The 2004 Panamanian school year has begun, in some ways in an odd fashion. Above we see a photo, courtesy of the presidencia, of President Moscoso touring a parochial school, rather than one of the public schools over which she has far more influence.
Have you noticed that The Panama News is tardy? There are several excuses, but the teacher won’t be accepting any of them. Will I have to trade my usual baseball hat for a dunce’s cap? Will I be called a doofus --- or is it spelled dufus?
This issue goes back to school in many other respects as well. In addition to the News photo feature on Mireya’s choice of a Catholic school rather than a public one for her demonstration of concern about Panamanian education, our Arts, Sports and Opinion sections all go to the University of Panama in one way or another. In the Community section there is a reminder of the upcoming deadline for people to submit their entries to the Panama chapter of the National League of American Pen Women writing contest, an English-language competition that’s open to anyone --- male or female --- aged 15 or over, but which has in years past attracted many of its entries from students and teachers. In the Review section, a Florida State University - Panama professor reviews Mel Gibson’s controversial “The Passion of Christ.”
Then there is the Business section, which contains the first of a four-part series of articles dissecting Tom McMurrain’s notorious real estate promotions. In a stylistic sense, it takes me in a way back to school, when I was writing law review articles and term papers on things like the revival of Islamic law, the Ethiopian Dergue and the Western Sahara dispute, or when I was practicing law and assembling proofs in fraud and civil RICO cases. I pondered long and hard about including academic-style citations, which usually have no place in a newspaper article, but decided to leave them in because they are useful illustrations of the story, at until and unless McMurrain and his crew pull them down from the web.
The Letters this time include a lot of responses to McMurrain’s vulgar little note that was published in the last issue, and also some things about other topics.
One of the latter is a little note from FSU-Panama prof Silvio Sirias, about an April 13 event at Excedra Books, where Dr. Benjamin Murphy will be moderating a discussion about The Da Vinci Code, with the hope that this will be the start of an English-language book club for Panama. The event begins early in the evening, at 6:30 p.m., so mark your calendar and make your dinner plans accordingly.
Holy Week is upon us, and we now have less than a month to go before Panama goes to the polls. The legislative and municipal candidates who are most desperate to attract attention have taken to pasting their posters to inappropriate places. The hot topic of discussion is about whether Mireya is willing to concede the presidential race to Martín Torrijos but neither the presidential sash nor second place to Guillermo Endara. (A distant third- or fourth-place place finish for José Miguel Alemán trashes Mireya’s chances to pose as leader of the opposition for the upcoming five-year presidential term. Judging from what he is saying in his TV ads and campaign literature, Endara appears to be making the thinly veiled threat to throw some of the Moscoso entourage, and maybe even Mireya herself, into jail if he is elected president.)
Sadly, too much of the nation’s political discourse is in the manner of predicting the outcome of a horse race and talk about things that matter --- both detailed positive proposals and specific negative criticisms of candidates and their platforms --- is the exception rather than the norm. I remain undecided in the presidential and legislative races, although I must say that I have eliminated all incumbent legislators and all candidates who promise to continue the legacy of the Moscoso administration from my consideration.
Mail from the United States to Panama is running slower than its usual eight-day delay, so checks from our March fundraising drive have just begun to come in. I thank all of you who have come to our assistance from the bottom of my heart.
One of the reasons why this issue is tardy has been the distraction of dealing with our Social Security problem. While we have yet to receive enough donations to completely deal with the problem, between some contributions we did receive in time, cleaning out our available assets and some timely loans The Panama News was able to restructure that debt so as to pay off Seguro ahead of the special March 25 deadline that Attorney General Sossa imposed. The prosecutors didn’t bother to show up for the March 25 hearing and the judge said that despite the amnesty and my apparently timely compliance with its terms he can’t dismiss the charges without a prosecutor present --- and even if one of Sossa’s minions attends he or she may object and prolong matters --- so the case was put over for a new pretrial hearing in June.
One of the first things that prosecutors kept asking me and others associated with The Panama News when I was first called in for interrogation about the Seguro Social debt was “Why haven’t you closed The Panama News?” The answers are many and sometimes complex, but one of them is quite simple: “Because Attorney General Sossa wants me to do so and I am not inclined to give him the satisfaction.”
Meanwhile, if you hit some of the links in the first installment of “Anatomy of a scam,” ponder the need for an expensive legal translation of each such document before it can be submitted to the court and you will begin to understand some of the costs that are looming ahead in our fight against fraudster Tom McMurrain.
So despite all the help from readers, family and friends, this newspaper’s financial condition is still precarious, albeit a bit improved.
The defense against McMurrain’s bogus criminal defamation charge is necessary because McMurrain has Attorney General José Antonio Sossa’s support. Although Sossa does have a tendency to back hoodlums anyway, he shows a special eagerness to do so when it allows him an opportunity to engage in his true passion, prosecuting the press. Recently Sossa’s actions against the press have garnered international attention, not for his offenses against The Panama News but due to his prosecution of La Prensa founder Bobby Eisenmann. The matter is duly covered in our News pages, and discussed by the Committee to Protect Journalists in our English-language Opinion section and by Reporters Without Borders and Journalists Against Corruption in the Spanish-language Opiniones pages.
Rest assured that despite a few disgraceful exceptions in which alleged journalists have backed Sossa against Eisenmann, the great majority of his colleagues, yours truly included, are setting aside all differences and standing in solidarity with him.
Ah, but it’s time to take a respite from all of this as Holy Week --- and Passover a few days later, for our Jewish readers --- gives us a little interruption in the fray. For those of you who are going to brave the heavy traffic to celebrate the holidays in the Interior, please drive defensively and come back alive. For my fellow contrarians, consider the advantages of spending a quiet Easter weekend in the city, at the cozy Executive Hotel with all the conveniences and a friendly charm.
So relax, let all headaches dissipate, have a good time and be soothed with the knowledge that Sparky the Wonder Dog stands guard.
Enjoy.
