Casey Halloran is what we would call a "tourism entrepreneur". Set up a very successful travel business in Costa Rica and then expanded to Panama. Someone who brings tourists - real ones - to this country. Knows the sector inside out. So naturally our Minister of Tourism, our national gruñon Ruben Blades, doesn't know him. Has no idea who he is. Hasn't made any attempt to contact him, let alone learn something from an entrepreneur who has more experience with tourism than just having been a tourist himself.

That doesn't stop Blades from responding to something Casey Halloran wrote on one of his websites. Read the whole exchange - Halloran's article and Blades' response - here.

As was to be expected, Blades blames all mishap on either previous governments or the private sector. NOTHING about the lack of integration of tourism development in other development of our country. For example, Blades laments the destruction of old houses in Bella Vista, but immediately blames the private sector and claims he can't do anything about it. As if it isn't HIS government and HIS political party that hands out the building permits! Is Blades' Panama one of those few countries in the world where it is impossible to regulate the protection of the cityscape? Where unlimited and irresponsible development is just a fact of life we should all accept?

This has been the trend with Blades consistently throughout his tenure as Panama's tourist guru; he locks himself up in a narrow definition of tourism, refuses to even make an attempt to integrate development of tourism in overall development of our country (or just sanitize some of the crazier policies, like welcoming arriving tourists with police roadblocks at the airport) and then is incapable of dealing with criticism from real experts in any mature fashion.

Again in his response to Halloran. Blades rightfully denounces what he calls the "get-rich-quick-and-easy-crowd" and prides himself on Panama's indigenous people, but not a word has been heard from him about his own government destroying part of a national park while displacing and abusing indigenous tribes in Bocas del Toro. Or about Petaquilla miners. Or about dolphin traders coming to Panama, a tourism project after all.

Or, to keep it closer to home for him: Maybe he can explain how it's possible that, after four years of playing Tourist Minister, one goes to the IPAT office in El Valle - a known tourist spot - where just one woman works who doesn't speak a word of English?