April 21, 2020
It was a beautiful morning today. We all got up early today. The boys had live classes for school at 8AM, my wife had someone to urgently gossip with about who knows what and I needed to see how the plants were doing. Oh, before I forget, there was a tremor last night! That would have been exciting, except we didn’t feel it. According to reports it reached 4.9 or maybe just over 5.2 on the Richter scale. It happened somewhere out in the ocean south of the Azuero. I haven’t heard of any damages anywhere, so life moves along.
I´m a toys kind of a guy. As a kid, I grew up using men’s toys early on. I had my first rifle that I bought with my own money at age 12 (Remington .3006, pump action with a sweet Bushnel scope – yep, the deer trembled), snowmobile at 13 years, first car at the age of 16. But, Dad would never let me use a chainsaw. My grandfather died before I was 10 yrs old otherwise I know he would have showed me. So, I was a little nervous about my newest acquisition, a little bitty electric chain saw. From all the horror stories Dad would tell me, I was positive that this sucker was going to kick back into my forehead or something ridiculous like that. So I donned my lucky yellow Deadpool Chimichanga T-Shirt, summoned up all the strength and intestinal fortitude that I could muster, added some oil that my buddy Chuck got for me and revv… nope, we didn’t rev it up, we plugged it in and started going to town on these monster logs. Actually, this has be the wimpiest thing I’ve ever used. I have butter knives that are more macho. Very useful, but not very manly at all. In a matter of 15 minutes, I had 12 projects done that I’ve been wanting to do for over 2 years. It made everything quick and easy, but darn it, now I need to think of something to do for tomorrow.
Seeing as all the action with the not-very-manly-at-all electric chain saw was over with before breakfast was ready, I needed another task. I decided to review the Home Security System. No secrets to be revealed about what I have, but I catch my friend and neighbor Milciades going past our street, and he didn’t even stop to muffle “hola”. (Get it? Muffle. Because he has to wear a mask…) Moving right along:
I did take advantage of leaving out this afternoon on my allotted 2-hour timeslot. I used that time to inspect some of the properties that I need to check up on. I have the salvoconducto, but there’s no one on the roads and the trip out to the 24 de diciembre property, back into the city towards Via España making stops along the way and back home takes less than 2 hours. So, if I can get it done during a time that no one is going to question me, then so be it. I recall that I only had to slow down at one police checkpoint. But then on my way back home, on the Corredor Norte, I saw that someone had an accident. Luckily the driver is ok. You can see from the photo that he obviously plowed his car into the rear-end of something at top speed. That “something” was probably a semitrailer I saw parked 50 meters further down the highway. My afterthought to seeing that accident was, “Dude, you have GOT to be kidding me!”. There is absolutely no reason for any accidents on the roads right now. You don’t have to be in a rush regardless of where you’re going because there isn’t a fraction of the cars that used to be on the road. The drive itself is absolutely soothing.
But now, on to some not-so-soothing news.
TOP NEWS and TIDBITS:
ALLEGED EX-PROSECUTOR ARRESTED FOR TRANSPORTING 128 PACKAGES OF ALLEGED DRUG
An alleged former Unloading Prosecutor in Bocas del Toro was apprehended by units of the National Police while transporting 128 packages of alleged illicit substance in a vehicle.
According to police reports, the man, who was removed from office in 2019 for investigation for disciplinary proceedings, hid the alleged drug in three plastic tanks.
Arquímedes Vargas, head of the police area, indicated that the captured man was placed under the orders of the authorities and it is being investigated whether he intended to leave the country for Costa Rica or if he was going to another sector of the country.
Brett’s comments: Whew, that’s a lot of “alleging”. What has been confirmed? Someone was moving something that appeared to be 128 packages of some sort of drugs. The reporter probably asked a contact of theirs in the police department who said that the subject arrested was a former prosecutor for Panama. They couldn’t confirm it nor could they deny it, NOR could they even use their name yet in this article due to the presumption of innocence until the case went to court. Similar cases have been thrown out because the name of the individual hit the news before the subject even had handcuffs on them.
PRIVATE SCHOOLS HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO APPLY DISCOUNTS FOR VIRTUAL CLASSES
Duing an Interview today Jorge Quintero, Administrator of the ACODECO which is the “Autoridad de Proteccion al Consumidor y Defencsa de la Competencia” or in English Authority for Consumer Protection and Defense of Competition gave his opinion on the contractual service that schools provide. He explained that this is an in-personcontractual service, but the service being offered is not the same. “This is not just any contract, this is an important educational contract, which is an important right for every human being.
He assures that there has been a lack of communication between private schools and parents and the mistake that has been made is that apart from the fact that the contract is one of adherence, where the parents are not allowed to negotiate, in the last weeks unilaterally, a group of schools have been sending notes on discounts.
Quinero said that they shouldn’t being doing it this way. What they should be doing is calling the parents to try to find a consensus. As a matter of fact, the law states that everything relating to prices and payments, must be established through agreements between the school and the parents’ association.
Quintero said that it is very likely and unfortunately that some schools will have to close because the economic situation is very difficult for them. He stressed that the drastic change in the economy will change the way they see many things after COVID-19.
MEDUCA DRAWS UP A ROADMAP TO EVALUATE PRIVATE SCHOOLS
Each private school must fill out the form found on the Meduca page so that the authorities define if they really meet the requirements to offer virtual classes.
Private schools will have two weeks starting from yesterday to fill out the application form that will be on the website of the Ministry of Education. With this, they must also provide evidence of the quality of the education service they offer, said Gina Garcia, the National Director of Educational Evaluation.
The Minister of Education, Maruja Gorday de Villalobos, for her part, announced the criteria that will be taken into account to determine which schools are truly capable to offer classes virtually, among which are: interaction dynamics, fulfilling curricular objectives, technological resources, a plan to include special education and a periodic satisfaction survey of parents.
Given these statements, the national coordinator of the National Union of Parents, Applicants, Associations of Parents of Private Educational Centers (Unadepa), Javier Lombardo considers that, the Ministry of Education has been learning along the way, since the measures taken now are the measures that should have been taken since the beginning.
He notes that the evaluation criteria the minister has established will help schools continue teaching and not miss the school year.
At the same time, he assured that in the face of this, it’s important to note that that those who show they can meet the corresponding requirements will be analyzed to ensure that can continue to offer the classes. It is also very necessary to involve parents in decision-making, as mentioned by the Minister of Education.
Lombardo added that in the same way it is important that in the final decision an interaction can be established between Meduca, parents, private schools and Acodeco. In the midst of all of this, in many schools students were not actually receiving a proper education as such and teachers working in private schools may have also be affected.
On this same subject, Katia Echeverría, from the National Union of Private Educational Centers, referred to the fact that since Elías Cabrera, National Director of Consumer Protection, gave his statements relating to significant discounts, they will be requesting a larger meeting because this will now cause other problems for many of the private schools. Echeverría said that the academics could be resolved, but now there may be economic problems for the schools as many are not receiving the established monthly payments.
Each school has a different structure and this would also have to be analyzed to avoid possible bankruptcy of some private schools, Echeverría warned.
Brett’s comments on the Education Issues: Since the beginning of this whole fiasco, MEDUCA has not done their job. That’s the bottom line. The schools closed March 12 and it has now been 40 days since then and they still can’t figure this out. These are supposed to be some of the greatest minds in Panama. These are the people in charge of ensuring our children get the absolute BEST education possible, but they’re just now finally talking about organizing a meeting between parents, schools and ACODECO. They haven’t actually met, but they talked about it. ACODECO talked about it. They’re just now getting schools to present their plan and are giving them 2 weeks to do it. TWO MORE WEEKS.
What have they actually accomplished in these 40 days? They have allowed parents and schools argue and bicker amongst each other. Children and parents alike are experiencing unnecessarily high levels of anxiety, not from the CoronaVirus, but because of the uncertainty of what will or will not happen tomorrow! MEDUCA needs to put their adult pants on and do the following:
- Hire me as an advisor. This may sound pretentious, but if I’m going to say that “someone needs to do something about this, then I need to be willing to throw my hat into the ring.
- Organize an Emergency Education Team.
- Establish one standard platform for all of the private schools to use. The platform will not dictate the curriculum, but will instead compliment the school’s already established and authorized platform.
- Any parents that are not able to pay for their child’s education at the private schools due to the present crisis, will be allowed to fold in to the public school´s education system until the crisis is over and not lose their quota or membership. These same parents, if the school permits, will also have the opportunity to stay with the school’s curriculum, but will not have to pay the monthly fee now. These monthly fees will be carried over until a later date (maybe as late as 2021).
- The government will subsidize at 75% any teachers from public or private schools who have entered into the suspended contract clause established by the government.
- Public schools will have the opportunity to offer online classes as well. For those students who are not capable of online classes, they will instead be offered a televised education program which will accompany standardized modules depending on their grade.
- The next step is to identify those students from the public schools who lack any form of technology, but can be reached for modular education.
- In the most extreme conditions where a child does not have internet access, televised access or cannot participate in the modular education program; in this scenario where there simply is no way to contact the student, then in these extreme cases, their education will be temporarily suspended during the course of no more than 3 months.
- Surprisingly enough, not a lot of people know about “Conectate al Conocimiento” (Connect to Knowledge). Located at Knowledge City at Building 232, and originally created to supply all Panamanian children with their own laptop and internet connections throughout the entire country. Even out to the smallest, most remote location possible. But, MEDUCA failed at this project as well. Actually, the entire government failed at this. This next step in my plan, we’ll just call it “Step 9” for now. This is where Panama finally shows the world that they can truly do something right for the present and the future of their children.
STEP 9: Put Conectate al Conocimiento into overdrive.
Created over 15 years ago, this program should have already been working at 100% everywhere. Their first goal was to get internet to all of the schools everywhere. They did reach out to 400 schools by 2008, but this was the year that Panama’s largest budget ever at the time, $6 Billion dollars, did not include funding for this wonderful project. I honestly don’t know where they’re at now, but they’re not where they should be after 15 years. The final goal for 2009 was to reach 1,000 schools. That’s 28.5% of all the schools in Panama; Panama has over 3,500 schools and not a single one of them should be left out of this project.
The budget per school for this project, back in 2008, was $7,000 per year and the government did not approve funding then because they were questioning what each of the schools were doing with their budget. (Coincidentally, $7,000 is also the monthly salary of Maruja Gorday, our present Minister of Education.) At this point, MEDUCA should have done something to justify the investment. The president at the time should have stepped in and forced them to get this working.
For the last 13 years, MEDUCA has not their part on this project. Today, all schools should be on board and with a yearly budget of at least $25,000,000 they could be where they need to be with Conectate al Conocimiento. But the elephant in the room…. No, let me correct that, THE MONSTER in the room, that same monster everyone talks of, but nobody does anything about, has finally shown us what happens when we ignore it.
Panama wants to be like Singapore or Dubai, but they have never really cared enough about Panama’s education system to truly do what’s needed. Everything is status quo. The years go by, governments switch hands, new ministers are appointed, budgets are denied, the schools need repairs and life goes on. We see over inflated-projects, with millions of dollars flowing back to the hands of the very politicians who approved them. All the while, on a small island in Bocas del Toro, a group of kids sit together in a small shack and they watch a bootleg version of the movie “Cars” with Spanish subtitles because the budget for that year didn’t even get them a teacher, let alone a proper school room. (True story, by the way. Witnessed it firsthand.)
The name of that monster is indifference and we need to kill this monster. This monster is everywhere and at every level of Panamanian education. It’s not just some beast that’s holding MEDUCA back. It also resides in the homes of these children. Parents nowadays seem to just want to send their kids off to school and forget about them until that last school bell rings. When this crisis hit, parents didn’t know what to do with their kids and their homework. Some of them went as far as complaining to the schools and signing petitions to shut down the virtual programs only because it was causing them too much stress. Too much stress, are you kidding me? One extremely famous musician and performer from Panama went out of her way to congratulate MEDUCA for shutting down the virtual programs. This is the same performer who didn’t even send her kids to school the first week because they were still on vacation. The same one who would send audio notes to the other parents asking them to send her the schedules for the next day because she didn’t have the time to look for herself. This is the definition of indifference. This is your monster.
I just re-read this and there are definitely holes in my summarized plan above, but in my defense, I wrote it in an afternoon. Give me 40 days or 15 years and I can do wonders.
COUNCIL APPROVES AGREEMENT TO MAKE THE USE OF MASKS IN THE DISTRICT OF PANAMA COMPULSORY
The Municipal Council of Panama approved this Tuesday, April 21, a draft agreement on the mandatory use of masks or face masks for those who reside in the capital district, when leaving their residences.
The draft agreement of the Municipal Public Health Commission was read in the ordinary virtual session No. 17 and was approved with 18 votes in favor.
The document also establishes that the justices of the peace of the district of Panama will have the power to sanction citizens who fail to comply with the quarantine measures decreed by the National Government, with fines ranging from B / .100.00 (one hundred) to B /. 1,000.00 (one thousand dollars), community work or any other legal measure that they establish.
Article 1: The person who violates his day and time of departure, without having a safe-conduct, will be sanctioned with fines of B / .100.00 up to B / .1,000.00 for not having the money to cancel the sanction, the Justice of the Peace will replace said fine for community work. The community work will be carried out in the township ordered by the Justice of the Peace on duty.
Article 2: the person who circulates outside his residence without using masks or face masks to reduce COVID-19 infections will be sanctioned with fines of B / .100.00 up to B / .1,000.00.
The president of the Health commission, Carlos Pérez Herrera explained that the project gives power to impose a sanction of amount, in addition they may sanction with community work for violating the curfew “this, since they pay the fine and leave for their houses, if they are repeat offenders people will have to carry out community work, it is not the fine, it is that they must understand that they cannot leave the house and be exposed … there are too many people breaking the decree ”.
Among the exceptions are that offenders suffering from heart conditions, diabetes and hypertension will have three (3) business days to present a document of their health condition before the corresponding justice of the peace. In this context, the person cannot do community work, but administrative work only.
In the case of community work, the representatives of the Community Boards may or may not accept it. If they accept, they will be responsible for providing these people with masks, alcohol gel and gloves for their protection “since we are not going to expose them.” He reiterated that the measure is due to the lack of responsibility of some citizens, who have not become aware of the health situation the country is experiencing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
GOVERNMENT EXTENDS TRADE CLOSURE IN PANAMA UNTIL THE NATIONAL EMERGENCY LASTS
The Government of Panama extended this Tuesday, April 21, the temporary closure of commercial establishments through Executive Decree No. 541 until the National Emergency imposed by the coronavirus is terminated.
“The temporary closure decreed by Executive Decree No. 500 of March 19, 2020, is maintained for all commercial establishments and companies, of natural or legal persons throughout the national territory until the declaration of national emergency lasts,” states in its Article 1 this new decree.
The regulations indicate that the institutions, people, activities and companies established in article 2 of Executive Decree No. 507 of March 24, 2020, integrated in the Single Text included in the “Errata Faith” (Fe de Errata) published in the Official Gazette Number 28988-B of March 25, 2020., are excepted from this closure.
The document indicates that depending on the behavior of the health situation or the level of alert, the Ministry of Health will be able to order by means of Resolution the reactivation, operation and mobilization of specific companies or activities not contemplated in the exceptions of Executive Decree No . 507.
However, this provision adds that the new exceptions include the reopening of savings and credit cooperatives, agricultural production cooperatives and agro-industry; as well as the freight transport cooperatives and the Panamanian Autonomous Cooperative Institute (Ipacoop) will be responsible for issuing the respective safe-conducts in coordination with the Government Innovation Authority (AIG).
It is added that for the reopening of the “laundromats“, also included in the new exceptions, it will be the Ministry of Commerce and Industries (MICI), in coordination with the Government Innovation Authority (AIG), which must issue the salvoconductos to these businesses.
WE COULD COME OUT OF QUARANTINE PROGRESSIVELY DEPENDING ON THE BEHAVIOR OF VIRUS IN THE COMING DAYS
Depending on the behavior of the virus in the coming days, decisions could be made regarding the total quarantine that is maintained throughout the country. This was stated by the Minister of Health (Minsa), Rosario Turner, who added that this will allow her to make decisions in a new decree and make adjustments regarding this issue. The official said that the quarantine will definitely not be lifted completely, but that it will be a gradual and progressive process that will have to evaluate parameters on the behavior of the virus, not only globally, but by sectors or provinces. “These are complex decisions that require them to be made with caution and security to prevent it from happening as in other countries, which have made decisions and in 24 or 48 hours have to resume them,” she said. Turner added that it is difficult for people, but they have to have patience, since all this has an economic impact, however, she is confident because the latest reports, despite having an increase in the deceased, have also shown progress in recovered patients. So, we are at a time where we could start to reassess the various measures of quarantine.
THE METRO PLANS ON USING CAMERAS TO MEASURE THE TEMPERATURES OF PASSENGERS
The director of the Panama Metro, Héctor Ortega, announced this Tuesday, April 21, that the administration of this public transport service will employ the use of thermal imaging cameras to measure the temperature of users.
The initiative arises as an additional measure to combat the spread of the coronavirus and to carry out this plan, the Ministry of Health is in conversation. “One of the last measures that we have taken, and we have been doing tests, is the implementation of taking temperatures through thermographic or infrared cameras.” Ortega specified that the idea is to place them in the Metro stations with the highest demand, but that this goes hand in hand with a protocol that is being reviewed with the Ministry of Health.
WE NOW HAVE A DATE TO DISABLE SALVOCONDUCTOS WHICH HAVE NOT BEEN VERIFIED
The Ministry of Commerce and Industries (MICI) will disable from Friday April 24 all the salvoconductos that have not been verified. As previously announced and due to high demand, the MICI extended the validity period of the current salvoconductos until this Thursday, April 23. At the moment, the companies which have exceptions to theExecutive Decree 507 and their Fe de Errata will be able to continue with the certification process. In case of problems during the process, the MICI enabled the phone number 504-4420 for the respective review. Please note that the response time can take up to 48 hours. On the other hand, those who validated their information, but who were unable to print the document at the first opportunity, the MICI recalled that there is a letter format for companies within the exceptions to issue their salvoconductos.
INDUSTRIAL UNION CALLS FOR THE PROGRESSIVE OPENING OF VARIOUS BUSINESS ACTIVITIES IN THE FACE OF A FALLING ECONOMY
Stopping much of economic activity due to social confinement and quarantine worries business groups, which are seeing a halt in their sectors and warn about the consequences of this on job creation. Yesterday, the Industrial Union of Panama (SIP) issued a statement, in which it warned that after more than a month of the stoppage, the “progressive opening of the different economic activities” should begin immediately, with due protocols. The union spoke of starting to reactivate, little by little, with strict sanitary and security measures, some strategic sectors of the economy. On this issue, the Government has said that it has a draft for the reactivation of the economy, which involves a plan to reopen specific sectors. José Alejandro Rojas, Minister Counselor, said in the Open Debate program that said reopening will be done under biosafety protocols, making decisions according to industry, region, and probability of contagion based on economic activity. The SIP alleges that other countries are opening strategic sectors due to the collapse of their economies. “His bet is to recover in the shortest time everything lost during the quarantine. In the industrial sector we are very clear about the importance of this decision, not only in economic terms, but also in terms of health, since a setback would be fatal for the health of the population. ” However, the union warned that if the quarantine were to continue, thousands of jobs would be destroyed and forced to permanently close hundreds of companies. “We request the National Government to implement as soon as possible the sanitary and biosafety protocol, so that in a consensual manner between the different sectors the progressive opening of the economy is allowed, while we take care of the health of our population,” stressed the industrial. The dilemma of the States is that Covid-19 is highly contagious. A patient can infect an average of two to three people, so social confinement has been key in the fight to control the pandemic. In Panama, the Government declared a state of emergency on March 13 and the curfew since March 24. Face-to-face classes are suspended, airports closed and most businesses and industries have ceased operations.
STATUS UPDATE:
PANAMA REGISTERS 141 DEATHS AND 4,821 TOTAL CASES OF COVID-19
- 4,821 positive cases
- 162 new cases
- 141 deaths
- 4,094 home isolation (692 in hospital hotels)
- 355 are hospitalized (261 in ward / 94 intensive care)
- 231 recovered by laboratory
21,902 tests to diagnose COVID-19 have been performed, of which 16,731 have been negative.
ENDNOTES
Given everything that’s been going on and the uncertainty of tomorrow, I do take time to remind myself of all of our blessings.
I get to have dinner with my family every day now. I used to be out of the house until after 10PM every day due to work and my late-night workouts.
I have found time to Meditate. I know you can do this “anywhere”, but the dynamics of my work didn’t always allow for that.
Another colleague, Chris Macolini from Argentina told me today that yesterday was the first time that he could watch a movie together with his family in a long time. Savor it, buddy and do it more often!
My dogs are healthier and happier; a lot happier. Man are they going to be confused the day everything goes back to normal.
Finally, some words to ponder. Instead of saying the wimpier, weaker, “I can’t go out because of the virus.”, try instead, “I’ve sworn an oath of solitude until the pestilence is purged from the lands!” It just sounds more valiant and heroic, right Dave Edgar?
Stay safe… Stay healthy… And by all means STAY HOME!!…
