OFF THE CUFF
(PanamaNewsRoom) THE BUSINESS WORLD – Are you surprised, by the delays in the introduction of the Metro bus system?
The city’s bungled new taxation plans for drivers and businesses? The delay in solving the 50 days, and counting, water crisis, and now more snafus in the introduction of the new rules for minor accidents. Perhaps you should be. President Martinelli announced at the World Economic jamboree in Davos Switzerland, that Panama is the only country in the world managed by businessmen. Surprised?
WATER WATER EVERYWHERE – The Ministry of Health has announced that Panama’s water is now safe to drink. Across the capital city restaurants and hotels don’t believe it and are not serving tap water to customers. Is this a way of increasing earnings, or do they believe that although tests at the Chilbre processing plant show the water is “pure”, the pipes carrying it to the consumer are still full of sediment? And then there’s the taste factor.
AND THE RICH MAN DRIVES BY – Panama seems to have not only more taxis per capita than any city in the world, but more big gas guzzling SUV’s. Are they there to counteract the carpet of potholes across the city, to show that the owner is on the up and up, or just for show. If it’s your own money, and you are not “green conscious” the reason doesn’t matter, but when you are a harbinger of change and your driving habits come out of the taxpayers’ pockets, the story is different.
Panama America, allegedly now in the hands of government supporters or members, carries a story about the abuse of office by mandarins driving around in luxury vehicles fitted with all the conveniences from MP3 players to built in refrigerators. Public service?
BUT WHERE? - The new "soon to be introduced" rules for drivers involved in minor accidents states that the parties involved have to get their cars off the road immediately, or face a $50 fine. No time for a verbal slanging match about who did what to whom. But if the drafters of the law had taken time to drive around most of Panama's smaller streets with cars illegally parked on both sides of the road, on the corners and even the sidewalk, they might have asked "where?" We checked out a couple of streets in Bella Vista, including some where accidents have taken place.
"Immediate removal" would mean at least a couple of blocks. As part of the plan to speed up traffic flow, are the city and the ATTT gearing up to increase revenue by actually towing parking offenders? Or they could just save all the hundreds of gallons of yellow paint, decorating sidewalks.
CITIZEN POWER - Mark Scheinbaum has done an analysis of the events in the Middle East, first Tunisia, now Egypt , and other countries in the region where the gap between rich and poor is monumental are getting nervous. Panama boasts the biggest per capita income in the region, and a growth pattern the envy of many first world countries, but no narrowing of the divide between the haves and have nots. Is anyone watching the Middle East?
