Does it happen to you, dear reader, that you look into a subject and then all of a sudden it seems to be everywhere? Well that's what is happening to us in the Bananama Republic newsroom ever since Robert Baker of AMCHAM explained how great poverty really is and we found proof in pictures of poor children's happy feet.

But these children still go to school. The epitome of poverty and corruption-related happiness is of course: No schools at all! And guess what? Our great leaders have accomplished just that for thousands of students by leaving glass fiber all over the place and by letting buildings decay to such a state that attending classes there would be akin to taking a bus on Via Transistmica. How did they do this? They simply stole all the money or spend it on useless drug war projects. Happiness isn't difficult; if only those negative people would just see that.

Remember? This is how Robert E. Baker, the charismatic yet ultra conservative president of the American Chamber of Commerce & Industry of Panama, explained poverty last year in the Latin Business Chronicle for those dumb people who failed to see the bright side of it all:

If you have to walk to school each day, as many of our parents did, does that mean you are poor? There are thousands of children in the countryside of Panama who walk to school every day and they do not consider themselves poor. In fact, they seem quite happy and also appear to be in excellent health. Typically, when they get home from school their mother or father is there waiting for them. In this case, is it good to be poor because you get more quality time with your parents? We might consider the kids of a first-world country who arrive home to an empty house to be poor because they have no mother or father to welcome them with a warm hug and a kiss.

Of course he's right. There's nothing against a bit of barefoot walking for poor children. Look at these healthy and happy feet!

Not healthy enough for you? More after the jump:

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Right. Cost of living has gone up like never before. Protests everywhere in Panama; teachers in the streets, construction workers in the streets, rice growers in the streets. Children die of malnutrition. Purchasing power reduced by taxes and inflation. Foreign debt to record level. No money to pay the police what they were promised. No money to pay for decent schools. No money to pay for ambulances.

And Torrijos says, after having tequilas with the Mexican prez, we're winning the fight against poverty?