Rob-Rivera.com

Panamanians and Time

We Panamanians (and I include myself in this one because I’m just as guilty as the next guy regarding the subject) have a rather askew sense of time when it comes to anything from appointments, opening time, closing hours, overtime, what’s a half hour, what’s 5 minutes, yadda yadda yadda and a bottle of rum. You’d think that with our piss-poor traffic etiquette we’d be acting crazier than a crackhead on a smoking binge but there really is no hurry to go anywhere… we just turn stupid when we’re behind the wheel. As this nifty blog proves on more than one occasion, the only people with any real hurry to get to their destination is the cab driver since, in essence, he loses money the more time he spends dropping your ass wherever it is you want to go; I believe it’s because of these individuals, as well as the Diablo Rojo busses whose drivers will run over their own mothers in order to get to the bus stop before any other competitor does and other assorted forms of transport that traffic is so crazy here. Not so with the Panamanian’s concept of time, though… remember this, fellow foreigner, and you’ll never get upset over a Panamanian getting to your meeting in time ever again.

Meetings, both in Panama and abroad, are usually sausage fests where nothing of any real significance happens; it’s just a bunch of people (suits or no suits) checking up on each other and taking two steps back after taking one step forward. Out of seven points discussed in whatever meeting you’re in you’ll probably get around three, unless it’s the world-altering type of topic that forces a group of somewhat like-minded individuals to pull some overtime and actually get things done. It’s come to my attention that, and this is me getting to my own conclusions here so don’t proclaim me the be-all, end-all of this particular debate, since the Panamanian knows that not a lot gets done in meetings and nothing really important happens until halfway through the meeting when the meat of the issue is finally getting addressed then why the hell should he make it on time? It’s not like there’s gonna be much difference to the proceedings, anyway.

If you set an appointment with a Panamanian, prepare to be flexible in said hour because chances are that he or she will not show up until at least half hour later, if at all. Panamanians are people with big plans that speak about how many wonderful things they want to do and they go so far as to actually set dates and start making preparations but when the time comes to actually take the first step into completing the goal then they will find whatever excuse they can to not do it, if they’re not invested in the activity enough to give a damn. We’re lazy that way. Since we’re so laid back about everything anyway there’s always going to be a next time and that’s what the Panamanian holds on to; getting upset at them will not change things… for the better, anyway. The only thing you can do is sit back, relax and not let it get to you because sadly, sir or madam, you on-time folks are in the minority here. The only situation where I’ve seen a Panamanian try his darnedest to get to a place on time is for job interviews but that’s more of a societal/necessity deal that’s totally understandable but on everything else it can be very discouraging if you let it get to you.

Hell, I’ll give you an example. I have several projects in the works but there’s one in particular that I’m not at liberty to discuss at the moment, but my partners sure are pretty good targets. This thing has been going on for well over 2 months and when I signed on I was told that the other partners wanted this project completed come August. I thought that was perfect since the designer I got myself to help me out was leaving on a trip around mid-August and I wanted to have everything ready before the month was out… they haven’t shown up once since I last talked to them more than two months ago, and during my drunken stupor I noticed that one of my partners had sent me a message that we’ll definitely meet this week for sure. Uh-huh, I’ve heard this one twice before. At this point, I’ll believe it when I see it… and I suggest you adopt the same mantra when dealing with Panamanians as well.

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