Word: canals
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...been nine years since the Panama Canal was returned to sole Panamanian rule following almost a century of U.S. control. Since that time, Panama - a slim slice of a nation wedged between the Pacific and the Caribbean - has quietly emerged as Central America's must-discover hidden gem. And no wonder. With its mix of the eco (dense tropical rain forests), urban (a Miami-like skyline) and aquatic (crystalline diving sites), Panama is an all-in-one destination where the dollar is legal tender - and still manages to go a long...
...great diversity of peoples who worked on the Canal: "Although most [non white-American] employees came from the Caribbean, many traveled to the Canal Zone from southern Europe, from India and from other parts of Latin America. The 1912 census included as employees of the [Isthmian Canal Commission] or the Panama Railroad one thousand Panamanians, eight hundred Italians, thirteen hundred Greeks, thirty-five hundred Spaniards, and smaller numbers of East Indians, Portuguese, Ecuadorians, Peruvians, Venezuelans, Colombians, Mexicans, Hondurans, Costa Ricans and Nicaraguans...
...more unique perks of working on the canal: "The ultimate souvenir, however, was a shark tooth. Occasionally canal workers would find one in the dirt dislodged by dynamite, a souvenir from millions of years past when the two oceans were still connected. Such a lucky canal worker would then mount the tooth and wear it proudly on a black watch fob. Reginald Beckford, who worked for a time in a jeweler's shop, remembered mounting many shark teeth for West Indian clients...
...ease with which men died in the Canal Zone: "Dynamite explosions, landslides, steam shovels toppling over, cranes swinging quickly by and crushing heads as they went, railroad accidents, falls from scaffolding while building the enormous locks and gates, and all the various diseases generated significant anxiety. A man named Albert Banister worked in the boiler room at Cristobal and related how casually death appeared in conversations: 'Man died get blow up get kill or get drown during the time someone would asked where is Brown he died last night and burry where is Jerry he dead a little before dinner...
Building the Panama Canal involved more than the moving of great steam-powered digging machines. The most difficult task was quickly establishing what amounted to a brand new nation. Cities had to be built, diseases had to be eradicated, and thousands upon thousands of workers had to be shipped in, and housed, and fed, and entertained, and jailed, and cared for, and buried when that caring for failed. Greene sees the Canal Zone as a melting pot whose constituent pieces never quite came together; her book explores the racial and economic conflicts that arose as a result...