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Barber’s “Moral Declaration for America”

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“It is time for people with a moral conscience to wield every ounce of influence and power they have towards justice and to force this nation to be true to what it said on paper.” Bishop Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II. Wikimedia photo by Knightopia.

On the eve of July 4th, Bishop William Barber unveils a ‘Moral Declaration for America’

by Jake Johnson — Common Dreams

Bishop William Barber, founding director of Yale’s Center for Public Theology and Public Policy, penned an open letter on Monday decrying recent decisions by far-right Supreme Court justices and the complicity of political leaders who have “watched our democracy being slowly chipped away.”

Addressed to President Joe Biden, Congress, and the US public, Barber’s “Moral Declaration for America” was released on the eve of July 4, which marks 247 years since the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

“When a Supreme Court and political leaders conspire to lie about history and embrace action contrary to love and justice, their actions are both piracy and perjury at the same time,” Barber wrote. “They have conspired to assassinate the hopes and possibilities of a fully representative democracy to make way for the unimpeded rise and sustainment of the evils of domination, authoritarianism, racism, economic oppression, militarism, and empire tendency, all of which are contrary to our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution.”

“We cannot afford to interpret this moment as a difference of opinion,” he added. “We are in a battle for civilization itself.”

Barber pointed with outrage to the “six people on the Supreme Court”—a reference to the court’s conservative justices—who “sealed the deal on the destruction of affirmative action, an imperfect but significant legal precedent that had only begun to scratch the surface of repairing the history of legal segregation in our higher education system.”

“The court also significantly weakened the protection of the humanity of gay people, refused to protect the right to vote for formerly incarcerated people, and refused to relieve a fraction of the heavy debt of millions of people in an economy where one-third of all people are poor or one emergency away from poverty, and in a nation where poverty was the fourth-leading cause of death before Covid,” added Barber, whose organization mobilized on Capitol Hill last month to demand bold and universal solutions to the nation’s poverty crisis.

While noting that Republican political leaders who are responsible for appointing the nation’s six conservative justices “have been rightfully linked to this mass attack on civil and human rights protections,” Barber argued that “it is high time that we stop pretending to be surprised by the party’s extremism.”

Barber, co-chair of the national Poor People’s Campaign, also emphasized that Democrats and avowedly progressive rights organizations have been complicit or active participants in attacks on basic freedoms in recent decades.

“The irony of the moment we are in is that, with all the above harmful acts done by Republicans, Justice [Clarence] Thomas was nominated and appointed to the Supreme Court under a Democratic majority in the Senate in 1991,” Barber wrote. “He was also supported by many Black organizations and civil rights organizations because of his race, even after Justice Thurgood Marshall made clear that race should not be the primary consideration for the Supreme Court nominee that would replace him.”

“Additionally, from 2009-2011,” Barber continued, “Democrats had a majority in both houses of Congress and did not use their power to reinforce the most important protections against voter suppression after the Supreme Court gutted the [Voting Rights Act]; low voter turnout due to political disillusionment coupled with severely weakened voter protections ultimately paved the way for Trump to get elected with less than 85,000 votes in three states through the flawed electoral college system.”

Without explicitly naming him, Barber recalled Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) efforts to secure approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline as part of a debt ceiling agreement with Republicans that included new work requirements for older food aid recipients and other attacks on critical safety net programs.

“It is unbecoming to admonish extremists on Monday and then strike deadly compromises with them on Tuesday,” Barber wrote. “The compromises in this nation over the last 247 years have always come back to bite us. Compromises on justice are like a double-sided tool made to build and tear down progress concurrently.”

“We are all responsible for this mess,” he added. “So, it’s time to let go of the blame game. It is time for people with a moral conscience to wield every ounce of influence and power they have towards justice and to force this nation to be true to what it said on paper—’that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.'”

Directing his message at the nation’s current political leaders, Barber implored Biden to use his “bully pulpit” to “bring national and international attention to the stark death toll caused by poverty in this nation.”

“To Congress, it is time to stop playing into the cultural wars and divisive tactics. Any party that is serious about the well-being of our people and our democracy must take legislative action now to stop the rapid erosion of democracy in the United States,” he continued. “To the people of this nation, our struggles are inextricably linked. The extremists are winning by default and by shallow margins of victory. We must use all the tools available to us to fight voter suppression, and we must also commit to mobilizing the 20 million poor and low-wealth people who did not vote in the past election because they have been disabused of their importance to our democracy.”

The bishop’s call to action came as advocacy groups charted their next steps following the Supreme Court’s assault on affirmative action and its decision to block student debt relief for more than 40 million borrowers, part of a string of damaging rulings from the conservative-dominated high court.

Writer Rebecca Solnit stressed in a column for The Guardian on Sunday that “the first thing to remember about the damage done by the US Supreme Court this June and the June before is that each majority decision overturns a right that we had won.”

“What this means is that the right wing of the US Supreme Court is part of a gang of reactionaries engaging in backlash,” Solnit wrote. “It also means we can win these things back. It will not be easy, but difficult is not impossible. This does not mean that the decisions are not devastating, and that we should not feel the pain. The old saying ‘don’t mourn, organize’ has always worked better for me as ‘mourn, but also organize.’ Defeat is no reason to stop.”

 

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Abdul-Alim & Mahal, Limits placed on teaching US history to American kids

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The counterpoint: a wall of protest against police brutality directed against black people. Photo by Ted Eytan.

How new state laws and book ban movements have made the teaching of US history contentious – five essential reads

by Jamaal Abdul-Alim, The Conversation and Jusneel Mahal, The Conversation

Of all the subjects taught in America’s public schools, few have become as contentious as US history. At least 37 states have adopted new measures that limit how America’s undeniable history of racism – from chattel slavery to Jim Crow – can be discussed in public school classrooms.

Educators in certain states face laws that restrict classroom discussions about racism. Florida’s Stop Woke Act for example, limits what educators can say about racism in K-12 schools.

For insight on the restrictive laws and what educators can do, The Conversation compiled a roundup of archival stories from several scholars that explain their origin and intent, as well as how they could potentially affect everyday instruction in America’s schools.

1. The value of learning about systemic racism

History educators Jeffrey L. Littlejohn and Zachary Montz described how restrictions on teaching about systemic racism in Texas public schools prevent students from learning vital historical lessons.

The scholars referenced Joshua Houston, an enslaved servant from Texas who became the county’s first Black county commissioner, and his son Samuel Walker, who notably founded a school which served as one of the first county training schools for African Americans in Texas.

“Americans cannot appreciate the accomplishments of Joshua and Samuel Walker Houston without examining the vicious realities of Jim Crow society,” Littlejohn and Montz wrote. “The lesson of their lives, and of the Juneteenth holiday, is that freedom is a precious thing that requires constant work to make real.”

View of a classroom, with the educator teaching while standing next to a map of the world.Some educators across the USA worry about the backlash from teaching about racial discrimination. Photo by Maskot via Getty Images.

2. The importance of historical knowledge

Boaz Dvir, an assistant professor of journalism at Penn State and grandson of Holocaust survivors, is concerned that many educators are shying away from examining racism and genocide in the classroom due to new and proposed state laws that restrict conversations on crimes against humanity.

Consequently, Dvir wrote that an alarming 63% of American millennials and Generation Z lacked basic knowledge about the murder of six million Jews during the Holocaust.

According to Dvir without vital lessons on such crimes against humanity and the factors that give rise to them, students “may not have the knowledge and insight they need to sustain and thrive in a 21st-century democracy.”

3. Critical race theory’s impact on AP courses

Suneal Kolluri, a researcher who studies Advanced Placement courses – which provide students an opportunity to earn college credit while still in high school – raises another set of concerns regarding AP history and other history courses.

In 2022, two Oklahoma school districts got downgraded accreditation for violating the state’s anti-critical race theory law – a field of intellectual inquiry that looks into how race has been embedded into the legal system. Kolluri described his concern that AP courses could face similar penalties in states with restrictions on conversations on race.

“At a time when mostly Republican-led state legislatures have passed a rash of laws to restrict how public schoolteachers can educate students about America’s racist past, I worry that AP courses like U.S History and US Government and Politics could be in jeopardy,” Kolluri wrote. “The danger is posed by those who support the various new state laws against the teaching of divisive topics and critical race theory.”

Student reads textbook in library.

Research shows book banners often target stories by and about people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals. Photo by kundoy/Moment via Getty Images

4. The ongoing battle over book bans

Book bans in the 1980s focused on secular humanism, because it argued that there can be fulfillment without a belief in God. But of late, book bans have focused largely on critical race theory.

Fred L. Pincus, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland examined how the book ban movement in the 1980s relates to the one occurring today. He wrote that both book ban movements objected to the critical teaching about race and racism.

Pincus also wrote that right-wing critics have claimed that critical race theory is designed to cause white students to feel guilty. As of June 2023, a total of 214 local, state and federal government entities across the United States have introduced 699 anti-critical race theory bills and other measures.

“Of course, some white students – and other students, too, for that matter – will feel uncomfortable upon learning not only about the history of American racism but also its present manifestations,” Pincus wrote. “Reality is sometimes uncomfortable.”

5. How to teach about racism within the new laws

W. Fitzhugh Brundage, a professor of history at University of North Carolina, examined the ways teachers could stay true to American history without breaking any of the new laws.

For example, he suggested ways to mention slavery within the context of lessons about other topics, such as the free market before the Civil War and how it relied on violence and forced labor.

“Given the current political climate in the US, there is no reason to assume more laws that govern what can be taught in public schools will not be passed,” Brundage wrote. “But based on how the laws are being written, there are still plenty of ways for teachers to tackle difficult subjects, such as racism in American society.

Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.The Conversation

Jamaal Abdul-Alim, Education Editor, The Conversation and Jusneel Mahal, Editorial Intern, The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

 

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Hubbard, How Greenland’s ice sheet is melting

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Richard Bates and Alun Hubbard kayak a meltwater stream on Greenland’s Petermann Glacier, towing an ice radar that reveals it’s riddled with fractures. photo by Nick Cobbing.

Meltwater hydro-fracks Greenland’s ice sheet through hairline cracks – destabilizing its internal structure

by Alun Hubbard, University of Tromsø

I’m striding along the steep bank of a raging white-water torrent, and even though the canyon is only about the width of a highway, the river’s flow is greater than that of London’s Thames. The deafening roar and rumble of the cascading water is incredible – a humbling reminder of the raw power of nature.

As I round a corner, I am awestruck at a completely surreal sight: A gaping fissure has opened in the riverbed, and it is swallowing the water in a massive whirlpool, sending up huge spumes of spray. This might sound like a computer-generated scene from a blockbuster action movie – but it’s real.

Alun Hubbard stands beside a moulin forming in a meltwater stream on the Greenland ice sheet.
Courtesy of Alun Hubbard.

A moulin is forming right in front of me on the Greenland ice sheet. Only this really shouldn’t be happening here – current scientific understanding doesn’t accommodate this reality.

As a glaciologist, I’ve spent 35 years investigating how meltwater affects the flow and stability of glaciers and ice sheets.

This gaping hole that’s opening up at the surface is merely the beginning of the meltwater’s journey through the guts of the ice sheet. As it funnels into moulins, it bores a complex network of tunnels through the ice sheet that extend many hundreds of meters down, all the way to the ice sheet bed.

Scientists go into a moulin in this trailer for Into the Ice.

When it reaches the bed, the meltwater decants into the ice sheet’s subglacial drainage system – much like an urban stormwater network, though one that is constantly evolving and backing up. It carries the meltwater to the ice margins and ultimately ends up in the ocean, with major consequences for the thermodynamics and flow of the overlying ice sheet.

Scenes like this and new research into the ice sheet’s mechanics are challenging traditional thinking about what happens inside and under ice sheets, where observations are extremely challenging yet have stark implications. They suggest that Earth’s remaining ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are far more vulnerable to climate warming than models predict, and that the ice sheets may be destabilizing from inside.

NASA’s GRACE satellites capture Greenland’s ice loss from 2002-2021.

This is a tragedy in the making for the half a billion people who populate vulnerable coastal regions, since the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are effectively giant frozen freshwater reservoirs locking up in excess of 65 meters (over 200 feet) of equivalent global sea level rise. Since the 1990s their mass loss has been accelerating, becoming both the primary contributor to and the wild card in future sea level rise.

How narrow cracks become gaping maws in ice

Moulins are near-vertical conduits that capture and funnel the meltwater runoff from the ice surface each summer. There are many thousands across Greenland, and they can grow to impressive sizes because of the thickness of the ice coupled with the exceptionally high surface melt rates experienced. These gaping chasms can be as large as tennis courts at the surface, with chambers hidden in the ice beneath that could swallow cathedrals.

But this new moulin I’ve witnessed is really far from any crevasse fields and melt lakes, where current scientific understanding dictates that they should form.

A helicopter sitting on the ice sheet looks tiny next to the gaping moulin, where a meltwater stream pours into the ice sheet.

High rates of meltwater discharge combined with a thick and gently sloping ice sheet in Western Greenland gives rise to monster holes like this moulin. Photo by Alun Hubbard.

In a new paper, Dave Chandler and I demonstrate that ice sheets are littered with millions of tiny hairline cracks that are forced open by the meltwater from the rivers and streams that intercept them.

Because glacier ice is so brittle at the surface, such cracks are ubiquitous across the melt zones of all glaciers, ice sheets and ice shelves. Yet because they are so tiny, they can’t be detected by satellite remote sensing.

Under most conditions, we find that stream-fed hydrofracture like this allows water to penetrate hundreds of meters down before freezing closed, without the crack’s necessarily penetrating to the bed to form a full-fledged moulin. But, even these partial-depth hydrofractures have considerable impact on ice sheet stability.

As the water pours in, it damages the ice sheet structure and releases its latent heat. The ice fabric warms and softens and, hence, flows and melts faster, just like warmed-up candle wax.

Alun Hubbard using a rappelling rope lowers himself from the top of the ice sheet into a huge hold with water pouring down the sides. The hole appears to be as wide as a two-lane road.

Alun Hubbard rappels into a moulin in October 2019, a point in the year when surface melt should have ceased but hadn’t. Photo by Lars Ostenfeld / Into the Ice.

The stream-driven hydrofractures mechanically damage the ice and transfer heat into the guts of the ice sheet, destabilizing it from the inside. Ultimately, the internal fabric and structural integrity of ice sheets is becoming more vulnerable to climate warming.

Emerging processes that speed up ice loss

Over the past two decades that scientists have tracked ice sheet melt and flow in earnest, melt events have become more common and more intense as global temperatures rise – further exacerbated by Arctic warming of almost four times the global mean.

The ice sheet is also flowing and calving icebergs much faster. It has lost about 270 billion metric tons of ice per year since 2002: over a centimeter and a half (half an inch) of global sea-level rise. Greenland is now, on average, contributing around 1 millimeter (0.04 inches) to the sea level budget annually.

A 2022 study found that even if atmospheric warming stopped now, at least 27 centimeters – nearly 1 foot – of sea level rise is inevitable because of Greenland’s imbalance with its past two decades of climate.

Understanding the risks ahead is crucial. However, the current generation of ice sheet models used to assess how Greenland and Antarctica will respond to warming in the future don’t account for amplification processes that are being discovered. That means the models’ sea-level rise estimates, used to inform Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports and policymakers worldwide, are conservative and lowballing the rates of global sea rise in a warming world.

Two people stand inside an ice cave with light coming from a large hole above.

Daniela Barbieri and Alun Hubbard explore the contorted englacial plumbing deep inside a Greenland moulin. Photo by Lars Ostenfeld / Into the Ice.

Our new finding is just the latest. Recent studies have shown that:

In the last months, other papers also described previously unknown feedback processes underway beneath ice sheets that computer models currently can’t include. Often these processes happen at too fine a scale for models to pick up, or the model’s simplistic physics means the processes themselves can’t be captured.

Two such studies independently identify enhanced submarine melting at the grounding line in Greenland and Antarctica, where large outlet glaciers and ice streams drain into the sea and start to lift off their beds as floating ice shelves. These processes greatly accelerate ice sheet response to climate change and, in the case of Greenland, could potentially double future mass loss and its contribution to rising sea level.

Greenland’s ice loss through meltwater and calving of glaciers has contributed nearly 10 centimeters (4 inches) to global sea-level rise since 1900. The chart shows sea level rise from all sources through 2018. Chart by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/PO.DAAC

Current climate models lowball the risks

Along with other applied glaciologists, “structured expert judgment” and a few candid modelers, I contend that the current generation of ice sheet models used to inform the IPCC are not capturing the abrupt changes being observed in Greenland and Antarctica, or the risks that lie ahead.

Ice sheet models don’t include these emerging feedbacks and respond over millennia to strong-warming perturbations, leading to sluggish sea level forecasts that are lulling policymakers into a false sense of security. We’ve come a long way since the first IPCC reports in the early 1990s, which treated polar ice sheets as completely static entities, but we’re still short of capturing reality.

As a committed field scientist, I am keenly aware of how privileged I am to work in these sublime environments, where what I observe inspires and humbles. But it also fills me with foreboding for our low-lying coastal regions and what’s ahead for the 10% or so of the world’s population that lives in them.The Conversation

Alun Hubbard, Professor of Glaciology, Arctic Five Chair, University of Tromsø

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

 

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Cortizo, Panamá requiere decisiones firmes y trascendentales

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Discurso presidencial de 1 julio, 2023. Foto por la Presidencia.

Informe a la Nación

por Presidente Laurentino Cortizo Cohen

Gracias a Dios por permitirme acudir por séptima ocasión a este recinto a cumplir con el mandato constitucional de rendir informe a los panameños acerca de la gestión del Ejecutivo y la situación de nuestro país.

Los informes anteriores los presenté en momentos en que nuestro país enfrentaba grandes adversidades. Hoy Panamá tiene circunstancias distintas, pero es importante recordar cómo encontramos el país y las situaciones que tuvimos que enfrentar los panameños para comprender cuánto hemos logrado.

Han transcurrido 48 meses de mi administración. En esos 48 meses de acción permanente los panameños hemos enfrentado retos monumentales, entre ellos “la tormenta de tormentas”, una pandemia inédita. Ningún otro gobierno en la historia de Panamá tuvo que superar un desafío de esta magnitud.

Al inicio de nuestra administración, la pandemia no fue el único desafío y tampoco era el único problema que afectaba al país. Tuvimos que enfrentar graves problemas heredados del gobierno anterior. Uno de ellos fue la inclusión de Panamá en la lista gris del GAFI en junio de 2019, un mes antes de mi toma de posesión como Presidente de la República.

Sin embargo, después de cuatro años de trabajo en equipo, en defensa de los intereses nacionales, puedo anunciarles hoy que, como resultado del cumplimiento de los 15 puntos del Plan de Acción del GAFI por parte del Gobierno Nacional, en septiembre próximo tendremos la visita de este grupo a nuestro país. Esta es, sin duda, una noticia positiva para Panamá.

Por otro lado, en el mes de julio de 2019 encontramos en las finanzas del Estado un déficit de 2,101 millones de balboas y cuentas por pagar acumuladas de administraciones anteriores que sumaban 1,836 millones de balboas.

Además, el gobierno anterior calculó mal en 1,650 millones de balboas los ingresos corrientes del año 2019 y entregó órdenes de proceder para obras sin respaldo financiero.

Adicionalmente, en el 2020 tuvimos que pagar bonos vencidos del Estado por 1,155 millones de balboas. Bajo esa situación fiscal precaria empezó nuestra gestión gubernamental.

Al inicio de mi administración, necesitábamos recursos para pagar deudas de los gobiernos anteriores, entre otras, pagos pendientes a los docentes, Caja de Seguro Social y a los productores agropecuarios.

Para ello tuvimos que conseguir recursos que obtuvimos gracias a la confianza de organismos financieros, banca e inversionistas, confianza que recuperamos desde los primeros meses de nuestro gobierno.

También es un hecho que la pandemia afectó severamente los recursos del Estado y, en consecuencia, incrementó la deuda pública.

Necesitábamos recursos para enfrentar la pandemia y sus consecuencias; sostener los programas sociales y el proceso de recuperación económica. Recursos para comprar vacunas. Recursos para los millones de Bolsas Solidarias de Alimentos entregadas a la población. Recursos para enfrentar las emergencias ambientales, como los huracanes Iota y Eta. Recursos para mantener el pago de todos los subsidios. Recursos para rescatar y avanzar en obras de infraestructura pública abandonadas. Recursos para invertir a través de diversos sectores en la recuperación económica. Recursos para pagar el subsidio del combustible solidario que ha beneficiado a todos.

Encontramos 1,108 obras de infraestructura, algunas abandonadas, con anticipos millonarios; otras, con múltiples problemas de tipo financiero, administrativo y legal que, en su mayoría, hemos rescatado. Entre ellas, carreteras, la Ciudad de la Salud, el Hospital Manuel Amador Guerrero, Hospital del Niño; Escuela República de Italia, en San Miguelito; Escuela República de Costa Rica, en La Chorrera; Escuela Miguel Alba, en Soná; Estadio Roberto Mariano Bula, en Colón, entre otras.

La pandemia que golpeó al mundo y a nuestro país fue el desafío más difícil que he enfrentado en mi vida, una situación dramática, dolorosa, trágica. En ese escenario estructuramos un plan de emergencia que nos permitió atender la crisis en tres frentes fundamentales, logrando un balance entre las medidas de salud, lo social y lo económico.

El objetivo fundamental de ese plan fue salvar vidas y evitar que colapsara nuestro sistema de salud, como ocurrió en otros países del mundo. No tengo ninguna duda de que nuestro manejo de la pandemia constituye una victoria patriótica; es el triunfo de la unidad de los panameños sobre la amenaza más grande que hemos enfrentado como Nación.

Creamos y ejecutamos el Plan Panamá Solidario, tarea monumental, un esfuerzo de miles de héroes voluntarios y funcionarios que, con gran solidaridad humana, acudieron en apoyo de sus hermanas y hermanos cuando la Patria más los necesitó, aún a riesgo de sus propias vidas.

Igualmente, creamos el Vale Digital, instrumento innovador que, a través de la cédula personal utilizada como tarjeta de débito, ha permitido llevar auxilio económico a quienes quedaron sin posibilidad de generar ingresos.

El Programa Panamá Solidario recibió reconocimiento internacional de parte de la OEA y el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo con el Premio a la Excelencia de la Red de Gobierno Electrónico de América Latina y El Caribe.

También según datos del Banco Mundial, si no hubiera existido el Plan Panamá Solidario con todas sus acciones, la pobreza en nuestro país habría aumentado en 3.6%. Todas estas acciones nos permitieron preservar vidas y mantener la paz social.

Entre las medidas de alivio impulsadas en pandemia establecimos, además, un periodo de moratoria para suspender temporalmente los pagos de deudas como hipotecas, alquileres, tarjetas de crédito y préstamos.

Por otro lado, y aún con los limitados recursos del Estado debido a los graves efectos de la pandemia, nuestro gobierno mantiene en su totalidad el pago de todos los subsidios destinados a los más vulnerables, los que menos tienen. En esos subsidios y transferencias monetarias para ayudar a los más necesitados invertimos por año 2,530 millones de balboas.

Además, para detener el alza en los precios de los productos y servicios básicos establecimos un subsidio temporal al combustible de B/.3.25 por galón, uno de los precios más bajos del mundo, beneficiando a todos los sectores productivos y el transporte público, impulsando la recuperación económica.

He continuado encabezando personalmente las Giras de Trabajo Comunitario, mediante las cuales llevamos soluciones concretas efectivas a los corregimientos más vulnerables donde existe la pobreza multidimensional. En estas giras semanales participan en las entregas de beneficios de 10 a 20 instituciones, todas vinculadas a las 12 áreas de acción del Plan Colmena.

Las Giras de Trabajo Comunitario son el brazo ejecutor de la estrategia nacional del Plan
Colmena, una Política Social de Estado creada por ley que establece las bases para la lucha
contra la pobreza y la desigualdad. Es un estilo de gobernar diferente, es el constante
patrullaje doméstico que involucra la participación organizada de las comunidades trabajando
en equipo con el Gobierno Central, Juntas Técnicas, los Gobiernos Locales, representantes
de corregimiento y alcaldes.

En estos 48 meses de gestión he realizado 139 de estas giras con un total de 656 actividades que superan todas las realizadas en las tres últimas administraciones.

Gracias a éstas y otras acciones sociales de nuestro gobierno enfocadas en la protección de los más vulnerables, hemos logrado reducir los índices de pobreza y pobreza extrema en nuestro país, aún en las condiciones adversas que nos impuso la pandemia.

Ese método de trabajo con la gente y para la gente es el que, Dios primero, espero mantener hasta el último día de mi mandato.

Según informe de la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), la pobreza extrema en Panamá se redujo de 6.6% en 2019 a 5.7% en 2021.

Además, como dije anteriormente, según el último informe del Banco Mundial la tasa de pobreza en Panamá en 2020 habría sido 3.6% más alta si no hubiésemos ejecutado el Plan Panamá Solidario. Ese mismo informe señala que la ejecución focalizada del Plan Panamá Solidario continúa siendo fundamental para la reducción de la pobreza y la eficiencia del gasto. Es un hecho que hemos reducido la pobreza, pero aún tenemos mucho por hacer.

La inversión social de nuestro gobierno es la más grande en la historia del país. Nuestro propósito es sentar las bases para derribar la “sexta frontera”, es la lucha contra la pobreza y la desigualdad; pero, reitero, aún tenemos mucho por hacer.

Déjenme decirles algo. Las respuestas concretas que llevamos a las comunidades para procurarles un mejor vivir son beneficios que se entregan sin preguntar a nadie si pertenece o no a un partido político. Para nuestro gobierno, no hay bandera política que esté por encima de las necesidades de ningún panameño.

Dentro del gran esfuerzo patriótico de nuestro país en la lucha contra la pandemia también debemos destacar la educación. La pandemia aceleró el avance de la agenda digital del Estado para la transformación de la enseñanza. En ese sentido, la Autoridad Nacional para la Innovación Gubernamental desarrolló con el Ministerio de Educación la Plataforma ESTER, sistema basado en Moodle que hoy evoluciona como gestor de aprendizaje y portalde capacitación para los docentes.

Moodle es una plataforma que permite crear cursos en línea, agregar asignaciones y monitorear el progreso de los estudiantes promoviendo el conocimiento colectivo.

Por otro lado, mi administración está comprometida con la formación y perfeccionamiento del docente, que es, sin duda, el factor fundamental en la calidad de la educación. En ese sentido, la recién sancionada ley que crea el Instituto de Perfeccionamiento y Bienestar del Docente es un paso concreto de este gobierno para alcanzar ese propósito.

Debo destacar que, en la actualidad, el 65% de los centros educativos del país están conectados a internet, beneficiando a 671,794 estudiantes en un total de 1,906 escuelas conectadas en el sector oficial. En esta administración hemos conectado 151 escuelas con fibra óptica, 84 escuelas con internet satelital y hemos entregado la orden de proceder para conectar 125 escuelas más en la comarca Ngäbe-Buglé, beneficiando a más de 25 mil estudiantes.

Quiero destacar con particular emoción y orgullo la reciente graduación de la primera promoción 2023 de la Academia Bilingüe Panamá para el Futuro, que opera en la Ciudad del Saber. Esta es la primera institución pública en Panamá que cuenta con bachillerato bilingüe internacional para la preparación de jóvenes estudiantes sobresalientes.

Por otro lado, seguimos fortaleciendo la educación STEAM, en ciencias, tecnología, ingeniería, artes y matemáticas, con 1,177 clubes de robótica participando en las 16 regiones educativas gracias a un esfuerzo público-privado.

Esta política de mejoramiento educativo nos acredita como país sede de las Olimpiadas Mundiales de Robótica que se celebrarán en noviembre de este año bajo el lema “Conectando al Mundo”.

Cumpliendo nuestro compromiso con la transparencia, implementamos por primera vez la plataforma Cotización en Línea, un sistema de compras y contrataciones públicas 100% en línea, transparente, accesible al escrutinio y análisis de la ciudadanía.

Dicha plataforma permite, además, que las pequeñas y medianas empresas puedan ofrecer al Estado sus productos y servicios para compras de hasta 10 mil balboas, lo que representa más del 80% de todas las compras públicas. Esta iniciativa transparenta, como nunca antes, la selección de contratistas en el proceso de compras del Estado.

Hasta el mes de mayo del 2023, se realizaron 246,216 cotizaciones en línea por un valor de 892 millones de balboas.

Otra acción de nuestro gobierno en su política de transparencia fue la rendición de cuentas por parte de los ministerios e instituciones del Estado del uso de recursos que les fueron asignados para el manejo de la pandemia. Así cumplimos con todos los procesos y controles establecidos en las leyes, normas y procedimientos. Esta información fue divulgada de forma masiva a través de medios de comunicación y en línea.

Quiero destacar que, en el Informe del 2023 del Consejo de las Américas sobre el Índice de Capacidad para Combatir la Corrupción, Panamá registró el mayor avance de la región en el puntaje general de este año con una mejora sustancial del 9% respecto al año 2022.

También de acuerdo con el Informe del Consejo de las Américas, nuestra capacidad para combatir la corrupción continúa en una trayectoria ascendente que nos ha llevado del puesto 10 en el 2020 a la posición 6 en el 2023.

El Informe confirma que nuestro país ha logrado mejoras significativas en su capacidad legal y destaca instrumentos jurídicos promovidos por nuestro gobierno para hacer frente a la corrupción. Para mí, la administración de justicia es la columna vertebral de la democracia.

Tengo la satisfacción de haber cumplido con los panameños mi compromiso en la campaña presidencial de 2019 al designar 6 nuevos magistrados de la Corte Suprema de Justicia a través de un proceso transparente, inédito en la historia de nuestro país. Son los fiscales, jueces y magistrados quienes fortalecen la institucionalidad, garantizan la seguridad jurídica y el Estado de Derecho. Les reitero: nadie, absolutamente nadie, está por encima de la ley.

La recuperación económica de Panamá es innegable con un crecimiento de 15.8% en 2021 y 10.8% en 2022, superando los niveles de la región y entre las mejores a nivel global. En materia laboral, la tasa de desempleo disminuyó de 18.55% en el 2020 a 9.9% en el 2022. Además, Panamá tiene una de las tasas de inflación más bajas del mundo, 2.9% al cierre del 2022. El esfuerzo que hemos hecho como país para la recuperación económica ha sido exitoso, como es reconocido por importantes organismos internacionales.

Así, en marzo de este año el presidente del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) invitó a los países de la región a seguir el ejemplo de persistencia de Panamá como un modelo para superar situaciones difíciles. No ha sido tarea fácil, teniendo en cuenta que durante los dos primeros años de pandemia el Estado dejó de percibir ingresos corrientes por 4,477 millones de balboas.

El sector agropecuario continúa creciendo, aportando un 3% al producto interno bruto. En esto ha sido fundamental el Plan Agro Solidario dirigido a pequeños productores, a través del cual el Banco de Desarrollo Agropecuario tramitó 632 préstamos al 0% de interés, desembolsando 14.4 millones de balboas.

Por otro lado, establecimos políticas públicas para la protección y desarrollo de la producción agropecuaria, entre ellas la creación, mediante Ley, de la Agencia Panameña de Alimentos, que ahora sí resguarda y promueve la producción nacional. La Agencia Panameña de Alimentos reemplazó a la AUPSA, institución creada mediante Decreto Ley 11 en el año 2006, también conocida por nuestros productores como la “autopista de las importaciones”.

Así mismo, mediante la sanción de la Ley de la Política Agroalimentaria de Estado (PADE) establecimos, por primera vez, las bases jurídicas para la transformación del sector agropecuario, el desarrollo de la producción y la estabilidad de los productores y sus familias.

Aprovecho para compartir el más reciente Informe de evaluación del Primer Debate Presidencial del sector agropecuario realizado en el 2019, organizado por la Asociación de la Comunidad Productora de Tierras Altas. Dicho informe indica que, a marzo de 2023, el 90%  de los compromisos que asumí como candidato presidencial ya han sido cumplidos en estos 48 meses.

De esta manera, con acciones concretas demostramos que éste ha sido y es, como nunca antes, un gobierno aliado de los productores panameños.

Como ya les mencioné, nuestro gobierno ha rescatado obras abandonadas por administraciones anteriores, obras largamente esperadas por la comunidad.

Rescatamos y terminamos el Hospital Dionisio Arrocha, en Puerto Armuelles; la Escuela República de Costa Rica, en La Chorrera; la Escuela República de Italia, en San Miguelito; la Potabilizadora de Villa Darién, la Potabilizadora de El Valle de Antón y la Potabilizadora de San Carlos.

Rescatamos y estamos construyendo el nuevo Hospital Manuel Amador Guerrero, el Estadio Roberto Mariano Bula, el Estadio Juan Demóstenes Arosemena, el nuevo Hospital del Niño, el Corredor de las Playas, el Puerto de Cruceros de Amador, el Mercado Público y el Mercado de Abastos de La Chorrera; la Escuela Miguel Alba, en Soná; la Potabilizadora de Arraiján, que beneficiará a más de 300 mil habitantes, y la Potabilizadora de Gamboa, que completará el abastecimiento de agua para la ciudad capital, entre otros.

Estamos recuperando la red vial nacional con proyectos como la ampliación a ocho carriles de la vía Puente de Las Américas-Arraiján; el Intercambiador Puente Centenario-Área Económica Especial Panamá Pacífico; la Línea 3 del Metro; Intercambiador Avenida Centenario-Antigua Autopista Panamá – La Chorrera, y el paso a desnivel de La Pesa.

Estas obras rescatadas y recuperadas, y muchas otras iniciadas por nuestra administración, impactarán positivamente por décadas la vida de los panameños.

Nuestro país enfrenta desafíos que exigen decisiones firmes, bien analizadas, que requieren de un enfoque sereno para poder adoptar soluciones concretas. Una de esas decisiones fue el nuevo contrato acordado con la empresa Minera Panamá.

Hemos logrado un acuerdo justo para ambas partes que, sobre todo, defiende y resguarda nuestros derechos como país soberano sobre nuestros recursos naturales para obtener de ellos el mayor beneficio colectivo posible.

El nuevo contrato es mucho más beneficioso que el anterior ya que favorece al país en los aspectos económicos, sociales, laborales y ambientales.

Mediante el nuevo contrato, en lo económico nuestro país tiene garantizado un pago mínimo anual de 375 millones de balboas, que equivale a 10 veces más de lo que Panamá recibía anteriormente. Además, se garantiza el pago de regalías entre 12 y 16% sobre la ganancia bruta de la mina mientras que en el contrato anterior esa regalía era sólo de 2%.

También ahora la empresa minera deberá pagar a la República de Panamá todos los impuestos establecidos en nuestro territorio. O sea, pagará impuesto sobre la renta, impuesto de dividendos, impuesto de remesa y el impuesto de ITBMS por las compras que efectúen.

En el aspecto laboral, se limita el número de trabajadores extranjeros al 15% del total del personal contratado, mientras que el contrato anterior permitía un 25% de trabajadores extranjeros. Además, el nuevo contrato obliga a la capacitación de trabajadores panameños.

En lo ambiental, y según el nuevo contrato, la empresa está obligada a cumplir con los estándares internacionales en lo que respecta a los planes de cierre y postcierre de la operación de la mina.

Con el nuevo contrato, se establecerá una oficina en la mina con presencia de las autoridades competentes para la supervisión del fiel cumplimiento de lo pactado. También el nuevo contrato establece el compromiso de utilizar energía limpia y asegurar un programa de reforestación.

Este contrato firmado por las partes debe cumplir los trámites que establece la Constitución Política para que pueda ser adoptado como Ley de la República; es decir, ser refrendado por la Contraloría General de la República y sometido a la Asamblea Nacional.

Este nuevo contrato, tal como fue redactado, garantiza beneficios directos para los panameños en base al pago mínimo garantizado de 375 millones de balboas por año. En ese sentido, el 5% de la anualidad alrededor de 20 millones de balboas por año será destinado a la creación y funcionamiento del Instituto de Estudios para el Perfeccionamiento y Bienestar del Docente.

El 20% —75 millones de balboas— por año será destinado para que ningún jubilado por vejez o pensionado de la Caja de Seguro Social reciba menos de 350 balboas mensuales.

El 25% —más de 90 millones de balboas— por año será destinado a los distritos de Donoso
y Omar Torrijos Herrera, en la provincia de Colón, y La Pintada, en la provincia de Coclé.

El 50% de la anualidad —alrededor de unos 190 millones de balboas— por año será
destinado al Programa de Invalidez, Vejez y Muerte (IVM) de la Caja de Seguro Social.

Otra decisión trascendental es la relacionada con la Caja de Seguro Social.

En consideración de lo anterior, reitero que el Gobierno Nacional está preparado para participar en la Mesa del Diálogo por la Caja de Seguro Social, de la cual deben surgir las opciones viables que fortalezcan, particularmente, el Programa de Invalidez, Vejez y Muerte.

Sin embargo, el Gobierno Nacional es respetuoso de la Ley 51 de 27 de diciembre de 2005, que reformó la Ley Orgánica de la Caja de Seguro Social y que, en su artículo 2, establece que la Caja de Seguro Social es una entidad de Derecho Público autónoma del Estado en lo administrativo, funcional, económico y financiero con personería jurídica y patrimonio propio.

Así mismo, el artículo 22 de la misma ley indica que los Órganos Superiores de Gobierno de la Caja de Seguro Social son la Junta Directiva, órgano responsable de fijar las políticas para el funcionamiento, mejoramiento y modernización de la Caja de Seguro Social y el Director General.

Con independencia de lo antes señalado, respetuoso de la autonomía de la Caja de Seguro Social, el Gobierno Nacional ha dispuesto en el nuevo contrato con Minera Panamá asegurar para el sostenimiento del Programa de Invalidez, Vejez y Muerte, un aporte no menor a 190 millones de balboas por año durante 20 años. Esto además de mantener los otros aportes anuales del Gobierno Nacional a la Caja de Seguro Social.

Hago un llamado a todos los sectores de la sociedad para que tratemos estos temas con responsabilidad, despojados de intereses económicos, políticos o de cualquier otra índole que no sea el bienestar de las mayorías. Soy optimista acerca del futuro de Panamá. El triunfo de nuestro pueblo es el triunfo del país que tenemos hoy con las condiciones más favorables y más deseables de la región. Vivimos en un gran país en el que rigen la democracia, el Estado de Derecho, con un gobierno que escucha a la gente y cree en el diálogo.

Éste ha sido, es y será un gobierno de puertas abiertas. Un gobierno que respeta a los que están de acuerdo y a los que no están de acuerdo. Vivimos en un país donde también se respeta la libertad de expresión, la institucionalidad y la separación de poderes. Somos un pueblo de esperanza y fe que se crece ante la adversidad y sale adelante. Y éste informe a la Nación es también testimonio del triunfo de nuestro pueblo.

Me siento orgulloso de ser panameño.

Muchas gracias.

 

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

 

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Jaime Vargas, a PRD rookie, to preside over this legislature in its last year

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Vargas
Outgoing National Assembly president Crispiano Adames swears in his successor, Jaime Edgardo Vargas Centella (PRD – Darien), who had been chosen at an earlier PRD meeting but on the assembly floor was nominated by deputy Cenobia Vargas. National Assemly photo.

What’s sustainable and what isn’t? The PRD and its allies go for the obscure

by Eric Jackson

Panama has an unpopular legislature and a government that isn’t well liked. Fault lines are running through all of the traditional parties. The epidemic brought hardship, following on a weak economy before the virus hit us, and the economy suffered in ways that we haven’t seen since the days of pre-invasion Noriega times sanctions. There are figures from the past looking to come back and for those with short memories, or flexible comparative standards they may be attractive. None of the figures of the present have generated an impressive groundswell of enthusiastic support. Politicians who look forward to extended careers at it are rightfully worried.

So, what to do for the last year of a despised legislature’s term? Don’t go for “I know THAT politician” but for “Who’s THAT?”

They chose a rookie, if you can call a deputy four years into his first term of office that. They chose a man who represents a geographical circuit that has dominated international headlines about Panama, but who hasn’t appeared in any of those stories. They chose somebody who, on behalf of the Cortizo administration, introduced painful and controversial legislation not of his authorship, the COVID state of emergency law that came with the lockdowns and other restrictions. They chose somebody who in four years has not introduced any proposal that he wrote before his colleagues.

Fiery speeches? People throwing things at each other? Epithets or accusations about this or that sort of citizen or foreigner? None of that stuff from Jaime Vargas. He served quietly, and sat on the Credentials Committee that not only reviews presidential nominations, but also sits as preliminary judges for ethical charges against many a public official. It has been nearly silent on that latter front these past four years, and perhaps Vargas has as his excuse that the Supreme Court, not the Credentials Committee, hears charges against legislators.

Yes, there were legislators who screeched about undocumented migrants streaming across the border. Not Jaime Vargas, although his circuit in the northern part of Darien which includes Pinogana district and the Cemaco portion of the Embera-Wounaan Comarca, was the main point of entry.

Colombian gangsters running most of the illegal border crossings, all sorts of drug, weapons and hot money trafficking, local Panamanian residents robbing and raping migrants, fellow deputies in questionable relationships with organized crime? Jaime Vargas was not one of those guys calling for a heavy hand against crime, at least not out loud. We really don’t know what he may have said in private to those commanding the men and women in uniforms with guns.

So will Jaime Vargas quietly do things about these situations? Or will he just go along? We shall see.

The last year before an election is smash and grab time, as politicians and their political retainers are uncertain of whether they will be on the gravy train the following year. The National Assembly, with no objections hear from Vargas, has been busy appropriating money for hack jobs and the representantes and diputados who control them. It worked less than spectacularly well in the PRD primary, in which many party members cast spoiled ballots and others voted out several incumbents. They have a guy with a fake smile, maladroit gestures and no particular record of accomplishment in public office as their 2024 standard bearer, and no matter how much money is spent or what is said, the PRD is expected to be voted out. Including by not only rand-and-file members, but also a number of the party’s elected officials.

So choose the cypher, who hasn’t made anyone particularly mad at him, and who in his own circuit has managed some racial and ethnic divides that could go seriously wrong, and have gone wrong in the past. But Vargas, the Afro-Panamanian deputy with the indigenous suplente, quietly manages these things.

Let’s see how — or if — the quiet man from Darien manages the year with the frantic public sector scrambles. Perhaps he will put out a quiet warning.

But who supported him? Who will serve alongside him in the leadership team? Undistinguished PRD deputy Ricardo Torres as the assembly’s first vice president and loud religious fanatic Corina Cano as the second VP. She’s MOLIRENA, in a way the wooden stake through the heart of the old Liberal tradition of advocating secular government. Also backing Vargas were the Martinelista deputies, formally part of the Cambio Democratico caucus, and the others from MOLIRENA. Much of the PRD caucus was annoyed enough to boycott or abstain in the party meeting when Vargas was chosen, but other than for a few absences or abstentions they were all on board. Vargas got 51 of the 71 deputies’ votes, as against seven for Rómulo Roux’s man Rony Araúz, five for independent Juan Diego Vásquez and seven abstentions.

The big surprise was that CD deputy Genesís Arjona went with Roux’s candidate, breaking with Ábrego’s faction that would like to run with Ricardo Martinelli and not joining the alliance of convenience with the PRD. That’s probably based on the growing perception that Martinelli’s ship is sinking and he won’t even be on the ballot next year.

 

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DelBene et al, Move the world’s oldest captive orca to a better place

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Lolita
Cruel entertainment: forced to work for food in her old age. Wikimedia photo by Marc Averette.
DelBene letter

 

Editor’s note: There were difficulties transferring the hyperlinks in this letter to our format. The links are:

1. https://themedreality.com/2023/05/05/the-whale-bowl/

2. https://www.local10.com/news/local/2023/05/23/exclusive-miami-seaquarium-agrees-tokitae-needs-to-be-removed-from-stadium-soon/

3. https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/orca-lolita-left-outside-during-irma-9665020

4. https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/politics/2021/10/18/miami-seaquarium-orca-lolita-report-storm-threat-renew-freedom-call/6035977001/

 

 

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Nader, The corporate mainstream media

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adbusters flag
It was bad. Now it’s gotten worse. Protester holding Adbuster’s Corporate American Flag at Bush’s 2nd inauguration, Washington DC in 2005. Wikimedia photo by Jonathan McIntosh.

What’s wrong with the liberal corporate media

by Ralph Nader

David Ignatius, a long-time Washington Post columnist on military intelligence topics, probably never dreamed his newspaper would fill over three full pages serializing his latest work of thrilling fiction, “The Tao of Deception.” On June 28, 2023, the “Breaking news and latest headlines” in the A section of the paper featured the first installment. Part II appeared today, Friday, June 30th.

What’s occurring at The Washington Post, The New York Times and big regional daily newspapers is a flight toward stupefying their material in a desperate plunge to retain readers – print and online. Maybe surveys show a tsunami of aliteracy from the rising iPhone generations.

To adjust to digital age readers, The New York Times has replaced much of its content with gigantic photographs, graphics and other visuals, not just in its regular sections on style/arts, sports and food, but also in the daily news departments as well as the Sunday Business and Opinion sections.

The influential New York Times Editorial Page – once featuring some fifteen or more editorials a week – is now down to three editorials a week. Moreover, this space is now largely taken up by a handful of regular opinion columnists, many predictably redundant and tired. Imagine a historic newspaper intentionally diminishing its editorial advice to this country. There is no precedent.

It gets worse. Various forms of its daily features – entertainment, sports and style/arts – are given enormous space, while coverage of daily local and national civic activity is severely restricted. What used to be reported about the findings, litigation, lobbying and regulatory advocacy of national citizen groups in the nineteen sixties and seventies – leading to major betterment of consumer, worker and environmental health and safety – now is sharply curtailed. As a result, good members of Congress, seeing virtually no news coverage of vital citizen concerns, become indifferent to necessary public hearings and legislation essential to addressing the needs of the public.

Right-wing politicians have learned to game the vulnerable-to-sensationalism New York Times and Washington Post. Trump led the way in 2015-2016 with his presidential run. Most of his outrageous lies, deceptions and defamations were showcased by these two august newspapers. The Times would even reprint his tweets with their CAPITAL LETTERS verbatim without giving the falsely accused any right of reply. (Belated corrections by columnists could not keep up.)

This chronic tragedy has gotten worse in the last year. The Times can hardly resist making crazy politicians into Big Acts. The antics of switcheroo J. D. Vance was a regular news story, with huge photographs, while his Democratic opponent in prime position for the pivotal Ohio Senate race last year, Representative Tim Ryan, was of little interest to the Times.

In 2021, the Times devoted eleven pages over three days to a mini-biography of Fox’s Tucker Carlson. As well, the Times seems strangely drawn to the profane and violent rhetoric of the ignorant junior Representative from rural Georgia, putting Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on the cover of its Sunday New York Times Magazine, in addition to more frequent daily coverage of her outrages.

What’s wrong with this journalism? First, it does not give space to serious political opponents whose positions, by the way, are closer to the editorial stances of the Times. Second, these “in-depth” profiles, as well as regular columns, do not lay a glove on the featured miscreants who rush to use these articles in their publicity and fundraising. Third, the trivial crowds out more important, serious subjects with material that is mostly vacuous since it is about vacuous people that the Times grants greater celebrity status. (TV and radio pick up such coverage from the Times).

I remember years ago when members of Congress, working with civic leaders on important legislation, would drop their more expressive denunciations for fear that the Times and the Post would not cover them because they might appear too extreme. It is exactly the opposite today with crazed right-wing, political corporatists bellowing themselves into prime time.

The Washington Post Live podcasts long ago crossed the barrier between news and advertisers. The tilt toward corporatism, away from the liberal civic community, is pronounced. One example of many is Grover Norquist, the avatar of no-tax super-rich and corporations, who gets a big photo alongside the announcement of his interview by The Washington Post Live’s podcast while the paper ignores inviting civic leaders like Robert Weissman of Public Citizen, Jordan Davis or Marilyn Carpinteyro of Common Cause or Karen Friedman of the Pension Rights Center. Why? Because corporate advertisers do not find these people congenial to their sponsored topics. Sponsors get to approve or veto the participants, as with the participants in the recent Post podcast “Chasing Cancer: Equity and Disparities,” brought to us by the giant drug company AstraZeneca. You can be assured the discussion will not cover outsourcing cancer drugs to a single troubled corporation in India, now causing serious shortages in our country and risking people’s lives.

Both the Post and the Times reporters did report about the cancer drug crisis in their news pages, but didn’t deal with the question of why US drug companies outsource such categories of drugs, which includes outsourcing virtually all antibiotic production to China and India. This is a national security risk if there ever was one. The Washington Post did, however, run an op-ed by Ezekiel J. Emanuel on this topic (See: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/16/fix-drug-shortage-tax-breaks/).

Business ads in newspapers have been around forever, but until recent years, such ads did not openly and brazenly sponsor, engage and shape the content of the “news side” of the papers.

Unfortunately, journalistic critics of these concessions are few, whether in the publications at journalism schools or in liberal magazines. Certainly, the media critics for NPR and PBS do not see this as part of their beat, with very few exceptions. In-house critics or an ombudsman are long gone from the Times and the Post.

Would that their editors have a greater estimate of their own significance to the unrepresented peoples of the United States. People deserve the empowering right to know about what the foundational civil society struggles daily to accomplish, at the local, national and international levels. (See, Reporters Alert: https://reportersalert.org/).

Coverage of active citizenry from the neighborhoods on up might even increase circulation.

 

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El Smithsonian premia a Joe Wright del STRI

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Dr. Wright of STRI
El ecologista de plantas S. Joseph Wright recibe un premio por su ilustre carrera en el Instituto Smithsonian de Investigaciones Tropicales, en Panamá. Foto por Jennifer E. Berry — Instituto Smithsonian.

Ecologista de plantas del Smithsonian en Panamá, galardonado en Washington DC

por STRI

El 6 de junio, en el Auditorio Meyer del Museo Nacional de Arte Asiático de Washington DC, el Secretario del Instituto Smithsonian, Lonnie G. Bunch, y la Subsecretaria de Ciencia e Investigación, Ellen Stofan, entregaron el Premio Smithsonian 2022 al Académico Distinguido en Ciencias a S. Joseph Wright, por sus casi cuarenta años de dedicación y contribuciones a la ciencia a través de su trabajo en el Instituto Smithsonian de Investigaciones Tropicales (STRI).

El Dr. Wright estudia biología de las plantas en los bosques tropicales, especializándose en estudios experimentales y comparativos sobre gradientes naturales y artificiales, estudios de observación a largo plazo y monitoreo meteorológico.

Antes de presentar su conferencia de aceptación, “La importancia mundial de los bosques tropicales”, el Dr. Wright empezó por agradecer al equipo que lleva décadas trabajando con él, recopilando los datos que hacen posibles sus descubrimientos. “Sin ellos, el éxito que he tenido nunca se habría producido”, dijo, dando las gracias a los gerentes y técnicos de investigación Osvaldo Calderón, Milton García, Mirna Samaniego, Andrés Hernández, Omar Hernández y Elina Gómez.

Su charla ofreció una visión general del clima tropical, por qué la mayor parte de la biodiversidad se encuentra en los trópicos, por qué los bosques tropicales tienen una notable capacidad de adaptación al cambio climático y por qué esto los hace tan importantes en el ciclo global del carbono.

Al final, el Dr. Wright respondió a algunas preguntas del público, como qué consejo daría a los jóvenes científicos.

“Hay que aprender mucha estadística, ser muy hábil con los ordenadores y querer marcar la diferencia”, afirma. “Pero si eres de los trópicos, tienes una gran ventaja, porque las personas que conocen los árboles y los animales y cómo interactúan y pueden combinar esos conocimientos con los informáticos y estadísticos, estas son las personas que van a tener mucho éxito”.

Kenneth Slowik, conservador de la colección de Instrumentos Musicales del Museo Nacional de Historia Americana, habló al principio de la ceremonia en nombre del comité de selección de Académicos Distinguidos del Smithsonian. “Este premio resalta el compromiso del Smithsonian con el conocimiento; un conocimiento derivado de la investigación histórica, el método científico, el análisis riguroso y la revisión por homólogos, y la síntesis que puede resultar de la amplia comprensión de una cultura o un período en particular”, dijo, añadiendo que el premio se concede a los académicos con logros sobresalientes y sostenidos en la investigación, el compromiso con el Smithsonian, y la capacidad de comunicarse con un público amplio y diverso.

El Secretario Bunch presentó al Dr. Wright antes de entregarle el premio. “El trabajo del Dr. Wright es crucial para ayudar no sólo a comprender y proteger los bosques tropicales, sino que es realmente un gran servicio al mundo. Y es un gran ejemplo de la fuerza de lo que puede hacer el Smithsonian”, declaró. “Cuando tuve el placer de visitar el STRI el año pasado, me quedé impresionado por el increíble trabajo que el Dr. Wright y sus colegas están haciendo, impresionado por cómo están en la vanguardia de ayudarnos a entender por qué es tan crucial lidiar con el cambio climático, por qué es tan crucial tener la ciencia con la que podemos contar”.

 

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

 

To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.

Para defendernos de los piratas informáticos, los trolls organizados y otros actos de vandalismo en línea, la función de comentarios de nuestro sitio web está desactivada. En cambio, ven a nuestra página de Facebook para unirte a la discusión.
 

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Bush, This court is a cesspool of corruption that devastates our communities

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Cori
US Representative Cori Bush, RN, a Democrat from Missouri. Photo from her congressional web page.

This awful Supreme Court

by US Representative Cori Bush

Yesterday’s Supreme Court decision on affirmative action is an affirmation of white supremacy, not justice or equality.

In her dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson put it perfectly:

With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat. But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.

Make no mistake about it. This Court’s decision will disproportionately harm our communities. Universities historically denied Black, brown, and Indigenous people from accessing an education. Affirmative action helped level the racist and uneven playing field. Its protections were designed to increase equity and inclusion. Now, with those protections abolished, systemic racism will again be magnified.

The Supreme Court is a cesspool of corruption, devastating our communities. Because of the decisions made by an unethical and illegitimate SCOTUS majority, Americans are unable to access abortion care, have weaker labor protections, are more vulnerable to voter suppression, and are subjected to a racist legal system.

We have a mandate to ensure our rights are not stripped away by bought-and-paid-for judges trying to implement a fascist agenda. I’m proud to lead on the Judiciary Act, which would expand the Supreme Court and help us reclaim our democracy once and for all. Will you join me in pushing back and building support for the Judiciary Act by adding your voice now?

EXPAND THE COURT

Affirmative action seeks to level a racist and uneven playing field. Ending it is devastating to communities. In its dedication to moving backwards, the Supreme Court has once again rolled back protections for people in marginalized communities across this country.

Rulings like this are another example of why the American people’s confidence in the nation’s highest court has fallen to a record low. With equally horrific decisions expected tomorrow on student debt and LGBTQ+ rights, we shouldn’t have to hold our collective breath for the Supreme Court to make decisions about our rights when the correct rulings are clear.

Congressional Republicans have employed their far-right judicial playbook by disregarding norms and precedent in the confirmation process to steal the Court. It’s up to us to take back the Court for the American people. Congress can determine the size of the Supreme Court; it has already added and removed seats on the Court seven times throughout its history.

Congress must take action now to expand the Court once again, but to make it happen, I need your help to build support. Please sign the petition in support of the Judiciary Act.

The stolen, far-right Supreme Court majority has ruled to destroy 50 years of settled precedent by overturning Roe, and just today, ruled against Affirmative Action amid scandal after scandal as the media has exposed billionaire-funded influence peddling, extravagant gifts, and multi-million-dollar jobs and contracts for family and friends.

We must bring balance to the highest court — and that requires action.

~ ~

THEN, THIS MORNING…

The Supreme Court has once again prioritized profits over people and corporations over constituencies in the decision today to overturn the Biden administration’s student loan cancellation program and to allow businesses to discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community.

It’s no coincidence that the right-wing Supreme Court and the GOP are standing in the way of canceling student debt and protecting LGBTQ+ rights.

They know student debt cancellation is a racial and economic justice issue. Black women carry more debt than any other group in America — and carry it the longest. Black borrowers have nearly twice as much student debt ($52,700) after four years of college as our white peers ($28,000).

This racist, bigoted right-wing majority also doesn’t care about our LGBTQ+ siblings. The decision to side with an evangelical Christian graphic artist from Colorado who does not want to create wedding websites for same-sex couples, despite the state’s protective anti-discrimination law, is just another excuse to punish our communities and enforce a white supremist religious patriarchy on everyone.

Neither partisan nor corporate interests should prevent borrowers from receiving the life-changing relief they need and deserve, nor should the Court enshrine racism, bigotry and hate into law — again — by overturning legal protection for college admissions or the LGBTQ+ community.

We must expand the Supreme Court now.

 

Contact us by email at fund4thepanamanews@gmail.com

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¿Wappin? When your brain hurts a lot… / Cuando su cerebro duele mucho…

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the enemy
When the bad guys were on top and smiling. They hope to be again – and people would be hurting again. Photo by the Presidencia.

Partying through the difficult moments
Celebrando en los momentos difíciles

David Bowie – Five years
https://youtu.be/Nclned0JadY

Yomira John – Mama Congo
https://youtu.be/C48fi2qtKn8

Marianne Faithfull – Witches’ Song
https://youtu.be/H8yJcMuQS1k

Sumac Dub – Le Jardin de Lucy
https://youtu.be/Ljw5eJdO4kQ

Meat Loaf – Bat Out of Hell
https://youtu.be/3QGMCSCFoKA

Pretenders – Creep
https://youtu.be/z5YbycmxYxc

Foundation Roots Reggae with Danniella Dee
https://youtu.be/MjL0ipgT7xg

Paul Kantner & Grace Slick – When I was a boy I watched the wolves
https://youtu.be/SXOe_rbN-nI

Lord Invader – Reincarnation
https://youtu.be/pwXxbMUrYsk

Mad Professor, Joe Ariwa & Sister Aisha at the Dour Fest
https://www.youtube.com/live/LL9aqrfc4EQ?feature=share

Rosalía – Alfonsina y El Mar
https://youtu.be/M2IENfMyaWc

Agustín Rodríguez & Toñito Vargas – El Traicionado
https://youtu.be/BEVm3HrjBHs

Selena – Como La Flor
https://youtu.be/FwZTgDjRLM0

 

Contact us by email at fund4thepanamanews@gmail.com

To fend off hackers, organized trolls and other online vandalism, our website comments feature is switched off. Instead, come to our Facebook page to join in the discussion.

These links are interactive — click on the boxes

summer hard timesVote pride

 

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