Beautiful flowers this time of the year in Panama

My usual criterion for the front page photo is just the best-looking graphic in the collection for that issue. And so it is this time, with another photographic raid on Neal Smith’s orchid garden at the Smithsonian’s Tupper Center. This time we have not only orchids but also the guayacan in Plaza Catedral in bloom.

But all the news is not beautiful. The most lurid of tabloid tales has erupted into a major scandal within the Judicial Technical Police (PTJ), just as Martin Torrijos may have thought he’d bought time to confront a justice system meltdown by appointing a committee to study it.

We don’t yet have a specific Seguro Social proposal on the table yet, but the arguments are nevertheless heated. In this issue’s Spanish-language “opiniones” section, we get the Catholic left’s take on the problem, while former President Guillermo Endara makes his case for a referendum on the subject in the first of the English-language “opinion” columns.

It seems that President Torrijos is about to submit legislation that will end some of the possibilities for punishing journalists by using the disrespect laws. His proposal also would create a right of reply to which I do not object in principle, but which I hope does not include the flaw we have seen before, a law written for daily print media that would be applied to all media, of all technologies, sizes and frequencies of publication, without the proper adaptations. To be believed when seen, but it does appear to be a positive development in the works.

The Wounaan were in the capital the other day, with men, women and children coming from some very remote places to assert their land rights in the face of invaders and to demand government recognition of the Wounaan National Congress. The Panama News, the Catholic FETV television channel and a young woman from New York doing a video for Free Speech TV were the media that took the event seriously enough to cover it.

In the dining section this time, you get an opinion other than mine for a change. Darrin DuFord reviews some of Panama City’s international dining options and in passing gets into the subject of wines, something that I don’t touch for my personal lack of anything learned to say about it.

This paper has been on the Atlantic side a lot lately, and these words are being written in the city of Colon. (It’s a long story, as I work my way out of computer problems and bit by bit get replacement and backup systems into place, and I thank everyone who has pitched in to help with this process from the bottom of my heart.) This time we do the Colon city flyby, or, rather, Dennis Melton did and he shares the photo with us.

St. Patrick’s Day has come and gone, and it’s not a really big deal here. But Panama is one of the Bolivarian countries (freed from Spain by its own exertions, annexed to Bolivar’s Gran Colombia by popular acclaim at the time) and you won’t know the rich mix of our history if you don’t know of the fighting Irishmen at the Great Liberator’s side.

On that Irish holiday the Theatre Guild was putting on a mad scientist spoof set in Merrie Olde England --- but does it take a doctor named Murphy to add some real madness to the plot? STOP THAT MAN --- he’s a fiend! Or is he just a mild-mannered gene splicer who has allowed The Creature get into his head a bit much lately?

Bear with the delays and sloppiness of a second improvised production in a row, and thanks to all of you who have contributed or will contribute to the survival and progress of The Panama News. To contribute money to The Panama News, which has no company account at this time, make the check out to “Eric Jackson” with a notation that it’s for The Panama News. Don’t do money orders, unless via Canada’s Scotiabank. In this alleged world financial center for the most part money orders, including those that say they’re “international,” are not negotiable. Send your donations to:

And of course, money is not the only thing you can contribute. The Panama News would also be improved by volunteer contributors of all sorts of stories and graphics --- well, OK, there are editorial standards about certain sorts of stories we don’t publish --- plus proofreaders, translators, people to help out on the business end and so on. Send me an email if you’d like to help in any of those in-kind ways.

Yes, this is a ragtag little medium, but it’s a persistent one because people like you read it and because some of the folks like you do their part to keep it alive.

Financial services at Finansbanken --- http://www.finansbanken.dk/english/index.html
Build a home in Las Cumbres with Villa Concordia --- http://villaconcordia-pma.com/
Make the Executive Hotel your headquarters in Panama City --- http://www.executivehotel-panama.com