front page

Extra update:
Dixon rejected for International Criminal Court post
Finally, a public hearing of sorts on the Petaquilla mine

What the Petaquilla strip mine is doing to a nearby stream --- photo by ANCON

Suddenly in important places,

Panama's name has turned to mud

You can argue about what's "sudden" and what's "important."

Argue if you will, but compare Panama's reputation in the world just a few months ago with what it is now and you can't help but recognize the difference.

A US congressional delegation had come here and been given assurances that Panama has sound and progressive environmental and labor laws, and these are being enforced. Taking that at face value, House Ways and Means Committee chair Charlie Rangel predicted easy ratification of a free trade pact between the United States and Panama. Now he says that the votes are neither there in the House --- which was always the difficult proposition --- nor in the Senate, the millionaire's club that approves all corporate-oriented trade legislation.

Is it all about Pedro Miguel González? You might gather that from the belated and timid declaration by Senator Hillary Clinton, made after it had become clear how any treaty ratification vote would go. You might take that hint from what Ambassador Eaton said on Veterans Day. But the problem has gone well beyond that.

There is a certain stereotype about Americans abroad in the land, one that's quite powerful among the inbred families who pass for this country's ruling elite. Gringos are a bunch of retarded millionaires, so the cliché goes, whom God created to be deceived and fleeced by sharp Panamanians with illustrious surnames.

But see, when slippery characters like Vice President and Foreign Minister Samuel Lewis Navarro woo the likes of Hillary Clinton and then align themselves with a guy who's wanted by the FBI for killing an American soldier, they presume that American politicians are as willing and able to offend constituents in the USA as our political class routinely does ordinary Panamanians. When the Panamanian government supports, by way of sending in its prosecutors to back bogus criminal defamation charges by and granting resident status to a con man whose office in Costa Rica just got raided, whose response to that was to post a boastful rant about his criminal record in Colorado and whose big moment as a "patriot" movement radio personality was the amazing revelation that it wasn't Tim McVeigh but the Clinton White House behind the Oklahoma City federal building bombing, shouldn't they expect that this might not be the best way to get the junior senator from New York to vote the way they want her to?

And when the wool has been pulled over American politicians' eyes and they go home to make absurd declarations about the nature of Panamanian law, don't they think that those whom they conned into saying stupid things will feel betrayed when they --- and more importantly, their constituents --- see the graphic evidence that this country's environmental laws mean nothing at all to the people in charge?

Then a sleazy ruling party politician who happens to also preside over our national baseball federation has already sullied this country's reputation in world sports by his racist remarks --- about which President Torrijos most disgracefully has never uttered a single word of admonition --- gets Panama thrown out of a world tournament in yet another sporting scandal. So how far is THAT going to go in Brooklyn, when the PRD plays the "vote for the sister" card to get a notorious opponent of human rights appointed to a place where she does not belong?

And after three straight collapses of "the tallest building in Latin America" projects for Panama City, and after sleazy real estate promoters cancel sales already made in order to sell at higher prices to new buyers, how many of these legendary retarded gringo millionaires are going to believe that a penthouse apartment on polluted Panama Bay is worth more than digs of comparable size, location and construction in Miami?

What's happening here is a reality check. On a bunch of levels the smoke and mirrors show hasn't been able to withstand the most cursory scrutiny.

So what to do? I know some of the things that I would do, and also that I'm not going to be in a position to do these things. My hopes, as ever, are far higher than my expectations.

*     *     *

In this issue's English and Spanish opinion sections, there is wide-ranging debate about what ought to be done in a lot of situations about a lot of subjects. Now I know that some readers in or from the USA couldn't care less, but I trust that others are interested in what's happening, and what people are thinking, in Latin America and the Caribbean in general as well as in Panama in particular.

(Yes, it's true that many people in the States can't locate Panama on a map and have never heard of Antigua & Barbuda, from whence regular columnist Clarence E. Pilgrim hails. But because you are reading this, you are probably not one of those people.)

But whether it's about labor relations, the environment, the importance of tourism or the local bowling scene, I try to open a window on the world that you otherwise wouldn't get. Tens of thousands of you peek through it every month, and for that quiet little show of support I am grateful.

*     *     *

I manage to have some fun along the way, whether it's checking out strange art and collectables, surfing for cool Internet sites or further mutilating partisan fractured fables from the USA. Does the old Rocky & Bullwinkle fan in me show through?

*     *     *

I write this front page past my deadline, as usual. (What can I say? When it comes to internalized concepts about time, I have become much more panameño than gringo.) Moreover, as November has five Fridays this year, this will be one of those times when three weeks rather than two pass by between this issue and the next. Those weeks will include Thanksgiving and Panamanian Mothers Day, and are weeks when many of you will start preparing for the Christmas and New Years holidays.

So what does this mean for MY peculiar sense of time?

Time for the annual holiday food special in the dining section, with a batch of Inter-American recipes to consider.

Enjoy.

Eric Jackson

the editor

PS: Especially when there are three weeks between issues, but more and more as the news justifies it, I am constantly updating this website or sending out announcement to The Panama News email list. If you want to get on the list, send me an email asking to get on it.

Extra update:
Dixon rejected for International Criminal Court post
Finally, a public hearing of sorts on the Petaquilla mine