Your orchid flowers are males and your orchid plant is Catasetum viridiflavum. The female flowers are rather different --- green and somewhat hooded. All plants start off at around 2-4 years producing male flowers. As they get older,and bigger, the strongest plants begin to produce female flowers. The fruit is heavy and so the structure to hold it for many months is stout and the cost is high to the plant. For these and other reasons, there are many more plants with male flowers. It is a moderately common species throughout the Republic of Panama.

Sincerely yours,

Dr. Neal G. Smith
Staff Scientist Emeritus
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

First let me say I was born in Panama many moons ago. In fact I was born in el Hospital de Panama. So you know I go way back. I have always admired the beauty found in the tropical orchids of Panama. No, this is not the orchid which is often referred to as the "El Espiritu Santo" which blooms during the Easter season in Panama.

But it is a real beauty! My first thought was it is a "Butterfly Orchid." Guess what: that is the common name for the Encyclia Fragrans. There are about 240 species of the Encyclia.

My source can be found at: http://www. orchidlady.com/encyclopedia/e.html .

Check it out. See if you see the Encyclia Fragrans (Butterfly) Orchid in the mystery orchid of The Panama News.

Have a great day. God bless you and yours.

Sincerely,

Louis (Luis) Barbier

It looks like an Epidendrum (Encyclia), perhaps an alba form of cochleata or a subspecies of it. Is there any smell to it? They may well be abundant, but probably less so than in the past and more so than they will be in the future.

Rod

Just curious to know if any of the Harris ex-employees had signed the letter that you published in your last issue. I was wondering if they had included their cedula numbers since most of the information provided is incorrect. It is true that monies are due as part of a severance package that has not been paid. With business as bad as it is, the payments will be made in the near future. I am also curious to know if you have entered into any business agreement with David Marchant, the publisher of Offshore Alert. Mr. Marchant has been a key player in the often false or misleading reports on Marc Harris and his organization that have appeared in the local media. He has been accused of working as a paid informant for American federal agencies; activities that explain how he obtains some of the information that he uses in his publication. He has also been accused of applying pressure and publishing biased stories as part of the scare tactics he routinely employs against individuals and corporations not willing to toe his editorial line.

saludos,

Cabal

My wife is from The Republic of Maldives, supposedly a democratic country.

However, it is necessary to mention here that it does not allow the existence of any other political party except for the ruling party. You might be aware of many torture cases and human rights violations that take place in Maldives by its government. Amnesty International is aware of most of the political cases. However, to no avail. Recently, my wife’s family has been affected by the government's such unjust policies. They arrested my father-in- law Mohamad Zaki, on the 30th of January 2002 for allegedly being involved in an electronic newsletter called "Sandhaanu," which criticizes the Maldivian government’s policies and brings to light their misdemeanor.

He was arrested without a warrant and was taken to prison in Male. In addition he was denied the right to a lawyer to defend himself and imprisoned without a charge. He was brought to court from prison and charged for the first time on the 29th of May 2002. The charge was for causing hatred in the Maldivian people’s mind towards the government. Again he was taken back to the prison and brought to court a second time on the 26th of June and this time charged with trying to assassinate the president’s character along with his ministers’. Both these times, he was not allowed a right to a defense lawyer and was not even informed that he was being taken to the court. He only found out when he saw the court building himself! Finally, on the 7th of July 2002, he was brought to the Criminal Court and charged with life imprisonment.

In 1989 during the election for Male’s Member of Parliament one man, Dr. Waheed --- (Now head of UNICEF Asia) dared to contend for the seat. He was competing against President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s brother- in-law Ilyas Ibrahim, who was also the defense minister at the time. Dr. Waheed is married to my father-in-law’s cousin and therefore he supported and helped to campaign for Dr. Waheed, who won the election by a majority vote. This deeply upset the president as he had always maintained his relatives and close friends as his ministers and members of Parliament. Thus, he wanted to arrest all the people involved in campaigning for Dr. Waheed and arrested a lot of people. Luckily my father-in-law managed to escape before they could reach him. Soon after, the whole family joined him and settled in Malaysia in 1990 and has been living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia since then. The Maldivian Government cancelled his passport and he was unable to travel for almost two years. After many letters of appeals, the president decided to forgive him as presidential elections were drawing near and he wanted to show people his forgiving character.

My father-in-law is a prominent businessman in Maldives and has his shipping and trade business in Malaysia as well. He holds permanent residency in Malaysia. It was during one of his business trips to the Maldives when they arrested him. While he was at his residence, it was raided by armed police officers that did not have any warrant for search or arrest. They took away his computer and also searched his working premises and the computers there. No explanation was given as to why he was being arrested.

Simultaneously, Malaysian Interpol officers raided his office in Malaysia, and arrested his 18- year-old son Mazeen Mohamad Zaki without any warrant. Mazeen was on the Internet at that time. In addition, they also took away his computer in the office and took his son to the police station before bringing him home (in Kuala Lumpur) with them. When the officers came home with my brother-in-law, they informed the family that he was under arrest. Then the officers searched the house again without any warrant.

There were about eight or more officers who had come in three different cars. The rest of the family members were told to co-operate or else face certain consequences. When they questioned as to why they had arrested Mazeen, their reply was that they were ordered to arrest whoever was on the computer! They searched the whole house and took a personal computer and a laptop, which they only returned on the 16th of August and that too without certain hard wares.

The family was told that their orders had come right from the 'top' and that they were co-operating with the Maldivian government's request. In addition, that it was something to do with my father-in-law and also that they would be taking my brother-in-law to the lock-up but that he would be treated well. They took him that evening and locked him up with the drug users, where he was only allowed to wear his underpants and had to sleep on the concrete floor. Moreover one guy was beaten in front of him.

The next day, the family contacted their lawyer and found out that Mazeen had been arrested under Malaysian law section 125 that deals with conspiracy to kill the king! That was a major shock as they were not even aware who the new Malaysian king was! That morning they transfered him to the Police Head Quarters (Bukit Aman), Kuala Lumpur for questioning. There he happened to see two Maldivian police officers. Finally, after intensive questioning and discovering that he can't even read his own language, Dhivehi (Maldivian language), they released him on police bail at around 4:30 p.m.

This incidence has severely affected him psychologically, especially in his studies.

Consequently, we have found out that my father-in-law Mohamad Zaki had been arrested over an electronic newsletter called "Sandhaanu" that had been circulating through the Internet. This particular monthly newsletter criticizes various government policies and highlights many torture cases. At this point I would like to stress that this newsletter was only distributed through the Internet and was never printed. In addition, it was only forwarded to those who requested to receive it and they had given their e-mail addresses willingly. Initially he was locked up in the prison in the capital, Male, and then they transferred him to the island Dhoonidhoo which is the main prison in Maldives. According to the law in Maldives, a person can’t be kept under arrest for more than 90 days without being charged. However, since he was brought to court and charged first only on the 29th of May, they kept him without a charge for nearly 120 days.

On the 27th of June, he was transferred to another island named Maafushi and was locked up in the prison there. In all three places, he had been under solitary confinement. The prison cell there was worse than the previous one as it was only the size of 4’ by 6’, and he had to sleep on the concrete floor. He was locked up in prison for more than five months, before being sentenced for life. After being sentenced, he was transferred to another cell in Maafushi prison. This place had been an old garment warehouse and now they have made three large cells out of it. In each cell there are about 100 prisoners. There is no ventilation and it is extremely hot in there. In addition, they are only given five liters of water daily for bathing, drinking and washing. In Maafushi Prison, there are different classes of prisons, starting from A - D block. According to the law in Maldives, prisoners who are sentenced for a long period are kept in Block A as it is in a better condition. However, my father-in-law has been locked up in Block C with all the drug addicts and thieves. Again they have to sleep on the hard concrete floor and drink tap water, which in Maldives is not safe unless boiled. His wife is allowed to spend a night with him once a month and the rest of the family is allowed to visit him only for an hour per month.

Our life has been deeply affected by this injustice inflicted upon us and my father-in-law’s business is severely affected due to this. In addition, my brother-in-laws can't even return to Maldives, for fear of being arrested.

They had also arrested Mohamad Zaki’s younger brother Ismail Zaki, under the same allegation and kept him in prison for 2 weeks and then under house arrest. However, they have released him since as they had found no evidence against him. However, they had withheld his passport and only returned it to him on the 7th of July 2002, after sentencing my father-in-law. His wife and kids had to suffer for more than five months for no reason.

Along with my father-in-law Mohamad Zaki, they had also arrested two other men who were sentenced for life along with him. The charges against them according to a document they were given after being charged are:

1. Insulting the president and his government;

2. Trying to overthrow the government by calling out to the people to come forward and fight;

3. Causing hatred in the people's minds towards the government by forming a newsletter called Sandhaanu;

4. Spreading false news; and

5. Forwarding this newsletter to others through e-mail.

Their names are Ibrahim Luthfee and Ahmad Didi (Ahamadhee). In addition, a woman named Fathimath Nisreen, 21 years of age, was arrested under the same allegations. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Her charges are as follows:

1. Writing false information in articles in Sandhaanu;

2. Expressing her dissatisfaction with the government's policies;

3. Trying to overthrow the government by calling out to the people to come forward and fight; and

4. Supporting the Sandhaanu originators.

All four prisoners were brought to court together on the three occasions. During the second time in court, Ibrahim Luthfee and Ahmad Didi confessed to being the only writers and originators for Sandhanu. They also said that they could prove everything that has been written in Sandhaanu while Mohamad Zaki confessed to only forwarding it to the e- mail addresses of people who had requested for it. He had also requested the right for a lawyer since he was not familiar with the law in Maldives. However he was denied as the judge told him that the court did not allow lawyers for those being charged. Inspite of only forwarding Sandhaanu, they have given the same life sentence to my father-in-law, which they have given to the other two. It is the same sentence they gave to the people who had attempted a coup in 1988 and killed several people.

Inspite of being sentenced for life, on the 9th of July 2002 they brought my father-in-law again to Male’ the capital of Maldives, for further questioning. This time however it was not regarding ‘Sandhaanu’, but they were inquiring about his ship named MV Mazeena which he had owned in 1995. They wanted to know who the captain of the ship then was and also about a cement shipment to Vietnam. We fear that they are trying to justify the life sentence by trying to find other avenues whereby they can further charge him with.

Amnesty International is looking into the matter. However we feel that more pressure should be put on the government of Maldives, from different human rights bodies, in order to seek justice.

So we appeal to you to please to look in to the matter and help us fight to release my father-in-law Mohamad Zaki and the others. They all have been arrested allegedly for the involvement in a non-published Internet newsletter, which exercised the freedom of speech.

Further information can be accessed on this website: http://www.maldivesculture .com .

Yours truly,

Wajid Mahmood
England

Since my wife is a long removed resident of Panama, she was born there but moved away about 25 years ago and I just love the place, it's a very beautiful country, but humid as hell.

I have put a link to your paper on my web site, (click the Panamanian flag) and it will take you to your site, it's mainly for the English-speaking people that go there. I hope you don't mind the link, if you do just tell me and I will remove it.

My brother in law is a lawyer there and he and his 2 daughters were here last month for 2 weeks and we saw that they had a nice time.

I visit your site about once a week to see what's going on there.

My mother in law gave us some land on the beach and and we have thought about trying to built a small home there so we will have a place to stay while we are there.

Thanks again for keeping me posted on what is going on there, even though I think the economy it's to good right now, I can only hope that it will get better. The URL to my site is http://webpages.char ter.net/buckley1 .

Please feel free to check it out and let me know what you think.

Sincerely,

Mark Buckley
Ft. Worth, Texas

(Editor's note: Mr. Buckley is quite welcome to put a link to The Panama News in his website, as is anybody else.)

I've enjoyed reading your on-line paper for some time now and have turned many of my friends who also vacation in Panama on to it. We all live in Florida, but visit there frequently. My fiance and I are planning to move to Panama City in the next few months, and open a business there. I was wondering if perhaps you might be able to help me with a small problem, or maybe refer to someone who can.

I wish to deposit funds in a Panamanian bank (all legal, I swear) but cannot find any resource on-line that shows what interest rates are being paid on CDs by the various banks there. If possible could you please tell me where I can get this information? Here in Tampa, the local newspapers publish a list of all the banks and their interest rates paid on CD's every week. Is there any way I can find out what banks in Panama City are paying other than making 100 International phone calls?

I would really appreciate any help you could provide, and even if you can't help me we'll all still look forward to reading your paper. Keep up the great work!

Jim Fry
Bellaire Beach, FL

(Editor's note: These days interest rates are pretty low everywhere, including in Panama. Beware that the guarantee of a much higher rate than the rest of the market offers is generally one of the hallmarks of a pyramid scheme. Several of Panama City's banks, including some of the most reputable international companies with Panama branches, have websites which either have this information or email addresses to which you can address your queries.)

Thank you for being the ONE source of honest news out of Panama!

John

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