Rain is a good thing for Panama. As in most places, there would be no sustainable agriculture without it, but it’s also the key to our principal industry, the Panama Canal. The locks work by gravity, with fresh water flowing out into the oceans from the Gatun, Miraflores and Madden lakes. It takes 52 million gallons to put just one ship through the canal, and droughts that deplete the canal’s watershed can become economic emergencies for the entire country.

Moreover, as someone who grew up on the rainier Atlantic side and then moved to the Detroit area when the Motown music scene was at its height, I actually like rainstorms.

The onset of rainy season has its implication for Panama’s important tourism industry. It’s also the end of the burning season, which can now be measured in various ways from outer space.

But then there’s the sense of “rainy day” that means “emergency.”

On the Friday afternoon when I was laying out this issue, I received two phone calls within 10 minutes of one another. One was from a prosecutor, who says she wants to talk to me about the arrears that The Panama News owes to the Social Security Fund. The other was from an attorney for the San Cristobal project, who says he wants to meet me about some unspecified business. The afternoon of Monday, May 12 will be dedicated to these unpleasantries.

The Panama News has, in an economic sense, been treading water since we ceased print publication in early 2001. At the time we were behind on our payments to Seguro Social, and though now there’s just me and a couple of very part-time workers at the low-rent office, the debt has been slowly accumulating. It’s approaching seven grand and something needs to be done about it to avoid the government shutting us down. Our predicament is like that of many other small businesses in Panama, which like us have battened down the hatches and are trying to ride out this country’s prolonged economic storm.

However, The Panama News is not like other businesses. We’re not a government-regulated non-profit charity, but in many respects we are service for the English-speaking community, and in its nearly nine years in business the paper has never made a profit. We pay the rent, get our pictures developed and buy time and space on the Internet by selling ads and books, and also through the donations we receive in our March and September fundraising appeals. Now, however, must undertake an extraordinary fundraising drive to raise the $7,000 or so that it will take to get the government off of our backs.

(And let me say that, as much as I criticize the Panamanian government, I don’t consider it a big injustice when they move to collect the money legitimately owed to it. If I could have paid I would have, but now it seems that I MUST pay, one way or another, or see The Panama News shut down.)

As to the other business, will San Cristobal’s lawyer make me a sweet offer, threaten me with dire consequences, serve me with papers or set me up for a bogus sting? I know not, but if anybody out there cares to observe, the encounter is set to take place on Monday May 12 at 5 p.m. in the cafeteria at the Hotel El Panama. It would be nice to have a few witnesses on hand in case the plan is to leave a briefcase at my feet or thrust an envelope into my hands and then have the detectives burst in to seize me and the marked bills.

I am not an extortionist, I don’t take bribes, I won’t be intimidated by hustlers and their lawyers, and if you want to read part two of Okke Ornstein’s story about San Cristobal, it’s in the Business section of this issue.

I have been accused by anonymous posters to Internet discussion groups of having links to some investment fund of which I had never heard before the charge was made, and with which I have nothing to do. What I have not heard from any of those who say that The Panama News has been unfair to San Cristobal’s Bocas noni/teak/real estate scheme in part one of the story is specifically in which regard. I will say, however, in the interest of fairness, that:

1. One of San Cristobal's principals, a Mr. Lennon, admitted in an email that he used false names to investigate and criticize Ornstein, but says it’s “ridiculous” to think that he’s the one who has taken out email addresses bearing Ornstein’s name, through which crazy and threatening emails have been sent over Ornstein’s forged name; and

2. The allegations of fraud and racketeering (RICO) made in the United States against Tom McMurrain were in the course of civil suits rather than criminal actions. The crime with which he was charged in Georgia was larceny by conversion, that is, taking something that wasn’t his, rather than fraud, which involves obtaining things by way of misrepresentations of past or present facts. And of course, neither a criminal charge nor a civil complaint, a police investigation or a newspaper story amount to guilt --- people should be considered innocent until proven guilty in court.

That said, I have received a number of phone calls and emails about the last issue, most of which were not meant for the Letters to the Editor section. One of our letters, however, is from someone who recounts his encounter with San Cristobal. One of the phone calls and a couple of the emails were from people who sell real estate and think that it’s important to report on the scamsters, lest they come to dominate the field and run the legitimate people out of business when the whole country’s reputation gets tainted by the actions of its worst elements.

I was asked why I report negative news about Panama and still tell people who are considering retiring down here that it’s a good idea. This country does have its wonderful attractions and opportunities, but there are also problems, some of them in the form of financial traps set by people who are not your friends. If you don’t want to be disillusioned about Panama, harbor no illusions in the first place. Don’t walk into those traps. This country is a tropical paradise, but it isn’t a magical kingdom where the rules of common sense don’t apply.

Not all of the emails and phone calls abut the last issue were about the San Cristobal story. The features on the Nuevos Horizontes program, former political prisoner Tom Bleming’s story and the conservative National Security Center’s visit all elicited comment.

An American soldier called to tell me that one part of the Nuevos Horizontes story that I missed was the US political and legal angle: due to pressures from the American construction industry, engineering maneuvers like the Nuevos Horizontes program carried out here are not allowed in the United States, where they’d be considered unfair competition for the private sector. He made a good point.

And note that Panama’s militant leftist SUNTRACS construction workers’ union likewise didn’t like Nuevos Horizontes. I caught them marching down the street in the Mayday parade and translated the leaflet they were distributing for our Opinion section. Might someone complain that the document doesn’t belong in The Panama News because SUNTRACS only represents a small percentage of Panamanian public opinion? Well, they are a relatively small minority --- especially when it comes to the subject of Nuevos Horizontes, which was popular here --- but they do have their following and their opinions are part of our political scene.

This time most of both our English and Spanish Opinion sections are by Panamanians or about Panama. Two that aren’t specifically about Panama are the different English and Spanish columns by Association of Caribbean States Secretary General Norman Girvan, which, however, are about free trade talks in which Panama has a vital interest.

Let me finally take note of a couple of stories affecting Panama’s English- speaking community, one positive and one not.

The negative development is a scam wherein somebody is trying to take advantage of Panamanian-American US Army Specialist Shoshana Johnson to make in illicit buck. Read all about it on the Community page and be advised.

Don’t let that bit of ugliness cloud your view of the human condition. In the lead story of our Arts section, the local chapter of the National League of American Pen Women held its second Anona Kirkland Writing Contest, an English-language competition that was judged by a panel to whom the contestants weren’t identified (and of which I was a member). The winner in the poetry category was a 15-year-old girl who has grown up in a Korean-speaking home. Excellence flourishes here at 9°N, despite the never-ending efforts of the mediocre and worse to monopolize all opportunities.

Eric Jackson
the editor

PS: If you want to help The Panama News get past its money troubles with the government, you can, of course, send your checks to the mailing address shown below. However, there are also some other possibilities.

One is that we have only two complete sets of all the print editions of The Panama News (December 1994 through March 2001, plus the May 2002 special edition), one of which we are disposed to auction off. However, if you have a private offer to make before we get down to the nuts and bolts of an auction, make it now, by email or to my cell phone (507) 632-6343.

Also, we have about 650 copies of my book, 9°N: dispatches from Panama 1994-2000, which got good reviews from The Lonely Planet guide to Panama, the Washington Times and La Prensa, but which due to our local monopoly has been kept out of hotel bookstores and because we have no North American distributor is not available via Amazon.com or in US bookstores. A substantial bulk sale or two can relieve our financial crisis. If you are interested in this, contact me.

And then, although most of our readers are outside Panama, the time has come to organize a fundraising event down here. If you are willing and able to help, get in touch.

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