letters
Lots of readers writing
about lots of things this time
Multiple responses to Tom McMurrain
and his charming little note
It was with disgust that I read the letter from Tom McMurrain in the latest edition of The Panama News.
I could not believe the vitriolic poison contained within his rantings.
His sexual innuendos and thinly veiled threats show just what a perverted, sick minded individual he is. A failed disgrace to humanity.
I hope that you treat him with the utter contempt a scum-bucket like him deserves.
Yours for a brighter future for Panama.
For a long time I have been researching retiring in Panama. And, like many others using the Internet as a research tool I was directed to the Bocas area for real estate. I also found the website of the San Cristobal Land Management. I have nothing against them, nor would I invest in their holdings. However, I have a problem with a statement that is not true. One has to wonder about their motives when their website states the following "Panama is also located out of the hurricane and major earthquake belts."
Below is information from the USGS. Looking at the data over the past 14 years I would have to say that Panama has some major earthquake activity.
Like, I said I have nothing against the San Cristobal Land Management but the company should not put false information on their website to lure in people. Come on, look at the data... it tells the truth.
As far as the hurricanes go, yes Panama is out of the hurricane tracks of the Caribbean.
Map of seismic events in parts of Panama and Costa Rica from 1990 through mid-March 2004, by the United States Geological Survey
I wanted to send a reply to the letter sent to the Panama News by Mr. McMurrain.
The fact that you wrote a letter filled with childish name callings referencing people's family, laughing at someone's poverty, making a homophobic remark, and come across sounding like a high school bully who is uneducated and without any class whatsoever, makes you look like a complete ass. You mean to tell me you could not write an intelligent criticism of Mr. Jackson or state your case in such a way to refute what you feel are incorrect statements made by Mr. Jackson.
I looked you up Mr. McMurrain. You have arrest warrants in the US and funny that you end up in Panama, like a fleeing criminal. With such a past filled with accusations of fraud, I highly doubt you are bringing jobs or foreign investment to Panama. You are lining your pockets with cash. Everything written about you, that was not put out by your company, speaks of a land scam and you are no doubt paying for those rights and for the protection of the Panama government.
Mr. McMurrain, I do not see how you could be the least proud of the letter you wrote. You sounded like a child. Someone had the nerve to criticize you and instead of writing an intelligent piece with facts you cried like a little girl and showed such glee that Mommy (Panama's legal system) is coming to save you. You are a US citizen in which thousands of US troops died to preserve your freedoms asnd rights you enjoy. Shame on you for taking glee them being abused elsewhere. Oh wait, I forgot, you fled the US to avoid criminal charges.
I have never written to an editor but feel I need to express my disgust with an article written by Tom McMurrain.
Mr. McMurrain: You do not know me nor I you. So must ask why you would lie about me.
I have never made, nor would I allow, Eric to sleep on my floor. He has the use of our guest house when on the Pacific side and a room in our apartment on the Atlantic side, but the thing that distresses us most, as a family, is your perverted remarks about my mother, which are totally untrue. Did you not think she would not read "The Panama News."
You obviously have a difference of opinion with Eric, but to sully the name of the rest of the family to get back at him is reprehensible.
This is to tell you our family is looking into legal recourses both here and in the USA.
I need say no more but you shall be hearing from our family.
I did take note today of Tom McMurrain's most gracious letter published in the most recent issue of your paper.
Not since my junior high school (grades 7-9) days, have I read (or heard) such juvenile, nay, infantile, gutter gibberish.
To hide behind Panama's "Calumnia de la Injuria" statutes is an indication of one's lack of honor.
How can you insult one's honor if he has none to insult!!
He is so low he could walk under a caterpillar while wearing a top-hat.
Plus, he is a sissy! That's right, a S-I-S-S-Y!!
Only a woman would hide behind skirts!
Yes, and "his mama wears combat boots."
He squeals like a pig.
His quack is as weak as a female duck's!
His letter is an indication that in addition to lacking literary expertise, marketing or political savvy are also not his long suit.
One has to ask himself of a person who would write such cacca, "is this a person/company with whom I would like to do business?"
He has but three months to invoke Mireya as his patron, and Sossa's term expires shortly thereafter.
Depending on political patronage is not a smart move for one in a "long term" business. But then, just maybe he doesn't plan on sticking around too much longer.
I was considering a donation to cover some of the expenses you have incurred in bringing me the latest news from Panama for which you have never charged one red cent, but having read the aforementioned letter from Mr. McMurrain, I have reconsidered.
I THINK I'LL DOUBLE THE AMOUNT!!
P.S. I want a Charlie the Tuna T-shirt
I have been somewhat following this bit of drama for a couple of months now. I am grateful to you and Okke for following through with this and keeping the public informed about this kind of scam crap. I saw the San Cristobal project on Escape Artist months ago and I knew it was a scam then. The letter you posted in the Panama News and linked to at the Yahoo group is amazing. Perhaps not the most important of bits from it, but the one that insulted my intelligence the most was this bit:
"We do not sell to Panamanians for a number of reasons, among them the following: First, Panamanians generally do not invest in reforestation projects. Second, we do not have the linguistic skills required effectively to sell to Panamanians. Third, our contracts are in English and we have never had them translated in Spanish."
I am an American/Kiwi (lived in USA and NZ off and on my whole life) and I have been in Panama for seven months. My understanding of Spanish is still VERY limited. However, this has stopped me from doing nothing. I hired a very proficient Spanish and English speaking assistant who gets the job done just fine. For when I need something translated and notarized, I have hired a legal translator who is licensed and it cost me $75 an hour. For a guy who is offering to buy a website for $10,000, paying for a few hours of notarized contract translation should be no problem at all.
Sorry for sticking my nose in but that really fried me, the audacity of it. It doesn't help that the letter is written with the prose of a teenaged boy who is mentally preparing for a playground fight.
I wish you well and thank you again for continuing reporting.
Editor's note: The quotation referred to above is by San Cristobal attorney Barry Miller, in response to a sneak preview of the four-part "Anatomy of a scam" which begins in this issue that was posted on the Internet. Note as well that this version of Miller's, McMurrain's and San Cristobal's ever-changing story calls into questions Miller's earlier protest that he isn't practicing law in Panama, and that Panamanian lawyers do all the company's legal work here. A Panamanian lawyer who can't draft an agreement in Spanish? Or an American lawyer who doesn't know Spanish improperly practicing law without a license in Panama?
That was quite the note from McMurrain. It's always a shame when such people feel powerful due to the fact that they have a little money. I was trying to figure out if I would put his writing on a second, or third-grade level.
Coming home
My name is Hector Allen, alias "Midnight Cowboy." I am very proud and happy to say my prediction came through, of the vast majority of black Panamanians returning to their homeland now that they have become prosperous, financially stable, and retired.
"El Chombo con bastante dinero" --- we that lived in the United States for over 40 years, didn't know of the vast improvement, and changes Panama has overcome.
In my conversation with a white American retiree, he said that retiring in Panama is the best kept secret in the world.
Another military retired Air Force veteran said, as a dialysis patient at the Hospital Nacional, it's the best treatment and care he has experienced. Due to the fact of his sickness, he was in Texas, Florida, New York and several other states, and can compare to Panama's Hospital Nacional, which accepts military retirees' Tricare coverage.
The people that returned to Panama in the month of November for the 100 year celebration experienced the vast improvement of the country, and not from the old kerosene radio (smile). The economy will improve tremendously, with almost forgotten "cold climate chombos" buying homes in Brisas del Golf for $61,500 cash money, and various other parts of Panama including beach front homes, including swimming pool, for on about $80,000.
It's like Rubén Blades said on TV Rinconcito Panama, we that lived in the United States need to return home --- like he will be doing, with all the knowledge and experienced he picked up while living in America. "What we can do for our country, and not what the country can do for us."
A glimmer of light is a rewarding sight.
The Midnight Cowboy
Hector Allen
Calling all English-language bookworms!
Greetings Eric:
I hope you are doing well. We have an item that we would like the English-speaking community of Panama to know about.
On Tuesday, April 13, at 6:30 pm, Exedra Books will host an open discussion on THE DA VINCI CODE.
Moderator: Dr. Benjamin Murphy, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Florida State University-Panama.
We are hoping this can lead to an English language Book of the Month Club in Panama.
Take care,
Give (dis)credit where it is due
You recently reported that the Panama Pier was out of service. The reason that it is out of service is because of the LACK OF MAINTENANCE CAUSED BY IRRESPONSIBLE MANAGEMENT.
Why Do We Suffer?
The Christian meaning of suffering reaffirmed at Easter
In The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevski states that "the earth is soaked from its crust to its very center with the tears of humanity."
At this very moment there are millions of people who are in despair, who are suffering, who are being tortured and humanity screams: WHY? If God is all good and all powerful why does he allow brutality and injustice? This is one of the arch questions of human life, to which, throughout history, people have struggled to find a meaningful answer.
Many have sought to solve the question of suffering by treating it as a problem rather than as a mystery whose meaning can never be fully exhausted. Buddha's basic idea was that we suffer because we have an illegitimate attachment to existence. If you sever your craving for existence, he thought, you extinguish your suffering; you reach a certain calm that is the door to nirvana. This, of course, sounds attractive especially when you compare the mysterious, serene, man-figure of the Buddha looking inward, to the suffering Christ on the cross.
Marx believed unhappiness exists because of social injustice and inequality. His basic thought was that if you let the State take over completely it will distribute wealth equally and justly and a workers' paradise will appear on earth. Unfortunately, in actual practice, this resulted in people being sent to the Gulag (concentration camps) and much, much worse. In effect, Marx ended up creating a worse evil than the injustice he intended to correct.
In Christianity we discover two things which are unique and amazing. First, Christianity teaches the art of suffering. Second --- and this is particularly emphasized in Roman Catholicism --- Christianity teaches the meaning of suffering.
The holy art of suffering is not easy to learn because of our rebellious nature that is due to original sin. When we suffer we have a tendency to add to our suffering. Such "illegitimate" suffering that is self-made is often due to such things as vanity, envy, self-pity and, above all, pride. These can be overcome by our constant willingness to reject, disavow, and oppose such traits while begging God with a "holy pestering" to liberate us by His Grace.
Once we are liberated we begin to discover that the suffering God sends us has a profound and sublime meaning by which it is to be embraced.
The 19th Century poet Paul Claudel said that Christ did not come to abolish suffering but to join in our suffering. He did not come to abolish the cross but to lay down on the cross to save us.
Suffering on this earth is meant to be an expression of that love. When we love someone we start to tremble because we know that despite all our love we are not able to protect that person from their own suffering, sickness, poverty, and death.
When Christ was crucified who was at the foot of the cross? His mother. Imagine the torture! But what did she do? She suffered with Him. In our pragmatic society we are so utilitarian in our views that I hear people say: "They are sick in the hospital. There is nothing I can do so why go there." We all know though, if we have suffered, that to have someone present --- though the person can not do a single thing to relieve the suffering --- they can simply say "I am here and I am suffering with you." If you love someone you want to suffer with the beloved. Love in the face of sorrow does not seek isolation but wants to take on that pain as it's own. This is an expression of authentic love that endorses suffering because the beloved one is suffering.
Then comes the beautiful thing about Christianity. The greatest love that exists manifests itself in giving one's life for one's friend --- and this is what Christ did for us. He lay down His life freely, without seeking retaliation or revenge against His many false accusers. Not only did He suffer with us, He suffered for us so that the doors of paradise could be re-opened for us. The culmination of love is not only that you suffer "with" but that you suffer "for."
The meaning of suffering for Christians is that when we suffer a legitimate cross sent by God, He is giving us His Grace and suddenly we realize that we are ordained to join Christ on the cross. In some way He is saying in this moment "come close to my heart that has bled for you, that has suffered for you, that has been pierced by a lance for you." That is why the saints, when they receive a cross, see it as a way of coming closer to Our Lord.
The amazing thing is that when Christians discover the meaning of suffering they can carry seemingly crushing crosses and nevertheless have peace in their hearts and glowing smiles on their faces that radiate the message "we are going to get there."
Perhaps the great tragedy of this world is that most people have no one to love. Since there is no one to love they never think of the love of God. Their life is tragic indeed.
The tragedy of the world is not suffering but what we miss when we actually do suffer. If the earth is soaked from its crust to its very center with the tears of humanity, imagine the profound difference we could make if we did not allow our suffering to go to waste but rather acted to correlate it with the suffering of Christ?
One point that Willy Gutman's articles on Honduras doesn't touch
Did the author of this (excellent) series ever think about the role of grinding poverty in most small countries, which often stems from one simple factor?
he needs to write about this, or the articles are not complete. The factor happens to be the entire Catholic Church and their INSANE birth control' concepts. Until the church deals with this edict, kids will continue to be "throw-away" --- human trash! Populations that exceed the resources of any country, will spawn such deplorable scenes of human misery. Every macho dad - family man likes to brag about how many kids he can spawn --- especially Latin dads!
The wives of these irresponsible macho dads are left to raise the dozen+ kids, with no access to BIRTH CONTROL!
There are solutions, but the priests need to stop molesting kids, and allow Catholic wives the choice of birth control pills... free of charge!
Kissinger was accused of attempting "population control" in Africa, by genocide, as the situation (there) is all about overpopulation. It's THAT bad!
Aside: My own sister married a catholic and had SIX kids, before they realized that enough was enough. They then IGNORED the church's 'edict' and used birth control --- then the husband got "fixed." I told my sister that she had my 'quota' of kids and i vowed to never"propagate' any kids-just adopt, if I had kids.
Someone likes what we do
I like your publication and I like Panama. I think I'm a pretty sophisticated consumer of news and can spot a fraud. I don't think you are one. I think your trying to do a good job in a difficult environment. I like that.
SOME people like Endara
In your caption to the picture of the "Vota Ana Mae" posters in the last issue, you say that "people tend to like Guillermo Endara."
However, not as many people as those who like Martín Torrijos. A lot of people who would say that Endara is a nice guy would still rather not suffer through another five years of his weak leadership.
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