The Panama Seduction |
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| Written by Matt |
| Monday, 31 August 2009 07:16 |
 On the back end of my first trip to Panama years ago, I settled on two main conclusions. The first was that the country was inconsistent (in a great way) with what I thought I knew to be Central America. Here was a capital with surprising hints of sophistication and an interior connected by clean pavement and fence-lined storybook towns. Its strips of unaffected coast, indigenous populations, and supreme trade sector were anomalies to me for the region: characteristics that alone may not have been so remarkable, but when clumped together evoked the happening of aligned stars.Â
The second conclusion was less obvious. I knew the reason I liked Panama was because it was so unusual and because so few other people knew about it. Throughout childhood, I'd always found myself drawn against the grain. If it was shopping for sneakers, I had to buy the limited edition pair. If I was listening to music, it had to be a group no one had ever heard of (once people had heard of it, it was certifiably uncool). This is just the way my preferences work. I search and search for something out of favor, then find and adopt it religiously and Panama was no different. On the first flight home, my second conclusion emerged, and that was I simply could not stay away. Ask anyone who's been in Panama for an extended period of time and you'll get the same response. There is some draw, whether you're able to put a finger on it or not, that keeps people coming back for more. Consider this phenomenon. South of Mexico, the vast majority of Central American students who study college abroad (generally wealthy students who study in the USA or Europe) go on to live the greater part of their adult lives outside of their home countries, embracing new cultures more or less as their own. While I do not have any scientific evidence to support this claim, I promise you it is a precise fact. Panamanians however are outliers to this trend. When a Panamanian studies in North America or Europe he almost always returns home with new insights, business ideas, job skills, a wife or husband, and sometimes children. Why so? Scientists have shown that homing pigeons use something resembling global positioning technology to interpret the earth's magnetic waves and thus find their way home. There's a force at home that physically draws them back. When they do arrive home, they are given treats as a reward. Panamanians have incentive too, and that is the opportunity to re-immerse into the tightly knit networks they spent their childhoods cultivating. Housing, jobs, friends: a support system. Returning to Panama after school is a surefire propulsion into the good life. The comfortable life. The life of familiarity. Part of Panama's seduction is its community feel. At around three million people, it is quintessential of the small-town sensation of knowing everyone and everything. This comforts people. More importantly, one's access to contacts and networking is synonymous with success in Panama. Once you've experienced it, bonds with people of power (surprisingly accessible in Panama) are hard to live without. Another draw is Panama's progression. Once only a banana republic and now emerging in the world spotlight, there's an overwhelming feeling of process and renaissance here - the growth from nothing to something huge. The satisfaction and self-fulfillment of being in the room is, for lack of a better word, historic; the kind of thing no one with a sense of magnitude would consider missing out on. {adsense} I remember an anti-tobacco commercial once that said addiction to nicotine felt like demons scratching on the inside of your skull. Maybe less evil than the need for cigarettes, I always find myself missing Panama in some way or another when I'm gone - withdrawal symptoms I suppose they could be called - irritability, cravings, insomnia. Maybe it's the familiarity; the psychological dependence on my own private beach or a $0.20 Coke. Or maybe it's a physical compulsion, like homing pigeons, drawn to the tiny isthmus by a mysterious pull of the earth. Image: desertimages.com.au/alastair/images/world_homing_pigeons_493.jpg
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