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ICRC, Disaster requires international help for burn and explosion victims

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Deadly explosions and fires
Unattributed photo of the fire and explosion at a fuel depot in Nagorno Karabakh, Azerbaijan that’s distributed via Reuters.

Armenia/Azerbaijan: Ambulances, medical supplies are being sent to assist victims of explosion – more help needed

by the International Committee of the Red Cross / Red Crescent

Hundreds of burn victims of an explosion at a fuel depot are in urgent need of specialized medical care. Teams from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are delivering medical supplies and helping to arrange medical evacuation by ambulance.

Hospitals in the region were already over capacity even before the influx of patients from the explosion, making the situation for patients and medical staff extra-critical.

“This is an absolute tragedy for hundreds of people now suffering from horrific, painful burns,” said Ariane Bauer, the ICRC’s regional director for Europe and Central Asia. “The crisis is compounded by the fact that hospitals were already running over capacity and that heavy traffic makes it difficult to move ambulances and medical supplies in and out.”

The ICRC delivered dressing kits and a specialized burn dressing kit following the incident. An ICRC medical team is on site assisting with the medical response. More medical supplies necessary for the treatment of severe burn cases are in the process of being delivered.

The ICRC is working with decision makers in the region to find solutions to increase the number of medical evacuations.

Finding solutions to these urgent medical needs is in line with the obligation of all parties under international humanitarian law to ensure that the wounded and sick receive, with the least possible delay, the medical care required by their condition.

Even before the explosion, the ICRC had identified 60 critically wounded patients who needed to be evacuated from the central hospital. Twenty-three of those patients were evacuated on Sunday; plans to evacuate the others have been made more difficult by the critical needs from the explosion.

About the ICRC: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a neutral, impartial and independent organization with an exclusively humanitarian mandate that stems from the Geneva Conventions of 1949. It helps people around the world affected by armed conflict and other violence, doing everything it can to protect their lives and dignity and to relieve their suffering, often alongside its Red Cross and Red Crescent partners.

For more information contact:
Fatima Sator, ICRC Geneva, tel: +41 79 848 4908, fsator@icrc.org
Ilaha Huseynova, ICRC Baku, tel : +99450 316 00 24, ihuseynova@icrc.org
Zara Amatuni, ICRC Yerevan, tel: +374 99 011 360, zamatuni@icrc.org

 

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Yet another sign of a weak economy

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MLM
There are still a lot of empty billboards along the Pan-American Highway, partly because sales are slow, partly because businesses don’t care to deal with the owner of many of the billboards. Now that one of these outdoor ad spaces gets filled, what is promoted? Not sales to customers, but an attempt to recruit people into the world of multi-level marketing. Photo by Eric Jackson.
 

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ICARO: esta vez no son películas de chico conoce a chica

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mine
De XIW (MIEDO) documental guatemalteco de 2022.

Películas sobre las realidades centroamericanas en el Festival ICARO

por Roberto Enrique King — GECU

El cine es entretenimiento y al mismo tiempo puede ser vehículo de expresión y de denuncia de las realidades de cada pueblo, y en el caso del cine centroamericano esto se hace verdad en las producciones que anualmente presenta en nuestro país el FESTIVAL DE CINE ICARO PANAMÁ, que en esta ocasión nos llega del lunes 2 al sábado 7 de octubre en el Cine Universitario y luego en Chiriquí y Bocas del Toro, organizado por el GECU de la Vicerrectoría de Extensión de la Universidad de Panamá en conjunto con la Fundación FAE, con el respaldo de la Dirección de Cine del Ministerio de Cultura y los auspicios de AECID y el Ministerio de Desarrollo Social, entre otras instancias, con funciones gratuitas.

Especialmente habría que prestar atención a filmes como DOMINGO Y LA NIEBLA, ficción de Costa Rica de Ariel Escalante, que abre el festival el lunes 2, en la que unos matones a sueldo atemorizan a un pueblo con el fin de sacar a los vecinos para poder construir una autopista que pase por sus terrenos; el martes 3 se destaca XIW (MIEDO), documental de Guatemala de Ameno Córdoba y Pepe Orozco, una potente referencia para la actualidad panameña, en la que grupos indígenas guatemaltecos se enfrentan al gobierno por la presencia de una gigantesca mina de níquel a cielo abierto que está acabando con sus vidas y su medio ambiente, con sobornos, muertos y represión de por medio.

El miércoles 4 resalta el también documental de Guatemala, EL SILENCIO DEL TOPO, de Anais Taracena, historia del llamado Schindler centroamericano, quien se infiltró en un alto cargo dentro de uno de los gobiernos más represivos de Guatemala y desde allí salvó la vida de decenas de disidentes, para luego revelar todo en un juicio de Estado; mientras que el jueves 5 el foco estará en la ficción de El Salvador, POLVO DE GALLO, de Julio López, que se ambienta en una ciudad centroamericana no definida administrada por “El Sistema”, que obliga a todas las mujeres en varios momentos de sus vidas a entrar en un complejo donde son sometidas y vejadas sexualmente, especialmente en el temido cuartito llamado Polvo de gallo.

El resto de las películas programadas, cortos y largos panameños, centroamericanos e internacionales, también nos presentan un abanico de temas de tremenda actualidad e importancia que hablan de un cine pertinente y preocupado por su entorno, su cultura y su historia. Toda la programación y actividades están registradas en www.festivalicaropanama.com

2
De Domingo y La Niebla (drama costarricense de 2022)

6° FESTIVAL DE CINE ICARO PANAMÁ – OCTUBRE 2023
PANAMÁ: – CINE UNIVERSITARIO – LUNES 2 AL VIERNES 7
TANDAS: 3, 5 Y 7 PM
ENTRADA GRATIS
PROGRAMACIÓN SUJETA A CAMBIOS

● Muestra Itinerante de películas centroamericanas e internacionales ganadoras y nominadas en el 25° Festival Internacional de Cine en Centroamérica ÍCARO – Guatemala 2022.
● Muestra de películas panameñas seleccionadas por un jurado para competir en el 26° Festival Internacional de Cine en Centroamérica ÍCARO – Guatemala 2023

Lunes 2:

DOMINGO Y LA NIEBLA (Costa Rica 2022), ficción de Ariel Escalante, con Carlos Ureña, Sylvia Sossa,Esteban Brenes.
El pueblo en el que vive Domingo está amenazado por unos matones que un promotor contrató para expulsara sus vecinos y poder construir una autopista. Pero Domingo, quien además recibe la visita del fantasma de su mujer entre la niebla, se niega a salir y se comienzan a complicar las cosas.
Mejor Película C.A., Mejor Dirección, Mejor Actuación Masculina, Mejor Cinematografía y Mejor Sonido.
Duración total: 92’

Martes 3:

TÍRATE UN FREE (Panamá 2022), documental de Angel Corro.
Una pequeña comunidad de amantes del rap comienza a crecer desde las plazas y parques de Panamá. El rap improvisado y su amor por el hip-hop los une. Desde rapear en buses para buscar su sustento diario hasta representar al país en grandes escenarios, estos jóvenes solo buscan ser entendidos y aceptados por la
sociedad. Nominada a Mejor corto Documental C.A. (25’)

LA PROMESA (Costa Rica 2021), ficción de Alberto Amieva Leyva.
En un mundo aparentemente post apocalíptico, un grupo de mujeres y hombres huyen y se resguardan de algo que está afuera y los acecha. Encerrados sin agua ni comida tendrán que tomar decisiones extremas y encontrar la forma de salir para llegar a una ciudad donde al parecer aún quedan personas. Nominada a Mejor
Corto Ficción Centroamericano. (15’)

XIW (MIEDO) (Guatemala 2022), documental de Ameno Córdova y Pepe Orosco.
La resistencia Maya Q’eqchi; de El Estor, Izabal, lucha contra el monstruo del extractivismo y la destrucción que causa una mina. Pescadores, autoridades ancestrales, comunidades y el lago sagrado están siendo amenazados por la “mancha roja”. Contaminación, criminalización, muerte y el miedo están en el ambiente, pero el pueblo no se deja. Mejor Corto Documental C.A. (40’
Duración total: 80’

Miércoles 4:

MEMORIA VIVA: FEBE ELIZABETH VELÁSQUEZ (El Salvador 2021), animación de Gabriela Turcios y Daniel Portillo.
Historia de vida de la sindicalista Febe Elizabeth Velásquez, líder del movimiento obrero salvadoreño activo durante el conflicto armado de los años 1980.
Mejor Animación C.A. (7’)

CHECK ON A MATE (COMPROBAR UN MATE) (Honduras 2022), ficción de Salvador Aguilar.
Fred Brooks es un anciano olvidado hace mucho tiempo en un asilo de ancianos, que juega al ajedrez a travésde correspondencia postal con su viejo amigo Marcel, quien un día, de la nada, dejó de escribirle. Ahora Fred necesita descubrir por qué.
Mejor Corto Ficción C.A. (12’)

EL SILENCIO DEL TOPO (Guatemala 2021), documental de Anais Taracena.
A fines de los 70, el periodista Elías Barahona, alias El Topo, se infiltró en un alto cargo de uno de los gobiernos más represivos de Guatemala y desde su posición salvó la vida de decenas de disidentes. Logra escapar y luego acepta declarar en un juicio de Estado, en el que revela su doble vida y terribles y dolorosas verdades. La directora da voz al olvido y busca recuperar la memoria silenciada de su país.
Mejor LargoDocumental C.A. (90’)
Duración total: 109’

Jueves 5:

EL CLORO NO LIMPIA PECADOS (Costa Rica 2022), ficción de Mónica Murillo.
Dos amas de casa reciben una visita no deseada; mientras preparan una comida para sus invitados, podemos vislumbrar la historia de violencia doméstica con la que luchan en su interior.
Nominada a Mejor Corto Ficción C.A. (20’)

ATRÁPAME (Guatemala 2022), ficción de Miguel Salay.
Un hombre llega a su casa del trabajo y se encuentra una situación anómala que decide no enfrentar, y sale en su bicicleta a dar una vuelta por la ciudad, lo que se convierte en un periplo extraño y desgastante que lo trae de vuelta a su edificio un tanto fuera de sí.
Nominada a Mejor Corto Ficción C.A. (27’)

POLVO DE GALLO (El Salvador/México 2021), ficción de Julio López Fernández, con Paola Miranda,Egly Larreynaga, Alicia Chong.
En la capital de un país centroamericano es obligatorio que las mujeres ingresen a cuartos administrados por “El Sistema”, donde son sometidas a agresiones sexuales. Ninguna se salva de entrar y la habitación más temida es la famosa “Polvo de gallo”. El filme fue realizado junto a un colectivo de mujeres de cine y teatro.
Nominada a Mejor Film de ficción C.A., ganadora de Mejor Edición y Vestuario. (62’)
Duración total: 109’

Viernes 6:

PRELUDIO (Costa Rica 2021), experimental de Melania Porras, José García y Diego Alfaro.
(Preludio: Sustantivo 1. una acción o evento que sirve como introducción). Un cineasta, un arquitecto y una coreógrafa se juntan para crear esta especie de homenaje al mundo escénico y artístico en una sola toma.
Mejor Experimental C.A. (3’)

VIAJE A ALGUNA PARTE (España 2021), docudrama de Helena de Llanos.
La cineasta, nieta del actor, novelista y director Fernando Fernán Gómez, ahonda en la carrera profesional y la vida de Fernán Gómez y su mujer, Emma Cohen, y hace un viaje a un pasado cargado de recuerdos que conecta de forma irremediable con su presente. El título alude a El viaje a ninguna parte, película escrita, dirigida y actuada por su abuelo, sobre cómicos trashumantes.
Nominada a Mejor Largo DocumentalInternacional. (108’)
Duración total: 111’

Sábado 7:

PELÍCULAS PANAMEÑAS SELECCIONADAS PARA FESTIVAL ICARO INTERNACIONAL

3 pm

1989 (Panamá 2023), documental de Massiel Robles.
Un documental sobre la invasión a Panamá, realizado por jóvenes que no vivieron estos hechos, residentes de Santa Ana y El Chorrillo, barrios populares donde se dio el bombardeo más terrible de la historia de este país.
(13’)

RECUERDA (Panamá 2022), ficción de Alberto Serra, con Leo Witnitzer, Juliette Roy, Evjta Witnitzar.
Un hombre mayor coquetea con una mujer más joven, lo que resulta en una crisis existencial. Un día, un momento, un sentimiento pueden cambiarlo todo. Un cortometraje que deja sobre la mesa la pregunta: ¿Y si fuera yo? (7’)

CHUCHU Y EL GENERAL (Panamá 2022), documental de Joaquín Horna Dolande.
Chuchú Martínez -Doctor en filosofía y matemáticas, dramaturgo, poeta y aviador políglota – se une a laGuardia Nacional como recluta en 1974. Es designado como escolta personal del General Omar Torrijos, iniciando una amistad de casi una década, en los 70, que tiene su mejor momento con la negociación con
EE.UU. de los tratados del Canal de Panamá. (102’)
Duración total: 122’

5 pm

MAO LUCKY (Panamá 2022), animación de Luis Carlos Caballero.
Un gato de la suerte de cerámica da la bienvenida en una tienda a cada visitante moviendo su pata hacia arriba y hacia abajo. A la larga la patita sigue balanceándose, hasta que se rompe y se cae. El gato se frustra e intenta arreglarlo él mismo antes del día siguiente. (4’)

ESO NO RIMA, ficción de Roberto Villafañe, con Ash Olivera, Daniel Isaac, Freddy D’Elia.
Un difuso poeta quiere terminar y publicar su libro de poemas, y vive en un constante proceso creativo de escritura, inspirándose con todo lo que escucha y ve, lo que le ocasiona conflictos con su pragmática esposa que no le interesan estos temas. (16’)

EN EL AIRE (Panamá 2023), ficción de Roberto Thomas-Díaz, con Marisín Luzcando, Teresita Mans, Diana Mellado.
Tras 25 años como trabajadora doméstica, Edilsa enfrenta la realidad del desempleo en una era en donde todas las reglas parecen haber cambiado. Cuando conversa con sus patrones sobre sus cuotas del Seguro para poder jubilarse, resulta que nunca se las han pagado. (14’)

NACIÓN DE TITANES (Panamá 2022), documental de Joaquín Horna.
Un recorrido por la vida de los protagonistas de la época dorada de la lucha libre en Panamá, compartiendo los orígenes de este deporte, sus triunfos y derrotas, en un legado que enfrentará a su mayor rival, la prueba del tiempo. (95’)
Duración total: 129’

7 pm

CONVERSATORIO CON REALIZADORES NACIONALES Y JURADOS SELECCIONADORES

 

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AOC calls on Menendez to step aside

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AOC
“Consistency matters. It shouldn’t matter if it’s a Republican or a Democrat,” Ocasio-Cortéz asserted. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortéz speaks during an appearance on CBS “Face the Nation” on September 24, 2023. Photo: CBS News screen grab.

“Extremely Serious”—AOC becomes the first House progressive to call for Menendez resignation

by Brett Wilkins—Common Dreams

New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortéz on Sunday became the first progressive House Democrat to call on Senator Bob Menendez to resign following the former Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair’s indictment last week on federal bribery charges.

Menendez (D-NJ) and his wife, Nadine Menendez, were charged Friday with accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes—including gold bars, cash, home mortgage payments, and a Mercedes-Benz—from businessmen in exchange for influence. The indictment also accuses Menendez of giving “sensitive US government information” to Egypt’s dictatorship.

Appearing on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Ocasio-Cortéz said that “the situation is quite unfortunate, but I do believe that it is in the best interest for Senator Menendez to resign in this moment.”

“Consistency matters. It shouldn’t matter whether it’s a Republican or a Democrat. The details in this indictment are extremely serious. They involve the nature of not just his, but all of our seats in Congress,” added Ocasio-Cortéz, who is the vice-ranking member of the House Oversight Committee.

Asked for her reaction to Menendez’s assertion that some of his congressional colleagues “are rushing to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat,” Ocasio-Cortéz said: “As a Latina, there are absolutely ways in which there is systemic bias, but I think what is here in this indictment is quite clear. And I believe it is in the best interest to maintain the integrity of the seat.”

Ocasio-Cortéz joins a growing list of Democrats including Senator John Fetterman (PA) and Representatives Jeff Jackson (NC), Dean Phillips (MN), Josh Gottheimer (NJ), Tom Malinowski (NJ), Frank Pallone (NJ), Mikie Sherill (NJ), Bill Pascrell (NJ), and Andy Kim (NJ) who are urging Menendez to resign.

On Saturday, Kim said he would run for Menendez’s Senate seat amid the senator’s refusal to resign.

“I feel compelled to run against him. Not something I expected to do, but NJ deserves better,” Kim wrote in a fundraising pitch on social media. “We cannot jeopardize the Senate or compromise our integrity.”

While defiantly declaring that he is “not going anywhere,” Menendez did step down from his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a position he had held since 2021.

Following her “Face the Nation” appearance, Ocasio-Cortéz flew to Missouri to stand in solidarity with striking United Auto Workers members. The congresswoman said the nation is facing “a crisis of inequality,” while hailing President Joe Biden’s planned trip to join Michigan UAW workers on the picket line Tuesday as “a historic event.”

“We have never seen in modern history a president show up to a picket line like this,” she said.

 

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What Western Hemisphere leaders are saying, part 3

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Gonsalves
“It is widely acknowledged that the global political economy is broken and needs fixing, not by tinkering here or there, but through fundamental restructuring of a kind that endures for the benefit of all humanity, especially those who are disadvantaged, dispossessed or marginalized.” Ralph E. Gonsalves. UN photo.

What leaders in the Americas said at the United Nations General Assembly – Part 3

Barbados – Mia Amor Mottley

Haiti – Ariel Henry

Dominica – Charles Angelo Savarin

Trinidad & Tobago – Keith Rowley

Antigua & Barbuda – Gaston Alphonso Browne

Saint Lucia – Philip Joseph Pierre

Grenada – Dickon Mitchell

Saint Kitts & Nevis – Terrance Micheal Drew

Saint Vincent & the Grenadines – Ralph Gonsalves

Editor’s note: The links above are to the English side of the UN website, the videos of which are in English. You can go to the Spanish side and listen to the videos in Spanish.
Nota de la redacción: Los enlaces anteriores llevan al lado inglés del sitio web de la ONU, cuyos videos están en inglés. Puedes ir al lado español y escuchar los videos en español.

Contact us by email at / Contáctanos por correo electrónico a fund4thepanamanews@gmail.com

 

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Riding with the heavies / Cabalgano con los pesados

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YEEE_HAAAH!
The outlaw bikers of lore, or something. Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov’s sketch of the painting of St. Vladimir’s Cathedral in Kyiv. State Museum of the history of religion, Saint Petersburg, Russia. Oil on canvas, 1887. A Wikimedia graphic. “Warriors of The Apocalypse.”

A scenic ride for all times – or the end of times
Un paseo panorámico para todos los tiempos

Arlo Guthrie – Motorcycle Song
https://youtu.be/i9S1o2RvcaE?si=qqVd00bIX6KnkZ8a

The Shangri-Las – Leader of the Pack
https://youtu.be/Q8UKf65NOzM?si=0EpbXunWY2h_QWID

Yomira John – Mala Paga
https://youtu.be/oLLoAicSnSI?si=tdGKMo8JMsPpXlOl

Eric Burdon – The Black Plague
https://youtu.be/3ZGbGYms2eI?si=U-EXh0ex4n8kFCee

Robbie Robertson – Fallen Angel
https://youtu.be/0MGXnMLESEA?si=pRAmxCykAQEPT9wR

Carlos Vives – Concierto Viña del Mar 2018
https://youtu.be/07cmLSq8VOY?si=QKw9LUqsxoNbi7B9

Tracy Chapman – Fast Car
https://youtu.be/yvGfVdx-gNo?si=GIhHq-V-pYD8KNO5

Aterciopelados – Maligno
https://youtu.be/ih1XaIi9BBM?si=AvdZpvi4gGcCzFfZ

Bruce Springsteen – The River
https://youtu.be/lc6F47Z6PI4?si=6LOkzBdTNSeVFPYA

Buffy Sainte Marie – Universal Soldier
https://youtu.be/zYEsFQ_gt7c?si=j-SLYKk30tsLuy_Y

Jimi Hendrix – All Along The Watchtower
https://youtu.be/TLV4_xaYynY?si=xdJdsvh8K5mCu5GX

Atahualpa Yupanqui – Los ejes de mi carreta
https://youtu.be/w9g9jvZ4yJ0?si=vD7oBPf7F882pfsA

Mercedes Sosa – Acústico
https://youtu.be/uooknhj5EiU?si=ivVK8YFiZaWkl4JN

Fugees – No Woman, No Cry
https://youtu.be/kOmhVEiq95I?si=KL0_G6SmdQ8RFqFb

Rubén Blades – Tierra Dura
https://youtu.be/ooZYWgwJfqc?si=OTlTjnMKhjnD4g9H

The Cranberries – Zombie
https://youtu.be/6Ejga4kJUts?si=lxyJZ17rOUHnw0rt

Jan & Dean – Dead Man’s Curve
https://youtu.be/yrCuMPeSu9s?si=c9Fg6pyuV1AeZxLu

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What Western Hemisphere leaders are saying, part 2

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Lasso
“The solution does not depend on how much money a state has, but on how much political will its rulers have.” Guillermo Lasso, speaking to the United Nations General Assembly. UN photo.

What leaders in the Americas said at the United Nations General Assembly – Part 2

Ecuador – Guillermo Lasso Mendoza

Suriname – Chandrikpersad Santokhi

Guyana – Mohamed Irfaan Ali

Honduras – Iris Xiomara Castro Sarmiento

Dominican Republic – Luis Rodolfo Abinader Corona

Chile – Gabriel Boric Font

Editor’s note: The links above are to the English side of the UN website, the videos of which are in English. You can go to the Spanish side and listen to the videos in Spanish.
Nota de la redacción: Los enlaces anteriores llevan al lado inglés del sitio web de la ONU, cuyos videos están en inglés. Puedes ir al lado español y escuchar los videos en español.

 

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Tuesday afternoon running errands in Penonome

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buses
You’re dealing with a bus rider, a guy on a limited budget who is neither singing the blues nor hitting you up for the money to buy an SUV. This is actually an out-the window picture from the bus about to head home, from the bus piquera on the east end of the El Boulevard shopping center, looking north with the mountains of Cocle in the distance.

Errands in Penonome

photos and notes by Eric Jackson

The town of Penonome is a fascinating little place, including for a history major like I was and for a long-time urban policy observer. The city center is this congested stronghold of small and medium-sized businesses, from the sidewalk stalls of informal vendors to the often ethnic Chinese or Arab owned stores to the public market. The place, said to be named after the Spanish conquerors’ execution of an indigenous resistance leader named Nomé — “aquí penó Nomé — was a place for ranchers and farmers to buy what they needed and sell what they could, around which a provincial government and religious center grew up. Much later came the internal combustion engine, which made the city center terribly congested, one part of which was nightmarish to find parking. There have been adaptations over the years but the downtown is still pretty bad in that sense.

This reporter has seen it much worse, but too many cars is a feature of downtown Penonome. Would it be a heresy over which political careers would be destroyed if parking on the street were limited and pay-to-park structures erected at spots around the downtown. Probably. Bear in mind that car owners are outnumbered by bus riders but the former include almost all of the political donor base.

What’s a would-be small-time capitalist to do? Grab a space on the sidewalk. Sell from the back of a truck. Set up shop in one of the alleys or walkways between the rows of storefronts. Open a shop upstairs in a place that used to be home for the owner of a downstairs business.

Conversion of old land uses is an interesting feature of Penonome, surely the stuff of dissertations and books on legal, architectural and economic history if there are enough nerds like this reporter to buy them. However, seeing something and knowing that it must have a history is not the same thing as knowing that history. Part of the problem in Panama is the legacy of criminal defamation laws wherein alleged defamation of a dead person could be considered a crime, EVEN IF what is published is absolutely true but makes some historical figure with that sort of a living relative who would press charges look bad. The crime is “injuria,” as in ‘You damaged my late great-grandfather’s reputation by telling the tale of this affair he had with a teenager when he was in his 50s and the urban policy consequences of that’ — even if the story is true.

In any case, it makes for enhanced charm, mystery and opportunities when shopping in downtown Penonome. 

‘Come with me to the Kasbah!’ Penonome is not a North African citadel, but it’s not such a huge stretch of the imagination to see a line of urban culture that runs right back through Arab Spain. I go to other barbers but I may be back here to get new eyeglasses. And is the Internet cafe upstairs from one of these warrens still in business?

So, through the built-up alley to the next street over to more stops on my mission. Food for myself, bones for the dogs, maybe a fish to share — Penonome’s public market! On this Tuesday afternoon the place wasn’t very full or busy — nothing much in the butchers’ and seafood vendors’ section. The pickings would likely have been much better there had it been a morning visit. Broccoli, piva nuts and onions, ¡sí hay! And some tools that I need to get but don’t care to carry with me on this afternoon. Just got me a chacara in El Valle, but that and other handicrafts are in an upstairs loft at the market. And then on the corner, in the same building as the market but apart from it, the little bakery with the excellent cheese bread that I can’t resist when in the area.

Along the side street that runs by the market, there are all of these little hardware and farm supply businesses. I go to some of these in search of garden seeds, and on the other side of the street sometimes the informal plant vendors have some worthy things for the garden, usually more on the decorative than the food production side. But I was in search of dog medicine here. Did not find what I needed at Melo, in front of which this unfortunate little guy was camped out. A couple of doors down I found the mite spray for dogs that I needed.

I could have found the rest of the items for which I specifically searched at the mini-supers in the area, but as a bus rider there are limitations. Often times, how much I can afford is not so nearly as important as how much I can — or want to — carry. 

Plus, as the COVID epidemic was about to hit us, the local government was making a move against congestion. The main terminal for Penonome to Panama buses was moved just across the Pan-American Highway from the entrance to the downtown area, and the main place to get a bus to other destinations in Cocle province moved to the east side of the El Boulevard shopping center. This move made that place, economically, and I wonder about the details of that set of political decisions. In any case, the move of most of the bus congestion out of the downtown area made urban planning sense from that perspective, even if it meant urban sprawl to the west.

The new configuration, for me, meant that I could go to El Boulevard and there shop at El Rey for dinner for myself, the cats and the dogs, pick up some things at the bakery, grab a cold little bottle of a South American soft drink, get me a couple of pieces of hsiu mai to snack upon, AND catch a bus that would let me off very close to my home in El Bajito de Juan Diaz de Anton. How much I have to carry, how far — AND how many buses I need to take — all figured into the calculation.

HOW FAR to the west, along the Pan-American Highway, should Penonome sprawl? This is looking west from the west end of El Boulevard, with a ticky-tack subdivision in the background and windmills beyond that. Do not let the windmills coat everything in your mind in shades of green. Urban sprawl is a hydra-headed set of environmental issues in its own right. Even when it helps to solve some downtown congestion problems. 

On the way home, I noticed banners and spray-painted slogans against the mining colony project. But on this afternoon the broad masses of workers, peasants and revolutionary intellectuals were not blocking traffic.

The cars, buses and trucks DID slow down a bit to watch a street juggler, a young man talented at what he does. People were opening their windows to give him money for his service. Life and the informal economy in Cocle’s provincial seat.

 

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What Western Hemisphere leaders are saying, part 1

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Nito at the uN
Nito Cortizo: “The climate crisis is a ticking time bomb and time is running out for all of us.” UN photo.

What leaders in the Americas said at the United Nations General Assembly – Part 1

Panama – Lauretino Cortizo Cohen

Brazil – Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

Colombia – Gustavo Petro Urrego

Cuba – Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez

Bolivia – Luis Alberto Arce Catacora

El Salvador – Nayib Armando Bukele

Argentina – Alberto Fernández

Uruguay – Luis Lacalle Pou

Paraguay – Santiago Peña Palacios

United States – Joseph R. Biden

 

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Pizzigati, Auto Workers give hope to the rest of the working class

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Unionized workers are showing the rest of us that the rich don’t always have to get richer — at everyone else’s expense.

UAW strike gives us new hope for the working class

by Sam Pizzigati — Common Dreams

This past Thursday night, just hours before the expiration of the United Auto Workers contract with Detroit’s Big Three, UAW president Shawn Fain had plenty on his mind.

Most of that plenty would be obvious and predictable. The impending expiration of his union’s auto industry contract, with no new pact in sight. The state of the union’s readiness for what could be the UAW’s most pivotal strike since 1937. But Fain had something else on his mind as well: the continuing and unforgivable maldistribution of America’s income and wealth.

“Just as in the 1930s,” Fain reminded his fellow auto workers, “we’re living in a time of stunning inequality throughout our society.”

Back then, in those 1930s, UAW members began a generation-long struggle that put a significant dent in that “stunning inequality.” By the early 1960s, auto worker struggles and sacrifices had helped give birth — in the United States — to a mass middle class. A majority of a major nation’s households, after paying for life’s most basic necessities, actually had money left over.

In all of world history, that had never before happened.

We have numbers that can help tell this dramatic story. In 1928, just before the Great Depression hit, households in America’s richest 0.1 percent held a quarter of the nation’s wealth, households in the bottom 90 percent only just over 15 percent. By the mid-1970s, that bottom 90 percent wealth share had more than doubled, to a third of the total.

And the richest 0.1 percent? The super wealthy’s share of the nation’s wealth had plummeted — over those same years — from a quarter of America’s treasure to just over 7 percent.

But then a grand turnaround began. Since 1976, as the economists Thomas Blanchet, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman have detailed, the pretax incomes of America’s top 0.1 percent have jumped ten times faster than the incomes of working adults in the nation’s middle 40 percent.

Over those same years, the real incomes of working-age adults in the top 0.01 percent have soared 856 percent. The poorest half of the nation’s working adults, in that same 47-year span, have hardly seen any increase at all, with their incomes rising just a minuscule 21 percent.

Autoworker take-homes have been doing even worse. Their real wages have actually been sinking over recent years. Between 2008 and July 2023, analysts at the Economic Policy Institute reported earlier this week, real average hourly earnings for US auto manufacturing workers fell 19.3 percent.

Top auto industry execs, meanwhile, have been watching their earnings skyrocket. CEO compensation at the auto industry’s Big Three — Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis, the corporate outfit that’s swallowed up Chrysler — has jumped 40 percent over the past four years, with each of the three CEOs last year taking home at least $21 million. GM’s current chief exec has pocketed over $200 million since 2014.

These same three corporate auto giants, the Economic Policy Institute adds, have “paid out nearly $66 billion in shareholder dividend payments and stock buybacks” over the past decade, not counting the $14 billion in dividends and buybacks shelled out so far this year.

The Big Three’s overall $250 billion in profits since 2013, the EPI goes on to point out, “amounts to nearly $1.7 million for each of the roughly 150,000 workers covered by UAW collective bargaining agreements.”

UAW president Shawn Fain seems to understand — just like his UAW predecessors back in the middle of the 20th century — that any real economic justice for auto workers is always going to demand imaginative struggle on multiple fronts. Striking UAW workers in 1937 didn’t just walk the picket line. They staged sit-down strikes that captured the imagination of working people the nation over.

And that early UAW didn’t just bring imagination to collective bargaining. UAW activists advanced bold egalitarian proposals on other key fronts as well, most strikingly on taxes.

In April 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt proposed a 100 percent federal income tax rate on income over $25,000, the equivalent of about $470,000 in today’s dollars. Who convinced FDR to push for that income cap? A New York Times report gave that credit to the UAW.

FDR didn’t end up getting Congress to give him a green light on that 100 percent top tax rate. But by 1944 our nation’s richest would face a 94 percent tax rate on income over $400,000, and that top rate would hover around 90 percent for the next two decades, years that would see the distribution of US income and wealth become significantly more equal.

In other words, the rich don’t always have to get richer — at everyone else’s expense. The distribution of US income and wealth can change, over relatively brief stretches of time and to a consequential extent.

The last time that consequential change took place in the United States, the UAW played a consequential role. That role may now be re-emerging.

 

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