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A transportation strikes is paralyzing Bogota's normal life!


Today we, the inhabitants of Bogota, are facing the fourth day of a public transportation strike due to a series of facts that are going on in this city. One of the longest and the gravest in the last times. The reason: the desagreement between the government of the city an the trade whose representatives are in these days negotiating the new public transportation integrated system (SITP for its abbreviation in Spanish) which includes the integration of the city's bus system, the metro (not built yet) and the suburban train. Yeah, believe or not, in full 21st century, Bogota does not have a metro system yet!

In order to stablish the new transportation system, the city's government is taking measures which the transportation trade weighs up affects them. That is the apple of discord because the system will belong to and run by the government and not by the transportation trade who has been doing that since the stablishment of it in Colombia. This is a kind of struggle for the power.

But, why is so important a public transpotation strike in a city such as Bogota?
In Colombia, unlike the first world countries such as the US, not everyone has or drive a car. What I could notice in the fourteen states I visited when I lived in the American Union is that everybody had a car, even the youngest ones. But in Colombia, I calculate less than 20% of the population owns a car, even in Bogota, the capital city. For the workin class having a car is still a luxury . That is why for most of Colombians a public transportation strike is such a great problem since they have to manage to commute to work and then go back home. If you were today in Bogota, you could see people commuting by trucks, dump trucks, pickup trucks; drivers rendering their own automobiles, station wagons, vans, jeeps; and taxis caps serving as buses.

Not only commuting became affected by the strike. The commerce of the city fell down considerably, schools closed their door since students and teachers are not able to show up class and the industries are working half speed An absolut chaos, nothing to do with Bogota that is, although being in a third wolrd country, one of the mos developed cities in Latin America.

This problem is much more complex than this brief explaination, but going deeper will take a great deal of time and patience. Let's see what happens, I hope a solution benefits the two parts involved and, especially, the citizen who are the most affected by strikes and their subsequent negotiations.

While I am finishing writing this article, I am listening on the Radio that the city's government and the transportation trade have reached an agreement and are drawing it up. But now, I am going to see how I can go back home from my office since at this moment I do not have a car.

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