PopAnth - Hot Buttered Humanity: Cover and simmer: My morning in an open-air drug market

A protestor in Bogotá's 'El Bronx'. Photo by Steven BunceIn September of 2012, the mayor of Bogotá launched an unprecedented public health initiative to provide medical attention to the gravest cases of drug addiction in the most degraded and feared zones of the city.  One of these zones is ‘El Bronx’, which, according to official figures, houses around 20% of the city’s 10 000 homeless population.What unfolded was an extraordinary encounter between the abject and all that glitters – officials’ cars rolled in, an events tent and stage were assembled. Journalists watered at the mouth (it’s rare that they can even get a shot of this notorious area, but the security detail and high volume of attendees created a buffer zone).Then the intervention began. The brand new white medical unit pulled up outside the barricade that blocks entry to the street. A garbage truck entered to carry out the sanitation process, emerging with mounds of garbage as high as the humans inside. It’s as if a nest were agitated and the insects came scuttling out – cocooned in dirty blankets, yelling, smoking, stumbling. Reporters raised cameras and microphones, but one of the ‘heavies’ or internal guards of the zone ordered them to step down, asserting their ultimate control over who and what they allow the public to see. [Read the rest of the article]: Cover and simmer: My morning in an open-air drug marketAuthor informationSteven BuncePhD Candidate, University of SydneySteven Bunce is a PhD candidate at The University of Sydney, Australia. He is currently living in Bogotá, Colombia, where he is researching the nation’s class system and the incorporation of internally displaced persons into the city’s sociocultural landscapeFacebookOriginal article: Cover and simmer: My morning in an open-air drug market©2013 PopAnth - Hot Buttered Humanity. All Rights Reserved.