Someone Called the Police

It is not good to fight with Panamanians!

You will lose.

There once was a restaurant called Culturas. The owner entered into a dispute with a Panamanian neighbor about parking on the street. The place is NO more.

There once was a restaurant called Amigos. It was a favorite but it lost it's lease and had to shut down. The owner would get drunk and fight with the landlord...physically. So, the lease was not offered to Amigos for renewal.

The owner of Amigos found another location in a residential neighborhood. He spent way too much money renovating it, then it opened.

Bands were hired to play music, mainly rock and roll.

We have played there twice in the last week. Last night the police came to register a complaint about the noise. We are a rock and roll band after all and the bar is open on three sides.

In spite of the warning, we continued to play...as requested by the owner.

The longevity of this place will be short. It doesn't pay to fight with Panamanians.

Even though this is a polite, soft culture, they find ways to assert there will. And it is a passive aggressive society so you don't see it coming until it knocks you to the ground.

There is almost no violence against a person. Rare. But it does happen in a few circumstances. Like cheating a Panamanian out of money. Or committing adultery. That is, a gringo cheating on a Panamanian.

As an aside, adultery is rampant in Panama among Panamanians, probably the result of the Catholic church's stand agains divorce.

They have motels called a "Push" where you can rent a room by the hour. With multigenerational families in over crowded homes, it is necessary for married couples to seek privacy in a Push.

But it is as common to take someone "not your spouse" to a Push for a little fling!

It is so important to learn the culture when living in a foreign land.