Panama's Make or Break |
 |
 |
 |
| Written by Matt |
| Saturday, 05 September 2009 07:09 |
 (Panama) On the mid-April days leading up to the NFL draft of 1998, the coaching staff of the Indianapolis Colts and Bill Polian, the team's president, sat in their war room pouring over reels of footage. They broke down game tape through hundreds of hours of slow-mo video featuring two college all-stars, Peyton Manning from University of Tennessee and Ryan Leaf of Washington State. In college, both players had amassed a spectacular array of accomplishments.
Manning established thirty-three passing records at Tennessee, becoming the university's all-time leading passer with 11,201 yards, 863 completions, and 89 touchdowns. His accurate throwing arm also helped him set several SEC records in passing yards, pass completions, and completion percentage. Leaf averaged 330.6 yards passing per game in his junior year and threw for a then- conference record 33 touchdowns. He also helped the Cougars defeat the University of Washington Huskies, 41-35, for the first time since 1994. It would not be unfair to say that in 1998, Manning and Leaf were the best two football prospects in the world. The Indianapolis Colts had the first pick in the draft and the San Diego Chargers had moved up to pick #2 by making a big trade, meaning, whichever quarterback the Colts didn't select would fall to the Chargers. In effect, the decision that Polian and the Colts were going to make was not only going to affect their franchise, but San Diego's as well. Polian's decision would have been an easy one were it not for the daunting misfortunes that historically surround quarterbacks in the NFL draft. In 1994, the Washington Redskins used their third pick on Heath Shuler who would soon thereafter play so poorly he'd sever ties with the league and work in politics. The year before, the Seattle Seahawks wasted millions on Rick Mirer who - not unlike Tim Couch (1999) or David Carr (2002) - looked just as promising as Manning and Leaf, but would go on to have terribly pedestrian careers. This is the quarterback problem. There are certain realms where almost nothing you can learn about a candidate before show time can predict how they will fare once on the big stage. So how does one know the real deal from the failures? In the past 20 years, a number of world destinations have experimented with the momentary spotlight. Some have gone on to develop in wonderful and authentic ways while others have descended into mediocrity. Panama in 2009 stands at a crossroads. There are three ways of measuring Panama's real world potential. First are the tangible indicators like economic growth, geography, communications...etc. Second, are the semi-tangible indicators such as work ethic and happiness, which are not necessarily documented but can be derived from tangible indicators quite accurately. Third, and what this article will focus primarily on, are the intangible indicators: aspects of Panama that have no value or designation on paper but play a very crucial role in the future of the country. {adsense} Knowing what everyone else knows about Panama doesn't really help matters. Great location, tons of banks, beautiful beaches...blah blah blah. It's the intangible factors that can predict whether or not Panama could hold its own on the main stage. Political risks come to mind as in, can Panama's corruption ever truly be uprooted? While the idea of civil war is unlikely here, one needs to consider how President Martinelli will govern and how will this directly affect the very foreigners his campaign is attempting to recruit. Whether or not one can rent out an investment apartment short term, for example, or the legality of putting squatters on one's land to obtain clear title: these are political intangibles that will directly influence the outcome of the nation. Cultural intangibles too stand in the way of the Republic becoming world-class. How will the world's great companies now relocating their headquarters to Panama (Proctor & Gamble, General Electric, and Heineken just to name a few) integrate into Panamanian society? How will the manana mindset or excessive holidays shape a new and transformed nation so saturated with foreigners? Is the aspiration of world stardom right for Panama - or is it inherently stuck with something less? Before the draft on April 18th, everyone knew both prospects had the size and the physical tools to be successful quarterbacks in the NFL. It was also known that the differences - on draft day - between he who'd make a name for himself and he who would disappear were extremely small. Not only would their offensive lines help tell that story, but so would Manning and Leaf's maturity and their leadership, both on and off the field. After all, the only way of testing whether you can be an NFL quarterback is being an NFL quarterback. It's easy to aspire to be world class. And there are still many aspects of Panama life today that have a long ways to go. Bus crashes, for instance, are a common occurrence, the most recent of which killed 23 people. Frequent cartel busts, money laundering politicos, overt bribes: these are things that just don't happen in, say, Amsterdam. Or maybe they just don't happen so often or openly. This is not to say Panama's improvement is decent, but in a realistic sense, there are a lot of decent destinations in the world. If you're not familiar with the NFL, the Indianapolis Colts went on to draft Peyton Manning from Tennessee. In his first season, Manning set five different NFL rookie records including most touchdown passes in a season, and was named to the NFL All-Rookie First Team. His first win, coincidentally, would come against fellow rookie Ryan Leaf who would go on to exhibit one of the worst statistical seasons in league history. He was released by the Chargers, retired at age 26, and is currently a golf coach at West Texas A&M. His draft counterpart will undoubtedly enter the football Hall of Fame. It's tempting to see Panama's traits as definitive one way or another. It's an emerging country. It's breaking ground in Central America. It's defying the recession. If it's within his term as declared, Ricardo Martinelli has only a short time to make Panama truly world-class. We're talking tourism infrastructure, investment strength, and lifestyle standards that rival the first world - to some this would seem an outrageous, or at least unfair, objective. Predicting Panama's success, using terms that are not tangible though is nothing more than an educated guess. Even if we could understand all Panama's ground realities and forecast an outcome, there are still dark horses that defy typical trends. Which is to say, with regards to being a true success over the long term, Panama could really go one way or the other. Image: pty4u.com
Set as favorite
Bookmark
Email this
Hits: 731 Trackback(0)
Comments (1)
  written by PetersB , September 06, 2009 wow dude, powerful stuff. always had the same teetering feeling - that panama could go one way or the other. unfortunately, i feel now that its more likely to fall to the lesser side; there are simply too many things in panama to overcome. does that mean it's not a great retirement/relocation destination? of course not - it's still wonderful. but like you say, "Is the aspiration of world stardom right for Panama - or is it inherently stuck with something less?"
report abuse
vote down
vote up
Votes: +0
Write comment
|
| Last Updated on Saturday, 05 September 2009 07:10 |
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/hide comment form
