Letters to the Editor

In our country, much of the press is owned by foreigners with somewhat reactionary views, principally Rupert Murdoch and Conrad Black. These foreign owners are extremely powerful and the government is afraid of them. Murdoch has just announced that his four national newspapers will campaign against the government if it tries to introduce the common European currency. His campaign would very likely be victorious. This form of press power in non-British hands is quite worrying but still probably better than the alternative, which is restriction of press ownership to citizens of the country. Citizens are inherently more vulnerable than foreigners to the threats and oppressive acts of rulers. Governments are inherently the most powerful force in society and they be sometimes checked than that they should always be able to check others.

Meanwhile, I don't see how control of media content can work. If there are several channels on the television and people want to see American shows they will just switch between channels to get what they want and the local material will perish for lack of an audience. Can Panama not find a way to exploit its extremely colourful history through cinema or television --- perhaps a major romantic drama set in the era when the Canal was built?

First, I would like to congratulate you on your fine reporting on varied topics of interest out of Panama.

I writing with the hope that you could address a travesty which I believe could happen. I read a recent article concerning the Panama Legislative Assembly debating a proposal to rename the national stadium the "Rod Carew National Stadium." It is extremely difficult to comprehend the motivation behind some legislators' rejection stance on renaming the stadium. Most countries, especially smaller nations, would jump at the opportunity to have at least one person inducted to any Hall of Fame body. The arguments that some legislators are presenting are infantile at best. The fact is, Mr. Rod Carew is a Panamanian. It doesn't matter if he was born on the train, or that he was a Zonian, or that he left for the US at an early age. I do believe that Mr. Carew's accomplishments in baseball were achieved by his own individual efforts and sacrifices. Why is patriotism measured by how much a person contributes monetarily to causes or by giving personal hand outs. I have been living in the US for many years and recently returned from Panama, after living in Panama for the last five years, and did experience some sectors litmus test of Panamanian nationality. Patriotism comes in many forms, such as civic responsibility in safeguarding the environment, helping the needy, doing volunteer work, etc. It is easy for some Panamanians to sit and establish their definition of what it takes to be a Panamanian. Do they need to learn.

Sorry, that I am venting my frustration over a possible social injustice, but I am reaching hoping that you may be able to address, and possibly help in renaming the stadium the Rod Carew Statium.

June 25, 2002
Caracas, Venezuela

Dear Colleagues,

In recent days, your correspondent has spent a dozen hours in the presence of the democratically elected president of Venezuela, Hugo Chàvez. I have interviewed many key sources in the media (authentic and not), the elected government and in the popular barrios of Caracas, have photographed events and people, and have witnessed, first-hand, the historic collapse of the convocatory power of a corrupt commercial media that --- it is my pleasure and duty to inform you --- has failed in its attempt to instigate a second coup d'etat in Venezuela. Bravo. These are grand days and nights for our Amèrica.

That's the good news. You haven't been informed by the commercial media simulators of this immediate history, but I report it to you, exactly what has occured, as I have throughout this Spring and Summer 2002 and before and beyond.

So, why haven't you read this historic report on Narco News?

Here's the bad news: 48 hours ago, after I posted some photos and headlines to page one of www.narconews.com, the newsroom laptop --- your laptop --- ceased to function. It is now in the hands of top-shelf and trusted technicians who have diagnosed the problem as the intrusion of a "computer virus" infection that prevents the machine from "writing" to the hard drive (in lay terms: from starting). They also report that our files and archives are intact, but fixing this tool is proving difficult and slow.

This has caused me to realize some key weaknesses in our Narco News communications and defense systems. And so, from a cybercafe somewhere in a country called Amèrica, I must now appeal to you, kind reader, for your immediate assistance.

I have always been proud (perhaps too proud) that Narco News is a shoestring operation, without a bank account, without a credit card, that sells no product nor advertising. With the exception of our separate "Drug War on Trial" defense fund in 2001, we have never asked you, kind reader, for a dollar, nor a peso, nor a bolìvar. We still believe that the gift is superior to the exchange as an economic model in our world.

My own pride in this worthy principle, though, has right now left me somewhat incomunicado from Caracas at an historic moment that, had the people and leaders of Venezuela not solved their own challenges this week, could have proved devastating for all. I shutter to thing what this letter might have said if a second coup attempt had begun --- as the Christian Science Monitor and others disingenuously predicted last week --- during this "crisis of technology" for our authentic news gathering organization.

Even in this hour of good news, it is unacceptable that Narco News suffer even one minute of news blackout.

Therefore, it is time to re-arm the newsroom. (Translation: Send money.)

When Banamex-Citigroup (the largest financial power on earth!) tried to shut Narco News down, you responded rapidly to finance the defense and made our historic December 2001 victory possible.

Today, in what I truly hope will be a one-time-only emergency fund appeal, I ask you to help us modernize our authentic journalism arsenal. It is now clear: Narco News, the bilingual million-hit-a-month authentic media, can no longer operate on just a single laptop, nor without a credit card (to make emergency and instant replacement armaments available at times like this). We have some other technical needs too, in order to make us less vulnerable to "virus" or any other kind of attack as we march on.

Thus, and it pains me deeply to have to ask you for anything (I really don't ever want to have to do this again, because free speech ought to mean that you don't pay), I note that somewhere today in a country called Amèrica some Wile E. Coyote is laughing at us because, for only the second time since the year 2000, he has immobilized the Narco News Roadrunner.

However, if you, kind reader, respond rapidly --- beep! beep! --- we can smash this enemy instantly and send a loud message to every other aspiring censor out there: That every attack against us --- as Banamex, Citigroup and the inept lawyers at Akin-Gump-House-of-Saud learned the hard way --- will always make us stronger.

Please, stop for a moment whatever you are doing and take a few minutes to write a check to our emergency replacement laptop and infrastructure fund, by making your check out to:

...and let's make that feeble Wiley Coyote of censorship cry us a river, so that we, kind readers, will laugh and live to report again when we announce to the world the amount that a single one-time-only fund appeal can and has raised to keep Narco News reporting and make us immune to this type of virus attack in the future.

Because my mailbox at narconews@hotmail.com overflows daily, and I currently have less opportunity to clear it, our colleagues at salonchingon@hotmail.com have graciously agreed to receive your suggestions and counsel as to how to further guard and improve our ability to report to you the authentic news about the "war on drugs" and the behavior of the US government from Latin America. (NOTE: The junk mail filter on THAT mailbox is set to HIGH, which means anything other than direct and personal one-to-one email will not even be seen there, and these colleagues are brutal in blocking any email address forever even over one offense of placing it on any mailing list or sending anything that is not directly responsive to our inquiries. They tell me I'm too soft, and bless them for taking on the role of the ultras around here!) But they will gladly receive and process any suggestions, counsel or reports of contributions to our emergency infrastructure repair fund. (Thank you, Chingonistas!)

In sum: I need you, we need you, Narco News needs you, our communications infrastructure needs you, authentic journalism needs you, authentic democracy needs you, Venezuela needs you, Brazil and Bolivia and Colombia and Ecuador and Peru and Argentina and Mexico and all Amèrica needs you, Uncle Sam needs you to rescue him from the simulators who have kidnapped him!, even Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand need you to make sure the authentic news from Latin America is no longer effectively censored in the English-speaking world:

Make your check out please to:

Amendment 1 of the US Constititution says that "Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion". The Congress, in 1954, violated the Constitution by mandating that the phrase "under God" be inserted into the pledge of Allegiance. All elected senators and representatives swear to uphold the Constitution when they are sworn into office. If they don't remove this phrase from the pledge, they are violating their pledge and neglecting their duties, and should be removed from office. It doesn't matter whether or not you believe in God...this is a pluralistic country that respects all beliefs. Pray in silence, attend the church of your choice, but don't thrust your beliefs on others. I'll bet you didn't know that the original pledge of allegiance was written by a minister, who obviously didn't believe that it was necessary to mention his God, or any God, in the pledge. He obviously had a lot more sense than the Congress in 1954 or today...

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