Enforcement or turning a blind eye?

It’s sometimes hard to love a taxi driver in Panama, especially when you have been standing on a street corner for an hour and driver after driver refuses to take you in any direction other than his own. His refusal is illegal, but what do you do? Call a cop? Harder still when you are a poor person with only one leg and you are supporting yourself on crutches. This happened last week and was caught on camera by Panama America.

There are of course some good guys behind the wheel of our yellow hornets. Some who take pride in their vehicles, keep them clean and actually help customers with their luggage, or assist a disabled person climbing in or out of the cab. These are the guys you should tip, remembering too that they lead a dangerous life, not only because of the driving habits of their fellow charioteers, but from hoodlums. Two drivers have been shot to death in recent months, and many more have been robbed and assaulted. The latest casualty was killed on his first trip. It would have taken him an hour to accumulate ten dollars.

ENFORCEMENT MEANS INCOME. That said let’s hope that incoming president Ricardo Martinelli, before introducing a flurry of new laws, gets his newly appointed minions enforcing some of the existing regulations. Hitting the bad guys is one way of supporting the good.

Here are a few suggestions.

Taxis: compelled to take you where you want to go. Those who have missed three deadlines for being painted yellow, hauled off the road until they conform.

Buses: Prohibited from loading and unloading passengers in between designated stops, and then only when at kerbside; subject to regular spot check and hauled off the road for belching carcinogenic smoke from under-serviced engines.

Buses and taxis , without rear lights.. off the road.

All drivers (including official cars and those with presidential police outriders): spot checks on use of cell phones when driving; heavy fines for not giving signals when changing lanes. Enforcement of new laws on: over darkened windows; illegal parking when parking lots are nearby; a review of signs prohibiting turns to the right or left. If they are not necessary, remove them. If they are necessary, enforce them.

Those are only a few of the enforcements that would help reduce traffic accidents, unclog the streets and speed up traffic flow. The revenue from the transgressors would enable the authorities to hire more traffic police, to help keep our city moving.

RECOGNITION. Earlier this week this column’s views on legislators feeding at the trough were picked up by Britain’s Daily Telegraph which has created a world wide tsunami of media coverage with its revelations of the pocket lining activities of elected members of all parties. We were in good company with the New York Times and France’s La Figaro.

A CHALLENGE. The irony is that if a Panamanian newspaper had the source and the courage to publish similar details of the financial pecadillos of our legislators, some journalists would be heading for jail. Democracy?