Speeches 2003
15 April 2003
Ambassador Watt's Speech at the Closing Ceremony of Nuevos Horizontes 2003
I am delighted to be here with all of you this morning. It is such an honor to be able to participate in the closing ceremony for New Horizons and to recognize the hard work of so many people and organizations that have been involved in this project.
As I am sure you well know, it required major planning and effort to transport here the heavy equipment and materials needed from the United States, not to mention the approximately 350 military reservists who rotated in and out of Panama every two weeks for the past three months.
I commend all of the reservists for the splendid work that they did and for the dedication they showed to helping others. As you poured cement into the walls of this school over here, and into those of the other schools and clincs that you constructed, you were solidifying the already strong bonds that exist between Panama and the United States.
None of this would have been possible without the participation of so many people and organizations in Panama. I want again to thank the Ministry of External Relations, the Ministry of Government and Justice, SINAPROC, the National Police of Panama, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Health, as well as innumerable officials in the province of Chiriqui, the Ngobe-Bugle Comarca, and the various local communities for their cooperation and support.
That cooperation was on display everyday at the clinics where U.S. and Panamanian medical personnel worked side-by-side to provide medical and dental treatment to thousands upon thousands of members of the Comarca.
Lieutenant Colonel Scott Evans, who so ably directed operations here, has mentioned that many of the physicians, nurses, and medical technicians involved in New Horizons felt that their experience had been one of the most worthwhile things they ever had done. Many referred to it as a life-changing event.
It may have been a life-saving event on February 28 when President Moscoso and I visited Quebrado Guabo. SINAPROC officials on that day brought three young indigenous children to U.S. medics who determined that they needed immediate hospitalization. Since the family had no money to take them to the hospital, the soldiers raised transportation funds from their fellow reservists. I’m told the children received the needed care and are now doing well.
Reservists themselves sometimes required medical attention for sunburn, dehydration, stomach upset, or other relatively minor problems. Sergeant First Class Ken Hamilton of New Jersey gained some unwanted notoriety after a scorpion stung him in his tent one night. So severe was his reaction, that he had to be flown to a hospital where, Hamilton says, “People kept coming in and pointing at me. I guess I got kind of famous.” When he returned to camp, members of his unit dubbed him “the scorpion king,” after the title of a recent popular Hollywood film.
Camp Amistad was a most appropriate name for the temporary encampment near Las Lajas where reservists, SINAPROC civil defense workers, and PNP officers slept and dined when they were not working.
It was not all work and no play. I know there were opportunities for games of baseball, volleyball, and soccer. I am told that in each game, without exception, the Panamanians defeated their American opponents. I have appealed to General Valenzuela that we avoid mentioning this fact on the performance report for Lieutenant Colonel Evans.
After all, our reservists did not come here to play games, but to provide humanitarian assistance, and they performed superbly in that arena. I am extremely proud of them, grateful to all of the support that you have given to them, and hopeful that we can repeat this experience in Panama again in a couple of years.
The biggest reward for me is looking into the faces of the children before us – beautiful, handsome, intelligent faces – and knowing that the future for them is much brighter today than it was before New Horizons was launched four months ago.
There is a famous saying that failure is an orphan, but success has a thousand parents.
Well, New Horizons has several thousand Panamanian and American parents. And I thank each and every one of them for making this project such a success.