Bus passengers get the short stick

Big checks for scrap heap buses, but injured passengers and relatives are still waiting for compensation

DAVID YOUNG OUR MAN IN PANAMA
ourman@laestrella.com.pa

Just a coincidence? While the first checks for $25,000 per polluting bus were being distributed in Panama, I counted three broken down diablos rojos while taking a four minute drive to work. For some reason, the owners think it is easier to turf out passengers and fix wrecks at roadside or have them towed away rather than keep them in running order. $25,000 for wrecks. Seems like a modern version of Aladdin’s lamp.

In the meantime the badly injured survivors of the disastrous fire that incinerated 18 passengers on a city roadway, are still waiting for compensation, along with the relatives of the dead.

The government collapses before the threats of the transportistas, but holds firm, against the entreaties of the poor and dispossessed. Will they, like the electricity workers who lost their jobs and were black listed for alleged involvement in a coup against former president Guillermo Endara, have to wait 18 years for justice? It took that long even though they won their case against the government before the International Court of Human Rights.

MINIS. Columnist Phil Edmonston tells me that the MINI, that tiny British car which has in the past racked up wins in the Monte Carlo Rally, recently rolled number one million off the production line, That’s in addition to the over one million of the original edition. The Current Mini Cooper, and Mini Copper S, is much beloved in Panama, along with matching mini skirts by the Ye-ye crowd, and /or TV starlets.

TURNING THE PAGE It’s only a few days before the world turns the page on George W. Bush perhaps the most unpopular president in American history. But before the book is closed Carl Rove the disgraced Rasputin of the House is trying in the last days of the diminished empire to burnish the Bush image. In spite of the many Bushisms on record.

He has taken the unlikely step of promoting the president’s voracious reading habits, which of course reflects on his understanding of history, the world, the environment, all of which he seems to have faltered on when appearing in public.

According to Rove, he and Bush had an annual competition based on who read the most books. The president always came out the loser, reading on average only 96 books a year. That’s nearly two books a week, and most history and economics books (which Rove claims the president devoured) run to around 600 pages. So when did he get time to be president? Either he is an incredible speed reader, or just a fast page turner, or is Carl just up to his old tricks.

DICKENS OF A TIME. The great Victorian novelist and social commentator, Charles Dickens, who at one time reported for Hansard (The daily record of speeches in the British House of Commons) took delight in uncovering the foibles of lawyers and politicians. These days being a lawyer seems almost a mandatory stepping stone to becoming a politician. Kissing babies was, in Dickens’ day, another feature of electioneering.

In Panama, baby kissing has largely been replaced by hugging, and the two main presidential candidates Balbina Herrera and Ricardo Martinelli are hard at it, if the billboards scattered around the country are any measure. Martinelli can also be seen wielding a drill. Neither is a lawyer, but hugs are OK.

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