Letters to the editor

Concerning an article I read in your web, I just found out that Panama's asking the Inter-American Human Rights Commission to revoke their decision.

A Ministry of Foreign Affairs' statement informs that Panama can't comply with their requirements since the court was taking into consideration information that's more than a year old.

Editor's note: On its way out of office the Torrijos administration petitioned the Inter-American Human Rights Court, by treaty the ultimate authority in cases from Panama that involve international human rights law issues, to reconsider its injunction because the dispossession of the Ngobe community of Charco La Pava was an accomplished fact and an injunction not to do what was done is irrelevant. The work on the dam continues, and we have yet to see whether President Martinelli will embrace the Torrijos policy or try to find some just solution for the people whom the court found were wrongfully dispossessed.

See the video below for an example of the thuggish behavior that the court considered:

Mr. Jackson doesn't sound too impressed with it, but Sunday evening when I went to the airport to retrieve Norma and her mom I took the Cinta Costera and I thought it was fantastic! There were easily 15 to 20 THOUSAND people out there just enjoying the new park area; walking around, playing tennis or just sitting on the new grass enjoying themselves!

Hey Eric, I know this is a bit late, but just wanted to say that your June 30 article, Teaching them while they're still young, was right on the money in my opinion. for whatever that's worth. Thanks.

You failed to mention that President Zelaya was conducting an illegal referendum and his removal was ordered by the Honduran Supreme Court and sanctioned by the Honduran Legislature.

It was a preservation of Democracy not a move away from it. The people of Honduras are not interested in another Hugo or Daniel perpetual presidency.

It is interesting that President Obama is so quick to come to the aid of a leftist, and meddle in Honduras yet dragged his feet in supporting a democracy movement in Iran, stating he did not want to meddle. You are judged by the company you keep and so far Obama has sided with Chávez and the Iranian midget more than with American allies.

Editor's note: Zelaya was promoting an advisory referendum on whether people wanted to hold a binding referendum on the convening of a constituent assembly during next November's elections, which, according to the schedule of things, would have been the same time to elect a new president to replace Zelaya in January. Notwithstanding what the corporate mainstream US media or people fed information by the Honduran coup regime's slick Washington lobbyists may have told you, there was nothing at all about presidential re-election in the advisory referendum.

Replacing the Honduran constitution would entail the election of an assembly to draft a replacement for a hand-me-down constitution from the more than a half-century when the military ran Honduras through figurehead civilian presidents, for the benefit of 10 wealthy and mostly obnoxious families. That constitution, the high court magistrates held, made the commander of the army superior to the elected president.

So what is the effect of the coup, which has included the suppression of all anti-coup news media? A November "election" held under military rule and press censorship.

Yes, let's do judge Obama by the company he keeps here. As in, every Latin American and Caribbean government, save the people now occupying the government in Tegucigalpa.

So much of what you do requires dedicated digging, thinking, assembling facts, separating fiction and excellent writing that sometimes you simply outdo yourself. This article is an absolutely outstanding history of the political parties and reflects on your professional expertise. Well done!

Thank you all for celebrating the success of my recent Dodge Grant trip to Panama along with me. My new Panamanian principal colleague and I have been e-mailing each other about the experience --- she, her staff, and students are still so grateful for the children’s book donation the grant allowed me to make to their school (110 books donated).

Now, I’d like to invite you to join me as I keep this Lifeline Literacy Connection across the globe active and meaningful for the students there. As you may read in the South Brunswick Post article about my grant experience and the educational system in Panama, instruction occurs solely in Spanish.

Part of the reason for the book donation was to begin adding a healthy collection of age-appropriate authentic literature written in English so that we not only help combat illiteracy; but we help pave the way for consistent bilingual education to occur at the school.

Between July through November 2009 I’d like to collect as many book donations as possible so that in late November I can send a Christmas 2009 Book Donation package to my colleague in Panama.

These are ways you can help if you’d like to join me. Please choose the option that works best for you and e-mail me back to let me know I can count you in --- your name as the book donor will appear in any books you donate to the school:

It’s just that simple, and, any donations you can provide will greatly help a school in need in my husband’s beautiful native country of Panama.

I know how much you care about helping kids get ready for life in the 21st Century. Hope you can join this effort!

Do you know of a link that contains the IDs of Panamanian civilians killed in Just Cause? My wife and I knew a lady named Alice Walker from Chorrera who lived very near a PDF barracks. She was poor, worked as a day maid at Albrook and lived in a hovel with dirt floors, no electricity and no running water. We befriended her during our first tour from June 1984-June 1989 but when we returned in April 1993 we tried unsuccessfully to learn if she survived the conflict. We did find our former gardener and he knew her but didn't know what had happened to her. I'd appreciate any info you can give me. Thanks.

Editor's note: The Catholic Church would have the most complete record, but I am not sure that this is available to the public. All told nearly 700 people were killed in the 1989 invasion, about two-thirds of them noncombatant civilians. The great majority of the civilian casualties were in El Chorrillo, San Miguelito and Colon. The odds are great that your friend was not one of them. Maybe one of the readers can connect you, as the telephone directory has no listing for your friend.

Once more I find myself totally appalled at the article and disappointed in your posting the diatribe against Colombia’s Uribe by the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. There were so many “slurs” and unsupported “innuendos” about President Uribe, I won’t even take the time or space to list them all. It would appear this Washington DC based “think tank” has turned ultimately into a leftist agenda propagator. To read a balance of their recent writings on Latin America at their website, it seems quite obvious that they are more supportive of Chávez, Daniel Ortega, the failed Presidency of the Socialist Arias in Costa Rica, and the now deposed leftist President Zelaya of Honduras than they are of their oldest Ally in South America, Colombia. So does this mean that COHA and the USA government in general is threatened by a strong and long term leadership in Colombia which has done more to tow the line with America’s capitalistic, democratic system than most any other South or Central American country? The USA is going to deny trade with Colombia while now into almost 20 years of NAFTA with Mexico which has more corruption, murders, kidnappings, drug trafficking and weaker government than Colombia? This is ludicrous!

I’m sure Uribe and Colombia’s government is not perfect. I’m sure there is corruption there just like there is in most any state government in the world. But to single President Uribe and Colombia out against the backdrop of all the other nations the USA does business with is totally unjustified. This is the first president in 40+ years who has brought strength and unification to the Colombian people. Over 71% of the people, as this disingenuous article itself admits, support and want this same government for 2010. Who is the International Community to say they can’t or shouldn’t have it? Is democracy and free trade only good if it benefits the USA or Canada ONLY? If President Obama were able to pull the USA out of its economic tailspin, reduce USA corruption and drug use, and make peace with all our country’s enemies…I would vote to keep him in office for as long as he wanted and could run the nation. It takes DECADES to invoke significant change in large countries and cultures. If the people find a leader they love and admire, who is to say they cannot keep him as long as they want? Who else is in the wings in Colombia that will be as strong and as supportive of the USA political machine?

My Colombian wife and I both saw his speech this article refers to on Cspan while in the USA a couple weeks ago. I recommend any readers of this horrendous diatribe against Uribe to hear his speech themselves and then ask how COHA could ever come to the conclusions it has based on his speech in English. There is some smelly politicking going on involving this organization…and I would encourage you to choose carefully what you publish from them…or at least provide more balanced viewpoints and more facts from other sources going forward. The positive growth and reduction of violence far outweighs the criticisms that can still be leveraged against the Colombian government. As Uribe said in his speech… it would do North America well to “RESPECT” their Latin neighbors and quit meddling. Support fair trade and respect the differences between nations. Each country needs to work out its own destinies and conflicts… while America needs to focus on shoring up its own sinking boat.

Keep up the good reporting and writing… but please give us more balance between left and right reporting.

Students of Rancho Sespe, a small Mexican-American housing community in Ventura County, California, are attending summer school and studying similar examples of empathy in the local community and in Panama. They were impressed with the story you ran about the spay and neuter clinic and its founder and want to congratulate the newspaper for spreading a piece of good news and the clinic operator for spreading the universal value of empathy for animals. Please forward this message to the clinic, if possible.

Thank you for helping out by taking care of the cats and dogs. Thank you for spreading empathy around the world by helping animals.

Thank you for helping out by neutering the strays. I think it is very important that you are doing this because you help prevent having dogs without homes.

I am planning a family trip to Panama, and want your opinion about driving from Pan City to Boquete to Bocas and back to Panama City. Are the roads in good condition? How about the signage --- is it easy to get lost? How much Spanish do you really need to make driving easier for oneself? Besides flying or driving, do you suggest any other way? Are buses comfortable for a long trip?

Editor's note: Unless you get very unlucky and there is a serious landslide somewhere, you can drive to all those places. Bocas Town, however, is on an island and you'd have to take a ferry if you want to bring your car with you.

There are not many decent paved roads in Panama, but most places where many people live are on them. The roads that I describe are usually in good shape, except that the ones to and in Bocas wind through steep hills and are prone to landslides, especially in rainy season.

From Panama City to Boquete, you take the Pan-American Highway to David and turn right (if still headed westbound), driving north through Dolega.

To get from Boquete to Bocas, you have to go back down the road through Dolega to the Pan-American Highway, head east for a few miles more or less to the town of Chiriqui, and turn north on the road through Fortuna to Chiriqui Grande. You can catch a boat for the Bocas islands in Chiriqui Grande, or turn west and drive up to Almirante or Changuinola and do a shorter boat ride (with more frequent service) to the Bocas islands.

The roads are reasonably well marked with signs. You want to arrange your trip so as to avoid driving at night, lest you come around some curve and find that your side of the road to Chiriqui Grande has washed down the hill and not have time to stop or get onto the usable part of the road. Plus, at night the maniacs come out onto the roads in greater numbers. (Panama has a lot of aggressive drivers and you need to take that into account.)

The more Spanish you know in Panama, the better. You can, however, get English-language guidebooks. You should at least learn a few survival Spanish words and phrases that you will need to do basic transactions like getting your gas tank filled or ordering in a restaurant.

Flying is how most people get from Panama City to Bocas Town. There are frequent flights in and out of David.

I use the buses all the time. It's a long ride from Panama City to David, from where you'd have to get another bus to Boquete. The bus ride from Panama City to Changuinola or Almirante is longer. Watch out for pickpockets at the David bus station.

I want to first say that I have a deep love and respect for our Dear Rabbis without them we would not be who we are. We should stand by our Rabbis in Solidarity and let what ever happened today play out. As well we must pray from the bottom of our hearts for the quick release of our spiritual leaders.

I know that after the recent events from last week and from this morning each one of us has certain feelings and emotions. As we are all watching the news and hearing what is going we are all getting involved in what the charges were against the Rabbis of our community. I want to say this has nothing to do with our Dear Rabbis it has to do with the Almighty showing us a sign.

Of course it is very important to know the facts but the facts will not relay the message that G-D has put this all in motion for a reason. We should all look at this day as a very sad day in our community. It is very obvious that the press loves to point fingers at the Jews. From that they are portraying the Jews in a bad way in turn creating a Chilul H-shem. With the Internet, print and TV the world can now know everything and unfortunately the people around us in Deal and Brooklyn will now ask 'What kind of people are these Jews?' It is now our job to show them all the beauty of who we are.

We all need to know that G-D is calling to all of us. None of us are above reproach.

We all see the beauty of this community there is absolutely no doubt that we do incredible things from Learning Torah to helping one and another the list goes on and on. But we also know that our weakness as a community is that we commit instances of Chilul H-shem. Whether it is the loud talking on the cell phone at the supermarket or not saying thank you to the lady at the register. Sadly we see it daily especially in the Summer and I can say that it hurts me badly as I am sure it hurts many others.

Since G-D doesn’t talk to us we have to see and learn something from this day. In my opinion G-D can no longer stand the fact that his beautiful children run around like the other people of the world. We must hold our selves to a higher standard we must always walk around with a smile, say good morning to our neighbor, not cut off others while driving. I don’t want to go on and cite more examples.

The bottom line is the only way to possibly offset the act of Chilul H-shem is to do Kiddush H-shem. So now is the time!!!! We must talk to our children, family and friends and make a stand to say that we will carry ourselves around in Humility and have respect towards others in all facets of our lives. As the Torah teaches us we should be like fish and lay low not be around for everyone to see what we do and have. If we do I assure you we will again see bigger blessing then we have ever seen before.

I am talking to myself, the religious the non religious all of us by no means am I perfect nor am I asking anyone to be perfect. All that I am saying is let us all just be more aware in our day to day actions of who we are. By doing this we can show G-D how much we love him and prove to the people around us that we are truly G-Ds children.

Please let us make a real effort from now until the end of the summer to make a Kiddush H-shem every day when possible.

Editor's note: What kind of people are these Jews? People like anyone else, with all of the grand and base behaviors that characterize the rest of humanity. They're members of an ancient nation that has continuously preserved its history and its legends, with only the Greeks and the Irish remotely in the same league within Western Civilization on that score, and only the Chinese and the Hindus as rivals in the antiquity and continuity of their civilization to be found in the east. They are a people who have often been defamed, attacked and dispossessed. In both ancient and modern times, Jews have also sometimes done these things to others.

In any case, these are not the standards by which the rabbis who were arrested should be judged, nor should all Jews be judged by what these men have or have not done. Everyone who is accused of a crime should be presumed innocent unless proven guilty, and even when guilt is proven, it properly applies individually to wrongdoers and never collectively to an entire race, religious congregation or nation.

That some of the congregations whose leaders have been accused are close neighbors of a large community of Panamanians and Americans who trace roots through Panama must not be the cause of tensions between the two communities. There would be no justification for any such thing.

The Association of Retirees from the Canal Area announces to its members the celebration of a Health Plan and Collective Life Insurance General Assembly.

PANAMA
Date: Saturday, August 15, 2009
Place: San Cristóbal Episcopal Gymnasium
10th Street, Parque Lefevre
Time: 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Just to put the Washington health care debate into into perspective, click here to see what Elizabeth Edwards has to say about this.

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