
Digging Across Panama (2011) - mrkgnao
https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2011/januaryfebruary/feature/digging-across-panama
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skh
I grew up in the Canal Zone. I'm an American and was one of the colonists.
This quote from the article brought back memories:

 _Theodore Roosevelt wrote to a friend at the British Foreign Office that just
as British rule in Egypt and India benefited those countries and the world, so
American hegemony would be good for the Panamanians._

On October 1, 1979 my hometown was given to Panama. I was young but it was a
sad day for us. The Canal Zone police force would be disbanded a year later.
We thought that Panama would never be able to run the Canal. We thought once
we left that Panama would be doomed. That they couldn't do it on their own.

There were valid reasons for thinking this at the time. Panama did a very bad
job of running the railroad and, I believe, tried to give it back to the U.S.
to run. But the Panama Canal Treaty did some things right. Slowly Panamanians
were hired to key position on the Panama Canal Company. By the time they fully
took control of the Canal Zone and the Canal on December 31, 1999 they
possessed enough institutional knowledge to keep the canal running.

I went back in 2008 and met an elderly man who went to school in the Zone but
was Panamanian. Rich Panamanians could pay tuition to come to the American run
schools. He said, "When you Americans left we had to grow up." Panama has done
very well as far as I can tell. I'm impressed and glad for them.

I'm on the fence about whether or not we were a net positive for Panama but
one thing seems clear to me, giving them the Canal Zone set them on a good
path. I was sad to lose the Zone and not be able to live where I grew up but
it was good for Panama.

