Bits and Facts about the Culture of Panama

Learning about something soon develops to love. As for you who want to learn something or maybe everything about the country of Panama, for sure you’ll never be disappointed. Panama has a lot of bits and stuffs to catch your interest.

Panama is a nation of rich heritage. This richness of culture and history is brought by the mixture of people, literally. In the country you can find traces of Indians, Cuna and Guavmi blended together to form the present Panama. Not just that, aside from the mentioned groups throughout history, the Spanish settlement in Panama also created a great influence. It has been said that the presence of visitors throughout time brought Panama to where it is right now. 

The People

Imagine a small strip of an island inhabited by different people of various cultural origins. With a population of not more than four million, almost 70% of it are mestizos and mulatos. There are blacks, whites, Amerindian and indigenous people bound together living in harmony. A tribe in Panama, the Cuna is very known for its close ties and matriarchal societies or those headed basically by women members of the family. Their official language is Spanish, so bring with you a lot of Spanish conversations as you plan to go.

As you go to different places in Panama inhabited by varying indigenous groups, you can feel the warmth and friendliness of the people. These groups each possess a unique quality within them, and also, held individual celebrations representing their rich cultural history. The Panamanians are also known to be skillful craftsmen. They are able to produce jewels and other crafts also of rich ancestral origin. Though they tend to be different in origin and customs, Panamanians are bound together by the value of peaceful and harmonious living.

Panamanian Religion and Cuisines

Roman Catholicism is the most dominant religion in the country of Panama. In fact, most of the traditions and celebrations are held in honor to saints. For example, a big celebration in Panama is the Black Christ Festival. Another example of how saints affect the life of every Panamanian is that they consider them to be the owner of every town. 

The cuisines all over Panama are affected by cultural variations and the location of the country. But mostly, the foods are American and Spanish in style. Famous dishes are Carimanola, Tamales, Empanadas, and Tortillas among others. Panamanians also include a lot of sea food in their dishes since the country is in a coastal region. 

Image credit: http://ourlifeinthed.com/

Processed Food Contributes to Massive Rainforest Destruction

Are you surprised about this one? Maybe for ‘not so environmental persons’, this fact is a strange one. Usually, when we talk of rainforest destruction, we think of the usual destructing factors—logging to be used for coal or fossil fuel and rainforest fires caused by human negligence. 

It is so common to hear about rainforest degradation. Hundreds or even thousands of acres lost per year. As for us, who are living far away from natural rainforests might think that we are not responsible for this; thinking we have no any direct access to this so how can we destroy them? But as we look clearly, we are involved to this, just indirectly. We might not be aware how our everyday activities affect the current status of our rainforests. Just like this one, who knows that even processed foods that we eat almost if not every day, could be a great factor to rainforest destruction?

Palm oil as the key suspect. We might not know this, but palm oil has been secretly a part of our everyday lives. Palm oil is a primary ingredient in most of our daily necessities – biscuits, soap, shampoo, and even fuel. Not just that, there are plenty of processed food products that contains palm oil as its key ingredient. But how does the use of palm oil causes deforestation? As we know, palm oil is extracted from coconuts, meaning it takes huge coconut plantations in order to generate such amount of palm oil to support our everyday living. In relation to this, rainforests are being cleared off to give way to these coconut plantations. Imagine every commodity in a supermarket with vegetable oil in its ingredient that is probably from palm oil plantations. Take a moment to think about how many forest trees are cut down just to plant coconut trees for palm oil.

At present, there are only few substitutes offered in replace for palm oil in the market. Some suggestions would be the use of margarine or vegetable oil from sunflower to reduce the consumption of palm oil, and in turn, lessen deforestation. 

The soy bean oil and refined wheat flour as secondary culprits. Processed cookies and crackers are really great for immediate need for food right? Did you know that these foods contain additives like soy bean oil and refined what flour that also accounts for deforestation? As a response to the increasing demand for these products, more and more forests are turned to soy and corn plantations. Not just that, the meat of animals we eat is also responsible for this problem. Soybean crop is used primarily for livestock feeds used to support agricultural businesses. 

With all these in mind, let us all be smart and remember how our daily actions are continually killing our natural rainforests.

Photo credits: http://blissmaybe777.wordpress.com