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photo by Eric Jackson

'Tis the season...

Above we see one of the sights of the Mayor's Christmas Parade, an annual event that delighted kids of all ages and even got the sky to cooperate this year. Thus approached another holiday season, another birthday for The Panama News, and the end of a year that's going to be remembered, for better and worse, as a watershed of many sorts in Panama.

The other day while taking the bus out to San Carlos I noticed the first of this year's muñecos --- go here for a sample from our centennial year --- and I wonder, with the canal referendum, all the scandals, the social polarization along several axes and developments in the popular culture, which people and themes the people who practice this tradition will highlight.

The production of this issue, largely done in San Carlos, was delayed by one prolonged power outage and several shorter ones on December 17, and I apologize. Were I a decade or two younger I might have caught up by pulling an all-nighter, but I just can't do that like I once did. My whole website production process is now complicated by the Wappin' Radio Show, which, however, adds a new dimension to this publication and also in the part of the show that's news rather than music gives you an opportunity for fresher news updates.

It's the holiday season and that puts a lot of things on hold, but nevertheless there are a lot of things happening in the news.

As these words are typed it seems that an anticipated showdown between bus drivers and the government is not happening for the moment because neither side is fully prepared for an all-out fight. I think it's a postponement, not a cancellation.

The United States and Panama are talking about free trade again and it seems that some of the sticky agricultural issues have been compromised, but that story won't really unfold until the new US Congress takes office and a lot of that story, in turn, depends on the health of an ailing Democratic senator.

Meanwhile a politically embarrassing police investigation in the UK has a little Panama tangent, and here it's not so much a matter of an occasion to demand that some crook be thrown out but to wonder just why the Torrijos administration has appointed a billionaire British lord who lives in Florida to be a Panamanian diplomat in Belize.

The main Panamanian political scandal reported in this issue is a bigger disgrace to this country's journalists than to its politicians, in my opinion. It hasn't been pointed out in any of the mainstream media for unsurprising reasons, but Okke Ornstein has revived his muckraking Noriegaville website and this is one of the fruits of its new season.

And if this is a season of joy and hope, it must be especially so for 18-year-old Panamanian soccer star Gabriel Torres, as he has just learned that his talent has brought him from his humble home in Ciudad Radial to the attention of the renowned Manchester United organization.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees also finds it a time to rejoice about something Panamanian. For a change this country has accepted a group of indigenous villagers fleeing from political violence in their native Colombia into our Darien province as bona fide refugees.

After a rainy season of floods and dengue outbreaks, it looks as if dry season is upon us --- the wind is blowing strong from the north and there's hardly a cloud in the sky as I write --- and that's also welcome to most of us.

So, despite any and all setbacks and annoyances of the past year and present moment, I find a lot to be happy and positive about and hope that you do, too.

But will I step on a scale on New Year's Day and lament that I overdid it? I'll try to avoid that fate, but nevertheless I didn't count calories when putting together a dining page full of holiday recipe suggestions.

We have a larger than usual fun section this time, with Sparky the Wonder Dog joined by poets and abstract photos.

Also on the cultural front, I caught the Theatre Guild of Ancon's Christmas play and if you haven't you ought to attend one of the final two shows if you can. It's one of the oldest and liveliest organizations of Panama's English-speaking community and a pretty good production. The brief moments of Santa Claus as Elvis impersonator are worth the price of admission alone.

And speaking of Santa Claus, maybe you miscreant kids who think you got away with it but aren't quite sure about that ought to check out this edition's listing of Cool Internet sites, one of which might help you figure out if the contents of your stocking will be sooty.

Can it really be 12 years since I put together that first edition of The Panama News, in print form? Indeed it has been, and this past year there was a special print edition (a joint bilingual effort with Miguel Antonio Bernal's Alternativa on the occasion of the canal referendum). Another special print edition, tentatively set for late next month, is in the works.

It's a busy and positive holiday season for me and you can see and now hear why I say that in this edition.

Enjoy.