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WHAT time of the year?

Of course, it was time for the specific event at which the above photo was taken, the annual Who's New and Artguilders Christmas Bazaar. This is Joyce O'Meally's ceramic and lace pollera bust. The story about it is part of a larger than usual arts section this time, for example because painter Janet Levi has an open house coming up and stage director Bruce Quinn is adapting "Nun-Crackers" to the Spanish language and Panamanian social realities. Plus there is a review of the recent excellent Theatre Guild production of "Orphans." And Panamanian contemporary dancer/choreographer Milvia Martínez has come back from the Mar del Plata Ibero-American culutral festival with top honors for her "Cabanga" show.

But the pollera theme is also symbolic of the upcoming month of patriotic holidays. There will be lots of polleras to be seen in the Independence Day and Flag Day parades that will take place on November 3 and 4. These events bring in a lot more tourists from the states than many Panamanians realize.

The parades to take place a few days later, on the occasion of the visit of one American tourist in particular, promise to be of an entirely different nature. It's the subject of this issue's editorial.

Things have been getting a bit rougher and nastier on the streets and campuses of late. The University of Panama's self-styled "Rector Magnífico," the legitimacy of his doctoral degree under serious question, answered the doubts his own self-praise raised not by explaining how he could have earned a doctorate in one year but by having his acolytes declare tenured Professor Miguel Antonio Bernal, who filed the criminal complaint in the ongoing false diploma scandal, "persona non grata." Bernal puts that situation into perspective --- or shall we say levels a blast with both barrels? --- in this issue's opinion section.

Myself, I have a doctorate --- in fact, both kinds of JD, the doctorate of jurisprudence and the juvenile delinquent record --- but I don't generally use the title and I'm not overly impressed by academic credentials. Still, it annoys me when pompous asses with illustrious surnames and/or political connections strut around calling themselves "doctor" when they didn't sit through all those classes and spend all those hours in libraries. And to have the head of the national university, which by law grants or denies charters to all other universities, flaunting a bogus degree would be an absolutely intolerable scandal for this nation. Martín Torrijos's famous "zero corruption" pledge is a sick joke if he doesn't have the decency to demand a clarification, and if the public explanation is not acceptable a resignation, from Gustavo García de Paredes. I really don't care to hear the president again take refuge in a narrow definition of his powers --- consider what a chief executive might legitimately do to budget appropriations for a public institution that has been hijacked by an impostor. Martín has all the leverage he needs to resolve this scandal if he cares to use it.

In Panama's American community, especially on the islands of Bocas del Toro, the proposed Law 132 is the talk of the town. But I really don't think that the dispossession of gringo retirees who bought right of possession property in good faith from sellers who legitimately had rights to sell is the main point of the law. It's actually an attempt by some of Panama's wealthiest people to run long-established fishing villages off and appropriate the real estate for their upscale tourist developments. As you will see in another of this issue's opinion columns, the proposal has also offended environmentalists like Ariel Rodríguez.

Important as this fundamentally economic story might be, more immediately pressing are the disruptions caused by high gas prices and the appearance of bird flu next door in Colombia. The former situation shut down bus service for a day in much of the Interior, brought riot cops storming into the Santiago bus terminal and prompted a threat by Government and Justice Minister Héctor Alemán to cancel the permits of drivers who didn't immediately return to work. However, bus fares to, from and within the Interior are going up between a nickel and $1.50 (depending, of course, on the route and distance traveled) on November 14. And the latter situation may be just the thing to distract farmers concerned about how they might be affected by a US-Panama free trade agreement with a more immediate prospect of devastation.

The economics of The Panama News are also an issue in this edition --- it's the second week of our semi-annual appeal for reader support. Donations of both money and in-kind goods and services have come but this hand-to-mouth enterprise always needs more. (When might the need end? If we can raise enough cash to go sustainably back into print publication, the ad revenues from that would form the basis to get creditors paid off, to start paying salaries and so on. I suspect that won't happen with this fundraising drive, but I'd love to be proven wrong about that.) At least now we have one good computer, but still have a borderline dysfunctional backup machine.

One of the advances we have made is a business alliance that allows us to accept donations, or payments for ads, by credit card via PayPal. If you want to help out The Panama News that way, go to http://www.paypal.com and select the "send money" function --- if you don't have a PayPal account you will have to sign up --- and send your contribution to thepanamanews@panamaretire.net et voila.

You can also mail checks (money orders, even those that purport to be international, are generally not negotiable in Panama) made out to "Eric Jackson" (as there is no account in the name of The Panama News because banks here don't want to deal with micro-enterprises via company accounts, so any checks need to be in my name), and send them by snail mail (which is far more reliable than it is reputed to be, I would add), at:

The Panama News
Apartado 0831-0927 Estafeta Paitilla
Panamá, República de Panamá

I thank all who have contributed from the bottom of my heart. How can I ever repay you? Mainly by keeping on doing what I have been doing, improving things bit by bit as much as I can, and bringing you a publication that you find useful and enjoyable.

And enjoy.

Eric Jackson
the editor

PS: There is one other way that you can help The Panama News, even if you are not in a position to make a donation. Please take the time to answer our annual readership survey. It helps us --- and our advertisers --- get a better idea of who's reading this website. All information collected is confidential, and will be kept only long enough to compile it into a statistical profile. No way will we share any information that might identify any individual with anyone else. We do not ask for names or addresses and after copying the answers to the questionnaire we'll delete the original emails and with them the email addresses.

 

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