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opinion
Also in this section: Sirias, "Folklore" that Panama can live without
Stories and
realities STORY: Norma de la Espada was fascinated with the bundle that she had happened upon, and also concerned that it had attached to it several sheets of parchment. She didn't hesitate to submerge herself into reading it, with such concentration that for the first time it set aside the diastractions of the radio, television and her five kids shouting in unison. The writing quoted 84 paragraphs of the Taoist work "S'san Toung Ch'i," which in summary described how a philosophical egg contained in the bundle that Norma de la Espada possessed had been prepared. It had a mix of alchemist's gold with cinnebar powder with a harmonious proportion of yin --- the female principal --- and yang --- the masculine principle, achieving a true cycle, both symbolic and concrete, of the origins of the world, in order "to get back to the womb." "Get out of here, if this is the Elixer of Longevity!" she exclaimed, jumping to her feet. She read more hastily. The narrative was explaining how the Count Saint Germain, Cagliostro and Doctor Faust were almost eternal, thanks to the elixir. It was revealing how the first was currently a butcher in a Hamburg neighborhood, the second a pizza handler in a Tegucigalpa restaurant and the third a pimp the port of Buenaventura. The text was indicating that the little porcelain flask that Norma de la Espada was getting done with unpacking contained the dosage for one person only. Whosoever ingested it would sleep for 20 years --- like Rip Van Winkle --- and meanwhile undergo a transformation. Teeth and hairs would fall out and new ones would appear, and moreover there would be a total renovation of the envelope of skin and the vital organs. The spirit would be flooded with a divine fire. The body would be like that of a child. However, it also warned that the transformation would have to take place at a distance of no more than 200 kilometers from Ancon Hill, as that promontory possessed a special magnetic center that activated the elixir's properties. The person benefiting from the rejuvenation could never go beyond this radius, or otherwise disintegrate, turning into just a handful of iodized salt. Norma was infinitely happy. She sought information about how the next century, the world of the future, would be. The magazines talked about automation, of robots serving every desire; of houses in the air and cures for all ailments; of passenger flights bringing tourism to the moon and all the planets. Television took her on supersonic trips to the stars with Flash Gordon, to a society where comfort and that which is marvelous erased realities like hers, a single mother who did backbreaking work as a laundress, and in her free time taught for starvation wages at a rundown school. She said goodbye to each of her children and sent them to their respective fathers with notes attached to thier shirt collars that said: "I gave birth to them and have cared for them until this point. Now that's up to you. I'm going on a trip from which I will never return, not even on an impulse." She invested her scant savings into an impermeable tarpaulin and other implements that she would need. One lighting-filled night she surrepticiously dragged her utensils to Ancon Hill, hiding them so that they could not be seen. She opened a trail through the tangled jungle and for an hour dug a cave in the most recondite site. Around her titillated the carpet of city lights, and the echoes of urban noises and harmonies. She lit a battery lamp. She at a now cold tamale and drank an almost tepid beer, thought about her children, but, with a movement of her head, erased them to avoid suffering, uncapped the Elixir of Longevity and said to the moon that shone through a window of clouds for a moment, "Salud!" It surprised her that the contents had no flavor, but it did have the heavy consistency of castor oil. She accomodated herself under the tarpaulin and waited for the dream to come to the cave where she would hibernate for 20 continuous years. A breeze brought to her feet pages of an abandoned newspaper. She took it and read it to hasten the sleep. Terrified, she was discovering as the sleep began to take here, that the article published in the daily described and predicted what would be the future of the underdeveloped countries within 20 years. How hunger would intensify and basic resources would be lacking; the deterioration of the environment; the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor; and above all, what the fate of the children would be according to these well documented scientific predictions. She tried to vomit, but the elixir had taken hold of her guts. Thought about the future that awaited a child who couldn't flee more than 200 kilometers from the reality of underdevelopment caused her anguish and increased her desire to stay behind so that such a morning wouldn't be like that. Too late. The thought was only a sparkle in her mind when the dream overcame it, irremediably battering it between snores and breaths. (From my book Viaje Alrededor del Patio.) NEWS: The number of persons under the extreme poverty line will increase to 100 million by 2015, and won't be reduced in half as had been hoped, said Jacques Diouf, the Senegalese general secretary of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization. Moreover, between 1990 and 2000, the development aid from the rich countries went down some 50 percent. He said that there is a lack of political will and worldwide commitment to reverse this pessimistic scenario.
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