Name: Alejandro Chaparro
Location: Bogota, Colombia
If you would be able to export a characteristic of your people, what would it be?
Colombian people are hard workers. We try to be happy and put our problems on the second place. Work and strength are the most important way to progress.
If you would be able to ban a characteristic of your people, what would it be?
Selfishness and the feudal structure of the political mentality: the land of thousands of farmers has been stolen and many poor people have been forced to move. But the Colombian people do not seem to care, they are more worried about creating a false security for themselves.
What is your image of Holland?
When I think of Holland I see the paintings of Johannes Vermeer: the light, the landscapes, the traditions, the bridges. I think of the Dutch director Joris Ivens. The Dutch seem to be very politically active with a strong respect for human rights. A country that I would like to know better.
What is your favourite spot?
Paris
Which politician would you like to interview, and why?
Senator Gustavo Petro: he is one of the few people that stimulated the debate on the paramilitary in our country.
Who would you support to be the next president of the United States?
I hope Barack Obama. But that he will be also conscious about the great contribution development countries make to the World. I hope that he won’t regard Latin America as a strategic zone to benefit the American war economy.
If you could change one thing about your country, what would it be?
The politicians and their way of governing the country. They are responsible for the chaos that stands peace in the way.
Which fellow countryman are you most proud of?
Director Víctor Gaviria, poet Raul Gomez Jattin, musician Alfonso Córdoba “El Brujo”, cyclist Lucho Herrera; and my parents Carmen y Abraham.
What are you doing ten years from now?
I think I will be making the films that I have imagined. Travelling around the world with my family.
Everywhere in the world we find young people who dedicate their life to their religion. They do this by choosing to live by strict religious rules, or by choosing a career as a clergyman. The correspondents of Metropolis made portraits about religious young people all around the world.
