Fear and loathing...

If the crisis that has gripped Panama since at least the latter part of 2000 is dissipating, it is doing so only very slowly. Most of the opinion polls show the president's popularity up a bit, but all of them show at least two-thirds of Panamanians giving her administration failing marks. Interest rate cuts in the United States have shifted some deposits, especially those of Latin American customers, from banks there to banks here. The Palestinian Intifada and the events of September 11 and their aftermath have completely collapsed tourism in the eastern Mediterranean, so cruise ships have been shifted and Panama will get more cruiser calls this season. There are faint glimmerings of a recovery in the advertising industry, though that may be just seasonal. Some of the government's emergency fund is now in play, so some otherwise desperately broke people have jobs cleaning the streets or beaches or otherwise performing small public works. And at Panama Week in Washington, DC, an event theoretically designed to promote Panama to North American business but for the most part a shopping trip for the privileged ones, the telecommunications sector is being promoted as one of this country's big success stories.

The popular judgment about the telecommunications industry does not dispute its profitability. However, businesses and individuals who disconnected their phones and cable TVs months ago and yet still get bills for services they haven't been receiving don't look on telecommunications companies through such rosy lenses. Nor do Internet users in Interior communities from which Cable & Wireless has made access to the net cost 15" per minute. Nor do the business leaders who this time last year warned that increased phone rates would be a disaster for the nation's business climate. One of the University of Panama student militants' favorite pastimes has been the destruction of pay phones. Popular discontent with the phone companies is now being fed by a publicity brawl between the existing companies, most notably BellSouth, and a hopeful newcomer, the Dominican Republic's TRICOM. Some of the reasons for the existence of the sign pictured above form the gist of our lead story in the Business section.

Meanwhile, in the News pages, we lead off with a brief item the Moscoso administration's new moves to suppress Panamanian flag clothing, the music of Ruben Blades, the art of baton twirling and a supposed "Asiatic" threat to our nation's symbols. Call that loathing. In the News section we also see an article by our frequent contributor Willy Carrera, a Peruvian journalist just returned from the United States, about the measures the Americans are taking in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Call that fear.

One symbol of the current national attitude - and of cuts in Panamanian television news budgets - is the oft-repeated video of plainclothes cops beating on protesters on the Trans-Isthmian Highway in front of the University of Panama. Some see it as a case of police brutality, some as an example of what the young maleantes had coming, and as an ex-lawyer I could see how those videos could be used to support either side of the question. Call this fear and loathing, and turn to the Opinion section for my take on it. The Opinion pages also include Harvey Wasserman's fear that US nuclear plants present choice targets for terrorism, Amnesty International's loathing of some of the methods allegedly used in the investigation of the September 11 attacks, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan's call for an uprising against the Taliban and the Committee to Protect Journalists' annual Freedom Awards.

Our Letters section includes more fear, but also hope, in a call by a coalition of Panamanian civic organizations for faxes, emails and letters supporting proposed legislation to ban the transit of nuclear materials through Panama. That cause has been greatly assisted by the public recognition that catastrophic terrorism is not just the stuff of which Panama-Colon express bus movies are made.

The jury's verdict is in on the main "Coiba Massacre" trial. Seven were convicted and five were acquitted for the beheadings of four inmates a few years ago. The attempt to throw Miguel Antonio Bernal into prison for faulting the inmates' police custodians in this affair is still pending. And what of the fact that one of the four slain inmates had finished serving his sentence months before? Our Attorney General is not concerned about the long-standing but still illegal practice of requiring prisoners to pay bribes to get out of custody when their sentences are over. He is, however, again whining about how unfair it is that Panama has juries. The Editorial this time is about the Panamanian jury system and positive changes that could be made to it.

Our Community section is brief, and about a matter that will be up to the jury of public usage - will Balboa's El Prado still be called that, or will its re-naming after a Panamanian politician catch on? On the Arts page, Janet Levi tells of the American Society's authors' night, and over in the Science section we ponder the miseries of elephant grass. As you may notice in our Calendar and Sports sections, we have interesting events, including a professional baseball season which will bring major leaguers to Panamanian ball fields and a big Ruben Blades concert to the racetrack, coming up in the next few weeks. It will be a fun time to be a reporter.

That is, assuming that The Panama News survives these difficult times. We are extremely hand-to-mouth at the moment. There are a couple of things that you can do to help. One is to buy one or more copies of my illustrated book, "Nine Degrees North," for $25 apiece (which includes postage). It's one way to give Panama as a Christmas present in this time when so many people hesitate to travel abroad. The other thing you can do is make a donation to the cause of independent English-language journalism in Panama. In either case, you do that by sending your checks to:

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

I thank you for any support that you may be willing to give, and those of you who have already helped out know who you are, and should know that your generosity is deeply appreciated.