Yes, there surely are harder hit countries. But Panama is a nation of only some 4.3 million souls. Our losses have been staggering and the government’s corruption, hypocrisy and erratic deference to business groups and party activists who are in denial compounds the blow of these more than 7,000 deaths here.
7,000
by Miguel Antonio Bernal
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
George Orwell
The schizophrenia fomented by the joint criminal enterprise continues on its way, fed by citizens’ inhibitions against expressing themselves and demonstrating against the daily impositions by the “Gabyernito.”
Thus, we see and fear how the pandemic has brought mourning and pain to more than 7,000 Panamanian families. The indolence of the rulers has been more than scandalous, while fear, discouragement, confusion and stress have taken over, causing a public paralysis fueled by misinformation and media manipulation.
Today, in the midst of the prevailing – and imposed – situation, we citizens must demand a capacity for discernment. One that’s directed, without indifference and without shortcuts, with capability, clarity and resolution, to respond to bot old and new realities. Failure to achieve this will only bring more misfortune.
Day to day the joint criminal enterprise dedicates itself full-time to trampling on civic dignity in all fields, generating more bitterness than I can possibly know how to express with clarity.
Those who control the government and its branches are not like those of ancient times who crucified people, beheaded them and so on just for fun. They are looking for something completely new, something that has never been heard of before in our country. They sow and reap lies more abundantly than ever before in our history as a republic.
A civic response is urgently needed to stop the uncontrolled irrationality that those in political power display. It will take an extraordinary effort to tackle the dilettantism of the population, to minimize the lack of human sensitivity and sympathy.
We cannot and must not allow ourselves to be defeated by the authorities’ lowbrow pitches. They’re the authors of the chaos that we experience now, and that which is coming. We must decide, prepare and transform apathy into solidarity and action.
We need to get on the road, without further delay, toward a true empowerment of the citizenry. It’s now or never.
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