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Cattle on the road to Darien.  Photo by Eric Jackson

When The Panama News started out, there were expectations that it would be this Zonian nostalgia sheet. Then, in a country that has an English-speaking community that's more that 150 years old and traces major roots to the West Indies and North America and other substantial ones to the British Isles and the Indian Subcontinent, others were annoyed that we weren't the voice of the "expat community" --- a voice whose eternal message is, of course, "BUY NOW!" There were those who thought that gossip about show business stars, or fawning over Panama's wealthy elite, were the keys to success.

The Panama News will celebrate its 15th birthday in December, and I didn't take this publication into any of those stampedes. I'm so far from a herd animal that a walk down Avenida Central will turn up 100 guys wearing New York Yankees hats, and just me in a Detroit Tigers cap.

(Ah, but at the moment the Tigers are leading their division. Yankees Go Home! This is Detroit's year --- I hope.)

I am not joining President Martinelli's herd, but I do wish his government well. This is a moment when Panama doesn't need another failed administration. And if he's a man of the right and I'm a man of the left, that doesn't mean that I ignore what he has to say, or that hard things that need to be said about some of the leftist governments in this region don't get said in The Panama News, or that discordant other voices in our English-speaking community don't get into print. I will try my best not to bore you with variations on "moo," even if certain stories involving cattle do occasionally make it into The Panama News.

Unlike 15 years ago, there is a lot more competition out there. Most of it, however, is just stolen work by someone else, pirated in most cases by people without news judgment and in some cases by people with vicious or laughable agendas. Ignore the copyright pirates, then sweep away the detritus of scam promotions, idiocy about how now is the time to get in on the ground floor and get rich in upper-end Panama City real estate speculation, the more brainless partisan propaganda and insulting "happy news," and you will still find a bunch of people doing worthy English-language journalism in Panama in a number of different publications.

Despite all the competition, in August --- generally a slow month in this business --- The Panama News attracted 99,627 visits from 55,035 different computers. We have never before been so widely read in August, not by a long shot. It's because there are certain things that set The Panama News apart.

Despite my role and the micro-size of this enterprise, The Panama News is not just a one-man show. Things like Silvio Sirias's columns, José Ponce's photos, Pat Alvarado's Sparky the Wonder Dog features, the translated works of law professor Miguel Antonio Bernal, Donna Southwell's and Abby Southwell's acrostic puzzles, Kermit Nourse's cartoons and the letters from readers with a wide range of viewpoints all bring their shares of fans and serve to balance out my idiosyncrasies.

And then, in my roles as editor, reporter and commentator, I bring certain qualities that set me apart from many colleagues and competitors. There are, of course, differences in education, life experiences and temperament. Structurally, because I have no boss, have no kids to go hungry due to the decisions I make, and need little in the way of expensive symbols to validate my status, I can afford to behave differently than most of the rest. In the snottiest corporate cultures, a reporter who admits error loses his or her job, but if someone shows that I got something wrong I will correct it. In corporate cultures where lawyers have too much influence and even more so where the bean counters run the show, journalists are often prevented from reporting on things of vital interest to the community because companies don't want to risk costly if unjustified legal retaliation (my won-lost record in criminal defamation cases is 3-0). I was never in with the in crowd at any point in my life and I am not a member of the Union Club, the City Club, the American Society, a Marxist-Leninist party or other organization that might try to control what I publish by threats of being blackballed. I have my freedom and use it, and defend the freedom of others.

I also have certain attitudes. "If it bleeds in leads?" Not that major tragedies are totally ignored, but generally I leave the daily carnage of life in Panama to the sensationalist tabloids and their imitators. "Write as if for a man from Mars, who knows nothing?" I don't write for Martians or ignoramuses. I don't consider every purse snatching or pickpocketing in which the victim is a US citizen particularly newsworthy, but whenever one of Panama's police officers dies in the line of duty, that's major news. I don't consider a person's life worth more or less due to his or her nationality. My basic social allegiance, in contrast with almost all other mass media in this country, is pro-labor and I treat the economic issues facing, for example, people who teach or fish or solve murder cases for a living, as important. As befitting The Crossroads of The World, I think that the world beyond Panama, particularly what's going on in Latin America and the Caribbean, is germane. I consider astronomy interesting and astrology idiotic. The Panama News tends to review what's good in the culture of this crossroads, and ignore rather than insult the rest. So does it sell? Well, what The Panama News publishes has attracted a fairly large and loyal readership over the years.

But drive out to the Interior on the Pan-American Highway and look at all the empty billboards. The Panama City upper-end real estate bubble burst some time ago and despite all the happy talk in the Pollyanna papers, much of our economy is hurting and that includes the advertising industry. The Panama News has taken its hits in the downturn, too.

In September and March of every year, we ask The Panama News readers for contributions toward the cause. We have bills to pay, computers and photographic equipment that need to be replaced, fixed or upgraded from time to time, office rent and sundry other bills to pay, trips to the far corners of Panama that need to be made in order to cover what's going on in this country. Although we have not had anything like a regular payroll for years and although nobody makes nearly enough from The Panama News to be liable to pay Panamanian income taxes, the proceeds of this micro-enterprise are a major part of the livelihood for more than one person.  Click here for instructions on how to use a credit card to contribute toward the cause. Or send your contributions (checks, because money orders, even "international" ones, are not negotiable in Panama; made out to "Eric Jackson" because The Panama News is not big enough to have a business account as far as Panama's benighted banking system is concerned) to the mailing address shown in the red box at the bottom of this page. We thank everybody who has supported us in the past and those who will do so now.

I wish we had a large herd of contributors, even one percent of our readers sending us money. But alas, those of you who keep The Panama News going will never be readily confused with cattle. McDonalds won't be interested in you and the McMedia won't satiate your needs. Neither the Hindus nor any government are likely to venerate you. But you do know what The Panama News is worth.