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Passing through...
According to the government, more foreign visitors are doing that these days. It's one bright sign in a generally awful economic picture.
I took the photo shown above while headed to Barro Colorado Island on one of the Smithsonian's launches. It was mostly full of Smithsonian employees and supplies for those who eat and sleep on the island. There were a few tourists on the way out, and a professor and group of students from Union College in Schenectady, New York on the return trip. Aspects of my trip to Barro Colorado are featured in the Outdoors and Science sections.
My reporting for this issue was in large part done by attending a series of academic lectures --- science talks at the Smithsonian, and Miguel Antonio Bernal's presentation at one of the Monday night literary cafes at ExcedraBooks. Excedra is without question Panama's best bookstore these days, with a nice little English section too. Another source of English-language books, the British Aid Society's used book store in Gamboa, is noted in our Community section.
I have also been working with the buttons that are found at the top of certain pages, particularly augmenting those in our Spanish-language sections. One of the reasons that I have added some of the links that I have is that the war next door in Colombia is heating up. It affects Panama, and thus it would seem that many of you who read Spanish would be interested in links that get you to the full range of opinions about the subject, including the websites of all the major combatant forces.
A lot has been happening on the Panamanian cultural scene of late, and in this issue coincidence has it that there are Cuban angles to four features. I review a Cuban restaurant, Bolero, in the Dining section. The people who put on the Cine Universitario, GECU, are celebrating an anniversary with a presentation of Cuban art on campus. And then, noted in both the Spanish section and the English-language Arts pages, a Costa Rican theatre troupe is coming to town to put on a one-man show featuring an Argentine actor's Spanish-language interpretation of Ernest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea." That classic story, of course, is set in Cuban waters.
Politics have mostly been more of the same lately, but the important story is the recent PRD convention, at which Martín Torrijos demonstrated that he has much better control over the party than seemed the case a few months ago. Many things can happen in 21 months, but at this point it looks like the 2004 presidential election will make Martín the next president, unless he blunders badly between now and then. (I'm not making any endorsements, but I sure wish that the leading presidential candidates, Martín Torrijos and Alberto Vallarino, had more substantial experience in public office. If the Arnulfistas run a member of Mireya's cabinet to make it a three-candidate race, however, that person will have the kind of experience that will make me vote for somebody else.)
Our Business section this time features a couple of little photo features about educational issues. Why the business section? Because few things are more relevant to Panama's business climate than the education of our labor force, present and future.
Education has also played prominently on the political scene, with President Moscoso's special legislative session to consider educational reforms predictably failing. Quite frankly, I don't think that she was the least bit serious about improving Panamanian education. The reforms she wanted were mostly cosmetic, and the special sesson's scheduling was conveniently timed in a way that puts off investigations of legislative bribery scandals until next year.
The Legislative Assembly session featured some sharp exchanges between Education Minister Doris Rosas de Mata on the one hand and a Partido Popular deputy and her suplente on the other. I'm not about to go out and join the former Christian Democrats, but I do think that Teresita de Arias and Aníbal Culiolis said some unpleasant things that needed to be said.
And meanwhile, the kids from Artes y Oficios have been engaged in rumbles with their counterparts from other Panama City high schools. Nothing new about that, but the situation at that particular school has become so ridiculous that the odds are good that the Ministry of Education will carry out threats made in the past close it or move it out to San Miguelito after this Panamanian school year ends in December.
It's back-to-school time in the United States and at some of Panama's English-language schools, but, as you might notice from looking at this issue's logos, it's time for a little breather for The Panama News. We publish on the second and fourth complete weekend (one with a Friday) of each month, and since August has five Fridays that means that there will be a three-week interval before the next issue, rather than the more usual two-week gap.
Eric Jackson
the editor
