has continued, but from Caracola Consultores, our own organization.
During the past 18 years, we have witnessed the growth and consolidation of a movement of public and citizen communication. To date, there are 650 community radio stations in Colombia grouped into 26 organizations through which they can dialog with government institutions. Some of these radio producers have entered the field of video production and, in some cases, have created schools that teach children to tell stories through media production. In all cases, some more developed than others, these are communication spaces to discuss matters of collective interest at the local level. In addition, Colombia has a broad institutional and regulatory framework that allows the government to respond to the needs of this sector. All of these factors have made community radio, and citizen communication processes, strategic scenarios to build democracy and human rights enforcement. Of course, not everything is easy, in fact, it is very difficult. Community radio faces great challenges related to communicating in contexts where illegal armed groups operate. Community radio stations work in small towns where it is nearly impossible to achieve financial support. It is also difficult to find skilled people to produce programs, and even more difficult to involve people from organizations in the production of programs from their own perspectives.
 |
| Foto: Javier Espitia |
On the way I got to learn about amazing experiences around the country. Like Guillermo, I learned how to see extraordinary facts through simple things. All these years, working with communities, I have continued learning how to surprise myself with even the tiniest expressions of life. Many of these communities have found unusual ways to continue living their lives, even in the midst of armed conflict, corruption, poverty, drug trafficking and neglect by the state. Community radio stations and, in general, community communication spaces, operated directly by common people, have been a stage to collectively discuss these ways of seeing and living life. Telling a story about how to build a toy boat and make it float down the river is a strong assertion of collective resistance in Belén de los Andaquíes (Departament of Caquetá), a context where illegal armed groups are pushing for control of daily life, even in the smallest details.
 | |
| Imagen del video El Barco producido por la Escuela Audiovisual Infantil de Belén de los Andaquíes |
 |
| Imagen del video El Barco producido por la Escuela Audiovisual Infantil de Belén de los Andaquíes |
More directly, and in those places where it has been possible, community radio has been used to talk openly about armed conflict and its effects. In 2008, the community radio station in Sardinata, a small town in the Department of Norte de Santander, won a national radio award, granted by the Ministry of Culture, for producing a program about forced displacement. Through the story of a peasant family who was forced by paramilitaries to leave their land, the program explores this problem from different points of view. It was produced within the framework of the Citizen Radio National Strategy which promotes the empowerment and strengthening of rights, involving citizens in broadcasting.
 |
| Fuente: http://radiosciudadanascolombia.blogspot.com/ |
In all these years those of us close to the Colombian community radio movement have understood that the power of citizen and public communication is that people can express themselves in the public sphere, no matter whether it is through radio, video, film, theater or any other means of expression. In Montes de María, a region beseiged by paramilitaries in 2002, a citizen communication group challenged the violence through a film club and a good dose of imagination. This organization, called Colectivo de Comunicaciones Montes de María, created “The Itinerant Film Club: The Purple Rose of Cairo.” It was a kind of traveling cinema that toured the region showing popular films and short documentaries that they had produced themselves. The films were projected at night on several bed sheets that had been sewn together and served as a movie backdrop.
 |
| Foto: Rosángela Roncallo Bayuelo - Colectivo de Comunicaciones Montes de María |
 |
| Foto: Colectivo de Comunicaciones Montes de María |
 |
| Foto: Colectivo de Comunicaciones Montes de María |
Much has been achieved, but more remains to be done. In just a few days my partner Jeanine and I will start a new project that seeks to promote human rights in communities that have been affected by armed conflict. Talking about human rights in conflict affected contexts can be dangerous. Dangerous for us and dangerous for people who will participate in this project. Therefore, it is very important to find, always with communities, subtle ways of telling and talking about rights. One way, that has worked in the past, is trying to address human rights from a positive perspective, not from a perspective of violations. In these contexts, reporting and responding to the violation of human rights is the duty of other sectors like the military, the justice agencies and NGOs specializing in this field, not citizen communication.
 |
| Foto: Caracola Consultores |
When we speak of a “positive view,” we mean focusing on human rights as a set of values including respect, tolerance and empathy, the ability to put oneself in another’s shoes. But also human rights as a knowledge and skill set that allows one to use this knowledge in specific situations. We want to provide tools for people to recognize human rights in daily experiences: going to school, meeting friends, commenting on what happens in town, going out at night, having a good job, making decisions about one's body... hundreds of experiences that express and evidence the exercise of human rights. Rights we have by the mere fact of being human...that is what dignity means.
But, we know we can't overestimate the power of communication. For stories about human rights to have a positive effect on communities, they must be combined with security strategies, the effective presence of state institutions, and the strengthening of the civil society organizations. Citizen communication is one piece in the machinery of democracy. A very important piece, but to make the system work and have an environment that guarantees human rights for all people, working with the other parts is needed.
Although we have spent many years working in this field, the challenge remains immense. We know that working in these conditions, in the midst of conflict, we cannot always expect linear progress. Many times we have to return to adjust strategies with the people of the communities, because they are the only ones who know what is most appropriate at any given time. We also know that the strategies should include the progress and collective learning in each community. We are not inventing anything new, our task is to recognize the specific lessons learned about how to live even in the worst conditions – something really extraordinary for us – and try to extend, strengthen and amplify them through community communication strategies.
 |
| Foto: Caracola Consultores |
Our work is still to recognize extraordinary facts through simple things. Muchas gracias
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