Word: zonians
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...ceremony was a nostalgic but bitter occasion for the 3,500 American canal workers in the zone. The Zonians, as they are called, were witnessing the end of their cherished home away from home, a small piece of America transplanted to a well-tended tropical setting beside the beloved waterway. Anti-American propaganda held that the Zonians had reveled in colonial splendor amid the surrounding squalor of Panama. In truth, their homes were modest by U.S. standards and their incomes only adequate. Said one longtime Zonian, on his way for a last rum punch at the historic Spanish colonial-style...
About 500 Zonian workers and their families have flown back to the U.S. Those who are staying are apprehensive about the future. Panamanians, who already constitute about 75% of the zone's work force, are being trained to replace them. Until the Panamanians are ready, American technicians are needed to operate the waterway. And until 1990, an American will serve as the canal's chief administrator, with a Panamanian deputy; after that, the posts will be reversed. Says Deputy Administrator Fernando Manfredo: "We need to train Panamanians, but instead of being ready in 20 years, I feel...
...Many Zonians seem resigned to the likelihood of bloodshed. A few have left; but most are digging in. They avoid nearby Panama City. "Even little children in some parts of the city throw stones at us when they see our Canal Zone license plates," says one Zonian housewife. "One day it could be grenades." Like the Roosevelt-minded lobby in Congress, the Zonians' stated reluctance to give up the Canal has an anachronistic-but ominous-ring...
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