Desiderata

There are so many things we miss. To our grandfathers and parents, whom we have already lost, as well as so many friends and family. When we are far from the mainland, we long for authentic indoor sancocho, cooked over clean wood, just as we long for pineapple rice chicha like my grandmother Rosa used to make. But we also miss those days when we woke up after an early morning vigil, standing in solidarity with teachers and professors on campus. School of the Republic of Venezuela or when we were there, in case the La Prense facilities were attacked.

I welcome the recent civic feat to protest mining contracts forged in the dark, apart from the benefits they may or may not bring to the country’s economy. But there are many other things we should not stop fighting for. Among other things, I mean democracy, freedom of expression and an impartial judicial system. I look with concern at the possible closure EPASA, as part of the Machiavellian strategy some sectors for defenestration one-member candidacy, someone who for some does not deserve a chance, but, nevertheless, with the right to a trial in accordance with the law. This action violates several of these rights.

Martin Luther King said that “we are responsible not only for what we say, but also for what we fail to say.” We become complicit by remaining silent when we believe it suits us.

During the last decade of the eighties, while many of us put our physical integrity on the line, by fighting against the narco-dictatorship, We had to wait almost another decade for the population to wake up from a long sleep and stop being afraid of tear gas and fire hoses.

I understand that there are those who just want to protect their job security or other similar reasons, but we should never bow to those who believe they have the power to bow before us. That, only God. Dignity has no price. As people we have to knowing the value of empathy towards the principles for which many sacrificed at the time. We cannot remain silent in the face of the possible shutdown of any media, whatever it may be.

In this column, I will not give a lecture on law, but I will clearly state that it is out of the question to take advantage of a judicial circumstance in which the media is not a direct party to the process, to change its owner or to close it down. Both situations are negative. It is inadmissible that in times when communications and technology have turned to innovation, the old practices of silencing what makes us uncomfortable persist. That tree in the middle of the plain, near the mine that we are talking about, is closely connected with the paper on which news is printed and published even today. They both have the right to defense, within the reality of what is politically correct in our days.

Personally, if this happens, I will miss being able to share my ideas and feelings about everyday life with readers. There are already a lot of things I miss. Please, whoever reads this prose, take my call very seriously so that we can stand up for the freedom of the press and democracy is not overridden by a court decision not to rule in strict law. Sometimes the only justice that should count is divine.

We must allow that of the Almighty to prevail in the end. Panama has always been said to have a noble people. Let’s not allow institutions to be manipulated. Today could be EPASA, We do not know what awaits us in the future. Let’s not be complicit in the disastrous precedent and continue to defend what is right above all else. no political interest.