opinion

Casting off chains
by Miguel Antonio Bernal

"Where is my bicycle...," "my t-shirt...," "give me something...," "my soccer ball...?" --- these are phrases I have heard lately on the campaign trail. I recognize political patronage as one of the great maladies of our society, but nowadays it's even affecting our kids. I can't deny that this kind of talk breaks my heart.

Our Panamanian kids shouldn't ask for any of this from any politician. They're shackled, because in their minds they see these as coming with some character who comes every five years with something, but this something generally doesn't mean running water in the house, health service, decent transportation or safety --- just the trinkets of cheap demagoguery that you could buy at the corner store.

We have to cast the chains off of our Panamanian children, those who are also starting to become the victims of political patronage. The consequences of this sort of "populism" are so grave that tomorrow's adults will only know how to ask for fish if we don't act in time. Casting off the chains is a primordial task, and one of the first steps is to strongly invest in education --- our society is deficient in values and our youngsters are growing up in the shadow of bad examples. But by law the city is obliged to invest 20 percent of its budget in the formation of our children and youth.

City Hall has to take corrective actions and orient itself toward a social policy of citizen service, which promotes dignity and self-esteem, that helps to make fishers instead of beggars, that develops the talent of our youngsters so that our country has more Saladinos and more Kuranyis, and many more Margaritas glorify our city.

This is the city of kids in homes without water, without health centers or libraries: of kids without parks, with no safety; of kids who may theoretically have a canal but who have never seen it, who have a country with two oceans but have never been to the beach; of kids with more future than past and great challenges to surmount. The obstacles are great, and we have to cast off the chains.

To cast off the chains means that every Panamanian has to take part in this job, and that means a different style of governance, with citizen participation as the essential platform upon which the city is refounded. We have to give hope to our kids, the dignity to never again depend on a politician to get a scholarship, bicycle or soccer ball. This has to stop and on my shift it will, 100 percent. I am confident that in this task of casting off chains I will count on the support of people of good will, people who cast their lot with a Panama where our kids live with dignity and the happiness of knowing that they have a full future ahead of them.