OPINION: Panamas shameful priorities

Hoyporhoy, La Prensa,

IT IS  a lacerating reality: Panama, the country that boasts of being among the nations of the region with the highest  income per capita, does not allocate sufficient resources to children at risk.

Precisely because of the numbers, which show us a growing economy while in other parts of the world almost everything is contracting , organizations that are dedicated to supporting children with solid reasons begin to redirect their contributions. And, indeed, if globally, it makes no sense to donate to a country that  each year spends  more than one billion dollars of its budget on  all kinds of fancy subsidies and social projects.

Paradoxically it is the same country that barely invests $2.8 billions among  40 institutions that care for their minors at risk.

That is, 21 times less than  the amount ($59 million) that Odebrecht paid to Panamanian officials and individuals in bribes to secure contracts, and 12 times less thanthe figure that the Government intended to spend In remodelingParque Omar ($35 million). Indeed, these priorities represent a shame that we all must carry as a mark of inequity and injustice.