Talk:Colombia

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Good article Colombia was a nominee for Geography and places good article, but did not meet the good article criteria at the time. There are suggestions below for improving the article. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.
November 9, 2007 Good article nominee Not listed
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Peer review This Geography article has been selected for Version 0.5 and subsequent release versions of Wikipedia. It has been rated B-Class on the assessment scale (comments).
Colombia is included in the 2007 Wikipedia for Schools, or is a candidate for inclusion in future versions. Please maintain high quality standards, and make an extra effort to include free images, because non-free images cannot be used on the CDs.

Talk:Colombia/archive01 (2004 - April 2007)

Contents

[edit] Geography and Climate

I have never edited a page before, but found something that needed correction under this section.. "Geologically Colombia is formed by two great territorial zones, one submerged in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean sea covering a total area of 828,660 km² and the second is the emerged land which is formed by the Andes mountain range and the Llanos plains that are shared with Venezuela and cover an area of some 1'143,748 km². Colombian surface features form complicated land patterns." the quote of 1'143,748 square km for the second territorial zone that it describes is actually the total square area for the entire country. I checked a few reputable sources to fact-check, but needed verification. I don't know how to correct it myself, and leave it to the professionals, (Who I love and respect for their hard work on here), to do the edit.

[edit] Foreign Affairs - Economic - Free Trade with the U.S., etc.

At this point, I think it is critical to understand the economic ties between Columbia and the rest of South and Central America. This sort of information should be featured in the article on the Republic of Columbia, but I see absolutely nothing there about it. Just now, Bush is pushing for a free trade agreement with Columbia and there is no information about economic implications for all of S. America, if any. --P5g4xn (talk) 14:32, 11 April 2008 (UTC)


[edit] Current affairs

Hey it didn't lasted much, but after the defeat of N°2 things got all boiled up and there's not even a one-liner on these events!!!! (The scandal involving Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and Nicaragua that has been solved in a political circus due to the Rio group)Undead Herle King (talk) 10:35, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

Ok, I found it finally "2008 Andean diplomatic crisis" has a place in Wikipedia... But this shall link there too!!!!!!!!! Its semi-protected so someone else must make the linkUndead Herle King (talk) 11:27, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Image rearranging

I think the images of Colombia's page are bad arranged, since Cartagena appears not in the tourism section were it belongs, and other images just look pretty bad arranged, I'm the one who has noted it first, so I will rearange the images. Newstormer 20:33, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Before you rearrange to your preferences read WP:MOS. There is a style..! There is also a GA review at the bottom of this talk that suggests improvements to this article. HDI as far as I know will be changed when the official report comes out and the proper link is added.--F3rn4nd0 (Roger - Out) 20:36, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Just a heads up. Template for deletion.

This is just a heads up. This template " Template:Capital_cities_of_the_caribbean_region_Colombia is up for deletion. If it is importaint to Colombia make your voice heard else it may be voted off. CaribDigita 00:57, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Can someone please block the article?

Vandalism on the Colombia article is ridiculous!!! just look at the history. please at least put a semi protection!--((F3rn4nd0 ))(BLA BLA BLA) 02:29, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

You can bring this type of request to Requests for page protection. Figma 02:40, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

hey que es tanta foto de cucuta y norte de santander? la gente queno tiene ni idea de colombia va a pensar que cucuta es una ciudad importante en colombia (y NO ES). por que no quitan esas fotos? que asco el "ricardocolombia" y el "qwerty2" con su regionalismo estupido. y el metro de medellin? el puerto de barranquilla? las ruinas de san agustin? ni una fotico de bogota? pero 30 fotos de cucuta. dos de un rio pendejo que vale chimba. muy bien!!!!!!

[edit] Nonsense in the "Crime" Section

What a loser for vandalizing the Colombia article! Get over yourself. On wikipedia for pete's sake? Go to some myspace chatroom or something to get your lowlife fix, but don't do it here!

[edit] Languages

In Colombia German and Japanese is also spoken but in small villages.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 209.247.5.213 (talk • contribs).

Which small villages? Rosa 05:14, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

There are villages in la Guajira where german is spoken. In valle del cauca there is a big japanese colony. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.233.64.176 (talk) 19:23, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Not only in languages but in people. Many Japanes and Germans settled during the second world war.

Many Japanese and Germans emmigrated after/during WWII I suppose, but Colombia doesn't have a reputation for being one of the main targets for this immigration, unlike Argentina with Germans or Perú in the case of Japanese. I suppose there may be scattered colonies of Germans or Japanese, just as there is a gipsy colony near Bogotá, but I think they aren't significant. Well, at least not significant enough to claim that "German and Japanese is also spoken but in small villages"... in all the colombian villages I know people speak Spanish as mother tongue.Rosa 07:46, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Well i guess your correct about Colombia not having a reputation about Japenese and German immigration. But my family, in my mothers side, is of primarily German descendence, from Nuremberg, Germany, and they came to Colombia during the Cold War. They settled in Antioquia, and then moved to Bogota were they found other Germans living there too. I remember a family that we lived near to by the last name Schneider. But they already speaked Spanish.


Can someone do some research on colombia's oil industry, i need for a project please.

While 80% of the population is nominally Roman Catholic, most do not attend church on a regular basis, and Protestant religious groups are growing very rapidly in Colombia as in all Latin American countries.12.72.205.220 00:24, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

12.72.205.210 22:29, 15 May 2007 (UTC)== erorr in religious stats == The National Administrative Department of Statistics does not collect religious statistics, and accurate reports are hard to obtain. Based on various studies, more than 95% of the population adheres to Christianity[2], in which a huge segment of the population, between 81% and 90%, practices Roman Catholicism....around 60% of respondents to a poll by El Tiempo report that they do not practice their faith actively.[15] So the number of practicing Roman Catholics in Colombia is 40% of 81% - 90%!!!!! This second sentence belongs right after the first sentence as it changes the entire context of the first sentence i.e. while nominally Roman Catholic, practicing Roman Catholics are no longer a majority in Colombia, (or in any other country in Latin America.)

Also there is no mention of the Anglican church, the Presbyterian church, (or of their seminaries in Colombia) the Methodist church or the Mormons, Pentacostals or the Seventh-Day Adventists, which are all growing very rapidly in Colombia. This is all readily available on the internet. 12.72.206.167 04:08, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] error in religious stats

In 2006 the Republic of Colombia’s Congress presented a medal of the Democratic Order of Simón Bolivar to the Presbyterian Church of Colombia in recognition of the founding of the “American Schools” which today are present in eight cities around the country. Presbyterian schools educated many of the great figures of Colombia, such as Enrique Olaya, who was the president of the Republic in 1930, and Austin Nieto Caballero, minister of education and one of the most influential people in introducing innovative teaching methods. Presbyterians in Colombia were the first to offer mixed education, promoted the first savings account of the country and supported the first workers’ organization in Bogotá. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 12.72.207.75 (talk) 02:04, 14 May 2007 (UTC).

Go To: Presbyterian Church of Colombia12.72.206.167 04:10, 15 May 2007 (UTC)


Also there is no mention of Seventh-Day Adventist in Colombia.

While are the three photographs posted in nthis section all of Roman Catholic churches?12.72.208.92 16:31, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

official website Presbyterian Church in Colombia http://warc.jalb.de/warcajsp/side.jsp?news_id=916&part_id=0&navi=5 —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 12.72.210.100 (talk) 04:53, 16 May 2007 (UTC).

Oficial websit for the Presbyterian Church of Colombia http://warc.jalb.de/warcajsp/side.jsp?news_id=916&part_id=0&navi=5 —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 12.72.211.0 (talk) 16:43, 16 May 2007 (UTC).

Official wesite Anglican Church of Colombia http://www.anglicancommunion.org/tour/diocese.cfm?Idind=627 —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 12.72.210.100 (talk) 04:56, 16 May 2007 (UTC).

Official website Mormon Church http://www.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=d10511154963d010VgnVCM1 —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 12.72.211.0 (talk) 16:46, 16 May 2007 (UTC).

There are 150,000 Mormons in Colombia —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.72.208.165 (talk • contribs) 2007-05-16

[edit] "Columbia" the English version of the name Colombia?

The first sentence of the article makes this astounding statement. I ask - since when? I'm removing it until and unless it can be sourced. JackofOz 00:48, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

The name of the country is only spelled "Columbia" by illiterates and the uninformed. Even if there's a source for it, the source is wrong. Αργυριου (talk) 02:20, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
Right. I think this is an example of what I call "The Schnitzel Syndrome". Where people consistently mispronounce a word, they tend to change the spelling to conform to the mispronunciation. So we have restaurants offering "snitzels", and people thinking that, because they mispronounce Colombia as Columbia, then Columbia has somehow suddenly become the proper English spelling of the name. Thanks. -- JackofOz 02:34, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
You can find lots of sources for misspelling "Colombia", even lots of reliable sources. LOL! --Ramsey2006 09:48, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
If a source mis-spells "Colombia", they're that much less reliable. On the other hand, names in the English language derived from the name of Columbus are properly spelled "Columbia", as in British Columbia and Columbia, Gem of the Ocean. However, those names generally refer to English-speaking parts of the Americas. Αργυριου (talk) 19:12, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
Hi, I've checked the name of the country in the United Nations list of countries and that is probably the best reference:

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49alpha.htm It is Colombia, not Columbia. The list is in English - you can check as Spain is written in English and not in Spanish (España). Greetings to all.Marcelobulk 22:29, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

In serious encyclopaedias and dictionaries (Merriam Webster-Encyclopaedia Britannica) it's spelled "Colombia" too. The term "Columbia" refers to other geographical locations like British Columbia, the Columbia river and a few cities within the States.Rosa 17:53, 11 September 2007 (UTC)
Here's an interesting movie review from the New York Times: Gringo Wedding ;-) Ramsey2006 23:25, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Spanish-language links

I've reverted the removal of the spanish-language links, as WP:EL#Foreign-language links says "It may be appropriate to have a link to a foreign-language site, such as when an official site is unavailable in English...". If Jerahad, or anyone else, wants to remove non-english links, and justify the removal on a case-by-case basis, or replace the government links with english translations of those sites, feel free. But blanket removal of all Spanish-language links in this article is inappropriate. Αργυριου (talk) 16:19, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Your quotation from the policy above is edited to the extent of altering it. I would refer you to the arguments given at Talk:Ecuador, and I would suggest that the links here fail to meet the criteria for inclusion of foreign language links by the same reasoning. Kevin McE 13:29, 1 July 2007 (UTC)
I agree, Wikipedia is not a collection of links; per WP:EL just the relevant links should be left. --Canaima 03:21, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Please Colombia lets get our voice heard!

Colombia, we need to act fast so people don't erase the Colombian Web Page. Like somebody else said the "crime section" in the Colombian Article is rediculous. Thank You. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Juglares (talk • contribs) 23:28, 24 October 2007 (UTC) Juglares 20:16, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

yeah the Colombian crime section is ridiculous, why we note the armed conflict as the main article in the Colombia section? here we talk more about the war than anything else, also we dont have the higher percent of crimes in the world, so why to mention crime here??? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cap. Mitchel (talk • contribs) 00:57, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] GA Review

The article does not meet the Good Article criteria at this time, and will not be listed. The core issues with it presently are a major lack of reference citations (entire sections and subsections of information are uncited, and lots of hard data, facts and figures have no source), and there are several sections containing only lists, and should be written as prose, preferably. Some specific issues include:

  • Clean up intro.
  • The 'history' section seems very slanted towards the modern day armed conflict (last section), which is just about as long as all the other subsections combined. This could actually be a problem with WP:NPOV. If there's a separate article on this armed conflict (which there is), much of this can be summarized into a paragraph or two and removed from this article.
  • The 'geography' section is very long, and a bit verbose. It could probably be condensed a bit better. There is also no information about the climate. needs some references.
  • The 'government' section could use some introduction into the overall government, and how each branch interactions cohesively in Colombia. Currently, it just looks like a list of each of the major branches of government, with some descriptive text about each.
  • 'departments and municipalities': Consider moving this section and putting it as a subsection under 'geography'. It's currently just a list, and I think more text can be provided talking about how these different departments/districts interrelate. Which ones are the largest population-wise? How are they organized in relation to geographic and geologic features (coastal districts vs. mountainous districts)? So much more information could go here it's hard to tell where to begin.
  • 'Economy' is written pretty well, though it's a bit heavy on the photos. Including photos on both the right and the left simultaneously could have implications in viewing for people with smaller monitors or display sizes. The 'ecotourism' section is just a list. It seems to me like it could be added to the general tourism section.
  • 'Culture': Another list. It looks like you've got a lot of interesting things to talk about. Try writing something now instead of just listing. Also, you might want to add something about sports.
  • 'Education': Lots of stats and hard data, no sources. Little mention of some of the higher education institutions. Are there any that are particularly notable in any field of research? Also, consider separating the K-12 (primary/secondary) and higher education into two paragraphs. This would help readability.
  • 'Transportation': Doesn't seem to be really covering anything except for mention of the national highways and one airport. Certainly, there are other airports in Colombia? Are the highways throughout the country -- even in the more mountainous areas, or do some of the more rural population have to resort to other means? What about trains? Boats in the coastal cities? You might also expand this section to include infrastructure; electricity generation, water supply, hospitals and healthcare?
  • 'Demographics': Seems written fairly well, though you might want to try to combine the subsections better into a more cohesive section, so that you talk about how the different groups of people interact. Also, do away with the table containing the three church photos -- photos are better presented by themselves as thumbnails, not with galleries if you can help it. Try to put photos physically near text that goes with them.
  • The 'see also' list could probably be shortened a lot. Generally, the 'See also' section at the end is only for internal wikilinks to articles related to the article that have not been mentioned previously in the text. So links to the Colombian Armed Conflict and Education in Colombia are unnecessary here, since there are main sections where this links are already provided with.
  • The 'bibliography' format is inconsistent with wikipedia. Inline citations should be included all by themselves in a main section entitled 'references'. It is actually incorrect to have a subsection called 'internet', especially when I notice several non-internet references included as inline citations there. Books and other sources that are not included as inline citations should be included in a separate main section immediately following 'references', called 'further reading'. The list of books is pretty long, and many of these look like they're in spanish, so I'm not sure how useful they would be to english readers. It might be useful to go through these and only include those that are necessary. If information is being cited by the article by these, then convert them to inline citations, so that they directly back up information in the article ('general' references, supposedly citing the 'entire article', are unacceptable). Please see WP:CITE for more information on citations and references.
  • The format of several of the inline citations needs to be expanded. Full citation information should be provided for every reference; including author, title, publisher, date of publications, and date the URL was retrieved (if it's available online). This is necessary so that, if a URL ever becomes inaccessible, the citation can still be used to track down the source, verify it, or perform additional research on the topic.
  • The 'external links' section is quite long. Consider pruning it to weed out some less important links, or linkspam. Please see WP:EL for more information on including external links in articles.

I didn't cite specific examples of where references were lacking, since most of the article is under-referenced. But generally, any information that is challenged or likely to be challenged, or any specific hard data, like facts and figures, must have a source (per Good Article criteria).

Hope this helps improve the article. Good luck! Dr. Cash 00:40, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Colombia Middle Power

Someone told me to discuss this issue here, well, I'd like to say some things:

  • Colombia, according to the "middle power" article is a middle power, and middle powers achieve global or some recognisanse.
  • Colombia is one of the most ethnically diverse nations in South America, it is more diverse than Venezuela or Ecuador, I'm not lying ^^
                                       |--|
  • Colombia's economy is fueled by abundant natural resources (e.g.:Petroleum, Cashcrops. etc.)

I do not have problems, but I think a more positive view should also be added. 201.218.78.151 (talk) 22:36, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

yeah i think we should make a more positive view of our own country, come on the colombia's article is based in: the crime article, the internal war article, and thats about it, the pictures are kina old and ugly, compared to otehrs articles as argentina, ecuador, chile, brazil... and so on ours is the more despective one, all we say is war, war, war, how much about the good things about our own country, not too much, like if the only thing we have to say about colombia is the guerrilla, the paras, and the goverment. i vote to make an more positive article about Colombia --Cap. Mitchel (talk) 23:04, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

F3RN4ND0 i posted my opinion about this article in the talk page because i want give to know my point of view to the other users, that is not something to feel worried about because i am not breaking any of the wikipedia policies doing so, btw wikipedia says that before making any chages we should discuss it here so i am doing it, i decided not to make any change to the article without discuss it first in the talk page, so please help me to improve this article.

1. I say i think we should talk about the good Colombia too because i feel this article talk more about the negative than the positive.

2. I dont think we should delete the section about the internal war because that is something that is part of Colombia too.

3. the articles are meant to be neutral, so thats why they created the talk page so users as you and me can show our differents points of view and decide what is valid and inportant so should be posted, and what not to.

4. Please do not delete my coments in the talk page because that is why they made it so we can freely discuss bout different topics without start a editting-war in the article.

5. Thank you for your time, and if you have any question feel free to contact me via my talk page.

--Cap. Mitchel (talk) 01:29, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] GA review

I am glad you are willing to contribute positively..

  1. . check the GA review above.. following WP:MOS improve the article.
  2. . Find the positive things and make a list of proposals here with references WP:RS
  3. . Read and follow WP:NPOV
  4. . If you think is going to be controversial discuss it.
  5. . the article also needs references and I'm the process of improving it.. try to add citations according to WP:CIT

--F3rn4nd0 (Roger - Out) 01:45, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Lead section

Before making changes take a moment to read this Wikipedia:Lead section. If you think the lead section should be rewritten please place your suggestion below and we will discuss improvements. --F3rn4nd0 (Roger - Out) 02:01, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

ok --Cap. Mitchel (talk) 02:20, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

by the way fernando this is my IP address, so please dont be confused about other people doing vandalism using their IPs, i never use it, but just in case here is.67.100.33.210 (talk) 02:53, 26 November 2007 (UTC), i made the last post using my IP address.--Cap. Mitchel (talk) 02:55, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Proposals

  • Colombia has a large recognition in the Hispanosphere, even at times, stronger than Mexico's or US, two links on the "middle power" article prove that Colombia is a Middle Power. We should add this since articles such the US one specify the influence and its dominance on other countries, we shall specify that matter on Colombia too. (middle power)
  • Colombia is one of the largest manufacturers of South America, it manufactures what is on the main products area of the "Economy of Colombia" infobox, I saw it... (Economy of Colombia)
  • Colombia has a large stockpile of resources, Petrochemicals (mainly petroleum), main cashcrops (indicate fertile lands) gold, silver, coal, and also other kinds of valorable resources. Colombia has a large resource load. (Economy of Colombia) ([infobox])
  • Colombia is definitely ethnically diverse, just as the US. (Demographics of Colombia)
Cocoliras (talk) 13:31, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

ok, and your references?--F3rn4nd0 (Roger - Out) 15:39, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

I can't indicate standing references but I can indicate where you can find a reference to the changes. 201.218.78.151 (talk) 21:28, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ethnic diversity

There are some statements in the introduction to the article that should be deleted. For instance: "Colombia is also one of the most ethnically diverse nations in the Southern Cone, the product of large-scale migrations during the 20th century which has caused a dramatic population growth since then". First, Colombia is not in the Southern Cone. Second, the population growth in Colombia is not due to "migration". In fact, Colombia has never been a prefered immigration destiny and most of its population growth is historically a consequence of high birth rates. Colombia is not a specially "ethnically diverse" country, if compared to its neighbours or other countries in the Americas (Canada, US, Brazil). There are other biaised or irrelevant sentences such as "It is largely recognized for its culture and is also one of the largest manufacturers in South America". Clean-up is needed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Adelius (talk • contribs) 02:09, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] second opinion

Can I have a second opinion on this enormous edit that I reverted, its by an anon, I cant see where it is from or whether it should be included, eg was it removed earlier and I cannot see it in the history. Thanks, SqueakBox 04:22, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

The edit looks like a machine translation from es:Colombia - including the Template:AP - here in en.wiki, we use Template:main. (AP = articulo principal). The machine translation is not sufficient, but if it gets cleaned up, it may be worth keeping. Argyriou (talk) 06:08, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Upgrade

Many parts of this article seem to be lacking grammar (they look machine-translated, honestly). If nobody objects I would like to correct many of the English translation mistakes found throughout this article. If the article is grammatically correct we can move from there to improve it. I'll most likely do it sometime next week. ColombianConservative (talk) 21:37, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

See the section immediately above - the section discussed *is* machine-translated. Please feel free to fix them; otherwise we need to delete those sections. Argyriou (talk) 18:48, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
I can only fix the text sections of the article, I have no idea how to edit Templates/BoxesColombianConservative (talk) 23:44, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
I'll look at the templates and images in the next couple of days. Argyriou (talk) 01:21, 12 February 2008 (UTC)
Except that it seems that someone's already nuked all that. Argyriou (talk) 01:30, 12 February 2008 (UTC)
Now that I have the time to fix it, it appears that somebody has deleted the whole city section. Anyone know how to get it back?ColombianConservative (talk) 14:37, 5 March 2008 (UTC)
Go to es:Colombia, run it through Babelfish], and start from there. Or go into the article history - this might be a good starting point. You're probably best off fixing the translations outside Wikipedia and pasting them in at the end. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask. Argyriou (talk) 19:20, 5 March 2008 (UTC)


[edit] Social strata, progressive tax structure?

I've heard that Colombia has an interesting social strata that is based at least partly on housing. This is supposedly coupled with a progressive tax structure so that more valuable housing structures are taxed at a higher rate. However, I don't have any reliable sources for this. Can someone who is more familiar with Colombia please research this topic and include a summary in the main article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.4.44.208 (talk) 20:35, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Edit the introduction - diversity

The last passage of the introduction uses the word 'diversity' twice - once to refer to ethnic diversity, and then soon after to refer to biodiversity:

Colombia is a standing middle power[10] with the second largest Spanish speaking population of the world after Mexico.[6] It is largely recognized for its culture and is also one of the largest manufacturers in South America. Colombia is also one of the most ethnically diverse nations in South America, the result of large-scale migrations during the 20th century which has caused a dramatic population growth since then. Colombia is considered to be among 17 of the most megadiverse countries in the world.[11]

Suggested edit for last sentence:

Colombia's biodiversity means that it is considered to be among 17 of the most megadiverse countries in the world. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.152.174.175 (talk) 20:59, 9 March 2008 (UTC)