This is a Neotropical Cormorant, a common water bird found throughout most of Panama. When it matures it will be darker, but for now I like its blue eye and beautifully patterned plumage on its back.
Este es un Cormorán Neotrópical, un ave de agua común que se encuentra en la mayor parte de Panamá. Cuando madure, será más oscuro, pero por ahora me gusta su ojo azul y su plumaje bellamente estampado en la espalda.
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The summer holidays are in full swing — and protests againstovertourismhave begun (yet again) in a number of popular European cities. Overtourism is not a new problem.
Barcelona, in particular, is at the center of these mounting concerns about the rapid growth of tourism in cities, especially during peak holiday periods. In fact,Destination Barcelona estimates that there were 30 million overnight visitors in 2017, compared to aresident population of 1,625,137.
While many tourists want to “live like a local” and have an authentic and immersive experience during their visit, the residents of many tourism-dependent destinations are seeing the unique sense of place that characterized their home towns vanish beneath a wave of souvenir shops, crowds, tour buses and rowdy bars. They are also suffering as local amenities and infrastructure are put under enormous strain.
Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists — perhaps too many. Shutterstock.
What does overtourism look like?
We defineovertourism“as the excessive growth of visitors leading to overcrowding in areas where residents suffer the consequences of temporary and seasonal tourism peaks, which have enforced permanent changes to their lifestyles, access to amenities and general well-being.” The claim is that overtourism is harming the landscape, damaging beaches, putting infrastructure under enormous strain, and pricing residents out of the property market. It is a hugely complex issue that is often oversimplified.
It can have an impact inmultiple ways. The international cruise industry, for example, delivers thousands of passengers daily to destination ports. While comparatively little is returned to communities, cruise activity createsphysical and visual pollution.
City residents also bear thecost of tourism growth. As cities transform to cater for tourists, the global travel supply chain prospers. This coincides with increasing property speculation and rising costs of living for local communities. AirBnB, for example, has been accused of reducing housing affordabilityand displacing residents.
Amsterdam wants to takedirect actionto prevent this by banning short-term rentals and directing cruise passengers away from the city center. AirBnB is also making efforts to address the problemsthey are accused of creating.
Things are made worse by the fact that key destinations are mostly unprepared to deal with overtourism. According to the Italian sociologistMarco d’Eramo, in 1950 just 15 destinations were visited by 98% of international tourists, while in 2007 this had decreased to 57%. This indicates the rapid expansion of global tourism beyond established destinations.
Overcrowding and the establishment of typical tourism-focused businesses, such as clubs, bars and souvenir shops, overwhelm local businesses — and rowdy and unmanageable tourist behavior is common. This diminishes the unique ambience of destinations and leads to crowd and waste management pressures.
Kyoto: beautiful view, shame about the crowds. Shutterstock
Clearly, tourism brings jobs, investment and economic benefits to destinations. But overtourism occurs when tourism expansion fails to acknowledge that there are limits. Local government and planning authorities have so far been powerless to deal with the overwhelming influence of the global tourism supply chain. This has led to widespread “tourist-phobia” –- first described by Manuel Delgado more than a decade ago as a mixture of repudiation, mistrust and contempt for tourists.
Dealing with overtourism
Dealing with overtourism must now be a priority. But despite the mounting howls of protest, tourism promotion endures –- and unsustainable hordes of tourists continue to descend on cities, beaches and other natural wonders.
Managing the flow of tourists seems an improbable and unwelcome task. But some cities have taken drastic measures to limit the effects of overtourism, including the introduction of new orrevised taxationarrangements,fineslinked to new local laws, and“demarketing,” whereby destinations focus on attracting fewer, high-spending and low impact tourists, rather than large groups.
But it’s a fine line to tread. If tourist arrivals to adestination declinesuddenly and dramatically it would likely have considerable economic repercussions for those who rely on them.
‘I just want to get home.’ Shutterstock
Overtourism is ashared responsibility. City administrators and destination managers must acknowledge that there are definitelimits to growth. Prioritizing the welfare of local residents above the needs of the global tourism supply chain is vital. Prime consideration must be given to ensuring that the level of visitation fits within a destination’s capacity.
The global tourism supply chain also bears a major responsibility. It must ensure that product development achieves a balance between the optimal tourist experience and a commensurate local benefit. Tourists must alsoplay their partby making travel choices that are sensitive to the places they visit and those who live in and around them.
Tourism should be part of the wider destination management system, which must also consider transport and mobility, the preservation of public spaces, the local economy and housing, among other aspects of daily life. Research, planning and a close and ongoing dialogue between city administrators, the tourism industry, civil society groups and local residents are essential.
Perhaps overtourism is a symptom of the present era of unprecedented affluence and hyper mobility, a consequence of late capitalism. We need to urgently rethink the way cities are evolving to uphold the rights of their residents.
Martinelli’s vulgarity passed on via the sex-and-death tabloid that he bought with stolen public funds, which he then passes on by Twitter. It sets an ugly tone. From his Twitter feed.
Going down ugly
Who knows? Perhaps this time next year there will be a Cambio Democratico president and Ricardo Martinelli will be double dipping as a legislator and mayor of Panama City. At the moment, however, indications look bad.
The former president’s trial before the Supreme Court is now underway and into its main phases, with delaying tactics interposed by the defense now being quickly brushed off. Did a spelling error in one of the private prosecutor’s documents mean that the whole case should be thrown out? Both to that alleged victim’s claim and to the case as a whole, the error was insignificant, magistrate and acting judge Jerónimo Mejía ruled. Did the defense need time to read a 48-page document that was served on them? Mejía gave them a day. Should all of the private prosecutions be dismissed? Mejía severed one lawyer who had been fired by one of the private plaintiffs from the case, but let the private prosecutions continue.
Mejía denied a defense motion to reveal the identity of a protected witness or turn over seven notebooks which it is said would make it possible to identify this person or entity. Is it an individual who could face retaliation, either personally or via his or her family? Is it a foreign government or one of its agents, the exposure of which would cause political complications for Panama? Those details are not revealed.
The formal charges made and read, some of the private plaintiffs are making their demands for monetary damages. PRD activist Balbina Herrera, whom Martinelli beat in a landslide in 2009, is asking for $30 million. Another PRD stalwart, Mitchell Doens, wants $20 million. A couple of others make demands adding up to about another $6 million. However, most of those who have hired private prosecutors say that they will seek any money damages in separate civil cases.
The state’s prosecutor, magistrate Harry Díaz? He’s asking for a 21-year prison sentence: four years for illegal eavesdropping, four years for stalking people without a warrant, three years for misappropriating the use of government spy equipment for private use and 10 years for stealing the equipment and programs. The hardware was last seen in his Super 99 offices in Paitilla.
Between prison authorities and court guards, Martinelli’s antics have been reduced. We get the book waving poses on the entries of a man who does not read books but he does not get to stop the proceedings by malingering anymore.
There have been altercations between private complainants and their lawers on the one side and Martinelli lawyers on the other. This brought in court security officers to prevent fisticuffs and a closed door meeting with Mejía the resulted in a reported non-aggression agreement.
Meanwhile, Martinelli’s Cambio Democratico party is choosing its slate of candidates. The former president himself says that he wants to run for mayor of Panama City, but the party has set aside that nomination to be negotiated in a possible alliance with one or more other parties. Martinelli did file to run for a seat in the legislature. That puts him in a crowd of CD criminal defendants who will be expected to assert immunity from prosecution as candidates for public office.
There are major defections. Mimito Arias, the party’s 2014 presidential candidate and also a criminal defendant, has left for a new splinter party and wants to run for president next year as its nominee. Reverend Cumberbatch, the CD mayor of San Miguelito, says he’s going to seek re-election as an independent.
Then there are ever unfolding scandals. The comptroller general has referred charges against legislator Marilyn Vallarino for diverting public funds to a foundation she controls, with her defense in lieu of denial consisting of a protest that it’s HER company. Now CD presidential front runner Rómulo Roux is being called in to answer questions about an Odebrecht contract he signed.
The one thing that Cambio Democratico may have going for it is the sorry state of all other political parties. However, there are some independents waiting in the wings who might, with rabiblanco financial backing, upset all of the calculations of the legislators and Electoral Tribunal. Or there might be an even more radical voter revolt than that.
But most likely, color Ricardo Martinelli and his political project in pastels — fading fast.
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Breastfeeding within an hour after birth is critical for saving newborn lives. Photo by UNICEF.
Three in five babies not breastfed in the first hour of life
by the World Health Organization
An estimated 78 million babies – or three in five – are not breastfed within the first hour of life, putting them at higher risk of death and disease and making them less likely to continue breastfeeding, say UNICEF and WHO in a new report. Most of these babies are born in low- and middle-income countries.
The report notes that newborns who breastfeed in the first hour of life are significantly more likely to survive. Even a delay of a few hours after birth could pose life-threatening consequences. Skin-to-skin contact along with suckling at the breast stimulate the mother’s production of breast milk, including colostrum, also called the baby’s ‘first vaccine,’ which is extremely rich in nutrients and antibodies.
“When it comes to the start of breastfeeding, timing is everything. In many countries, it can even be a matter of life or death,” says Henrietta H. Fore, UNICEF Executive Director. “Yet each year, millions of newborns miss out on the benefits of early breastfeeding and the reasons – all too often – are things we can change. Mothers simply don’t receive enough support to breastfeed within those crucial minutes after birth, even from medical personnel at health facilities.”
Breastfeeding rates within the first hour after birth are highest in Eastern and Southern Africa (65%) and lowest in East Asia and the Pacific (32%), the report says. Nearly 9 in 10 babies born in Burundi, Sri Lanka and Vanuatu are breastfed within the first hour. By contrast, only two in 10 babies born in Azerbaijan, Chad and Montenegro do so.*
“Breastfeeding gives children the best possible start in life,” says Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “We must urgently scale up support to mothers – be it from family members, health care workers, employers and governments, so they can give their children the start they deserve.”
Capture the Moment, which analyzes data from 76 countries, finds that despite the importance of early initiation of breastfeeding, too many newborns are left waiting too long for different reasons, including:
• Feeding newborns food or drinks, including formula: Common practices, such as discarding colostrum, an elder feeding the baby honey or health professionals giving the newborn a specific liquid, such as sugar water or infant formula, delay a newborn’s first critical contact with his or her mother.
• The rise in elective C-sections: In Egypt, cesarean section rates more than doubled between 2005 and 2014, increasing from 20% to 52%. During the same period, rates of early initiation of breastfeeding decreased from 40% to 27%. A study across 51 countries notes that early initiation rates are significantly lower among newborns delivered by caesarean section. In Egypt, only 19% of babies born by C-section were breastfed in the first hour after birth, compared to 39% of babies born by natural delivery.
• Gaps in the quality of care provided to mothers and newborns: The presence of a skilled birth attendant does not seem to affect rates of early breastfeeding, according to the report. Across 58 countries between 2005 and 2017, deliveries at health institutions grew by 18 percentage points, while early initiation rates increased by 6 percentage points. In many cases, babies are separated from their mothers immediately after birth and guidance from health workers is limited. In Serbia, the rates increased by 43 percentage points from 2010 to 2014 due to efforts to improve the care mothers received at birth.
Earlier studies, cited in the report, show that newborns who began breastfeeding between two and 23 hours after birth had a 33% greater risk of dying compared with those who began breastfeeding within one hour of birth. Among newborns who started breastfeeding a day or more after birth, the risk was more than twice as high.
The report urges governments, donors and other decision-makers to adopt strong legal measures to restrict the marketing of infant formula and other breast milk substitutes.
The WHO and UNICEF-led Global Breastfeeding Collective also released the 2018 Global Breastfeeding Scorecard, which tracks progress for breastfeeding policies and programs. In it, they encourage countries to advance policies and programs that help all mothers to start breastfeeding in the first hour of their child’s life and to continue as long as they want.
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El sendero, ecológicamente responsable, fue elaborado con plastimadera, un sustituto ecológico para la madera natural que contiene un componente de plástico reciclado. Foto por STRI.
El Smithsonian en Panamá inaugura su sendero del manglar
por Sonia Tejada — STRI
El pasado 26 de julio, en celebración al Día Internacional de los Manglares, el Instituto Smithsonian de Investigaciones Tropicales inauguró el sendero del manglar, localizado en el Laboratorio Marino de Punta Galeta, Provincia de Colón, en compañía de los donantes Pat y David Jernigan, de Virginia, Martha Locke, de Boston, Antonio Gonçalves, representante del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID), y Nilda Quijano de Manzanillo International Terminal, además de invitados, directivos y personal del Smithsonian en Panamá.
El Dr. Matthew Larsen, director del Smithsonian en Panamá dio las gracias a los asistentes por su apoyo a este proyecto. Expresó “Este sendero nos ayuda en la educación ambiental al público”.
Oris Sanjur, directora asociada para la administración de la ciencia en el Smithsonian en Panamá, dio las palabras de bienvenida y explicó a los invitados y asistentes la importancia de los manglares y de cómo esta iniciativa mejorará la calidad de enseñanza de las ciencias naturales a los cientos de estudiantes que visitan Punta Galeta.
El sendero del manglar tiene 203 metros de largo y atraviesa un cinturón de mangle negro, otro de mangle blanco y al final una arboleda de mangle rojo. Este sendero, ecológicamente responsable, fue elaborado con plastimadera, un sustituto ecológico para la madera natural que contiene un componente de plástico reciclado, resistente a los insectos, a los hongos, al calor, es anti resbalante y ha demostrado ser resistente para este tipo de proyectos. La obra estuvo a cargo de Efraín Sanson, supervisada por la Oficina de Ingeniería y Construcción del Smithsonian en Panamá.
Los manglares crecen en zonas costeras y actúan como una barrera protectora entre el mar y tierra firme. Nos protegen especialmente durante eventos climáticos extremos. Tienen una gran capacidad para capturar dióxido de carbono de la atmósfera. Son mucho más eficientes y rápidos en absorber carbono que los bosques terrestres.
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We have weathered many electronic attacks over many years, but we are not entirely sure whether that is what this is.
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Facebook is going through some turmoil, the alt-right is in full inflammatory fake news scream on the social media (replete with bots to fictitiously drive up readership / viewership) and it’s a big pain for The Panama News to find itself sometime last night and through the day partly disabled on Facebook.
No FB messages can be received or sent. (Send us an email at thepanamanews@gmail.com for that, including messages with news tips or those links or graphics that you would ordinarily send to us by Facebook message.)
We have no access to our Facebook settings, nor to the help desk. Facebook infamously lacks reasonable alternatives to complain about problems. The editor could tell you of electronic war stories — but this may or may not fit into that pigeonhole.
We can’t paste links or graphics in the normal ways. What you are reading is an experiment in getting around such things, but even if it works it will be still be unwieldy.
We can’t see or respond to most of the comments coming into our Facebook page, only to the stories on top. We can’t see our archive. We can’t open our notifications listings. Are there troll invasions going on in the stories below where we can see? If so let us know about that.
Can other people post to our page? Ususally Facebook friends can, but if you are one of those and you can’t it’s a problem, and if unfriendly folks are posting hate stuff, lies and so on that you can see but the editor can’t see it that’s a BIG problem. You may want to complain to Facebook if you see such vandalism, about the item and about the person or persona who posts it.
Damning evidence about intent. A piece of a puzzle, others of which we have also seen.
“Collusion is not a crime”
The American president’s most prominent lawyer — for now at least — declared on the presidents main television propaganda channel that “Collusion is not a crime… The hacking is the crime. The president didn’t hack.”
We might go back into history and talk about Rudy Giuliani the prosecutor, a “War on Drugs” ground breaker in who was the top federal drug prosecutor in New York in 1973. Since his days serving the Nixon administration the verdict in that war is still not reversed. Giuliani may have sent a lot of people to prison but his side lost that war. Along the way, however, he surely learned something about US conspiracy laws, the invocation of which was how he made his living.
In 1975 Giuliani was moved off of the drug beat and gained some public prominence in the bribery prosecution of US Representative Bert Podell. The bribery charge did not stick but Podell was cornered into pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and violation of the federal conflict of interest law. It seems that the Democrat from Brooklyn agreed to a payoff but it could not be proven that such payment actually happened. But the federal conspiracy law casts a wide net:
18 USC §371. Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud United States If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. If, however, the offense, the commission of which is the object of the conspiracy, is a misdemeanor only, the punishment for such conspiracy shall not exceed the maximum punishment provided for such misdemeanor.
18 USC §1030. Fraud and related activity in connection with computers (a) Whoever- (6) knowingly and with intent to defraud traffics (as defined in section 1029) in any password or similar information through which a computer may be accessed without authorization, if- (A) such trafficking affects interstate or foreign commerce … shall be punished as provided in subsection (c) of this section.
There is no heading of “collusion” in US federal criminal law. But one who acts in concert with another person who hacks into somebody’s computer and traffics in the proceeds of that invasion, for the purpose of winning a public office that among other things includes the power to appoint the US Secretary of Commerce, or as Vladimir Putin more specifically wanted, to ease sanctions on Russia? That person has conspired to commit a computer crime.
Rudy Giuliani knows this. He is making law student flunkout arguments, much akin to the guy behind bars for felony murder who protests that he didn’t shoot the convenience store clerk in that robbery, he just drove the getaway car.
Giuliani, of course, has a backup position. In any case, he argues, there wasn’t any collusion. There is already a lot of evidence on the public record to suggest that there was. Mr. Mueller has alleged much more in indictments bringing charges that may some day have to be proven in court. Some of those who were participants in parts of this scheme have already pleaded guilty.
The ground is being prepared for the President of the United States to defend the untenable in expectation of damning new information to come. That’s what Giuliani’s lame argument is all about.
The boys from Vacamonte, national heroes of the day! Photo by FEDEBEIS.
Our boys in Williamsport!
Panama is again the Little League champion of Latin America!
We could discuss the state of Panamanian baseball at length, but now is not the time. We should all be cheering right now.
Bear in mind…
To do nothing is sometimes a good remedy.
Hippocrates
If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.
Emily Dickinson
In the long course of history, having people who understand your thought is much greater security than another submarine.
J. William Fulbright
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Residents of tourism hotspots are fighting back. 
