A glimpse of Cartagena and Panama City

Before the pandemic I had intended to spend two weeks in Colombia, which would not have been nearly enough. Instead I just spent one week there and want to return soon. 

Bogota is wonderful and not spoilt by tourism. 

Cartagena, which friends say was unspoilt thirty years ago, is pure tourism now. But it is so poetic that it transcends this and thankfully it attracts the only tourists I like. Backpackers. Not married couples, not parents. Do go. Especially for Christmas or New Year's Eve. It's glorious. 

Panama City is very different, full of skyscrapers, very American, but the old town in Panama City has, on a smaller scale, all the beauty Cartagena has but without the tourists.

Panama Cathedral was originally founded in Darien in 1510, was moved to Old Panama and, after that Panama was razed by Captain Morgan, was rebuilt where it is now in the old town of Panama, which is not to be confused with Old Panama. I hope that this is clear. Old Panama lies in ruins and you glimpse it on the way to the airport.

The old town feels like Joseph Conrad or Graham Greene but though it gets few tourists compared with Cartagena it's plant for the tourist sector.

The rest of Panama looked like Dubai. Worse than that I cannot say. 

It does not feel Latin American. It feels like what the American establishment want the whole world to be, multicultural and concrete and obedient to Washington. 

I am told that the Panamanian countryside is beautiful. 

Teddy Roosevelt explained to his cabinet how he arranged for Panama to secede from Colombia at the right moment for the canal to be built. The canal zone was ceded by legerdemain to the USA.  

One of his cabinet members is said to have told him that he had defended himself from the charge of seduction by admitting to rape. 

Raped by Roosevelt Colombia certainly was. The American owners of the only railway prevented Colombian troops reaching Panama to suppress the hastily organised rebellion. Panama was also raped. Panama demanded for decades that she take over the canal and American canal zone.

Theodore Roosevelt was the first American imperialist. He started a tradition that, with two intermissions (1921-41 and 2017-2021), continues till today.

The most successful American imperialist, of course, was his Democratic cousin Franklin who conquered much of the world, which the USA continues to rule. 

I am waiting to fly out of Latin America and felt like reminding you of the story of George Brown and the woman in red. 

He was a British (Labour) Foreign Secretary famous for getting embarrassingly drunk, now forgotten. 

At a diplomatic reception in Latin America he went up to a woman in red and asked her for a dance. He received this reply.

“I shall not dance with you for three reasons.The first is that you are very drunk, the second is that this is the Peruvian national anthem and the third is that I am the Cardinal Archbishop of Lima. "