What You Should Know about the Homelands of the Lebanese Overseas — The Republic of Colombia

In the northwest of South America lies the Republic of Colombia, a country that is mostly mountainous. Its coasts are hot and suit none but the blacks, while its mountains enjoy a pleasant climate; that is why its greatest cities lie there, including the capital, Bogotá, which stands two thousand eight hundred meters above sea level — the height of the summit of Mount Sannine.

Colombia's area is one million one hundred and fifty thousand square kilometers, and its population is nine million, of whom about three hundred thousand live in the capital. They are made up of numerous elements, such as the Indians (2 percent), the white race (75 percent), and the dark-skinned blacks (23 percent).

The first to enter Colombia's shores were the Spaniards, under the conqueror Alonso de Ojeda in the year 1508, and they founded on its coasts a small quasi-kingdom. The peoples remained subject to the conqueror until Bolívar rose up to struggle for the liberation of his country and for its high ideals; that was in the year 1810, and his mission has been carried on by his heroic successors to this day. Among the examples of his heroism, his faith in victory, his triumph even over fears, and his crushing of treachery in its cradle, is that memorable sentence he spoke when someone advised him to surrender to the Spaniards: "If nature rises against us while the Spaniards make war on us, we shall make war on nature and defeat the Spaniards together with nature." His resolve was not to be bent, and he obtained what he desired.

After the death of this leader the country split into two principal parties, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party, and the destinies of the republic remain in the hands of these two parties to this day.

As for Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, it is looked upon as the leader of literary thought in the Spanish world, and it is called the Athens of South America for the abundance of its writers and poets and for its classical bent. Nor is the government any less active than the people in spreading culture and fighting illiteracy: it sends missions to the capitals of learning, that they may return bearing home to their country the cream of experience and of intellectual production.

Agriculture and the extraction of minerals are the two basic factors in Colombia's economic life, and on that basis we may reckon that coffee, bananas, gold, and petroleum make up ninety-five percent of Colombia's exports. Colombia's agricultural possibilities are unlimited, given its geographical position and the fertility of its soil, but the absence of a network of roads makes agriculture difficult, owing to the long distances over which produce must be carried. It is the second country after Brazil in the production of coffee, as the abundance of its coffee trees confirms — they are estimated at six hundred million trees. Many prefer Colombian coffee to Brazilian for the excellence of its grade and the delight of its flavor, and it sells at a premium over all other kinds of coffee in the United States. The Republic of Colombia is fitted to grow every kind of fruit and plant, besides being suitable for the raising of livestock — true riches for Colombia. Gold abounds in the central Cordillera region and in the river deposits along the Pacific coast.

Colombia counts among the principal countries of the world for the extraction of platinum and emeralds, while coal, silver, copper, tin, and phosphates come in second place. As for industry in Colombia, it is confined for the most part to the needs of the inhabitants, such as textiles, cement, soap, leather, and the manufacture of glass and earthenware dishes. Colombia's need of certain articles, and its sense that it could dispense with importing goods from abroad, have brought into the country new, modern machinery for the manufacture of oils, of canned and dried fruits, of canned fish, and of paper and cardboard. In Colombia today there is a powerful renaissance to encourage the national industries and to denounce the importation of articles that can be made at home. This blessed renaissance arose in 1940, and fifty-one mills were established for the ginning and weaving of cotton, and twenty-eight factories for chemical products, while mighty hydroelectric works were built whose power is estimated at four million horsepower.

This is apart from their projects to irrigate thousands of feddans instead of letting the waters of their rivers empty into the sea. And the gratifying thing in the era of this blessed renaissance is the finding of work for a million and a half laborers, who work in rotation so as to do away with unemployment. Would that our own government followed this course in doing away with the unemployment that threatens us, now that recklessness and heedlessness have begun to overwhelm the spirit of our workers, at a time when we are in the greatest need of preserving that precious trust to which our soul has aspired in every age.

The Republic of Colombia is fitted to hold an important commercial position, given its geographical situation, for its coastline embraces both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, and it lies at the opening of the Panama Canal. Fifty-eight percent of Colombia's exports go to the United States,

and the remainder is exported to the other countries.

Colombia's constitution today resembles that of the United States of America — that is, the president of its republic is elected for a term of four years by popular vote, and it is the president who appoints his ministers, who are responsible to him. A long time has passed in Colombia without anything occurring to trouble the calm of public order, and it is the object of the world's admiration for the advancement of its sons.

The visitor to Bogotá (the capital of Colombia) notices that the number of its bookshops exceeds the number of its cafés or restaurants. In the capital you may see the deputies, when they have finished their sessions, gathering in groups in literary clubs to read poetry aloud, falling into heated argument over its interpretation; and when they have done with that, they pass on to philosophy, whose inquiry has no end. They have a particular passion for the discussion of cultural and literary subjects, and so we find the Colombian people taking a special interest in things of the spirit and bearing an unsurpassed hatred of materialism.

It happened that a visitor to Bogotá met an ordinary man in that city, and the Colombian greeted him straightaway with the questions: Where were you born? Which city do you prefer? Have you been to Russia — and what do you think of Dostoevsky?...

In Colombia today there is a number, though a comparatively small one, of Lebanese emigrants who have been able to win for themselves high literary and material positions.