As an international survey shows, Colombia is the happiest country in the world
As a BBC Travel columnist notes, Colombians live for celebration. There is always something to celebrate and somewhere to do it – just choose: the multi-day carnival in Barranquilla, the Flower Festival in Medellín, the Donkey Festival in the coastal Caribbean region... In this South American country, there are more festivals than days in the year. Apparently, this is one of the many reasons why one of the annual international WIN/Gallup surveys placed Colombia in the leading position among the world's most satisfied countries.
To most Europeans, this South American country is known as a place where people are constantly being kidnapped, where the level of violence is extraordinarily high, where a bloody civil war raged for 50 years, where drug barons thrive, and from where cocaine flows into the world. But this is no longer the country of Pablo Escobar, who earned his huge and dirty money from the drug business.
A peace treaty between the government and the largest left-wing rebel group, the FARC, may finally be signed soon. And it is time to understand how this nation managed to maintain its cheerfulness while enduring economic hardships and incredible atrocities.
Ask 100 Colombians about happiness – and you will get 100 different answers. “Money is, of course, good, but it is not the most important thing.” “In our culture, we value what you have.” “We love people and we love music.”
And you see evidence of this approach to life literally every day. It is in everything – in the friendliness and hospitality of Colombians, which foreign tourists, whose numbers are growing, have already appreciated, and in the kind attitude towards each other, towards neighbors, towards fellow countrymen, towards compatriots.
90% of Colombia's population is Catholic. The largest ethnic group of immigrants is Arabs from the Middle East; between 1880 and 1930, 40-50 thousand of them arrived here (one of the largest mosques in South America is located in the city of Maicao in the north of the country). Despite the fact that Arab communities can be found throughout Colombia, interreligious tension is virtually absent. International terrorism has not reached the country, and in crime statistics you will not find mentions of hate crimes against Muslims.
Maher Nofal is the owner of an Arab restaurant in the center of Bogotá. He is a second-generation representative of a Palestinian family living here. The restaurant employs both Muslim women in hijabs and black Colombian women in turbans. Many of them are migrants from the poor region of Chocó on the Pacific coast. I asked Nofal whether his visitors are bothered by such service staff.
“No,” he says. “Colombians are completely innocent in this sense. They are very curious, they ask our workers about what they see on TV – like, is it true that all Muslims are terrorists. Well, they explain to them that you cannot judge a religion by the actions of a minority, the essence of which is acceptance and love. And Colombians are satisfied with this answer.”
No state in South America has experienced such long periods of violence, terror, and internal conflict as Colombia. But surprisingly, this is a component of Colombians' happy perception of life, believes Oscar Gilede, a biologist whose company organizes hiking tours in the Colombian highlands. “I think that Colombians are generally satisfied with life, and the idea of happiness is very subjective,” he says. “After all, from a country that has been plunged into the abyss of civil war for the last 50 years, one would rather expect a very low level of cheerfulness.”
The civil war also scorched Gilede's family. His brother was a military guard at the Plaza de Bolívar in Bogotá in 1985, when armed rebels from the left-populist “April 19 Movement” (M-19) stormed the Palace of Justice and killed 12 members of the Supreme Court. “But Colombians have learned to ignore the ongoing war,” notes Gilede. “In other words, if the problem does not directly affect you, you should feel grateful, satisfied with life. You are lucky.”
Rodrigo Martínez, a historian from the University of Antioquia, agrees with this. According to him, although Colombians still have to fight for peace and stability in the country, they continue to do so with unshakable composure and determination. “Colombians have always demonstrated incredible, truly Herculean resilience in the face of war, death, violence, and diplomatic failures,” he told me. Gilede believes that such resilience is fueled by community spirit and human relationships: “We live to have fun with all our hearts, to relax on holidays, to root for our favorite team, and so on. And as soon as one such event ends, we start thinking about the next one.”
Among the things Colombians never tire of thinking about is dancing. The musical pulse of the country beats to the rhythm of salsa, and almost everyone dances it, especially in Cali. This pleasant and unpretentious city in the fertile Cauca Valley is a true mecca for salsa dancers. World championships in this dance are held here annually, and the most famous salsa clubs in the country are located in Cali.
“Dance liberates you. It is a way to express yourself and your feelings. Music is in people's blood, in their veins, in our heart. It is an all-consuming passion that we carry through life,” says Nora Alejandra Tovar, a dance teacher and owner of a salsa school in Cali.
The Colombian version of salsa is characterized by a faster rhythm and syncopations that match the temperament of the locals. This dance is accessible to everyone, everyone is equal in it, and apparently, it makes the whole country happy. But how does this differ from the experience of other countries – for example, Brazilians with their samba?
"I think there are several differences," says Tovar. "Our dance is much more contact-oriented, conducive to communication. Salsa must be danced either as a couple or in a group. The connection between dancers is more direct. It is for these reasons that salsa is gaining popularity around the world."
I asked her how important this dance is when living amid violence, conflict, and economic hardship. "Salsa restores your human dignity. With its sharp rhythms, its madness of love, it makes you forget about inequality and dissatisfaction with life. It erases social differences because it requires people to look each other in the eye, feel each other's movements, touch each other, unite in movement, helps them get to know each other and see the best in each other. It is a cultural heritage of peace and harmony," she replied.
Of course, an atmosphere of joy and peace reigns in salsa clubs. But does it extend to the rest of life, where everything is not so joyful? To find an answer to this question, I got on a bus and rode along narrow streets to Villa Hermosa, commune 8, one of the 16 communes of Medellín, a city that in the late 1980s and early 1990s had a reputation as the most dangerous in the world.
Today, much has changed here. Drug dealers have begun to leave the city, an efficient metro system has been built. And even commune 8 is on the rise. "We have been granted a great honor by the Lord to live on this land," Carolina Ramirez, my guide, told me, pointing to the mountains surrounding Medellín. Her family has lived in commune 8 for 60 years. "Now there are parks and bike paths here," she points to the UVA La Libertad sports complex. "Now hundreds of kids play soccer here."
Crime has not yet left the city, and invisible walls dividing neighborhoods still remain. You could be mistaken for someone else and simply killed. But normal life has returned to the streets of Medellín. Parents take children to school, men play billiards, housewives gossip with neighbors. The scars from long years of violence are beginning to heal. But while physical scars can be hidden under clothing, emotional ones manifest in nervous smiles and rapid mood swings.
"My generation is a generation of survivors," Ramirez says. "We had to live amid the consequences of war—drugs and prostitution. Now young people have more opportunities—to study, work, build their own lives."
Ramirez in some ways symbolizes her nation. Colombia is a country that has bled, but despite this, its people have never lost their resilience and positive outlook on life. Such cheerfulness is based on an unyielding spirit, on a commitment to the warmth of camaraderie, to mercy.
To a foreigner, this may seem naive, but the Colombians' unwavering love of life is their most effective weapon in the war against despair and hopelessness. It has led them through years of civil war, through the hell of terrorist attacks and kidnappings, and brought them to the threshold of victory, when dreams of a peaceful life in a peaceful country may finally become reality.