Diplomacy In Panama...
(offshorewave.com) One of the lucky things about living in Panama is that you really have the chance to meet people from all over the place and with very different backgrounds. Not only people with different backgrounds and from foreign places, but you also have lots of people doing different types of jobs. Panama is small but you have institutions like the Smithsonian and the Panama Canal. Almost every country and any transnational group such as freedom fighters or NGO’s have a diplomatic presence in Panama. The country has plenty of banks and excellent lawyers. But of all the different groups of people I’ve met over the years in Panama the one group that hits me as the strangest are the diplomats. The world of diplomacy at the level of diplomats living in countries and carrying out their mission is something that was very foreign and new to me.
I say that because I come from a huge country – U.S. - where the average citizen would never know diplomats socially. I never met a diplomat growing up in rural Pennsylvania. The word diplomat only registered as some part of a James Bond movie – I really didn’t know what a diplomat was when I was young, not really. And I’ve known very few in Panama, but it is interesting to see how real world diplomacy is carried out. The words I would use to describe diplomacy from my limited experience would be something like “light”, “glancing”, “indirect” “incomplete”. Diplomats bend over backwards not to talk about the issue immediately at hand: if faced with it they would hate to admit that such an issue even exists. Diplomats are very different from, say, lawyers who like to bring things to a point and reach a final decision. Diplomats don’t like to drink very much socially. American diplomats have one glass of wine and discuss art. For the most part the American diplomats I’ve met are very intelligent – especially with knowledge you need to memorize. The French diplomats I’ve met in Panama are part-cultured and part-scoundrel: they have the best black girl in town and have a great apartment and sports car. But too egoistical, even for the egotistical Latin girls they hang out with. The British diplomats are very friendly but completely inscrutable. Germans diplomats are very reserved. Danish diplomats are the easiest to negotiate with. I met the Indian ambassador at a cricket match in Panama in which Hindus were playing Muslims – the match was played on an old American baseball field on the former army base at Fort Clayton. He was Sikh, with very good posture and cheerful.
The diplomatic parties in Panama I know nothing about. I’ve been invited but am usually to busy with university or family. But I have met diplomats through friends at morning garden parties in the hills above Panama City. Very laid back and cool people with cool people from Panama.
Anyway, I’ve heard two speeches from two different U.S. Ambassadors in Panama: one from a woman, one from a man. The first was by the woman who spoke about education and anti-corruption. She described corruption with Panamanian terms like “Juega Vivo” and “Mordito”. She wanted to improve the position of American corporations in Panama who would like to do more business in the country but can’t because they are by U.S. law not allowed to engage in corrupt business practices in foreign jurisdictions. So she wanted to lessen corruption in Panama so her country could do more business.
The other U.S. Ambassador I heard give a speech was a guy from Winchester, Virginia who had been a journalist and spoke a number of languages. In his speech he told humerous anecdotes about his life in Virginia – there was a very good story about his riding in a hometown parade. His speech was more heartfelt because it was personal and he looked the perfect picture of a gentleman from Virginia. Anyway, U.S. diplomacy in Panama has improved tons since the cold war years.
John le Carré
I never met John le Carré while he was in Panama writing The Tailor of Panama – I think the book was written in England. Le Carré liked to hang out at the English pub Pavo Real in Panama City which at the time le Carré was in Panama was located in the banking district. Le Carré talked to the lawyers in Panama for his writing material and wrote nothing about one of them. The book was a great success; the movie was not. The director of The Tailor of Panama was John Boorman who made such classics as Deliverance, Excalibur, Hope and Glory and the Emerald Forrest. Boorman was seen as a kind genius in Panama, though few Panamanians liked the movie. The movie caught certain sides of Panama, but overall played into the old cartoonish view of Panama where the locals are sleazy or too virtuous and poor people live down dangerous streets where drug dealers and prostitutes loiter. It was the only movie I’ve seen where Jamie Lee Curtis didn’t look comfortable. Pierce Brosnan was the best actor and he seemed to understand something about Panama. Why was the book about a tailor; I have no idea. I know tailors in Panama but they are normal people. Though I must say I’ve never met an English tailor in Panama; English mechanic, yes, but not tailor.
The Pavo as it was/is called is an English pub/bar in Panama City. It still exists except it moved to a new location on Via Argentina. The Pavo when I knew it had just a bar and some seats, dart board, TVs and cushioned seats built into the shape of the wall. In a back room behind the bar was a pool table. There was a good restaurant on the opposite side of the bar that served English food: fish n chips, ploughman’s lunch and burgers; they used to have great popcorn as well.
When I first went to the Pavo there were still U.S. soldiers in Panama many of whom ended up becoming good friends of mine. They liked living in Panama and had all kinds of things going on; they were cool and local people for the most part liked the U.S. soldiers. The Pavo was located in a one-story building that could have been someone’s house or small business, say, like, a notary or travel agency. The owner was English.
Le Carré had lots of friends at the Pavo; his real first name is David and people would refer to him by that name. People would say David and then say his full name with a funny crack of the last name and a dismissive look to the distance.
Le Carre was not the first writer to show up in Panama: Graham Greene, Paul Theroux, R.M. Koster, William Burroughs, Paul and Jane Bowles as well as John Steinbeck knew Panama.
Investment Funds in Latin America
Every now and then you’ll here about some incredible Investment Fund that someone from the States or Canada found in Latin America and invested their money in and made tons. I met a guy in Panama who made millions of dollars in the, I think, 70s or 80s in Costa Rica with a Fund with a name like the Blue Millennium Fund. The guy told me he would travel to Costa Rica every so often - more than once a year - pick up the cash in a brown paper bag and then take it back to his home in Washington State. The Fund eventually folded but he didn’t get burned.
One of the things you see going around Panama is something called a Real Estate Fund. I’ve been on the edge of some of these Funds and they usually hinge on who handles the money and who will deliver what to whom – and this normally doesn’t get sorted out so the Funds never go. Of course, a few have. Lots of people say a real estate fund is a way of washing money. Have the Fund and wash the money through the Fund Project. But as I said most of the Funds never go and people end up in jail or broke and ripped off. I think it was Keynes who said that real social industrial development can’t come as a by-product of a casino.
Panamanian Presidential Race
The race for right now seems pretty calm. Martinelli is sticking to message with his radio and T.V ads. He is coming off all right. Varela is also improving and I wonder if he might not have a chance of moving past Martinelli to win. Balbina has softened her image and that is a very smart thing to do. She will have to get very soft and fluffy if she wants to be president of Panama.
The campaign season will get going this month and next and then in the summer the candidates will need to hit the campaign trail; they need to go all over the country to win. All is still very much up in the air as far as the election is concerned.
