A glimpse in the thoughts of Jose David Rodriguez

Written by Tyler Cole | 13 April 2010

My Couchsurfing host while in Barranquilla, Colombia, David (aka Jose aka Josh) and his family generously opened up their home for me and took me in as one of their own for the week that I spent with them. I initially was only planning to stay in Barranquilla a day or so in route to the Guajira Peninsula, but David offered to have me tag along on their family vacation instead, an invitation I took up. (You can read more about my stay in Barranquilla and Toluvijeo here). A student of international relations at the most prestigious university...

... in Barranquilla, David was an incredibly bright kid of 19 who had already mastered English and French and was well on his way to being conversational in Chinese. He took loads of time to show me around Barranquilla, introduce me to his friends and family, and in essence remind of why I love Colombia so much. For this "A glimpse in the thoughts of..." (explanation here), I asked Jose a few questions:

If you punch anyone in the world in the face, who would it be and why?

There's a lot of people, but in particular Fidel Castro. It seems to me that his attempt at revolution only succeeded in shutting off the rights of the Cuban people and submitting the people to his will.

What issue or problem in the world would you like to change?

I would like to address poverty. It's a huge problem that at the same time gives rise to many others like hunger, environmental destruction, etc...