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I lived in Panama 12 years ago due to the military and I have never gotten over its beauty or its people. I long for the life I had in Panama, which was ever so short. I remember the holidays there and the joy of sharing it not only with my military friends, but those that I had acquired in the Interior and around the Canal Zone.

Currently, my home is filled with large posters taken from pictures I took while there. I have molas all over my home and it all mixes in very well with my antique furniture. I never stop talking about Panama and how some day I will retire there. I go onto different websites almost daily to reminisce. When I found The Panama News, I was home again. I read it as often as I can and get much enjoyment out of it.

I don't know what I can do to offer services. I only know that I am lifted by your column and appreciate all that you do to help me relive a time in my life which was peaceful and filled with the feeling that I am suppose to live my life in Panama again some day.

Helene
Baltimore, MD (chilly-town)

In regards to the allegations recently made by Mr. Eric Jackson of The Panama News, I would like to further clarify the alleged involvement of one Mr. Gilbert Straub in the Tucan Country Club Project.

First of all, yes --- I do personally know Gilbert Straub, and yes, I have had several discussions and meetings in the past with Mr. Straub regarding the sales and marketing for Tucan, however, no agreement was ever reached. But this was not the question asked to me by Mr. Jackson. He asked if Straub was a shareholder or partner in Tucan --- which I replied that he is not. This is fact.

As for any "rumors" that Gilbert Straub is an investor, or has any other financial involvement in Tucan Real Estate Holdings, Inc., or in Tucan Country Club & Resort (TCCR), Inc. --- either in front or behind the scenes is completely a distortion of the facts. I don't know who Mr. Jackson's sources are, but definitely they are misinformed.

As regards to the alleged history of Mr. Straub, this is all new to me. Whether it is true or false, I have no way of knowing. And besides, I was only about 7 months old at the time of the Watergate incident.

When asked about MovetoPanama.com, I clearly explained to Mr. Jackson that Tucan has no direct relationship with them, and I went on to further explain that I was aware they had information about Tucan on their website and this was a result of an understanding reached between our commission agent and the owners of MovetoPanama.com to split his commissions with them for sending him referrals, and frankly, I see no problem with this. However, when Mr. Jackson quoted some of the information available on MovetoPanama regarding Tucan, I realized the information was old and no longer valid which is why I had our commission agent contact them to update that information. Later I heard the allegations from members of PanamaForum that MovetoPanama engages in questionable business practices, and until this is further clarified, I have instructed our commission agent to request MovetoPanama to remove all information of Tucan from their website. Tucan has not and does not have any link to MovetoPanama from our website.

End of story!

Dinesh P. Vaswani
Executive Vice President, Tucan Real Estate Holdings, Inc.

No kidding, Eric. Be very careful. You're playing in the big leagues with Vesco and Co.

name withheld

...give 'em HELL, Eric...

name withheld

If you look up the domain tucancountryclub.com, the administrative contact (where the bills for the domain are sent, etc.) as well as the technical contact (hosting issues, etc.) are listed as Tucan, but the email address is that of Straub: info@proartmarketing.com

Okke Ornstein

(See the pdf version of this here.)

Right now people from all kinds of nationalities constitute an axis of friendliness throughout the world.

Humans of 54 countries --- from Iran to Fiji and from Argentina to Sweden --- already announced their participation at the worldwide peace project "World's Greatest Smile," a sign of friendliness: a worldwide shared smile. So people from all over the world will take their chance to demonstrate their willingness for a peaceful future for themselves and the next generations, among others journalists, politicians, artists, managers, school children, and world record holder.

"People like these, and their intelligent allies, constitute an axis of friendliness, working to enhance the peace of the world" emphasize the initiators of the World's Greatest Smile, Meike Duch & Andreas Lietzow. "If it's very exciting from which countries people pronounced their participation till now. And everyone counts."

Inspired by Mr. George W. Bush's idea of the "axis of evil" they want to point out that there is definitely a great global axis --- built from humans who believe that an intelligent and friendly communication will bring more peace and many more advantages for the world population. Everybody should feel free to participate in this worldwide project irrespective of nationality, color of skin, wealth, gender, age and even religion. And all kinds of people are appealed to smile at least for a moment wherever they are --- to show they are ready to take easily the responsibility for setting peaceful signs, and to demonstrate their wish for a future of friendship, harmony and security.

More information: http://www.worlds-greatest-smile.com

Meike Duch & Andreas Lietzow
Hamburg, Germany

The SNOPES web site, http://www.snopes.com/toxins/cheers.asp, has a more factual version of this story.

PAN makes it sound like the EPA is asking parents to deliberately expose their children to pesticides. In reality, the children are being exposed to pesticides from external sources.

Morgan Ford

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