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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

"They Are Just Stupid, Lazy Animals"

Panamanians have mostly learned about life in the United States from watching its films and television shows. Hollywood movies and situation comedies are a major staple on Panamian television – in fact, other than the local news programs, a few telenovelas (soap operas), and the occasional nature show, there’s precious little produced in Latin America.

As a result, a lot of Panamanians believe, rightly or wrongly, that most United States citizens are incredibly wealthy, have one meaningless sexual affair after another, and shoot each other simply all the time. I also find it unpleasantly amusing to see how much swearing and cursing and sexually charged language there is in Hollywood’s offerings – I don’t think I have ever heard a local person utter even the mildest of epithets; only gringos.

This barrage of imagery, it seems to me, makes it hard for many folks here to accept that I’m not terribly different from them: they are so sure that people with my color eyes and skin are incredibly rich. I have to work hard to assure them that I have barely enough money to get by, that my life in the States was reasonably ordinary, and that I wish for no drama here, but just to live peacefully.

Sadly, a lot of expatriates living here do very little to dispel the image promoted on television. The financial assets held by many of these

people would be a pretty ordinary amount north of México. But here the U.S. dollar goes so much farther that these gringos think their money somehow justifies their turning into greedy monsters. They hire local people as workers, treating them like dirt, to put up gaudily ugly McMansions. They scream at these workers, usually in English because they can’t be bothered to learn Spanish, treating them like dirt, and spewing racist epithets like you wouldn't believe.

* * *

As they come to me to be written, new chapters will be added to this blog, so stay tuned! But the blogs up to a certain point are now chapters are now in a book.

So, to read more, you need the book A WRITER IN PANAMÁ.

The book is available in three formats:

HARDCOVER (large-size edition, photographs on nearly every page)
SOFTCOVER (large-size edition, photographs on nearly every page)
SOFTCOVER (smaller size edition, no interior photographs)
E-BOOK (all versions available, including Kindle and Nook, no photographs)

To browse or order, CLICK HERE!


The book is also available through Amazon (USA, Great Britain, and continental Europe) and other major book retailers.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Hospitals and Healers

Where I lived in the United States and France, most people were unwell most of the time. They weren’t necessarily outright sick terribly often, but they never really felt the way people should feel; they were constantly tired (even when they got up in the morning), and burdened with indigestion, backaches, migraines, and breathing difficulties. They were often trying to work at their jobs while wishing they could just stay in bed, but, when they could rest, they found themselves unable to sleep. They would see the doctor, who would prescribe something, but they never really got better.

Here in las Tierras Altas (the Highlands) of Panamá there seems to

be a far lower incidence of low-grade illnesses such as colds and flus and chronic fatigue and allergies. I think a big reason for this is the relatively clean environment: the air here has very little if any industrial/vehicular pollution in it, the water is pure and full of healthy minerals, and the locally grown produce is healthy and nutritious. Also, people (except for the rich gringos and their big SUVs) get a lot more exercise here. Except for those rich gringos, most people don’t own cars; they walk to the grocery store, they walk to the bus stop, they walk to visit friends. The bus stop for me is a walk of several minutes, up a long incline, and I walk it quickly on purpose to increase the exercise potential.

But the most important health-inducing factor here is, without question, the lack of stress. The local people – Panamanians (Latinos) and Ngobe Bugle (Native Americans) alike – are a very easygoing, laid-back people. It frustrates a lot of gringos that they’ll say, “I’ll come by to do your landscaping tomorrow,” and then not show up for two or three days, but that’s the way they are: they will get to everything, but they feel no anxiety to rush through things; instead, they do it when the time comes.

If anxiety and stress are what you want, I recommend the big seacoast cities – the city of Panamá, Davíd, Colón – where you’ll find plenty of tension and pollution

* * *

As they come to me to be written, new chapters will be added to this blog, so stay tuned! But the blogs up to a certain point are now chapters are now in a book.

So, to read more, you need the book A WRITER IN PANAMÁ.

The book is available in three formats:

HARDCOVER (large-size edition, photographs on nearly every page)
SOFTCOVER (large-size edition, photographs on nearly every page)
SOFTCOVER (smaller size edition, no interior photographs)
E-BOOK (all versions available, including Kindle and Nook, no photographs)

To browse or order, CLICK HERE!


The book is also available through Amazon (USA, Great Britain, and continental Europe) and other major book retailers.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Spirits are Walking Abroad

This morning the silence is not empty but full. There are presences out there, around my little house; I can sense them. I look through the windows and see the cold mist breathing in and among the trees like ghosts. I step outside, wanting to take photographs of it, but my poor little camera is not up to the task, since it has no settings that can be adjusted. But it would be hard to record an image of these wandering spirits with even a good camera; perhaps it is their wish not to be photographed, and their nature to prevent it. Back inside I return.

And then unexpectedly, with the appearance of the sun over the great

Mount Barú, there is light everywhere, chasing the last vestiges of these mist-ghosts back into their shadowy lairs. Dawn arrives in splendor, with intense azure above the lower horizon, deepening over the mountains, and, high up in the firmament, a few thin cirrus glowing in saffron and pink, caught in the rays of the Sun yet below the horizon, for here on the earth below, all is still dark, still dark.

* * *

As they come to me to be written, new chapters will be added to this blog, so stay tuned! But the blogs up to a certain point are now chapters are now in a book.

So, to read more, you need the book A WRITER IN PANAMÁ.

The book is available in three formats:

HARDCOVER (large-size edition, photographs on nearly every page)
SOFTCOVER (large-size edition, photographs on nearly every page)
SOFTCOVER (smaller size edition, no interior photographs)
E-BOOK (all versions available, including Kindle and Nook, no photographs)

To browse or order, CLICK HERE!


The book is also available through Amazon (USA, Great Britain, and continental Europe) and other major book retailers.