Keepers of the flame

The Panama Canal runs in Spanish now, the Canal Zone is long gone and, despite the presence in Panama of a number of civilian contractors hired to do traditionally military jobs with respect to Plan Colombia, so are the US bases. English is no longer compulsory for any significant part of Panamanian society, which is something that couldn't be truthfully said 30 years ago.

However, most of the Panamanian middle class wants their kids to learn English, and English-language education is a thriving business here. This is the Crossroads of the World, and English is the principal world business language.

The women pictured above, mainly for their love of the language and its associated cultures, are engaged in the work of promoting excellence in Panamanian English. They are Anona Kirkland (seated) and, left to right, Marlene Alexander, Lynn Kane de Marenco, Emily Zhukov, Joan Manfredo and Pat Alvarado, and the photo was taken at the awards ceremony for the Natonal League of American Penwomen's Anona Kirkland Writing Contest. Marlene won third place in the competition, Lynn came in first, Emily is the Penwomen's publicity director, Joan is the group's treasurer and Pat is its president. Regular fans of The Panama News will recognize Lynn as the proofreader for our print editions and Emily and Pat as frequent contributors to our paper. Those of us who are old enough will recognize Anona Kirkland as the creator of the old Star & Herald's women's page.

The Star & Herald had a long run — more than a century — before it folded in the mid-80s. Along with the Panama American, George Westerman's Panama Tribune, the newspaper that the young Marcus Garvey published in Colon and several more obscure periodicals, it is part of the proud tradition of English-language journalism on the isthmus.

That flame is flickering in the unseasonably cold winds of an economic crisis at the moment. As I write these words, The Panama News office on Via Argentina is mostly dismantled. I'm taking the main production computer and moving in with relatives until times get better, most of our office furniture is being put into storage, and we are about to move into a far more modest office in Perejil, renting space from the Girl Scouts, which hard times previously forced the Soroptimists to abandon. The change of neighborhoods will force us to change our phone and fax numbers in the next week, and ultimately our email address too. (Now and after the change, however, you will be able to contact me by email at editor@thepanamanews.com.)

As dire as Panama's economic crisis is, and as ruinous as our inability to pay for the printing of the hard copy whose ads bring in most of our income has been, I expect that The Panama News will get back into print and onto the road to prosperity within a few months. We have already slashed our costs in a most dramatic fashion and hunkered down for further hard times. While we're out of print, we will be adding interesting new features to the website and growing the book publishing end of our business.

A series of fundraisers is in the works — consider this one of them, and send your generous contributions toward the cause of keeping The Panama News alive to:

The Panama News
Apartado 55-0927 Estafeta Paitilla
Panama, Republic of Panama

We hope that all of these moves will in short order make it possible for us to seek new investment with a clean conscience, without trying to con people into pouring money into a bottomless hole, and without accepting offers from politicians who would turn us into just another ethics-free partisan rag.

Meanwhile, we have a good issue here. Our letters page contains much fallout from the last issue's news story and editorial about the Southern Command using Tocumen as a base for civilian contractors to fly personnel, helicopter parts, etc. into primitive airstrips in Colombia, plus correspondence on the recent Summit of the Americas and the Panamanian Ombudsman's appalling defense of repression against the press. The Quebec summit also figures prominently in our larger-than-usual opinion section. Freedom of the press looms large on the opinion pages too, with an especially important declaration by a group with whom I have my disagreements, the Sindicato de Periodistas de Panama.

Our arts and review sections are also full this time, with Lynn Kane de Marenco's winning story, and coverage of the contest that it won, to be found in the former.

It's that season of the year again, which means that in our sports section we have the statistics of an expanded Panamanian contingent — 10 athletes — who are playing major league baseball this year.

And then there are the news and business briefings that can be found in no other English-language publication. I sure wish that things weren't so grim, but we call them as we see them, and now we have government ministers belatedly admitting that Panama is in a "grave economic crisis." But this, too, shall pass, and we intend to be around to bring you the story when it does.