For the most part, Panamanians are very happy and easy going people, but there is nothing they love more than to take a stand against something. Actually, anything.
A lot of times, this means protests during which groups of Panamanians will block high-traffic roadways and sway banners voicing their concerns about working conditions, hydro-electric dams, or political debacles. In these cases, it is important to agree with the masses or you will never get home. If the protest scenario involves Panamanian school children throwing rocks, the best thing to do is get out of there because generally no one knows what they are protesting.
Panamanians (in quite an admirable way) are rarely offended by sexism or racism; but to poke fun at Panama from a foreigner’s perspective is to light the fiery torches of Panamanian scorn. Panamanians are very sensitive in this regard. And if you push the envelope far enough, it will invariably result in the token phrase all Panamanians are taught in elementary school, “if you don’t like Panama, why don’t you just leave?”
Note: It is important if you are looking to best assimilate to Panamanian culture, that you too take a stand against something (ideally a law associated with food such as lobster or chorizo). A well-liked stance in Panama is also that instead of medicine, alchohol (specifically seco) is a remedy for almost any ailment. Again, your beliefs or knowledge (when it comes to taking a stand) are unimportant.
hahahahahah LOL. Totally true! but you have to accept that you’ve worked on your tone too. This post is FAR more insightful funny and friendly than the others when your description showed us like primitives.
About the phrase ““if you don’t like Panama, why don’t you just leave?”” actually it has another lecture for your records: It is not that we LOVE the way we live, or act… truth is, that we already knew that “awesome discovery” of some foreigners about our lack of development but we can’t change it, or we dont give a shit about it. We were born here, we lived here and we are fine. I mean, we don’t need to move… but you, you CHOOSE to move here and take our country as your new home sooooo you better help to make it best instead of make jokes of it. We are a small country with a BIG amount of “cholada” but we are also a blessed land in many many ways. So take a stand and enjoy the frikin landscape dude. You’ll find a LOT of new topics to post ;D
Well I do believe If I go to gringoland I will find so much worst things than here… for example some gringos treat latinos as all we were primitives, or less than gringos.
That’s why I prefer to stay at my country and let gringos come to see how different we are from them (Thanks God for that!)
Chicos, el punto isn`t that they chose to live here so therefore you have to put up with our shit. The point is that we (yes we) called them to live here through our tourism campaigns and sold them the idea to come and live here and revitalize our economy, which had taken baby steps forward after a horrible time of dictatorship. We love saying gringo go home… but then we advertise how wonderful Panama is because… we have the dollar?
Big note here: most foreigners that did came & stayed fell in love with the beautiful stuff. But then also learned about the stuff that isn`t going that well but could be better. A vision for a better country… why not? don´t we Panamanians aspire to the same?
The problem here isn`t that they point out that we have defects. The problem is that Panamanians (and I am one) react like children to this. And ironically we do know all about these defects and we are against having them. We are against corruption, we are against juega vivo, we are against a bunch of “el panameño” stuff to the point we even have phrases and jokes about it. But we do nothing to change it. And we should.
The answer is not: oh, in your country you do worst stuff. The mature answer is to say: you know what? it is true, my country could be better. Maybe we should look into it and see if we can do something about it.
The answer of a fat person who is about to loose his life over a heart attack and is being pointed out that he needs to loose weight should not be… fck you. Should be: you know what? you are right. I should try to do something about it, because I am a good person, with lovely family and I deserve better.
Why? because we do have a beautiful country and we should aspire to be better. The same way we aspire our children to be better than us when they grow up. And it has nothing to do with the child of our neighbors.
So don`t get all pissy about people spotting defects, they are opportunities. Make the best out of them. And frankly, as a Panamanian I can tell you our problems are far less than in other places. If we – Panamanians – took the same passion we take to tell others “if you don`t like it why don`t you leave” and used it into changing corruption, pollution and “el panameño juega vivo” attitude… we would have paradise. And we would love it to death.
And listen, a lot of panamanians also migrate to other places, so we do have the choice of moving out. And when we do and we experience it 2 important things happen: we come back and 1. we love our country more and 2. we do start looking at things that could be made better and try to work at it hoping that other Panamanians will follow.
@Chuleta…
BRAVO…! BRAVO…!BRAVO…!BRAVO…!
I fully concur with every word you wrote….beautifully stated and totally precise.
I applaud all who protest their grievances peacefully…it’s called Democracy in action and all Governments should take heed to the will of the people WHOM THEY SERVE.
For Panama it’s been a hard fought battle for sure…and now that the heavy hand of Dictatorship has been removed…time for all to dig in and make it better.
Panama has such amazing potential that even I (a US. “gringo”) want to help bring those better days to fruition.
These positive changes we all seek (Globally) are long over due.
M-M
Yeah. We love to take a stand. Right up until it requires putting la pata de gallina on something even slightly controversial. then it’s no puedo porque me cuñado trabaja con no se que….
I say screw your cuñado–deep down you know you’d do it to him if you could make some $$ at it so why not grow some balls and do it for your convictions!?
That said, have to give credit to some tough ones who stick it out there time after time and maybe even the “No a la Pantalla Gigantica” Facebook folks, though truth be told there wasn’t any last name to “frightening” behind that stupid thing.
True courage is fighting for what you think is right when you really believe you might loose something important.
Keep fighting ya’ll. Truth is power, right makes might. One day we might even have a real democracy!
Personally, I have lived in and traveled to a quite a few places and assimilated quickly and very well. Every place has problems, but as an optimist, I simply don’t get sucked into too much complaining, for some, drama is a way of life.
What I am already really liking about Panama is there is so much passionate expression…it actually reminds me of New York…here we like to complain about stuff too…but don’t knock New York if your not from here, thats our birth right, not yours…and we will kick your butt to the curb if you do…and then we will take turns to continue to kick you because, well…some of us will really enjoy doing so.
I can understand a lot of the frustration that I see here about gringos, for the most part I understand it and agree with it and will continue to educate myself on the culture…my new motto will be…”Don’t be that Gringo”.
The other thing I have just begun to do is learn spanish, and I have a long way to go. I want to learn this because I would be hypocritical if I didn’t and I really want to fully experience life in Panama.
Here in the US, those of us born here get all fired up when people move here and don’t learn the language. I totally get that those in Panama get a little peeved when gringos complain about stuff instead of accepting the culture and lifestyle…and enjoying it. So…I guess if I take a stand it will be with the locals not with the gringos.
Personalmente, he vivido y viajado a un bastantes lugares y asimilado rápidamente y muy bien. Cada lugar tiene problemas, sino como un optimista, yo simplemente no dejarse atrapar por quejarse demasiado, para algunos, el teatro es un modo de vida.
Lo que yo ya estoy realmente tener gusto de Panamá es que hay tanto expresión apasionada … en realidad me recuerda a Nueva York … aquí nos gusta quejarse de cosas también … pero no golpee Nueva York, si no el de aquí, eso es nuestro nacimiento derecho , no el tuyo … y vamos a patear el culo a la acera si lo hace … y entonces se turnan para dar una patada a seguir, porque, bueno … algunos de nosotros realmente disfrutar de ello.
Puedo comprender una gran parte de la frustración que veo aquí de gringos, en su mayor parte lo entiendo y estoy de acuerdo con él y no dejo de educar en la cultura … mi nuevo lema será … “No sea que Gringo” .
La otra cosa que se ha comenzado a hacer es aprender español, y tengo un largo camino por recorrer. Yo quiero aprender esto porque sería hipócrita si no lo hizo y lo que realmente quiero aprovechar en su totalidad la vida en Panamá.
Aquí en los EE.UU., los que estamos aquí nació obtener todos dispararon cuando la gente se muda aquí y no aprender el idioma. Estoy totalmente de conseguir que los de Panamá ser un poco molesta cuando los gringos quejan de cosas en vez de aceptar la cultura y estilo de vida … y disfrutar de ella. Así que … Supongo que si asumo una posición será con la gente del lugar no con los gringos.
I love your post Blane. And for the author of this article, America earned is freedom with much more than what Panamanians are fighting for theirs with. The lifes of millions. Our country has a lot of freedom, but the ways of local politics government take away a lot from the people, and tie them up to arbitrary and brute like type of authoritarism that no single American would put up with. So some fight through things that others don’t even bother to understand. I personally worry, but have opted for thanks to God, earning my individual freedrom financially, and keeping a foot outside Panama. The shit we have to put up with, as there is no way to do anything about it, is literaly too much. Politicians do what ever the hell they want with all government branches. There is no law and no justice and no jail, only for the stupid or honest kind.
NLaF…your English prose is awful.
I’m not an American, but I can asure you I make much more money than you from doing business with them, cause my English not being native is forgiven mistakes and not a requirement to run a successful business and make myself understood. You go an be successful in teaching English at schools, looser. Take Roger Khafif’s interview with Time’s magazine about Trump Ocean club for example. So are you better than people with perfect English prose, spelling, and grammar; I don’t think so.
And you are such a winner going into these forums to brag about how “rich” you are! After all, you have so much time in your hands. How the hell would you know what JoJo does or earns? As far as anyone here is concerned you could perfectly be some stinky teenager living out of his/her parents.
Do you by any chance work at the cigar place in front of the Marriott? I bet that is the only place you qualify to make money out of Americans… LOLZ