A palindrome is a word or sentence that reads the same from either front or back. The longest such sentence that we know of is “A man, a plan, a canal, Panama.” And in Panama today there is a canal and also a man with a plan. But which end is which and what is the plan?
The tussle over the ownership of the two ports at either end of the Panama Canal has now being going on for months. Trump said America must control the canal and Li Ka-shing’s company CK Hutchison which owns the ports said it would sell to an American firm owned by a buddy of Trump. But then the Chinese leadership leapt in and said this was a matter of strategic importance, and pressure was placed on Li not to sell to the Americans. So far no deal has been done. The latest step was that the China state-owned shipping company COSCO said they wanted a place in the consortium of not less than 20%. But then the Panama government came out last week and said the whole LKS port ownership arrangement has been problematic for years, and Panama is deciding whether to terminate the arrangement and take back the ports. The man in question is President José Raúl Mulino, and his plan for after terminating the contract and presumably resuming control over the ports is not known.
For weeks, the naive question being asked was whether it’s America or China which has the upper hand in the Panama port war. But maybe there is a third way? Maybe Panama can stand up and say, a plague on both your houses, it’s ours. Is that sustainable? Unlikely. The world is being pushed into more extreme positions and the middle ground is disappearing. Everyone is being forced to choose sides, whether they want to or not. This game is being played out all over the world. Panama, the Philippines, Western Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan …. Everyone is trying to rescue some benefit from this increasingly polarized and messy geopolitical stew. The stakes are high on both sides. The Panama people are going to be under enormous pressure. May they and you have a great weekend.