That's what the congo dancers in our cover photo were doing when their image was preserved at this year's Antillean Fair, which was a great success. (Look at our Review, Arts and Dining Out sections for photos from this year's fair, which took place the Saturday and Sunday of Carnival.) Carnival itself, which was devastated last year by the hantavirus quarantine in the Interior, saw bigger crowds than in the past few years, though the revelers tended to have less to spend this year. Count Carnival 2001 as a glimmer of hope for the nation's ailing economy, and a shining example of Panamanian culture at its best.

After the party, grim realities resumed their strangle hold on the Panamanian political scene, to the consternation of so many good people who are caught up in it.

National transportation director Carlos Harris, who still has a job after his strenuous but unsuccessful effort to protect a stolen car racket that was operating in the automobile registration system he oversees, is now complaining of persecution because prosecutors raided his offices to gather evidence of another racket, the "irregular" issuance of taxi permits.

Dr. Alvaro Antadillas, a presidential advisor who for the past few months has been trying to have me jailed for an article that didn't mention him or his business, but which he found a threat to his continued near-monopoly over US-subsidized kidney dialysis treatment for pre-treaty Panamanian canal retirees, turned up at a Panama Maritime Authority meeting, along with the authority's administrator Jerry Salazar and board of directors, Canal Affairs Minister Ricardo Martinelli, presidential advisor George Weeden and the heads of Panama's Customs, presidential guard and National Security Council. At this meeting an overpriced, no-bid contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the costs of which were to have been passed on to Colon Free Zone merchants, was approved.

Salazar was also forced to back down on his denials about the sale of Panamanian seamen's credentials, after an international maritime labor leader bought a first mate's certificate without showing any credentials and went very public about it.

Comptroller General Alvin Weeden was at best caught by El Panama America taking advantage of a government-funded roadwork crew's presence in the area to have them do some work on his own private farm.

The helicopter that went down from the presidential entourage turns out to have been owned by a shadowy Colombian businessman with ties to Mireya's family, and it turns out to have been flying illegally, with Panamanian markings but without being registered with Panama's Civil Aviation Authority. And on and on….

But meanwhile, Arnulfista legislator Gloria Young, who pays great attention to cultural affairs, was the grand marshal at the Antillean Fair.

Panama City's PRD mayor, having been separated by economic hardships and presidential decree from a starring role in organizing the city's Carnival, said nothing at all about it but oversaw the best clean-up effort that we have seen in many years.

While so many other politicians hurl accusations, assume ridiculous postures or get caught with their hands in the cookie jar, Arnulfista legislator José Blandón is holding a series of meetings to gauge public attitudes about possible tax reforms.

While inexplicable enrichment by public officials is the order of the day, the PRD and Christian Democrat alliance in charge of the Legislative Assembly has pushed through legislation making this a crime, a move that puts Panama into compliance with a part of the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption that we signed and ratified a few years ago.

So with the economy moving sluggishly if at all, Panamanians took time out to party and are now making do. At our best we're cooperating with one another when we could be tearing each other down. At our worst, there are plenty of predators lurking in our midst.

Some of the predators are on the run. See, for example, the latest move by offshore finance hustler Marc Harris reported in our Business section, along with the complete texts of a couple of his recent press releases.

But meanwhile, there's a move afoot to put a stop to La Prensa's reporting about Marc Harris and the protection that Harris has received from Christian Democrat hack and Attorney General José Antonio Sossa. The big showdown will be at a March 22 stockholders' meeting. In solidarity with the guy who's trying to take over La Prensa, his cousin who's in management at El Panama America fired Rafael Pérez Jaramillo, the best reporter on their staff, for publishing an online account of La Prensa's firing of editor Gustavo Gorriti. Gadfly law professor and activist Miguel Antonio Bernal has been thrown off the radio again, this time when somebody offered a lot of money to RCM radio to take him off the air. Alvin Weeden, miffed at being caught in some unseemly business on the front page of El Panama America, is now threatening to investigate the legitimacy of that paper's ownership by the heirs of its founder, the late President Harmodio Arias.

So what is there to do? I'd suggest a look at our Fun section, where clicking on the right buttons will link you to selections of comic strips, editorial cartoons and crossword puzzles from around the English-speaking world. A visit with Dilbert (USA), Trevor (Australia), Martyn Turner (Ireland), Gado (Kenya), or to Private Eye's (UK) or the Japan Times's funnies will put you in the right mood. If you need to brush up on your Caribbean English during your attitude adjustment, you'll want to click onto the Trinidad Express's "Comic Relief." And of course, on your way to any of these links you will encounter our own Sparky the Wonder Dog.

Yes, times are difficult for most of Panama, including The Panama News. All this implies hard work and sacrifice, but it's not an excuse to banish fun from our lives. Ignorance we can do without, but we all need a little bliss in our lives.

Eric Jackson

 

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