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| Defending Their Nation’s Honor on Social Media: #PanamaIsMoreThanPapers | Defending Their Nation’s Honor on Social Media: #PanamaIsMoreThanPapers |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| PANAMA — The anonymous message began appearing on Panamanian cellphones days after the news broke that 11.5 million documents, called the Panama Papers, had leaked from a law firm dealing in secretive shell companies. | PANAMA — The anonymous message began appearing on Panamanian cellphones days after the news broke that 11.5 million documents, called the Panama Papers, had leaked from a law firm dealing in secretive shell companies. |
| The message was a call to arms to defend the nation’s honor. | The message was a call to arms to defend the nation’s honor. |
| “O.K., people! The only way to combat those who are smearing the name of our country is to create positive, informed and educated content,” read the message in Spanish, which circulated quickly and widely. “We only want to clean the name of Panama! We want to attack like martial arts, using the force of our opponent. All at the same time!” | “O.K., people! The only way to combat those who are smearing the name of our country is to create positive, informed and educated content,” read the message in Spanish, which circulated quickly and widely. “We only want to clean the name of Panama! We want to attack like martial arts, using the force of our opponent. All at the same time!” |
| In short order, social media was festooned with multilingual, pro-Panama hashtags, often accompanied by photographs of beaches, sunsets, mountains and happy, carefree people: | |
| #PanamaParadise. | |
| #ILovePanama. | |
| #WeArePanama. | |
| #WeAreNotPapers. | |
| #PanamaIsMoreThanPapers. | |
| While the leaks from the law firm, Mossack Fonseca, may have left Panama looking like a wellspring of tax havens and an unconditional friend of the wealthy and corrupt, they have also set off an eruption of patriotic fervor in this small Central American country. From the impoverished rural hinterlands to the halls of the presidential palace, Panamanians are pushing back at the negative attention that has tumbled down on them. | While the leaks from the law firm, Mossack Fonseca, may have left Panama looking like a wellspring of tax havens and an unconditional friend of the wealthy and corrupt, they have also set off an eruption of patriotic fervor in this small Central American country. From the impoverished rural hinterlands to the halls of the presidential palace, Panamanians are pushing back at the negative attention that has tumbled down on them. |
| “They made the normal, regular Panama come alive and say, ‘What’s going on? I’m not a piece of paper. I’m not the guy laundering money in London, in France, in Japan. I’m not that,’” said Antonio Alfaro, the president of Panama’s Chamber of Tourism, an industry association. “They have brought us together.” | “They made the normal, regular Panama come alive and say, ‘What’s going on? I’m not a piece of paper. I’m not the guy laundering money in London, in France, in Japan. I’m not that,’” said Antonio Alfaro, the president of Panama’s Chamber of Tourism, an industry association. “They have brought us together.” |
| Some Panamanians have viewed the leak and the resulting international news coverage as an attack on Panamanian sovereignty, or even as a plot by a foreign competitor to wrest banking business from Panama. | |
| Many have bridled at the catchy nickname for the scandal — the Panama Papers — saying it unfairly shamed an entire nation. They floated alternatives, like the uncatchy “Mossack Fonseca Papers.” | Many have bridled at the catchy nickname for the scandal — the Panama Papers — saying it unfairly shamed an entire nation. They floated alternatives, like the uncatchy “Mossack Fonseca Papers.” |
| The reaction has been widespread, crossing all socioeconomic lines. | |
| “Most of the people who have been involved in these papers are foreigners, not Panamanians, so Panama is really the victim of this,” said Fernando Aramburú Porras, a management consultant and former economics and finance minister of Panama. The national mood “is a little beaten up,” he said. | “Most of the people who have been involved in these papers are foreigners, not Panamanians, so Panama is really the victim of this,” said Fernando Aramburú Porras, a management consultant and former economics and finance minister of Panama. The national mood “is a little beaten up,” he said. |
| While the reaction has flowed from a reservoir of national pride, some Panamanian commentators said it reflects a certain national fragility — revealing, perhaps, a lack of self-confidence about the country’s place in the world. | While the reaction has flowed from a reservoir of national pride, some Panamanian commentators said it reflects a certain national fragility — revealing, perhaps, a lack of self-confidence about the country’s place in the world. |
| Miguel Antonio Bernal, a constitutional lawyer and self-described “agitator of conscience,” said that Panama was still in effect trying to find its footing as an independent democracy after years of living under military dictatorships and within the American sphere of influence during the United States stewardship of the canal, which ended in 1999. | Miguel Antonio Bernal, a constitutional lawyer and self-described “agitator of conscience,” said that Panama was still in effect trying to find its footing as an independent democracy after years of living under military dictatorships and within the American sphere of influence during the United States stewardship of the canal, which ended in 1999. |
| “And now what are we?” he asked, shrugging. He likened the country to an adolescent. “We are a 15-year-old little country in the world, but we don’t know what we are. In the last 30 to 40 years we lost our soul. We’re looking for our soul, our identity, what it means to be Panamanian.” | “And now what are we?” he asked, shrugging. He likened the country to an adolescent. “We are a 15-year-old little country in the world, but we don’t know what we are. In the last 30 to 40 years we lost our soul. We’re looking for our soul, our identity, what it means to be Panamanian.” |
| With a stable, fast-growing economy that depends on a well-developed services sector, the country has become a regional trade hub and a popular place for foreign real estate investment. But it also suffers some of the worst income disparity in Latin America, with high rates of poverty among its nearly four million people, particularly in rural areas. | With a stable, fast-growing economy that depends on a well-developed services sector, the country has become a regional trade hub and a popular place for foreign real estate investment. But it also suffers some of the worst income disparity in Latin America, with high rates of poverty among its nearly four million people, particularly in rural areas. |
| The country has closely aligned its identity with the Panama Canal, which for years has been a kind of sacred cow here, immune from criticism. But even that institution has not been an unqualified source of pride for the nation. | The country has closely aligned its identity with the Panama Canal, which for years has been a kind of sacred cow here, immune from criticism. But even that institution has not been an unqualified source of pride for the nation. |
| An ambitious project to expand the canal has run way over budget — costing about $5.3 billion — and its opening, now scheduled for June 26, has been delayed for nearly two years. Some Panamanians, albeit quietly, say they have been concerned about damage to the country’s international reputation should the canal’s opening be delayed further. | An ambitious project to expand the canal has run way over budget — costing about $5.3 billion — and its opening, now scheduled for June 26, has been delayed for nearly two years. Some Panamanians, albeit quietly, say they have been concerned about damage to the country’s international reputation should the canal’s opening be delayed further. |
| But while Panamanians generally celebrate and embrace their canal, the same cannot be said for their relationship with the robust offshore banking industry. After the Mossack Fonseca leak, many were quick to distance themselves from the lawyers and bankers involved in that industry, and from the politicians who protect it. | |
| “The immense majority of the people of Panama are honest, hard-working people,” Luis González Marín, a top labor union official, said. “When there’s a fight between elephants, the thing that suffers is the grass.” | “The immense majority of the people of Panama are honest, hard-working people,” Luis González Marín, a top labor union official, said. “When there’s a fight between elephants, the thing that suffers is the grass.” |
| “It made all the Panamanians look bad,” Roger Villarreal, a hotel employee in Panama City’s banking district, said of the scandal. He, too, has participated in the pro-Panama social media campaign, unleashing several tweets pegged with the hashtag #PanamaEsMasQuePapeles, or #PanamaIsMoreThanPapers. | “It made all the Panamanians look bad,” Roger Villarreal, a hotel employee in Panama City’s banking district, said of the scandal. He, too, has participated in the pro-Panama social media campaign, unleashing several tweets pegged with the hashtag #PanamaEsMasQuePapeles, or #PanamaIsMoreThanPapers. |
| He said Twitter had allowed Panamanians to express their sense of liberation after years of living under the thumb of dictators and, to an extent, the United States. | |
| “You know, when you have a weight lifted off of you?” he asked. “You have the liberty of expressing yourself. You feel capable of defending what’s yours.” | “You know, when you have a weight lifted off of you?” he asked. “You have the liberty of expressing yourself. You feel capable of defending what’s yours.” |
| According to a recent national poll by the Panamanian research firm Dichter & Neira, 91 percent of respondents believed that the Panama Papers affair had “greatly” affected the country’s image, and 81 percent believed that it would affect the nation’s economy. (The nationwide poll was conducted in face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adults at their homes and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.) | According to a recent national poll by the Panamanian research firm Dichter & Neira, 91 percent of respondents believed that the Panama Papers affair had “greatly” affected the country’s image, and 81 percent believed that it would affect the nation’s economy. (The nationwide poll was conducted in face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adults at their homes and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.) |
| But some Panamanians see the leak and the resulting fallout as a potential watershed for the country, a test of its emotional constitution and its desire to earn the world’s respect. | But some Panamanians see the leak and the resulting fallout as a potential watershed for the country, a test of its emotional constitution and its desire to earn the world’s respect. |
| “What we need at this time is not crazy patriotism,” said Mr. Bernal, who habitually wears a Panamanian flag pin on his jacket lapel. | |
| “We need to see the crisis as an opportunity to be better: to cure what is necessary inside Panama first, and then to be respected around the world.” | |
| He likened the Panama Papers crisis to a wave: The country catches it, like a surfer, or is crushed. “We need to surf to the top of the wave to recover the country,” he said. “It’s a good moment to think and reflect and act.” | |
| Indeed, some tourism officials have been trying to figure out how to flip the negative attention to the country’s advantage. | Indeed, some tourism officials have been trying to figure out how to flip the negative attention to the country’s advantage. |
| Mr. Alfaro, of the Chamber of Tourism, said that a halt to government tourism advertising more than a year ago and delays in the construction of a new convention center have impeded the growth of the sector. | |
| But in recent weeks, the country has received more international publicity than it ever dreamed of — just not the kind it dreamed of, perhaps. | But in recent weeks, the country has received more international publicity than it ever dreamed of — just not the kind it dreamed of, perhaps. |
| Mr. Alfaro also reached for a surfing metaphor: Water is apparently never far from mind in a country squeezed between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. | Mr. Alfaro also reached for a surfing metaphor: Water is apparently never far from mind in a country squeezed between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. |
| “If we can do it fast enough, then we can probably take a ride on the wave of everybody knowing where Panama is,” he said. “We have to ride that wave in, but we have to do it very carefully.” | “If we can do it fast enough, then we can probably take a ride on the wave of everybody knowing where Panama is,” he said. “We have to ride that wave in, but we have to do it very carefully.” |
| The tourism-promotion engines in his mind had started to turn. | The tourism-promotion engines in his mind had started to turn. |
| “They say we are a fiscal or financial paradise,” he said, a pitch taking shape. “But we are a tourism paradise! Tell me, where else can you have breakfast in the Pacific, lunch at the Atlantic and be in the mountains at night and never get into an airplane?” | “They say we are a fiscal or financial paradise,” he said, a pitch taking shape. “But we are a tourism paradise! Tell me, where else can you have breakfast in the Pacific, lunch at the Atlantic and be in the mountains at night and never get into an airplane?” |