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This blog is a global conversation among young people on poverty and other development-related issues. It's maintained by the World Bank's Youthink! team

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Colombia

Young politics

Submitted by María Rodríguez on September 23, 2009 - 10:22

I don’t know if any of you heard about the public protests that took place on September 4th in diverse cities in Colombia, Venezuela and even in Spain, Belgium, Canada, Argentina and Honduras, among other countries. I personally didn’t participate in them but I had the opportunity to witness them and they revived memories of the manifestations that I’ve seen in the last years in Colombia and Venezuela. It also made me remember the “Peace without frontiers concert” that was organized by leading artists to bring consciousness to the political leaders of Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador about the need to stop the attacks between our countries and focus on the fact the we are sibling-countries.

Gender: Still An Issue

Submitted by María Rodríguez on August 19, 2009 - 10:26

The other day I was studying with a couple of friends and, while we were on a break, one of them offered me a beer that had entered the Colombian market a couple of years ago. This beer’s marketing strategy is based on the idea of it being “the beer for women.” I said that I wasn’t going to try it, because I think that products that are promoted using ideas of a “macho” culture are not compatible with my way of thinking. And hence we started a very interesting debate that motivated me to write this post.

Only 199 years ago…

Submitted by María Rodríguez on July 28, 2009 - 15:12

Lately I have been regaining the pleasure to read. I don’t know about you, but I had to read so much in high school and college that it slowly became just a task, not something I enjoyed anymore. Thank God that’s changing! Now I am specially enjoying historic novels, chronicles and biographies of people who have achieved great impact on humankind, and personal growth books.

Creativity put to good use

Submitted by María Rodríguez on July 13, 2009 - 16:08

The last of my trips around Colombia (at least for now) took place in Santander, a department located in Central Colombia. This department is one of the most important regions of the country from an economic point of view (4th biggest) and its capital city, Bucaramanga--commonly known as the “city of parks”--is the urban area with the lowest unemployment rate in the country (and yes, the lowest unemployment rate in Colombia is actually high for international standards: 8.8%!).

“So… what happens after I graduate?”

Submitted by María Rodríguez on July 1, 2009 - 00:00

I think this is one of the most common questions among the world’s youth. Graduation, from high school or university, is one of those moments when we are faced with making decisions about where our life should go or what we should do from that moment onward. In fact, those decisions are a fundamental part of how our societies and economies work, but in general we don’t pay much attention to their importance for development. I bet even you haven’t really thought about it!

Development: Opportunities vs. Challenges paradox

Submitted by María Rodríguez on May 27, 2009 - 11:07

I spent the 8 first days of May traveling around Valle del Cauca, western Colombia, as part of the project I am coordinating right now at the consulting firm I work for. This project aims to support the Ministry of Education of Colombia to follow up on 45 projects that are being undertaken by universities around the country with two ultimate objectives: to strengthen Colombia’s higher education retention rates and to connect our higher education programs with the real and ongoing needs of the country.

Network Marketing: An Option for Development from the Bottom Up

Submitted by María Rodríguez on April 30, 2009 - 12:09

One of the things I have been doing for the past year and a half is working on my business skills. The reason? Well, I feel that skills like leadership, team-work, orientation to goals, financial intelligence and time management, among others, are part of what we need if we want to achieve those great things we dream of, even if they’re not business related. If you’re an assiduous reader of Youthink! blog, chances are that you have great dreams about our world becoming a better place to live, so business skills may also be important for you.

The fresh and integrated approach of inclusive businesses

Submitted by María Rodríguez on April 6, 2009 - 15:01

Are businesses and social interest initiatives mutually exclusive? I guess for a lot of people the answer to this question would be “YES!” because they perceive that what is profitable for a company does not create any social impact besides employment generation. I am surprised how frequently I get comments like “business administrators only think about money.” You know what? They should! They should because no company or organization can be sustainable without economic resources. So… what’s my point? That it is possible for business administrators to think about money AND about social impact. That’s the idea behind a model that has recently started to revolutionize the social and economic world: inclusive businesses.

The Fragility of Life

Submitted by Nate Miller on March 19, 2009 - 12:08

Last week a Peace Corps volunteer was murdered while sleeping on her porch in the Beninese village where she had taught children English for a year and a half. Today, I attended a funeral for a colleague’s three-year old daughter who died suddenly a few days ago.

I’ve only been in Benin for six weeks, but it doesn’t take long for the subject of death to come up. And once again, I am led to ponder the role of death in different parts of the world.

World Youth in Action

Submitted by María Rodríguez on March 10, 2009 - 18:10

Hello to all readers and followers of the Youthink! blog. My journey as a social entrepreneur started in 2003 while I was pursuing my studies in Business Administration (yes, I am a Business Administrator AND my passion is social impact… that can really happen). As a result of a class assignment, a couple of classmates and I decided to teach people from an underprivileged community how to use a computer and, to do that, we used the computer lab of a public school located in their neighborhood.

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