A great adventure
begins with heavy lifting

So it was with the Ocean-to-Ocean Cayuco Race (which is covered in our sports section), and so it is with The Panama News. The economic crisis is obliging us to move out of our office during the course of this month, which is proceeding a little bit at a time.

Our financial woes also mean that we will be publishing online only for at least several issues. It's a shame that this issue will not see the light of day on newsprint, because it's one of our better ones.

The lead story in our news section is short and abstract, but very likely to be picked up by other Panamanian media and, judging from a call I received, at least one of the international wire services. The Pentagon is looking for a civilian contractor to conduct military troop and supply flights for Plan Colombia, using Panama as a base. That implies deceptions of the Panamanian and American people, which our editorial and Cynthia McKinney's note to Colin Powell (in the opinion section) respectively address.

We have a lot in the business section this time. Willy Carrera leads off with his coverage of a Peruvian congressional committee coming here in search of Fujimori's and Montesinos's alleged ill-gotten millions, which they believe were laundered through Panamanian banks. We have an outline of the possible immigration visas for those non-citizens looking to live in Panama. (But remember, if you or one of your parents were born down here, whether in the old Canal Zone or elsewhere in the Republic of Panama, you are a citizen if you want to be.) I also cover a recent World Bank meeting about rural development strategies, which was held at the City of Knowledge (the former Fort Clayton).

Our arts and review sections are also full this time. The former leads with a graphic presentation of Janet Levi's batea art, while the lead item in the latter is about this beautiful pamphlet on Ngobe arts and crafts that has been published with the help of the German government and the European Union.

Foreign aid also plays into the story in our science section, wherein I cover the US Department of Agriculture program that, in cooperation with Panama's Ministerio de Desarrollo Agropecuario, has nearly eliminated the screwworm from this country. All of Panama's cattle ranchers have reason to be grateful, as do the nation's dogs and cats.

Sparky the Wonder Dog holds forth as usual in our fun section, while over in the editorial section, Mireya's mystery chopper communes with the fishes. In the letters section, a government minister threatens to have me thrown in jail (yawn).

The Moscoso administration has criminal charges pending against one-third of all Panamanian journalists, myself included. It would be easy to chalk this up to the influence that Mussolini had on her late husband, Dr. Arnulfo Arias, but that's not all there is to it. Peruse our news and business briefs, and you will notice inidications of a crime wave in official places. Mireya says that it's because all of the news media, without exception, are "morbid." I say that it's because she has surrounded herself with crooks, many from the same families.

How bad is it? It has come to the point that the US Coast Guard is delaying Panama-flag ships in order to inspect their crews' credentials, as it is now known throughout the maritime world that officials of the Moscoso administration have been selling certificates to unqualified people, including permits that allow people who have never been to sea to take the helm of supertankers. It's a terrible blow to one of Panama's key industries, but Mireya has seen fit to fire neither her maritime authority director nor her ambassador to the Philippines, who was in charge of the Manila offices where these bogus seamen's papers were sold.

How bad is it? Mireya herself has begun to use the "r-word." As in, when mysterious and illegally obtained tapes of her phone calls circulated around the country, her response is that she will not be forced to resign. Former President Guillermo Endara raised the subject a few days earlier, when he said that if President Moscoso is forced to resign, the "mafia" that surrounds her will look benign compared to the "mafia" that will surround First Vice-President Vallarino.

And meanwhile, The Panama News is by no means the only small business in distress here, but like most Panamanians, we are cutting back and working hard to survive until the inevitable better times arrive.

Eric Jackson
Editor