Dec. 1, 2009
Berlin, Germany
PLUS:
- "We Need To Know About The Warts!"...
- "More On Eastern Europe, Please"...
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Panama Without The Sugar Coating
No marketing hype, no rose-colored glasses.
That's the promise of the new
Panama Letter.
Panama is right now the world's top retirement, investment, offshore, and doing business haven. To get the most out of this little country with such an abundance of upside right now, and to determine
which opportunities might be right for you, you need to know the full story. You need to understand all the facts, straight, complete, and current.
This is Panama without the sugar coating. From a team of expats, investors, and businesspeople with, together, many decades of experience spending time and making money in the Hub of the Americas.
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Dear Live and Invest Overseas Reader,
"These days," writes Correspondent Paul Lewis from
Berlin, "buses surround the little white hut in the middle of the street that once was the center of innumerable spy stories and is still preserved as one of the Cold War's most potent symbols, complete with its make-believe American, British, French, and Soviet policemen and a big sign warning that 'You are about to leave the American Sector.'
"For the past month, visitors have been flooding into this city to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, or '20 Jahren Wallfall' in German, not without traces of nostalgia. Next to Checkpoint Charlie, a company offers Trabant Safaris, chauffeured tours of old East Berlin in the tiny square Trabant cars that were once a symbol of the German Democratic Republic's idea of luxury.
"Around the city, gypsies offer old Red Army fur hats for sale with big bright stars on the front.
"And a brisk trade is still being done in chunks of the 100-mile-long concrete wall itself: a 9-foot-high slice retails for US$6,000, and a new book entitled the 'Berlin Wall Around the World' documents more than 120 such segments in about 40 countries. Pope John Paul II and Ronald Reagan's Library were given chunks.
"Nov. 9, 1989, was the day the Wall actually came down, a significant day in recent German history.
"The Kaiser abdicated and the Weimar Republic was proclaimed on Nov. 9, 1918, while Nov. 9, 1923, marked Adolph Hitler's unsuccessful Bierhall Putsch, which landed the Nazi leader with a jail sentence and a chance to write 'Mein Kampf.'
"And Kristallnacht, the infamous night when the Nazis turned on the German Jews, breaking the windows of their shops, homes, and synagogues, occurred on Nov. 9, 1938.
"The lower house of Germany's Parliament now meets in the restored Reichstag building that used to house previous parliaments, until the Nazis burned it down in the 1930s to show what they thought about democracy. Lord Norman Foster, the British architect responsible for the restoration, has made sure the boot is now firmly on the other foot.
"Parliamentarians sit in modernist purple seats in a neat semicircle facing an enormous German Eagle, which Lord Foster described as 'a pregnant chicken.' But while they debate whatever German parliamentarians debate, they can lift their eyes to gaze into a glass cupola overhead where they can see ordinary German voters walking around, enjoying a panoramic view of the city and occasionally glancing down with a mixture of derision and contempt to see what nonsense their elected representatives are up to. In the new, post-fascist Germany, the people are supposed to be firmly on top.
"To show what he thinks of parliamentarians, Foster has even installed a vent in the cupola to evacuate hot air from the talk shop below. But, if it rains, a special cover protects the parliamentarians' pates from dripping water.
"I went to Berlin to attend the first-ever reunion of Oxford University graduates held outside the city of dreaming spires. More than 1,000 Oxford graduates now live in Germany, although Germans were banned from holding Rhodes Scholarships during the two World Wars. The fund-raising possibilities of many euro-rich graduates are obvious. But I wonder how many American universities would have the imagination or the enterprise to convoke their alumni to a meeting in a foreign country.
"The formal sessions were held in an enormous building that is now the University of Berlin School of Management but that used to house East Germany's undemocratic Communist parliament and its unelected leaders' offices. To show how open and democracy-loving they were, external walls were all of glass--except for the wall facing old West Berlin, which was of solid concrete, like the infamous wall that came down 20 years ago. There is also a stained-glass frieze on three sides of the building showing merry-making peasants and proletarians but facing into eastern Germany.
"Berlin has museums like other capitals have statues of forgotten leaders. Most of them are stacked on a little island in the River Spee known as Museuminsel. Only three are important.
"On this island, the Neues Museum is home to Queen Neferetiti, the renowned and incomparable bust of Pharaoh's consort of 3,000 years ago. Since then she has lost an eye and her ears have been chipped. But she reigns in solitary splendor in her personal exhibition chamber, her skillfully colored features still beautifully regal after 30 centuries.
"The rest of the Egyptian collection is world class, too, but it would be even richer today if, in 1945 conquering Soviet soldiers had not carried off the haul of ancient gold that the famous German amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann said was Priam's treasure mentioned in the
Aeniad and which he claimed to have recovered from the ruins of ancient Troy (though many thought he had faked it).
"Also on the island is the Pergamon Museum, named after a massive ancient Greek sacrificial altar replete with friezes, steps, and colonnades that other German archaeologists removed from Asia Minor (Turkey) more than a century ago. Even more impressive, perhaps, in the annals of German archaeological snatching, is the enormous blue-tiled Ishtar Gate that other Germans swiped from the ruins of King Nabuchadnezzar's ancient Babylon before the First World War, also without protest from anyone in what is present-day Iraq. German museums have an easy time of it compared with the British Museum, which is constantly being pestered by Greek governments to send back the Elgin Marbles.
"Off the Island and near the edge of old East Berlin is the Jewish Museum devoted to the victims of Hitler's Holocaust and carefully designed by the American Jewish architect Liebeskind to make visitors feel uncomfortable. Floor levels are uneven; lighting spotty; galleries crisscross each other at confusing angles, one leading to an empty tower open to the sky; another ending in an outside forest of concrete pillars with green shoots on top. Yet, at the same time, the museum's portrayal of Jews and Jewish culture seems over-simplified as if designed to educate children who have no idea who a Jew might be. But perhaps that is precisely the point."
Kathleen Peddicord
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"Kathleen, I've just purchased your book on
Panama, and I have a question.
"My wife and I live in the Atlanta, Georgia, area. We are seriously considering a move to Panama. I have been following your reports on the country for probably 10 years or more. I'm getting ready to subscribe to your Panama newsletter, in which you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. We need to know about the 'warts' you speak of and the downsides of living there. You're right about there being a lot of hype floating around on this country.
"We're coming to Panama the week of Dec. 6 and will be escorted about by a Panamanian real estate agent that I found on the Internet. We have no interest in Panama City but will be looking around the Pedasi area and perhaps the mountains around Boquete.
"I've been working through the checklist for our exit strategy, and I've come across a problem with respect to health insurance. I'm 69 years old, and my wife is 62. She doesn't seem to be a problem, but, according to a Panamanian insurance broker, the only thing available to me is something called the 'Santa Fe Plan,' which appears to have limited value outside Panama City.
"I'm checking the international markets for expatriate health insurance that's good all over the world (except the United States, where I will maintain my Medicare coverage). I've completed one application and am waiting to hear back. I know they will underwrite the policy and that pre-existing conditions will be excluded.
"I realize this is an imposition and perhaps one of your publications covers the subject adequately, but I have been so impressed with your reviews over the years, Kathleen, that I thought I'd write to ask if you have any advice for me on this."
-- Mike E., United States
Pedasi and Boquete are both good options and very different, one from the other. Boquete is in the mountains with a cool, sometimes chilly climate; Pedasi is a laid-back beach town.
One word of caution as you shop for a place to live in this country. Remember that Panama has no Multiple Listing Service, and real estate is a competitive industry. Every agent has his own, proprietary listings. They don't share, and they don't split commissions. Typically, they don't even speak to each other. If you do find the same property listed with more than one agent, it's because the seller has listed it with each agent directly...sometimes at differing prices.
Also, remember that the only way to get a real deal on a piece of real estate either to rent or to buy in this country (as in any unregulated market) is to ask the locals (both Panamanians and expats). Their comments, insights, and recommendations may surprise you...and can run contrary to what you might hear from property agents.
During your visit later this month, in Pedasi, in Boquete, and wherever else you spend time, wander around on your own to see what you see. Ask the woman who serves you coffee in the morning and the taxi driver who takes you across town for advice and recommendations.
Regarding medical insurance, if you're certain you won't be living in Panama City, the Santa Fe hospital plan will be useless to you. You don't want to live five hours away from the only hospital where you have coverage. Your best bet is probably an international policy through a reputable insurance company like BUPA or HTH Worldwide. Such a policy, given your age, will cost US$300 to US$400 a month, but you would be covered anywhere in the world.
You indicate you intend to subscribe to my new
Panama Letter. If you sign on for two years, you'll receive free our new special report on the "Top 6 Medical Insurance Options for the Expat in Panama," which includes quotes for both local and international health insurance policies that would cover you in this country. As you've already discovered, the choices become more limited as you grow older. Most local insurance groups in Panama will not write a new policy for someone over the age of 64.
"Kathleen, I enjoyed your recent article on
Prague, with its pros and cons about that incredible city. I am interested in living there after I retire (at least for a few years), perhaps teaching English (I am certified). I would love to hear more from your organization about expat life in Prague or the broader Czech Republic. Your information on Croatia was also helpful. What about other East European countries?"
-- Timothy F., United States
Yesterday's Prague report generated a tremendous amount of reader response. We're delighted and, as well, frankly, a little surprised. Your interest is noted, dear readers, all, who wrote in. More soon.
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