How Panama Changed History in the Amercas

[Doug Tyler]

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/12/19/how_panama_changed_history_in_the_americas.html

[wryawry]

Time and tides wait for no man, and march on relentlessly -- accompanied, of course, by the routine and rather mundane hysteria of scuttling, grasping human beings ......

wry

[Patrick]

So true! Now can you answer my question?

How do you think this will effect Panama and prices and tourism?

 

[wryawry]

I can't help but believe that a ripple will emanate, which will travel 'round the world having a nominal effect on some, dependent upon where their business interests run. There may be lasting impacts upon a wide variety of lives more directly effected -- much as South Florida was significantly affected by the immediate results realized: by the utter cessation of Cubano-American relations; by the migration of so many disenfranchised souls.. My hope, of course, is that a net win-win will be realized across a broad swath of the Caribbean basin, as well as in Florida and in the many communities where expatriated Cubanos have settled in the United States over the last fifty-odd years. I do not believe that it will have as profound an impact upon my own property values in Panama as that little "correction" in '08 had .... in many ways, it somehow seems as though the threat of nuclear annihilation was somehow kinder and gentler than the vitriolic cultural/social/political divisiveness so garishly evident in the US. "Duck and cover" was, well, nearly as quaint as the suggestion that duct tape would protect home and hearth from weaponized aerosol  biological agents. The money's the thing. Follow the money. Where's the money?

Continued, below.

[graciela linett]

Dev: sorry for shouting, just got carried away. I hope that you are right but you got that psychopath in N.K., getting missiles from Cuba and he's got nuclear weapons and he doesn't like the U.S. Now, what stopped those missiles from getting to N.K. is that they were found out while traveling through the Panama Canal. Now when Nicaragua finishes their Canal, with Chinese oversight, do you think that Ortega will spill the beans on Castro?     

We live in a very dangerous world.

[Keith Woolford]

Don't know Patrick, you've lived here longer than we have.

[Patrick]

Well, my question was directed to  wryawry but I think I already had answered it.

"I think it will be very bad for Panama, tourism will suffer and land prices will plunge."

But that is just my opinion, I was looking for what others think!

I'm also curious as to who WE are, as far as I know WRYAWRY doesn't live here/

 

[wryawry]

Sr. Patrick, to continue,

It's wryawry, no need to shout. For the record a part of me does live there. There's also a chunk of me in a nameless canyon in SW Utah, a fragment on the memory I have of the very first full moon I recall, and bits and pieces here and there from Thailand to Tobago. Do you have a scale to weigh the skin in the game? I've seen this movie.

Dav 

[Jim Tosch]

The whole premise of the article is a joke. The U.S. and Cuba had been in secret meetings for eighteen months working out the details. This thing was pre-planned and coordinated down to the decimal points. Things like this don't happen accidentally.

[Patrick]

N Korean ship seized with Cuban weapons returns to Cuba

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-26210187

https://www.google.com.pa/search?q=2014+cuba+ship+with+missiles+goi...

"The U.S. and Cuba had been in secret meetings for eighteen months working out the details."

REALLY!!!

[Keith Woolford]

Yes, really.

Canada’s longstanding friendship with both the U.S. and Cuba was at the forefront Wednesday as the two longtime foes announced a historic diplomatic breakthrough that promises to end more than a half-century of hostilities.

In separate speeches, U.S. President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, thanked Canada as well as the Vatican for hosting secret talks between the two countries, which have been at odds since the 1960s.

The talks were held after the U.S. and Cuba approached Canada seeking help in hosting the discussions last year, a senior Canadian government official said. Canada facilitated seven meetings in Ottawa and Toronto over the past 18 months, he added.

U.S. National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan described Canada’s support as well as its discretion as “instrumental to the success of the talks.”

In a year-end interview with the CBC on Wednesday, Harper said he didn’t want to exaggerate Canada’s role in the secret talks, and that Canadian officials did not actually participate in any discussions.

“We facilitated places where the two countries could have a dialogue and explore ways of normalizing the relationship,” Harper said. “We were just trying to make sure that they had the opportunity to have the kind of dialogue they needed to have.”

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/politics/harper-hopes-fresh-start-in-...