After a few weeks wandering the streets of Bogota, you realise that enterprise culture is alive and well in this city, helped by a lack of overly-stringent rules and regulations.Perhaps the most marked example is when you take a local bus journey (cramped, little mini-buses with drivers who handle the fares and their mobiles, whilst navigating the crazy streets) and are confronted by a myriad of entrepreneurs - a half dozen per trip. First they board, find a good place to stand and then they start their pitch: selling pens, books, sweets, tissues, cakes, bread and just about anything else. A common trick is to hand out a sample of product - to try or just to hold - and then to return to make the sale. Another is to offer no price, but rather ask for whatever you think is right. Both are pretty clever strategies when you think about it.
Everpresent in the streets are vendors selling all the day's necessities from their laps, pockets and bags. It is not uncommon to see someone stroll up and have a coffee (from a large thermos flask), make a mobile call, buy and smoke one cigarette and finish off with a couple of sweets. These stalls are even present on random, residential walls in the poshest of suburbs. I would love to try setting one up in Hampstead or Point Piper and see what happens. The thing is, they are bloody useful and do no harm at all.
Further evidence in my case was provided when, on a first date with a local, she described herself quite passionately as a 'capitalista'. She has grown up in a very working-class suburb, now has her own little jewellery stall and works 12 hours a day, six days a week. Impressive stuff.
Finally, you would be hard pushed to find a fan of Hugo Chavez in Colombia. He is universally hated and especially so when he popped over the Russia to buy a stack of medium range missiles. Go Hugo.
(Dedicated to Adam Meltz, capitalist extraordinaire and one of only three readers of this blog)
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