Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Where Have All the Doves Gone?

The Monument to Disarmament, with all of its doves. 
It seemed like an elegant idea: Bogotanos turned in thousands of firearms, which were melted down to create a monument to disarmament in Parque Tercer Milenio, created on the site of El Cartucho, one of the city's most violent, drug-saturated neighborhoods.

The elegant monument showed a man and two women holding up an arc consisting of 12 doves.

But by early 2010, nine of the twelve doves had been stolen - apparently by the same metal scavengers who steal the city's sewer lids and sell the metal to scrap dealers. Today, the two doves which are left only have about one wing between them.

Sadly, some of the metal may have been recycled back into weapons. Even more sadly, Bogotá still suffers lots of violence.

Related Posts:

Saint Francis' Lost Deer

The Sad State of Recycling in Bogotá
The monument today. 

Doveless and handless. 

This poor wingless dove won't fly again. 
A neighborhood drug addict, who sleeps in El Bronx.
By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

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