Panama Canal

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Today we navigated through the historical Panama Canal. It took 13 hours to cross it. Three locks total. It was definitely a process. I for one did not know much about the Panama Canal, just knew that it was a man-made wonder of the world. You see, we crossed oceans, from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. The challenge that it took to overcome connecting the two oceans is pretty incredible and quite stoic. The “greatest liberty ever taken on nature” according to Professor Hunt, I don’t doubt this one bit. We ascended the waters to 54ft on the first lock: Miraflores and we ascended our last 31ft at the Pedro Miguel Locks, a total of 85ft high. Then we descended into the Atlantic Ocean through the Gatun Lock. Thereby, crossing oceans in just hours. It’s quite an incredible process, there is so much that happens underneath that we don’t see or feel. It’s crazy really. And then when we look into the history of the construction of the Canal, which took almost 10 years from 1904-1913 it’s even more baffling. The US took over this project started and then abandoned by the French in 1903. A lot of people died during this construction due to disease and harsh working conditions. I mean seriously though, there were mountains, rock formations, and simply land that needed to be excavated in order to create dams, the manmade late, all in the name of this canal. There were approximately 40,000 workers employed to complete this project. North American workers were paid in gold and unskilled laborers from the West Indies predominantly from Barbados were paid in silver and they were the ones with the most strenuous work and that worked under the harshest conditions. The west Indians, those who survived the project still thank God they survived such times—times were rough. This initiated not only the emergence of the U.S as a global power but also of globalization in the 20^th century. The U.S would take control of trade and attain commercial supremacy—manifest destiny.

            So I don’t mean for this to be a history lesson, and you might stop reading this right about now lol, but this is information that I did not know or had ever learned in class so I would really like to share this information because it’s interesting and tells us a little bit more about U.S. foreign policy. So, from 1914-1960s there were growing tensions between the U.S and Panama over the property rights of the Panama Canal. The treaties that were instilled after the U.S. construction of the canal gave the U.S. full rights over the canal thereby, giving the U.S full power to install 14 military bases throughout Panama in order to protect it.  As tensions grew and issues such as prostitution, violence, drugs and all kind of bad was inflicted on the Panamanian people due to U.S military presence, Panamanians began to protest. Finally in 1976 under the Carter administration new treaties were signed and it was settled that full sovereignty of the Panama Canal would be handed over to Panama on December 31, 1999.  However, in order to prevent this from happening in 1999, the U.S. ordered a series of commands with hopes to impede this from happening like a failed U.S supported coup against Noriega when Noriega no longer wanted to be their puppet (he was supported by the CIA and had been on their payroll since the 1960s) and  finally the most atrocious of them all: the U.S. invasion in Panama (Code name: Operation Just Cause) on December 20, 1989.
The U.S invaded Panama for three days, killing thousands of people, targeting labor union leaders, journalists and dissidents of the U.S. The U.S. already had Endara in mind for president and Ford (who the night before the coup were reunited with the U.S forces to make this happen) and the concentration camps for refugees or political dissidents in Campo Balboa. The U.S said the damage and targets would be “non-collateral attacks”, but the U.S. fired on civilians, with unnecessary force. 20,000 Panamanian lost their homes and the areas of San Miguelito, Colon and El Churillo were the most affected, the poorest regions in Panama, but we heard nothing about this in the media or in our schools. Crazy control of the press in the states I’d say. People always complain about other countries being repressive, I think I would call this fascism.  This still happens today by the way, we see nothing in the media about what is going on in Afghanistan, Iraq or Libya to this day. And when we do, we hear about American causalities but nothing about the civilian causalities that happen everyday.  We live in a country that prides itself for having freedom of speech but, what good is that when we live in a country that does not listen? What really is the truth, if it comes from the dominant discourse controlled by the elite of this country?

But yeah, that was my tad-bit on Panama. There’s so much more and it’s all so very interesting! I totally recommend everyone to take some time and read about it. The Panama Canal is a pretty incredible man-made creation, it’s just sad to think that development unfortunately comes at the expense of the people and the environment. Ohh, last night at my family dinner, my brother said, “if con is the opposite of pro, then congress is the opposite of progress” I thought that was so brilliant lol.

So I have a few more days on the boat. I’m definitely excited about it and I'm anticipating going back home and starting real life again; I’m starting my life yo! Done with college and now…not sure what haha, but I’m excited to see what’s in store for me. Right now I will enjoy my last days on the ship and in Roatan with my friends. It’s been an awesome ride, one that I am super grateful for and from which I have learned and taken a lot from.  :)

P.S. China and Japan & Hawaii blogs are long overdue but they’re coming soon! :)

<3 Jen