Over the weekend most of the public commentary about Panamanian poliltics centered upon the New Business trial of Ricardo Martinelli. Meanwhile, the Panameñistas were on the campaign trail in Curundu. Photo from Yamy Blandón’s Twitter feed.
Less than a year out, and…
Several of Panama’s parties are engaged in furious primary campaigns, with an eye toward the May 2024 general elections. It’s a political eternity until then, but not so for most of the primary hopefuls.
The vote buyers? They’re urging people to sell out their country, the futures of young people, Panama’s good standing as a sovereign republic in the community of nations.
‘He stole but he got things done?’ Forget the second part. Throw him in jail if he stole.
That still leaves us with some serious questions, discussions, negotiations and balancing acts. Rejecting kleptocracy is a no-brainer but charting a course for a prosperous, dignified and democratic Panama is a more difficult problem.
The show should go on. Photo of Roger Waters by Rodrigo Barquera.
Disgusting Israeli-inspired attack on Roger Waters
The other day in Frankfurt, a gang of racists waving Israeli flags rushed the stage where musician Roger Waters, who rose to fame as a bass player, singer and composer with Pink Floyd, was giving a concert. They did this to support the murder by Israeli soldiers of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and the subsequent Israeli police attack on her funeral.
Later, pro-Israel activists filed a bogus criminal complaint against Waters, whose father was killed by the Germans during World War II, accusing him of being a Nazi. It’s part of a concerted campaign, directed at shutting down Waters’s international concert tour. Israeli media threaten to take their ethnic cleanse and cultural silencing to the USA when the tour goes there. In London, one of the more vicious supporters of Labour leader Keir Starmer rose in Parliament to echo claims that Waters is a Nazi, offering zero proof.
Where are the journalists? Where are the musicians and composers? Where are the truly progessive labor and political activists? Roger Waters ought to be defended by both those who agree with his political statements and those who don’t, but especially ought to be defended against racists who advocate the killing of Arabs with impunity.
Dorothy Rothschild Parker, when she was 18.
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.
Dorothy Parker
Bear in mind…
We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universes, to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act.
Charles Darwin
Security is when everything is settled, when nothing can happen to you; security is the denial of life.
Germaine Greer
A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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