Imagine boarding a bus en route to the indigenous Embera community in Panama, a long drive and boat ride down a river, far away from a privileged resort life of excessive food and free-flowing alcohol.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. First, picture a tour guide named Tony, speaking into a little microphone for his voice to carry over the din of the mini-bus speeding its way across the Pan-American highway.
Tony announces that a typical Panamanian salary is around $400 a month, and a post-secondary education runs about $30 for the year.
Suddenly, a woman from B.C. in the tour group decides this is the perfect moment to bring up her own plight.
“That’s so cheap!” she exclaims incredulously. “Do you know how expensive everything is in Canada? It’s going to cost me $100,000 to put my daughter through school! Oh, and our health care system is the worst, you have to wait forever…”
Then you think/hope she’ll shut up any second because she’s embarrassing herself, not to mention the person who chimed in to agree that, yes, everything costs far too much in Canada and we have such a rough life, especially compared to the high-rolling citizens of Panama!
But she doesn’t shut up.
And the only thing running through your mind is Change the subject…must find a way to change the subject…
A large construction zone off the side of the Pan-American highway swims into view, and you pipe up, pointing out the window, “Hey, Tony! What’s being built over there?”
And it doesn’t matter that the B.C. woman is looking at you as if you’re the rudest person alive and how dare someone interrupt her in the middle of her whining about how much worse she has it than everyone outside that bus — especially the Embera people we were about to visit.
If only us Canadians from such a developed country could have it as easy as they do! Imagine!
When we arrived, it became oh-so-clear what the B.C. woman was trying to convey. After all, we were just chauffeured for two hours to our destination in an air-conditioned bus. If only we had the daily opportunity to get around in these fancy dugout canoes along the recently flooded Chagres River!
Oh, and don’t forget she’ll have to pay thousands of dollars to send her child to school. If only her daughter had the freedom from choosing such an oppressive education system, and could instead just bide her time by dipping her own feet in the river’s edge!
Maybe one day we’ll be as fortunate as those elite Embera people. If only.
