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US Social Security and other federal benefits services in Panama City next week

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consulate
A notice from the American consulate:

US Social Security and other Federal Benefits

Panama City – May 13-17, 2019

 


The US Embassy in Panama is pleased to announce that representatives from the Regional Federal Benefits Unit will visit Panama City to offer services for beneficiaries or individuals with questions about US Social Security and other federal benefits.

Where: Center for English Language Immersion (CELI) – Via España, Edificio Cromos, First Floor.

When: May 13, 14, 15, and 16 from 8 am to 4 pm and May 17 from 8 am to 1:30 pm.
Walk-in Services – No appointment necessary. First come first served.

What to bring for social security services :

(please bring legible copies of all documents to be submitted)

Applying for Social Security Benefits: Bring originals and one copy of the following for all applicants: Birth Certificate, passport. If applying for auxiliary benefits or survivor’s benefits, please also bring marriage certificate and/or death certificate.

SSA Proof of Life Study: In 2018, SSA mailed the questionnaire to beneficiaries receiving their own benefits whose social security number ended in 00-49 and beneficiaries over the age of 90. Please bring a copy of your passport and a completed SSA-7162, if you believe your benefits are suspended for this reason.

Social Security Number Card Application: Bring a copy of your valid US passport, Certificate of Birth Abroad or original birth certificate, and completed form SS-5FS.

Change of Address for Social Security: Bring your current passport.

Medicare Part B Enrollment/Cancellation: To enroll in Medicare, you should complete and sign form CMS-40B. To cancel your enrollment please complete and sign form CMS-2690

The best way to contact the Regional Federal Benefits Unit is by using their online contact inquiry form: http://cr.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/social-security/fbu-inquiry-form/

To learn more about the services offered by the Regional Federal Benefits Unit visit: https://cr.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/social-security/

We look forward to seeing you there!

 

 

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What to look for from Nito Cortizo: Constitutional changes

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Nito C
President-elect Cortizo at the May 8 installation dinner of the new officers and board of directors of the Panama Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (CCIAP). This is one of the main groups spearheading the demand for passage of a set of constitutional changes that they have not had the courtesy to publish. Photo from Mr. Cortizo’s Facebook page.

He says that he wants what the business groups want, whatever it is. Can he get it?

by Eric Jackson

How did we get here?

Panama lives under the dictatorship’s constitution. The old Guardia Nacional stepped in on October 11, 1968, to overthrow President Arnulfo Arias — again. This time the precipitating event was that the president who was sworn in that October 1 announced that he would be altering the order of promotions for the combined military and police forces. Arias was notorious racist and back in the 40s and 50s his nemesis José A. Remón broke down the racial and class entry barriers to the officer corps, such that by 1968 a darker cast of characters has risen to its penultimate heights. More than anything it was a job action, but the troops did away with a constitutional order that had upheld a “government of cousins” that few who were not related missed. 

The coup came at a sensitive time, when talks about the future of the Canal Zone and the Panama Canal were underway. Something approaching a final deal was almost at hand, but when the old order was discarded that was put on hold as well. It was not until a few years later when the two coup leaders, Omar Torrijos and Boris Martínez, had a falling out that was decided in the formers’ favor via more than anything else the intervention of the intelligence (G2) chief, on Manuel Antonio Noriega. With Martínez exiled to the USA Torrijos had to figure out a strategy to deal with the Americans.

The old order’s election cycle became a time constraint. For the consumption of the US public and politicians, some democratic institutions needed to be built or rebuilt to show off abroad. Not that the general staff was about to give up real power, of course, but there was a need for some fig leaf of of legitimacy. So the representantes — more or less city council members with more executive and distributive functions than their counterparts in most other countries — were convened for a 1972 constitutional convention. What emerged was a military regime with elected local officials and an elected legislature, but with those politicians who played along given resources to distribute among their constituencies. There would be legal political parties, which were given the power to remove those elected on their tickets if they sold out and didn’t toe the party line. Men in uniform appointed the civilians of the executive branch.

It was good enough to get a 1977 agreement with the United States. Then, in 1981, General Torrijos died in a plane crash.

WHAT? Caudillos don’t live forever? Succession had not been contemplated. So in 1983 the first patch was applied, wherein there would be a direct popular election of the president. That was held in 1984, and stolen from Arnulfo Arias by General Noriega. The military still held the power and, after the death of Noriega’s mentor and older brother in 1985, was used and abused ever more erratically. That Uncle Sam was demanding over Panamanian support in the Contra War against Nicaragua complicated things.

There came the Noriega crisis, with crippling US economic sanctions, a 1989 election that the military could not win and thus tried to annul, then increasing hostilities leading up to the 1989 US invasion that ended the dictatorship. The 1972 constitution was kept, but patched four more times.

So what is it now? Multiple corruption scandals in the judicial, legislative and executive branches. High public debt and pervasive public institutional dysfunction. An economy that looks good by fudged figures but not to working people, in which the canal and the banking sector may be doing well enough but in which agriculture and industry are hardly producing anything. With almost all legislators stealing from the public treasury and the courts an international embarrassment, time for what? Another constitutional patch.

CoNEP
CoNEP contemplates constitutional changes. From a CoNEP photo.

This time around…

Two of the country’s main business groups, the National Private Enterprise Council (CoNEP, mostly big business with which the government will directly deal), and the CCIAP, began to formulate constitutional changes about a year ago. This they did in consultation with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). 

You might think of peacekeepers, the World Health Organization or UNICEF feeding hungry children when you think of the UN. However, the UNDP is the point organization for neoliberal policies in the less rich countries. In Panama their advice has included privatizing public pension programs, cutting instruction in civics, history and the arts in the public schools and cutbacks in public health care programs.

Last August and September, CoNEP and the CCIAP began to describe what they were thinking about in terms of constitutional changes. One matter was the way that the Supreme Court is selected and organized. They were for raising the minimum age to become a magistrate from 35 to 45, extending the terms from 10 to 20 years, and instead of presidential appointments creating a nine-member panel representing “civil society” to come up with a vetted pool of potential appointees, who would have to be approved by a two-thirds vote of the legislature. Were the president’s choice to be rejected the sitting magistrates would appoint a temporary jurist while the politicians couldn’t make up their minds?

Civil society? In Panamanian reality, that means rich white people not holding any public post at the moment. As it was described last year, representatives of business organizations, organized labor, non-governmental organizations, civic clubs, academia, the nation’s main bar association (the Colegio de Abogados) and people designated by the president.

WHICH businesspeople?  Certainly not those of the 40% of Panama’s work force who are in the informal economy. Certainly not the Chinese-Panamanian merchants who vastly outnumber the members of CoNEP and the CCIAP combined. And you can reasonably estimate which sorts of clubs and non-governmental organizations the business groups have in mind.

There were also proposals floated about changing the way the legislature is selected and operated. Suggestions of a bicameral legislature with nationally elected senators were made, and others of at-large deputies taking seats in a National Assembly of reduced size. There was not any talk about getting rid of the anomalous multi-member circuits and the odd results that come from that, but lots of talk about fewer legislators in all, as if fewer politicians means less corrupt government.

In the middle of last December when nobody was paying much attention due to the holidays, we were told of a unified CCIAP – CoNEP constitutional proposal, to be passed by way of a vote by the present legislature and then by the new one in keeping with Article 313 of the Political Constitution of Panama. The proposal was submitted to the government. But neither the government nor the CCIAP nor CoNEP has ever published the thing for any citizen to see. Nor have any of the media who were told about this proposal published it.

Varela objects. President Varela ran for office in 2014 by promising a constitutional convention, but then said that he couldn’t control the outcome so reneged. In response to the business groups’ plan, he proposed to add another item to the May 5 ballot, a referendum on whether a constitutional convention should be called. CoNEP and the CCIAP said that it was too late in the game, that no distraction from their undisclosed document should be allowed.

And the National Assembly, which has been feuding with the president, killed his proposal. And did this and that and complained how horrible and illegal it was for the Comptroller General to say that they stole. And let the last regular session of this legislature end on April 30, without any action on the CoNEP – CCIAP proposal.

Can’t let THEM in on constitutional reform! Some don’t even know the banking district. Electoral Tribunal photo.

For Cortizo, the math is the easier part now

In the recent election campaign, the number one and number two finishers in the presidential race both said that they supported both the business groups’ proposal and the preferred method of passing it. That could still be an arithmetic problem if enough of the deputies who didn’t run for re-election or who ran and lost don’t attend and don’t send their suplentes in their stead. No matter what Rómulo Roux said, some of the CD caucus might still be indisposed to help Nito Cortizo get anything that he wants. But there have historically been ways to persuade disgruntled lame duck legislators.

The problem for Nito and the business lobbies is in the person of Juan Carlos Varela and in the provisions of Article 149 of the constitution. 

The current legislature’s regular sessions are over. They can only act in a special session. And Article 149 says that only the president calls a special session, sets the time and place and specifies the subject matter. The National Assembly can’t take up any business that’s not on the president’s call.

Lawyers might argue. They might say that Article 313 provides that the legislature may start a constitutional process of their own volition, without the president’s or anybody else’s permission. Most probably, though, that would have had to have been in the regular sessions.

But what if Varela convenes them to ratify some contract and they do that, adding constitutional reform as an amendment? It’s probably not proper for a bunch of reasons, but nobody really knows what our politicized and dysfunctional Supreme Court might say. 

Most probably Cortizo has an electorate of one to convince if he wants to advance the scheme — Juan Carlos Varela.

But anyway, WHAT IF constitutional reform comes as an amendment to some other business?

Then surely the text of what the next legislature passes wouldn’t be exactly the same. It’s OK for the new legislature to vary the wording of the previous set of deputies.  But in that case Section 2 of Article 313 provides that any constitutional amendment passed in that way has to be ratified by the voters in a national referendum to be held within six months.

Would Cortizo want to risk the wrath of an electorate that thinks that a fast one was being pulled on them at such an early point in his term? The critics are already lined up.

Most probably a Cortizo presidency does not see any constitutional reform until much later, either in light of an acute crisis or as business to finish as the term is ending. 

A roughly translated tweet by noteworthy television pundit Alvaro Alvarado: “There are sectors pushing this very dubious assembly to carry out reforms to the constitution. This would be totally irresponsible. These men have no right to undertake a national project such as this.” 
 

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What to look for from Nito Cortizo: foreign affairs

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SICA greetings
For starters, a greeting sent by the Secretary General of the Central American Integration System (SICA). But does Nito Cortizo really believe in that? Does anybody? He has xenophobes to contend with in his own party, he looks askance at agricultural “free trade,” until one hits Mexico the farther up the Meso-American Isthmus one goes the more disorderly things get, and then there is a very real identity issue that a lot of outsiders overlook. Is Panama primarily Central American, or are we more properly South American? Looking at the skinny parts on a map does not erase deep cultural and historical ties, even before the Spanish Conquest, that tie Panama closer to the Bolivarian Republics than to what were the United Provinces of Central America, of which we were never one. Graphic by SICA.

What role will Nito Cortizo set for Panama on the world stage?

by Eric Jackson

Who is this man?

Laurentino “Nito” Cortizo Cohen, 66 years old, Panamanian born and raised and of Galician and Greek-Jewish lineages, made his political distinction by an act of political dissidence within the PRD. He was minister of agricultural development in the 2004-2009 Martín Torrijos administration when he did what’s rare in Panamanian public life — he resigned over a matter of principle. He opposed the US-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement that the administration had negotiated, warning that it would be a catastrophe for Panamanian farmers. His prediction was accurate.

Those who would cherry pick Panamanian history without knowing much about it might conclude that Cortizo was elected on the ticket of the party that General Noriega once called his own, so he must be anti-American and perhaps worse things than that. It would be foolish to conclude such a thing on that basis. Cortizo went to Catholic schools in Panama and Nicaragua before being shipped off to Valley Forge Military Academy to finish high school. He continued his soldierly studies at Norwich University – The Military College of Vermont, where he got a business administration degree, and then got an MBA and worked on a doctorate in international trade at the University of Texas. After leaving the University of Texas in 1981 he interned at the OAS in Washington and later worked in that organization’s attempts to end the region’s 1980s civil wars.

Cortizo was a protege of Gabriel Lewis Galindo, General Omar Torrijos’s foreign minister and a leading light of the business entourage part of the general’s political coalition. He came back to Panama in 1986 and dedicated himself to private business pursuits through the Noriega crisis, the invasion and its aftermath. In 1994 he ran on the Solidaridad ticket that was headed by Samuel Lewis Galindo and was elected to the National Assembly from the rural coastal circuit of Colon. He was re-elected to that post on the PRD ticket and for a time was the legislature’s president.

Thus Panama and the world are dealing with a man who knows Americans quite well. He has diplomatic experience. He is not known to just accept whatever deal is offered.

What stands might we expect from Cortizo?

Venezuela: He says that he will review Panama’s recognition of Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s acting president. He rejects the argument that the sister Bolivarian republic’s economic crisis is entirely a function of Chavista socialism, pointing out that Hugo Chávez came to power in 1998 amid hyper-inflation because the old oligarchy had run into similar economic problems. There are demagogues in the PRD who, citing various reasons, rail against the Venezuelans who are here — so whatever he might think of this (and he beat the most strident of the Vene bashers in the primary) it should not be expected that he would want to host any governments in exile or pretenders to the presidency or alternative courts. Nito Cortizo is unlikely to be persuaded by the Trump administration, and is likely to try to assert a Panamanian role as conciliator in a situation that may be irreconcilable. Whether he would allow Panama to be used as a military platform for US operations against Venezuela is an interesting question that he has not specifically addressed.

Trade. During the campaign Cortizo talked about agricultural trade but avoided any grand ideological stands about free trade in general. In the days since he has said that he intends to review all of Panama’s trade policies and agreements.

China versus the United States. Cortizo has warned that US inattention to the region is likely to boost China’s profile. Likely as in a warning not to send Mr. Pompeo here to threaten Panamanians who make deals with the Chinese, but instead for Americans to come here with better offers.

Panamanian neutrality. This is an interesting unknown. General Torrijos accepted that in his time Panama was headquarters of the US Southern Command, but also stuck to the basic principle that Panama’s best defense of itself and of the canal is a neutrality that gives nobody a good reason to attack. But Panama under Martinelli pretty much aligned with the Israelis against the Palestinians and under Varela tilted toward the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in their Sunni jihads against several of their neighbors. The last PRD administration was for Puerto Rican independence and recognized the POLISARIO Front as the legitimate government of the former Spanish Sahara, both of which stands Martinelli and Varela repudiated. There have been no pronouncements about these things from the Cortizo camp.

 

 

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Hightower, Think you have a job they can’t automate?

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mit mein ARTIFICIAL BRAIN IMPLANT...
Privately, CEOs are gushing about the possibility of replacing their workforces with robots. Graphic by MaxPixel.

Beware AI-loving CEOs

by Jim Hightower — OtherWords

Corporate bosses don’t talk about it in public, but among themselves — psssst — they whisper excitedly about implementing a transformative “AI agenda” across our economy.

AI stands for artificial intelligence, the rapidly advancing digital technology of creating thinking robots that program themselves, act on their own, and even reproduce themselves. These automatons are coming soon to a workplace near you.

Not wanting to stir a preemptive rebellion by human workers, corporate chieftains avoid terms like automation of jobs, instead substituting euphemisms like “digital transformation” of work.

Privately, however, top executives see AI as their path to windfall profits and personal enrichment by replacing whole swaths of their workforce with an automated army of cheap machines that don’t demand raises, take time off, or form unions.

As tech exec Kai-Fu Lee confided to the New York Times, he expects AI to “eliminate 40 percent of the world’s jobs within 15 years.”

Some CEOs are so giddy about AI’s profiteering potential that they openly admit their intentions.

Take Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics giant hailed as a job creating savior last year by Donald Trump. It was given $3 billion in public subsidies to open a huge manufacturing plant in Wisconsin, but it’s now reneging and declaring that it intends to replace 80 percent of its global workforce with robots within 10 years.

Corporate apologists say displaced humans can be “reskilled” to do something else. But what? Where? When? No response.

Executives try to skate by the human toll by saying that the machine takeover is the inevitable march of technological progress. Hogwash! There’s nothing “natural” about the AI agenda — it’s a choice being made by an elite group of corporate and political powers trying to impose their selfish interests over us.

 

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Crecimiento volcánico fue ‘crítico’ en la formación de Panamá

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main one

Científicos creen que el Istmo no nació solo del proceso tectónico

por Sonia Tejada — STRI

Los científicos presentan una nueva explicación sobre cómo se formó el puente terrestre entre América del Norte y del Sur

Es una delgada franja de tierra cuya creación inició uno de los eventos geológicos más significativos en los últimos 60 millones de años.

Sin embargo, para los científicos, el proceso exacto por el cual surgió el Istmo de Panamá sigue siendo en gran parte controvertido.

fig 1 b small
Principales cordilleras volcánicas de Panamá delineadas por (A, arriba la página) topografía y (B, aquí) geología simplificada. Modelo de topografía digital basado en datos SRTM recuperados en línea en 2017 con la herramienta USGS Global Visualization Viewer (https://glovis.usgs.gov/). Ver A y B conjuntos en resolución más alta tocando aquí.

En un estudio reciente publicado en la revista Scientific Reports, los científicos de la Universidad de Cardiff propusieron que el Istmo no nació solo del proceso tectónico, sino que también podría haberse beneficiado en gran medida del crecimiento de los volcanes.

El Istmo de Panamá es un estrecho pedazo de tierra que se encuentra entre el Mar Caribe y el Océano Pacífico y une América del Norte y del Sur. Se cree que se formó completamente hace aproximadamente 2.8 millones de años, sin embargo, los científicos aún no están seguros de los procesos que condujeron a esto.

Hasta ahora, los investigadores han favorecido un modelo en el que el Istmo de Panamá fue creado a través de la colisión de dos de las placas tectónicas, la Placa Sudamericana y la Placa del Caribe, que empujaron los volcanes submarinos desde el fondo del mar y finalmente forzaron a algunas áreas sobre el nivel del mar.

Sin embargo, los nuevos datos geoquímicos y geo-cronológicos tomados del Canal de Panamá y la investigación de campo de antiguos volcanes en esta área han proporcionado evidencia de que hubo una actividad volcánica significativa durante una fase crítica de la aparición del Istmo de Panamá hace unos 25 millones de años.

Se cree que el crecimiento de los volcanes en el área del Canal de Panamá fue particularmente significativo para la formación del Istmo porque el Canal se construyó en una zona poco profunda de Panamá, que se cree permaneció bajo el agua durante la mayor parte de la historia geológica de la región.

Esto sugiere que la formación de volcanes a lo largo del Canal podría haber jugado un papel importante en el surgimiento del Istmo sobre el nivel del mar.

Los científicos están dispuestos a descubrir exactamente cómo se formó el Istmo de Panamá, dado su importante papel en la configuración de los patrones climáticos y la biodiversidad en todo el mundo.

Antes de que existiera una masa de tierra entre América del Norte y del Sur, el agua se movía libremente entre los océanos Atlántico y Pacífico, pero esto cambió cuando se formó Panamá, lo que obligó a las cálidas aguas del Caribe hacia el norte a formar lo que hoy conocemos como la Corriente del Golfo, creando así climas mucho más cálidos en Europa noroccidental.

La formación del Istmo de Panamá también jugó un papel importante en la biodiversidad de la Tierra, facilitando la migración de animales y plantas entre los continentes. En América del Norte, la zarigüeya, el armadillo y el puercoespín se remontan a los antepasados ​​que cruzaron el puente terrestre de América del Sur. Del mismo modo, los ancestros de osos, gatos, perros, caballos, llamas y mapaches hicieron el viaje hacia el sur a través del Istmo de Panamá.

El autor principal del estudio, el Dr. David Buchs, de la Escuela de Ciencias de la Tierra y el Océano de la Universidad de Cardiff y afiliado al Instituto Smithsonian de Investigaciones Tropicales, comentó: “La formación del Istmo de Panamá es sin duda uno de los eventos geológicos más importantes que han ocurrido en la Tierra, en particular debido a su papel. en la configuración de patrones climáticos a gran escala, creando la capa de hielo del Ártico y activando la biodiversidad en todos los continentes.

“Hemos proporcionado evidencia para demostrar que la actividad volcánica fue crítica para la formación del Istmo de Panamá y responsable de muchas de las características geológicas que vemos en la región hasta el día de hoy”.

fig b small
Topografía de Panamá Central en el área del Canal de Panamá sur y sus principales complejos volcánicos propuestos, con cobertura de campo de este estudio (puntos amarillos). Modelo de topografía digital basado en una prospección con tecnología de detección y medición aérea Lidar, realizada por la Autoridad del Canal de Panamá. Las carreteras y las infraestructuras son de Stamen Design (http://maps.stamen.com). Las capas fueron ensambladas con el Sistema de Información Geográfica de Código Abierto QGIS (v. 2.18.19). Ver una versión de resolución más alta aquí.

 

El estudio se benefició de la colaboración entre la Universidad de Cardiff y la Autoridad del Canal de Panamá, con el apoyo adicional de una subvención de la National Geographic Society.

 

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Editorials: Expulsions from the legislature; and Constitutions

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they have been purged -- take them away
We just shed this crowd of legislators. They will not be missed.

THESE parts of the problem were solved

Ana Matilde Gómez didn’t do so well running for president. She was an honorable exception in the National Assembly — she didn’t steal, or put her family on the payroll, or conceal how her office budget was spent. The body to which she had been elected got a reputation as a nest of thieves and people were not as careful as they should have been in determining who is what.

Most of the legislators who sought re-election were rejected. There will be some unworthy characters returning and there will be challenges to reverse the apparent results of the May 5 voting. Some of those challenges will have merit, but there is a structural problem in that one of the magistrates and the electoral prosecutor are so flagrantly partisan as to be unfit to hold any position in any part of the legal system.

Will the unworthy two consecutive legislatures passing a constitutional change method be even possible this time? Same old parties in different mixtures starting July 1, but will defeated deputies be so depressed as to only show up at the Palacio Justo Arosemena between now and then to pick up paychecks? Or will there be extra bribes paid to get them to show up and pass special interest constitutional patches? And will the next set of deputies want anything to do with what their predecessors may have passed?

The current legislature stole because they could. There should be prosecutions of both ex-deputies and those who are returning, but the non-aggression pact between the high court and the legislature and the general dysfunction of the Panamanian legal system make those undertakings doubtful.

Nito Cortizo comes in without party bosses embedded among the PRD’s delegation in the legislature. He has various options about with whom his minority PRD caucus might form an alliance to make a working majority. If President Varela broke his promise to convene a constitutional convention, it would be a good time for soon-to-be President Cortizo to break his promise not to and oversee such a badly needed overhaul. Neither he nor anyone else could fully control the eventual result, but a good leader could go a long way in that direction by framing the right questions about what the nation needs and what the people want.

It’s time for Cortizo and everyone else who was elected to start thinking as statesmen and stateswomen, and guardians of a troubled nation, rather than as candidates or party leaders. That’s asking a lot, but Panama needs a lot.

 

The wait in line was long, the day was hot and a cop was there to ensure order. But the people were decent and the officer did not need to intervene. We chose, without fighting among ourselves. However, we chose in a less than ideal context. Photo by Eric Jackson.

Constitutions and timely fixes

In the USA people often treat the Constitution as a sacred text, even when they have never read the thing. It was far from that. Within less than a century its breakdown led to a civil war in which more than 600,000 people were killed and the agricultural South was laid to waste and left in generations of poverty.

Panama had had more constitutions in its shorter history. The one we have now was conceived in a maneuver by a military dictatorship to give US politicians a democratic fig leaf to allow them to negotiate about the canal and the Canal Zone. There is none of the gringo constitution worship here for that document, with or without its subsequent patches.

To be relevant, constitutions have to evolve with the cultures and economic needs of nations.  Let’s mention a couple of pressing constitutional issues and possible fixes for each nation.

In the USA the old compromise between big states and small ones broke down in the middle of the 19th century in a conflict between states that had slavery and those that didn’t. But nowadays that compromise is again breaking down into sectionalism that threatens the US status as an educational, scientific and industrial power. It’s not just the Senate and the Electoral College but it’s those things in particular.

As he was dying former US Representative John Dingell (D-MI) proposed part of a solution. It seems quite radical but would be a remake of the old compromise that stalls US government in so many ways these days. He suggested a unicameral Congress, with the Senate “folded into” the House. As in a Congress elected by districts of about equal population, but with each state electing two senators at large and these officials not only joining the House but for certain constitutional tasks — like approving treaties or judicial appointments — still meeting and voting separately as a Senate.

There are various proposals to eliminate or bypass the Electoral College. Better to just get rid of it, and have a direct popular election. In so doing, better to include the colonies — Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam and so on — in the voting to choose the US president who might draft them for a war, oversee disaster relief or so on.

In Panama our legislature is manifestly broken. One of the worst parts of it is the multi-member circuits that favor political parties over independent candidates, lend themselves to fraud and make it more expensive for somebody to run for office. Some business groups want to further skew the National Assembly in favor of the rich by reducing the number of its members and thus increasing the size of circuits and the cost of campaigns. This they would do under a faux populist banner of reducing the number of politicians. But for better government what should happen instead is that the multi-member districts should be eliminated and replaced with single-member districts, and a slightly larger national assembly. Were there, say, 101 smaller circuits with one member each, then someone without a lot of money could go around and personally meet many of the people in the circuit, taking campaigns retail and away from the television consultants.

Another big constitutional issue in Panama, although it does not immediately seem so, is our election cycles. Elect everyone every five years and all eyes focus on the presidential race, with lesser attention to anything else. Worse, electing everyone on this cycle means that for four out of five years government officials routinely ignore public grievances. The result of that? Blocking roads has become a costly and annoying part of our political culture for lack of anything else. Why not elect presidents for a once-in-a-lifetime six-year term, elect legislators for two-year terms and have local elections in the off years without national elections? That way, voting them out would be far more attractive and blocking traffic would make far less sense. The parties, of course, would hate it. Some mayor or representante paying the price for a national administration of his or her party neglecting a road or school in his or her bailiwick might also have reason to feel unfairly mistreated — but would also have an incentive to pester the national government about the particular problem.

So, facile little systemic fixes?

Not really. For one thing, in neither country is it easy to make important constitutional changes. More fundamentally, constitutions only work with the consent and cooperation of the people of the countries in which they are instituted. Get a large enough minority that wants to disrupt, and it will.

 


Bear in mind…

In New York City, everyone is an exile, none more so than the Americans.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
Douglas Adams

Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what’s right.
Isaac Asimov
 
 

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Kermit’s birds / Las aves de Kermit

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boid
The Green Honeycreeper ~ Mielero Verde ~ Chlorophanes spiza.
Photographed in Parque Natural Metropolitano, Panama City, Panama by Kermit Nourse.

Green Honeycreeper ~ Mielero Verde ~ Chlorophanes spiza

© Kermit Nourse

The Green Honeycreeper is a brightly colored tanager found from southern Mexico to central Brazil. Primordially a rainforest canopy bird, it will be found at forest edges and in secondary forests as well. It populates both sides of the isthmus, but rarely is it seen at altitudes above 3,000 feet. Mainly insectivorous, it also consumes fruit and nectar.

El Mielero Verde es una tangara de colores brillantes que se encuentra desde el sur de México hasta el centro de Brasil. Principalmente, un ave de dosel del bosque lluvioso, se encontrará en los bordes del bosque y también en bosques secundarios. Llena ambos lados del istmo, pero rara vez se ve en altitudes superiores a 3,000 pies. Principalmente insectívoro, también consume fruta y néctar.

 



 
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¿Wappin? Viernes antes del día de la votación / Friday before Election Day

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from Dante's Inferno
Will beautiful women swoon over him? Will he get many votes on Sunday?
¿Las mujeres hermosas se desmayarán sobre él? ¿Conseguirá muchos votos el domingo?

Good music helps when you ponder choices

Romeo Santos con Monchy y Alexandra – Años Luz
https://youtu.be/LF_dkdz64pE

Grace Potter & Joe Satriani – Cortez the Killer
https://youtu.be/paeNnR33i5Q

Aswad – Three Babylon
https://youtu.be/0Q7SCTOSmt4

Randy Weston & Pharoah Sanders – Blue Moses
https://youtu.be/KeC68qpIq6s

Hermanos Duncan – Sin Embargo
https://youtu.be/HZaenkk1cmA

Avril Lavigne – I Fell In Love With the Devil
https://youtu.be/RtHLo3OsC7o

Florence and the Machine – Cosmic Love
https://youtu.be/_gMq3hRLDD0

Roger Waters – The Tide Is Turning
https://youtu.be/td6CD3J9kiY

Of Monsters & Men – Alligator
https://youtu.be/NunAl4BRVx8

Snowy White – Midnight Blues
https://youtu.be/SQRvsJYzses

Ana Belén – El hombre del piano
https://youtu.be/t-jcM4H9RoM

Alicia Keys – Raise a Man
https://youtu.be/U2zpID2S6S0

Bob Marley – Waiting in Vain
https://youtu.be/8WQVb_nuKvs

Miles Davis – Time After Time
https://youtu.be/FpZHjvFXprk

Mark Knopfler Barcelona 2019
https://youtu.be/TCUKrs5bGas

 

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Q?Bus lleva la ciencia

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Q?Bus, el busito que lleva la ciencia a tu escuela

por Sonia Tejada – STRI

Hace un año, del Centro Natural Punta Culebra emergió un colorido busito con una misión: despertar la curiosidad en niñas, niños y adolescentes a través de las ciencias. Transportando desde tabletas y microscopios hasta réplicas de huesos, en 2018 el Q?Bus del Instituto Smithsonian de Investigaciones Tropicales (STRI) llevó actividades científicas a 85 escuelas públicas y 25 organizaciones comunitarias de Panamá, Panamá Oeste y Colón.

“Jugamos y aprendimos al mismo tiempo”. Así lo resumió un estudiante participante en el 2018.

Este año, el Q?Bus volverá a las calles de estas tres provincias. Entre mayo y noviembre, planea llegar a 80 escuelas públicas y organizaciones comunitarias para brindar a miles de estudiantes, entre 3º y 10º
grado, una experiencia interactiva similar a la que se vive en Punta Culebra. La finalidad es conectar con estudiantes que no han tenido la oportunidad de visitar este centro natural de STRI y aprender sobre la ciencia que se hace en su país.

Durante la visita, los facilitadores del Q?Bus invitarán a los participantes a explorar distintas ramas de las ciencias –como recursos naturales, insectos, arqueología, paleontología y microbiología– por medio de actividades prácticas y divertidas. Utilizando el método de la indagación, cada niño o niña se dejará guiar por su propia curiosidad para hacerse preguntas, experimentar con las herramientas científicas a mano e ir descubriendo su potencial.

Además de brindar una oportunidad para aprender sobre ciencias de una manera distinta y emocionante, el programa busca aumentar la capacidad de los maestros para implementar nuevos métodos de enseñanza en el salón de clases.

El Q?Bus está inspirado en Q?rius, un espacio interactivo de educación científica en el Museo de Historia Natural del Smithsonian en Washington, D.C., que utiliza la indagación para que niños, niñas y adolescentes descubran sobre las ciencias y el mundo natural. En un futuro, y bajo el nombre Q?rioso Panamá, se implementará un espacio similar en el Centro Natural Punta Culebra. Mientras tanto, su versión ambulante continuará merodeando por las escuelas de Panamá, Panamá Oeste y Colón.

“Lo más gratificante de este programa es dejar sembrada la semillita de la curiosidad por las ciencias y que los niños se sientan completamente capaces de soñar con ser los futuros científicos del país”, expresó Karina Hassell, coordinadora del programa Q?Bus.

Si desea que el Q?Bus visite su escuela o centro comunitario, deberá llenar el formulario disponible en la página web del programa: https://stri.si.edu/qbus. Para consultas adicionales, comunicarse al correo electrónico, striqbus@si.edu.

En 2019, el programa del Q?Bus se lleva a cabo gracias a una subvención del Youth Access Implementation Grant (YAG) del Smithsonian, así como apoyo del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID), la Embajada de Canadá en Panamá y la oficina del director del Smithsonian en Panamá.

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Prince’s mercenary attack on Venezuela idea: Think we wouldn’t be used?

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EP
Erik Prince, of Blackwater / Xe notoriety. Wikimedia photo.

Panama is a likely staging area for any
US mercenary invasion of Venezuela

a note by Eric Jackson, with some documents and photos

Panama has, since the bases closed at the end of 1999, had a constant US Southern Command presence.

American soldiers train our cops to be soldiers. 

There are drone bases in Panama run by US mercenary corporations.

US mercenary flights come and go from Albrook. A few years ago a young Panamanian SENAN officer died along with several US “civilian contractors” when one of these crashed over Colombia.

Howard has a dedicated hanger run by a mercenary corporation to serve US military flights — like those to support the “humanitarian aid” confrontation on the Colombian – Venezuelan border that was supposed to install Juan Guaidó in power.

Billionaire mercenary CEO Erik Prince may need to be out of the USA shortly anyway, as Congress is about to refer him to prosecutors for lying to one of his committees. But rather than slink into hiding, he has upped the ante by offering a private US invasion of Venezuela.

Surely Panama would be involved. Likely any such undertaking would be the start of a long US war in South America. Would political tensions affect Americans living here? 

 

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US Air Force transport planes during the buildup to the dud on Colombia’s border with Venezuela.

These links are interactive — click on the boxes

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