Panama America, Panama

'The Banana States of America'

 

"Banana republics passed out contracts to those closest to power, issued paper money like it was toilet paper and sold seats in Parliament and other sinecures to the highest bidder. … It would be laughable if it weren't so tragic for so many millions of people, that the once portentous United States of America is today so similar to the caricature that they themselves invented about those of us down here."

 

EDITORIAL

 

Translated By Mari Suyama

 

December 16, 2008

 

Panama - Panama America - Original Article (Spanish)

Woody Allen mocks the classic Latin America despot in his 1971 film Bananas. Have we in the United States become that caricature?   WOODY ALLEN'S BANANAS: Trailer from the film, in which the iconic 'banana republic' dictator goes mad with his newfound power, 00:00:59

In the 1970s and 80s, the term "Banana Republic" or República Bananera was a derogatory way of referring to a badly governed country. The prototype was a Central American republic with a "President," who was always an operatic personality dressed in military garb, inclined to initiate wars for the most trivial reasons and surrounded by sycophants who flatter him far more than his meager capabilities would merit. Normally standing behind him was a "Grey Eminence" pulling the puppet strings and making millions at the expense of the government's damaging decisions. 

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

 

 

These banana republics passed out contracts to those closest to power, issued paper money like it was toilet paper and sold seats in Parliament and other sinecures to the highest bidder. If we analyze the present, we have a country governed by an operatic "president" whose grey eminence [Dick Cheney] has been accused of plunging the country into a senseless war and until he was elected to office, led a company that received hundreds of millions of dollars in non-bid contracts for that war. Furthermore, it is a country that is printing billions of dollars without any real economic basis, and where the President-elect's Senate seat was being sold to the highest bidder at a base price of $2.5 million.

 

It would be laughable if it weren't so tragic for so many millions of people, that the once portentous United States of America is today so similar to the caricature that people in that country invented about those of us down here.

 

CLICK HERE FOR SPANISH VERSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US December 23, 5:18pm]