Monthly Archives: July 2016

Need To Know: Visiting Panama

29 Friday Jul 2016

Posted by in Crime, Customer Service, Panama, Travel

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_DSC3743 (2)In the past two years I’ve visited Panama five times, and I would not hesitate to move here if I had the opportunity. If you’ve never been to Panama, but would like to visit it, there are some things you need to know.

_DSC0805Return Ticket
Panama has two groups of people. Panamanians and everyone else. There are further divisions, but it’s important to note that on any given day, Panamanians may be a minority in their own country. Because of Panama’s relatively stable political and economic environment it has become a haven for many people from Latin America, in addition to the visitors from North America, especially Canada.

Panama likes visitors, but not visitors that overstay their welcome. They require a visitor have a return ticket before they come to Panama. On my last trip, it was Copa Airlines that enforced this at the time I checked in for my flight to Panama.

On my current trip, my return trip was fluid and wasn’t booked until after I arrived. Fortunately, no one asked me for proof, but don’t expect that if you are coming to Panama. Have your information about your return flight with you when you check in at the airport.

Learn the Language
People don’t like it when you don’t learn the native language. This is especially true in Panama. Even my meager efforts at speaking español while in Panama are better than trying to speak English. Speaking English in Panama puts a sign on your forehead that you are a stupid foreigner. It also means you pay more than everyone else.

_DSC0921 (2)It also is security. Understanding español means you know what people are saying around you, and speaking it fluently means people don’t see you as someone who is vulnerable. If you can’t speak español, hire a guide when you explore the country.

It is Safe?
Panama is as safe as any major city in the United States. Any city in the United States has places you can feel comfortable in day or night, and it has places you should not go to after dark. The same is true in Panama. Most Panamanians would not commit a crime involving a tourist, simply because the penalty they would pay is too high.

However, no visitor should be so arrogant to visit certain areas after dark, especially if you can’t speak español.

_DSC1271Driving in Panama
You can drive if you have a legal license in your home country, but Panama City is not for a country road driver. There are few stop lights, a lot of traffic, and few rules. Most cars have bumps and scrapes on them because to get into traffic a driver has to be aggressive to the point of proving his manhood. If you are not aggressive enough, the cars behind you will let you know your failings.

Roads have few signs and none in English, so either you know where you’re going or you can expect to be lost all the time. GPS is only marginally helpful, as it often suggests roads that don’t exist, are dead ends, or should be driven unless you’re driving a four-wheel drive vehicle.

Once outside Panama City, driving is easier; however, it still requires a willingness to put your rental car into danger, and if you’re wrong, you will pay a hefty fine when you return the car.

Exploring Panama On Your Own
Don’t do it. At least on your first few trips. Hire a guide. Panama has so many great places that your first visits should be to places that someone can take you to, and bring you back to your hotel or condo. Guide books may give you information about great places to go, but they don’t tell you about how to get from your hotel or condo to the place and back, nor do they tell you what you might see on the way.

Once you know the country, then you can explore.

Food
Restaurants open and close in a matter of months. What was a great restaurant last year may be a dump this year. Research and/or hire a guide to find the best places to eat.

Most new restaurants are focused on offering great food. Some of my favorite meals have been in Panama. Most of the new restaurants aren’t trying to be commercial (feeding the most customers at the lowest possible cost,) which means they are committed to giving you a great meal.

In Panama City, check out the Cosco Viejo area for great dining experiences.

Unofficial Advance Copy of Trump’s Acceptance Speech

21 Thursday Jul 2016

Posted by in Communication, Ethics, Generational, Government, History, Politics, Public Image, US History

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donald-trump(Below is the unofficial advance copy of Donald Trump’s RNC acceptance speech. Other copies may follow, so please note the date at the bottom to verify the most recent version.)

In the course of the past eight years, America has suffered deterioration in all sectors of life, which could inconceivably have been greater. The question as to what, if anything, could have been worse than in these times is a question which cannot be answered in light of the basic values of America as well as the political and economic inheritance which once existed.

In spite of its lack of mobility in political feelings and positions, America itself has increasingly turned away from concepts, parties, and associations which, in its eyes, are responsible for these conditions.

The number of Americans who inwardly supported the Obama Administration in spite of the suggestive significance and ruthless exploitation of the executive power dwindled, in the end, to a mere fraction of the entire nation.

Another typical characteristic of these eight years was the fact that, apart from natural fluctuations, the curve of developments has shown a constant decline. This depressing realization was one of the causes of the general state of despair. It served to promote the insight into the necessity of thoroughly rejecting the ideas, organizations, and men in which one gradually and rightly began to recognize the underlying causes of our decay.

The Trump campaign was thus able, in spite of the most horrible oppression, to convert increasing numbers of Americans in terms of spirit and will to defensive action. Now, in association with the other conservatives causes, it has eliminated the powers which have been ruling, by means of a revolution, and transferred the people’s will to the hands of the new Republican party. 

The program for the reconstruction, Make America Great Again, is determined by the magnitude of the distress crippling our political, moral and economic life.

Filled with the conviction that the causes of this collapse lie in internal damage to America, the Republican party aims to eliminate the afflictions from our country which would, in future, continue to foil any real recovery. The disintegration of the nation into irreconcilably opposition, which was systematically brought about by the false doctrines of liberalism means the destruction of the basis for any possible community life.

The dissolution permeates all of the basic principles of social order. The completely opposite approaches of the individuals to the concepts of state, society, religion, morality, family, and economy rips open differences which will lead to a war of all against all. Starting with the liberalism of the past century, this development will end, as the laws of nature dictate, in chaos.

The mobilization of the most primitive instincts leads to a link between the concepts of a political theory and the actions of real criminals. Beginning with Mexicans and Muslims invading our country, Police officers murdered, and acts of mass violence, all of which are condoned by liberals. 

It will be the utmost goal of the my administration to stamp out and eliminate every trace of this phenomenon, not only in the interest of America, but in the interest of the rest of World.

It is not the task of a superior national leadership to subsequently surrender what has grown organically to the theoretical principle of an unrestrained unitarianization. But it is its duty to raise the unity of spirit and will of the leadership of the nation and thus the concept of the my administration as such beyond all shadow of a doubt.

My administration basically regards it as its duty, in accordance with the spirit of the people’s vote of confidence, to prevent the elements which consciously and intentionally negate the life of the nation from exercising influence on its formation. The theoretical concept of equality before the law shall not be used, under the guise of equality, to tolerate those who despise the laws as a matter of principle or, moreover, to surrender the freedom of the nation to them on the basis of democratic doctrines.

Our next task, in any case, is to call upon the spiritual leaders of these destructive tendencies to answer for themselves and at the same time to rescue the victims of their seduction.

God Bless America!

Version AH1933,

Cited Material:  1933 March 23, Berlin

Liberals Didn’t Conspire Produce the 2016 RNC

20 Wednesday Jul 2016

Posted by in Aging, Business, Ethics, Government, Higher Education, History, Honor, Politics, Public Image, Women

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Donald is impressed by Melania rendition of Michelle Obama's speech

Donald is impressed by Melania’s rendition of Michelle Obama’s speech

Liberals are blamed for almost everything, but we are not responsible for the fiasco at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Cleveland this week. We did not make a secret deal with Donald Trump to destroy everything Republican. We didn’t pay Rudy Giuliani to do an impression of Hitler speaking to a Nazi rally. We didn’t make Melania Trump look like a Stepford wife and upload her with a speech that was plagiarized from Michelle Obama’s convention speech from eight years ago.

We didn’t do it!

It, of course, pleases us that the 35 years of madness is coming to an end, but most liberals would actually prefer an intelligent, organized, Republican opponent because it helps our nation make subtitle course corrections in our nation’s policies that keep our country moving forward.

However, the circus that is taking place in Cleveland this week is not intelligent, nor is it organized. It is the result of decades of conservative degeneration that has lost all sense of what our country has stood for, and is now distilled down to a mockery of what it means to be a citizen of the United States of America.

Republicans are aware of the depth of their depravity. Many conservatives have bitterly fought to keep Trump from becoming their candidate to represent the conservative cause; however, Trump has managed to politically eroticize enough desperate people to capture the nomination, and now conservatives have to either abandon their dignity and support Donald Trump, or admit that they have been wrong.

Conservatives can never admit they were wrong.

A Return to the United States of America

15 Friday Jul 2016

Posted by in Aging, Communication, Crime, Education, Ethics, Generational, Government, Higher Education, History, Honor, Politics, Pride, Public Image, Respect, Taxes, Universities, US History, Violence in the Workplace

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_DSC4367 (2)We have to stop pretending we’re victims. There are problems in the world. There are problems in our country. But there are always problems and problems don’t make us victims.

A victim needs to be rescued. A victim is looking for a hero to save them. We don’t need to be rescued, nor do we need to be saved.

In the United States of America, we have attempted to educate all of our citizens because people who can solve their own problems do a better job of it, and education gives a person the ability to solve their own problems.

Too many people in this country are looking for a political figure that is going to save them. They are like moths to the flame. They are drawn in by the politician that dazzles them and they surrender their intelligence in order to believe that they can be rescued.

We forget that we are not witnesses to the acts of violence that we see on television or online. We are shocked and repulsed, but the real victims are those who were there, and the families and friends who knew someone who was there.

Our impulse to be a victim, makes us feel helpless to do anything, but we are not helpless. Just being a citizen of this country makes us part of the solution. By selecting intelligent politicians, by paying taxes, by being watchful, we help to defeat acts of violence.

Some delude themselves that a gun in their hands empowers them to respond to a violent event. With little or no training, they believe they can improvise a defense in an urban environment, and stop a mentally ill person who has likely been planning their attack for weeks or months. They cannot.

Only trained law enforcement can adequately respond to a violent situation, and private citizens carrying guns in an urban environment can only make a bad situation worse.

However, we don’t have to be the victim. There is violence, and there is corruption, in this country, but we are not on a path to chaos as long as we remember for over two hundred years, we have a consistent record of defeating threats to our country.

Many of those threats did not come from outside our borders, but inside them. The worst of those threats occurred when a group of our own citizens decided to reject the results of a legitimate elections. and betray our country and our Constitution. They failed because we didn’t respond as victims, but as proud and loyal citizens.

After all we’ve been through, we are still here. Working, raising families, enjoying life more than most of the rest of the world. We are not the victims. We are the solution. We are the United States of America.

 

 

The Ugly Side of Annual Vacations with the Extended Family

15 Friday Jul 2016

Posted by in Aging, Generational, Health, Lessons of Life, Respect, Travel

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But you like to be with my family!

If I had a British pound for every time that was said regarding the annual extended family vacation, I would have less than what I had a month ago…but that’s another story.

_DSC3743 (2)The annual extended family vacation. I’m not talking about the vacation where you and your spouse plan to go to a new and different place every year with your children. That activity has its own stresses and issues, but is usually a healthy activity for those involved. What I’m talking about is when one person or one family decides to go to the same place every year, and others are expected to join them.

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Often it starts with a family having a traditional summer vacation to the same place with their children, but as the children become adults, they may stop going on the annual vacation.

However, after they marry and begin their own families, they are invited to rejoin the annual family vacation, with an expectation that the spouses will become part of their annual pilgrimage. For a few years it may be a fun event, something to look forward to each summer, but then the event becomes more important than any other vacation that doesn’t involve the extended family. Vacations become determined by bloodlines, not along family lines.

Alternate vacation ideas, or visits to relatives that aren’t of the bloodline of the family of origin become a lower priority. Everyone is expected to preserve and protect the big event. After so many times of going to the same place with another family, or families, one may begin to feel that they’re tagging along on someone else’s vacation. Once in the situation, you can only be the bad person if you refuse to go.

There are always great reasons for extended families to get together occasionally. It is an opportunity to reclaim family ties, and share time together. Going for a week or more on trip with a group of people can be fun; however, committing two or more families to an annual vacation, to the destination determined by one family says something about the nature of the relationship of one family over another. 

However, vacations that are determined by one family, or one side of the family, year after year after year, are about control. At some point an adult child has to decide whether their commitment is to their family of origin, or to their own family.