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Two stray thoughts

by Silvio Sirias

Your life is what your thoughts make it.

Marcus Aurelius

Off of Calle 50, here in Panama City, there’s an empty lot of beautiful, lush green land the size of a city block. On it grow several majestic trees. Of these, one stands out in particular --- every February, across the street from La Mansión Danté, a regal guayacan astounds passersby with a spectacular bloom of bright yellow flowers. A stately, chest-high stone wall surrounds the site. This place would indeed make a dazzling park.

Four years ago --- when my wife and I first moved to our current home --- an aged, but still splendid-looking, two-story hacienda house stood at the rear of the lot. The building spoke eloquently to the area’s noble past. And I use to love to fantasize that, one day, I’d be able to afford the mansion and restore it. Then, three years ago, without warning and without ceremony, the manor was torn down. This, I believe, was a tragic mistake.

Nevertheless, in spite of that loss, the landscape remains beautiful.

But last week, in La Prensa, a brief note in the business section stated that the property --- which for generations had belonged to the Obarrio family --- changed hands, the third time in four years. And the piece heralded the projected construction of high-rise office buildings as glowing testimony to Panama’s vigorous economic growth.

I did not rejoice at this news. It saddens me to think of this wondrous, open space, in the heart of the banking district, succumbing to the imperatives of greed.

What the nation’s capital needs today, far more than skyscrapers, are places where people can find respite from the chaos of Panama City, as well as from the worrisome proliferation of insipid concrete towers.

*    *    *

Once again, Jaime Raúl Molina has stepped up to the writer’s podium to preach about the virtues of unrestrained profit-making. His article appears in the latest issue of Agenda Magazine. Molina’s simplistic condemnations of environmentalists and people who believe that it’s essential to monitor corporations have forced me, in the past, to respond to other articles he has written. My pieces, “The Highway Through Darien” and “The Specter of Greed,” appeared in The Panama News.

And now Molina returns with an article that denounces all environmentalists. He blames them --- in particular Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring --- for the public panic that led to the “unnecessary” banning of DDT. According to Molina, this ban is responsible for the resurgence of malaria and, of course, for unjustly hurting the pesticide industry.

While this is true --- and I agree with him that the reaction to Carson’s claims was somewhat hasty --- DDT was proved harmful to wildlife, especially birds and fish. Because of this, the ban remains on using DDT in large scale agriculture. But recently, the World Health Organization has cleared the insecticide for indoor use in areas where malaria is a problem.

Jaime Raúl Molina calls this a victory for progress, and he then proceeds to ridicule anyone who places the well-being of the environment above the well-being of people. Being familiar by now with Molina’s ardent advocacy for business without barriers, as well as with his distorted notions about the meaning of freedom, his failure to understand that the well-being of humanity depends precisely on our ability to co-exist with the planet doesn’t surprise me.

After reading Molina’s latest piece, I’m ready to cancel my subscription to the magazine. The problem is that all subscribers to La Prensa receive Agenda for free.

Silvio Sirias resides in Panama. His novel, Bernardo and the Virgin, will be released in paperback in April of 2007 (Northwestern University Press.) He teaches at Balboa Academy and is currently revising The Saint of Santa Fe, a novel about the life and times of Father Héctor Gallego. For more information, visit his website at http://www.silviosirias.com

Sirias, Two thoughts
Jackson, Setting up the gringos as scapegoats
Birns, Will the Democrats change US policy in the region?
Roy, The hue and cry after a disaster can't substitute for prevention
Carpio, Banana politics
Pilgrim, Make AIDS a priority in the Caribbean
Bresnahan, The Pinochet legacy
Bernal, Presidential power and the party system

Ramey, True Muslims don't deny the Holocaust