Healing Colombia – Manifesting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in the Republic of Colombia

"The Dark Bride" (1999) By Laura Restrepo This is a great book about the Law of the Jungle in South America - in particular Colombia - and about the timeless code of Ethics: The Law of Love, Harmony, Justice, Forgiveness, Truth and Humor. The Dark Bride tells the sultry story of the People of Tora, a strip of a city beside the Magdalena river in the Colombian Jungle, that boasts proudly of "putas, plata and petróleo": Whores, money and oil. In the 1940s under the US Tropical Oil Company, before the oil wells were nationalised, a mestiza child of dark, biblical beauty arrives from the jungle determined to be a puta. Known simply as Girl, she evolves into the legendary Japonese Sayonara; an alluring meld of love, helplessness and arrogance. Though her clients are numerous, her rival suitors are Sacramento and his friend Payanés: Illiterate and poverty-stricken petroleros, who make their way in the world by conquering the oil fields - and the Putas in Colombia! Despite the hypocrisy outside, a curious honor, chastity and elegance reign among the putas and petroleros; fueling a sense of loss when bulldozers raze the barrio in Tora. La violencia, the civil war, is alluded to obliquely - as corpses, "solemn and swollen like bishops" float down the river beside idle crocodiles, barely interrupting the women's riverbank feast of grilled fish and rum. Yet Colombia is also likened to a sacred heart, "romantic, tormented and bloody". The book has a social-critical theme: The novel indicts society for its ruthlessness and its indifference to individual pain; highlighting inequality and poverty in South America - perpetuated to this very day by socioeconomic deprivation, cartel violence, civil strife, crime, political corruption and moral/religious hypocrisy. But ultimately it's an omnipotent climactic call of Empowerment, Equality, Humanity, Goodness, Humor and Love. PS: It's imperative that we evolve to a civilized and compassionate society - individually and collectively - by manifesting Equality, Social Justice and a Universal Basic Income (UBI) so that we can live in Peace and Harmony. Love and Light. Dios te bendiga 🇨🇴🕊️☮️ Mark 🇺🇳 🇨🇦⚖️🇻🇦🇨🇴 Kate, Pope Leo, Gustavo Petro. NB: The difference between a Señora and Domina is pretty clear in Latin America. Not so much in the US, though. In America it's difficult to differentiate between high-class lawyers and high class hookers - as they pretty much dress the same and charge exorbitant fees :)