A strong characteristic of Latin America is its extreme contrasts between the rich and poor. Panama is no exception to this generality. The country ranks among the highest in economic inequality, sharing similar statistics with South Africa and Brazil (1). According to reports made in 2008, 28.6 per cent of Panamanians are poor, while 11.7 per cent live in extreme poverty (2). Rural areas have the highest concentrations of poverty. Indigenous groups, especially the Ngobe-Bugle, also tend to have high poverty rates.
Poverty in rural Panama is mainly a result of a lack of basic economic services. There are few connecting roads, which prevent these people from easy access to schools, food markets, and health services (1). Since rural people often rely on subsistence farming, the inadequacy of roads prevents them from easily transporting their goods to the local food markets to make a profit. The poor are more prone to infant mortality, malnutrition, shortened lifespan, and infectious diseases. The absence of roads plays a significant role in child malnutrition since it prevents children from accessing health services.
As a reaction to rural poverty, many Panamanians move to urban areas in hopes to make more money. Although this helps the individual have a more sustainable life, it often harms the culture where the individual originated. This idea is exemplified in the Kuna video shown in class. To recap, the young woman left the Kuna territory to obtain a secretarial job in Panama City. She enjoyed the freedoms and opportunities found in her new lifestyle. However, with more young people leaving the Kuna area, the weaker their culture becomes because the young people are not present to learn it and to continue passing the culture on to their children. A method to help improve the standard of living for Panamanians, while also allowing them to maintain their cultural identity needs to arise.
Although there are many intricacies to poverty, a starting point to help improve the conditions of the people would be to construct roads. The problem with this simple solution is that road construction is a delicate issue. It would require the destruction of a large amount of land, which may result in protest.
Sources:
1.http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTPOVERTY/EXTPA/0,,contentMDK:20207841~menuPK:443285~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:430367,00.html
2. http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/web/guest/country/home/tags/panama
I did a post on poverty also and I've found many similarities between our two countries. Belize's poverty is also a largely rural issue. But your observation of movement toward cities is not happening in Belize because there are no huge cities to migrate toward. Thanks for your interesting post!
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