Word: systemic
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Barreling down Balboa Avenue, belching diesel fumes as they bully fancy European sports cars out of the way, the second-hand American school buses that pass for Panama City's public transportation system seem like dinosaurs that took a wrong exit off the time-space continuum...
...made it an even hot campaign issue down the home stretch. Presidential candidate Balbina Herrera, of the incumbent Democratic Revolutionary Party, promises her government would build an elevated monorail, which she says would be the most "aesthetic" and "least invasive" way to modernize the city's public transportation system. The opposition's Martinelli scoffs, "Monorails only work in Disney World," and insists the solution lies with a $700 million metro system...
Panamanian sociologist Raul Leis says the red devils represent "popular expression and color" of individual ownership in a privatized transportation system. However, he continues, with time the bus system has fallen into the "vice" of concentrated ownership and inefficient service. Today, Leis says, the red devils represent "a form of hell" that pose more of a hazard than public service to the 800,000 low-income Panamanians who depend on them every day for a ride to work or school...
Plus, these clunky reggaeton-rockin' menaces don't fit the sleek, cosmopolitan image of today's Panama City, which now has First World aspirations. After several years of unparalleled economic growth and construction, it wants a modern transportation system to fit its sophisticated and worldly ambitions. But getting rid of the second-hand busses has become one of the trickiest parts of Panama City's extreme makeover - and now a central issue in the May 3 presidential elections. "All modern cities have a metro system," said presidential frontrunner Ricardo Martinelli, during a recent speech to the city's top business...
...buses got tangled up in conflicts of interests that made it all the way to Panama's Supreme Court. So far, the government has only managed to remove 30 of the 800 red devils, which have yet to be replaced, putting an even greater strain on the beleaguered transportation system...