Update to Predatory 'Services' at Hospital Nacional

As subscribers to the Newsletter know, I goofed when I reported on an ATM incident at Hospital Nacional. Straight up, it never happened. A faulty memory, confusion about dates, and a less than clear bank statement caused me to misinterpret what happened. I apologize to all. I also received the following from Mr. Craig Morrissey of Hospital Nacional.

ATM: The ATM in Hospital Nacional is a HSBC ATM. The hospital makes no revenue off the ATM at all. Like many of the banks in Panama, if you are a member of the bank they do not charge you for the use of the ATM, but if you belong to another bank and use the HSBC ATM then they will charge you a fee of 60 cents. Each bank’s fee is different, but HSBC charges 60 cents.

INTERNET: The hospital had received many requests for Internet, but our auditors advised us not to grant access to our network to non-hospital employees as there is very sensitive health data on our network. The Internet that is presently located at Hospital Nacional is actually given by a company called , INTERNET-KIOSK. This company is the owner of the computer and the sale of the cards for the internet goes to that company.
While the hospital recognizes that the charge may be high, we were able to negotiate a lower price from INTERNET-KIOSK than is offered at their other locations. We also felt that it was better to at least have the service to offer and to let the customer decide. Again, the hospital makes no revenue off of the service.

Crime Spree in the Neighborhood

Last weekend at about 2:00 am, someone climbed our fence and broke the right rear quarter window out of Nora's car. For whatever reason the alarm didn't go off, but I apparently heard something out of the ordinary, because I woke up, went to the front of the house, and turned on a light. I didn't see anything so went back to bed. I don't know if I scared the thief off, or if he finally noticed the flashing alarm light on the dash before opening the door, but for whatever reason, the only damage was the broken window. This is the third time our cars have been broken into right in front of the house, and a pickup I used to own lost its battery while my son was at a party, the thieves gaining entrance by breaking a window. The time before this thieves did over $1000.00 in damage to the dashboard of Nora's car while removing the radio.

Several other neighbors have reported car breakins and on Friday, thieves broke into my next door neighbor's house and stole a DVD player. They got in by removing the lock cylinder on his steel door, and they did it while at least one person was home at my house, yet we heard nothing out of the ordinary.

Goodbye Teufel

We've had pets since we first met, mostly dogs, but also a Toucan and a Parrot. For the last 16 years we've had Dachshunds, and even bred them for a few years. Last week, the last of them, Teufel, died of a mysterious illness compounded by old age and heart worms. She was 11 years old. Nora made a heroic effort to save her, and the vet did everything possible, but she died Thursday evening and we buried her in the backyard next to her mother. Nora says she will be our last pet, but we'll see. The kids are gone and the grandkids are thousands of miles away. I think a puppy might be kind of nice. Probably another Dachshund, we've learned that they stay puppies forever.

A Visit to The Panama News

On Wednesday, I visited Eric Jackson at The Panama News office, located just down the street from Colegio Javier in the Girl Scouts (Guias Muchachas) building. Eric is the editor of The Panama News  an online newspaper featuring news, opinion, and lots more about Panama. Eric has been doing a fine job of publishing the paper with not nearly enough income to justify doing it as a means to earn a living. Eric does it because he wants to do it, and he's quite passionate about it. He also performs a valuable public service to the English speaking community of Panama expats and expatriated Panamanians. We got to talking about how Eric manages the contribution campaign which he runs a couple of times a year, and it became quickly obvious to me that The Panama News needs a convenient way for readers anywhere in the world to use their credit cards to contribute. I suggested that PayPal would be a good way to receive contributions, and offered the use of my PayPal Premier Account to allow readers to make online contributions. Here's how it will work. Go to PayPal and open a free personal account. Once you have an account, you can then use a credit card to send contributions to The Panama News. Eric should have complete details on the web soon, but you can contribute any time. Send your contributions to thepanamanews@panamaretire.net. How much should you contribute? As much as you feel it's worth to be able to read news about Panama online. I suggest a minimum of $12.00 would be a good start. That works out to $.50 per issue for a year. More would be better.

If you find our newsletter interesting and/or helpful, please tell your friends. If you would like to receive the email version, drop me a note at retire@panamaretire.net.