Barrow, Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro has been discrimination's foe

The following are remarks that attorney Alberto Barrow, who head's Panama City Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro's Equal Opportunity Unit, made at a recent meeting of the local chapter of the National Association of Retired Federal Employees (NARFE):

All human beings, regardless of their differences and varied origins, are born free and equal in the eyes of the law. This is a principle that sustains the universality of human rights. It also constitutes a value, an ideal for those who live the hardship of day to day economic inequality --- unemployment, extreme low salaries and incomes --- social inequalities produced by privileges enjoyed by some people, the dominance of others and unequal access to educational opportunities. In Panama, equality is yet to be attained. Both freedom and equality are indispensable. From the standpoint of human rights, one cannot fight against inequalities setting freedom aside. When this occurs, the result is a dictatorship or the rule of absolute and arbitrary power of one set of human beings over the others. Prison, torture, mistreatment, whatever form of arbitrary power that destroys other people's freedom, is fundamentally opposed to human rights and equal rights between human beings.

As a universal value, equality has to do with the rights and freedom of each individual: other persons are different from me but they are all my equals, and I respect their freedom as much as I affirm my own freedom. My capacity to decide, select values and participate in the making of laws, my independence, depends on the recognition of other people. In a nutshell: we are all different but equal at the same time.

Equality between human beings prohibits any form of discrimination related to race, nationality, sex, religion, and age or mother language. Only when one combines freedom with equality, you or I can achieve that other dear value known to us as Justice.

Personally, I am committed to promote equality. That's what I do every day; it's my job. But beyond that, it is my rule of life. (I'm aware that this is also your day to day business at NARFE: promoting equality). You have invited me here, today, to address issues related to equality, so as your guess, and in fifteen minutes or so, I'll give a brief note on what I do at City Hall to assure equality for all of us who live in this cosmopolitan city: Panama.

RECOVERING THE CITY FOR EVERYONE

At the beginning of Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro's administration, he submitted a proposal to all the inhabitants of the capital city of Panama. His proposal at that time (September 1999) was to make the city UNA GRAN CIUDAD. He made an explicit commitment to attain this goal by dedicating himself to work untiringly side by side with the city's population. Today, after five years, I personally believe that he has complied with his promise. Of course, there are still things to be done, but, it is an irrefutable fact that a new and modern city is in the making, a city in tune with our new responsibilities derived from the administration and operation of the Panama Canal.

The present municipal administration's work plan rests on 10 axes that point in the direction of attending cardinal issues that has to do with both material and spiritual living conditions of the residents of the District of Panama. One of those axes, undoubtly, addresses the active participation of the community in the shaping of City Hall's business. This approach allows the mayor and his team to learn about the people's needs and priorities, and, as a consequence, helps us to develop projects that provide solutions to each every city resident, contributing to create better living conditions for all. There is no doubt that the mayor's goal is all about building conditions towards fairness and equality in the delivery of services to city residents.

EQUALITY AND TOLERANCE IN DIVERSITY

Panama, as an ethnically, racially and culturally diverse entity, is unique in the Americas. This I have sustained over and over throughout the years. Here, ethnic and cultural mixture reaches its highest level. Due to historical factors and a wide array of circumstances, people of all imaginable ethnic, racial and cultural backgrounds have arrived on this isthmus, from the four corners of the world. Today, Panama is a vibrantly integrated mosaic of people from various backgrounds who arrived in one or more of the several ongoing migrations, resulting in a rich and textured social fabric. I am proud to say that in essence, we are, at this stage, a multiethnic and multicultural social web. Indeed a national unit, socially, racially and culturally diverse.

In order to contribute to the formulation of public policies intended to generate a social milieu that favors respect for the extraordinary and rich ethnic and racial diversity that makes this country what it is; to encourage an atmosphere of tolerance between citizens; and to set the corner stones to build a culture of peace and harmony in our day-to-day living, the Mayor's Office created an Equal Opportunity Unit whose mission it is to design policies, and develop plans and actions that enforces the above-mentioned. Yours truly has served as the head of this unit from its creation on 30 may, 2001, Dia de la Etnia Negra Nacional.

AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY OFFICE FOR EVERYONE

The city's Equal Opportunity Office was designed with the people's interest in mind. You, as citizens and residents of this capital, are our most valuable asset. We have structured a set of mechanisms and made available various instruments, all of which are in tune with the different tasks that are intended to respond to your needs and interest. Our vision is to respond, promptly to immediate demands, and, at the same, formulate long term policies.

The Equal Opportunity Office is interactive both in the human and technological sense of that expression. This means that the office operates in direct and close relation with the population, which has full access to the entity, and at the same time it makes use of the wide range of possibilities that new technologies of communication and information offers us today. An 800 line is in place; an internet address is available, and very soon a web site will be offered. These are only a few examples of what we call interactive.

The Equal Opportunity Unit at the Mayor's Office is intended to be dynamic and proactive; it is intended to make this city a social space where we can enjoy a positive and cosmopolitan lifestyle, of course, in equality.

Also in this section:
Fisher, Political dinosaurs
Probidad, University of Panama vs. Miguel Antonio Bernal
White, Our Islamic enemies
Silié, Taking the helm at the Association of Caribbean States
Gutman, Those who let America down
Barrow, The mayor's efforts against discrimination
Jackson, As Election Day approaches

opinion

Equality and what the mayor
has done to promote it

opinion

Equality and what the mayor has done to promote it

Equality and what the mayor
has done to promote it