|
|
|
|
|||||
|
| |||||
opinionAlso in this section:
Sirias, Generic tourism What they're saying about Bush's Iraq policy speech Nasser, Reviving a "partnership" to maintain a division Jackson, Norman Hsu: a systemic nightmare that visited Hillary this time Bernal, Where are the "yes" people now?
Composite satellite photograph by the European Space Agency
Where are the yes people? by Miguel Antonio Bernal Once again, those in charge of governmental affairs botched a shell game, which identifies them as incompetents in matters of state. This time, anaesthesized by the thin air at the heights of corruption, they deceive the entire population and evade the truth about the close relations that the latest drug kingpin to be unmasked maintained both with themselves and their predecessors. No doubt they will once again fail to do the necessary investigations. Immigration, the cedula office at the Electoral Tribunal, the Superintendency of Banks, the Financial Analysis Unit, the banking system, the Public Ministry, the courts and the executive branch and a long list of etceteras will come out of it more than enough exonerated and a new "nothing has happened here" will throw a veil over their repugnant collusion. The drug cartels have penetrated them all. The Martín-Mireya pact continues in effect, in case anybody had any doubt. This, however, does not make us forget that just a year ago the government and president, with massive support from the Panama Canal Authority, the mainstream media and the leaderships of the different political parties --- with the exceptions of Endara and Varela --- deployed all the means at their disposal to open a new scenario for their corruption, the Panama Canal expansion. In the end they got what they wanted, although they've had to hide a massive abstention, by which in one way or another, together with the "no" vote, sectors that add up to a majority of the population avoided falling into the deception and manipulation set up for them. Just one year ago the more than 300 "organizations" that they invented, in close and harmonious collaboration with the Electoral Tribunal, tried to blot out the sun with their hands while the "notable" members Panama Canal Authority board of directors dismissed as "feeble" the solid arguments of those of us who opposed the plans and assumptions on which their megaproject, now hastily underway, was based. One of the arguments that the "yes" people attacked with the most fury was that about global warming and its likely effect on Panama Canal usage. During the past few days, the European Space Agency (ESA) reported that "the most direct route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, by way of the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic, has been opened. This passage united both oceans but had been frozen; now melting has made this route navigable for the first time." The ESA also reported that in the Northeast Passage, in the Russian Arctic, the icecap is shrinking and at the moment this potential waterway is only "partially blocked." The area covered by ice, according to the ESA, has fallen to its smallest ever since they have been measuring it by satellite, that is, for the past 30 years: "We have seen the area covered by ice fall to three million square kilometers, which is close to one million square kilometers less than the minimum registered in 2005 and 2006. There has been an average annual reduction of ice coverage, over the past 10 years, of some 100,000 square kilometers, and thus the loss of one million square kilometers in just one year is something extreme," said Leif Toudal Pedersen of the National Space Center of Denmark. "The icecap on the Arctic Ocean expands and contracts with winter and summer, but the total ice loss has accelerated since 1978. Thus the most direct route of the Northwest Passage, across the north of Canada (shown by the yellow line in the photograph) appears in our images as totally navigable, while the Northeast Passage that runs above Norway and Russia (shown by the blue line) is shown only partially blocked." The concern about increased global warming mattered little or nothing to the "yes" supporters, who now, along with the Panama Canal Authority, will not show their faces to give us a scientific explanation of the repercussions this will have on the number of Panama Canal transits. According to the Reuters news agency, the experts calculate that it will be cheaper to use this route than to use the Panama Canal. Should we go ahead with this expansion project that was recently initiated with such great pomp, while the gap between rich and poor in this country grows so incessantly? The "yes" fanatics gave us their word.
Also in this section:
Sirias, Generic tourism What they're saying about Bush's Iraq policy speech Nasser, Reviving a "partnership" to maintain a division Jackson, Norman Hsu: a systemic nightmare that visited Hillary this time Bernal, Where are the "yes" people now?
Unclassified Ads | Calendar | Outdoors | Dining | Science | Sports | Español | Front Page Archives | Wappin' Radio Show | Just Music
Make the
Executive Hotel your headquarters in Panama City ---
http://ww.executivehotel-panama.com
Find the boat of your dreams through Evermarine --- http://www.evermarine.com |
||||||||||
|
