It Is Not All Boring In Panama!
Miss Playa Blanca 2010 is the annual big international bikini beauty contest, held at the resort by the same name this month. Among those vying for the title are Jhoraisi Peña of Venezuela (left), Gladys Salazar Rojas of Costa Rica (center) and Stefany Amaro of the Dominican Republic (right). I included this photo just so you wouldn't think I was imagining this whole thing.
Of course in typical Latin American fashion, since there was some kind of scheduling concept at the resort, they just changed the venue to a different beach resort. Did not change the name though.
Funny - You Can't Make It Up
Many Americans are aware of the 'good news' stories that come out of countries like Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica and Panama which leave an overall impression of modern well-to-do Latin America. It is easy to overlook some of the poverty- and crime-ridden sink-holes. Nicaragua is a classic example.
In 2005, a World Bank report identified that almost 20% of the Nicaragua's' population lived in extreme poverty (extreme poverty!). Well things are getting slightly better. Due primarily to big dollars from Venezuela's Chavez, a lot of money (that which isn't scraped off by graft) has gone into poverty programs. (That is one of the ways Chavez strengthens his ties with allies in the Bolivarian revolution).
The 'Zero Hunger' program gives rural households pregnant cows, pregnant pigs, six chickens, seed, materials to build stables and a bio-system to turn manure into cooking gas. The $2,000 package has benefited 50,000 families so far. That is not the funny part.
Here is the funny part. According to the government's top aid official, the funds of this, and all other aid programs, are disbursed to the woman of the household. This insures that "the men don't sell the assets to raise money for booze," he said.
One Of My YouTube Videos
Of the 50-some music/travel videos that I have posted on YouTube, this one is one of my favorites and one of the ones that gets the most comments. Take a couple of minutes and take a look.
Does Size Matter?
I sometimes get amused with Panamanian friends when, in the course of a conversation, they say something that exposes how they really can't comprehend the size of the U.S. But in fairness, put yourself in their place, born and raised in a country about the same size as South Carolina where you can fly the length of the country in a turboprop aircraft in about an hour. And, the country is so narrow that there are several places in the country where, from the peaks on the mountain range, you can see both coasts.
Then I think about the time that I was at a function in one of the suburbs of D.C. where I ended up in a conversation with an elderly woman from one of the small New England states. I had mentioned then I had driven to the gathering. But later, I misunderstood her when she asked me about where I had come from - she was asking where I lived in the area, I thought she was asking about where I moved from. When I responded "Las Vegas", her response was "Oh, you must have had to leave early this morning to get here by now." It turned out she had never been out of the New England area and that was her experience reference for distances.
I must admit that I always had trouble visualizing the USSR being so big that you traversed 12 time zones when you crossed it from east to west. But try this one about China on for size. Experts say that in the next four years over 350 million Chinese will move from the countryside to the cities. Not only does that number exceed the total population of the U.S., that migration will result in China having more than 220 cities with a population of 1 million or more. By comparison, in all of Europe there are only 35 cities that size.
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Till Next Time. Pura Vida!
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