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editorialThe Ancon Hill cable car The government's proposed monument to stupidity It’s what happens when overly enthusiastic fans of American culture who aren’t very bright --- people who worship Disney World as the epitome of North American civilization and wouldn’t know about the national parks of the United States and Canada --- try to superimpose their bizarre notions of what foreign tourists want over one of the great symbols of the Panamanian nation. This is the same kind of thinking that dressed up some employees in silly fourth-rate baseball park mascot suits with the expectation that this would attract hordes of Gringos to Colon 2000. The inherent mental flaw at work here is the confusion of foreign visitors with people who have lots of money but no culture or conscience. As Panama again observes the Day of the Martyrs, might anybody recall that people died so that the Panamanian flag would fly atop Ancon Hill? After all these years talking about ecotourism, might anybody think that foreign visitors would like to visit a capital with herds of deer and bands of monkeys within city limits? Apparently these considerations don’t register at all in the collection of minds that comprise the Torrijos administration. Some critics have said that for the current government the only thing that counts is money. However, that estimate probably needs to be revised in light of the planned cable car to run between Ancon Hill and the Amador Causeway. Because of the hill’s unique and fragile geology --- weathered and fractured rock that makes for wonderful wildlife habitats but weak foundations for a cable car tower --- the cost of building a safe and solid cable car system would be elevated. Because the plan is to fell eight hectares of trees under the cables, a priceless urban national park would be trashed and its wildlife driven to extinction. Because of busloads of tourists coming and going to the hilltop terminal, and gawking at residents of Quarry Heights and Ancon from above during their faux Disney ride, some of the most valuable residential real estate in would be seriously devalued. Even in the unlikely event that the cable car system would turn a profit, the net economic loss to the nation implicit in the cable car project would be catastrophic. That, given our tradition of public corruption with impunity, naturally leads to questions about whether certain public officials may have been bribed to sell out the national interests by allowing this monstrosity. To top all that off, we are insulted by the assurance that every tree that the developers fell, they’ll plant 10 elsewhere, and they’ll provide moving service for the birds and animals that will be left homeless. Anyone who knows anything about tropical forest ecology knows that a unique ecosystem can’t be replaced in this way. The bottom line? What the Torrijos administration proposes is not an advance for national development. It's a monument to stupidity. The Ancon Hill cable car needs to go the way of Mireya’s road through the Volcan Baru National Park, for many of the same reasons.
Bear in mind… Truth is on the march; nothing can stop it now. Émile Zola I don’t go for these trickle down economic policies. I don’t want some rich guy trickling on me. Zolton Ferency The use of language is all we have to pit against death and silence. Joyce Carol Oates
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