Concepts of security...

Can you change the sense of security in a city simply by changing the statistics? On Sunday there was an article in El Tiempo revealing that all of last year's statistics on the six most common crimes in Bogota were wrong. They were all too low - by significant amounts. The mayor's office has now released new statistics revealing that crimes did not decrease nearly as much in 2005 as they had originally claimed. One critic commented that the government released the new, higher statistics because otherwise it looks like crime went up in 2006. In other words, they had to readjust the stats from 2005 to a higher number to make it look like crime still went down significantly in 2006.

So which statistics are correct? No one seems to be sure. And does it matter? Or does it only matter that people feel safer? If you alter statistics and put police officers on every corner, can you make a city feel safer even if the levels of crime don't actually change much? In a city of over 7 million people, where the majority will not be the victims of crime, would people know the difference if crime actually decreased or if the media simply reported that it decreased? Perhaps that is just the cynic in me, but talking to people certainly reveals a general mistrust of the media. Many people don't really believe anything. Others believe it, or pretend that they do because they do not want any trouble. The culture of silence in Colombia that I have read about becomes quite obvious as soon as anything controversial is on the table. If people know things, they are not talking about it. And if they do talk, it is in hushed voices, even in their own homes.

Life appears normal ... Until you try to dig a bit deeper. People are scared. Very scared. And they pretend to not know what is going on in order to live "normal" lives. But so many people have at least one story of someone they know who was silenced or simply disappeared. Many of the middle and upper class Colombians tolerate phenomenal levels of corruption because their lives are getting better. Why speak out if it means someone will come knocking and threaten your family? It is simply not worth it. Many have given up hope that anything will ever change in regards to corruption in their country, and so they live their lives as best they can. But if you ask, many of them will admit that they want to leave Colombia and live somewhere else.

So the city is safer... for now ... and only for some people.