La Policía Nacional recibe formación israelí en el racismo

October 1, 2021

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To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.

Para defendernos de los piratas informáticos, los trolls organizados y otros actos de vandalismo en línea, la función de comentarios de nuestro sitio web está desactivada. En cambio, ven a nuestra página de Facebook para unirte a la discusión.

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¿Wappin? What say the Rastafarian Jury? / ¿Qué dice el jurado rastafari?

October 1, 2021

Rastafari and a unit of the Gideon Force.

Say you irie, or not irie?

Sevana – Tiny Desk (Home) Concert
https://youtu.be/LMQp9x3hkMc

Gondwana en vivo en Buenos Aires
https://youtu.be/lJ_3Ze0qfN4

Steel Pulse Live at Rototom Sunsplash 2017
https://youtu.be/Q0__YRd8ivw

Séptima Raíz concierto en TRAMA 2018
https://youtu.be/GAz4ekdBlXc

Roots Daughters
https://youtu.be/czeKu4bx8WY

Sly & Robbie et al at @ The Buttermarket Jazz and Roots Club
https://youtu.be/7U4nm0Vvcz8

Koffee at Rockpalast 2019
https://youtu.be/PfoThkrTUTc

Contact us by email at / Contáctanos por correo electrónico a fund4thepanamanews@gmail.com

To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.

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These announcements are interactive. Click on them for more information.
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Fundacion Libertad, A liberal perspective on the mayor’s seafood market plan

October 1, 2021

The outside part of the present Mercado de Mariscos. An argument might reasonably be made for a second seafood market for Panama City, in another neighborhood. However, Mayor Tank of Gas doesn’t cite any such purpose. He wants to tear down the perfectly fine but perhaps not big enough market in order to feed more automobile traffic onto the Cinta Costera. He’d trash a gift from the government of Japan in favor of a truly insane urban traffic plan. Archive photo by Eric Jackson.

The emperor’s new market

by the Fundacion Libertad

Since his arrival at Panama’s city hall, the current mayor has only known how to propose pharaonic and unnecessary projects, while the priorities of the city are neglected.

Panama is a city that has been deprived of sidewalks and public spaces, giving preference to vehicles over people, but instead of improving roads for citizens, our local authorities spend their time inventing project after project, leaving us doubting whether they genuinely want is to leave a legacy for the next generations or if these project ideas are whims that will leave a herd of white elephants in our city.

First it was the beach, which despite popular displeasure he tried to push at any cost. Now, the most recent invention is a new seafood market, even without a proposed location, with the supposed purpose of improving the area’s roads. What is the strategy? Is there a strategy? Or is it that there are other purposes behind such insistence on these projects?

From a liberal perspective, we support the decentralization and autonomy of local governments. However, this has to be based on the transparency and accountability of the authorities and projects must address the needs of citizens within a framework of collaboration and consensus.

Likewise, we urge the municipal authorities to remove the bags under their eyes and look beyond San Felipe and the Cinta Costera. There are areas in the northern part of the capital district that are actively demanding action to improve their quality of life.

The municipalities’ funds are supposed to work for the taxpayers, not to be wasted on unnecessary and unnecessary projects. These latter could well be used to divert resources to unknown ends.

We view with suspicion the emergence of improvised and half-thought projects, which if carried out, would drain valuable resources away from taxpayers, without a sure return.

Contact us by email at fund4thepanamanews@gmail.com

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These links are interactive — click on the boxes

Editorials: Fruitless talks; and A global migrant relief system is needed

September 30, 2021

The Electoral Tribunal, which under Panama’s dictatorship-era constitution that’s in effect represents the political parties, sits down for a “dialogue” with representatives of the National Assembly, to negotiate over how much of our democracy will be ceded or sold. National Assembly photo.

Pretending to talk

Rocked by protests that at the moment indicate broad rejection rather than deep rage, the Cortizo administration, its caucus in the legislature, narrow economic interests that depend on it and pliable pseudo-autonomous public institutions talk on.

In talks without labor representatives or environmentalists at the table, a strip mining concession declared unconstitutional is in the process of being cured by the company promising to obey environmental laws – without posting a bond to ensure clean-up – and to obey labor laws, which it has previously flouted.

In talks with the Electoral Tribunal composed of their members, the established political parties agreed to take further steps to curb the electoral hopes of independents and give more money to themselves. For now, the new press and social media gag laws will be put on hold. The attack on such gender parity as there has been in the election laws and more details about subsidies to parties are left pending, but upon resumption of the legislative committee’s work on the subject it appears that the National Assembly will insist. The committee also insists on retaining candidates’ immunity from being prosecuted for crimes.

Labor turned out in large numbers and united before the legislature in the rain but the “dialogue” about the Social Security Fund is between business interests and political forces that depend on business support and the subject matter is how much more will be taken from working people’s savings.

The government promises that workers whose labor contracts had been suspended will be back to work by November 1. It’s a promise made to be broken, a one-month delay before before the fury of unemployed people whose suffering has been aggravated by an insult. It’s the realization by many a business owner without the right political ties that it’s time to close their shops.

The Panama Canal Authority has announced record cash transfers to the government, but that’s all spoken for and more by the predatory political caste and its retainers.

A massacre of incumbents’ political careers at the next election? Street protests and strikes? The riot squad opening fire? That’s where the country is heading unless the tones, participants and subject matters of “talks” are dramatically changed.

Haitian migration has been a fact for a long time. This scene was from the fall of 1991, when the US Coast Guard was intercepting Haitians at sea, and at that time keeping them in Guantanamo before mostly being returned to Haiti. US National Archives photo.

It wasn’t for lack of a warning

Haiti is not the only source of mass migration in the world, nor will it be the last. It did not start yesterday. Panama’s Foreign Minister Erika Mouynes correctly pointed out in Washington that this country had sounded the alarm, but surely the US government knew the gist of the situation.

The problem is that Washington’s thinking is set in times long past, and in the habit of trying things that didn’t work back then. To compound it, the world has changed since those times.

Haiti has been living a nightmare of varying intensity for longer than any living person can fully remember. It started when the United States and the European powers determined that they would not allow a republic born of a slave revolt to thrive. That was more than 200 years ago. It continues with the notion that some of these same foreign interests, if they can only find the right puppet to elevate to power, can alternatively do what’s best for Haiti or do what’s best for some investors they represent.

In the latest crisis it is alleged that Haitian-Americans, Venezuelans and Colombians conspired in the United States to assassinate the closest thing to a national leader that an unstable Haiti had. You would think that the Biden Justice Department would have either debunked the allegations or brought criminal charges by now. Instead the same old consortia of foreign interests pretend that they can impose order on a Haiti where gangs rule the streets.

Should the Americas – not just the USA, but the whole hemisphere – live in terror of the stream of Haitians who have fled from this or are about to? These migrants do, by many lights, seem to be the most sensible Haitians of all.

Haiti, however, is not the only country generating migrants.

Climate change is making old pastures too dry to graze herds, making inhabited islands disappear under the waves, making once prosperous farmlands no longer arable, changing the precipitation patterns and the species of insects that come to eat the crops, depriving communities of drinking water, leading desperate people to make war with one another for what resources remain, leading many others to flee. Gangsters in uniforms become tyrants. Gangsters without uniforms make cities and countries ungovernable. People flee from the gangsters, too, with well-founded fears that may not fit into the old definitions of who is a refugee.

We have a long-term human migration crisis that demands a long-term international response. Washington is wrong to think that it can make migrants stay in this or that third country – Panama, Guatemala, Mexico or wherever – for US convenience. Panama, and the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean lands, can’t make too many more foolish mistakes than to think that the Americans will solve this.

We all have a helping hand to lend, for the Rohingya refugees from ethnic cleansing, for islanders driven out by rising seas, for those fleeing the compound disasters that are Africa’s Sahel region, for people displaced by warfare and oppression in the Near East, for the Haitians. For many to come. Food, clean water, clothing, shelter, the rule of law – those are basics, but the world needs to build a string of cities to house those who flee without an assured place to go. It has been done before, often in wrong and punitive ways. But the world also has the expertise to do these things right.

There are plenty of jobs that an ailing planet needs to have done. There are plenty of migrants looking for such jobs, or any dignified job. These things take time, but such things can be and generally are sorted out.

We could let fear, hatred or force of bad habits get in the way. Certainly those things are being urged upon both Joe Biden and Nito Cortizo. But the world community, and each of its members, can and should do much better than that, for the benefit of all humanity.

Library of Congress photo of Upton Sinclair, by Bain News Service in 1900.

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.

Upton Sinclair

Bear in mind…

If one sticks too rigidly to one’s principles, one would hardly see anybody.

Agatha Christie

If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
If I am not for others, what am I?
And if not now, when?

Rabbi Hillel

A culture is not an abstract thing. It is a living, evolving process. The aim is to push beyond standard-setting and asserting human rights to make those standards a living reality for people everywhere.

Mary Robinson

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These links are interactive — click on the boxes

The Panama News blog links, September 30, 2021

September 30, 2021

The Panama News blog links

a Panama-centric selection of other people’s work
una selección Panamá-céntrica de las obras de otras personas

Contact us by email at / Contáctanos por correo electrónico a fund4thepanamanews@gmail.com

To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.

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These announcements are interactive. Click on them for more information. Estos anuncios son interactivos. Toque en ellos para seguir a las páginas de web.

All the fuss about “residues” in the legislature

September 27, 2021

Scenes from the September 14 demonstration in front of the National Assembly. Photos posted on Twitter feeds.

How “residuo” is being made into a dirtier word than before

by Eric Jackson

Are we to, literally or figuratively, separate the wheat from the chaff? And do so in Panamanian Spanish, well beyond what dictionaries and Google Translate say?

The chaff is the residue after winnowing grain. To burn or throw away the rice hulls is a common agricultural error here, but generally there are enlightened farmers and gardeners who want that stuff for fertilzer or mulch.

One Spanish word for the chaff, especially common in the lands that used to be part of the Viceroyalty of New Granada — places like Panama, Colombia and Venezuela — is “vaina.” That word, often pronounced with a hard Spanish “v” that sounds to gringo ears like a “b” — as in “baina” — has a great many meanings in this part. Yes, it can mean the sheath for your machete, but let’s concentrate on things related to the chaff meaning. Let’s use some polite English, even if the colloquial equivalents are anything but polite. Annoyance. Criminal activity. Trouble. The kind of people who create such things.

In Noriega times, insurance man and post-invasion Vice President famously declared “¡Esta vaina se acabó!” Noriega’s Dignity Battalions beat the hell out of him, but as to the reign of the US-trained strongman, after much more violence and tragedy this [annoyance] WAS over. Or some of it was.

Panama still lives under the dictatorship’s constitution, which embeds political patronage and its inherent incentives for corruption into the structure of our government. One strange feature of the Panamanian system is the combination of single-member, first past-the-post-gets-elected legislative circuits and, for most of the deputies, an odd mutation of a sort of proportional representation in the multi-member circuits. Everyone elected to the legislature out of the metro area, where most of Panama’s population lives, comes from a multi-member circuit. A deputy’s mandate might be based upon the “quotient,” the “half-quotient” or the “residue.” It’s an arcane way of counting, which in many cases results in someone getting elected on a residue even though someone running in the same circuit got more votes but did not get a seat in the National Assembly.

HOW arcane is the system? Consider:

Article 403. In the case of electoral circuits that elect two or more deputies, the Electoral Circuit Scrutiny Boards shall proclaim the candidates elected from compliance with the following rules:

1. The total number of valid votes cast in the circuit by all voters is divided by the number of citizens to be elected. The result of this division it will be called the electoral quotient.

2. The total number of unique ballots obtained by each candidate list is divided by the electoral quotient, and the result of this operation will be the number of candidates that it corresponds to choose the party that would have launched the list of treaty or respective free application list.

3. If there are positions to be filled to complete the number of candidates who have to chosen, one will be awarded to each of the remaining lists that have obtained a number of unique voting ballots not less than half the electoral quotient in the order by which said lists have obtained unique voting ballots. The parties or independent lists that have obtained the electoral quotient will not have the right to the half quotient.

4. If there are still positions to be filled, the most voted candidates will be awarded a once the quotient and a half quotient are applied.

For the award of the post by residue, all the votes obtained by each candidate in all the lists in which they have been nominated, but in any case the seat will be assigned to the party to which the candidate belongs, bearing in mind that a party only may obtain only one seat per residue.

Article 404. When a party or an independent list has the right to one or more Deputy positions in a multi-member circuit, the principal and elect shall be declared alternates are the candidates who, as such, have obtained the greatest number of votes.

Who tends to get declared the loser against someone who got fewer votes and was declared the winner?

An independent or small party candidate, in a circuit where there was no full slate of independents — often times because the Electoral Tribunal limited the number of independents on the ballot so that there could be no full slate — or of a small party that just didn’t have the candidates to field there. A candidate on a coalition ticket, wherein another candidate on that slate belonged to the “right” party to receive a seat by residue despite fewer votes.

And some of the current crop of winners:

Enough of the most notorious deputies have their seats due to the residue rule that there is this play on words, wherein as chaff is a sort of residue, one sort of vaina is synonymous with residuo. As you might notice in one of the placards shown above. Part of Panamanian opposition politics today is to enhance that similarity, to make residuo an epithet.

Not all of the legislators by residue are notorious jerks. Some may feel relieved that they barely snuck in and are trying to keep their noses clean and become noteworthy for a few good things, such that in the next elections they come back with a more respectable mandate.

At the moment, though, the president of the National Assembly is a physician, Dr. Crispiano Adames, legislator by residue and father of a medical student. His big legislative effort in these plague times? He proposed to lower the test scores for medical school graduates to get licensed to practice. The private fly-by-night “universities” loved it, but the University of Panama medical faculty and most of the nation’s medical organizations hated it and saw to it that the proposal went nowhere in the legislature — only to see it enacted by the Ministry of Health.

Sitting before Adames among the residuary deputies there is Colon’s Jairo Bolota Salazar. The guy has a penchant for grabbing headlines — most recently and in violation of historic preservation laws demolishing designated national legacy buildings in Colon’s city center. Whether it’s gay bashing, throwing things at his colleagues or picking arguments with the police for wrong reasons, Bolota acts as if any news coverage is good coverage.

Then, allied with Adames’s PRD is the MOLIRENA caucus, one of whose deputies by residue is religious right leader Corina Cano. It’s perhaps historically ironic that she sits as a member of the last political party that has the word “Liberal” in its name, given that the Panamanian Liberal tradition that stretches back into the Colombian period was always identified as much by its advocacy of secular government as by its representation of commercial and industrial interests rather than the large rural landowners who dominated the Conservatives. Civil wars were fought by Liberals over that separation of church and state principle, but that was then.

Also in the fractious MOLIRENA caucus, there is the legislator by residue Tito Rodríguez, maker of perhaps the most insufferable declarations in favor of political patronage that Panama has seen in recent years.

In Penonome, which has a low-key PRD legislator in a seat allocated by residue, people protested mainly about things that the current National Assembly and president have done, but the subject that brought them out was proposed changes to the electoral laws, which, residue and all, they think leaves them without responsive representation. Archive photo by Eric Jackson.

And so Panama’s evolving political rhetoric goes, with the attempt by opposition forces to smear the product of an arcane election system into sewage imagery, transforming “residuo” into this generation’s “vaina.” It seems to be working.

But is something missing?

There is strong sentiment throughout that land that Panama needs not only new election laws, but a reformed political culture and a new constitution. But how do we get there, and specifically which changes do we need and want? That’s where opposition to an unpopular government breaks down. The petition drive for a parallel constitutional convention — subject to the rules and limits of the Electoral Tribunal, the Supreme Court, the Presidency and the National Assembly — is a dead letter. The alternative to that would be a referendum to allow the convening of an originating constitutional convention, which assumes all state powers while in session to draft a proposed new political system. Even then, would people elect all the usual suspect, in large part on votes being traded for bags or groceries?

The discontent with what we have is easy enough to see, but a specific alternative that captures the public imagination? Not yet.

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The Panama Ports concession: blogging a La Estrella interview

September 26, 2021

“The door is not closed. The government, through the presidency and the National Assembly, can make the changes it wants.” Julio De La Lastra, CoNEP leader and once a member of the Panama Maritime Authority board.

Blogging today’s La Estrella interview

comments by Eric Jackson

Here, in an interview conducted by La Estrella’s Adelita Coriat we have National Council of Private Enterprise president Julio Azael De La Lastra Alemán. The interview is in Spanish, but there are machine translation programs to help those who can’t read Panama’s national language.

The talk gets into the Panamanian social security system and other subjects, but the main thing of interest is the recently renewed concession with a Hong Kong based company for the ports of Cristobal and Balboa. There are other, competing seaports on each side of the isthmus now, but this double concession remains the crown jewel of Panama’s ports industry.

We get a business point of view about the Panama Ports contract for the ports of Balboa and Cristobal, which the Cortizo administration has renewed rather than renegotiated. Those who object say that Panama Ports, a subsidiary of Hong Kong based Hutchison Ports, has paid a relative pittance to Panama over its 25-year concession for the ports. De La Lastra says that the 1997 contract gave Panama a binary choice: renew the contract after 25 years or cancel it. Others suggested to cancel it, and to start new talks with the company about a replacement.

De La Lastra has a conflict of interest about getting into some of the particulars of the Panama Ports relationship with the government, given that he was on the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) board when many of these details would have been broached. As he notes, under AMP customs there are things he just can’t talk about. But not so for other members of CoNEP and for the business sector in general. De La Lastra does get suggestively scathing with respect to the Comptroller General’s office, which for many years did not publish any audits of the concessions. He wonders how closely that office looked at the subject before signing off on the decision to renew the concession.

The company can truthfully talk about huge investments that they made, and the country can point to all the years when we received little or nothing, based on the company’s accounting that said it wasn’t profitable.

In the USA there is this conspiracy cult that supposes that the ports of Balboa and Cristobal are now outposts of the Chinese military forces. It isn’t true as alleged, much less the allegation that China runs the Panama Canal. However, the rise of Chinese business, maritime logistical and naval power does provide some matters of fact that reasonable people might discuss.

Hutchison is one of the world’s largest seaport companies and has very few Chinese workers or management people here. But China is a major user of the canal, and one of the principal ways into many a Chinese maritime company runs through service in the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). The PLAN rivals the US Navy as probably the world’s second largest naval force by tonnage, the largest by personnel on surface ships, and a major contender of generally unknown rank in the highly secretive field of naval technologies. The Chinese are also developing a People’s Armed Forces Maritime Militia — the “little blue men” — presently identified as an armed force that largely operates under the guise of fishing vessels. Management figures of Chinese civilian shipping companies often have military backgrounds.

The man who sounded the alarm about Hutchison getting the ports contract back in the 90s, the late US Army Major General and former USARSO commander Richard Anson, talked caution rather than paranoia. Others spun fanciful suppositions about then-present realities. Anson pointed out that from a military point of view one looks at a potential enemy not by its present intentions but by its capabilities.

In any case, here we have a matter of Panamanian business sense rather than US perceived security concerns. It a concern that the Panama Ports contract may be a bad business deal for Panama. In the present Panamanian political situation the ports concession is often mentioned in tandem with mining concessions, and held up by some prominent business leaders as one of the examples of how notwithstanding the business backgrounds and orientations of people who get elected, this and previous governments have not competently looked after Panama’s business interests.

Hence Mr. De La Lastra’s suggestion that the legislature amend the concession contract rather than just approve it as presented.

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US anti-vaxxers in the real world of work

September 24, 2021

Part of a global series of anti-vax protests in late August and early September. Photo by GoToVan.

Half of unvaccinated workers say they’d rather quit than get a shot — but real-world data suggest few follow through

by Jack J. Barry, University of Florida; Ann Christiano, University of Florida, and Annie Neimand, University of Florida

Are workplace vaccine mandates prompting some employees to quit rather than get a shot?

A hospital in Lowville, New York, for example, had to shut down its maternity ward when dozens of staffers left their jobs rather than get vaccinated. At least 125 employees at Indiana University Health resigned after refusing to take the vaccine.

And several surveys have shown that as many as half of unvaccinated workers insist they would leave their jobs if forced to get the shot, which has raised alarms among some that more mandates could lead to an exodus of workers in many industries.

But how many will actually follow through?

Strong words

In June 2021, we conducted a nationwide survey, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, that gave us a sample of 1,036 people who mirrored the diverse makeup of the United States. We plan to publish the survey in October.

We asked respondents to tell us what they would do if “vaccines were required” by their employer. We prompted them with several possible actions, and they could check as many as they liked.

We found that 16% of employed respondents would quit, start looking for other employment or both if their employer instituted a mandate. Among those who said they were “vaccine hesitant” – almost a quarter of respondents – we found that 48% would quit or look for another job.

Other polls have shown similar results. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey put the share of workers who would quit at 50%.

Separately, we found in our survey that 63% of all workers said a vaccine mandate would make them feel safer.

Quieter actions

But while it is easy and cost-free to tell a pollster you’ll quit your job, actually doing so when it means losing a paycheck you and your family may depend upon is another matter.

And based on a sample of companies that already have vaccine mandates in place, the actual number who do resign rather than get the vaccine is much smaller than the survey data suggest.

Houston Methodist Hospital, for example, required its 25,000 workers to get a vaccine by June 7. Before the mandate, about 15% of its employees were unvaccinated. By mid-June, that percentage had dropped to 3% and hit 2% by late July. A total of 153 workers were fired or resigned, while another 285 were granted medical or religious exemptions and 332 were allowed to defer it.

At Jewish Home Family in Rockleigh, New Jersey, only five of its 527 workers quit following its vaccine mandate. Two out of 250 workers left Westminster Village in Bloomington, Illinois, and even in deeply conservative rural Alabama, a state with one of the lowest vaccine uptake rates, Hanceville Nursing & Rehab Center lost only six of its 260 employees.

Delta Airlines didn’t mandate a shot, but in August it did subject unvaccinated workers to a US$200 per month health insurance surcharge. Yet the airline said fewer than 2% of employees have quit over the policy.

And at Indiana University Health, the 125 workers who quit are out of 35,800 total employees, or 0.3%.

Making it easy

Past vaccine mandates, such as for the flu, have led to similar outcomes: Few people actually quit their jobs over them.

And our research suggests in public communications there are a few things employers can do to minimize the number of workers who quit over the policy.

It starts with building trust with employees. Companies should also make it as easy as possible to get vaccinated – such as by providing on-site vaccine drives, paid time off to get the shot and deal with side effects, and support for child care or transportation.

Finally, research shows it helps if companies engage trusted messengers including doctors, colleagues and family to share information on the vaccine.

In other words, vaccine mandates are unlikely to result in a wave of resignations – but they are likely to lead to a boost in vaccination rates.

Jack J. Barry, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Public Interest Communications, University of Florida; Ann Christiano, Director, Center for Public Interest Communications, University of Florida, and Annie Neimand, Research Director and Digital Strategist for frank, College of Journalism and Communications, University of Florida

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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¿Wappin? Soul show…

September 24, 2021

Panama’s Luci & the Soul Brokers, a few years ago in Italy.
Luci & the Soul Brokers de Panamá, desde hasta unos pocos años en Italia.

It translates to “alma” but everyone knows soul
Se traduce como “alma”, pero todos conocen soul

Mama Saturn’s Virtual Concert
https://youtu.be/i2XUrySbdUE

Temptations – Just My Imagination
https://youtu.be/M5Z9-QCmZyw

Luci & The Soul Brokers – Surprise
https://youtu.be/baDYjoCQ-Ek

Lila Iké – Tiny Desk (Home) Concert
https://youtu.be/mbPa0QH_zxA

Four Tops – Are You Man Enough?
https://youtu.be/faaxsHyyIzY

Adele Live Full Concert 2020
https://youtu.be/fSOT7mYZ6Cs

The Soul Fantastics – Ven a mi
https://youtu.be/Z4hNSO_8f_w

Chaka Khan at Pori Jazz 2002
https://youtu.be/JmyR84zqb0o

Joan Osborne – What Becomes of the Broken Hearted
https://youtu.be/gA0GcXV2njY

Celeste & Paul Weller – You Do Something To Me
https://youtu.be/lUPsKZfuXi8

Stevie Wonder at Glastonbury 2010
https://youtu.be/Dl5j18zyVTM

Contact us by email at / Contáctanos por correo electrónico a fund4thepanamanews@gmail.com

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Cortizo at the UN / Cortizo en la ONU

September 23, 2021

Summary in English and full text in Spanish below.
Resumen en inglés y texto completo en español a continuación.

Summary by the UN General Assembly

LAURENTINO CORTIZO COHEN, President of Panama, said the pandemic has struck all nations equally, revealing deeply rooted inequalities. The path forward must be guided by solidarity. “Our decisions today matter,” he insisted. For its part, Panama is working to build an inclusive and sustainable future. He drew attention to his call for a national dialogue, with a view to taking wise decisions that would outlast any Government. Titled “The Bicentennial Pact: Closing Gaps”, it acknowledges that all must contribute to creating a country that is more inclusive and united. Former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called it “a great opportunity”.

Acting with foresight, Panama procured safe vaccines for the entire population, he continued, and is now only weeks away from achieving collective immunity. However, the goal must be global immunity. The Government has prioritized delivery of food and basic inputs to those who lost their income due to the pandemic, and coordinated a plan which transferred funds to those in need either through digital vouchers or the distribution of food to those in hard‑to‑reach areas. Since March 2020, it has evolved into a social relief plan with shared responsibility, he said, noting that the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) cites Panama as one of two countries which reduced extreme poverty indices in 2020.

He pointed to irregular migration as another challenge, stressing that more than 80,000 irregular migrants crossed into his country in 2021. It received 800 migrants in January, a figure that increased to 30,000 in August, with most of them from the Caribbean and Africa. Providing them temporary shelter, medical assistance and food, Panama dedicates a large part of its limited resources to these tasks. He called on the international community to act quickly, in a coordinated manner and with requisite resources to anticipate a humanitarian crisis of grave proportions. “This is the responsibility of all of us,” he emphasized. “And it must happen now.”

On climate change, he said it is time to dispense with disbelief. “What more do global leaders need to understand this very tragic reality?”, he asked. Noting that Panama is one of three countries classified as carbon neutral, he said it also has the best maritime and air connections in Latin America, and understands that “what is good for the planet, is good for the economy”. It is a global blue leader, participating in an effort to protect 30 per cent of the world’s oceans, a goal it achieved nine years before 2030. In closing, he championed a road map marked by solidarity and human rights, and “broad and honest dialogue” in efforts to bring about peace, provide vaccines to all nations and preserve health. “Enough with our promises,” he said. “The time has come for truth, […] action. Panama is doing its part.

Discurso del Presidente a la ONU

texto completo por la Presidencia

Panamá saluda la celebración de esta septuagésima sexta Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas, en tiempos de grandes desafíos para la humanidad.

El año pasado, durante mi intervención en la Asamblea General, mencioné que la ruta hacia la construcción de un mundo distinto en la etapa post pandemia, era anticipar acciones que nos permitieran sentar las bases de transformaciones estructurales profundas.

La pandemia nos azotó a todos por igual y a su paso nos ha revelado en toda su crudeza, las profundas desigualdades de nuestras sociedades, no solo a nivel regional, sino también global.

Frente a esta realidad, podemos optar por la alternativa que nos lleva a la división, el conflicto, la indiferencia, o tomar el camino de la unidad y la solidaridad. La pandemia ha puesto en evidencia que en el mundo interconectado de hoy, el único camino para la supervivencia de la humanidad debe ser guiado por la solidaridad.

Nuestras decisiones de hoy importan; tendrán consecuencias buenas, o consecuencias malas, hoy, mañana y a largo plazo.

Panamá, apostó a construir un futuro sostenible e inclusivo, y para ello, aún en medio de la pandemia, convocamos a un diálogo nacional con el propósito de tomar decisiones acertadas que perduren más allá de un periodo de gobierno.

Ese diálogo que hemos denominado Pacto del Bicentenario: Cerrando Brechas, se construyó mediante una amplia consulta, con el apoyo de Naciones Unidas, reconociendo que todos los ciudadanos deben proponer y aportar para sentar las bases de un Panamá más justo, inclusivo y solidario.

A propósito del Pacto del Bicentenario, la Alta Comisionada para los Derechos Humanos de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas, Michelle

Bachelet, expresó lo siguiente, y cito: “Lo que están haciendo en Panamá puede considerarse un ejemplo para muchas otras naciones… Tienen ustedes en sus manos una gran oportunidad”.

La pandemia sometió a las naciones del mundo a desafíos monumentales.

Uno de esos retos es la vacunación, y en el caso de Panamá, nuestro país, actuando con previsión, pudo contratar suficientes vacunas seguras y eficaces para toda su población.

Gracias a ello, estamos a solo semanas de llegar a una inmunidad colectiva. Sin embargo, la meta no puede ser que algunos países lleguemos a la inmunidad de rebaño, cuando el objetivo debe ser que alcancemos una inmunidad global.

Otro gran desafío que enfrenta nuestra región es entregar la ayuda necesaria a la población, en medio de las duras circunstancias impuestas por la pandemia, contribuyendo así a mantener las condiciones de vida y la paz social.

Desde el inicio de la pandemia, nuestro gobierno dio prioridad a la entrega de alimentos e insumos básicos a quienes perdieron sus fuentes de ingreso, especialmente en los segmentos de población más vulnerables. Para ello articulamos un plan con dos iniciativas: una de ellas transfiere fondos a los más afectados a través de vales digitales, y la otra distribuye bolsas de alimentos e insumos a quienes habitan en regiones alejadas de difícil acceso.

Este plan, vigente desde marzo de 2020, ha evolucionado de acuerdo a la dinámica de la pandemia, y en la nueva etapa sus beneficiarios deben escoger entre prestar un servicio social comunitario o capacitarse para el trabajo, mediante cursos ofrecidos por el gobierno. Ahora es un plan de alivio social con responsabilidad compartida.

La efectividad de este programa tuvo el reconocimiento de la Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA) y del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID). Por otro lado, según la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), Panamá es uno de los dos países de América Latina que lograron disminuir los índices de pobreza extrema en 2020, durante la pandemia.

Otro de los retos que enfrentamos muchas naciones es la migración irregular, un fenómeno histórico y constante ante el cual no se puede ser indiferente.

En lo que va del 2021, más de 80,000 migrantes irregulares han atravesado por el territorio panameño. Esta cifra lleva un crecimiento exponencial. Para entender lo dramático de la situación, Panamá, pasó de recibir 800 migrantes en enero de este año, a 30,000 el mes pasado.

La mayoría de estos migrantes, provenientes del Caribe y África, vienen de recorrer varios países en condiciones difíciles. Nuestro país, de manera responsable, respetuoso de los derechos humanos, brinda un trato digno a estos migrantes y les ofrece, por primera vez en su travesía, albergue temporal, asistencia médica y alimentación. A estas tareas dedicamos una parte importante de nuestros limitados recursos.

Panamá, hace su parte. Apelamos a la comunidad internacional para hacer, lo más pronto posible, un esfuerzo conjunto, con estrategias coordinadas y recursos para anticipar una crisis humanitaria regional de graves proporciones. Esto es una responsabilidad de todos.

El desafío más grande que nos queda por enfrentar, después de la pandemia, es el cambio climático.

La incredulidad existente sobre el cambio climático y sus efectos debe ser historia. Todos los grandes problemas que afronta nuestro planeta están relacionados con el cambio climático.

¿Qué más necesitan los dirigentes del mundo para entender esta dramática realidad?

También en este tema, Panamá, está haciendo su parte. Somos uno de los tres países del mundo clasificado como “carbono negativo”, repito, uno de los tres países carbono negativo, del mundo.

En Panamá, el país con la mejor conectividad marítima y aérea de América Latina y el Caribe, en este país de tránsito con vocación logística, hemos entendido que lo que es bueno para el planeta es bueno para la economía.

Los panameños, hemos asumido la responsabilidad de haber sido bendecidos con una de las mayores biodiversidades del mundo. Panamá, es Líder Mundial Azul, cumpliendo con la Iniciativa 30×30 de proteger el 30% de nuestros océanos, meta que alcanzamos 9 años antes de la fecha fijada para el 2030.

Panamá, se ofrece una vez más como puente para aproximar a las naciones, buscar soluciones comunes a los problemas y enfrentar los desafíos regionales y globales. Podemos hacerlo, con una hoja de ruta marcada por la solidaridad y el respeto por los derechos humanos.

Podemos hacerlo, a través del diálogo amplio y honesto, enfocando el esfuerzo internacional en mantener la paz social, en dotar de las vacunas necesarias a todos los países, para salvar vidas, preservar la salud y encaminarnos todos, lo más pronto posible, a la recuperación económica global. Para todos estos grandes retos, el futuro es ahora.

Panamá está haciendo su parte.

Contact us by email at / Contáctanos por correo electrónico a fund4thepanamanews@gmail.com

To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.

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Rastafari and a unit of the Gideon Force.

Say you irie, or not irie?

Sevana – Tiny Desk (Home) Concerthttps://youtu.be/LMQp9x3hkMc

Gondwana en vivo en Buenos Aireshttps://youtu.be/lJ_3Ze0qfN4

Steel Pulse Live at Rototom Sunsplash 2017https://youtu.be/Q0__YRd8ivw

Séptima Raíz concierto en TRAMA 2018https://youtu.be/GAz4ekdBlXc

Roots Daughtershttps://youtu.be/czeKu4bx8WY

Sly & Robbie et al at @ The Buttermarket Jazz and Roots Clubhttps://youtu.be/7U4nm0Vvcz8

Koffee at Rockpalast 2019https://youtu.be/PfoThkrTUTc

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The emperor’s new market

by the Fundacion Libertad

The Electoral Tribunal, which under Panama’s dictatorship-era constitution that’s in effect represents the political parties, sits down for a “dialogue” with representatives of the National Assembly, to negotiate over how much of our democracy will be ceded or sold. National Assembly photo.

Pretending to talk

Haitian migration has been a fact for a long time. This scene was from the fall of 1991, when the US Coast Guard was intercepting Haitians at sea, and at that time keeping them in Guantanamo before mostly being returned to Haiti. US National Archives photo.

It wasn’t for lack of a warning

Library of Congress photo of Upton Sinclair, by Bain News Service in 1900.

Bear in mind…

The Panama News blog links

a Panama-centric selection of other people’s workuna selección Panamá-céntrica de las obras de otras personas

Canal, Maritime & Transportation / Canal, Marítima & Transporte

Economy / Economía

Science & Technology / Ciencia & Tecnología

News / Noticias

Opinion / Opiniones

Culture / Cultura

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Scenes from the September 14 demonstration in front of the National Assembly. Photos posted on Twitter feeds.

How “residuo” is being made into a dirtier word than before

by Eric Jackson

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“The door is not closed. The government, through the presidency and the National Assembly, can make the changes it wants.” Julio De La Lastra, CoNEP leader and once a member of the Panama Maritime Authority board.

Blogging today’s La Estrella interview

comments by Eric Jackson

Part of a global series of anti-vax protests in late August and early September. Photo by GoToVan.

Half of unvaccinated workers say they’d rather quit than get a shot — but real-world data suggest few follow through

by Jack J. Barry, University of Florida; Ann Christiano, University of Florida, and Annie Neimand, University of Florida

Strong words

Quieter actions

Making it easy

Panama’s Luci & the Soul Brokers, a few years ago in Italy.Luci & the Soul Brokers de Panamá, desde hasta unos pocos años en Italia.

It translates to “alma” but everyone knows soulSe traduce como “alma”, pero todos conocen soul

Mama Saturn’s Virtual Concerthttps://youtu.be/i2XUrySbdUE

Temptations – Just My Imaginationhttps://youtu.be/M5Z9-QCmZyw

Luci & The Soul Brokers – Surprisehttps://youtu.be/baDYjoCQ-Ek

Lila Iké – Tiny Desk (Home) Concerthttps://youtu.be/mbPa0QH_zxA

Four Tops – Are You Man Enough?https://youtu.be/faaxsHyyIzY

Adele Live Full Concert 2020https://youtu.be/fSOT7mYZ6Cs

The Soul Fantastics – Ven a mihttps://youtu.be/Z4hNSO_8f_w

Chaka Khan at Pori Jazz 2002https://youtu.be/JmyR84zqb0o

Joan Osborne – What Becomes of the Broken Heartedhttps://youtu.be/gA0GcXV2njY

Celeste & Paul Weller – You Do Something To Mehttps://youtu.be/lUPsKZfuXi8

Stevie Wonder at Glastonbury 2010https://youtu.be/Dl5j18zyVTM

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Summary by the UN General Assembly

Discurso del Presidente a la ONU

texto completo por la Presidencia

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EDITOR PICKS

POPULAR POSTS

POPULAR CATEGORY

Sevana – Tiny Desk (Home) Concert
https://youtu.be/LMQp9x3hkMc

Gondwana en vivo en Buenos Aires
https://youtu.be/lJ_3Ze0qfN4

Steel Pulse Live at Rototom Sunsplash 2017
https://youtu.be/Q0__YRd8ivw

Séptima Raíz concierto en TRAMA 2018
https://youtu.be/GAz4ekdBlXc

Roots Daughters
https://youtu.be/czeKu4bx8WY

Sly & Robbie et al at @ The Buttermarket Jazz and Roots Club
https://youtu.be/7U4nm0Vvcz8

Koffee at Rockpalast 2019
https://youtu.be/PfoThkrTUTc

These announcements are interactive. Click on them for more information.
Estos anuncios son interactivos. Toque en ellos para seguir a las páginas de web.

a Panama-centric selection of other people’s work
una selección Panamá-céntrica de las obras de otras personas

These announcements are interactive. Click on them for more information.
Estos anuncios son interactivos. Toque en ellos para seguir a las páginas de web.

Panama’s Luci & the Soul Brokers, a few years ago in Italy.
Luci & the Soul Brokers de Panamá, desde hasta unos pocos años en Italia.

It translates to “alma” but everyone knows soul
Se traduce como “alma”, pero todos conocen soul

Mama Saturn’s Virtual Concert
https://youtu.be/i2XUrySbdUE

Temptations – Just My Imagination
https://youtu.be/M5Z9-QCmZyw

Luci & The Soul Brokers – Surprise
https://youtu.be/baDYjoCQ-Ek

Lila Iké – Tiny Desk (Home) Concert
https://youtu.be/mbPa0QH_zxA

Four Tops – Are You Man Enough?
https://youtu.be/faaxsHyyIzY

Adele Live Full Concert 2020
https://youtu.be/fSOT7mYZ6Cs

The Soul Fantastics – Ven a mi
https://youtu.be/Z4hNSO_8f_w

Chaka Khan at Pori Jazz 2002
https://youtu.be/JmyR84zqb0o

Joan Osborne – What Becomes of the Broken Hearted
https://youtu.be/gA0GcXV2njY

Celeste & Paul Weller – You Do Something To Me
https://youtu.be/lUPsKZfuXi8

Stevie Wonder at Glastonbury 2010
https://youtu.be/Dl5j18zyVTM

These announcements are interactive. Click on them for more information.
Estos anuncios son interactivos. Toque en ellos para seguir a las páginas de web.

These announcements are interactive. Click on them for more information.
Estos anuncios son interactivos. Toque en ellos para seguir a las páginas de web.