For Some Folks, Heaven Comes To Panama
Monday morning I walk out on the balcony at 7AM, and there was a line that had already formed at the bank across the square. I say 'already' because the bank does not open until 9AM. It was a LONG line! It ran down the block to the corner, and an entire block down the main street. Frustratingly, no one seemed to know what the line was for.
A gringo friend of mine comes to the hotel on Monday and Wednesdays because he is editing my book for me. I figured Jaron could solve the mystery. Not only does he speak pretty good Spanish, he is married to Jenny, one of the maids here in the hotel.
It turns out that Monday was disbursement day for the new pension plan. Back in August, new president Martinelli announced a program that has been dubbed 70-100. Starting September 1st, all Panamanians will receive a $100/month pension when they reach age 70, if they are not covered by any other pension plan. How many people could that be? Evidently, lots.
As Jenny was explaining this to Jaron and I, she began to cry. This new pension applies to her elderly parents. Her parents' house is less than 8 miles (as a crow flies) from the hotel we were standing in - in the heart of Panama's second biggest city. The house (Ok, hovel) has three rooms, dirt floors, no electricity and no running water. They cook over a wood fire in a lean-to in the side yard, next to their vegetable garden. The house is on a hill, about 100 yards off of a dirt road, and there is no road or driveway up to the house. They have lived their entire adult life, and raised their four kids, in that little house.
Jenny's family subsists on her dad's 'job', which entails him carrying a gas operated engine (similar to a giant leaf blower) down the hill and hooking it up to a pipe which runs up the hill to a neighbor's cistern, and pumping water out of the creek. He has done that twice a day for over 10 years. He gets paid $3 a week. That is, according to Jenny, representative of his employment history, the type of duties that he has done to make ends meet for his entire life. He just turned 83.
Jenny's tears were tears of joy. The initial payments were phased in alphabetically, so this was her parent's first payment. But, they were going to be paid retroactively to the programs start date. So, on this joyous day, her parents were going to receive $100 each for three months (Sep, Oct and Nov). Jenny is certain that her father has never made more than $200 cash in any year of his life. She compares this to her parents winning the lottery. Her mother is worried sick about where they will be able to hide $600. But, she is thrilled by the idea that, if she and her husband can just live for three more years, they will be able to leave a fortune inheritance to their four children.
My Latest Video
My latest video is a tribute to the troops at Fort Dix. I invite your comments.
An Anniversary Celebration.
I have a news flash for you. Big business throwing its weight around is nothing new. The emerging U.S. railroad industry arbitrarily established four times zones across the country, 126 years ago this month. Up until then, localities determined that themselves usually based on daylight hours. The new trans-continental railroads couldn't handle the scheduling chaos that created. The people took to and accepted the new time zones.
Thirty years later, the federal government made it official.
Talk About Too Big To Fail?
A recent discussion I listened to about the financial woes of the state of California revealed some things that I was not aware of. Did you realize that California is so big that the size of the California economy alone would qualify it, if it were a country, as a member of the G-8? And, were you aware that the population of California exceeds the total populations of the seven countries that make up Central America? Yee gads!
Till Next Time. Pura Vida!
