About our rural realities

I knew personally former president Mireya already when she returned from exile with my grandfather, 1978. Reception “El Dr.” It was awesome in that David of that time.

I still remember how people took to the streets, lost their fear of the dictatorship and followed the caravan that went from the Enrique Malek airport to my house, which was located in the neighborhood at the time Las Acacias, on the banks of the Risacua River, where he was first honored.

For some reason I was stuck on the same truck he was in and, to make matters worse, right next to him, using my shoulder as a cane while he waved from there to the cheering crowd. I have to say it first the whirlwind of Panama shook me and made me realize that Arnulfo Arias He was someone of incredible importance to people.

As I said, I personally met the former president then, because exile did not allow us to do so before; my sisters, however, went through the seasons all in Miami, with “Papa Arnulfo”, as we called it. After those distant times, I continued to support Arias Madrid Museum in its cultural efforts, social and historical; But now I was actually privileged to accompany this lady who held the highest office in the land on her permanent journey. It impresses me.

Humility precedes him. To the extent that, in that informal tour of the visits we made in some remote communities in Penonomé, she refused to have a table placed in front of her, an obstacle among the people we came to visit. Thus the soft shade of some old mango trees served as his favorite place for conversation; and the conversation is exactly what is done, guided by his spontaneous understanding of the problems of our inner people.

All sorts of things were said; But in that gathering where there was no speaker and audience, but an audience receptive to itself, like a tide of enthusiasm, I was able to see the importance of communication without ambiguity, without embellishment, without political metrics. We could learn about the great struggles of those communities for achieving better access and communication routes and how, without any political commitment, everyone contributed to the installation of bridges over rivers that were almost impassable until recently; the walls that separated them from health, medicine, medical care, food and electricity.

In these times of progress and wireless living, many of our communities suffer from this scourge, and to have someone who spontaneously understands them was a magical moment and a privilege for us to witness it. Many residents of these remote places, with dirt roads, weak cell phone signal, lack of gas stations and supermarkets, stick to the rules simple community solidarity; If someone gets seriously ill, Everyone works together to achieve medical care, regardless of the time or how far away that primary care may be; If there are no streets, one walks on the paths, with resignation and even stoicism, I would say, if we consider that it is the negligence of the state and society that we are still facing this type of shortcomings on our soil, and that progress and development are left short and amputated by a question that is, in essence, only optional. Where there are more voices, we will find hospitals; where there are more voters, there are more of them accessible aqueducts, roads, manufacturing and telecommunications roads.

It is not yet understood that the country cannot follow this pattern for long, as urban centers become points of arrested development, increasingly squeezed by urban poverty that replaces rural deprivation. Let’s make a joint effort to, given the lack of roads, to providers of public telecommunications services to keep users always connected, regardless of the number; Let’s make an effort, as a society, to build roads to places that are still sparsely populated to this day, but where needs are abundant, inaccessible by communications and social and isolation social tables.