arts

Also in this section:
Impressions of 2006
Arts center opening in San Carlos
Crowds to be limited at Portobelo's Diablo and Congo Festival
Gallery & Museum Guide

The year's top story was the approval of the Panama Canal expansion proposal

Impressions of Panama in 2006

photos and electronic manipulations by Eric Jackson, except as noted

The year begins with dry season and peak tourism season, and thus with many of the Panama's best musical events, indoors and outdoors. Above we see singer Leslie George in his calypsonian mode in a Casco Viejo free concert. The next two photos are from the 2006 Panama Jazz Festival. This year's jazz festival is January 15-20.

Due to some incredibly stupid priorities during the Moscoso administration, Panama lost its professional winter ball league. We do, however, get to see some major league baseball stars like Carlos Lee, who is shown here at the 2006 home run derby at Rodney Carew National Stadium. The 2007 home run derby is on January 26

Mmmmm --- star apple season

Getting squirted is one of the main things about Carnival...

...as are impromptu collaborations among the many musicians who find work during the party

Here President Torrijos (center) uses his public office to promote the sale of gold mining stock --- for a mining concession that has existed for 19 years without ever going into commercial production --- on foreign exchanges. Appearing with Torrijos is the stock's promoter, one Richard Fifer, left. At the time the photo was taken, and as far as we know to this day, Fifer was facing criminal charges for the embezzlement of public funds while he was governor of Cocle province. Photo taken from the Petaquilla Minerals website, electronic manipulation by Eric Jackson (and no, nobody's image was superimposed or eliminated)

March winds bring on the Chinese-Panamanian Professionals' Association annual Kite Festival

Capitalism on the rampage at Los Pueblos II mall in Albrook

Plenty of construction workers found jobs with the Casco Viejo's rehabilitation and gentrification

The 2006 Ocean-to-Ocean Cayuco Race was bigger than ever

US Ambassador William Eaton pitched in with a hard day's physical labor on a Habitat for Humanity housing project for the poor. Photo courtesy of the US Embassy, electronic manipulation by Eric Jackson

Officially, Japan has no navy, and thus no naval academy. In reality, woe to any nation that tries to attack Japan by sea --- they have the "Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force," which is probably the most modern navy that exists. That military outfit has its Training Squadron, which in turn has an excellent band. The band played a concert at the Curundu dome while the squadron was passing through Panama, with many members of the police and bombero bands among the audience.

With the rains come successive waves of bugs. This one was pretty harmless

The opposition Panameñista Party chose a new leader this year, businessman Juan Carlos Varela

This large but gentle vegetarian lives at the little zoo at El Nispero in El Valle

Orchids are one of Panama's great attractions

Panama City has many stray cats, but also Spay Panama, which neuters them and tries to find them homes but releases them at the places from whence they came if homes can't be found. The organization works closely with people who feed the cats in their neighborhoods and with other groups that promote the welfare of animals. A good part of the job is educating young people about the practical issues of having a pet and the ethical issues of being kind to other living things. Spay Panama is headed by Pat Chan, who used to be director of financial planning for the Panama Canal

Those "shingles" on the steeple at the Catholic church in San Carlos? They're oyster shells

From watching TV, you might think that there is hardly any effort to promote Panama's national culture. However, the traditions are being passed down to a younger generation through the schools and by private organizations

Fishermen bring a boat ashore at Playa Ensenada in San Carlos. This beach, however, has been acquired for a resort hotel and some of these men will have to quit the ancient profession of fishing for a living

In older parts of the capital, people don't use buzzers and bells --- they summon by shouting, and lower and raise bags or baskets with keys or other items to and from balconies

The Panama City Marathon is moving up in its standing among the world's long-distance running events

The "no" campaign didn't get on TV, either in ads or in televised debates --- the government spent more than 10 times as much as the total campaign against the canal expansion proposal had to spend on advertising just to bribe radio and TV "journalists" to slant their coverage. That, in turn, was a minor detail of the massive state-funded "yes" campaign, which was augumented by private corporate campaigns whose domestic and foreign contributions were not disclosed to the voters. In the end some 78 percent of the 43 percent who voted --- essentially the hardcore PRD base and hardly anyone else --- voted in favor. Photo above by Panama Profundo, electronic manipulation by Eric Jackson

The turning point in the referendum campaign came when the government provoked and then suppresed a teachers' strike. The Torrijos administration created a puppet council of paper organizations with which it negotiated in lieu of dealing with the genuine teachers' unions, plus called out a subservient faction of pro-government Seguro Social workers to block traffic, and then Torrijos called for voters to vote "yes" against "the forces of chaos"

The developers covet them, and the politicians are trying to sell as many of them as they can, but so far Panama City remains blessed with a remarkable set of urban parks

One of the exhibits at the flower show held at ATLAPA

Protesters pass a Santa Ana fruit and vegetable stand

Samuel Archer, above, was one of the stars from the 60s and 70s combos nacionales who performed at a Nostalgia Night that was held on the birthday of trumpeter Vitín Paz, shown below

Deviationism in the labor movement?

Scene from the Canadian booth at the Caravana de Asistencia Social charity benefit at ATLAPA

The nation was shocked by an October electrical fire on a city bus, which claimed 18 lives. The bus's driver, owner and mechanic were jailed and the Torrijos administration used the incident to promote a campaign to put the present owner/operators out of business and replace them with a system owned by one or more large corporations. The facts that the bus was purchased with public funding from the Banco Nacional de Panama, which mandated the specifications, and that it came without an emergency exit and with an air conditioning system that used an explosive chemical were not taken as issues of concern by the politicians and prosecutors

Little kids everywhere want to grow up and be firefighters, but in Panama the bombero bands --- the best marching bands in the country --- reinforce those ambitions

US military veterans gathered at the American Cemetery in Corozal for a Veterans Day ceremony

People living around El Cangejo's Parque Andres Bello protested plans to build a high-rise residential tower next to the park. The neighborhood gets twice a day traffic gridlock, but there are more tall buildings under construction there

Alex Reyes, the "Slim" of Shorty & Slim, at a December 29 presentation of the band's first CD in several years

What would Albert Einstein have thought? The Einstein head sculpture goes back to a time when El Cangrejo was the capital's most identifiably Jewish neighborhood. That has mostly changed, but directly across the street from his left ear there's a new bagel place