June 3, 2000 Hi, As a side note to the Corozal Cemetery in reference to the flying of the American flag, the Ministry of Foreign Relations has added that other countries, such as France, that have a large number of their citizens buried in the Republic of Panama, can also fly their national flag along side the Panamanian flag at those site so designated and with the approval of the Legislative Assembly. On TV the other day, they showed a group of protesters demonstrating in front of a lot someplace in the watershed where a company had gone in and cut down all the trees. Some 100 plus people were carrying signs and banners trying to protect the watershed from further clearing and think ANAM should not have OK'ed this work. Maybe some of those programs to educate the population is starting to have effect in the protection of the watershed. Then in La Prensa they show a photo of the trees being cut down in the Curundu Flats area. The area is being cleared for a development. The newspaper calls it an ecological crime. I drove through Curundu and couldn't find nothing that looked like the photo, but I did see a small group of trees cut down on 6th St., so I guess that was it. If you haven't been through Curundu for some time, some areas will really surprise you. The area known as Contractor Housing or Hill on the back part of Curundu is really taken on a new look. Most have heard or read how Albrook has changed as almost everybody has transformed the simple government quarters into small mansions. Well, there are some dozies in Curundu. Then in the old wooden quarters area, like 5th St to 8th St, some nice housing are being constructed on the available lots. Well, the detour of Gaillard and Diablo Road is complete and in use as of Monday (5/29). Gaillard is blocked by the Albrook gate entrance and by the first bridge as they get ready to tear up the bridge crossings, storm outlets, and Diablo Road, though Diablo Road is still open to traffic at the drain crossing. Hopefully the temporary asphalt road will last the three months this is expected to take. The Gaillard Highway (Ave. Omar Trojillos) rerouting is still going and I'd say about 50 percent done. Alfredo Arias, of ARI, has also allowed traffic to use old Ft Clayton as an alternate route to avoid the bottleneck of the detour. Access through the former base is from 6 to 9 in the morning and from 3 to 6 in the afternoon. No sightseeing allowed, in other words, stay on the main road. In April, Panama, by way of the Banco Nacional de Panama, became the second country to put the new US one dollar coin into circulation. As a replacement to the dollar bill, some 5 million gold plated coins will be distributed out of 56 banks outlets. Besides the article in the local papers, on TV, the bank manager who was presenting the legal tender at a press conference, asked that the public please to not collect the coins, but to use them. What he has been seeing as the first coins were put into circulation was that collectors were gathering them up as first issue. Then I see on CNN where the US is having the same problem, the coins were being collected and not circulated. In April, some 552 new law enforcement agents of the National Police hit the streets to serve and protect and Boy, are they ever needed. It seems the crooks are hitting where ever they can to get something, even if its just for a couple of bucks. A couple of weeks back, 6 well dressed thieves hit the Pzari Casino near the Blockbuster Store in the El Dorado Mall area. They made this strike about one in the morning and made off with about $30,000, taking what was available and even taking what the patrons had. On the play back of the surveillance video, as the news was rehashing the event, you could even see one of the patrons laying on the floor, taking out his wallet and hiding it under a napkin on the table. So with that and several other hits at different establishments, the police answered with road side checks and it is delaying traffic. Besides the fact that they have stopped people for expired drivers license and no licenses, no registration papers, taxis without the proper documentation, even two taxis with the same paperwork, weapons, drugs, stolen vehicles, no cedulas or permits, and I guess anything else you could be stopped for, the people are complaining. The delays are causing people to show up late for work (or at least that is a good excuse) where some have reported being docked for time late. And the police are striking back. They've busted up a few gangs and just last weekend, they made a major drug bust. Out at a house in Las Cumbres, this group of 3 Colombians and 2 Panamanians, had a wheeled 40 foot container backed into its driveway where they were installing a false bottom. Right at the end of the driveway, which looked something like a platform, it dropped to a lower patio where right at the base of this platform they had dug a pit through a hole cut into the concert and where they stored some 220 kilos, even though I think I later heard 500 kilos, of cocaine in brick form. They got popped when one of them sold a little bit of the drug to an undercover agent. Panama has an ambitious project to generate 120 megawatts out of a generation plant being constructed up in Estí in Chiriqui. This hydroelectric plant has been waiting to happen since the '70's, when it was first conceived. With an investment of some $200 million ($192.7 million depending on which newspaper you read), the company AES Panama S.A. will start the construction in July. ICA-General Electric, a Mexican/Canadian consortium will do the actual work. It was originally designed to generate 132 MW, but due to delays, rewriting of the contracts, renegotiations, money, economic crisis on the international market, the privatization and restructuring of IHRE, a discharge tunnel that was to connected La Fortuna generation plant with the reservoir of Estí was too costly, at $26 million for that additional 12 MW, and it had technical conditions that were not favorable. So this 120 megawatts will join the 300 MW that La Fortuna produces and the 150 MW of Bayano. Panama generates a total of 1,036 megawatts at 17 hydroelectric plants which is 52% of its generating capacity and the rest from the 55 thermoelectric plants. So the plan calls for the damming of the Rio Chiriqui where it meets with the Rio Caldera to form a reservoir. The water held here will be diverted, or channeled by aqueduct or canal and tunneled to the main reservoir on the Quebrada Barrigón. The Estí project is actually two separate plants. One called Planta de Guasquitas, at 95.4 mw, at the Barrigón, the other Planta de Canjilones, at 36.6 mw, on the Rio Estí. [ I know, 95.4 + 36.6 = 132 , so it does sound confusing as I'm reading La Prensa and La Estrella de Panama] The discharge from the Guasquita Plant goes into the Rio Estí reservoir to be reused by the Canjilones Plant. AES Panama S.A., belonging to the parent AES Corporation, is the formation of two companies, the Empresa de Generación Electrica Bayano S.A. and the Empresa de Generación Electrica Chiriqui S.A., spin off companies from the restructuring of the extinct IHRE. The construction of the plants will generate employment for 1,500 to 2,000 people and 80 hectares of land will be flooded for the reservoirs. In La Prensa, it has a photo of a member of ANAM, Panama's environmental office, measuring levels of emissions being put out by the exhaust of MOP vehicles. This is part of a campaign to promote the use of unleaded fuels. Panama has one of the highest levels of lead in the air in Central America. Countries of comparison were Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Mexico has already eliminated leaded fuels and it is one of the most contaminated countries. Panama runs about 1.65 ug/cu.in. in the urban areas and about 1.45 ug/cu.in. in the residential areas. The next closest country would be Costa Rica at 0.40 in the urban areas and about 0.25 in the residential areas. Other countries are even lower. Panama is one of the few countries in the world that still uses leaded fuels and by Law 36, which was approved back in 1996, Panama is contemplating eliminating the sale of leaded fuels by 2002 at the solicitation of the refineries that say the are not prepared to eliminate that fuel from their storage tanks. ANAM is looking into modifying Law 36 to obligate the owners of vehicles to install catalytic converters so that they can only use unleaded fuel. (Panamá contemla sacar del mercado la venta de la gasolina con plumo en el 2002, a solicitud de las petroleras que alegaron no estar todavía preparada para eliminar ese combustible de sus tanques de almacenameinto). According to Law 36, from 1 June 1998, all imported vehicles using gasoline should have an emission control system. In Panama, the areas that contain the highest levels of contamination are Via España in the city and the district of San Miguelito. This study was done by the Fundación Suiza de Cooperación (Swisscontact). Some 500 state vehicles had inspection done on them and 40 from the presidential fleet were taken out of circulation due to the high readings they were emitting. This next item is a bit confusing to me and maybe I don't know enough about the subject, but the president of la Asociación de Distribuidores de Gasolina y Derivados de Petrólea (ADIGAS), Rita Kadoch, says that the gasoline stations are prepared to accommodate the storage tanks for unleaded gas. Her next statement was "We are ready. We don't think there will be any problems, because the only thing we have to do is clean the tanks" ("Nosotros estamos listo - dice Kadoch. No creo que haya ningún problema, porque lo unico que tenemos que hacer es limpiar los tanques"). I was always under the impression the whole tank had to be replaced. Maybe technology has come far enough to remove lead from inside those tanks and deal with the residue in an environmentally friendly way. So the push is on to modify Law 36 to have converters installed on all vehicles that use gas and to reduce or shorten the phase out time to convert to unleaded. The Grand Bus Terminal of Panama at the Los Pueblos II Mall in Albrook should be completed for its opening in June - of this year. Sometimes at night they'll keep the interior and exterior lights on, and it sure do look nice. In one of the local papers, they showed an interior shot, vary spacious. Mireya Moscoso, President of Panama, has named Pauline Franceschi, Guillermo Puga, Alberto Attic and Ramón Fonseca as directors in ARI. They are replacing Stanley Motta, Stanley Muschett, Jose Chong Ho, and Marion Mena who's terms expired, or terminated, on 6 May. The replacements still need to be ratified by the Legislative Assembly and their term would expire in five years from the date of ratification. They have their work cut out for them as they try to put the reverted areas into production and development. And these designations didn't go without criticism. The business sector said it was good judgment while the labor sector said the decision was hurried or hasty, and unilateral or binding on one party only. Though these people politically supported the president, it is not a bad thing because what is important is the professionalism and capacity that they have to occupy these positions. Well, there was some confusion with the residential areas of Pedro Miguel and Paraíso. Seems rumors were that those people would have to move out. Well, looks like the bottom line is that the 250 homes will not be up for sale, as recommended by the Canal Authority. ARI made the announcement since the houses are located on land related to the patrimony of the Canal and also to its closeness to the edge of the waterway. As a side note in the article out of La Prensa, it says that 2/3 of the families in Pedro Miguel and Paraíso are delinquent in their rent. Some of them are behind by 2 years, even though some of the rent is only $65 to $200 a month. So after ARI had a meeting with the residents, ARI will make up a head of household list and find out which renters, or those renting from the tenant, if they still want to continue. Some will be relocated but they have to have their accounts settled with ARI.
Later and Take Care, |