Disturbances
This past week here in my country has been worrisome. It was a week full of disturbances. People are very upset because the country is having a serious problem with social security and the retirement and pension benefits. This problem started a long time ago when the people who were in power back then started stealing from the Dept. of social security.
FYI, my country from the seventies all the way to the eighties was under a military dictatorship. I was young at the time but I remember how people used to go out to the streets and have protests and try to fight against the government. But it was useless. During that time there was no freedom of speech, no freedom on the media, if you said anything against the government you would find yourself in deep trouble. There were thousands of people missing during those years. People were tortured and they could come into your house take your husband away and you would never see him again. I believe that is a very dark part of our history. Finally the man in power, Manuel A. Noriega, was removed by an american invasion on december of 1989. I remember that night as if it was yesterday. It was december 20, 1989, like around just past midnight. There were rumors of an invasion, but nobody knew when. Everybody was on a christmas mood, even though the atmosphere was very tense. A few days before there had been an incident involving some american soldiers and panamanian police. Back then, american troops where still here, they left Panama when they return the Panama Canal to the panamanian government on Dec. 31, 1999. Returning to the early morning hours of december 20th, I was already asleep, I think I had just gotten out of school for christmas break. I remember waking up suddenly from a deep sleep (I was really tired) and sitting up on my bed and hearing these very loud noises, like fireworks, but like next door. Seconds later my mom came in and almost shouted at me "they came in, they came in, they are invading". Of course I already knew who she meant, everybody was like expecting something to happen. I ran after her to the balcony of our house, and my whole family was already there. You could see in the horizon these big flashes of light, they were lighting up the night. That was a long night, you just heard the sounds. My brothers were studying in Miami at the time, my older brother had come a few days before, but my middle brother was supposed to travel that same day Dec. 20th, of course I think he found out about the invasion even before us, because his flight was cancelled. But he couldn't call, all incoming and outbound calls were suspended. We were without electricity for a few days. At the time we were left without law enforcement agents, because they were the ones being pursued by the american soldiers, and then the vandalism started. People started looting everything they could get their hands on. It was a shameful attitude. You saw people carrying TV's, mattresses, food, turkeys, ham, clothes. It was awful. And at the beginning the american soldiers did nothing, later they did, but the damage was already done. We were going through an economical crisis before the invasion and after the looting there were many businesses which never opened again. It was to hard a blow for them. Very uncertain times but God has lifted the country back up.
Now back to this past week. In order to try to save the social security the government today wants to do some reforms because if they don't they say is going to go bankrupt. Among some of the reforms, they want to increase the retirement age for both men and women, they want us to contribute more and the employer's % is going to be higher, and some other ones. Well, working people and laborers don't want these reforms and have been protesting against them. They have been doing marches and meetings and protests. This past week there have been some nasty confrontations between the police and the people... people arrested, tear gas, gunshots, stores have been vandalized, windows broken, private vehicles damaged, it's spooky, it takes you back to a past you don't particularly want to remember. And they have displayed thousands of policemen on the streets. It's weird because it reminds you of the time when we had a military (just FYI after the invasion we had the police but they decided not to have an army, like military men) by the way they are dressed, and the weapons they are carrying, and the amount of them you see on the streets (you see them like every other corner). I went to the supermarket one of those days and on the entrance there was a police with a trained dog, a very mean-looking rottweiler, when I saw that I thought "this is not normal...things do change in the blink of an eye". Tomorrow a new working week starts, let us see what happens. Because the government does not want to back up and neither do the people. I might not like the reforms, but I also know that something has to be done, if not it's going to be much worse later and there would be no social security for future generations. But I also believe that the government is rushing through this, it is suspicious that they want to approve these reforms so fast without giving people the time to study them in more detail and try to calculate the consequences. I believe that they should do a referendum.
FYI, my country from the seventies all the way to the eighties was under a military dictatorship. I was young at the time but I remember how people used to go out to the streets and have protests and try to fight against the government. But it was useless. During that time there was no freedom of speech, no freedom on the media, if you said anything against the government you would find yourself in deep trouble. There were thousands of people missing during those years. People were tortured and they could come into your house take your husband away and you would never see him again. I believe that is a very dark part of our history. Finally the man in power, Manuel A. Noriega, was removed by an american invasion on december of 1989. I remember that night as if it was yesterday. It was december 20, 1989, like around just past midnight. There were rumors of an invasion, but nobody knew when. Everybody was on a christmas mood, even though the atmosphere was very tense. A few days before there had been an incident involving some american soldiers and panamanian police. Back then, american troops where still here, they left Panama when they return the Panama Canal to the panamanian government on Dec. 31, 1999. Returning to the early morning hours of december 20th, I was already asleep, I think I had just gotten out of school for christmas break. I remember waking up suddenly from a deep sleep (I was really tired) and sitting up on my bed and hearing these very loud noises, like fireworks, but like next door. Seconds later my mom came in and almost shouted at me "they came in, they came in, they are invading". Of course I already knew who she meant, everybody was like expecting something to happen. I ran after her to the balcony of our house, and my whole family was already there. You could see in the horizon these big flashes of light, they were lighting up the night. That was a long night, you just heard the sounds. My brothers were studying in Miami at the time, my older brother had come a few days before, but my middle brother was supposed to travel that same day Dec. 20th, of course I think he found out about the invasion even before us, because his flight was cancelled. But he couldn't call, all incoming and outbound calls were suspended. We were without electricity for a few days. At the time we were left without law enforcement agents, because they were the ones being pursued by the american soldiers, and then the vandalism started. People started looting everything they could get their hands on. It was a shameful attitude. You saw people carrying TV's, mattresses, food, turkeys, ham, clothes. It was awful. And at the beginning the american soldiers did nothing, later they did, but the damage was already done. We were going through an economical crisis before the invasion and after the looting there were many businesses which never opened again. It was to hard a blow for them. Very uncertain times but God has lifted the country back up.
Now back to this past week. In order to try to save the social security the government today wants to do some reforms because if they don't they say is going to go bankrupt. Among some of the reforms, they want to increase the retirement age for both men and women, they want us to contribute more and the employer's % is going to be higher, and some other ones. Well, working people and laborers don't want these reforms and have been protesting against them. They have been doing marches and meetings and protests. This past week there have been some nasty confrontations between the police and the people... people arrested, tear gas, gunshots, stores have been vandalized, windows broken, private vehicles damaged, it's spooky, it takes you back to a past you don't particularly want to remember. And they have displayed thousands of policemen on the streets. It's weird because it reminds you of the time when we had a military (just FYI after the invasion we had the police but they decided not to have an army, like military men) by the way they are dressed, and the weapons they are carrying, and the amount of them you see on the streets (you see them like every other corner). I went to the supermarket one of those days and on the entrance there was a police with a trained dog, a very mean-looking rottweiler, when I saw that I thought "this is not normal...things do change in the blink of an eye". Tomorrow a new working week starts, let us see what happens. Because the government does not want to back up and neither do the people. I might not like the reforms, but I also know that something has to be done, if not it's going to be much worse later and there would be no social security for future generations. But I also believe that the government is rushing through this, it is suspicious that they want to approve these reforms so fast without giving people the time to study them in more detail and try to calculate the consequences. I believe that they should do a referendum.
posted by Mary Gaby at
9:00 PM
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