E/CN.4/1997/71/Add.1 page 12 41. According to the CIMARRON movement, discrimination against Afro-Colombians may be illustrated by the following: 80 per cent of their basic needs are not met; 60 per cent are living in great poverty, below the poverty line; 79 per cent earn less than the minimum wage; 7 per cent earn wages of less than $40; and life expectancy is 55 compared with the national average of 60. The CIMARRON movement also maintains that there is discrimination between Afro-Colombians. Water and electricity needs are unmet for 86 per cent of Blacks and 45 per cent of Whites; 10 per cent of Blacks receive piped water as opposed to 78 per cent of Whites; 79 per cent of deaths in the Pacific region are attributable to cholera and the breakdown of health services; similarly, 100,000 out of the 500,000 annual cases of malaria occur in the Pacific region. The following disparities are reported in the area of education: (a) Illiteracy rates : Blacks, 43 per cent in rural areas and 23.2 per cent in urban areas; Whites, 20 per cent in rural areas and 7.3 per cent in urban areas; (b) School enrolment rates : 1. Primary : 60 per cent for Blacks as opposed to 70 per cent for Whites in urban areas; and 73 per cent for Blacks as opposed to 41 per cent for Whites in rural areas; 2. Secondary : Afro-Colombians, 38 per cent as opposed to 88 per cent for Whites in urban areas; 3. University : only 2 out of every 100 young Blacks in urban communities go to university; 80 per cent of Afro-Colombians cannot afford university studies. 42. Few Afro-Colombian students attend the National University in Bogotá, which has approximately 25,000 students. Afro-Colombians have to take an entrance examination, and there is no curriculum for them. Racist graffiti singling them out are frequently found on walls. A teacher of anthropology is said to have told one of his students: “Work like a Black so you can earn like a White.” There are some private universities, but Afro-Colombians cannot afford to pay the fees of $2,000 to $3,000. 43. There is no Afro-Colombian university. Quibdo University, in Chocó, which the Special Rapporteur visited and where he held a working meeting with the Vice-Rector and teaching staff, has 98 per cent Black students and teachers but is not considered to be an Afro-Colombian university since, as the teachers themselves admitted, for a long time they themselves were the vectors of the dominant, essentially European attitudes, affirming and celebrating the superiority of the White man, which aimed at making the Black man White! They had no conception of the development of the black population with all its cultural heritage. According to the people with whom the Special Rapporteur spoke, school, university and cultural life is dominated by racial and racist symbolism; for example, Blacks on television are always

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