Wildfires are a serious matter

By Michael Henriquez

Summer in Panama means sunny days but, especially later in the season, not so clear skies. A smoky haze sometimes with ashes drifting in the wind is due to the many wildfires that occur throughout the country. Some are spontaneous, but most are provoked by humans.

According to the National Environmental Authority (ANAM) 9,014 wildfires, or “vegetable mass fires” as designated by ANAM, were registered in 2007. This is up from 7,474 fires in 2006 The majority of these fires are started by persons wishing to rid themselves of dried up vegetation. Other culprits are the “slash and burn” farmers clearing land with fire. Many turn into wildfires since people don’t take the necessary precautions to contain and extinguish them. It’s very easy for nearby vegetation to catch ablaze in the hot and dry months of summer.

The National Environmental Authority (ANAM) is launching its summer campaign against the vegetable mass fires. They suggest people should not dispose of trash and cigarettes where fires could start. People should also move dry vegetation away from highrisk brush and forest areas before setting light to them. Persons not taking such precautions could be ?ned or jailed for an environmental crime as defined by Law number 5 of 2005.

Uncontrolled vegetable mass fires should be reported to the Fire Department at phone number 103 or ANAM at 500-0855 extension 6816.

Everybody Feng Shui

Chinese culture has spread all over the world and Panama is no exception. Panama has great Dim Sum restaurants, Chinese martial arts classes can be found throughout Panama City and those interested in “softer” martial art techniques can take Tai Chi lessons.

Now “Feng Shui” is the buzz word among expats in Panama. Ever since Catherine Lee Putzeys presented the ancient art of placement during one of her “Tuesday Talks” meetings (see the Coming Events section under Miscellaneous) she’s been swamped with requests for more information and to “Feng Shui” people’s homes.

Simply stated, Feng Shui (pronounced “fung shwee” or“fung shway”) is the practice of arranging one’s space to create harmonious environment. This 5,000 year old Chinese tradition is said to promote prosperity, good health and well being.

“I am delighted that people are interested to learn about this ancient practice,” says Ms. Putzeys,“Feng Shui is a lot of common sense and fun. Take one step at a time, prioritize your needs and you will be amazed at the changes and surprises that will come into your life!”

Catherine Lee Putzeys will be teaching an all-day Feng Shui workshop on March 8, 2008 at Exedra Books on Vía España.

For more information call 6516- 4027 or email:
events@panamas ocialcalendar.com

Be an Einstein!
Shop at El Dorado

Shopping with
Patra
Kastanopolous

The first bargain opportunity as one approaches The El Dorado Mall is unexpected. While waiting for the light change at the McDonald’s intersection on Tumba Muerto, translated as“Tomb of the dead”, (hmm...) your vehicle will be besieged by street vendors and window washers. I have personally observed two different driver/friends go psycho during this experience.

Once you’ve negotiated“Check Point Charlie” you are free to explore the nooks and crannies of El Dorado’s shopping district, spread out along Tumba Muerto. At the mall itself, I like to poke around in eclectic tiendas such as ART AND CRAFT. Ignoring the endless sea of questionable“art” I discovered a very wellmade exercise chair for only $69.99. Further back in the store is a surprisingly comfortable and neat looking canvas hammock chair suspended on a black metal frame, this bearing a price tag of only $79.95. There are scores of men’s suits, attractive etched glass vases starting at $5.99, and many other items not falling under the category of “Art and Craft”!

Blouses for a dolar
ESTAMPA operates a regular store next to their outlet venue. Being seduced by reduced anything, I veered inside to ?nd mind boggling price cuts on women’s clothing, shoes, and accessories. Price tags are as low as $4.00 for orphaned items.

Directly across the highway from the mall is a huge SOL DE LA INDIA extravaganza. If inhaling incense isn’t off-putting, be prepared to vacation there perusing the massive inventory from rugs to kettle drums! There are baskets galore, large pieces of furniture, decorative items, and many bargains nestled on price-reduced racks of clothing. I plucked four high quality 100% cotton blouses off the $1.00/per display, my heart beating rapidly as it always does when I score an incredible deal!

Pepper spray
NOVEY sells small canisters of pepper spray for $9.00. You have to ask for it as it is kept in a locked cabinet. Minuscule price for personal security, yes?

Located on The El Dorado Boulevard (turn at Mc Donald’s), are strip malls hosting interesting commercial spaces. I like SUPER POSTER (also on Ave. Balboa) because they sell quality greeting cards in English for $1.00 that are unusual, humorous, and found in no other place. They have great posters and do excellent framing at reasonable cost also. My shopping buddy spied a large black and white poster of Albert Einstein with his tongue protruding. The corner was missing, so it was reduced to $6.00. She gifted it to“Alberto”, the owner of Planeta Pasta in El Cangrejo whose establishment fronts the back of the famous “Einstein Head” sculpture. My friend calls this restaurant “Alberto Einstein’s” to distinguish it from “Alberto’s” on the Causeway. The never ending synchronism of Panama City never fails to astound me! Check out the poster and eating place... HAPPY SHOPPING!

There’s nothing more glamorous than the movies, right? Wrong.

Imagine actually living on the set of a big-time James Bond movie. Well, okay, most people can’t imagine, Double “O” Seven running down their sidewalk with his gun drawn; or making love to the next “Bond Girl” on their front lawn; or having an explosive car chase on their neighborhood street. Panama City traffic is bad enough as is.

So it’s actually fairly complimentary that a big Hollywood production company would consider my street scenic enough; or attractive enough, or colorful enough; or charming enough; or sinister enough; (Hey, wait a minute!) to be in a movie. But that’s exactly what has happened to me and other residents of Casco Viejo, the old, historic, charming, scenic section of Panama City. Hollywood has decided to blow up a “World Heritage Site” as part of the action in the 22nd edition of the secret agent’s adventures and his first visit to Panama.

I did hear that the country in the movie might not even be identified as Panama, but rather it might be referred to as some generic Latin or Central American country. I heard one rumor that it might be called “Isthmus.” Now, who’s that going to fool? Even though most of the people back home think I’ve retired to an island, when they’re actually given the correct geographical term, they might just ?gure it out. After all, how many isthmuses are there?

Well, I never actually got a look at the new Bond; so I never met Roger Craig or James Craig or which ever Craig he is, much less got an opportunity to shake his hand or go out for drinks. No, my job (and it was an important one), was to stay out of the way. This was made clear by the miles of yellow “crime-scene” tape and dozens of orange cones scattered around in all the locations my lovely wife and I used to call parking spaces. We have been allowed by non-English speaking policia traf?co to drive by our building, but “no pare.” I didn’t get a job as an extra either. Apparently, they weren’t looking for the old, gray-haired gringo type, even though I think nobody would ever suspect me of being a spy, which just might be the point. So I’m not going to be“in the movies.” Maybe my building or other familiar points of interest will be recognizable when the picture is finally released.

Or maybe, just maybe, that one day when I was walking my dog, we were able to leave our mark. A split second after my dutiful pooch did his business, the two of us were shooed away, even before I was able to deploy the plastic bag system that I had secreted in my pocket. Seconds later, it was Lights! Camera!! Action!!! I will be watching very closely to see if any evidence of that particular brand of local color will be visible as a truly accurate element of a Panamanian street scene.

Hydro-Power to the people!

By David Dell

Panama is running out of power. The reasons are simple when you find that just one of Panama City’s large shopping malls uses more electricity than an entire province such as Herrera. With the seemingly never ending construction of tower blocks in the capital, our need for new, renewable sources of power is only going to increase.

The town of Volcan, on the west side of the Baru Volcano is slated to become Panama’s hottest retirement destination with at least five sizeable projects planned, or in the opening stages of development. So where is the electrical power for this expansion going to come from? The answer: the Paso Ancho Hydro Electric project.

Panama is blessed in two ways when it comes to natural resources. First we have copious amounts of rain and second we have a long mountain ridge that stretches the entire length of the country. Combining the two means we should be able to generate all of our power needs now, and in the foreseeable future from the most efficient, renewable, and most environmentally friendly production method – hydroelectricity.

The Paso Ancho hydro facility is modest as hydro projects go, it plans to produce somewhere between 6 and 12 megawatts of power. How much power is that? Volcan, a town of around 10,000 or so inhabitants currently uses less than 1 megawatt. Power at the moment comes from the Macho Del Monte Hydro project at Cuesta De Piedra. This small hydro generator originally produced just 1 megawatt and this was enough for both Volcan and the nearby town of Bugaba. Its production has been upgraded to 3 megawatts, to handle the increase in local demand, but with the growth of this part of Chiriqui, soon this will not have the capacity for local needs.

The Paso Ancho Hydro facility is located on the northern side of the Chiriqui Viejo river, close to the small hamlet that bears its name. I was invited along with my friend Ivan Flores to see the project by Isidro Quintero, the number 2 engineer and longtime Volcan resident. Isidro outlined how the energy will be generated. First, ANAM (Panamanian environmental authority) has allowed 6 cubic meters per second to be diverted from the river. This will be sent down through 250 meters of 2 .5 meter wide plastic pipe. The water will then be stored in a large man-made holding lake. Then the water will be run down a 70 degree incline to the generating station where it will power a large turbine. Then the water will be returned back into the Chiriqui Viejo river.

The power from the facility will be sent via transmission lines to Volcan and a Union Fenosa substation will handle the distribution. Excess power will be sent into the new Latin America grid. The new grid is a two-way street – so if we have difficulties here in Panama we can of course draw our power from someone else who has power to spare.

Environmental opposition
I did attend a meeting in Volcan of a small group of people who voiced concerns about the proposal for possibly three hydro facilities in the area. Although they did not specifically oppose the Paso Ancho project, they did have serious questions about the next planned facility near Caizan. One woman said the offer from the company to buy her land was not enough.

At the Paso Ancho project I talked to the chief engineer, Eduardo Astúa Chacón about the environmental impact. He told me that they started doing the studies back in 1999, and now this project meets all government requirements. He assured me on several points. First, the river would not be dammed; they will only divert some of the flow and this of course will be returned to the river a few kilometers further down. There will be a separator at the diversion point to ensure that ?sh are not drawn into the tubes and that when all the excavation is completed the area will be landscaped. A ?nal note: the project will save Panama some 50,000 barrels of oil per month.

A surprising window on the past
One wonderful revelation that came about during the excavation of the holding lake was the exposing of the geologic layers of rock and pumice. Isidro Quintero showed us the 8 inch ash layer that most probably originated from the 1450 Baru explosion. Further down he showed us something that had both myself and Ivan Flores gasping. “see that ash layer,” he said as he pointed to a 9-foot-high gray layer of sediment. My reaction was to say,“holy cow.” If this indeed is an ash deposit from a volcanic blast then Panama has had a “big bang” of its own to rival or surpass that of Krakatoa or Tambura. Keep reading THE VISITOR, because with some help from the geological community we may have a story from Panama’s past that will be world news.

The project will cost $6 million dollars when finished and employ upwards of 60 people.

A final question that needs to be answered is why are we producing more than we need locally? Basic economics will tell you that we do not have the local user base here to justify the cost of construction of projects such as these. The developers need to sell the excess to get their return on the capital they have to lay out. So, if some of our electricity is used to light homes, hospitals and schools in Costa Rica, should we really care. In today’s world electricity is as important to human development as water and food. So in the true Panamanian spirit of friendship and generosity we should be happy to extend a helping hand to our resourcechallenged neighbors.

Bits of History

Valuable U.S. contribution to
Panama’s happy separation
from Colombia

I blushed with pride during my first U.S. History class at Texas Tech University when the professor lectured on Panama´s Independence. I never expected my own country to even be mentioned in a U.S. History class, full of wars, foreign policies, and major events happening all over the world . It was my first time living outside of my native Panama, and I, as are most Panamanians, am very patriotic about my little S-shaped country that we call the "Bridge of the World, Heart of the Universe."

My Panamanian pride soon became inflated with anger and indignation when I saw the date of our independence was given as November 5th (instead of the real November 3rd). And the whole independence was summarized in one line! "A country whose independence was fabricated by the United States, specifically Theodore Roosevelt, in order to build a Canal." I raised my hand in protest, but I could barely speak English back then, and my voice was trembling with patriotism when I finally told the teacher about the typo. He didn't think it was a big deal, and the other students must have thought that I was crazy.

But Panama's history is worth telling. It is a story with no significant war, and almost no lives lost. We Panamanians are proud of the sneaky way we became an independent nation. I would like to give readers the whole picture, as I know it from our history books. And then maybe I can get over that traumatic incident in college.

The United States did actually contribute a great deal to our separation from Colombia, but it was far from a mere fabrication by one U.S. president just to build the Canal. Before the United States gracefully agreed to our Founding Fathers´ request to help Panama in our separation from Colombia, there were 17 attempts by Panamanians to separate from Colombia between 1830 and 1903, four of which were actually declared separations, only to result later in the reintegration of the Isthmus of Panama to Colombia (or Nueva Granada, as it was known back then).

Many Panamanians feel that we owe a great deal to the country which helped us become an independent nation. Yes, there have been bumps along the way, but the way in which this support was offered at the beginning is proof that combining intelligence and cooperation between nations is more valuable than the full use of military force.

In 1903 Colombia got wind that Panama was going to declare its independence again, so they mobilized a Shooters Battalion (Batallon de Tiradores) to the City of Colon. The Shooters arrived on November 3rd (NOT November 5th!). The troops were commanded by Colombian Generals Juan B. Tovar and Ramón G. Amaya.

The Colombian troops that disembarked in Colón on that day to prevent the separation, should have been transported to Panama City via the then-US- operated Inter-oceanic railroad. US train authorities, working with the separatists, told the Colombian officers that the locomotives had mechanical problems and could not travel to Panama City. The Colombian generals and high ranking officers agreed to travel to Panama City alone, without their troops. If they thought about it afterwards, they probably realized that was a mistake.

But Colombian officials in Panama, like the Governor of the Isthmus of Panama, José Domingo de Obaldía, and General Esteban Huertas had decided to joined Panama´s separation cause.

Once in Panama City, the Colombian generals were all arrested by General Esteban Huertas and an army of 1000 armed Panamanians, led by General Domingo Díaz, stood ready to defend the country in Santa Ana, an area just outside of San Felipe in Casco Viejo, Panama City's Old Quarter. Elders, including my grandfather, have gathered there for decades to talk about life and to solve this country´s problems, if only in their arguments.

The Colombian military ships that were anchored in the Bay of Panama surrendered without resistance. The troops that were left leaderless in Colon also surrendered when a US battleship appeared, in support of Panama´s separation. The troops were sent back to Colombia without much resistance. That US battleship was not able to make it to Panama City because... NO Canal! Luckily, it was not necessary.

With full backing from the United States, then an emerging world superpower, and recognition from the world as an independent country, Panama sealed its destiny and its future Canal that would be "Pro Mundi Beneficio", or "For the Benefit of the World" as it was written in our coat of arms, and as it is today.

An interesting fact was that only two people were killed during our separation from Colombia, and those accidentally. It was a peaceful, perhaps sneaky, but very intelligent way to start this Republic, one that many Panamanians did not truly believe would last for the longest time. But it has, for more than 100 years and counting!

Ing. Mariela Castillero, P.E.
Civil Engineer and Licensed Real Estate Broker
Castillero1@cwpanama.net

Panama’s famous “push buttons”

A visitor to Panama overhearing Panamanians talk about "push buttons" might innocently assume they are talking about elevators or some other mechanical device controlled by the touch of buttons.

This is not quite the case, because "push buttons" in the Panamanian vocabulary actually refer to a type of motel--a very special type which is common here and in other Latin America countries.

They are called "push buttons" because no one is seen from the moment the occupants drive their cars into the garage and the automatic doors close behind them. All transactions are carried out in anonymity, the buttons closing the doors and two-way serving windows in the rooms. The "push buttons" are considered ideal for couples that may live in less than private conditions and as hideaways for extra-marital trysts. At certain times of the year, such as Carnival, “push buttons” are very popular and it can be very hard to find a vacancy.

The rooms are rented by the hour, for an average fee of about US $10.00, the money being inserted through a slot in the door after entering the garage and pushing a button to close the garage door.

“Push buttons” first appeared in Panama in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. There is some debate on which was the first, It could have been the one in the inner city area behind what is today the Santa Fe Hospital, named the “Chico La Moña”. No one seems to know these days what this name means and the establishment has been given a new name that no one knows, so the old one is that which is still recognized.

In the years when it opened, this “push button” would have then been strategically located just outside the Curundu gate of the old Canal Zone. It could give credence to the belief that the Canal Zonians were the ones who introduced the name "push buttons" into Panamanian colloquialisms. The zonians were reputed to have been some of the best clients of the establishments because in those days they were among the most well heeled people in Panama and very mobile in their duty-free imported cars.

The debate over the first “push button” also lists "Mi Casita" (My Little House) in the suburb of San Miguelito on the main road from Colon. In recent years road widening took some of its frontage and left it with an exceptionally steep entry ramp.

These motels usually have fitting names, such as "Campo de Amor" (Love Camp) and "Mi Lindo Sueño" (My Sweet Dream).

The most luxurious is the Royal Garden Suites, also on the road to Colon near the eight-mile mark from the Panama city center. It has two-storey suites with a jacuzzi on the upper level. The suites are decorated in national modes, such as a Wild West suite, a Jewish suite, an Arab suite, and so on. Prices are three or four times higher than the regular push buttons, but every once in a while specials are announced for those who might place thrift before thrills.

There are many funny stories told by the locals about push buttons, such as that of the man and his female companion who arrived at a moment of rush hour. After waiting patiently in a queue for some time, his vehicle arrived in first position and the couple sat waiting for a garage door to open. Then a motorcyclist with pillion passenger whizzed by them, into the next open unit and quickly closed the door.

Then there was the machinist with a steel frame on the back of his pickup truck to carry pipes and other items. The frame got stuck in the door, thus preventing a swift and discreet ingress. His embarrassed lady friend left the scene in a taxi and he was left to extricate the vehicle with the help of all the “push button” staff. It was not until years later that a friend listening to his reminiscences suggested he could have let some air out of his tires. "Now you tell me" he commented.

This article will be continnued in the next edition.