Roger B

Twinwolf You are absolutelly right. Give the waitress a tip in cash and the big smile will show up. Some business owner's dont care about teaching correctly the law to their employees. They think the more ignorant they are the more they can control them. Your last paragraph is something that I have been investigating for some years. I think that the cause of some "bad service" given by some waiters and employees is because of that. They feel exploited and sometimes abused and they are not working in a very good work environment that makes them happy. They worked there because they need the job but not because they like to be there.

Keith You hit on the nail. I do really think that it is a special petition from the employees because some "bad employers" sometimes did not give them the tips they have received. Also it has to do with what is called "tip pool". That means that at the end of the day the tip is divided equally among all the employess. So an employee that did not gave a good service will be rewarded in the same amount of other employee who worked hard and gave a good service to his/her customers.

Well Yesterday in the social media like twitter and Facebook was this video taken from a driver at the Americas Bridge. It is a bus turning around in the bridge. This is totally prohibited. Thanks to the video that shows the license plate and the model and information of the bus the authorities will take hard measures against the driver and the owner of the but for such action. http://www.tvn-2.com/videos/noticias/Captan-realizando-indebido-Puente-Americas_2_4742545767.html

Xtra Supermarkets enters in the grocery and supermarkets business in Panama way back in the early 1990's. A business very well dominated by the big chains like El Rey and Super 99. Riba Smith is in the high end market and in Panama City El Machetazo and El Fuerte were in the volume low income market. Super Xtra entered in the volume low income- prices market. They started in the populous San Miguelito district in Panama and they changed their strategy by opening new outlets in the different and important cities of the country. Answering Lorrie's questions. Yes. It is a Panamanian company. The company was founded by a Jewish community family in Panama. I guess they are still the owners or main stockholders. http://www.superxtra.com

Penny That is correct. It was only in the meantime the military dictatorship was in Panama. After the US Invasion I would say most of them returned to Panama.

ONly to money!!

Jim None of them are political refugees per se. They are looking for the so called "American Dream". They are not choosing Panama. They are dumped in other countries in South America and start walking from there with the goal to reach the USA. They crossed the ever dangerous Darien Jungle. Problem for Panama is that they entered easily here and Costa Rica and the other countries in Central America closed their borders to them. Even Costa Rica deported them "back to Panama"!!! Why back to Panama? They are not panamanian citizens. For them it was easy to deport them to Panama than deporting them back to Cuba.

Keith They were not more than 150 people.

JudyS As of today looks like the mice with hanta virus are located in the Azuero Peninzula mostly but extra care is a good idea. I dont know if using a vacuum cleaner that comes with water tank will be good because the water trap the fine dust that the filters cant retain. A good quality mask to wear is good idea too. I think there are some hazmat people here under the Fire Department and Sinaproc administration but mostly for industrial problems.

Bonnie It could be possible that they did not try to correct you because they fear you could feel offended if they do it.

Bud & Marcelyn Thanks. I do really appreciate your kind words. I am also so honored to have you as friends too. Even that I dont know personally all of the members of CL and some old members of BN I feel them like old friends too: Keith, Fran, Penny, Judy S, Bonnie, Jim & Nena... and many others that I cant list all of them. I do really feel honored by exchanging information, ideas and words about Panama and its people with you all. Thanks again,

This is a great effort our authorities are doing in order to reduce fatal accidents in this long weekend when a large part of Panama City population travels to the interior of the country to visit family and friends and pass a couple of days releasing all the stress accumulated by being living in a very stressfull city. The amount of people travelling from Panama City will be huge starting today in the afternoon. So the traffic will be terrible and the roads have become the main cause of deaths in Panama.

Well. I think this is a very good theme to discuss and develop here. It has some sociology things involved. I has also a lot of common sense measures to be taken. Not something difficult but easy to accomplish. It is not rocket science. How could you feel at home in a place you are segregated and dont share with the locals. Not all panamanians are bad people. NOt all panamanians are trying to get advantage of expats. Not all panamanians thinks that all expats are millionares and full of money. How could you get away with the feelings you have that you are only a "guest" and not a resident. I have written several time that all of you "legal residents" in Panama have rights and duties in the country and community you live. You are now part of the country. Our constitution considers you as part of the country. So I do really think what Keith was trying to say is that there could be more expats living in Boquete to become more active and integrate with the community, local culture, local activities: see and being seen by the panamanians. Fight together for improvements needed in the community. To have a representative of the Expats community in the meetings with the local authorities to have a voice to be heard as active members of the community. Go to schools and donate a couple of hours of your time by teaching english to the kids. The actual president is aiming to increase the english language knowledge and this initiative will be highly appreciated. Also I know that some of the expats living there have some skills and knowledge of their former profesional careers. Teach young people new trades, new stuff from the accumulated knowledge you had from your country of origin. That really makes a difference and I am so sure that you will be appreciated kindly by those simple and humble people of Boquete and Chiriqui province. It is probably that the initial perception some of them could have will dissapear when they see you really care about that place and its people.

I do agree with this statement. It is something that I have written for so many years in BN and the other forums I have participated. Some people says that they are to old to learn another language. They like the old saying in spanish that says "Loro viejo no aprende a dar la pata". I think: If you really want it you will do it. You dont need to master spanish language to give a lecture on TV but enough to made yourself understood and communicate with locals. You dont know the magic it does when an english speaking person try to speak in spanish to a panamanian. Immediatelly the panamanian change his/her mood and try to help the expat as much as they can. It is something very well appreciated. It tells people that you are making your best effort to communicate and being part of the community. That you respect them. You dont need to master the language. YOu don need to emulate Cervantes. You can have a lot of errors in tenses, gender, grammar, pronunciation, etc. but it doesnt matter to panamanians. They will smile and politely will try to correct you with the right word. It really makes magic. Also I read recently that learning another language is a mental exercise that will help you to reduce the risk of alzheimer and other mental disease when we get older.

Jim You cant deny that you are a long time "Chirigringo". Great!!!

I also understood that clearly. We talked about participating with local authorities in meetings related to things in the districts, attending local cultural events, participating with activities of the local schools, etc. That your presence be noted and felt.

Keith That is not good. By integrating as part of the local community and not only hanging out with people from your same country of origin you will be considered by locals as an important part of the community. There wont be any difference like: "us and them".

Marie Elaine / Keith It is a very sad situation. We have had at least 3 governments that have turned their back to the agricultural producers in this country. You may know very well how hard is to be a farmer. The amount of hard work it involves but for the government officials it is better to impulse the imports of products from other countries. Why people from the interior of the republic emigrate to Panama City and live in slums? Because they dont have any chance to make a living in the farms. The most important agricultural and vocational schools in Divisa and other parts of the countries are abandoned and not well funded. We are killing our farmers!!! Everything is managed by people in the Metropolitan Panama City in well air conditioned offices that dont know anything about the hard work our poor farmers had to do to give us, in the city, something to eat at fancies restaurants. Sorry for my rant.... but this subject makes me feel bad and terrible about how our government offices abandon our hard working farmers.

Bud: Besides pineapple the other agricultural products for export are: melons and watermelons. Banana used to be the biggest. Specialty coffees are a very sofisticated market and the production is not big in volume but makes and interesting amount of money based on the cost of this special type of coffee. Not in the volume of the other fruits.

If the president will be there with the scissors to cut the ribbon and appear in all TV Channels and with all the newspapers and media there it should be finished. The president feel the urgency to appear on those kind of activities trying to improve his damaged public perception.

Keith There are agencies in Panama that has to do with animal health and diseases and with food inspection. That is the reason this heads of cattle were spotted with this disease. Regularly you will see on the news about medicines, products, food, etc that had been inspected and taken out of the market. Right now Panama has a commercial battle with a Guatemalan manufacturer of juices. They didnt comply with the health requirements in terms of nutritional information and contents.

It will be for sure a very interesting and nice show.

Keith I didnt want to say it but I agree with your statement. My brother in law told me the same thing. He was born and raised in Panama City but for job reasons he moved to Chiriqui almost 20 years ago. He said to me that he found that drivers in Chiriqui are not so skilled and looks like they grab their license without passing any driving test and not reading the Driver's Manual. It is amazing the way they drive in Chiriqui. WE say in Panama: "they think they are the owner of the road"

Well. As most of you may know, I live in Panama City. A place with a terrible traffic conditions. Going from one place to another may take you, instead of some minutes up to an hour. So I try to drive just only when necessary to do some personal business or visiting my customers. I traveled this last weekend to David, Chiriqui to visit my wife brothers, stay a couple of days resting, visiting Volcan for some purchases my wife wanted to do and of course visit the Feria de David. I found that my brother in law's best friend died a week ago in a very traumatic car crash neas Las Lomas. He was devastated with this situation. When driving around David, goint to Paso Canoas and also to Volcan I found the reason of so many car accidents with fatal consecuences. I have to tell that people of Chiriqui seems to be the worst and the most bold and aggressive drivers. I told my wife that driving in Chiriqui means that you have to be extra careful and drive defensively. In just only 3 days I was there I saw drivers speeding, not respecting stop signals or red lights, and committing more infractions in a few seconds. This statistics will increase if the traffic authorities dont take strong measures to fine those drivers.

Right. So many promoters uses it as an incentive.... but in the law it is clearly stated that these benefits will cover any person in Panama that is panamanian citizen and legal residents. That includes foreigners living here with legal residence.