Siege of rural needs

There are tragic scenarios and brutal realities of lack and need. in our society that we cannot ignore. Especially for those who find themselves on the political path, it is important to know the challenges of the society they intend to represent, and especially the reality of those most needy sectors.

In addition to the encouraging economic figures that our company is promoting a country in a privileged position in the Latin American regionwith one of the highest per capita incomes (over $15,000.00), the harsh reality is different.

Distribution of wealth It is scheduled by politics and voting. Where there are more voters, there will be more infrastructure aimed at raising awareness, greater access to health, more opportunities for professional and family development; but in those forgotten parts of our homeland, where the winding clock has stopped, in the heart of those cities in our interior that go into the green lungs our village, that progress never. As time travelers, we come to these places and see the same situations of backwardness and marginalization that we could see 50 years ago.

There is no electric light; The roads are still rutted and broken; There are no small shops, not even to buy aspirin; The water comes from crude intakes and comes through intricate and rudimentary PVC channels arranged by the tenants themselves; The stairs they use to get to their homes are often dangerous, steep, along mountain slopes. There is no internet, no television, and no privileged access to information. Those forgotten places of the homeland are inhabited, and Approximately one million Panamanians live in rural or semi-rural conditions.

At best, those cities have transportation until dark. At night, if it’s urgent, they have to turn to a neighbor who is a good Samaritan and has a car; In other cases, they have no choice but to walk if they are far from the main access road. In these rural places, there are no gas stations, and public lighting is insufficient, River crossings and streams often have no fords and bridges.

I wonder if that huge mass of the population who live in these conditions and who, despite their frustrations, they are fighting to stay in their homeland, where they can at least cultivate the land, they do not deserve more dignified lives; or if the politics of electoral exploitation will persist in providing resources only to the places that gather the most voters, thus encouraging the progressive abandonment of the fields, our customs and agricultural production, so that hundreds of thousands of unemployed people migrate to the cities in search of dreams that, most of the time, never come true .

It’s time to prioritize progress in planning and comprehensive interior development; It’s time to cover even the most distant approaches to those cities where Panamanians live with paved roads. In this task, we are all responsible as a society.