MetaFilter posts tagged with panama Posts tagged with 'panama' at MetaFilter. Mon, 10 Jun 2013 15:00:42 -0800 Mon, 10 Jun 2013 15:00:42 -0800 en-us 60 A New Path Between the Seas? <a href="">Nicaragua has awarded a Chinese company a 100-year concession to build an alternative to the Panama Canal.</a> With uncertain costs and impact to the environment, the canal is expected to pass through Lake Nicaragua, and will accomodate ships of 250,000 metric tons- twice the size the Panama Canal will accomodate even after <a href=''>upgrades</a>. This is not the <a href=''>first</a> time a canal through Nicaragua has been attempted. Canals in Central America were proposed as far back as the mid-1500's, when Emperor Charles V of Spain sought to ease the transport of gold from Peru back to Europe. In the 1840's, need for easier access to California (and its gold) reawakened interest in a canal, and in 1849, American industrialist Cornelius Vanderbilt signed an <a href=''>agreement</a> with Nicaragua to build both a canal and a temporary overland route. Although the canal was never built, it engendered a massive diplomatic crisis with the world's superpower Britain, whose interests were threatened by the prospect of an American-run canal. Conflict was resolved with the <a href=''>Clayton-Bulwer Treaty</a>, which among other things guaranteed the neutrality of any future canal. By 1902, French efforts to build a canal through Panama were failing and threatening to <a href=''>ruin</a> the country financially. Interests in the United States, meanwhile, were again moving towards a Nicaraguan canal and had passed a bill supporting said canal in the House of Representatives. In a stroke of luck, lobbyists for the French, desperate for an American bailout, were able to <a href=''>capitalize</a> on a recent deadly Caribbean volcano eruption coupled with an <a href=''>ill-timed</a> Nicaraguan stamp depicting an errupting volcano. Concerned in part by the threat of Nicaraguan volcanos, the United States moved instead to take over the French canal works in Panama. The current Chinese proposals promise to bring more than 40,000 <a href=''>jobs</a> to one of the poorest countries in Latin America, but also threaten to once again ignite conflicts between old and new superpowers battling for influence in the Americas.,2013:site.128940 Mon, 10 Jun 2013 15:00:42 -0800 Esteemed Offendi Charles de Thierry: man of many lands, king of none <a href="">Charles Philippe Hippolyte de Thierry lead a storied life, and many of those stories are ones he made up</a>. His family was associated with the French court, though there is doubt to his claims of noble lineage. In England, he met <a href="">two Maori chiefs and an English missionary from New Zealand</a>, and attempted to purchase a northern portion of New Zealand in 1820. He then sought to turn this land into a colony first for Britain in 1822, then the Dutch government in 1824 when the English offer fell through. The Dutch, too, turned him down, so in 1825 de Thierry made the same offer to the French government, and was similarly refused. Fleeing creditors, he left for America. In 1834, he traveled south, where he was granted concession for cutting the Panama Canal. That, too, fell through, and he sailed west, reaching Tahiti in June 1835, where he elected himself king of Nuka Hiva. The kingdom was never his, and so he continued west and south, arriving at his plot in New Zealand in 1837, where again he offered land up to France for a colony. His efforts to claim a colony and a kingdom came to an end in 1840, with the signing of <a href="">the Treaty of Waitangi</a>, sealing a deal between the British Crown and the Māori. Born of in 1793 to French parents who were associated French court, the family left France to escape the French Revolution, first to the Netherlands, then England. It was in England that de Thierry's father, Charles Antoine de Thierry, assumed the title of baron. This was a title the younger de Thierry would claim for his own, too. The family was close enough to nobles that during a visit to Edinburgh in 1796, Charles Philippe Hippolyte became the godson of the exiled <a href="">comte</a> d'Artois (later <a href="">Charles X of France</a>). In 1814, the younger de Thierry accompanied the Portuguese delegation to the <a href="">Congress of Vienna</a>, and in 1816 served briefly as an attach&#0233; at the French embassy in London. He married Emily Rudge in 1819, and the couple would have four sons and a daughter. In 1820, de Thierry met the Māori chiefs <a href="">Hongi Hika</a> and Waikato, who had traveled to England with <a href="">missionary Thomas Kendall</a>, who had returned to work on the book <a href="">A grammar and vocabulary of the language of New Zealand</a> (Google books). De Thierry, possibly posing as an exiled French adventurer, arranged for a purchase of a portion of New Zealand, with Kendall working as the intermediary between de Thierry and the Māori chiefs. De Thierry gave Kendall &#0163;800 worth of goods to buy "all the land from <a href=",_New_Zealand">North Cape</a> to <a href="">Tauranga</a>." Depending on the telling, this purchase was made with 36 axes, or possibly <a href="">500 muskets plus powder and ball</a>, though it could be that <a href="">Hongi Hika convinced Kendall to take him to London, where he sold gifts to acquire at least 200 muskets</a>, playing a pivotal role in the <a href="">Musket Wars of from 1818 and the early 1830s</a>. However it worked out, de Thierry had the deed for 40,000 acres at <a href="">Hokianga</a> executed in 1822. According to <a href="">the 1966 Encyclopedia of New Zealand</a>, <blockquote>Thierry requested British protection for the colony he was then assembling in London, but was rebuffed by the Colonial Office. He next approached the Dutch Ambassador in London in February 1824 with a proposal to purchase Holland's “rights” in New Zealand for &#0163;50,000; in April with an offer “to secure to the King of the Netherlands the Sovereignty and possession of New Zealand, which would … ensure His Majesty a yearly revenue of upwards of Five Millions of Pounds Sterling”. <a href="">He modestly suggested that his appointment as “Viceroy of New Zealand” would be a fitting reward for his services, adding that he was born in Brussels and descended from the Counts of Flanders.</a> </blockquote> This effort also failed, and in October 1824, de Thierry was in France, where his godfather was now king. Despite this fact, he had no more luck getting support for his colony-to-be in France, and was again "financially embarrassed." He returned to England to again attempt to gather a colonizing party, only to fall short of his goal. He headed to the United States in 1827 with his family. Little is recorded about this period until de Thierry's family left from Virginia in 1832, possibly heading for Brazil, though de Thierry would later tell that New Zealand was always his destination. Thierry went through the Caribbean, gathering followers, subscriptions and supplies, stopping in Panama in December 1834. There, de Thierry received a franchise for a canal at Panama from General <a href="">Sim&#0243;n Bol&#0237;var</a>, the President of the <a href="">Republic of (New) Granada</a>. <a href="">"Baron" Thierry was more enterprising than practical in his thoughts, and was unable to raise the required capital to make the necessary surveys and begin the work</a> (Google books). Later, <a href="">a more organized and qualified French group would actually start work on a canal</a>, which the US would take over and complete. De Thierry was not done yet, and on his journey towards New Zealand he stopped in Tahiti in June 1835, where he elected himself king of <a href="">Nuka Hiva</a>, which two decades earlier, <a href="">Captain David Porter of the United States Navy tried to annex in the name of the US</a>. Porter, <a href="">the first American imperialist, renamed the island Madison's Island, and named the American military settlement Madisonville</a> (Google books preview), in tribute to President Madison. Neither Madison nor Secretary of State James Monroe ever acknlowedged Porter's unauthorized annexation. De Thierry fared little better, <a href="">raising a flag</a> and mustering a military force, but <a href="">Robert FitzRoy</a> denounced de Thierry as an imposter and unfit to have a military force at his disposal. FitzRoy was not de Thierry's only opposition of this sort. News of de Thierry's land claims and plans for a colony traveled faster than he did. De Thierry reached Sydney, New South Wales in July 1837, with <a href="">British Resident</a> <a href="">James Busby</a> striking the first three blows against de Thierry in a <a href="">duel with quill pens</a>, culminating in <a href="">the 1835 Declaration of Independence of New Zealand</a>, with support from 34 northern chiefs. Though Governor Bourke of New South Wales referred to the Declaration as ‘a paper pellet fired off at Baron de Thierry,’ the Declaration was a first step towards <a href="">the Treaty of Waitangi</a> in 1840, which formalized the British sovereignty over New Zealand, annexed the country, protected the Māori, regulated British subjects and secured commercial interests. That was still five years away, and de Thierry had a colony to set up. He recruited colonists and money from Sydney, and sailed for Hokianga, arriving in northern New Zealand on November 4, 1837. <a href="">Nene</a> and <a href="">Patuone</a> denied the validity of Kendall's purchase of 40,000 acres, but Nene and <a href="">Te Taonui</a> granted Thierry 800 acres at Hokianga on condition that he give up his larger claim, much which was <a href="">already claimed by other European settlers</a>. His claim greatly reduced in size, de Thierry lost the confidence of his assorted colonists. Again down, but still not out, de Thierry sent inflated accounts of his success to France, still hoping to win support for his plans for a French colony. The Treaty of Waitangi ended de Thierry's hopes of being any sort of ruler in any land. The <a href="">Flagstaff War</a> (also known as Hone Heke's Rebellion, the Northern War, the First Māori War and the War of 1845–46) sent de Thierry south to Auckland, where he lived in meager conditions until news of the California gold rush hooked him, and he sailed off in hopes of riches. His luck was now on a sour streak, as <a href="">he was left behind with four other passengers</a>, stranded <a href="">Pitcairn Island</a> for a month. Their ship, headed to Honolulu, stopped to get fresh water. The tides turned or the winds picked up, and the captain decided it was better to leave than endanger the ship. But de Thierry did make it to California, though he only stayed for six months. He returned to Honolulu to work at the French Consulate until March 1853, when news of his wife's ill health took him back to Auckland, where he taught piano. In 1856, the New Zealand Government presented de Thierry with one hundred and six acres of land, in compensation for his claim of 40,000 acres. He continued to teach music until his sudden death on July 8, 1864. If this story is too short, or lacking in narrative flourishes, you might well enjoy <a href="">Check to your King</a>, which <a href="">reads like an enthralling historical novel rather than conventional biography.... [Also offering] clear insight into the relations between white men and natives,</a> by <a href="">Robin Hyde</a>, the most common pen-name for <a href="">Iris Guiver Wilkinson</a>, one of New Zealand's major poets (1906 – 1939). And you can <a href="">read more of de Thierry's lineage at Lessels Website</a>, a genealogy site for Lynly Lessels Yates. Note: many links lead to PDFs.,2012:site.118993 Thu, 16 Aug 2012 14:30:53 -0800 filthy light thief Lots of Boats Come Through, Lots of Agricultural Products Asked to cover Van Halen's "<a href="">Panama</a>" for A.V. Undercover 2012, Reggie Watts chose to present <a href=",70723/">an early demo version of the song</a>, "helpfully dispelling some myths and explaining how its namesake canal works.",2012:site.116636 Tue, 05 Jun 2012 03:23:05 -0800 Knappster Pope Hats Pope Benedict XVI has revived many dormant style traditions and introduced a few fashion innovations of his own. Also, he often wears fanciful hats. Examples: A <a href="!/Kingsroc/status/184257586378452992/photo/1">Sombrero</a>, A <a href="">camauro</a> (camel skin hat of red wool or velvet with white <a href="">ermine</a>), a free <a href="">baseball cap</a>, a wide brim red <a href=",0,">cappello romano</a>, (I.E. saturno), a <a href="">Yarmulke</a> (a little <a href="">zucchetto</a>), <a href="">Mitra</a> Pretiosa, <a href="">Papal Tiara</a> (there are many in <a href="">existence</a>) and so <a href="">many more</a>. A <a href=",29307,1730229,00.html">Time Magazine</a> gallery. Also: <a href="">Papal shoes &amp; slippers</a>. This is the site for <a href="">Ecclesiastical Finery</a>,2012:site.114257 Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:17:04 -0800 growabrain Like Noriega but Fresher Smelling! Indigenous groups in Panama have shut down parts of the <a href="">Pan American Highway</a> in an increasingly <a href="">violent protest</a>. The root of the conflict is the <a href="">Martinelli</a> government’s refusal to enact environmental protection that was <a href="">promised</a> for the <a href="">Ng&#0246;be-Bugl&#0233; Comarca</a> from both Hydro-Electric and <a href="">mining exploitation</a>. Outside press is being <a href="">denied entry</a> to cover the conflict. This is not the <a href="">first time</a> this has happened. Ongoing updates in English can be found <a href="">here</a>.,2012:site.112497 Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:15:43 -0800 white_devil Panama Priti Bikes <a href="">Panama Priti Bikes, by Jos&#0233; Castrell&#0243;n.</a>,2011:site.109741 Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:44:46 -0800 Fiasco da Gama Sounds and Sights of Science The <a href="">Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute</a> is working to make many of their digital archives accessible <a href="">online</a>: These include everything from <a href="">the distress call of a young howler monkey</a> to <a href="">courting poison dart frogs</a>, to the <a href="">sound of morning amongst the mangroves</a> - not to mention more than 40,000 photographs and 1500 documents all related to STRI's work in Panama and across the tropics.,2011:site.106997 Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:36:21 -0800 ChuraChura Cannabis culture <a href="">Cannabis Culture</a>,2011:site.102160 Sun, 03 Apr 2011 05:00:25 -0800 twoleftfeet A Compendium of Obscure Things <a href="">Res Obscura</a> is a blog by Ben Breen, a graduate student of early modern history, which styles itself "a compendium of obscure things." Indeed, even the asides are full of wonder, such as the one about Boy, the famous Royalist war poodle of the English Civil War, which is but a short addendum to <a href="">a post about witches' familiars</a>. Here are some of my favorite posts, <a href="">Pirate Surgeon in Panama</a> (and a related <a href="">post about 18th Century Jamaica</a>), <a href="">vanished civilizations</a>, <a href="">asemic pseudo-Arabic and -Hebrew writing in Renaissance art</a>, and a series of posts about the way the Chinese and Japanese understood the world outside Asia in the early modern period (<a href="">Europeans as 'Other'</a>, <a href="">Europeans as 'Other,' Redux</a> and <a href="">Early Chinese World Maps</a>).,2010:site.96198 Thu, 30 Sep 2010 00:43:14 -0800 Kattullus 28 Days Later Justin and Stephanie are travelling from <a href="">Philadelphia</a> to Auckland on the <a href="">Cap Cleveland</a>, a 220m long <a href="">container</a> <a href="">ship</a>. They're through the <a href="">Panama Canal</a>, crossed the<a href=""> equator</a> and are now cruising at 18 knots on the final (and longest) leg to <a href="">New Zealand</a>. (Live tracking <a href="">here</a>) They've <a href="">seen Cuba</a>, had a <a href="">barbecue</a> on board and <a href="">steered the ship</a>. But the best thing? Updating their blogs from the <a href="">middle of the ocean</a>. Fancy making your own trip? Details here on <a href="">how</a> (and why) they did it.,2010:site.95983 Thu, 23 Sep 2010 07:49:59 -0800 jontyjago Hands across the water. What do you do when you're a <a href="">Panamanian golden frog</a> and you need to let that certain special someone across the way know you're, um, interested? Sure, you could croak a few sweet nothings in her ear, but those rushing jungle streams can drown out even the most virile of frog voices. So, you... <a href="">wave</a>! Yeah, give her a little wave! A BBC film crew has captured footage of this rare (and, according to their article, now extinct) amphibian <a href="">waving, fighting and mating</a>. <small>[NOTE: last link includes <i>hot</i> froggy m&#0233;nage &#0224; trois. Surely NSFW!]</small> Here's a <a href="">National Geographic</a> documentary on earlier efforts to treat the Chytrid fungus-induced disease that has decimated the golden frog population.,2008:site.68717 Fri, 01 Feb 2008 18:29:16 -0800 flapjax at midnite What will become of Pineapple Face? <a href="">Manuel Noriega will be getting out of jail soon.</a>,2007:site.63103 Fri, 20 Jul 2007 11:55:15 -0800 Meatbomb Hot Shoes Pointin' Down The Avenue <a href="">Two time-lapse journeys</a> through the <a href="">Panama Canal.</a><small>(YouTube)</small>,2006:site.56725 Mon, 04 Dec 2006 14:35:24 -0800 fandango_matt Pachakutic on schedule for 2012 <a href="">Latin</a> <a href="">America</a> <a href=",8599,1146794,00.html">Turning</a> <a href=",20876,18765975-2703,00.html">Left?</a> From the top<a href="">:</a> <a href="" title="Brazil">Lula</a> <a href="" title="did not turned out to be the populist some had hoped">da Silva</a><a href="" title=>*</a>, <a href="" title="Mexico">Lopez</a> <a href="" title="dangerous demogogue spreading dread 'populism' in his efforts to attend to the poor">Obrador</a>, <a href="" title="Argentina">Nestor</a> <a href="" title="elected from the left, governing from the center">Kirchner</a>, <a href="" title="Venezuela">Hugo</a> <a href="" title="anti-democratic populist demagogue human rights violator obsessed with personal power">Chavez</a><a href="" title=>*</a>, <a href="" title="Colombia">Alvaro</a> <a href="" title="decimation of the electoral left and paramilitary threats assure his re-election">Uribe</a>, <a href="" title="Chile">Michelle</a> <a href="" title="progressives base their positive response to her election on very skimpy grounds">Bachelet</a><a href="" title=>*</a>, <a href="" title="Peru">Ollanta</a> <a href="" title="unclear if he is a die-hard 'pink tide' supporter">Humala</a>, <a href="" title="Ecuador">Alfredo</a> <a href="" title="prepared to move to the left to consolidate his leadership">Palacio</a>, <a href="" title="Guatemala">Oscar</a> <a href="" title="closely identified with the country’s powerful old-guard elite">Berger</a>, <a href="" title="The Dominican Republic">Leonel</a> <a href="" title="self-described post-populist post neo-liberal">Fernandez</a>, <a href="" title="Costa Rica">Oscar</a> <a href="" title="new social democrat in the European mold who accepts global capitalism as a given and works within its rules">Arias</a>, <a href="" title="El Salvador">Tony</a> <a href="" title="pro-US, pro-CAFTA, favored by the White House">Saca</a>, <a href="" title="Uruguay">Tabare</a> <a href="" title="leads a coalition of democratic socialists, communists and former urban guerrillas">Vazquez</a>, <a href="" title="Panama">Mart&#0237;n</a> <a href="" title="analyzing Panamanian politics from a perspective of left versus right makes no sense">Torrijos</a>, <a href="" title="Bolivia">Evo</a> <a href="" title="leftist candidate from one of Bolivia's Indian peoples who wants to legalise coca-growing">Morales</a><a href="" title=>*</a> <a href="" title="Honduras">Manuel</a> <a href="" title="dependence on the United States effectively blocks any leftward political shift">Zelaya</a>, <a href="" title="Paraguay">Nicanor</a> <a href="" title="anti-neo-liberal, belongs to a party with the world's record for being in power longest">Duarte</a>, <a href="" title="Nicaragua">Daniel</a> <a href="" title="Cold War U.S. foe and loser of the last three elections staging a creeping coup">Ortega</a>, <a href="" title="Haiti">Rene</a> <a href="" title="may be lucky just to stay alive and keep his sanity and blood pressure under control">Preval</a><a href="" title=>*</a><a href="" title="Will history repeat itself, or has history paved the way for an alternative outcome?">.</a>,2006:site.50880 Thu, 13 Apr 2006 08:57:43 -0800 airguitar CAG spying in Haiti <a href="">Nefarious deeds in Haiti</a> by the Consultants Advisory Group. Kathryn Cramer exposes <a href="">n'er do wells </a>acting in Haiti, operating out of Panama. Given the <a href="">recent goings on</a> in Haiti, one can only speculate as to the extent of their involvement...,2006:site.48435 Fri, 20 Jan 2006 17:46:19 -0800 pucklermuskau A Man, a Plan, a Cam... <a href="">Panamacam!</a> <em>(warning: embedded mpg)</em> Using available web-cam footage and a little DIY hackery, Stephan van der Palen created this nifty little time-lapse movie of shipping traffic in the Panama Canal zone (1 week=11 min.). Not to be outdone, the <a href="">US Army Corps of Engineers</a> has their own Lock-cams, and releases their own <a href="">time-lapse movies of Soo Lock Traffic</a>--from multiple cams--every day of the shipping season.,2005:site.46798 Fri, 18 Nov 2005 10:53:41 -0800 Chrischris Crossing the Darien Gap <a href="">Crossing the Darien Gap.</a> The Pan-American Highway is not quite Pan-American. There are 200 miles of untamed jungle, where Panama meets Colombia, called the "Darien Gap". Today, persistent kidnappings and cartel activity make it unsafe to cross by either foot or off-road vehicle. But it's been done a few times. Here is one such tale, a blog from the mid-seventies. [more inside],2002:site.22309 Sat, 14 Dec 2002 00:58:30 -0800 condour75