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The late street painter Jorge Dunn quite often painted his seascapes, landscapes and cityscapes from memory. Dunn's works were unique personal creations, but also a record of where Panama has been and who Panamanians are. The popular artist died of a stroke this past December, but he's by no means forgotten. For one thing, a lot of his work still exists, hanging on walls here and abroad. And then there are people like Texas Christian University's Peter Szok, who has most graciously contributed an article that puts Jorge Dunn and his work in the context of a generation of Panamanian artists and our diverse but distinctive genre of street art.

Turning our eyes to the north, we got an opaque performance when President Torrijos went to Washington to meet with President Bush. For those of you who read Spanish, catch the two presidents' discourse in the opiniones section. The Merida Initiative, derisively called "Plan Mexico" by its detractors, was obliquely mentioned in that session and any Panamanian reporter with the knowledge and guts to ask what it specifically means for this country was kept out of the room. If there are gaps or uncertainties in the record, so be it, but stonewalling politicians don't get the privilege of killing stories of importance to many of the readers of The Panama News. And lo and behold, there is out and about in the land a great concern that as it applies to us, Plan Merida means the de facto return of a US military presence in Panama.

Both the House and Senate have approved versions of the Merida Initiative, though it seems likely that President Bush won't get all the money he requested. It was a bizarre vote, really --- a military aid package proposed by a Republican president that got more Democratic than Republican support. It seems that in its present state of pathology most of the GOP just wants to wall off Latin America. Many Democrats, on the other hand, show little evidence that they know what they're doing with respect to this region. The assassination of the chief of Mexico's Federales has created something of a panic in certain Washington circles --- as STRATFOR's George Friedman explains it, the danger is Mexico becoming a "failed state" dominated by gangsters.

One would think that concern about Mexico as a failure would have included some gesture of disgust with the widespread indicia of major fraud in the most recent Mexican presidential election. One would think that such concern would include an opening of the eyes to what NAFTA has done to Mexican farmers. One would think that the senators and representatives would be able to discern that the anti-American rhetoric of Hugo Chavez is a symptom, not a cause, of Latin America's alienation from US leadership.

Moreover, could I be the only one who thinks it awfully presumptuous of Washington politicians, who have made enough of a mess in their own country, to appoint themselves as the world's schoolteachers and start handing out report cards with passing or failing grades to other governments?


Myself, I don't believe in a grand conspiracy. There is a real energy problem, both in Panama and worldwide. There are also a lot of small minded gougers who wield great power aggravating things. Leaving things to the market --- whether a theoretical free one or a more usual one dominated by monopolistic practices --- or a knee-jerk response of nationalization both seem beside the point to me.

The solution to the world's energy woes is efficiency. It's not just a matter of cars that get better mileage, but of the geographical design of neighorhoods, cities, metro areas and whole countries around people living within short distances of where they work, study, shop and entertain themselves. It's a matter both of developing far more energy efficient appliances, and reconfiguring power grids to waste less electricity in transmission.

The idea that the United States can solve its problems by the invasion and domination of other countries that have a lot of oil is not only immoral, it has been shown eminently impractical by the Iraq War. And in Panama's indigenous communities, we are seeing another immoral and impractical energy policy playing itself out, as the Torrijos administration attempts to solve a problem and line the pockets of investors on the backs of the poorest Panamanians by stealing their land and water resources. Yes, the government has the upper hand for the time being. The opposition parties and the wealthy aristocracy that controls our economy may have the same idea. However, water privatization and private developments that dispossess indigenous communities are encountering a growing challenge.

How serious is it? Well, the Ngobe-Bugle Comarca is a notoriously volatile swing voting area. Plus, while much of the foreign press and all of the "rah rah buy now" websites are still swooning over Panama's economic boom, more sober analysts warn that the PRD's  hold on political power is threatened by economic woes.