Panama Good News and the two-sided justice coin

PANAMA, like most countries, has its problems and while bad news makes the headlines, there are occasional light rays breaking through the smog which deserve sharing.

Reader Ruth Murray  has  sent us a good news item which provides a welcome respite from the daily diet of corruption and political turmoil and expat complaints of the venality of  local workers

In spite of the perception of increasing crime, statistics show that the rate is falling. They also show that punishment for small-time crimes is handed down  rapidly to those heading for incarceration in Panama hell holes like La Joya , while those accused of stealing hundreds of  millions from the public treasury (aka taxpayers) use their stolen wealth to pay high-end lawyers to delay justice, gain “country “ arrest  and return to the mansions   purchased from the same corrupted source.

What conservative economists like to call the “trickle down” effect, seems to work with corruption. When a low paid minion reads daily reports on impunity for massive thievery, his furrowing in the petty cash box could seem understandable.

Meanwhile here is the good news piece:

From Ruth Murray
It was BC (Before Caffeine) and we’d taken a taxi from our downtown Panama City hotel to Albrook airport on March 5th, 2018.  We paid the nice taxi driver and checked in for our flight to David.  It was only when trying to pay for coffee that I realized I’d left my wallet in the taxi — with money, credit cards, etc.

Within about an hour and a half, the marvelously efficient (reminds me of Jethro Gibbs character on NBC’s NCIS show) and calm-in-the-face-of-hysterical-American-woman Panama City police officer, Captain N. Albernez, had re-taken our pictures in the camera at the taxi drop-off area, gotten whatever descriptive particulars that our mutual lack of fluency in one another’s language would permit, found the footage of taxi dropping us off – with license plate number – which gave him the address the taxi was registered at, which gave him the driver’s name.  From there, he pulled out — can you believe it? — a phone book! — and called taxi driver —- who was of course far away by then, and with another passenger.

Another minor miracle – both passenger and driver were honest and found the wallet on the floor of the taxi.  When the driver left that passenger off, he returned to the airport, smiling triumphantly from ear to ear.  EVERYTHING WAS IN THE WALLET!!!!!!

And we made it through the security gate with about 90 seconds to spare.

We welcome other “good news” contributions.

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