The lead story of the 2002, good or bad depending on your point of view, has to be Mireya Moscoso's recovery from something approaching political irrelevance. Though there are univestigated allegations that bribes were paid to pull it off, her first big coup was this past January 9, when she split the PRD legislative caucus and won the assembly's approval of her Supreme Court nominees Winston Spadafora and Alberto Cigarruista. That gave the Arnulfistas a solid majority on the Supreme Court that will last all the way through the next president's term unless some sort of court-packing scheme is carried out, unforeseen vacancies happen or Panama gets a fundamental constitutional change. One of the PRD deputies who defected, Carlos Afú, alleged widespread bribery in the passage of the CEMIS multi-modal transport project in Colon --- an allegation that also remains uninvestigated, which in turn has put international financing for the project on hold --- and the acrimonious split in the PRD deepened, leading to Mireya's September 1 takeover of the Legislative Assembly. The legislature's public approval ratings went into free fall, while Mireya's public support climbed somewhat, though she remains unpopular.

By the end of the year the president was in a position to force things through --- like court decisions making her travel expenses a state secret, and an election law reform that will allow her to eliminate the Arnulfista presidential primary and hand-pick her party's 2004 nominee.

Meanwhile the Panamanian economy was more or less running on empty. It seems that in most sectors the free fall we say in 2000 and 2001 has ended, and in tourism the arrival of more cruise ships boosted the sector a bit. In Colon, Olivia Fallas held out at Barberia Frank, as she has since the 50s. In Panama City, the Templo Hosanna set up a little market that gave some folks in the community jobs, though not the sort that will finance a BMW.

For The Panama News, it was a year of increased readership and we even made an appearance in print at the beginning of May. Our ad sales more or less followed the increase in readership, but then double next-to-nothing still isn't very much, so we have not yet rebounded into profitability.

The Panama Canal's business was down just slightly, with increased cruise ship tourism taking some of the edge off of a global economic downturn that affected the countries that use the waterway.

China is one of the canal's main users, with its commerce to the Caribbean and the Atlantic coasts of both North and South America largely passing through here. Despite that Panama has no formal diplomatic ties with the mainland because we recognize Taiwan. This abnormal political situation did not prevent the Chinese from holding a trade expo at ATLAPA.

There has been quite a bit of land transport construction. Much of the old boundary between the Canal Zone townsites of Ancon and Balboa and Panama City has been torn up, with all sorts of overpasses and street widenings going in. Similar construction is underway at the Atlantic Side's Four Corners, and a factor in all of this is the completion of the Panama Canal Railroad. The modern new railway is hurting due to delays in the development at the Port of Balboa and the CEMIS project --- they're ready to start hauling containers on a truly massive scale, but the other parts of the multimodal system are being held up. Actually, it was PANAMA being held up by Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa, which by stopping work on the Port of Balboa's expansion extorted about $1 billion worth of tax and rent reductions out of the Moscoso administration. At the end of the year Mireya made up a small part of the revenue shortfall by extending the sales tax to many services, but the international bond rating services were still unimpressed with her adminsitration's fiscal policies.

Another road project, upon which construction hasn't started and which environmentalists are fighting tooth and nail, is Mireya's proposed road from Cerro Punta to Boquete, through this stretch of the Volcan Baru cloud forest. Picture a McDonalds golden arches in the scene above, if you can stand it.

The corruption scandals that popped up everywhere were a bit much, and brought protesters out onto the streets. However, no alternative to the status quo has taken hold of the public imagination, and the movement has been divided between a middle class alliance that the political parties have tried to shanghai (above) and a leftist alliance centered around the SUNTRACS construction workers' union (below) and the campus radicals. The leftists mobilized bigger crowds in their anti-corruption protests, but it was a relatively slow year for both the student militants and the labor unions.

The most notable stories on the labor scene were a series of defeats in Puerto Armuelles as Chiquita's subsidiaries plan to pull out, and a university strike that erupted in December and was still underway as this issue was uploaded. In Colon and Bocas del Toro, the unions were at the center of popular protests against unemployment, neglect and government ministers' insults, demonstrations that brought business activity in both Atlantic Side provinces to a halt several times during the year.

World events also reverberated on the streets of Panama, most notably in this pro-Palestinian demonstration that made its way from the University of Panama to the Israeli Embassy. The Israelis closed their embassy here shortly thereafter. The decision was not so much because many Panamanians view the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as a more violent version of the same phenomenon that was known as the Canal Zone. The costs of repression and international commercial shunning have trashed the Israeli economy and forced the government to cut spending by closing diplomatic missions.

The crowds were not as big as they should have been for Panama's principal sports triumph of the year, a soccer victory over Cuba, Guatemala and Mexico that earned the national under-20 team a spot in the March 2003 world championships in the United Arab Emirates. The unprecedented success reflected well on a prominent member of Panama's English-speaking community, coach Gary Stempel.

Tragedy also struck the Panamanian sports scene, when Pedro "Rockero" Alcazar died in a Las Vegas hotel after losing his WBO junior bantamweight title to Mexican Fernando Montiel. To the boxing extablishment's continuing shame, despite that fact that a post-fight CAT scan would have saved Alcazar's life there have been no changes in safety rules. To the Electoral Tribunal's continuing shame, though politicians flocked to be seen with Alcazar when he was champ, because the late pugilist was born in a remote Darien community where births weren't generally registered, certification that he was a Panamanian and that he was the father of his children has been withheld, which means that life insurance benefits have also been held up. Odds are that when all is said and done, most of the money will go to lawyers.

As usual, the cayuco racing season was an important sports scene not only in the English-speaking community that formed its original base, but with increasing Panamanian and international participation in 2002.

The English-speaking community's theatrical institution, the Theatre Guild of Ancon, had its problems in 2002 but put on several plays and staged readings that were well received, including this performance of "Laura," with leading characters Lara Petrosky and Domingo de Obaldia shown above.

This year the Legislative Assembly discovered that Panamanians are not as multilingual as is economically wise for The Crossroads of the World, and after an abortive attempt to make English the country's official second language, they passed a law mandating the more widespread teaching of English at all levels of our educational system. The money to do this is not in the budget, but meanwhile Panama's English teachers continue their work, both in the classrooms and at meetings of TESOL, the organization of Teachers of English as a Second Language. The above photo was taken at the Muchachas Guias (Girl Scouts) building, where TESOL has an office and holds its regular meetings.

On another English-language cultural front, the National League of American Pen Women, a group that brings together the community's female writers and artists, continued with readings and other activities. In 2003 the group will hold another of its writing contests, which will be open to men and women alike.

On a sweltering morning last May, Panama's English-speaking Masonic lodges came together at the American section of the Corozal Cemetery to bury the ashes of a number of late Masons who wanted to be laid to rest here.

The Panama Historical Society, which arose from the English-speaking community but now conducts some of its activities in Spanish, kept up a busy schedule that included this visit to pre-Columbian petroglyphs in Capira.

The British Aid Society, which was originally founded to serve indigent elderly members of the West Indian community, who first came here as British colonial subjects, continues to serve needy senior citizens in general and maintains this used bookstore in Gamboa.

The larger part of Panama's English-speaking community is composed of Panamanian citizens of Antillean descent, and as usual on the Saturday and Sunday of Carnival week they turned out in force at the Museo Afroantillano grounds for the annual West Indian Fair. If you are into fish cakes, souse, sweet buns, Jamaican-style curry, saril and other Caribbean delicacies, you ought to check out the food section at the 2003 event.

Panama's black community is not only of West Indian origin, and in Colon's coastal communities the "colonial black" cultural phenomena like diablitos and congo dancing are celebrated.

Ties between the Panamanian people and the United States remain strong, and add in the extra security concerns of a country that's at war with Al Qaeda and the sum is this long line for visas at the US Consulate in Panama City.

Panama's English-speaking community is almost entirely bilingual, and its English-language newspaper covers Spanish-speaking community groups, too --- like the Girl Scouts.

The Panama News also took in November's patriotic parades. The November 3, 2003 events will be special, because it will be Panamas' centennial as an independent republic.

These, then, are some of The Panama News photos from 2002. But of course, a lot of our original news coverage was not illustrated, and much of what we do is chronicling rather than reporting --- our Panama News Briefs and Business & Economy Briefs are mostly compiled from reports in other media (when only one medium, it's specifically identified) and quite often the most important stories are contained therein.

We try to be fair, and keep the opinions on the opinion and editorial pages. We do a better job of covering Panama and its English-speaking community when members of that community contribute their articles, photos, letters and opinions. We couldn't have brought you The Panama News in 2002 without the support of our advertisers and a relatively small group of people who have donated money, materials and labor toward the cause. You who have helped us know who you are, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Life goes on, for Panama and for this newspaper. The Panama News won't be the ONLY ones watching 2003 unfold on the isthmus --- but we write English a lot better than this ray at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's Galeta Island Laboratory.