E/CN.4/1997/71/Add.1 page 10 several areas, including ethnic education programmes, improvement of health services (including the revival of traditional medicine), continuation of agrarian reform with the assignment of lands to indigenous communities that own none, economic investment, and protection of ecosystems and forests located in indigenous territories. 32. INCORA's purchase of land from private individuals or corporations for the benefit of the indigenous communities has made it possible to increase the number of resguardos . Eighty per cent of the indigenous population (approximately 482,958 people) live on 408 resguardos covering an area of 27,821,257 hectares. 33. As regards education, several public universities have adopted affirmative action programmes for students from indigenous communities. This has enabled 176 indigenous students to enrol at the National University in Bogotá. Advanced learning institutes, such as the Colombian Centre for Aboriginal Language Studies in the University of the Andes, the University of Amazonia and the Universities of the departments of Cauca and Antioquia, have 11 also developed specific programmes on indigenous languages and culture. II. SERIOUS OBSTACLES TO BE OVERCOME 34. The Colombian Government has achieved progress in a short time, but a number of serious obstacles are still preventing far-reaching change in Colombian society. These obstacles include the difficult legacy of the past, contradictory legislation and regulations, administrative delays due to conflicts of interest, differing conceptions of economic and social development, ineffective consultation with the populations concerned, notably on the use of territorial resources, and finally endemic violence. A. The weight of the past and economic and social disparities 35. The weight of the past is apparent above all in popular culture and certain behaviour by the élites. Thus, it still seems acceptable to ridicule Negroes on television, as evidence in a weekly television programme entitled Sábados Felices , whose racist content has been reported to the Special Rapporteur on several occasions. As a result of the mission, the Colombian authorities, including the regional ombudsman in Cartagena, recently approached the producer of the programme to draw his attention to its harmful effects. 36. Many racist prejudices and stereotypes persist in the collective conscience of Creole and white Colombians, associating black people with ugliness, ignorance, dirtiness, evil, servility, witchcraft and the devil. The former believe that black people should only engage in arduous manual labour, sports, music and domestic work. Generally speaking, the idea that Whites are culturally and biologically superior persists in Colombian society. 37. The following popular sayings, collected from people with whom the Special Rapporteur spoke, reflect the image of Blacks in Colombian society: “I wouldn't even want a black horse”;