I’ve worked in Panama only twice–and I’d love to go back. Once spending a week there I was, like others, amazed by its legions of banks, the range of going businesses, the contrasts, the over-importance of the Canal to its economic health, the frustrations of working there, the problems with finding decent local business lawyers to work with and the daunting and king-hell blend of tribes from all over the world throughout its strange and meandering history. It is still a post-colonial ethnic salad bowl. At R.D. Lewis’s fascinating Cross-Culture Maarten Stal writes this week on “Panama: A Country in Transition“. In particular, note what consultant Stal has to say about Panama’s history, the primacy of Canal Zone and the joys and challenges for the many ex-pats now working in a country with its human origins in “native Indians, conquistadores, blacks, Chinese, French, Americans, Arabs, Jews and a variety of other (mostly European) nationalities”.
Panama City, Panama