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domingo, 9 de junio de 2013

A HOT GUIDE TO PANAMA´S SUGARCANE MILL: SQUEEZING, TWISTING, TURNING, SKIN COLOUR POLITICS, HOARDING MONEY AND STARVING

By Gundhramns Hammer

June 9, 2013

 
Source: DD

 

Panama is red hot. It is not only hot because panamanian girls are famous for their strong and ultrafast twitching pubococcygeus muscle capable a draining to the last drop the juices out of a man´s package but also because it has become a a hot target for investors and a tax haven for wealthy people who want to evade paying taxes at home.

 

If you travel to this Central American country you will be surprised by the numerous banks found in the capital. You will wonder why in the hell so many banks in a place where there are so many poor people (Fig. 1). Almost 40% of its population is in poverty (WHO, 2007).


Figure 1. A slum in Panama City. Source: theguardian

  

But before we get to the banks we will check out the hot deals in Panama. You have plenty to choose from, sweet or mean people or extraterrestrials. Both are found in Panama. This land is packed with secrets. So Panama can be a gate for heaven or hell.  

 

The gate to heaven or hell


Rich people cling to their wealth till the last breath. So if you have tonnes of money, you may want to take it to Panama, where you will have a good time hoarding your cash stacks.  

If you want a hot adventure in the jungle this is it too. Or if you are looking for candy, you will get what you want or what Panamanians want you to get.

 Panama can be a gate to heaven or hell (Fig. 1). It all depends on what you are looking for, up to or what you get from Panamanians if you are not a good psychologist or an expert at dealing with people and you are not doing what your are supposed to be doing.


Figure 1. Gate to heaven or hell in Panama. Source: OB Rag
  
Tropical heat gets the Q10 of the gonads elevated (Fig. 2). So Panama is a woman´s paradise if she is looking for your Don Quixote. Older women from Europe and the USA can easily find a young Panamanian stud happy to be their boyfriend for a couple of weeks. 



Figure 2. The ins and outs of pistons and cylinders. Source: eHow.



Black men feel that their status goes up if they get  "una blanquita" (a white woman) and show her off on the streets. Her Romeo will gain a few pounds eating well and she may lose some weight with the hot love meals three times or more a day.

Blanquita women have no problem getting a Panamanian stud. Just go to a store or the city market and choose your man and tell him you "necesito ayuda" (need help) and he will bite the bait. What you do with him is up to you. 

You may go fast or slow. If your a blanquita from Europe or the United States, women set the pace in Romeo and Juliet relationships. Keep in mind that if you cross these men or they get tired of you, they can be very violent, especially if they are drunk, and might bite your head off.

Men can hunt for two-legged deer easily in Panama. All you need is a wallet stuffed up with a lot of green backs. Men can find a lot of women willing to go for a ride. More so if you are a "blanquito" (white man). 

Panamanian women are very friendly and some of them can have a striking exotic beauty (Fig. 3). Sometimes too overfriendly or even too sweet. If you meet one, do not be shy. Talk to her and she will be happy to be your friend. But make sure you are very polite.

 
Figure 3. Panamanian women in a parade. Source: Google imágenes.


If you are a man and get interested in a girl at the bus stop or at the grocery store, anyplace, go and talk to her. Just ask her anything. The first sign she is interested in you is that she changes her voice. She becomes very mellifluous.

Do not forget that if a girl becomes sweet with you she might want to do two things with you: get your candy and green backs or eat you up (Fig. 4). 

 
Figure 4. Reptilian woman swallowing a rodent. Source: La Tele Encendida.



Some Panamanian girls do this switching in the tone of voice because of two reasons. First, because she really likes you or second, because she is an extraterrestrial alien (Fig. 5).

Figure 5. Reptilian woman disguised as human. Source: Dentro Tele.



There are a lot of EBEs (extraterrestrial biological entities) infiltrated amongst Panamanian people and these creatures are hard to tell apart if you are not an expert in exobiology.

If you meet an alien and you do not know about it, be careful because you might end up chopped up in a sack and become her meal. People tend to disappear in Panama without leaving any trace at times. 

If you do not believe me, go to the city market and ask any peasant who is selling chickens, bananas or cassaba roots. Ask him about people abducted by "duendes" (elves, djinns) in the countryside and he or she will tell you a lot of stories about these mysterious critters (Fig. 6). 


Figure 6. Diabolical elf. Source: sentido mitologico.


Panama´s legends are crowded with elves and demons. Some stories have to do with unsolved crimes that nobody dares to talk about. 

Others stem from real paranormal activities that occur in Panama, for there is an extraterrestrial base underground in this Central American country. The master of these alien legions in Panama is called Kouru.

So now that you know what to expect, you are on your own. But you need a few more advices in your tool kit.


Body language in women

Panamanian women´s body language is extremely sophisticated. Pay attention to the way a woman shakes your hand, for instance (Fig. 7). 




Figure 7. A woman shaking hands with a man. Source: Google imágenes.


If you already met a Panamanian girl you really like and turns you on, next time you see her you might get the candy you are looking for but she will not give you overt signals. They are very subtle. 

If they give you a short and quick squeeze to your hand once as you say good bye to her, do not go away too fast. Stick around, keep talking sweet things to her, for she is telling you she is interested in you. She likes you.

If you are at the beach, look at her bare feet. If she is twisting and turning hard one of her big toes trying to bury it into the sand or ground she is asking for your drill. 

Make your move but go slow and gentle otherwise you may never see the sun in the morning again. You could have a heart attack, explode or vanish from the surface of the Earth, underground or in outer space.

Now let us talk about money, banks and other things.


Hoarding money in Panama

Money talks in Panama. And as dictator Manuel Noriega (Fig. 8) once said "money makes you white", money is king in this place. Hoarding money in Panama has numerous advantages.


Figure 8. Manuel Noriega, Panama´s ex-dictator. Source: the guardian.


Mafiosi can go unnoticed in Panama unless they run out of luck. They can live here for a long time before the law catches up with them if they are ever interested in getting them. Whilst enjoying life in Panama, sophisticated criminals may even get a special treatment, especially at some banks.  

If you are one of those persons who has broken your back working hard and want to retire in Panama, there are a lot of hot deals. 

But be very careful or the hot deals may turn on you and burn you up. Go easy, before you sign a contract, make sure you know what you are doing, consult a good lawyer. Check out those the US embassy recommends on the web, otherwise you might lose your pants.

You will need a steady income of 500 USD/month/person and perhaps pay a couple of grands to stay there and get your residency. 

You may even want to get a home. Banks can help you get the house of your dreams or you may end up as clean as a bone. So you better watch out before you sign anything at the banks or anywhere in Panama. Your signature is worth thousands of dollars.

There is another thing you should keep in mind. Remember that banks might give a hard time if you just want to open a simple bank account for a few grands, if you are poor. On the other hand, if you have millions, doors will swing open for you. 

If you are rich, you may want to open a Swiss account first before coming to Panama instead. You will not have any problems in Panama. Both countries surf on the same wave.

Should you wish to register a few companies, just look for an accountant that will not strip you bare and you are in. With as little as 500 USD you can have one. 

You may use your companies as you wish, no questions ask and the tax people will have a hard time tracking your deals. 

Panama is a safe place for these deals if you know what you are doing otherwise you may end up in jail accused of a fake crime or falsely charge with dealing with pot or heavier stuff.

As far as business is concerned, Panama can be heavenly. But make sure you take a lot of money otherwise you may lose your pants, not to the girls but to the red tape and bribes. 

A Palestinian once told us that to open a business in Panama you may have to hand out as much as half of the price of the deal unless you belong to the global elite. Of course, all of this goes unrecorded.

Some foreign officials long for Panama. Some ambassadors fight for a spot to work in the Isthmus. An ex-Ecuadorian ambassador once a local businessman that "Panama is a place to get rich. A proxy signature from a president is well worth a million dollars." 

A US citizen well established in Panama once told us that "Panama is the best place in the the whole world to live". We concur with that. It is really nice so long as you know how to deal with people, officials and civilians. 

There are all sorts of people in the Panama´s vine, some are good, some are mean, some are terribly bad and still others can be very treacherous, with the smile in front of you and with the dagger at your back. 

There are even reports of piracy in Panama. A German family that was cruising was attacked by pirates. The yacht was boarded and robbed by armed men in Punta Chame in November 2012. 

"Always keep an eye open if you have a Panamanian around unless you know them well in which case you can sleep completely relaxed", a taxicab driver once warned us in Panama City.

But let us get to the banks. 


Why so many banks in Panama?  

Now the question. Why are there so many banks in Panama. To begin with, it is obvious that in a country with an international canal that communicates the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean, banks are important, for they are needed for the many transactions that go on daily. 

The  Panama Canal Zone was originally planned to transport "American" merchandise from the East to the West Coasts and viceversa. 

Therefore, an aquatic via was needed and the best choice was Panama. So the US State Department help the Panamanian oligarchy to create a "mock" independence (the second fake one) to separate from Colombia. And bingo! let there be a Canal. 

The yanquis bought out the Canal from the French La Société internationale du Canal in 1904. They finished it and took control of it. On September 7, 1977, a treaty was signed by President of the United States Jimmy Carter and Omar Torrijos, de facto leader of Panama. This mobilized the process of granting the Panamanians free control of the canal so long as Panama signed a treaty guaranteeing the permanent neutrality of the canal. The treaty led to full Panamanian control effective at noon on December 31, 1999, and the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) assumed command of the waterway. The Panama Canal remains one of the chief revenue sources for Panama (Wikipedia, 2013).

Once completed, the next step was to create a free trade zone. So another bingo! and let there be a Colon Free Trade Zone, created in 1948.

Now you must have banks if you are going to do business with the world. So banks were founded by the local oligarchy, by Hebrew and Palestine families that flocked to Panama and after other money institutions followed the trail like army ants and before you know you have a lot of banks from almost every country in the world.  

Thus, Panamanian banks are the gates for money from around the world and they do get it. Legally and illegally. Either way is OK as long as they do not find out where you have your siphon stuck in.

How about the middle class in Panama? The wheeling and dealings of these people are quite complicated and we will not go into any details. We will leave this for another occasion. Enough to say that these people use local banks or go to Miami to do their hoarding. 

And what do poor Panamanians get for a bank? How do they manage to make a living or keep from starving?


The poor in Panama

Poor people do not need banks but they need money. They have various choices and none of them leads them out of the hole but rather stick them deeper into the ground.

One choice is to steal, and it happens quite frequently in Panama. Ask any "corregidor" (Latin corrector, a kind of provincial mayor) in any Panamanian "poblado" (small neighbourhood) and he/she will tell you that poor people are fined or go to jail for simple things as stealing a hen, bearing false witness against a man or woman for saying he/saw saw his/her neighbours wife being nailed by another man to cattle rustling.

Another alternative for the poor is on the illegal side like selling drugs, beef from a stolen cow "realizada" (butchered and sold) at home, trafficking child pornography or any sort of contraband to make a living. 

Legal people turn to vending on the streets, selling lotto tickets, magazines, cheese, milk, fish, fruits, vegetables, ice cream, chickens, bananas, coconuts... anything that has a value on the streets. 

Dairy products including ice cream, fish and fruits can be brought to the step of your door by vendors riding a bicycle, motorcycle or an old truck that backfires a lot. 

The shots from the truck scares the "robagallinas" (thieves) men thinking is the police coming after them or scaring the shit out of the "tinaqueros" (mixed breed) dogs in the neighbouhood, the poor animals go under a bed, shaking because they think the shot from the truck is a firecracker. 

Some parents send their children of both sexes to work for "domestic chores" for a buck or two/week. There are mothers who take their daughters and "leave" them well situated in a rich family household so the kids will have food, clothing and shelter if they are lucky. 

Otherwise, the kids might end up in the lion´s lair, meaning by this that the children will find their way into hell and fall into the hands of lecherous mafiosi. This is one of the reasons paedophiles find their way to Panama. 

If these monsters are rich it takes guts, at times risking their lives, for anyone to denounce and report them to the local authorities, and sometimes these officials are not of much help because they could be as crooked as the child violators, with the only difference that these bastards do their molesting protected by law until someone more powerful comes along and kicks his butts out of office or throws him in jail. 

Bear in mind that in the Precolumbian days, indians practiced screwing children. It was an accepted custom. Later in Colonial times, they also practiced zoophilia, an aberrant behaviour that still occurs once in a while in modern days. 

Panamanian peasants do not make too much of a deal of children having sex at an early date. Male kids are free to explore with their peers  or animals like hens or dogs. Some of these people still see things from a different perspective. Sex to them is like going to take a dump. No big deal. 

This is one of the unfortunate reasons why the "quesudos desvirgadores" (lecherous deflowering men) get their fill withouth being bothered by anyone unless the parents want to risk being exposed of their own misconducts and misdemeanors. These people know each other´s skeletons in the closet. After all if you live in a crystal house do not throw any stones.

Poor campesinos have to work hard and long hours with the machete and under the hot sun cutting weedy and grassy fields or gardens. They call this "tirar machete" (throw the machete).  It is tough work. These men usually end up with their backs and kidneys fucked up.

They work Monday to Friday and sometimes including the weekend. In the end, if they are lucky they will get paid. The salary goes from 30 to 40 USD. We say lucky because sometimes they do not get any money but rather they are told to come back next week. When they come back the boss tells them the same thing until the campesino eventually gets tired of going back and gives up.

There is another way to get around to avoid paying the campesinos. But the boss must know the bones in the closet of the hired hands or work for him transporting contraband. He buys a lot of bottles of "Seco Herrerano" (an alcoholic drink) and send the men to chop down a secondary forest to plant corn, rice, sugarcane or "yuca" (Manihot esculenta). He gets a clean field and get drunk with the fiery Panamanian national drink. 

Young boys learn very early in their life to "throw machete". If they do not go to school they have to work. It is not rare that people who hire a boy to clean a weedy garden with a machete abuse quite often of him. They make him work long hours and the whole week and when it comes the time to pay him, he is told to come back next week or he is given only a couple of US dollards. 

This is one of the reasons why the Panamanian government has passed a law against children´s exploitation. And this is good from the point of view of the lawmakers and ethics but to a poor family that depends on everybody to pitch in to survive this law makes no sense. 

Some campesinos would say that this law to protect kids is not such a good idea. From their perspective, no contribution from any members of the family could leave them without a share for their next meal.

What is needed is to set up an intelligent civic campaign on TV and radio to make people more empathy with one another, with their own kind, for there is a lot of racial discrimination amongst Panamanians.   

And it has got to do, unfortunately, with the degree of skin colouration and the type of life they lead, the kind of work they do or the type of housing they occupy. 

As it is expected in those lands where European conquered the natives and brought slaves from Africa, Panamanian have a very sophisticated system to calibrate their skin colour. 

People with lighter hues of skin have more status. There are heavily melanised people who worry about getting a tan or getting sunburn! Their imagination plays tricks on them.  

People with amerindian ancestry, the "cholos", are at the bottom of the social ladder unless they have a lot of money. If they do, they are discholified (disindianised) by the fact they have money.  

Folks of African descent are referred to as "chombos". If "chombos" are rich,and there are many in Panama, money can dischombified them and can intermarry with upper classes which are usually light-skinned people ("whites"), with more caucasoid genes, although a lot of them bear the mark of their black or indian ancestors on their faces (wide noses, high cheek bones, etc).

To this boiling racial pot we have to add the Chinese element, "los chinos". The Chinese were brought to Panama as indentured hand labourers to work in the construction of the Canal. Their physical constitution and resistance is not as tough as other racial groups but they compensate with their excellent discipline and steady work like ants.

Things were not easy for the Chinese at the beginning in Panama. They suffered from home sickness and the habit of smoking opium. But they survived and adapted quite well and stayed in Panama. 

Chinese have prospered and now own most of the hardware and grocery stores and pharmacies in Panama, especially in the provinces. You can even find Chinese behind the counters as owners at the local convenient stores called "kioskos" in the small towns or hamlets all over Panama, including the neighbourhoods deep in the jungle.

 As it would be expected, the Chinese intermingled racially with "chombos" and "cholos". If a "chino" is wealthy he can get a "blanquita" for a wife with no problem or viceversa. Money is a powerful social equalizer in Panama.

"Whites" are a minority in Panama. Unless they have just arrive from the Old Wold, Panamanian "whites" are mestizos. They are the ones who really control this country like a feudal state. They own the land and economics of this country. 

People on the streets call them "rabiblancos", referring to theWhite-tipped Dove (Leptotila verreauxi), "la paloma rabiblanca" (Fig. 1), which is buffy or light chocolate coloured on top and whitish underneath, especially the tail, which the bird lifts up if it gets nervous, is about to fly or after landing on a tree branch, when it shows off the white underside of its tail feathers.

 
Figure 1. White-tipped Dove (Leptotila verreauxi). Source: Castro et al. (n.d)

We mentioned empathy above, and as we did the story of a poor woman came to our minds. This is an experience we had in Penonomé, the capital of the Cocle Province, in Central Panama. 

There was this woman, who Panamanians would considered her disdainfully a "chola" (amerindian descent). She was trying to sell a bunch of coconuts to feed her kids back in the hills. 

She went in the Post Office to no avail. She offered the fruits to the people passing by. They ignore her. And finally as a last resource, she asked us if we would buy her coconuts and also said she was very worried she would not get home because her bus was about to leave. We asked her how much she wanted for the sack full of coconuts, around 20 units. She said US $3.00. 

So one of us got out a bill of 5 bucks and gave it to her, and also told her to leave the coconuts on the sidewalk because we were not interested in them. We had plenty of coconuts at home.

"Take the money and go home", we told her. And she did, with a happy smile. She left for the bus stop and the next thing we knew she was on the bus on her way home. What happened to the coconuts on the sidewalk? Someone took them home as a treasure found on the street.

 For this woman, selling the coconuts was a matter of life or starving to death.


Some rich Panamanians have more than they will ever need and still want more

Not all rich are mean and cruel. Some remember that they were also poor at some time in their life or if they come from rich families, they had parents who taught them as children to be kind with the needy people. After all the rich cannot live without the poor.

Wilson Lucom understood the needs of the poverty stricken children in Panama. He was a US millionaire who lived in this country until his death in 2006. He left most of his fortune (US $50 million) to a charitable Panamanian foundation. He wanted  to help the needy children in Panama.

But after a long legal fight, the millions went to one of Panama´s richest and most powerful families: The Arias. So the poor children ended up without a penny. 

You may read about Wilson Lucom´s whole story in Panama by clicking HERE.
 

The loaning sharks in Panama

One of the sins that poor and rich Panamanians suffer from is that they are slaves to their personal image. There is a constant struggle to outdo their neighbour in everything: clothes, bicycle, car, horse, dog, shoes, home, etc. 

Projecting an image of rich (imagen de rico) is very important in Panama. So much so that a lot of Panamanians end up owing huge debts to the small local banks called "financieras", the loaning sharks or the furniture and electrical appliances shops. 

Most of these businesses and financial establishments belong to families that come from Middle East (Palestine, Israel, Syria, etc.) and the Mediterranean countries (Spain, Italy, Greece, etc.), India or China, people who have settled in Panama a long time ago, in the XVIII-XIX centuries, or more recently after the 1900s.

Now after our detour through the Panamanian social maze, which works like a sugarcane mill, we finally get to the banks.


List of international banks in Panama

The names of the companies and banks registered in Panama can be obtained from the Panamanain Public Registry (Registro Público de Panamá, RPP). The RPP can be reached by clicking  HERE. You will need a company of your own to get in. This a problem for someone who does not have any companies. 

But there is a better way. Dan O´Huiggin´s database is a powerful tool to find out about which companies including banks are found in Panama.

 

The following list of banks in Panama has been taken from Dan´s datadase. We put "bank" in the box that says "name of company". You should keep in mind that the directors may be nominee people for the real owners who may want to remain anonymous. Another thing to remember is that Dan´s information is scrape data, so it might be outdated. If you wish to find out more about these banks, just click on each of the following names on Dan´s list below and you will get the following information: 

  • Name of the bank,

  • Directors of the bank,

  • Subscribers of the bank, and 

  • Agents in Panama

Here is the list:



Second, there are other reasons. Panama is a good nest for offshore deals. Panama is considered a tax haven and is listed in various international financial resources as such. It was also cited in the black list of money laundering countries by the the US State Department in the 2012 report. 

And we leave it like that for the time being. We will go on to something else. But at least now you know a bit about the bit of the bits of the secret bits in the sequence of bits of the whole bits in the hot bits of the Panamanian bits: The squeezing, twisting, turning, skin colour politics, hoarding money and starving bits in a maze of secret bits. A tropical sugarcane mill. 



References

Castro A., de León L. & González L. (n.d.) Aves del Paisaje Protegido de Isla Caleta, Colón, Panamá: Guía para Principiantes. www.stri.si.edu. 7 p. 

Katzman P. (2006). Pocket Adventures: Panama. Hunter Publishing, Inc, NJ, USA. 298 p.

Seales Soley L. V. M. (2009). Culture and Customs of Panama. Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport, CT, USA. 115 p. 

Vakis R. & Lindert K (2000). Poverty in Indigenous Populations in Panama: A Study Using LSMS Data. The World Bank, Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Office, Washington, DC, USA. 28 p.

World Health Organization (WHO). (2007). Panama. WHO Country Focus, Country Cooperation Strategy at a glance, Panama. 2 p. 


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