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Photo by Guido Berguido

Homeless

This unfortunate two-toed tree sloth is about to see its forest habitat at the former Fort Clayton destroyed. A stubborn band of urban environmentalists that has been fighting a series of battles to defend Panama City's remaining wooded areas isn't at all happy about it. Their battlegrounds are various --- construction sites, the courts, the media, and soon, the October 22 Panama Canal expansion referendum.

But why the referendum? First because they are environmentalists and as such have some specific objections to the Torrijos - Alemán Zubieta Plan, the most important of which is the tendency of the water saving basins that would be used in the new locks to introduce substantial quantities of salt water into Gatun Lake. But it also must be observed that a lot of groups with a lot of unrelated specific gripes with the Torrijos administration are set to take out their displeasure in that referendum.

People in the "yes" campaign deplore the historic tendency of people who are mad at a particular president for unrelated reasons to use any national referendum as a means to cast a vote of no confidence in the president. Both the Endara and Pérez Balladares presidencies were left crippled after being defeated in referenda in which many complaints led to the "no" victories. In a way, it's kind of like how in the United States a lot of people who are fed up with big government in general will express that sentiment by voting against local school millages even though their arguments against the government are not about public education and even though leaving the public schools underfunded erodes the quality of life in their communities. But then President Torrijos hopes that when he goes to indigenous communities passing out $35 per family this will translate into "yes" votes, so he and his supporters don't have such a strong moral case to make about how awful it would be if people were to cast votes on a referendum issue based on some extraneous grievance.

I think that people ought to vote the Torrijos - Alemán Zubieta Plan up or down based on its own merits, which, however, do include matters not contained in the plan itself like whether one confides in the ability of the government to carry out such a huge project with reasonable honesty and efficiency. In any case, the asymmetrical referendum campaign is now underway in earnest, and it's a fascinating thing for a political junkie to watch.

The environmental issue dearest to my own heart happens to be urban noise. Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro, regular readers may recall, issued an anti-noise decree a few weeks back and I put it to a little test a few days ago. I was quietly reading science fiction when this ear-splitting blast came from a little megaphone just across a narrow driveway from where I was --- the alarm at TEXANESA, this business that's my neighbor, went off again. As has always been the case before, nobody was breaking into that establishment.

I got onto my cell phone and called the Alcaldia, and from the background noise the receptionist guessed that the purpose of my communication was to complain about an alarm. She said she'd relay the complaint to the corregidor. I don't know what, if anything, has been done.

Now back in the USA, were I that sort of person I could very likely go after a company that did this sort of thing with a massively annoying lawsuit, alleging injury to my hearing (which I don't think would be factually incorrect) and demanding millions for pain and suffering, exemplary damages and all of that. But then that aspect of US culture is one reason why I got to hate being a lawyer in the states --- I don't want to play either side of the greed sweepstakes up there and I don't think that it would serve Panama well to imitate this part of the American way of life.

So, now that I have calmed down, what do I think ought to be done about this alarm? My tendency to advocate death by horrible torture for everyone connected with the obnoxious machine tends to dissipate well before the ringing in my ears does. In fact I generally don't favor the imposition of the large fines that the mayor's decree threatens, except when there's a contumacious offender whose arm needs to be twisted. The reasonable thing would be for someone from the city to come out and tell the people in charge of TEXANESA that there has been a complaint about their alarm and that they are visiting to inspect it. A cursory test would indicate that it produces an illegal noise level. In light of that it would be just to insist that the device be turned down to legally permissible decible levels (which would defeat the whole "blast the entire neighborhood" crime prevention strategy) or if that can't be done that it be removed entirely.

Anyway, it's a bit early to see if the mayor's anti-noise campaign will be effective. I can only hope. Alas, I have no hope for what really needs to be done on the national level, which is a ban on the importation and sale of noise-making car and building alarms. There's no pecuniary gain in that for the hoodlums who inhabit the legislative and executive branches of our national government.

Let me make one more observation about the din that characterizes life in our fair capital city. As these words are being written on a Sunday afternoon I am reminded of some thing I really like about rainy season. In addition to the beautiful orchids, when we get a heavy tropical cloudburst it dampens the sounds of cars, kids, distant alarms and that infernal rap coming from across the street. Right now the rain is pounding hard on the rooftop and all around the office, with an effect I find soothing.

The torrential rains have been most merciful in their timing --- they didn't disrupt the Panama Marathon. This annual event grows bigger every year, to the point that it has become one of the most important long-distance running events in Latin America. The sponsorship money is not quite there to bring in the world's very best runners, but we are not that many steps away.

This issue's sports section was one of those stay up late one night and get up early the next morning affairs, as my glimpse of the marathon was preceded by a boxing night in which Panama lost one of its world championships. My sadness for the setback to Vicente "El Loco" Mosquera's career does not, however detract for my amazement at the skills of the young Venezuelan who defeated him to win the WBA super-featherweight belt. Edwin "El Inca" Valero is possessed of a rare and awesome talent about which the world will surely hear more. Mosquera, who lost in the 10th round on a TKO, was the 20th straight opponent the undefeated young Valero knocked out, and the only one to go past the second round.

These past couple of weeks have taken me to the National Artisans' Fair at ATLAPA, a good concert by a Japanese military band, a protest against the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and a dim sum Sunday breakfast at Lung Fung, where I hadn't been in awhile.

I have also been entertained by some of the mail I have been receiving, especially some of the stuff with a mean tinge. In one of these, which graces this edition's letters page, I am suspected of being a Mireyista (!) and advised to "get a real job" by a supporter of the Torrijos-Alemán Zubieta Plan, who furthermore wants to know if I have lost my mind.

Well, that happened long ago....

Enjoy.

Eric Jackson

the editor