April 2006 Vol. 3 Issue 2

With jingling bells, snapping whips and giant gnarling faces they skulk through town. Diablicos represent the dark side of life. It is a carnival tradition for a team of dedicated local youth to perform for the crowds during Carnival. According to Roel Ibarra, a local Bocas Diablico performer, many of the masks are made by the local performers over the months preceding Carnival. Diablicos perform a type of street theater. As they taunt the crowd, teams of Congos armed with whips, try desperately to keep these beasts in line.

Roel says that each Diablico has a name and persona that represents some human darkness, such as hypocrisy or greed. The symbolism is clearly dramatized by the grotesque faces and teasing dances. The performers understand that this is a game in which they symbolically take on the troubles of the people and, ultimately, get what they deserve. On the last day of Carnival. the Diablicos are unmasked, chased through the streets and captured. Once captured, the performers receive a symbolic purging of the evils they represent. In the end, each Diablico runs through a gauntlet of whips and then are free.

The teams of performers are very skillful at creating a sense of danger and mystery. Although the play looks rough, no one is hurt. These guys take care of each other.

Other interesting facts:

• Different areas throughout Panama celebrate Carnival with different traditions.
• The Bocas Diablico performance originates in the Portobello area and emphasizes dance and artful costumes.
• The colors of the Diablico costumes in Bocas show the level of experience of the performer; all red is a new “devil,” black and red shows experience, all black shows respect.

B.E.S.O. (Bocas Education Service Organization) did it again! With the help of 168 Bocas residents, visitors and other donators they raised just over $10,000 to support children’s education in the Bocas area during their well-organized 5th annual Charity Dinner/Auction fundraiser held March 14th at the Bocas Beach Club. This smashes last years’ record of $5,100!!!

It was a gala event and an opportunity to dress up, socialize, enjoy great food and dance while supporting educational opportunities for local children.

Businesses AND INDIVIDUALS donated dozens of silent and live auction items and raffle prizes. Christina Bridges, the world’s first female professional auctioneer, donated her services and everyone seemed to have a great time.

"Muchas Gracias" to Rob of Mr. Roberts Steak and Seafood for his generous donation of the Bocas Beach Club for this event.

Special thanks to the B.E.S.O. organizing committee Sumayyah McCarren, Jan Williams, Karan Schreiber, Dorreene Reynolds and Marilyn Johnson as well as the dozens of volunteers who helped with the event.

If you would like to get involved to help, the group needs committee members. They especially need someone handy who could help with small building projects. Also needed are left over building materials and other items that might help make our local schools more comfortable for the children and teachers. Scholarships are available for students who meet the criteria. If you know of any other needs that would help children’s education in the Bocas area, contact Karan (6674-9601) or Dorreene (6642-1911) with your written requests.

In the week before Carnival, Virginian visitor Dick Bozung gave twenty-five harmonicas to local children in the park and persuaded them to accompany him as he played his homemade zither, The Nightingale.

Dick, a teacher of folk music in Virginia and the Carolinas was visiting local resident Malcolm Henderson, who, with assistance from Bella at the Lemongrass Restaurant, organized the event. Prior to coming to Bocas, Mr. Bozung had a similar concert for children at The Instituto Saber in David.

At the end of the impromptu concert Dick told the children to take their harmonicas home and make music to celebrate Mother Earth and the animals who share our planet.

In January Daphne Story arrived from Holland where she taught ballet. She is offering free classes to Bocas children every Saturday afternoon from 3:00 – 4:30. The class for 6-9 year olds is currently full but there is room in the class for 3-5 year olds.

Daphne and her students will be working towards a performance in July and hope to raise $250 for scissors, paint, fabric and materials for the costumes and sets. If you’d like to help or want more information, email Daphne at daphne@productionstory.nl.

UNEVENTFUL RULINGS
by Deloitte & Touche

Revenue Offices around the world issue new rulings on a regular basis. Most of these rulings may not be understandable to laymen and will seldom make it to the headlines in your local newspaper. This is especially the case since life goes far beyond technical issues regarding taxes and the way we pay them. That being said, you may wonder why we address a rather forgotten ruling issued by Panama’s Revenue Office back in late 2003. Bear with us on this one and you will see how this uneventful ruling may cause your lawyers next bill to go up a little.

In late December 2003 President Mireya Moscoso’s administration passed a major tax reform. This reform brought an interesting revival into the country’s tax system, which included strengthening Panama’s tax collection process. For this purpose, Revenue Ruling 201-4306 ordered every corporation or legal entity incorporated in Panama to register with the Revenue Office.

Traditionally, legal entities were registered with the Revenue Office only if they needed to file income tax returns. With a “robust”, so called, offshore industry, a considerable number of Panamanian corporations were sold for purposes other than running businesses in Panama. Panama’s legal community naturally opposed this order alleging the incompatibility between this forced registry and the status of Panama as an offshore center.

These opposing forces led a local lawyer to file an illegality claim before our nation’s Supreme Court against the Revenue Ruling. This claimant alleged offshore companies did not have to file tax returns and therefore should not be registered in any way with the Revenue Office. The case seemed so reasonable that the Court suspended the ruling until a final decision was made. That decision came on December 27, 2005. This long-forgotten ruling stirred some old controversies again since the Court, in a well-reasoned case ruled in favor of the Revenue Office. Ruling 201-4306 is now in force with full validity.

The Court’s decision is fundamental for the rising expatriate and retired community in Panama, since many have bought corporations and may not be registered at the Revenue Office yet. Chances are you incorporated a Panamanian Sociedad Anónima as a holding company for your assets or simply as a holder of your Panamanian summer home or bank account. These little activities did not generate any taxable and/or reportable revenues; therefore, registering with the Revenue Office was something you did not need to do.

Have you registered yet? After doing it, you may end up wondering what was all the fuss about a simple 5-minute deal at a friendly office in Panama City?

In his Panama homesteading book Don’t Kill the Cow Too Quick, Malcolm Henderson describes a local curandero, Cornelio Abrago, a bush medicine man from the indigenous Indian tribe that lives in the archipelago of Bocas del Toro. His curative plants are becoming scarce as more and more of the jungle is being destroyed, and fewer and fewer people have knowledge of the pharmaceutical properties of the jungle plants. Henderson and other gringos helped build a garden specifically for the 47 species of plants that Cornelio Abrago requires to cure snakebites. Abrago’s success with treating snakebites is justly trusted and even the local hospital with its western trained doctors use him.

I visited Bocas del Toro, a dusty little former banana plantation town, last May, met a few locals, watched the Cayucos’s paddle past, and wondered if I was seeing the last of a way of life. Because I traveled with a friend from a Moskito village in Nicaragua, I was very aware of the vanishing knowledge of the jungle. My friend pointed out the trees and plants that are “medicine”. She told me of curing her children with these plants long, long before she moved to Milwaukee.

So, I became curious – about the vanishing plants, the dwindling storehouse of local, self-reliant knowledge, and even of the life of this long-ignored place. I have admiration for the new settlers, like Malcolm Henderson, who have tried to find a way to help save the local traditional knowledge. During a 3-month period last winter, I spent my time making drawings of the snake bite garden plants. They are botanical drawings with annotations and whatever additional information I was able to discover. This collection of drawings will make a nice book and perhaps it will be of some use to the scientific community. What I hope is that it will be a resource, along with the gardens themselves, for the healers who follow Cornelio Abrago.

These original drawings are for sale and all are on archival fine art watercolor paper. They will be available after their reproduction arrangements have been made. I am retaining copyright to the image content and I hope to later develop prints and a book based on these drawings.

Please contact me if you have questions, an interest in the Snake Bite Cure drawings. vickigrafentin@sbcglobal.net.

NEED ADVICE? ASK CARMEN!!

Meet Carmen, our new advice columnist. Got a problem? Get a solution!

Readers wrote:

Dear Carmen;

I’ve lived in the Bocas area now for over a year and I love it! The problem is I can’t get my boyfriend to move down here to be with me. I only see him every three months or so and I love him, but I love being in Bocas, too. What should I do?

Signed, Loving It and Lonely

Dear LL;

You didn’t mention if his work is a factor or not. If his work is not a factor, then you have to examine his reasons for not coming down to be with you. If he doesn’t give you an honest reason, is he really your boyfriend? If he only comes every three months, seems to me you might just be a part-time thing for him. I say give him the old ultimatum. If he decides to stay home then so should you. There are plenty of fish in the sea and you probably happen to live next to one!

Dear Carmen;

My husband has to be the worst boat driver in Bocas. Every time we approach a dock he crashes into it. He thinks he is Captain Wonderful. I’d like to ask his friends to teach him how to drive but I’m too embarrassed. What should I do?

Signed, Embarrassed

Dear Embarrassed;

One day when you are all sitting around having a few drinks, wait for just the right moment and then ask the men to explain to you in detail (since you don’t understand the way men do) how they do such a wonderful job at docking their boats. I’ll bet your husband will start taking notes. Of course, the danger lies in how many drinks they have had. They may take it wrong and explain something entirely different!

Have a question for Carmen? Send her an email in care of The Bocas Breeze: bocasbreeze@yahoo.com. (And Melody is not Carmen, so don't ask. She's too busy!!!)