Can we get down to reality about guns?

Gun LAWS, and gun POLICIES — those are complicated things about which to argue in the USA. They are much less complicated in Panama.

Would someone want to impose Panamanian gun restrictions on US society? To be fully enforced it would involve removing weapons from tens of millions of households, and a head-on challenge to a long-standing body of law.

We had a vice minister who started was US gun seller advertising talk in Panama, a man who said that more and more powerful weapons in public circulation here would make the country and its citizens safer. He found a little bit of libertarian support, but to most Panamanians he seemed to be something of a nut case, his ideas about our gun policies were rejected and when he was removed there were no demonstrations in his favor.

Let’s get down to basic facts, after which we can marshall other facts and invoke philosophies for arguments that can go all sorts of ways

A firearm in the house does not make the members of the household safer. It makes it a more dangerous living situation. This is statistically shown in many countries, in settings both urban and rural, in high crime areas and in places without much of that sort of social problem.

The notion that if everyone can carry a gun then crime is reduced because a criminal gunman will be shot down by a non-criminal gunman is false. Sometimes it happens that way, but quite rarely. In Las Vegas, where the gun lobby has managed to get Nevada gun laws pretty much as it wants them to be, most of the 30,000 people at that concert had a right to carry a gun and surely some of them did. Nobody in that crowd shot back at the sniper. That’s in line with the experience of almost all mass shootings everywhere.

Do people involved in dangerous businesses need guns for protection? Many are the tales of armed gangsters shot dead. The safe thing is to stay away from the rackets, not to go about an armed life of crime.

Take the “for protection” argument out of consideration. It’s a delusion.

Beyond those basic facts we can freely debate whether Jesus Christ would want a senator who waves a pistol onstage at his campaign stops, or whether the Las Vegas sniper’s right to ear protection by silencers on his weapons should have been superior to his targets’ ability to hear what was going on and seek cover.

Set all that lunacy aside and still many jurisdictions, Panama included, might argue about the value of firearms hunting seasons. Panamanians in particular might want to talk about a constitution that calls for a militia commanded by the police in lieu of a military force, and what that implies about ordinary citizens’ ability to use and maintain weapons. Gun laws, and gun policies, actually are complicated questions.

But let us consider such questions without fallacies that are propagated for the purpose of selling guns.

Is it about the books that we consider holy?

Panama, a small country of modest wealth, has sent assistance to our Mexican and Caribbean neighbors in distress because of natural disasters.

Is it because we are a Christian country? Nominally, we are mostly Catholic, with many Evangelicals, thriving Jewish, Muslim and Hindu communities, denominations of still more faiths, and a large and undercounted group of non-religious individuals and families. It’s noteworthy that the private business most often mentioned in stories of Panama’s relief efforts is mostly Jewish-owned.

Panama is The Crossroads of The World, with many sorts of influences. If there is something universal about ordinary human decency, we are affected by it. And so we answer the call to help neighbors in distress. We are not divided by faith or philosophy when it comes to this part of our national character. This is who Panamanians are.

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A Tale of Two Stories

by Uri Avnery

This is the story: at 7 o’clock in the morning, an Arab approaches the gate of Har Adar, a settlement close to the Green Line near the Israeli-Arab village of Abu Ghosh.

The man is a “good Arab.” A good Arab with a work permit in the settlement. He lives in the nearby West Bank Arab village of Beit Surik. He received a work permit there because he fits all the criteria — he is 37 years old, married and father of four children. The inhabitants of Har Adar know him well, because he has been cleaning their homes for years.

This Tuesday morning he arrived at the gate as usual. But something aroused suspicion among the guards. He was wearing a jacket, though the weather was quite hot on this early autumn day. The guards asked him to remove his jacket.

Instead, the man took out a loaded pistol and shot three of the guards in the head at close range — two civilian guards and a member of the semi-military Border Guards. One of the victims was himself an Arab. Another security officer, the local commander of the guards, was severely wounded. Since the assailant had never received military training, the precision of his shots was astounding. The pistol had been stolen 15 years ago.

All Israel was shocked. How could this happen? A good Arab like this? An Arab with permits? Why would he do such a thing in a place where he was well liked and well treated? Where he played with the children? And that after he was thoroughly vetted by the Security Service, which has innumerable Arab spies and is considered well-nigh infallible?

Something extraordinary must have happened. Someone must have incited him against the Jews and the nice people of Har Adar, who had treated him so well. Perhaps the UN speech by Mahmoud Abbas. Or perhaps some secret contacts with Hamas. “Incitement!” cried Binyamin Netanyahu.

But then another fact emerged, which explained everything. The man had quarreled with his wife. He had beaten her up, and she had escaped to her family in Jordan, leaving the four children behind.

So, obviously, he had become temporarily unhinged. In a state of mental derangement he had forgotten the kindness of the Har Adar people. Just a unique case, that need not trouble us further.

But it all shows that you can’t trust the Arabs. They are a bunch of murderers. You cannot make peace with them until they change completely. So we must keep the occupied territories.

That is the story. But there is another story, too. The story as seen by the man himself.

From his home in neighboring Beit Surik, the man — whose name was, by the way, Nimr (“leopard”) Mahmoud Ahmed al-Jamal — could see Har Adar from his home every day when he woke up. For him, as for every Arab, it was a flourishing Jewish settlement, built on expropriated Arab land. Like his own village, it belonged to the Palestinian West Bank which is occupied territory.

He had to get up in the darkness of the night in order to get to Har Adar on time — 7.00 o’clock in the morning — and work hard until late in the night, arriving home at about 10 o’clock. This is the lot of tens of thousands of Arab laborers. They may look friendly, especially when their livelihood depends on it. They may even be really friendly to benevolent masters. But deep in their hearts they cannot forget for a moment that they are cleaning the toilets of the Jews who came to Arab Palestine and occupied their homeland.

Since most of the agricultural land of their villages has been expropriated for Jewish settlements, they have no choice but to work in these low-status jobs. There is no industry to speak of in the West Bank. Wages are minimal, often below the legal minimum wage in Israel proper (some 1500 dollars per month). Since they have no choice, they are not far from being slaves. Like the nice slaves in “Gone with the Wind.”

Such a man may be at peace with this reality, but if something bad happens, he may suddenly become upset with his status and decide to become a martyr. Nimr left behind a letter in which he defended his wife and absolved her from any responsibility for the deed he had planned for the next day.

So these are the two stories, which have very little in common.

The people of Har Adar are completely shocked. Since they live 20 minutes drive from Jerusalem, they do not consider themselves settlers at all, but Israelis like any other. They don’t really see the Arabs all around them as people like themselves, but as primitive natives.

The Har Adar people are not like the fanatical, religious and nearly fascist people in some settlements. Far from it. Har Adar people vote for all parties, including Meretz, the left-wing Zionist party which advocates the return of the occupied territories to the Palestinians. This is not seen as including Har Adar, of course, since there is a consensus among Zionists, right and left, that the settlements close to the Green Line should be annexed to Israel.

Har Adar people can rightly be proud of their achievements. From the air, the place looks very orderly. It has 3858 inhabitants. Their average income is about 5000 dollars a month, well over the national Israeli average (some 3000 dollars). Their local council is the third most efficient in the entire country.

Located in the mountainous area around Jerusalem, it has a beautiful landscape. It also has man-made amenities: a library, a youth club, a skate-park and an amphitheater that seats 720 people. Even for an average Israeli, this is paradise. For the Arabs around, who cannot enter without a special permit, it is a perpetual reminder of their national disaster.

Of course, like other settlements, Har Adar is not located on land that was empty. It occupies the location on which stood a village called Hirbat Nijam, a village which already stood there in Persian-Hellenistic times, some 2500 years ago. Like most Palestinian villages, they were Canaanite, then Judean, then Hellenist, then Byzantine, then Muslim, then crusader, then Mameluk, then Ottoman, then Palestinian — without the population ever changing. Until 1967.

When Nimr was born, all this long history was long forgotten. What remained was the reality of the Israeli occupation.

This now looks like the normal state of things. The members of Har Adar are happy, feeling secure and well guarded by the efficient Security Service, the Border Guard and local mercenaries, mostly Arab citizens of Israel. Neighbors like Nimr seem content, and probably are, if they are lucky enough to have a job and a work permit, even with pitiful wages. The historical grudge lies deeply buried within their consciousness.

And then something happens, something that may be quite irrelevant — like the escape of his wife to Jordan — to bring it all up. Nimr the lowly laborer suddenly becomes Nimr the freedom-fighter, Nimr the martyr on his way to paradise. All his village respects his sacrifice and his family.

Israelis are furious that the families of “martyrs” are paid an allowance by the Palestinian Authority. Binyamin Netanyahu accuses Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) of incitement to murder with these payments. But it is quite impossible for Abbas to annul them — the outrage reaction of his people would be tremendous. Martyrs are holy, their families respected.

The day after Nimr’s dastardly terrorist act and/or heroic martyrdom, a grandiose national ceremony took place in another settlement.

All the country’s major dignitaries, led by the President and the Prime Minister, assembled to commemorate the 50tth anniversary of “our return to our homeland, Judea and Samaria, the Jordan Valley and the Golan Heights.”

Missing in the list is the Gaza Strip, which Israel has evacuated, leaving behind a tight land and sea blockade aided by Egypt. In the Strip there are about two million Palestinians. Who the hell wants them?

All hell broke loose when the President of the Supreme Court, who was supposed to send a judge to represent the court at this ceremony, canceled his attendance because of the highly propagandist style of the event. She decided that this is party propaganda, in which her court would not take part.

Altogether, not a day of quiet in this country, a state without borders and without a constitution, where every story has two totally different sides, where nice and quiet people suddenly become raging martyrs.

There will be no quiet until there is peace, with each of the two peoples living in their own state, a situation where real friendship has a chance of blooming.

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Profesores de INA protestan

comunicado de lose profesores de las escuelas de arte de INAC

“El compromiso por el desarrollo y mejortamiento de la cultura nacional, su accionar educativo formativo y academico, asi como su proyeccion en tods sus formas y ambitos deberia ser el norte y ruta a seguir decualquiera institucion que se digne decir la encargada de velar y promover la cultura en panama- sentimos que este rumbo no se esta llevando a cabo ni siquiera considerando para el mas comun y humilde de los panameños”.

Por las respuestas al pliego de peticiones con 21 puntos entregados al INAC, MEDUCA y Presidente de la Republica (hace más de 2 años), y del cual se desprenden muchas soluciones a los males que aquejan e interrumpen el normal y correcto desarrollo cultural de este país.

La crisis educativa no tiene solución solo a lo interno del apartado institucional del INAC y refleja una ruptura general del régimen político partidocratico incapaz de solventar, gestionar y respetar los derechos del ciudadano. Con esta urge un cambio político institucional profundo y meridiano para poder decir que se supera este abismal problema que afecta todo el país.

Por una verdadera justicia laboral que asegure el cumplimiento de los acuerdos en materia laboral, ya sea por asuntos de pagos atrasados, deudas pendientes o derechos incumplidos.

Por el mejoramiento de las infraestructuras y condiciones de los centros, escuelas e institutos para así poder y decir que se alcanza los logros educativos con calidad integral en las artes de este país.
Por una verdadera evaluación integral del sistema educativo de las escuelas, centros e institutos de Bellas Artes, no punitiva y que responda a la realidad del país permitiendo un diagnóstico preciso y una efectiva investigación socioeducativa para la planificación de políticas públicas.

Por qué los debidos procesos de la Ley Orgánica de Educación se lleven a cabo de una manera coherente sin violentarla y aplicarla de manera positiva, llevando a cabo una integración MEDUCA/INAC como se debe para que todos los procesos fluyan de manera positiva y factibles.

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Odebrecht’s perfume

by Miguel Antonio Bernal

The stench that the rot of corruption produces in Panamanian public institutions reaches levels never sniffed in our country in recent decades.

Thanks to impunity and the ineptitude of top officials, our country sails upon dangerous waters. It allows us to presage a sinking under the waves of violence to be generated. This is the product of policies that break down the functions of the Public Ministry and cover up the actions of the mega-criminal enterprise Odebrecht, the offspring of the Attorney General’s office and its leadership.

Patrick Suskind, in his novel “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer,” brilliantly tells us pf the life of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, who lived in France in the eighteenth century and was “one of the most genial and abominable men of an era in which the abominable and genial men were not scarce.”

The German writer tells us that at the time of his story “there was a stench in the cities hardly conceivable for modern man. The streets stank of manure, the interior courtyards stank of urine, the stairwells of rotting wood and rat droppings. kitchens with rotten cabbage and mutton fat. The unventilated rooms stank of moldy dust, the bedrooms, greasy sheets, damp duvets, and the sweet, sweet smell of the urinals … Men and women stank of sweat and dirty clothes, in their mouths infected teeth stank, breaths smelled like onions and bodies, when they were no longer young, with stale cheese, sour milk and rumors of evil … “

Jean Baptiste Grenouille produced a rare perfume that subjugated the will of the one who smelled it. Thanks to his marvel he obtained the favor of high society and control over the powerful. In our times Odebrecht has emulated Suskind’s character, has managed, with its bribes, to seduce our authorities and turn them into concealers of the stench of their crimes against our country.

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De-escalating North Korea

by Tulsi Gabbard

After spending trillions of dollars on counterproductive regime change wars in Iraq, Syria, and Libya, we cannot afford to enmesh ourselves in another costly conflict with North Korea.

Trading barbs, personal insults, and threats with Kim Jong Un has put the United States in a more tenuous position in East Asia than we have experienced since the Korean War. Taking a hardline stance that abandons diplomacy has caused the North Korean military to multiply their ballistic missile tests, put Guam in their crosshairs, and now threaten to shoot down American military planes.

Regime change policy has failed, and it has nearly bankrupted our federal government. We have leaders who drag their feet at ensuring clean water for Flint or health care for the American public, but who jump at the opportunity to entangle ourselves in more costly foreign conflicts. Toppling Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein has not made the world safer — instead, dictators like Kim Jong Un cling harder to their nuclear arsenal as the only deterrent to further US aggression.

I need your help to break through the bipartisan foreign policy establishment that says the United States must wage war in countries across the world. Support diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in North Korea.

The cost of war is profound. I have served alongside friends in the Middle East who never made it home, and alongside still more who have struggled against systemic issues at home that we have neglected for want of more foreign entanglements.

Diplomacy is our best hope to de-escalate the crisis with North Korea, and ultimately denuclearize the Korean peninsula. In order to protect our troops and allies in South Korea, Japan, and on naval vessels patrolling the Pacific, we have a responsibility to bring North Korea to the table.

We can only win North Korea’s trust when we swear off our arbitrary interventions in sovereign countries. Peace, not war, is the only sane option, but there is a longstanding bipartisan consensus in Washington that disagrees. I have never been afraid of going against my own party or the Washington establishment to do what I feel is right. Please sign our petition for diplomacy and an end to counterproductive regime change policy.

Peace is more difficult to achieve than conflict. We cannot be afraid of standing up to our enemies — especially when all our enemies seem to want is violence. Let’s find a better path forward.

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