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opinion
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It works for some of them by Eric Jackson
I have my dual US-Panamanian citizenship by virtue of having been born in Colon to American parents. I sometimes run into American expatriates who envy this status, and sometimes get emails from people abroad asking how to get it.
On balance I am comfortable with my binationality, but there are also its downsides. I sometimes feel like, and I am sometimes treated as if, I'm neither fish nor fowl (figuratively speaking, of course --- the lack of feathers or scales doesn't bother me so much). For a dual citizen's two countries go to war with one another as in 1989 is the worst of experiences. For the longest time, however, I have despaired for both of my countries because of the distinct maladies with which their respective governments and political cultures have been suffering.
In Panama, government is opaque and flagrantly corrupt and those who run it adopt a sneering attitude about it. In the United States, government is increasingly opaque and corrupt, but more than anything the product of cynical manipulations of dark passions and exaggerated fears. Some of the things that the United States has in excess are in prejudicial short supply here, and vice versa. Too many Americans think that they or their country can do anything, and so the government is allowed to do some exceptionally dumb or profoundly immoral things. Too many Panamanians think that neither they nor their country can do anything right, and so accept corruption and other wrongs that should never be tolerated.
As a Panamanian, I have watched with great sadness, and not without saying anything about it, as my country has been led on a lemming march to the abyss. The damage that Martín Torrijos and Alberto Alemán Zubieta have done to democracy, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law by their thuggish and insipid "yes" campaign will have repercussions here for a long time to come. The worst of these consequences may come after these people and the coalition they have mobilized are run out of power, because when one side takes off the gloves and abuses power it should be expected that those on the other side will likewise feel less constrained about what they do. And if someone wants to say that the system has been rigged so that nothing will give, the way I see it things have been sealed just tight enough that a hated political class will explode rather than just burn out.
Ah, but things work just fine for them --- for the time being.
As an American, I took a rare (for me) peek at the CNN domestic USA feed and watched with a mixture of horror and glee a program entitled "Broken Government." It's awful because of how bad things have become, to the point that "objective" corporate media that usually make a pretense of not having an opinion now have to note the malaise as fact rather than opinion. It's wonderful because there are strong indications that America's lemming march is about to end, or at least pause.
Quite frankly, it pains me to see the GOP about to get beaten because one of their representatives has this perversion about page boys and its star lobbyist, in addition to the usual bribery stuff that goes with that turf, took bribes from casinos to mobilize anti-gambling Christians against rival casinos. Democrats are not immune from perversion or corruption. Recall that the Democrats' sleaze rather than the Republicans' ideology was the main thing that led to the end of the long Democrat hold over the House of Representatives in 1994.
I would prefer a more clear-cut decision by the American people that the GOP's trickle down economics, disdain for international and domestic law, obnoxious behavior in the community of nations and embrace of all manner of ugly prejudices are unbecoming of a great nation. But on every one of those issues, the Democratic leadership has been intimidated into taking weak and unprincipled stands. Even the disastrous war in Iraq, which is the Republicans' biggest policy vulnerability in this congressional election year, gets relatively little forthright opposition from the Democratic side of the aisle.
Selling their American constituents out to business interests intent on lowering their standard of living to Third World levels, giving a great nation a reputation for picking wars it can't win and then torturing people in frustration, canceling fundamental rights that Americans have long held dear, playing demagogic games to divide the people by race, religion and national origin and still having most opponents afraid to criticize them for it --- this has been a very comfortable situation for them. But all things must pass, and it looks as if this November's voting will bring an end to Republican domination in one or both houses of the US Congress.
I'd like to see a head-on confrontation on the issues and a clear decision by American voters that the Republican policies of these past few years are wrong. But you take your victories how they come. I won't be advising Democrats to give Capitol Hill back if they win it the "wrong" way.
And it just doesn't do to undergo that sort of makeover that turns you into the image of your adversary if you lose. No matter how many times the hoodlums win Panama's elections, I won't give up and play juega vivo "just like everyone else."
You see, dual citizenship is not just a matter of two sets of rights. It's also a double burden to carry, particularly when times are bad for both of your countries.
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