A man, a plan, a canal, Panama. Years ago, I read a book about the building of the Panama Canal. At one time, there were 40,000 people working on the canal, and between the initial failed French effort in the 1880s and the successful American effort twenty years later, over 25,000 died of disease or accident (20,000 or so under the French). The workers were mostly Black and from Barbados and Jamaica. The French and Americans were almost all White. The Whites were engineers or had desk jobs. The Blacks were by and large laborers.

The canal was completed about 400 years after Balboa crossed the Darien Gap on foot and saw the Pacific Ocean, just under 50 miles from where he started at the Atlantic. I would be willing to bet that Balboa did not envisage the Panama Canal.

Just as he did not think about a canal bringing the two oceans together by boat, neither Balboa, nor the thousands involved in the design and construction of the canal, thought that there would one day be a city near the canal that would look anything like today’s Panama City, housing over 2 million residents, and with 31 buildings at least 50 stories tall. The picture above is Panama City.

I think of this today because of the strong earthquake that shook Panama City yesterday, and was centered in a tourist area about 125 miles from the city.

One of the more interesting things about Panama City (to me) is that it has a Jewish population of almost 20,000. Not only that, but its Jewish population is primarily Sephardic (not Eastern European) and largely Syrian, and primarily Orthodox. Panama City has the largest kosher supermarket outside of Israel, and (ready for this?) about 40 kosher restaurants. The mayor of Panama City is Mayer Mizrachi Matalon, and Panama the country has had two Jewish presidents.

Anyone ever travel there?

Closer to home, I want to extend my condolences to Donald Trump, for once again failing to win the Nobel Peace Prize. As Donald said, it is a great embarrassment for Norway and all Norwegians that the prize was awarded to an unknown liberal.

The award went to Navi Pillay, a South African jurist who had been active in anti-apartheid matters there, as well as with matters involving Rwanda and Israel/Palestine while acting as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. She led the study concluding that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza.

Whether she was a good choice for this award will be debated, I am sure. Interestingly, she is the fifth South African to get this award. This too might be something to look into.

The one thing to be certain, she will not follow in the footsteps of the 2025 winner, Maria Corina Machado of Venezuela, who (I still can’t believe this) gave her Nobel medal to Donald Trump who, confident in his entitlement, actually took it. And, as you know, even after Trump kidnapped Venezuelan dictator Maduro, basically took over the country’s oil industry, and claimed that he was now in charge of Venezuela, Machado (an opposition leader) is unable to safely return to her country.

Okay, full circle time. Where does Machado live in exile??? Of course……Panama.

By the way, between Venezuela and Panama is Colombia. I am reading a recent novel by Colombian born Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Fruit of the Drunken Tree. I highly recommend it.