Hello everyone!
You know that I don’t really talk much about politics and injustice. The only social issue I speak about is abuse, especially domestic abuse because I’ve experienced it but some things are too big not to speak up about.
What I am going to discuss now might be triggering and the videos you will see are very difficult to watch and honestly – sit through it. Make yourself and others around you uncomfortable by watching this because sometimes discomfort is something we need.
I believe you saw on the news that Colombia is going through turmoil. There are huge protests in bigger cities of Colombia because of the tax reform and it was also fueled by the dissatisfaction of the people regarding the vaccine rollout and is enlarged now because of police brutality. I found out about this on Instagram recently and it’s honestly sad. The fact that this is not front, back and center of all news publications is deplorable. I literally went to BBC now and the news about Gates getting a divorce is there front page on bbc.com but the news about human rights being broken and people being murdered by their own government is not. Deplorable.
People are being killed on the streets. Internalize that. We live in a world where a government is sending the police who should be protecting the people to slaughter them. They are protesting and they have the right to do so and the response to people exercising their right should not be met with a tank, riot gear, bullets (not rubber bullets, real bullets), violence, tear gas. It should not be met with a massacre.
As I said, I found the news about this on Instagram and digging deeper, I found something even more unsettling. A lot of Colombians are calling out all their major singers, actors etc., who are not speaking up about this and people in the comments are blaming the citizens of Colombia for electing the government they have. EXCUSE ME? Let me repeat something I am going to repeat many times in this post – PEOPLE ARE GETTING MURDERED! And you have the audacity to blame someone for the government they live under. Check your ignorance at the door.
I know many might find it absurd that Colombianos are resorting to calling their “stars” out on social media, but if major news outlets are not talking about this in depth as they should then Colombianos do not have a fucking choice. Many of the accounts I saw are complaining about their accounts getting suspended, posts getting deleted because they are speaking up against the injustice and sharing videos that show the actual state of things. Their freedom of speech and life are being threatened and the world seems awfully silent.
I chose to write here about the protest in Colombia because this is my biggest platform and I know I can reach the most people here. Share the stories on IG, post it on FB, spam the major news outlets with videos and pictures showing the violence used against the citizens of Colombia. This is 2021 and if online activism is all we have to help us let the people know of the injustice and horrible crimes against human rights then let’s all be online activists. You don’t have to speak up for Colombia. Speak with Colombia and make their voices louder.
This past year and 2021 as well seem like a nightmare but they also seem like years of discovery. The discovery of how much we failed our kind, our planet and every species around us. It’s like we are violently trying to throw away any ounce of humanity left in this world.
We cannot let power, money and greed shoot people on the street.
Note: If the posts I linked here cannot be viewed, it’s probably because they got deleted or the accounts are blocked. The hashtags Colombianos are using to share what’s going on are #soscolombia #ColombiaAlertaRoja #nosestanmatando
This is too much to take in, this is going on in columbia!!!!! Killing people on the streets, something needs to be done about this situation. I’m so shocked and unhappy about this. #ColumbiaAlertaRoja #soscolumbia #nosestanmatando
Because of these things, when we walk around, we have something comtrolling us, ‘fear’. We are so scared even in our own neighbourhood, even in our homes, when we are alone. We are always scared. In my country Ghana, i heard children could walk around with no adult for hours in town and they would always come back hime safely until some years ago, we can’t guarantee thatt nowadays. My own mom wont allow me to go out of my neighbprhood alone becuase she’s scared for me, and thats not how its supposed to be. Always hearing news of kidnapping, killing snd so much more and you are scared it might happen to you. Things need to change, are we going to sit around and wait for the next shooting or kidnapping before we speak, no, for crying out loud, i’m sick of this. We need to unite and fight against it. I’m 12 years old and even i see that things need to change. Our leaders need to change, our attitude need to change. It’s getting really unbearable. Thank you for this post Luna, i hope it opens people’s mind on the situation the way it opened mine. God bless🙏
Reuters reported this two weeks ago, as did several other newspapers and news outlets. I guess it has become old news, though I did read earlier that the UN has condemned what is happening. It’s terrible that this occurs but democide and politicide has been happening for decades, especially in communist and autocratic countries. Unfortunately, we do not live in a borderless, free world as many of us enjoy on social media platforms. Political strongholds often do their best to maintain control at any cost, even if it means killing your own who should have the right to peaceful protest. Some governments order assassinations of their critics and as we’ve seen in some African countries, Iraq, Bolivia, China, Russia – governments are only concerned with staying right where they are. This is so sad…
I strongle agree, it’s so unfortunate. Seeing your son go oit to protest snd never coming back, so unfortunate……
Yes… heart breaking
It’s for the better if we speak against it now than wait for it to get extreme
Yes, it is
Wow. I had no idea. SHARING THIS! Thank you for posting.
Human rights is what every country in the world with power hungry example of leaders are overwhelmingly tired of fighting against.Am from kenya and it gets worse untill kenyan news got to be boring and depressing..i cant even imagine what we will do to have a clean plate in the world