The Panama Flag
The son of Manuel Amador Guerrero, a skillful drawer, sketched the Panamanian flag and showed it to Maria Ossa de Amador. On November 1, 1903 the flag was made by Ossa de Amador, in secrecy, to avoid the Colombian army. She produced three copies of the flag which, upon declaration of independence, were all raised in Panama City. It was officially adopted by the "ley 4 de 1925" and is celebrated on November 4 (flag day) one day after Panamanian independence from Colombia.
Law 15 of December 1949 the Panamanian government officially described the flag:
The Flag of the Republic consists thus of a divided rectangle of four quarters: the upper field close to the pole white with a blue star of five points; the upper field further from the pole, red; the lower field near the pole, blue; and the lower one further from the pole, white with a red star of five points.
This flag was to reflect the political situation of the time. The blue was intended to represent the Conservative Party and the red to represent the Liberal Party. The white was intended to stand for peace and purity; the blue star stands for the purity and honesty of the life of the country; the red star represents the authority and law in the country; and together the stars stand for the new republic. See Wikipedia, Flag of Panama (as of Oct. 19, 2007, 15:01 GMT).
This first rendition and proposal for a Panamanian flag was designed by the Frenchman, Philippe-Jean Bunau-Varilla.
Varilla's design is based on the Flag of the United States as a tribute to the U.S. contribution to Panama's independence. The thirteen stripes were changed with the white stripes becoming yellow, this emphasized the Panamanian connection to Colombia and Spain (both countries flags feature red and yellow). Varilla replaced the stars with two interconnected yellow suns, representing North and South America. These are then connected just as Panama connects the two continents.
As a foreigner Varilla's proposal was rejected by the Panamanian revolutionary council.
You have probably heard of ships from all over the world being registered in Panama and flying their flag however, most people have a very limited understanding of the reasons.
A ship is said to be flying a "Flag of Convenience" if it is registered in a foreign country "for purposes of reducing operating costs or avoiding government regulations". However, in many cases it may be to simply take advantage of a country's infrastructure. In this case the Panama Canal. Or, otyher more important business reasons. The term comes from the flag that ships fly to show their country of registration. Under conventions of international law, the country of registration determines the source of law to be applied in admiralty cases, regardless of which court has personal jurisdiction over the parties. Panama offerred the first flag of convenience and the practice of re-flagging ships grew in popularity from 1920-1933 during Prohibition in the United States. During this time, American rum runners carried illegal alcohol under the Panamanian flag. Failing to control the Panamanian registry at will, in 1948, the United States helped Liberia create its "open registry." The Liberian registry attracted American oil companies and Greek shipowners who sought to avoid high labor costs. The success of Liberia's registry encouraged the opening of other competing registries. In the 1970s the United Nations attempted to adopt regulations that would have stopped the practice. However, The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries defeated these measures. Even though jurisdictions are often criticised for offering Flags of Convenience they often have relatively sophisticated maritime codes, and courts which are versed in maritime law and admiralty matters. This is especially true in Panama. One of the key benefits of registering vessels in such jurisdictions is that they can be mortgaged and the mortgagee's property rights allows for the financing of such vessels. Forcing vessels to register in jurisdictions with unsophisticated maritime laws or where mortgaging the vessel is difficult to do, or worse yet, where the vessel becomes vulnerable to compulsory acquisition, as in the case of vessels registered in the United States, causes unnecessary disruption and increased expense in an already volatile international shipping market. The same prinicples of the Panamanina shipping registry have been uitlized for the protetcion of Corporations and Foundations. More on this later.
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Hasta Luego!
Mark
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