Did I just employ the "Treat Them Like You are A Kindergarten Teacher Again" method with my insurance company today? I surely did. Did it work? Probably better than intended because I made an actual doctor feel contrite.
So, my insurance has been trying to not cover my SNRI because it is new on the market and no generic available yet, so pricey.
I apply for a refill and the request gets locked for review. Again. For the 3rd time.
This time I call and immediately ask to speak to the actual doctor making these clinical decisions. Very politely. Must be a slow day because they allow it.
ME: [Teacher voice] I'm calling in regards to the SNRI you have placed a lock on. Why was this decision made?
DOC: Well, there are dozens of other medications on the market in that tier, and far cheaper for you and [insurer]. We have sent a request to your doctor to consider alternatives.
ME: I am aware of that. So, can you do me a HUGE favor and look up my prescription history really quickly and tell me how many SSRIs and SNRIs were only filled once in 2022 for me, showing they were poorly tolerated?
DOC: It looks like eight.
ME: Great job! Now, can you please look at my genetic test for psychiatric drug tolerance and tell me how many medications are listed in the safe category?
DOC: Two.
ME: Awesome! Now, can you tell me what type that other drug is that I'm not taking?
DOC: Yeah, totally, it's an MAOI.
ME: That's correct, you're really knowledgeable! Should I be taking something as dangerous as an MAOI with my other medications, or even just in general?
DOC: It's contraindicated for sure.
ME: It is! So true! So, last question since you've been incredibly smart and helpful. Is it less expensive for [insurer] to pay out for the medication knowing they already get a huge manufacturer discount anyway, or is it more expensive for them to pay for me to need potentially long-term inpatient psychiatric care?
DOC: I'll clear the code, ma'am and flag it as medically necessary. I'm sorry about this.
ME: I appreciate you SO MUCH. You have a great day now.
WALGREENS PHARMACY TECH WITH 5 NOSE RINGS AND PURPLE HAIR STARING AT ME: ........... OKAY! It'll be ready in five minutes. You wanna come work here?
Cuántas personas colombianas de ideologías de izquierda (comunismo, socialismo, anarquismo, o simplemente pro elección, pro derechos lgbtiq+...) existen en Tumblr? Quiero ver algo que me de un poco de fe
No voy a dejar que ninguno de los que botaron por Abelardo lo olvide. Con cada cagada que haga voy a recordarles de su voto. Con cada muerte les recordaré que es su culpa.
Antes de celebrar, detente un instante y piensa qué es lo que realmente estás festejando. Quizás, mientras escribes un mensaje de victoria, alguien que podría ser tu hij@, tu herman@, tu padre o tu madre se tendrá que preparar para caminar hacia una guerra que nunca eligió. No porque la deseara, sino porque el peso de la vida y el amor por su familia le dejaron pocos caminos por recorrer.
Mientras tu noche transcurre en calma, bajo un techo seguro, habrá quienes corran intentando aferrarse a un mañana. Porque las palabras pueden romperse y los diálogos pueden fracasar, pero siempre existe la posibilidad de volver a intentarlo. La vida, en cambio, cuando se apaga, no concede segundas oportunidades.
Me entristece ver cómo celebran la derrota de otros sólo porque no comparten tú opinión, y cómo a veces elegimos la burla antes que la empatía, el desprecio antes que la comprensión, el orgullo antes que la humanidad.
Y no hablo de bandos ni de colores políticos. Hablo de personas. Hablo de reconocer que, aunque alguien no represente nuestros intereses, puede representar la esperanza de quien nunca tuvo las mismas oportunidades, de quien sueña con alcanzar una vida digna, hermosa y tranquila, como la que muchos damos por sentada.
No estoy triste porque haya perdido Cepeda. Estoy triste porque algunos celebran desde el odio, el rencor y la deshumanización. Porque cuando la victoria necesita humillar para sentirse completa, deja de ser una victoria y se convierte en una herida más.
Celebra tus ideas. Celebra tus convicciones. Celebra aquello en lo que crees. Pero no olvides tender una mano a quien piensa distinto, porque ninguna sociedad se construye sobre los escombros del desprecio.
De lo contrario, seguiremos caminando por el mismo camino que durante más de seis décadas nos ha enseñado a dividirnos, cuando quizá lo que más necesitamos es aprender a unirnos.
Que tristeza el resultado de las elecciones en Colombia. Mientras Latinoamerica le tenga más miedo a la palabra “socialismo”— o a cualquier ideología de izquierda—que a un politico de ultraderecha que abiertamente admitió y dijo cosas atroces y que encima apoya a genocidas nunca va a haber un cambio social verdadero.
Many small-scale landowners now include conservation measures alongside everyday farming. But progress is precarious, and the threat of guer
In 2018, Peña and his fellow campesinos began the process of creating a peasant reserve zone (ZRC), a designated land-use area aimed at safeguarding rural communities, supporting local farmers and stabilising their territories amid conflict that remains ongoing despite the 2016 ceasefire.
Reserve zones have been at the heart of President Gustavo Petro’s plans to improve farmers’ livelihoods while tackling deforestation and protecting biodiversity in the Amazon. During the past four years, his government has created 20 of the 27 existing zones.
The Colombian government officially approved the request for a ZRC in 2025. But Petro’s presidential term is coming to an end and a far-right candidate, Abelardo de la Espriella, is competing with the leftwing Iván Cepeda in a highly polarised election. Farmers such as Peña fear for the future of the ZRCs if the far right wins in the second round on 21 June.
De la Espriella won the first round by a narrow margin over Cepeda on 31 May. The run-off election will show whether Colombians support a continuation of Petro’s policies, based on dialogue and reform, or return to a hardline militarised strategy proposed by De la Espriella.
Like many others, Peña was drawn to Guaviare by a surge in coca leaf production in Colombia. A few years later, he bought his first plot of land – which lacked title deeds. The price: a kilo of coca paste.
The land Peña occupied was within a forest reserve, further complicating property rights under Colombian law. According to the ministry of agriculture, before the peace treaty this was not an exceptional situation, as at least 40% of rural land in Colombia lacked formal titles.
With the “war on drugs” and intensive programmes to eradicate plantations in Colombia, many farmers, including Peña, who had been growing coca leaves shifted to raising cattle, leading to increased deforestation. Between 2002 and 2025, Guaviare lost 350,000 hectares (865,000 acres) of forest – an area nearly five times the size of Singapore.
Some ZRCs have become more sustainable, however. In Calamar, the Guardian of Chiribiquete, a peasant reserve covering 183,200 hectares and supporting 4,430 people, was officially established in 2025. It is named after the nearby Chiribiquete national park, a Unesco world heritage site, which has inspired the community’s efforts to develop sustainable economies.
ZRCs are essentially a mechanism for bringing farmers into the institutional framework and away from armed groups’ territorial control, but they have also had a positive impact on the environment when followed by investments in sustainable development, according to Camilo González Posso, founder of Indepaz, a peacebuilding NGO, and a former government peace negotiator.
“The law requires that these zones create sustainable development plans in collaboration with institutions, while the government has a commitment to contributing to the development of sustainable economies through investment and programmes,” González Posso says.
Within the Guardian of Chiribiquete, almost half of the native forest remains intact. Community members work to protect the area while planting native trees and Amazonian fruits, such as cacao and copoazú, to generate income.
Supported by organisations such as the conservation charity WWF and the reforestation programme Visión Amazonía, residents have been establishing plant nurseries, restoring waterways and receiving training in woodworking.
“Although we live in a hidden corner of the country, we understand the damage caused to nature, and we are trying to compensate for the damage caused without affecting our economies,” says Leydy Janneth García, a representative of the conservation project Green Amazon.
García and her family arrived in Guaviare in 2018 after fleeing conflict. They bought land previously used for coca cultivation and planted cacao, which thrived as the coca trees withered. Their farm now also produces oranges, avocados, chontaduro (also known as peach palm) and tamarind, sharing spaces with a small herd of cattle. Nearly half of their land, 14.5 hectares, is set aside for conservation.
Yet most farmers in ZRCs feel unsure about what will happen to them and to the Amazon after the general election. Many feel Petro has ensured the right to land but not security, as he failed to bring armed groups under control. They believe Cepeda would follow the same path. There are also fears that a far-right government led by De la Espriella would bring back the conflict and prioritise large landowners, extensive farming and agribusiness growth at the expense of the environment.
While acknowledging progress made by Petro’s government in land rights, farmers remain concerned about guerrillas’ increasing influence. “Under Petro’s administration, armed groups have expanded, and we fear that if Cepeda wins, this trend will continue,” says García.
On the other hand, the prospect of a rightwing administration is even more concerning for experts such as González Posso. De La Espriella supports fracking and intends to expand its use, leading to fears about the impact on the environment and local communities. He has also urged Colombia to withdraw from the UN, which could impact international investment in rural initiatives and peace efforts.
“De la Espriella links development to extractivism, supporting an extensive livestock model and benefiting the wealthy landowners,” he says.
González Posso fears that a far-right administration could bring more violence, not just from armed groups. He says farmers are likely to resist being expelled from their lands to benefit the agroindustry, and guerrillas would be empowered by extensive livestock farming, which is more lucrative, so they could increase extortion practices by charging landowners for each head of cattle and hectare of pasture, and imposing a fine for each hectare of deforested land.
“Cepeda aims to strengthen a sustainable economy created with and for the people. It’s crucial to develop a medium-term strategy that integrates ZRCs, peace initiatives and environmental considerations,” says González Posso.
I haven't spoken much about the current presidential elections cycle in this country because not even other fellow Latin Americans bother posting anything at all about us, so I've gathered non-Colombians don't care much about us overall.
But what will take place tomorrow is truly, tangibly, a matter of life or death. The presidentials second stage sees the first stage winner, a hawk, corrupt lawyer who's been in charge of defending far-right paramilitaries, Catholic church pedophiles, and the biggest pyramid scheme fraudster in our history, along with having actively helped coordinating paramilitary operations to further the historical persecution of anybody from the Colombian Left even as mild as social democrats along with rampant land dispossession driving forcible displacement, having sworn to diminish state resources and operational scale by deleting entire ministries and offices around social funding to "optimise" the public treasury (what Milei, Noboa, Kast, and Paz have done in Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, and Bolivia) and who literally actively threatens to eviscerate everybody on the Colombian Left and anybody disagreeing with it going as far as to expressly state he intends to do here what Netanyahu has in Palestine and Lebanon as he admittedly identifies as an Islamophobe, having received full sponsoring to do so by Trump's government; against a social democrat human rights lawyer who has dedicated his entire career to defend the very people targeted and affected by everything the former has been involved in, who led a historical case against a former president who's the central figure in contemporary far-right politics in the country and extractivistic coke paste trafficking all across Latin America (case during which the country's major judiciary proved said human rights lawyer right). The human rights lawyer's father, one of the very few actual Communist congressmen we've ever had, was murdered by paramilitaries on the order of the national army leading ranks back then after years of having been forced into exile with his son and wife because of having been made into military targets precisely because of his partisan and militant persuasion.
I've made my thoughts on liberal democracy very clear in this site as a fellow Communist, I hate that liberal democracy has led us to this once again. But if you pray and believe to any degree in the divine, please, please, pray that the latter of the aforementioned ends up winning these elections. We've deployed just about any material resource we've come along with to support and promote his campaign because it will truly make a different between going back to be ruled by systemic state terrorism as we were for decades; or continuing social and labour reforms, institutional support for the proletariat (including dispossessed peasants forced into proletarisation), historically neglected victims of misogyny, femicide, queerphobia and transphobia, and the diplomatic policies through which we've come to support Palestinians as part of The Hague Group.
If you could spare a prayer for us, I beg you to, please, do so. I don't know how I could pay you back for it, but I'd remain immensely and accountably grateful for it. We've been and will continue being starkly critical of what Milei, Kast, Noboa, Paz, and Fujimori have done to make the lives of Argentines, Chileans, Ecuadorians, Bolivians, and Peruvians into an increasingly precarising living hell and will remain in solidarity with them; we've supported Venezuelans and Cubans in their struggle against Trump's pawns threatening their lives. Please, help us keep up with this and the resources and leveraging instrumental to doing so.
I thought I would have the guts to write today but my country (🇨🇴) just had a presidential election and the guy who won is a far-right, zionist, sexist homophobe who licks Trump’s butthole and has zero experience in Colombian politics apart from defending paramilitary leaders in court (he’s a lawyer) and driving most if his businesses into bankruptcy.
Estoy profundamente preocupada por el resultado de las elecciones presidenciales de mi país. No puedo creer que un tipo con una perspectiva tan antipática hacia el pueblo colombiano haya quedado de presidente.
Alguien con 3 páginas de programa de gobierno quedó más fácilmente de presidente que cualquier otra persona que haya estado anteriormente involucrada en la política del país
