Colombia's earthquake centre


Travel across the Andes is curvy, bumpy and unpredictable, and it took us 7 hours to reach Colombia's most at risk earthquake zone. During the mid-semester break we're staying for a week near the city of Armenia. Almost 10 years ago over a thousand were killed, 200,000 made homeless and the city destroyed. The overlapping geological plates in this area cause significant quakes to occur every 20 years.

But there are other strange statistics. After the last one almost 4000 people disappeared, not dead, but looters carrying off their new TV set or loo. And when international aid arrived there was an immigration into the area from as far away as Bogotá by those seizing the opportunity for a better home paid for by relief agencies. Today the city is full of betting shops and casinos.

Such is the perversity of human nature, so perverse that it murdered the world's saviour. Thankfully there are those telling their fellow Armenians about long-suffering divine goodness.

Photo: Main square, Armenia, last Sunday - International Peace Day.

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