This and that about the Panamanian economy

This and That about the Panamanian Economy

Plagiarism and conflict of interest aren't the half of it

The awards ceremony. Photo by the Presidencia

On the morning of November 18, the management of Panama's new Metro subway system project announced with great fanfare that one Ricardo Salterio --- who along with Peter Novey is one of the principals of Revolver, the company that designed President Martinelli's campaign logos and the website of Panama's embassy in Washington --- had won the contest to design the logo for the coming train system. That afternoon, it was announced that the award had been withdrawn, after it was discovered that the design was with only minor changes pirated from Barcelona TV. To their credit, as soon as the plagiarism was discovered, the jury headed by architect Ignacio Mallol and including government publicity director Astrid Salazar, Mariana Núñez, Orosman De la Guardia and Stephan Proaño voided the prize. However, to the discredit of the jury and the Martinelli administration, the finalists in the contest were in the soulless, anational corporate generic style, without the slightest hint of Panama's rich cultural traditions. Plagiarism is, of course, a hallmark of rabiblanco "culture" and is at the moment being built into Panama's skyline in the form of a Trump-brand knockoff of a famous Dubai building. However, the contest rules did say something about "originality."

Mangroves near Galeta bulldozed

Over the holidays work crews for La Cooperativa Serafín Niño put in a parking lot --- by bulldozing 4.5 hectares of mangroves, close to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's Galeta Island laboratory. The co-op had a permit from the Torrijos administration's ANAM, based on a fictitious map that turned mangroves (which can't legally be destroyed) into an "ordinary" forest. Although there are variant versions of the story out and about, it seems that the devastation is about a nature for heavy equipment parking swap.

Foreign companies in running for Curundu urban renewal

Many of the wooden slums of Panama City's Curundu neighborhood were burned in two fires during the Torrijos administration, and the Housing Minister at the time, Balbina Herrera, didn't wait for the bodies to be recovered and the evidence to be taken by the arson squad before sending in the bulldozers and fence builders to clear the rubble and prevent residents from recovering any possessions or rebuilding their houses. Now the Martinelli administration has a plan to rebuild those areas, plus tear down wooden houses where another 5,000 or so people currently live, and replace them with three-story concrete apartment blocks. (No word yet on whether Balbina's policy of providing neither compensation nor assistance to single males left homeless by the government's urban renewal moves will be applied in Curundu.) The current administration has called for bids, put an estimated $75 million price tag on the project, and attracted the interest of companies from Brazil, Spain, France, Venezuela and Colombia as well as Panama. Bids are to be submitted by December 10 and the winners declared on December 21.

Taxi painting deadline won't be put off again

Is there any good reason why all taxis ought to be yellow? That's beside the point. The often delayed edict that all taxis must be painted yellow will go into effect on January 1, and will be enforced by the Transito cops, the Martinelli administration has announced. Presently some 15,000 of about 27,000 duly licensed taxis are in some color other than yellow.

Penalties imposed in canal expansion job delay

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim's Cilsa Minera Maria mining company, which won one of four excavation contracts for the Panama Canal expansion project, was supposed to be done on October 18. Their contract was for dry excavation of 7.5 million cubic meters of dirt and rock near the new Pacific entrance to the canal, the re-routing of the Cocoli River and the reconstruction of 1.3 kilometers of a road and replacement of a bridge. Most of the digging is complete, but it seems that the entire job won't be finished until December, and thus the Panama Canal Authority is invoking a $10,000 per day contractual late charge against Slim's company.