Photo: Ben Bowes CC BY 2.0
As the year comes to a close, agencies release comparisons, both good and bad
• Colombia is second in the world, after Afghanistan, in terms of the number of children killed or wounded by landmines and other explosive ‘remnants of war.’ This is according to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Munition Coalition (ICBL-CMC), who revealed the findings in their annual Landmine Monitor report.
• Ten percent of Colombian families live on less than $1.25USD a day, as shown in a study carried out by the World Family Map 2014. According to the World Bank, this statistic classifies as “absolute poverty.”
• The business magazine Forbes has put Colombia at number six on their ‘Top 10 coolest places to visit in 2015’ list, saying “The country encompasses everything from pristine Caribbean coastlines, picturesque cobblestone streets in Cartagena, the exotic Amazon rainforest, seven UNESCO World Heritage sites, the buzzing metropolis of Bogota and some of the world’s most vivacious people.”
• NGO Transparency International’s yearly report states that Colombian citizens’ perception of corruption in the country has remained consistent for the third year running. Colombia continues to be ranked the 94th most corrupt out of a total of 175 countries included in the report.
• The number of victims of Co- lombia’s civil war has now surpassed seven million, says a recent report by Colombia’s Victims Unit. This number includes all those who have been killed, disappeared or displaced since 1956.
