editorial

A murder touches the American community here

No need for hysteria, but do heed the warning signs

The gruesome murder of American expatriate Toni Grossi-Abrams is raw meat for the sensationalist press, some US outposts of which have shamefully misrepresented certain aspects of Panama. Yes, it's a newsworthy story, and maybe even the subject matter of interesting true crime books and movies. It's also a tale with a number of warning signs for those Americans who would be attracted to the isthmus by certain commercial appeals. However, let's keep it all in proper perspective.

First and foremost, let's not forget the principle of innocent until proven guilty. This ought to be obligatory for the courts as a matter of ironclad law. The press and public opinion may be excused for having somewhat lesser standards, but only slightly. A rush to judgment, particularly if directed against groups but also when pointed at an individual, is the stuff of which lynchings are made and with all of Panama's other troubles we don't need any of that.

Second, there is enough public information about the circumstances surrounding this murder to add up to a cautionary tale. Are you an American who speaks no Spanish and knows essentially nobody in this country, thinking about coming here and getting rich quick in real estate speculation? Do you think that, because the power elites in this country get away with almost anything in their business dealings, you can come here and do so too? Think again, because even though Panama is a good place to retire, the economy of this place is dominated by a few dozen families and if someone is trying to persuade you it's somewhere that you can get rich quick (or usually, richer quicker) that person is most likely just trying to take your money. It appears that Toni Grossi-Abrams was involved as both victim and perpetrator in some cutthroat real estate practices and that probably had something to do with her death. Take a hint.

Third, let's dispense with this narrow concept of an "expat community." There is an American community composed of dual citizens, people of US heritage who have only Panamanian citizenship but are partially or totally American in the cultural sense, long-time residents with only US citizenship and also recently arrived expatriates, and this combined American community is more than 150 years old. There is an even larger English-speaking community, which includes not only the above-mentioned sectors but also a big West Indian population in various degrees of assimilation into Spanish and part of which holds dual US-Panamanian citizenship, a British community that's mainly concentrated in the maritime industries, a small but growing group of Canadians and a large number of Panamanians who speak English as a second language, many of whom were educated at US universities. At its worst the concept of an "expat community" is a narrowing, exclusionary, colonial notion that promotes ghettoization rather than a more comfortable fit into Panamanian society. Moreover --- usually innocently but sometimes not --- various people and organizations who have affixed the "expat" label to themselves have time and again provided cover for those would prey on newcomers from the United States. Is that fellow American the person whom you should naturally trust? That may have been Toni Grossi-Abrams's fatal miscalculation.

If all the sensationalism around this crime leads some people to reconsider what they had been thinking, it may be bad news for a relatively few speculators but it may be good news for just about everyone else. Hysterical stampedes won't help anyone, but calm reflection surely will. Panama is still a good place for Americans to retire, but it's another country with its own set of problems and if you come down here operating on a naive set of assumptions the result could well be tragic.

Another major setback for the lamest stereotype in US culture

Does a firearm make your home safer? Is the easy access to guns an effective policy to reduce the incidence of violent crime? For a long time the US gun lobby has been spending lots of money to convince the American people and their elected leaders of these propositions, but the available statistics consistently show that these are fallacies. Year after year justifiable homicides committed in self defense with firearms in the United States are measured in the few hundreds while firearms deaths that are criminal homicides, suicides or accidents are in the tens of thousands.

It's fortunate for those of us living down here that this is primarily an American superstition. The problem is that, thanks to the values and decisions of a relatively uncultured Panamanian media elite, this country's television programming is full of trashy Hollywood fiction that endlessly repeats the myth that the solution to violence in society is a hero with a gun (who generally gets the beautiful woman in the end, of course).

Well, where was this hero with a gun the other day at Virginia Tech? How effectively did the armed citizenry that the National Rifle Association so fervently celebrates stand up to this one dangerous young man?

What the gun laws and policies ought to be in any given country is a complicated question, with competing legitimate interests. These are better considered with due deliberation rather than in a panic or a great hue and cry after a particularly horrendous crime. In any case, the situation in Panama is distinct from that of our neighbors to the north.

One thing's for sure, however: Panama should never be so foolish as to base its responses to violent crime in general or to the intricacies of firearms policy in particular on that imported crap we see on TV.

Bear in mind...

Truth is the only safe ground to stand on.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

The fellow that agrees with everything you say is either a fool or he is getting ready to skin you.

Kin Hubbard

If you are not big enough to lose, you are not big enough to win.

Walter Reuther