The Slaty Tailed Trogon, a female encountered 1.84 miles north of the Albrook airport at 112 feet above sea level. For a larger version of this photo click here. ~ El Trogón Colipizarra, una hembra, se encontró 1.84 millas al norte del aeropuerto de Albrook a 112 pies sobre el nivel del mar. Para una versión más grande de esta foto, toque aquí.
The Slaty-tailed Trogon — Trogon massenais — is a near passerine bird of the Trogonidae family. It’s found in lowland forests, forest fragments and clearings along forest edges ranging from southern Mexico to parts of Colombia and Ecuador. It’s also sometimes found in mangrove swamps. In Panama it’s commonly found on both the Atlantic and Pacific sides, but it’s rare in the Dry Arc along the western side of the Gulf of Panama and in Darien. Like other trogons it’s a bird to “hide in plain sight,” by remaining motionless for relatively long periods.
El Trogón Colipizarra –Trogon massenais- es un ave paseriforme de la familia Trogonidae. Se encuentra en bosques de tierras bajas, fragmentos de bosques y claros a lo largo de los bordes de los bosques que van desde el sur de México hasta partes de Colombia y Ecuador. También se encuentra a veces en los manglares. En Panamá se encuentra comúnmente tanto en el Atlántico como en el Pacífico, pero es raro en el Arco Seco a lo largo del lado occidental del Golfo de Panamá y en Darien. Al igual que otros trogones, es un pájaro “esconderse a simple vista”, al permanecer inmóvil durante períodos relativamente largos.
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Auto theft remains a problem, with thieves typically showing preferences for certain areas. Theft of items from cars is a much bigger problem, especially in parking lots crowded with Christmas shoppers. We might argue about the utility of car alarms and possible better alternatives. Policia Nacional graphic.
Garden variety criminals come
out to play during the holidays
by Eric Jackson
Here we are into December and the National Police have yet to issue their comprehensive Season’s Warnings. (Those surely will be coming, but at the moment Panamanian law enforcement is quite busy with the visit of Chinese leader Xi Jinping.) But those of us who have been observing over the years know the general drill.
Because people carrying money to shop form crowds; because shoppers will buy things that they then leave in cars while they shop some more; and because much of the urban population heads to the Interior for the holidays — Mothers Day (December 8 but that whole extended weekend) is about as important as Christmas and New Year here — there are vulnerabilities and opportunities created.
The commercialization of Christmas in the culture is so profound that churches that ought to know better tend to go with the flow. A seedy side of Christianity — or should we call it a heresy? — is a set of social expectations that drives some usually law-abiding people to feel the need to steal or cheat in order to buy gifts.
Holiday crime is a annual problem, but from year to year various strategies wax and wane among the predatory element.
Will we get the scent vendor ploy this year? It was big for a while, but then some of its perpetrators were caught on video and it became less common. This year we might see a comeback.
The supposed perfume or cologne vendor sprays a sample whiff at the target. The spray is a knockout drops mist, and an accomplice quickly strips the dazed victim of his or her valuables. The old expectation was that the victim, passed out on the sidewalk or staggering around, would be taken for an outlaw in the traditional Common Law sense of it — a person beyond the protection of the law, being a disgusting drug abuser or drunk. The new expectation is that police walking beats are going to be very suspicious of anyone selling any scents on the streets, legitimately so or not.
Are you one of these proud and protected Gringo-flavor “armed citizens?” Are you secure in the knowledge that if some guy tries to rob you — on the street or in your home — you are packing the heat that will make him one sorry guy? If so you would be foolishly thinking in the singular. Pickpockets, purse snatchers, strong-arm robbers and home invaders almost always come plural. If they come armed, they are careful to get the drop. And the gun you may be carrying? That’s one of the most prized items for a maleante to steal.
Be aware of your surroundings. Do not display money or valuables. Put your wallet or money in a front pocket, not a back one. Beware the person who bumps into you or steps in front of you, as that’s the common setup for the person behind you to snatch and grab. (Sometimes to step aside and make a 90 degree turn toward where you were will disrupt the crime.) Beware of people who cut straps by which you carry a purse or bag. Looking the part of a raggedy piedrero or street crazy might get you turned away at certain respectable establishments, but it also might turn off the interest of those looking for someone who has something worth stealing.
Don’t display items in a car, either. Leaving things in open view for someone who can, with a screwdriver, get at them in an instant is the obvious foolishness. But you also need to be aware of being watched. Is there some guy hanging around, watching you put things in the trunk of a car? Get in the car and move it to another place to park, away from that person’s gaze.
Holiday break-ins are another set of issues. So many homes in Panama have bars on the doors and windows, and doors that can lock from the inside. A lot of that is flat-out illegal in many other places, because such security against break-ins is also a terrible fire hazard. People who are burned to death or die of smoke inhalation in front of a locked door that they can’t open are the stuff of legend, not mythology.
But you have reduced that risk by keeping a key near that door? Then a wannabe burglar might, with sticks and mirrors or such, locate, retrieve and use the key to get in. (Leave car keys in such an exposed place and you might get your car stolen that way, too.)
Ah, but now you are away from the crowds and relaxing on the beach? Have you left valuables unattended on a beach blanket while you go in for a dip? Silly you.
Will the police have some new innovation of the criminal mind about which to warn us this season? Probably. But if you combine a bit of common sense and some sensitivity to what’s going on around you, there is a good chance that you will not learn about it the hard way.
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Team Martinelli and their media raise a new issue — now they think that they should beat the rap because of the anti-corruption prosecutor’s watch. From a Martinelista Twitter feed.
Martinelli has a December 11 trial date — but there is a
December 6 hearing to revoke the court’s jurisdiction
by Eric Jackson
If ever a repugnant procedural motion is to prosper in Panama’s courts, this is peak season. People are paying attention to other things in this part of the holiday season, which includes among other things Panamanian Mothers Day and Christmas. So December legal and political maneuvers are common enough, a form of public outcry suppression system. It has been that way for a long time, and this is the final stretch for the Varela presidency and the terms of all other elected officials so the urgency to pull last-minute fast ones is enhanced.
After many delays and frivolous claims that have dulled the public sense of alarm, Ricardo Martinelli has a December 11 trial date for illegal electronic eavesdropping and stealing the government property with which he did that. He could get 21 years in prison.
But meanwhile high court magistrate Oydén Ortega is circulating a draft ruling to derail the whole process by stripping Supreme Court jurisdiction away. The high court tries cases against legislators and when this case started Martinelli was a member of the Central American Parliament. He resigned in the course of the proceedings but at that time the court ruled that once a pretrial process begins the jurisdiction that it had at the outset of the investigation remains. La Prensa reports that Ortega has three votes backing his move, but needs one more for it to succeed. Conversations between Ortega and those magistrates not committed to his plan are reported ongoing. There is a December 6 court plenary session to decide the issue. Just when people are heading for the Interior for a long Mothers Day weekend.
I another high profile case a usual suspect, Judge Leslie Loaiza, has thrown out charges for operpriced helicopter rentals and the use of such government-rented choppers to spy on political adversaries. That would let seven former Martinelli administration officials off the hook — if it stands up on appeal. In his decision Loaiza threatened legal action against anyone who criticizes him in the media.
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Marijuana legalization was among the big winners in this year’s elections.
In Michigan, voters approved Proposal 1, legalizing the adult use, cultivation, and retail marketing of marijuana. Michigan is the first Midwestern state to legalize adult marijuana use and sales, and it is the tenth state to do so overall.
Marijuana also won big in Missouri and Utah. In both states, voters approved ballot initiatives legalizing medical cannabis access. They are the 32nd and 33rd states to do so.
These victories could be a harbinger of things to come in America’s heartland.
Public support for ending marijuana prohibition is strong in the Middle America. In addition to these ballot measures, several incoming governors in Midwestern states campaigned on platforms that included legalizing or decriminalizing cannabis possession offenses.
For example, Illinois Governor-elect J.B. Pritzker has pledged to move forward with legalization legislation during his first days in office. “In the name of criminal justice reform, consumer safety, and increased state revenue, Illinois needs a governor who is ready to legalize marijuana,” says Pritzker.
His constituents agree. According to a 2018 poll by the Paul Simon Institute at Southern Illinois University, 66 percent of voters support “the legalization of recreational marijuana if it is taxed and regulated like alcohol.”
In Minnesota, Governor-elect Tim Walz made similar campaign promises to legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana sales. “We have an opportunity in Minnesota to replace the current failed policy with one that creates tax revenue, grows jobs, builds opportunities for Minnesotans, protects Minnesota kids, and trusts adults to make personal decisions based on their personal freedoms,” he said.
Following Walz’s election, incoming Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman acknowledged that “voters want us to take a look at” legalization. She’s right. According to a statewide Survey USA poll conducted in October, 56 percent of Minnesotans support legalizing the recreational use of marijuana by adults.
In Wisconsin, voters in sixteen separate counties — including Milwaukee County — approvedresolutions expressing support for the legalization of cannabis for either medical purposes or for adult use. The results could be a prelude to future statewide reforms. Incoming Governor Tony Evers previously floated the idea of putting the legalization question to a statewide vote, stating, “I would love to have a statewide referendum on this.”
Such a proposal would likely win big in the Badger State, where recent polls show that 64 percent of registered voters say that marijuana should be “legalized for use by adults” and “taxed and regulated like alcohol.”
Even in Texas, long the nation’s leader in marijuana arrests, there are signs of change. Lawmakers in recent days have pre-filed numerous bills to amend the state’s draconian marijuana laws. Among them are measures to facilitate medical cannabis access and to decriminalize adult marijuana possession offenses — the latter of which was recently endorsed by Governor Greg Abbott.
The growing support for marijuana policy reform among the public and politicians alike is further evidence that legalization is no longer strictly a “blue” or “red” issue. Majorities of voters from all ideological persuasions now support ending criminal marijuana prohibition.
The incoming changes to cannabis policy in America’s heartland are a reflection of this new political and cultural reality.
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Iggy really wants to be your dog. He’ll even let you beat on him with a rolled-up newspaper. / Iggy realmente quiere ser tu perro. Incluso te dejará golpearlo con un periódico enrollado. Photo by / foto por Eddy Berthier.
Songs by which to become bilingual Canciones para hacerse bilingüe
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Michael Cohen, for many years Donald Trump’s personal lawyer. His guilty plea is an admission that he lied to the US Senate about he and Trump negotiating with Russian authorities about a project in Moscow well into the 2016 campaign season. Not the most severe offense for Cohen and perhaps not a Trump crime, but it highlights a conflict of interest a US president should not have and lays bare years of Trump’s lies about his dealings with the Russians. IowaPolitics photo.
The new charge to which Trump’s ex-lawyer has pleaded guilty
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The destruction of part of the Camino de Cruces National Park. This has been done without any meaningful public hearing and as such has been denounced by acting mayor Raisa Banfield, as the municipal government generally has a veto power by way of permit requirements for such things. More than 14 hectares of the park are being bulldozed. In the way are the City of Knowledge, residential areas, the Corozal Cemetery and the Crossroads Church and Christian Academy. Photo from the Aida Torres / ANCON Twitter feed.
Speculators on the offensive in the Reverted Areas
by Marco A. Gandásegi, hijo
The communities of the reverted areas of the Panama Canal are on a war footing. The government has decided to open vast lands to real estate speculation as Avenida Omar Torrijos expands. Since the 1977 Canal Treaties were was signed with the United States, the country has seen a permanent confrontation with speculators who want to make a business of what in the 20th century was called the Canal Zone. The speculators are in collusion with the highest level public officials, promoting ventures of all kinds. It does not matter if they are legal or illegal. Nor if they ruin communities, cultures or landscapes. Moreover, they do not care if they destroy the sources of water that the Panama Canal needs to function.
Now the City of Knowledge, which will suffer the consequences of the arbitrary actions of the Ministry of Public Works that has sent in its bulldozers to knock down everything in its path, join the community protests. The president of the City of Knowledge, Jorge Arosemena, told the government of the need to start a dialogue in order to reach an understanding. The City of Knowledge says that the avenue expansion project began and is unfolding in a “non-transparent” manner. It adds that it has already “produced a massive deforestation in forested areas adjacent to the Panama Canal.”
The government insists on continuing these speculative projects without addressing the needs of the country and, specifically, of the canal areas. Arosemena says that for two years he has been trying unsuccessfully to establish a dialogue with the Ministry of Public Works to find solutions that minimize the negative impacts of the project.
The City of Knowledge has interposed two legal measures to disrupt the government’s project. On the one hand, it filed a writ of habeas data in August. On the other, in October, it file an action in the Supreme Court for the protection of constitutional guarantees. The City of Knowledge calls on the country to show solidarity with its attempt to safeguard its facilities. The communities of the reverted areas are in the same situation — they lack protection when they see how the plans of the government and its ministry of public works are progressing.
Everything indicates that those who come to the government — from whatever political party — come in with a point in invisible ink in their program, which refers to the looting of the country. On the one hand, they plunder the treasury through contracts, addenda and surcharges. On the other, they plunder natural resources such as forests, including those that surround the interoceanic waterway, basins and mineral wealth. Minera Panama, a South African-Canadian company, will start extracting copper from Petaquilla and will receive a multi-billion dollar grant. It has already built a port on the Caribbean from whence it will export copper. The Panamanian treasury will receive only $20 million a year.
The islands and beaches are being sold to foreigners who cheat the fishermen and peasants without the government enforcing the laws or the Constitution. The latter clearly states that islands and beaches can not be sold. The government speculates with the development of a road that links the city of Colon with Bocas del Toro. Likewise with the islands of the Las Perlas archipelago. All without a plan that has in mind the development of the country. All government initiatives are reduced to business deals with the country’s assets.
What seems to be an even more serious problem is the negotiation of a free trade agreement with the Peoples Republic of China. Will the current rulers get legal protection, as did their predecessors in previous situations, to take personal profits from multi-billion-dollar investments by the Chinese?
The residents of the Reverted Areas communities are getting ready to fight. They believe they can successfully confront the government. The old Interoceanic Regional Authority (ARI) enacted a Reverted Areas development plan 20 years ago. It contemplated all the angles for growth that’s harmonious with nature. It also gave the business sector opportunities to invest with land obtained at prices well below market value. The neighbors now demand that the ARI plan be respected. They do not want another plan for the benefit of looters, who would take advantage of it to dispossess communities, bulldoze forests and divert water from the Panama Canal. All for a few more dollars.
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José de Fábrega. Not so much a bold revolutionary as a prudent public servant who wanted to keep the peace.
When Panama went its separate way from Spain
by Eric Jackson
The basic outlines we know, and in the mix of history and legend there are some undisputed facts. However, there is a lot still to know about the people who ended Spanish rule and threw Panama’s lot in with Bolívar’s Gran Colombia project on November 28, 1821. Perhaps in the archives of the Catholic Church, this or that Masonic lodge, some old private letters and Spanish military records we might get extra light.
The basic thing about Panamanians, though, is that with rare exceptions we are not very warlike and in 1821 there were strong antiwar sentiments behind the action that was taken.
The Spanish crown, which by treaty ruled most of the Americas as a collaborative project with the Catholic Church, had seen its arrangements broken by a Napoleonic interregnum in Spain. The French strongman’s alcoholic brother had been put in charge of Spain, Latin Americans had gone to Europe in those years and absorbed a heady mix of The Englightmente and some key activists from various parts of the vast region had cultivated Masonic connections. After some fits and starts, anti-monarchist free thinkers like Simón Bolivar were leading intredid armies against church and state. Except, in many situations they just left the Catholic Church alone. The hierarchy tended to maintain the doctrine that freemasonry was heresy, but down through the ranks of the clergy there was also the opinion that there were far worse sins than that. For example, all-out warfare between members of Catholic societies, over ties with a remote and discredited successor to the old order on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
The Spanish loyalists had kicked Bolívar’s ass in Venezuela — again — but instead of dying or fleeing the war zone he retreated into the wilderness, took Bogota by surprise and proceeded to conquer the old Spanish Viceroyalty of New Granada. The viceroy, Juan de la Cruz Mourgeón, fled to Panama. In a hasty and temporary reorganizaion he was demoted to governor of Panama and told to prepare for the Spanish counter-offensive.
Ecuador declared independence and joined forces with Bolívar, and the governor prepared to set out for Ecuador to rally the royalist forces. During those weeks of his preparations people in the Interior, including Spanish soldiers stationed there, rebelled at the cost and horror that such a war would entail for Panama. Were there some people more afraid that Bolívar might have to use military force to bring Panama into his political project? Were there some people who were more afraid of Panama being turned into a Spanish military bastion for a long war with dubious prospects of success? Surely there was a mix of things. Panamanians did not want war.
Governor de la Cruz Mourgeón took off, and left his lieutenant governor, José de Fábrega, in charge. How important was it for the governor to prove that he was not a wimp, after the humiliation in Bogota? Or was he just a loyal Spanish public servant who followed orders from above, no matter how daft?
In any case, Fábrega made the political rounds, in particular taking up the situation with the city council on November 20. Surely Catholic leaders were consulted as well. A town meeting — cabildo abierto — was called for November 28. Sometimes diplomat, sometimes teacher Manuel José Hurtado was put in charge of drafting a declaration. At that meeting business leaders joined with the highest ranking church and state authorities and proclaimed an Act of Independence with 12 points. The most important parts, other than saying goodbye to the Spanish Empire, were adhesion to Bolívar’s Gran Colombia and generous measures to keep the peace, allowing Spanish solders who did not want to stay on the isthmus a peaceful escape by sea to Cuba. Along with Fábrega the bishop of Panama, José Hijinio, was among the signers.
The marriage with Colombia was an unhappy one, with Panama breaking away in 1903. But we still celebrate this day.
A copy of the original Acta de Independencia.
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The Patio de Mulas, an old Spanish cemetery in Portobelo. Before this became a graveyard, it was a depot for mules that carried goods between ships and warehouses, and overland from the port that thrived in the 17th century to the old Panama City. Portobelo was the venue for trade fairs from 1606 until 1739. Before that, the fairs took place a few miles to the east at Nombre de Dios, from the middle to the late 16th century. The trade fairs ended because of changes in shipping routes, revised Spanish colonial administrative boundaries and European exhaustion from first the Wars of the Reformation and later from the piracy of all sorts that had made ship convoys and trade fairs necessary for security reasons. Wikimedia photo by Maria Maarbes.
The Panama Canal on the eve of changes
This is an auspicious time for reflection about Panama’s past and future. This time next year, Panama will have a new president and the Panama Canal Authority will have a new administrator.
An important field trip for any Panamanian is to the ruins of Portobelo, and beyond, looking for ruins at Nombre de Dios. It ought to be taken with a good guide, who goes beyond trivial chatter to history. REAL history, not just about the details of how the cannons were fired but into the serious economic matters of bygone times. Military might follows social, economic and technological forces. Without that knowledge there is no understanding of the forces that drove the past, nor can a small nation make intelligent plans for its future.
Why did the era of the great trade fairs end? Why did Nombre de Dios, then Portobelo, fail as commercial and transportation centers? Why was Panama marginalized, reduced to an impoverished backwater status, for more than 100 years? Why is the period between the trade fairs and the railroad a black hole in accounts of Panamanian economic history? The answers are complex. They are not primarily about military power, even if Spain’s weakness against the British did play a role.
A comprehension of those things is a good start when pondering Panama’s present prospects and predicament. We are about to get a new Panama Canal administrator. Not to many months afterward we are about to get a new president of Panama. We have a criminal element to remove from the ACP board of directors. We have a criminal element to remove from the Panamanian government. Those are important matters.
However, as a nation Panama should look well beyond the personalities and do a bit of soul searching. The advantages Panama has enjoyed from its geographical position are not eternal and immutable gifts of God. They are raw materials on which we might build, wisely or foolishly.
Consider, then, the niche industry that the Panama Canal has been in recent times, and the ups and downs of our associated duty-free import and export zones.
The “old” equation if not the original one was that for fragile things like electronic goods, each time that a container was picked up and put down with a crane and then sent on any coast to coast travel on the bumpy US railroad tracks or by truck over potholed US roads there was a certain amount of breakage. Get it to the East Coast from Asia entirely by sea and there would be far less breakage. Asian cars — before the trend to build them nearer where they would be sold — were better sent to a West coast port and taken by land to US showrooms. (Unless, due to problems with the ports or rail / highway connections, there was too much of a West Coast bottleneck.) For bulk stuff like grain, it was and is cheaper to ship all the way on the water if possible.
Less fragile electronic gizmoes? Changes in the materials from which things are made and the places to and from which they need to be shipped? Manufacturing operations that move around for a variety of reasons? A faster and gentler US seaport and land transport network? Climate change affecting where produce is grown and where it is shipped? Coal as a building and manufacturing material (the base for graphites and graphenes) rather than fuel to burn? Ships that are driven by new or modified old propulsion systems, revising the fuel cost calculations about the costs and benefits of using the Panama Canal? Rising seas and inland water issues changing where Americans — or Asians — live? All that on top of new Arctic shipping routes and new transcontinental railways in Eurasia, South America, Africa, and so on? The people at the ACP have pretended that they can predict the relevant changes and plan for them many decades in advance. There are, however, too many variables for that to be true.
The ACP strategic planning has not been about world commerce, it has been about construction contracts and finances, dictated by construction and banking people who dominate the PanCanal board and the Panamanian government. Moreover, in the canal expansion the lion’s share of construction money was in the USA: ports renovated, ship channels deepened and so on, citing the enlarged Panama Canal as the reason.
The outgoing ACP administrator is telling us about the water needs to run yet another new set of PanCanal locks. We know the construction companies’ interest — that would be eternal — but any commercial demand for a fourth set of locks would be a matter of conjecture.
There is more building on the PanCanal wish list. An unlikely ACP bet is a new seaport at Corozal / Diablo. It’s the promise of a navigation hazard and a new bottleneck, at a time when demand is weak.
Instead we should be thinking of expanding the Vacamonte seaport and getting a rail tunnel under the canal to connect that, Howard and Rodman to the container freight rail system on the east side of the canal. THINKING ABOUT. Doing the serious homework. Avoiding facile assumptions. If it gets that far, making backup plans just in case.
Canal and port considerations come at a time of great uncertainty for the Colon Free Zone. Panana places its hope upon China’s intentions to locate distribution centers and manufacture things there. The desires of ountries in northern South America, Central America and the Caribbean for wholesaling and warehousing centers of their own might cut Panama out of many equations. So might policies to manufacture things for domestic consumption in this region instead of in Asia.
On top of the uncertainties the Varela administration is steering us toward a foreseeable disaster by pretending that rising seas are not an issue in Colon. The climate change issue for Colon city and the Free Zone is real and we are seeing its first manifestations. Ultimately it means dikes and levees around Colon or abandoning the place for higher ground.
Like the almost entirely unused airport at Rio Hato, from the point of view of construction companies and of the politicians who take their bribes, almost any big project dreamed up by anyone would be a wonderfully profitable investment. As a nation we shouldn’t think like that. We need to think twice, then think again, about any serious investment that Panama makes, lest it fail or lest we pass up a far more useful investment. Just because we have a Chinese line of credit does not change this basic math.
The limits to failed projects and misguided priorities are measured as the national debt. Yes, we have new lines of credit. But Beijing is not a sugar daddy. It is the capital of a great nation with its own interests and imperatives. One of China’s interests will be an expectation that any loans it makes to Panama will be repaid.
An Irish proverb.
Bear in mind…
One half of the world can not understand the pleasures of the other.
Jane Austen
The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it.
Abbie Hoffman
We do our best that we know how at the moment, and if it doesn’t turn out, we modify it.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
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