Most ads are interactive -- click on them to visit the folks who make The Panama News possible

editorial

Wesley Snipes, Eddie Ray Kahn and those who say they speak for the American community

One specific news item, a few general trends and one claim in particular are of combined interest for Panama's gringo community at the moment.

Actor Wesley Snipes has been indicted for tax fraud and his co-defendant is one Eddie Ray Kahn, a right-wing "Christian" tax resistance leader who used to run the expat socials in Panama City and still lives in this country.

We have an influx of Americans coming to Panama to live, which has diverse roots but includes a lot of middle class retirees attracted by a lower cost of living, a number of people with different social and political philosophies who because of the Iraq War and various other Bush administration policies have concluded that the USA is in a moment of insanity that they'd rather not live through, folks who came here with the military and fell in love with Panama (and usually married a Panamanian), a relatively few fugitives from the law and an even smaller group of Americans who have come here to set up bases for criminal operations in Panama.

For years there has been a small, constant and predictable group of individuals within the American community who promote themselves as its leaders and spokespeople, the sort of folks to whom it is of the utmost importance to get their pictures taken with US ambassadors. Like a high school in crowd they size up newcomers, but in a more systematic and organized way than teenagers usually do it. They're oh so impressed with those who flash a lot of money. They advise people that to get ahead in Panama that they must ally themselves with the oligarchy. They jump at any opportunity to link up with those crooks in Panama's political class who give them a share in the loot. They have repeatedly vouched for or promoted the criminal element among us and have often been embarrassed for doing so.

We have a mad rush to cash in on the "expat boom," with American as well as Panamanian sharks taking part in the feeding frenzy. We have "expat" organizations, often masquerading as charitable or community groups, that are often just businesses with undisclosed motives and that are often not the properties of expatriates at all. We have had sleazy Panamanian politicians anointing the worst hustlers in the gringo community as the community's "leaders" and "voices."

Then there is the claim, put forward by our local chapter of Republicans Abroad, that they speak for 80 percent of the American community.

But who were the ones who treated Eddie Ray Kahn, the creepy right winger who gave bigoted pseudo-Christian sermons at casino events organized for the expat social group when he and his wife headed it, as a spokesman for the American community? Weren't they the school of fish among whom operatives of the infamous and now jailed Marc Harris --- once a campaign manager for failed GOP politician Alexander Haig --- used to swim? Weren't they the people who criticized The Panama News for exposing millionaire swindler Tom McMurrain and embraced the vulgar racist McMurrains as fellow "born-agains?" Weren't they the ones who defend Gilbert Straub, the man who personally delivered Richard Nixon's hush money to the Watergate burglars, and aren't they the ones who promote his business ventures here in Panama? These people, almost to a man and a woman, are found in our local chapter of Republicans Abroad.

Not all of our local Republicans are in that clique, but that self-appointed in crowd dominates the local GOP scene.

And you know what? It may be that they once represented the point of view of most of the American community here, but that's no longer the case. Most of the Americans coming down here to live are middle class people who are sick of George W. Bush, sick of the Iraq War, sick of Halliburtton and sick the general trend of the Bush administration to adopt the ethical standards of a banana republic. There is no good way of counting, but surely this will be the first US election year since the early 60s when the Democrats get more votes out of Panama than the Republicans do.

Those who promoted Eddie Ray Kahn, Marc Harris, Gilbert Straub, Tom McMurrain et al, who equate money with respectability, who question the patriotism of every American who doesn't buy into their plastic world view, are not the gringo community's spokespeople. In fact most Americans here think them to be a bunch of snobs to avoid.

It's too bad that there is no election among US citizens here to choose the community's leaders within Panama. Were that the case those who make the loudest and most insistent claims of being spokespeople for and leaders of the Americans in Panama would be clearly placed in their true context.

Eddie Ray Kahn doesn't speak for American expatriates in Panama, nor do the Republicans Abroad, nor do the hustlers and the websites they run. The truth is that most Americans in the USA are tired of these kinds of people running the government in Washington and because of this they are about to take control of Congress away from the GOP. Most Americans in Panama concur with that judgment.

Bear in mind...

Why do born-again people so often make you wish they'd never been born the first time?

Katharine Whitehorn

Today's city is the most vulnerable social structure ever conceived by man.

Martin Oppenheimer

Some people say that cats are sneaky, evil, and cruel. True, and they have many other fine qualities as well.

Missy Dizick