Location, Location, Location - It's Critical in the Building Trades Also
The Miami Herald publishes daily a condensed version of the Herald oriented towards Panama. The paper is actually printed here in Panama through a partnership arrangement with Panama's big daily newspaper, La Prenza. Basically they, take their 'regular' Miami edition, subtract advertisements and local (Florida) news and special sections (Travel, Home, etc.), provide full coverage on major events in the World and the U.S. (with condensed snippets on less important happenings), and add two pages of the major happenings in Panama. So the Panama version is good coverage, although condensed - the TV analogy being that the paper is more like CNN's Headline News than the regular CNN News channel.
Recently they published back-to-back articles that really highlighted how different the present economic crises impact can be from an individual standpoint, based on where you are. An article on August 25 covered a report just released by Panama's Asociacion National de Recursos Humanos (National Association of Human Resources). The study warned that the on-going building boom in Panama is being dampened by a shortage of skilled construction workers - specifically carpenters, plumbers, electricians, masons, painters and cabinet makers. Even more serious is the nationwide shortage of welders and mechanics. The report concluded that "there is not a single company that is not having trouble keeping their vehicles running."
The following day (Aug. 26) there was an article in the Business Section about the U.S. market which outlined the double whammy resulting from the homebuilding slump combined with many commercial building projects being canceled or postponed. One of the major fallouts has been the highest unemployment rate in 13 years for construction workers. As of the article's printing there are 783,000 construction tradesmen out of work, and that number is growing daily. Even worse, many of these people are functionally unemployable in other industries because of prospective employers concerns that their 'new' workers will return to the construction trades when the market recovers.
My Latest Video
I received emails from quite a few people suggesting that I put my latest video back in the blog posting. More than one person 'reminded' me that the video being posted did not slow down the blog page loading, because the video doesn't actually load until the reader hits the 'start' button. Duh. Why didn't I think of that? Ed Evans offered that he started the video, and while it loaded, he read the rest of the blog posting. The video was ready about the time he had finished. Double Duh
This latest video is stunning, if I do say so myself (which I guess I just did). I think you find this look at Panama's 'other' children - kids from the indigenous Indian tribes - as fascinating as I do. I call this one 'Smiles' because that is what it features - the absolutely gorgeous smiling faces of these beautiful little ones. By the way, I am
working on several other videos as part of a series focusing on various aspects of the lives of Panama's four major indigenous tribes. So let me know what you think, so I'll know whether the subject is really interesting, or I am just having another of my obsessive subject 'lock-on's'
Turn your sound on and enjoy.
Islam's Ramadan Begins
Most of the non-Muslims world is aware of the Muslim religion's holy month of Ramadan, and aware that it involves daily fasting, going without food or water, during the daylight hours for the entire month. However, I was not aware, and I assume I am in the majority, that the dates of Ramadan are not fixed. Rather, Ramadan begins the day after the sighting of the crescent moon that marks the beginning of the new lunar month. As a result Ramadan does not start at the same time in all Muslim nations. Plus, some countries rely on astronomical calculations, others on observatory sightings. And, even others rely on naked eye sightings, thus the different start dates.
But, in all cases, determing the start of Ramadan is serious business. In most of the Muslim Mideast, Ramadan started on Monday, Sep 1, based on crescent sightings on Sunday. By contrast, Libya started on Sunday, Aug. 31, based on a crescent sighting by two religious officials, a sighting, by the way, that eluded the millions of ardent watchers in the general population. A Holy eyesight thing, I guess? And just to make sure it got done right, the head Ayatollah in Iran dispatched 100 'official sighting groups' throughout the country. As a result of the official sighting, Ramadan began on Tuesday, Sep. 2. Equally confusing to an admitted non-Muslim like me is the fact that in Iraq, Shiites will begin the celebration on Tuesday, but the Sunni's Ramadan will start on Monday. Likewise, in Lebanon Sunnis and some Shiites started on Monday, but the militant Hezbollah group started on Tuesday. So, I can only assume that one's sect and/or political views has some effect on one's eyesight, at least when it comes to crescent viewing.
Equally baffling to me is the fact that, in Jordan, police are distributing thousands of booklets to motorists urging traffic safety. This was deemed necessary because traffic accidents increase by 70% in Jordan during the Ramadan fasting month. Due to the restrictions on alcohol in Jordan, I guess there must some kind of 'funny stuff' ingredients in some or all of the traditional Ramadan dishes - dishes that are only prepared and eaten during the Ramadan celebration.
Now aren't you glad I cleared all this up for you?
Stocking Hats in Panama?
Not withstanding the year-round tropical heat here, there is still a percentage of teen aged boys who wear stocking caps (skull caps?) pulled down over their ears. A couple of days ago I saw a baffling sight. Three teens coming down the street, all wearing shorts, flip-flops, and two of them shirtless, and they all had on (what appeared to be wool) stocking caps down over their ears, pulled right down to their eyebrows in the front. Cool man!
You Know You Are Getting Old When ....
I am old enough to remember when the Olympic Games were the pinnacle of the amateur sports universe. Years ago when we 'borrowed' 12 multi-millionaires from the NBA for a few months, tagged them with the moniker 'The Dream Team' and sent them off to capture the Olympic gold medal in basketball, my reaction was, "what"?
But oh my, how far this have progressed. Examples?
Abhinav Bindra became the first Indian in history to win an individual gold medal in the Olympics, capturing first place in the 10-m air rifle competition (I know, I know. The 10-m what?). Bindra became an instant institution in India. Two days later, India's largest national daily newspaper named the 25-year old the nation's most eligible bachelor, which is small potatoes to other things that came his way. A $350,000 bonus came from Lakshmi Mittal, a steel baron who is a big sponsor of the national team. He received an additional $550,000 from various local governments and sports ministries - all of which was deposited immediately into a bank account set up specifically for that purpose prior to his departure for Beijing, so that he did not have to wait until he returned from the Games to collect. Oh yeah, I almost forgot the gift from his father (who owns an agriculture, manufacturing and power conglomerate). What do you get the guy who has everything? Ahh hah. How about a 30-story 5-star hotel in downtown New Delhi, one of the country's finest luxury hotels, located in the city's robust financial district. Aren't you sorry now that you snickered about the air rifle thing?
And what about China, the mecca of communism and anti-capitalist rhetoric? Any Chinese athlete who won a medal in the Games received an immediate $150k bonus, plus a pension of $24,000 a year, paid monthly for life, with payments starting on the date the medals were awarded. If the medal was a gold, the bonus was $500k and the pension became $60,000 a year. Except for the four athletes (3 men and 1 lady) who won two golds. They collected the gold medal prize twice, once for each medal. This in a country where the national annual salary is $5,000. Ahh, the Olympic Spirit lives on.
Till Next Time. Pura Vida
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