letters

Thank you for posting the note on the APEDE forum on ethics and corruption at http://www.thepanamanews.com/pn/v_09/issue_06/business_01. html. It is important to give coverage to activities by those opposing, rather than promoting, corruption for a change.

Regarding the information at http://www.thepanamanews.com/pn/v_09/issue_06/business_02. html on the 20-year property tax exemption on improvements, the 2002 Tax Code changes reduced it to 15 years for residential improvements under $100,000 and 15-5 for those of higher value. Commercial improvements exemptions have been reduced to 10 years for improvements under $100,000 and 5 years for others. Unfortunately, the reduction did not save the Casino building.

Alvaro Aguilar

Today, we are laughing at the Daily News editorial as they attempt to convince their readers that the private industry sector will operate in the best interest of all Virgin Islanders. The government must control tourism.

Tourism consultants and marketing professionals have advised against exporting and supporting West Indian culture in the Virgin Island in favor of tourist traps, because the Hotel Association has no West Indian culture. The culture of the private sector is of the Continental United States, not the Virgin Islands. When we travel it is to experience the culture of the native people. What do the people eat, drink and wear? What kind of music and art do the people create and what is it inspired by? How many people are there and what religions do they practice? What is the history of the people?

In the Virgin Islands we now have "chili cook-offs," instead of roasting the goat, because the marketing and tourism consultants can't profit from the export and support of West Indian culture. Goats are cheap. The government is of the native people and the private sector is for colonial rule and the continued domination of the tourism industry in the Virgin Islands.

The development and exportation of Virgin Island and West Indian history and culture will create business opportunities for natives and West Indians, not Continentals and that is why the Virgin Islands Daily News does not support the formation of the V.I. Tourism Authority, encouraged by the V.I. government.

The private sector which is dominated by United States Continentals who have relocated to the Virgin Islands, provides low paying service industry jobs for native Virgin Islanders and West Indians. The development of a tourism authority would create a level playing field where native Virgin Islanders and West Indians could be the new primary beneficiaries of tourism.

The Virgin Islands Daily News editorial seeks to protect the status of the ruling private sector because they say they have more invested. A financial investment will never outweigh a blood investment. Money will never weigh as much as blood, sweat and tears. Travelers will always seek the culture which is like buried treasure in the Virgin Islands and tourism consultants know this.

What does a Shakespeare play say about lawyers? Tourism and marketing consultants with no cultural or historical clues should be shackled to those lawyers in the same way African Slaves were, on the cruise to the Virgin Islands.

Nanci Prince

(Committed to freedom for life, addicted to justice one word at a time. My husband is still a citizen of Panama and his family is still there.)

SARS. Sounds like a new TOP secret US space missile weapons program. In this post-9/11 world we all live in the threat from war and terrorism as its various appendages loom broodingly on each one of us both American and world citizens alike. There exists a prevailing sense of fear and apprehension that no doubt will continue as the war in Iraq rages on and casualties pile up on both sides. Anthrax,and chemical agents add to the possibilities that could pose a threat. Unfortunately amongst all this angst there is a new enemy, and it's called SARS. In some ways this new enemy is more daunting than any other. It does not raise arms. It doesn't have a political agenda. But what it will do if you get it is... well... kill you!! To date this new and horrific virus is not only sweeping Asia and parts of Europe but the Americas as well taking its toll among young and old alike! Largely due to the facility of modern travel many ailments are fast becoming pandemics. (Mad Cow disease, even AIDS was first transported through travel.) The question is, what to do about an entirely new and exceptionally fatal strain of virus that has never dwelled in the human strata before? The answer is obvious. Kill it! But how? Due to the indiscriminate use of antibiotics on a global scale many deviant strains of viruses have obviously mutated and now fall under the category of "Superbugs!" These strains of viruses have actually adapted to not only avoid dying from a particular antibiotic but more... they may even thrive on that very antibiotic! The war on these superbugs may be in fact more important to the survival of the human race than any war ever waged through history!

What's so special about SARS? Well, for one SARS is alive and for the time being well and kicking! What that means for the rest of us is that the threat of contracting this communicable disease that has the capability of not only making you suffer horrendously but as we now know could lead to certain death (there is now no antibiotic) is real.

So what to do? In a real combat situation job number one is to clearly identify the enemy. The enemy is physical, dimensional and (usually) visible in some way. Second, with expert intelligence, well-planned logistics, and a little luck, a battle may be won. But what about waging war with an enemy that is microscopic? What if that enemy could somehow evade all the latest technological advances in military learning and maneuvering and still attack and deal a lethal blow!? If you think Osama and Saddam are evasive then get ready for SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). This previously unknown virus is making its way around the globe at such an alarming rate that it is leaving world health care takers out of breath. In Hong Kong (where it came from) people everywhere are donning full disease prevention regalia, face masks, latex gloves, etc., along with almost pharisaical hand-washing rituals. In Toronto, (Canada's largest city) five hospitals are now effectively closed, all elective surgery postponed and some 80 doctors and countless nurses and health-care workers quarantined for at least 10 days. Two weeks ago health officials in Canada were stating that quarantining for 10 days was sufficient to stop the spread of this virus but as recently as two days ago the increasing incidence of deaths and new infections have given rise to the new theory that this virus may have a much longer incubation period, up to 14 days or more. What's most frightening of all is that no one, including Health officials know for sure just what and how much of a lethal threat this new bug really is and what this will all turn out to on a global scale if drastic and costly measures are not carried out immediately to slow down its progress. SARS brings on flu-like symptoms, which makes this bug ever more dangerous.

That proverbial guy in the elevator just happens to sneeze and what do you do? Apparently many of these types of viruses are transmitted by touch, (SARS apparently can live for up to at least two hours on an inanimate object) so officials are urging citizens to wash their hands frequently with a good disinfectant on a regular basis as a first offense to win the war with this virus. We as North Americans are just coming into our own when it comes to communicable and infectious diseases. Panamanians on the other hand have for centuries been tragically painfully aware of all kinds of strange and inexplicable strains of viral and bacterial assaults. During the great construction of the canal, for instance, so many men died from malaria that the preliminary contractor of the project went broke until American assistance aided the second attempt. Still today just try to take a stroll into the jungle by yourself and see how comfortable you'd feel without your DEET.

Tom Reinmueller
Toronto, Canada

The US is eager to keep Saddam Hussein's billions out of the mitts of globalist European bureaucrats and instead put it in the hands of Iraq's new government. Saddam's fortune is estimated at some $8-10 BILLION.

As it turns out, some of Saddam's stolen cash was funneled into a front company that owns --- YOU GUESSED IT --- a hefty chunk of one of FRANCE'S largest media companies.

American officials hope a tribunal will stave off court battles in dozens of countries to fork over Saddam's accounts, funded by smuggling of oil and cigarettes, Business Week magazine reports.

Name withheld
Colon

I have just visited your site to learn more about Panama and felt I had to reply to your interesting point in your editorial about the US POW and the publishing of photos. Here's a serious suggestion -- - publish a picture of an innocent Iraqi child mutilated or killed by war --- or a family wiped out by the US instead. It seems these are not regarded as human beings by the nations that support imperialism and they never get the front page coverage that a US murderer does. That would be real journalism. I just saw some TV coverage where they briefly mentioned in passing that thousands of Iraqis to date had been slaughtered (my word of course --- but absolutely accurate) by overwhelming fire power but showed lots of footage of a US serviceman with a small cut on his hand. Poor thing! To me that says something quite sickening about whose lives are more important here.

Name withheld

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