Random News Generator- Panama

Well, if Panama City, Florida were what was selected, we'd be fine here. But no, we've got the actual Panama to cover today, and Google News says the big story there is that some guy from Lonely Planet showed up.

So let's not cover that and try the order that Panama's Ministry of Finance, in the wake of recent flooding in the waning days of November, gave to the government asking that official celebrations for Christmas, New Year's and Mother's Day be cancelled. If that last one sounds weird, Panama celebrates it on December 8 and they take it very seriously. So seriously that the order came too late to prevent a lot of the money from having already been spent preparing for the celebrations.

Which in and of itself isn't an awful rationale. If you've spent the money, you've spent the money. But we're talking about 'in the wake of recent flooding' here, with five reported deaths and 1,570 homes taking damage, with many of them being leveled, forcing some 6,500 people out on the street. It seems rather callous to keep the celebrations going after that, and especially callous to keep spending money on them that could be going towards relief efforts.