Colombia

Colombia vs Canada

My boss in the World Bank, Bob W. had actually risen from the position of truck driver in Canada to
become Financial Manager of the city of Calgary before coming to the World Bank’s Financial
Department. From there he moved over to projects, and led the Bank’s supervisory team for the first
Urban Development Loan to Colombia, in 197 the IPC or Integral (Uprading with) Community
Participation.

At $80 million to finance simultaneous upgrading programs in 23 cities the loan was one of the biggest
made at the time and the project massive. IPC was run by an ad hoc group established in the office of
the country’s President, as it was clearly of political interest to the country’s leadership and because it
also commandeered the national and provincial agencies which dealt with housing, water and
sanitation, education, social welfare, and so forth.

But the set-up bothered Bob W. He believed that one of the national agencies, in particular the housing
institute, ICT (Instituto de Crédito Territorial) should manage the IPC. As he argued to the team, “it’s
about scope, the project has big scope.” He made his case during the last meeting of his last mission – as
he was moving on to other things and he wanted to assure that his successor would deal with the ICT
and not the Presidency.

Bob W.’s move was prompted, among other things, by his difficulties with Spanish. It’s not clear how
aware he was of his difficulties as his dealings, intense discussions in which he spoke a sort of
“Spanglish” of his own creation, always left him smiling.

“You see,” he explained to me, “I’ve had training in Spanish and it’s very easy. You just take the English
word that you want to say, you add an “E” in front and an “O” on the back. It all comes out.” And so we
various state agencies as well.

As he began to explain his proposal, using his personal Spanish, it became clear to those present that he
was not making jokes and that he was quite serious. They began to look very concerned. He felt the
need to explain himself further.

“Es, es que,”(tr- It’s that..), he began”. “Es que el Proyecto…” (tr. It’s that this Project..) He searched for
his key word – scope. Put the “E” in front and the “o” at the end.

“Escopo!” he announced. Only with his Canadian twang the “o” came out more like a “u” so to the rest
of us it sounded like “Escupo! “Escupo el Proyecto!”

Now he was smiling. He went on, with a grin, “Comprenden? Capisco?” (tr- Do you understand?)

His audience looked more alarmed. Of course they did. “Escupo” in Spanish means “I spit.” He had just
spat on their project, or spat out their project, depending on how you want to take it.

Bob W. sighed and gave them all an understanding look as he arose and headed for the door.

The Colombian leader of IPC came over to me with panic in his eyes. “Not to worry,” I said to him. “In
Canada they say ‘I spit’ when they are happy with something.”

“Ah,” he said, and fell back to reassure his colleagues.

As we were leaving the Presidential Palace Bob W. said triumphantly to the team, “So, did you notice
how we managed a complete changeover of the project and they didn’t say a thing? We did it!”

So the IPC went on under the wing of the Presidency and the loan was successfully disbursed in twice
the time agreed on the loan documents – like most Bank loans at the time.

(Buzz words: linguistic issues, housing, community development, urban upgrading, project management,
Colombia 1980’s)