I met the craziest greek guy last night. I dropped 2SXC off at her apartment where her and the rest of the Canadians were packing to go to different parts of the country and abroad. Brother-in-Arms “Key-K” was there and upon quickly realizing that our roles in this packing debacle were nothing more than taking up space we stepped out of the apartment. As we walked outside, a voice talked to us from afar; looking past the pool in front of us, a man sitting down on a lawn chair with a drink on a table next to him, all covered in shadow… he was dressed in a white shirt and shorts, a thick European accent talking about how we should dip in the pool since the weather’s perfect for it. This was at 10:30 PM. Soon enough we were sitting next to him talking about fascinating topics such as bananas, coconuts, what the weather is like in Europe and how much of a fuckup country Panama is. We could tell how viciously frustrated he was when the topic of commerce and business in PTY came up: he’s rather old, and is the type that thinks he knows it all and makes a point to discard people younger than him, convinced that since we’re in our twenties we don’t know jack shit about the world. We were spoon-fed his views on how everything about this place sucks: transportation, the government, the work unions, the service, the economy, the people and so much more that personally I didn’t catch. He’d keep saying how he’s done business all over the world selling coconuts and bananas and other types of fruit, and even though he himself would say he doesn’t know how to cook worth a damn it seemed to to me that, without him telling us so, he’s involved in the restaurant business. He talked about some pìzzerias he had in the States,and in Greece and all over the place but nothing about Panama. That figures with the rest of his profile, since it seems he’s been here on business before (as he is now) and it looks to me that he’s tried to mount a business here in the restaurant front but hasn’t felt motivated enough to go forward with it. According to him, it’s an issue of trust.

Given his pompous and somewhat “holier-than-thou” attitude, he did have a lot of interesting points to bring to the table. His perspective is one people don’t run into much: this guy, as an entrepeneur looking to set up a business in Panama has trouble trusting the workforce into doing a good job, since the service sucks most of the time. The way he put it, logically, was from a restaurant-business angle; he said he can’t trust the cook to put his heart and soul into his food and make the best places possible, nor can he trust the waiters who, umm… wait like shit. This matter of trust is linked to the next reason why this hate list is so great: “clicks.” According to him, and I wholeheartedly agree, an establishment that’s been open for 20+ years should use that recognition to excel even more in their cousine, always innovating, always thriving to be the best. But, in Panama this is backwards; the more years that pass by, the less they try to be the best… because they’re established businesses now. But, of course! The work is done, so just coast off the success and recognition, right? Typical Panamanian behavior. No wonder we are where we are. These clicks, established places that already have a steady clientele since Panamanians are beings of routine and custom (I know even I fall in there sometimes as well), anyone who dares to try anything new will be crushed because we, as socially retarded as we are, we see innovative ideas like they’re some type of disease that should be avoided. This issue hit close to home, personally… because of Mada Faká. Here I am, trying to do something different and I was in a battlezone every time I was pitching or promoting or simply sharing a room with the established authors from Panama (it should be noted that, aside from me, the next youngest Panamanian writer that falls into my “click,” so to speak, is easily in his late 30’s) and it became frustrating, at times I lost my focus and was caught off guard at the sheer vicious remarks that would come my way. I remember I’d go on radio and TV saying that a writer could live off of his craft in Panama and they’d look at me like if I was on drugs. How could this kids, wearing punk Chuck Taylor’s, outrageous t-shirts and long hair and tattoos tell us that writers can live off of writing? In contrast, I made it clear that I thought that it was wrong how every Panamanian writer I know is always something else first, and a writer second. As if writing was a glorified hobby. Now I realize, a few years later, that they weren’t grasping my concept; their “click” was so into themselves that they weren’t able to expand the meaning of the word “writer.” To them, being a writer is just someone who writes fiction, non-fiction and poems. Then I’d show up and prove them wrong…

Anyway, my M.O is rattling cages anyway so I found a way to make a joke out of it most of the time. These “clicks,” or established places and trains of thought are a crutch in the progess of the country, and it seriously infuriated this man. But many things infuriated this man. We talked about the transport system, and this set up a very interesting point that at least I had overlooked before: he’d keep saying how nothing changes in this place. Via España is the same now as it was 50 years ago. Many roads are like this, and just like these streets then the busses people use to go from point A to point B are just as old. Seriously, they’re easily 50 years old, shooting smoke and being loud. The tradition aspect of Panamanians is taking its toll on the country’s progess, and according to him governments should be able to set up plans and projects so that the next government can pick up on them and move the country forward… this is where the flaw in his theory stands out.

Despite the way we’d try to explain to him just how screwed up the government, he wouldn’t hear it since we’re “kids” and didn’t know better. Pushing and shoving though we quickly told him about the realities of Panama: the main 2 political parties loathe each other in pretty much the same manner America is with their democrats and republicans. Sometimes they call people out by their political stance in the manner of insults… the daily news are depressing, seeing how one person undoes what the last person in his place did and jabs the other political party on what they did wrong. This whole “pointing fingers” culture and “every man for himself” attitued we as Panamanians possess at a genetical level is what doesn’t let the country evolve at the velocity it should. Political Party A wins the presidency and, to those with enough civil concsience to actually try and do something for the country have the perception that whatever they so, they have to have it finished before their term is up. Otherwise, when the elections come up and Political Party B wins (this is an estatistical fact at this point. Ever since the 1989 invasion there have been 4 democratic governments spread out evenly this way: A, B, A, B) they will crush and throw away any pending projects the former government had simply because they didn’t come up with it first, regardless of it being *gasp!* actually good for the country! Of course, the biggest voting population is not that well educated and are treated like sheep by people in places of power. Corruption runs rampant in every branch of the government, from the police to the Supreme Justice. Everyone’s in on the take, and if your last name is one of the most well-off families in Panama (again, also established for quite a few generations) you’ll enjoy somewhat of an immunity. Panamanians judge each other a lot by the way they are on the surface… a vanity aspect, if you will. Add to that the “ignorance” factor and you’ve got yourself a lot of people that, if you tell them what they want to hear, they’ll do whatever you want them to.

Transport here’s fucked because every time the government makes a push to update the system, make it more efficient and less dangerous (busses are packed at twice of its capacity, people are literally hanging from the door of the bus as it shoots by at 65mph playing obnoxiously loud music, breezing and wiping cars and people that cross them on the road off the face of the earth. They even do races… in the moddle of the day on the main arteries, the transports filled to the brim with people who want to get to their destinations in one piece) the transport union gets up in arms and automatically rejects it without even hearing the proposal under the pretext that since they’re the government all they want is to screw the little guy over. The government pushes a little more and the union goes on strike for 1 day and all hell breaks loose. Even if the government makes plans for newer, modern, safer transports, trains and strict laws penalizing drivers who are intoxicated while driving, drive past their permited speed limit and many other things that drivers today do every waking moment of the day, saying they’ll give the unions all the tools they need to not be segregated for not being able to adapt to the new norm, then they’ll reject it. Panamanians are afraid of change, and that’s evident in practically every aspect of their lives, from their routines to go to work to the way they deal with personal decisions. And I’ll tell you one thing… it’s fucking frustrating for those of us trying to make a different life out from under all of this red tape.

We had to go, but he’ll be staying at the apartment complex for a couple of months more… personally, now that he’s more prone to listen to us since I’m pretty sure he knows we’re not just kids full of shit, I’m looking forward to running into the guy again, perhaps over some beers and with more time on our hands to discuss various topics some more.

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