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Plenty of different opinions for this issue

Lest we forget

It is interesting how Panamanians are often prepared to condemn what they see to be USA injustices committed in other countries, whilst apparently failing to deal with their own past.

Many Panamanians are prepared, quite rightly in my opinion, to criticise the US invasion of Iraq, yet fall strangely silent when asked about their fellow countrymen who were jailed, tortured, murdered or simply disappeared during the years of the dictatorships in Panama.

Often the blame for such atrocities is laid at the feet of Manuel Noriega and to a lesser degree Omar “the benevolent” Torrijos. Whilst these individuals may have been the figureheads, many of those who carried out the crimes on their behalf often escaped prosecution.

Even when new mass graves are discovered, full of the rotting corpses of victims of a corrupt political era, many Panamanians prefer to look the other way.

Simon Weisenthal, himself a victim of persecution and torture under the Nazi regime dedicated most of his life to tracking down, hunting and gathering information on such murderers so that they could be brought to justice for war crimes and crimes against humanity. His efforts and his endless fight for justice are an example to us all.

So perhaps the next you see a politician, you ask him or her the question "¿Donde está Héctor Gellego ?” . After all, some one knows the answer.

 Jon Morritt

International adoption

I was somewhat surprised by your narrow minded and self-proclaimed “bias” on the issue of international adoption since you have first hand knowledge of the rife poverty and social conditions that many children are exposed to in Panama specifically Colon. I take issue with your broad statement about the baby selling to “Middle Class Americans”. Are you serious? It isn’t just American, middle class or just Guatemala that is the biggest baby seller but look at Romania and China. You obviously haven’t done your homework.

How do you rob a poor country of its biggest assets (children) if the country isn’t able to educate that child? Where do you “label” Panamanians (like myself) not necessarily “middle class” or wanting to be labeled into a specific social stratification but are just like many other childless couples (WORLD WIDE) that want to share their love and a provide a good life to a child?

The bigger ethical issue is not the system run by lawyers and social worker but whether an adopted child can be given a better life with an adopted family. An even bigger issue is educating Latin American men (including the imperfect Panamanian man) the use of birth control as the first step in preventing unwanted children and stopping the social norm of impregnating women that are not their wives.

Until the bigger ethical issues are addressed, only then will we stop talking about the "corrupt baby selling" business of adoption.

Ana
Orlando, Florida

Another take on adoption

I don't know if this is a letter to the editor, or more a personal tale. I think it's just sharing with you my experience with foreign adoption.

There was once born a beautiful girl in Colon. For whatever reasons, her family was in desperate conditions, siblings scattered among extended family. It seems this young girl's godmother caught the fancy of a young American sailor. Against all advice, they married. They adopted this beautiful little girl at the age of seven. She was sold to her godmother (read devil bitch)

Imagine that trauma, being torn from all you know and being planted in an alien land where you don't even understand the local lingo. Moving from base to base.  Knowing where you came from, confused why you're where you are.

She grew up, though. Learned English. Made friends. Navy brat. Married a sailor . It didn't work out. C'est la vie. Que sera, sera. Damn, I'm multilingual.

As it turns out, her sister married an American soldier who had access to military intelligence (I know it's an oxymoron).

They tracked her down when she was about twenty-five.

In the meanwhile, I met this beautiful little girl from Colon. She caught my fancy. Flying in the face of reason, she liked me too. Stupidly, I suppose, we got married a few short months later.

Much to my surprise, all of my family loves her. I had one brother tell me that if they could keep her and ditch me, they would. That's the nature of my upbringing. Straight to the heart. Kill the beast. I'm not saying my family is into gratuitous violence, but we do have our days.

But that's not the point of this little missive.

Her family came to visit . Fourth of July! Hottest day of the year. Hundred degrees. Everyone was very cordial. I could only imagine what these people were thinking. "To what an incredibly abysmal place have we sentenced our daughter?"

We carried on.

Later, we managed to put together enough cash to visit Mamma. I thought we were fixing to bankrupt ourselves in the process. We didn't. If we had been dirt poor cotton pickers pulling in at the end of the day, they couldn't have treated us with more respect.

Love is in the air.

It seems as if they're all over her, But, at the same time, I had the feeling they would have said the same thing my brother said if they thought they could get away with it.

The real point is, I don't think I know the point. There is one thing I do know, though. If Chinita had not been adopted, I would have never met her. Whatever else that has happened to me, I am grateful for that one simple gift.

Greg Severs

Fan mail

Congratulations on 11 years of progress. Please keep up your tenacious sprit.

As far as the "competition" goes, it may help to maintain a perspective my  attorney and plumber taught me:

"Darryl, your poop & pee is our bread and butter"!

Darryl

More fan mail

I was just visiting Panama and enjoyed myself. From one old journalist (now private eye) to another, I just wanted to say thanks for your insightful newspaper --- its nice to see that someone is still carrying the torch.

Seth

Prefers to be an informed tourist

My friend and I are visiting Panama for a month soon so I have been surfing about reading different things about Panama when I came across your editorial. I enjoyed reading it and hope that by reading local publications I will not be an ignorant tourist. I look forward to experiencing your country.

Happy New Year

Wendy Kirkby
Victoria, Canada

Takes exception to characterization of Iraq occupation

Reference your musings about Iraq’s recent election, which you say “was held under the terror of a bloody insurgency and a brutal occupation.” While the terror of a bloody insurgency is evident to all, I must take issue with your characterization of the occupation as “brutal”. And, although your construction makes it unclear whether your intent was to cast the occupation as “terror” on par with the insurgency (perhaps you could clarify), the suggestion of equivalency is there all the same, so I’ll take issue with that also.

A “brutal occupation” conjures up images of something purposefully cruel and destructive, a la Nazi occupation of Poland, with all the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto and other unspeakable atrocities inflicted upon the populace by the occupiers. Where are the parallels in Iraq? If the occupation is brutal, then the occupiers must be brutes. Do you really mean to equate the US forces and their allies with jack-booted Nazis and the like, or is your characterization simply more empty rhetoric of the Left?

I’ve been to Iraq twice in the past year and a half, spending about seven months there. I didn’t see or hear of the Coalition brutalizing the Iraqi people.  Rather than being “brutal”, I witnessed instead perhaps the most benevolent occupation in history: I saw a lot of hard-working folks, military and civilian, risking life and limb to reconstruct Iraq. Their efforts have produced thousands of projects that provide real, tangible benefits for ordinary Iraqis: hospitals, public health centers, schools, police and fire stations, potable water systems, sewage treatment, electricity generation and distribution, roads and bridges, and on and on. Where’s the brutality?

The brutality, of course, is to be found in the reign of terror inflicted upon the most humble and vulnerable elements of Iraqi society by the “insurgents” --- Saddam wannabes and those other foreign invaders, the holy warrior types who brought us 9/11. Imagine: Desperate jobseekers lured to a van with promises of work, only to be obliterated when the crowd becomes thick enough for maximum carnage. Or, a group of children gathering candy at a school opening ceremony presents an irresistible target for the heroic resistance. Or, construction workers intimidated from showing up for work on a public health clinic that would be a godsend to expectant mothers and infants; yet, the insurgents behead some likely workers anyway just to send a message. Bloody insurgency? Well, of course it is --- it’s meant to be. And damn brutal too.

Kurt Wiese

Editor’s note: