It’s not like some new discovery for Panamanians.

Sticky fingers

The American Embassy has compiled the research, but based on results from a porous Panamanian judicial system. They find that some 63% of Panama’s public corruption cases between 2018 and 2024 have been about theft. Of those in which charges have been brought there has been an increasing tendency to find people guilty, and tens of millions of dollars worth of loot have been recovered.

But how much of the problem is found in those numbers? And what about the private sector, where embezzlement, fraud and all manner of employee theft are
significant issues?

Against that backdrop, and in a much longer historical context of peculation, graft and the laudering of its proceeds, there is a crisis in confidence. Seemingly nobody who stands to be asked to sacrifice something to resolve an actuarial problem with the Social Security Fund believes that the big winner won’t be some crook with the right connections. Other countries and international organizations look at our situation and impose sanctions to keep their dishonest citizens and companies from riding on a Panamanian gravy train of impunity.

Ousting Ricardo Martinellli from where he’s holed up, and pehaps the Nicaraguan diplomatic mission itself, would be an obvious step toward the rule of law that might instill some confidence. Renouncing membership in the Central American Parliament to eliminate that impunity dodge would do us much more benefit than harm.

We need a national cultural revival, but also some visible actions by the government instead of complaints about and retaliatory measures against “discriminatory sanctions.” It’s more important for us that people here come to believe that the sticky fingers don’t get to keep what they stole than what others think about us. What the neighbors say will follow.

Another school shooting in the USA

This time, in Madison, Wisconsin, was an anomaly. The shooter was a 15-year-old girl, even though these sorts of crimes are generally guy things.

The rest is so boringly familiar. Some of those who were shot survive. Will private insurance, or the public health care system, skip out on their treatment? Will they, or the witnesses who have been shocked into years on nightmares, be told to suck it up, that post-traumantic stress isn’t a “real” injury? Will gun nuts wonder, if only the teacher was carrying a machine gun? Will politicians who have prostituted themselves to the National Rifle Association offer their thoughts and prayers? How many Republicans in Congress are sending out Christmas cards of themselves and their spouses and kids displaying firearms in front of a Christmas tree?

The basic healing process begins on a negative note, a rejection of the gun culture and the false premises on which it is built.

Abba Eban,photo from the National Libray of Israel.

History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.

Abba Eban

Bear in mind…

Take your life in your own hands and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.

Erica Jong

Art is making something out of nothing and selling it.

Frank Zappa

The phone company handles 84 billion calls a year — everything from kings, queens, and presidents to the scum of the earth.

Lilly Tomlin

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