letters

A couple of editions back there was an interesting article, "In Praise of Public Transportation" by Silvio Sirias. Until then, I thought I was the only extranjero who had some good things to say about diablos rojos and Panamanian buses in general. I have been in the country about a year and every day I take buses from the terminal to my place of work at the United Nations down near Via España. Not only is it an incredible bargain (25 cents), but riding the bus definitely gives me a view of life in Panama City that I would otherwise not know anything about.

In this respect, the inevitable tranques while passing through Calidonia provide a window on the world. I have watched from my seat in awe as expert craftsmen prepare cocos rallados without chopping off their fingers, women deftly carve pineapples into objects of beauty, and I thirst for the freshly-squeezed orange juice we pass every day on the street. I had prime viewing locations from different angles on October 2 as we twice passed Gandhi Park on the great peacemaker's birthday amid the splendor of elaborate garlands of flowers draped around his statue's neck that was surrounded by countless other bouquets.

While you have to sometimes hang on for dear life, I have found both bus drivers and passengers to be generally considerate and have never felt uncomfortable as the only gringo on the bus (and I thought, probably in the entire system). There is even a flip side to the "unsafe driving" charges constantly leveled at the choferes. Once in the middle of an intersection we stopped so suddenly that I (along with everyone else) was tossed forward and hit my head on the seat in front. I looked out the window and to my horror saw a man lying prone whose torso was touching the right front wheel! Reconstructing the event, this unfortunate (but as it turned out, lucky) soul had attempted to board the bus by running toward it from the front, but at the last moment had slipped and fallen and was inches from being run over. But quick action by the driver saved him from serious injury or even death. (He then boarded looking a little sheepish, but everyone gave him a smile and a little applause, much of which was deserved by the driver.)

I was disappointed when a few months ago by orden del transito the televisions/VCRs and radios were removed as this made the trip even more interesting and culturally stimulating (there are still a few buses out there who haven't gotten the word!). Once I got so engrossed in "Eight Legged Freaks" that I missed my stop (and promptly went out and rented the movie so I could see how it ended. My kids loved it.).

Speaking as a die-hard romantic, I doubt that anyone has fully tasted real life in Panama until they have ridden the buses. Try it! Chances are you will like it.

Gary Garriott

This is real funny. When President Moscoso said that the Panama treasury was broke and that was why they were canceling Ruben Blades, probably the most celebrated artist in the centennial history of Panama, I wrote a letter to the "COMITE DEL CENTENARIO" and this is what I received in return:

Failed to deliver to '<Centenario@cwpanama.net>'
LOCAL module(account centenario@cwpanama.net) reports
account is full (quota exceeded)

Original-Recipient: rfc822;<Centenario@cwpanama.net>
Final-Recipient: LOCAL;<>
Action: failed
Status: 4.0.0

That's hell man; those people in Panama are in bad shape.....

Amanecerá y veremos...

Arturo Hassan
Los Angeles, CA

1. Stay the course. We will have to stay somewhere between five and 50 years. Our cost will be somewhere between a thousand billion and 100,000 billion, and we will lose a few thousand of our people. Also, we will kill somewhere between ten thousand, and 100,000 people in Iraq.

2. Give up our control in Iraq, and bring in the UN.

3. Bring in our forces from all over the world, and concentrate on Iraq.

4. Start the draft, and send in a few million of our people.

What do you think?

Robert W. Carlson
Elgin, IL

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