letters

Readers concerned about the burning issues of the day?

License Issue

Just a note on the latest license issue here in Panama.

Although my wife, a Coco Solo/Colon province born number three cedula holder literally breezed in to the Transit Authority office located at the Four Corners Mall and exchanged her old for the new, I however with Cedula E (Extranjero) with resident status of over fifty years, was disappointedly directed to the Pacific Side.

Mega Auto Mall they told me --- out on the Tocumen Highway. Yeah, right, I told myself --- visions of a plunge into the bureaucracy of Panama --- just what I enjoy doing most in Panama.

More like mega waits at Mega Auto with instructions to get paperwork I had never heard of stamped at the government bank back in the City achieved only by hours of waiting in line and ultimately being told I was in the wrong line, wrong stamp and I would have to start over. 

What could you do but comply --- you got to have a license in this country or be faced with endless toque ed mano to pay for an underpaid Transito's lunch.

As I finally found the inner sanctum of the transit authority, I stepped into a classroom type set up with a counter of several clerk attending people, still apprehensive, I handed a very pleasant lady my license and cedula and was told to have a seat. Here we go I said to myself. Much to my surprise, after watching her go through what looked like an alphabetical file box she pulled what I assumed was my license and checked it against paperwork in another file and to make a potentially long story short, called me up and handed me my brand new shiny, space age looking license with my smiling face of 10 years past. I looked at her with a grin and said "I have hardly aged in years".... The old CHS thespian in me could further not resist speaking up to all the the clerks in general and profoundly thanked them for a very effective operation closing with "that did not even hurt at all"..... They got a big kick out of that one as I exited.

Seriously, my compliments to the Transit Authority for a job well done.

Skip Berger

gold-coast@cwpanama.net

Nightmare in Colon

Let me start off by saying that I am an avid reader of the Panama News, and the thumbing of the nose effect it has on the rest of the Panamanian press and government. I am married to a Panamanian woman for the past 20 years and I, myself, lived and worked in that country for more than 12 years.

As a soldier, my first duty assignment was in Colon, back in the day when Bolivar Street was the dividing line between Colon and the Canal Zone. I was single at the time and got to really get around in Colon and meet people, and generally live amongst the Colonenses. That was back in 1976. The poverty and crime was there, but there was a certain pride amongst the people and the old Guardia National pretty much kept the crime in check. They terrorized the residents by beating and gunshots.

At that time after visiting "the other side" every once and a while, then returning back to the town that I felt a part of, I came to the realization, that Colon was treated as if it was in another country. Though there are some very nice properties on the outskirts and a few well-to-do people, the fact still remains that the majority of the population is of African descent. This is where the problem begins and has persevered over the past 80 years. The government of Panama does not care anything about the people of Colon and improving their plight, not even with a multi-billion shipping industry and tax free zone, right there in their backyard. No president (I remember five) has ever done anything about this problem, to include Mr. Torrijos.

What needs to happen in Panama is what happened in the United States in the 60s and 70s. Black people need to revolt. They need to take trains, buses, and even walk (Like they do for Portobelo) into Panama City and hit them where it hurts, in their pockets. The 50th street district needs to burn, the hotel and business district on Balboa Avenue, needs to burn, and all of those night clubs in Panama City that don't admit Blacks, need to burn. Then while all of this is happening, enough people should be left back to hit the container industry and the free zone in Colon, proper. This revolution may not solve all their problems, but it would change the consciousness of the powers-to-be and start to be a lot more fair with the poor Blacks in the city of Colon. Just like in the US, the Black communities had been ignored for so long, they started to deteriorate from the inside out. Though Dr. Martin Luther King was of a non-violent platform, this was needed to be able to sit at the same table with the oppressors, but at the same time people like H. Rap Brown, Stokely Carmichael, Angela Davis, the Black Panther Party, Malcolm X, just to name a few, raised up in very violent manner to help get the attention of white society.

Blocking traffic and banging pots and pans is not going to get it done. The danger in all of this snubbing and ignoring of Colon by the forces to be in the Panamanian government have not only made them grow complacent, there is a certain complacency amongst the Black people in Colon, that things are just destined to be like this, and things will never change. This is sad, and I say shame on the government of Panama for allowing this situation to deteriorate to this degree for such warm and beautiful people.

Larry B

Editor's note: I remember when something like that happened in Detroit. The white political power structure crumbled, but then the white economic power structure tightened the screws and the city is now largely a post-industrial wasteland that in some places was never rebuilt after the 1967 rebellion.

I also remember as an activist and as a lawyer defending some of the Black Panthers. You wouldn't know it from the mainstream news coverage of those times, but the Panthers tended to get shot much more frequently than they shot people. The bad-ass image may have helped them recruit members for awhile, but when all was said and done it recruited a lot more hysterical white voters for the likes of Richard Nixon.

Make people desperate enough and they'll lash out, maybe in not too thoughtful a manner. Colon has seen plenty of  variations on that theme, too.

Decameron article

I enjoyed your article about the Decameron and share your feelings more than you can imagine. I too love to hit the Decam. for the weekend with a girlfriend in tote. And yes, I'm the "thrill seeker" who stays out far too late at night on cheap rum and bad buffet food :)

More importantly, I think articles like these need to be intensified and be directed to IPAT and AMCHAM. Granted they probably won't listen, but I think it's really important for them to see that Disneyland-type bubbles where guests can speak English and drink bottled water are not what Panama needs. They're not special, or as Casey says "authentic". I once overheard a top member at AMCHAM "wishing that Sea World deal had come through" in Farallon which would have been terrible.

I just wrote an article that echoes my agreement with you all below and simply wanted to commend the effort of Silvio: http://www.thepanamareport.com/panama-culture/the-future-of-panama-tourism-cancun-itis-525-31.html

Matt

Americans and cultural differences

While I like many North Americans grew up in a small Midwest American town and neighborhood, reading and accepting all the textbooks taught us, and believing everything I heard from the pulpit of my church...as I grew up I was able to travel, go to college, and get outside of the box in which I grew up (a nice box…but a box nonetheless). I learned that there were many different viewpoints and additional factors to the world and US history than I had been taught in my little society. The hardest parts always were admitting when the new information I learned or observed didn't add up to the preconceptions I had as a child or young adult. As I have aged, my world view has changed or adapted many times to new information.

Change and adaptation is hard. Unfortunately, I find that most of the worlds masses never have had the opportunity to travel, get outside their little worlds and examine the bigger picture. This exploration is primarily reserved for first world, educated and comparatively wealthy individuals. Therefore, MOST of humanity is ruled by simplistic absolutes that they have never and probably WILL never question. Many of these absolutes are hooked into nationalistic, racist or bigoted thinking that in my experience tends to rule the masses. When many of us start facing the avalanche of questions or doubts about our previously held absolutes, we go numb and retreat into all manner of behaviors...sometimes escapist… no longer looking people in the eye, sometimes developing harmful addictions, and often times living in "Denial."

Ed Thurston

Editor's note: Well, you know what Mark Twain said about it: "Denial ain't just a river in Egypt."

Btesh & Virzi

I am writing to inform you about illegal actions taken by Btesh & Virzi, one of the largest contractors in Panama City. I entered into a contract to purchase a condo in Costa Pacifica Tower 400 in Punta Pacifica.

I made my deposit timely and obtained the proper financing. Before I took possession of the condo, I found a buyer to flip the condo, in anticipation of making a tidy profit. Mr. Btesh decided to be greedy, and decided to unilaterally cancel the contract, and attempt to take the condo back, so that he may sell it at a higher price. Mr. Btesh also returned my loan approval documents to the bank.

There is nothing in my contract that precludes me from flipping the contract. Mr. Btesh is being greedy, and has done the same to other condo purchasers. The other purchasers simply accepted their returned down payment, but I refuse to do so. I have sought legal counsel, and seek to sue Mr. Btesh and his company should he not allow me to go through with my transaction. Mr. Btesh's own attorneys have advised him from that his actions are illegal, but his greed has overcome his common sense.

My e-mail to you will allow you to warn your readers at http://www.thepanamanews.com of the practices of this unscrupulous builder. Considering your website is the largest English publication on the Internet about Panama, my message will reach the masses.

Spiro Leunes

A charming email exchange with one Roger Gallo

From: rgallo

To: Eric Jackson

I would appreciate it if you removed all articles from your website that insinuate that I am somehow a crook or involved in Panzi schemes.

I provide advertising. Nothing more. I am not involved with any clients, nor with any of the clients with whom you have inappropriately lumped me.

I suggest that 72 hours is sufficient time to remove all articles from your website that have my name on them. I will no longer put up with inappropriate slandering of my name without resorting to legal recourse.

There are a number of individuals and companies here in Panama who have been damaged by irresponsible Internet reports who as a group have decided that they are no longer willing to put up with reports that are purely slander and intended to be nothing other than that.

Your attention to this request is appreciated.

Sincerely,

Roger Gallo

EscapeArtist.com

From: Eric Jackson

To: rgallo

Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2007 3:39 PM

Subject: Re: Eric Jackson

You have to specifically identify each such passage in each such article.

You took a cut from Tom McMurrrain's scams, and promoted them. I will not try to help you erase those facts. Now if there is something truly inaccurate, I will deal with it as a matter of honor. But you have to show me and convince me.

Eric

From: rgallo

To: Eric Jackson ; Roy Matthysse

Cc: [some of The Panama News advertisers]

Subject: Re: Eric Jackson

Date: 04/10/07 18:57

Roy, go ahead. Spare no expense. Please alert Gabriel. Take him down. I have copies of all his pages. Also keep a copy of his email.

[Name deleted,] much appreciated, plus anyone else you know. I'm done with scam artists.

RG

Editor's note: Wouldn't that be nice. However, the purveyor of this particular scheme still appears on Gallo's website in at least 13 articles, none of which are clearly identified as ads.

Betrayal is an apt description

Your by-line reads: "Betrayal is an apt description." You state that the US commander in Iraq, General Petraeus violated the West Point honor code that states, "I will not lie, cheat or steal, or tolerate those who do."

Now those are strong accusations from Moveon.org and your Internet newspaper "Panama News."

First, Moveon.org is a politically motivated blog that excels in yellow journalism and in promoting falsehood! It is a site that has only one mission and that is to LIE! Second, the only way an intelligent person can come to a conclusion that another person is lying is to be privy to the "Big Picture!" That means all Intel reports that are reviewed by said person and not base their assumptions on updates from the media like Moveon.org who are in the business of creative journalism and making it all up as they go along. The questions to ask is were they privy to highly classified documents about the action in Iraq? No, only the US Commander on the ground has the complete picture of what is going on. He receives his information from his soldiers who are doing the fighting. I don't think that Moveon.org has any foot soldiers but I do know they have a lot of liars! I won’t go into the media publishing lies but there was an evening news anchorman who lost his job because he based his story on lies. So who is really lying?

Now as my third point, lets move on to what was the United States Mission is in Iraq? It is a myth and a falsehood to report that the United States does not have a mission in Iraq!

The Mission is as follows:

(1) Defeat the insurgents

(2) Close down any Al Qaeda connections

(3) Establish a viable democracy in Iraq

(4) Train the Iraqi military to be able to handle domestic law enforcement and local defense

But why are we in Iraq?

It is clear that without 911 the United States would not had to take the fight to our enemy. Lest we forget that we were attacked by terrorist having ties with Iraq and Osama Bin Laden. Without 911 events the United States would have let the Middle East solve their own problem. But lest we forget that there was a 911! Lest we forget that 3,000 freedom loving lives were wiped out in a heartbeat.

Now the truth is that there's nobody in the Middle East that could have solved the Iraqi problem. The United States was it! So we did it! Second-guessing that decision is pointless! So let me run that by again... The United States going on the offensive and taking the Global Terrorist War to our enemy accomplished what others said was not possible!

A declared enemy of America who had the capabilities of producing weapons of mass murder and destruction was removed! With the removal of Saddam Hussein we who see it as a mission accomplished milestone... say well done Troops!

Yes, we have lost many brave men and women in this fight against Global Terrorism! But the fact remains that we are winning!

Since 911 has the United States been attack? No, thank God! We still have Osama Bin Laden who vowed to kill all Americans. That means every American: men, women, children, in-laws, grandmas, grandpas, you and I! That means everybody and no buts about it! Why because he disagrees with our way of life where all can say what they want and do what they want and become all they can be!

At this point we are still working on (2), (3) and (4) of the mission! We have to accomplish that before we can retreat from the field of battle. If we do not then the next fight could be in Panama and the target could be the Panama Canal. You might say that is too farfetched but consider this that before 911 the United States being attacked was unheard and too farfetched… but it happened!

So, regardless of how long it takes the United States mission in Iraq is evolving and at this point, we've got to accomplish the other goals of our mission! To retreat now is not an option!

God bless all our Troops in harms way. May God protect them all as they go about doing what politicians could not do! May God bring them all safely home. God bless America!

Louis J. Barbier

Largo, Florida

Editor's note: Among the various delusions expressed by Mr. Barbier, one that bears comment is the notion that MoveOn.org is a "blog" or does journalism. MoveOn.org is a political organization, which opposes the Iraq War among other stands that it takes. The Panama News is not affiliated with MoveOn.org.