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At 9:43am on June 12, 2008, Nancy in B.C. said…: Hi Okke,
Noticed you are online, so can you tell me, did Bondi send you an email regarding rethinking the name for our group? Last night he sent one to me and I responded with the email reply function. I don't know if this was the way to do it or not, but thought I'd let you know that I'm in favour of his idea, because I'm away for a few days and the comment box on his page has disappeared.
So if you and others in our group pursue the name change idea, these are my contributions:

International Fieldhands
Fieldhands Worldwide

Thanks, Okke

At 9:03pm on June 8, 2008, Okke Ornstein said…: Okay, let me quickly introduce myself: I am a Dutch journalist living in and working from Panama. You'll find some of my work in English in publications ranging from Al Giordano's Narco News Bulletin to NewsMax - some of it is on my website as well. Before moving to Panama I worked mostly for Dutch television and radio as a director, editor, host, and producer of news, documentary, entertainment, advertising - I've always liked to try different things.

Living in Panama sometimes feels like living in the US; I doubt very much if there is any other country in Latin America that is as "Americanized" as our little Canal republic and it is still very much a US protectorate.

I'm actually campaigning myself these days, that is, I'm doing the cyber-side for a good friend of mine who is running for mayor of Panama City in next year's elections: the well-known human rights activist, constitutionalist and former journalist Miguel Antonio Bernal. Apart from my interest in US policy towards Latin America (I was VERY disappointed with Obama's speech on the subject and if there's one thing we could do here that would IMO be to educate your next president on this part of the world), my interest in the US campaigns has obviously to do with my work down here as well. We're trying to build a similar "bottom up" campaign - Bernal has been an organizer of protests all his life - although circumstances in Panama are obviously different from the US (internet coverage is very low for example).

Gamboa is, para terminar, about 25 minutes by car north of Panama City, on the border of the Canal in what used to be called La Zona, a small sleepy village built by the US to house people working for the waterway. Ships carrying containers with goods for your retail outlets sail past my bedroom window first, so to speak. It's in the middle of a national park, and my recent adventures birdwatching with the president there can be found here.

At 1:13pm on June 8, 2008, Susan Kitchens said…: hey! glad you're here. I ran off from whatever thread on the field where we were discussing Panamá. I was there in April/May 2000 for my brother's wedding. Blogged it, beginning from this post. Look forward to chatting more-- about Obama, and about Panama. Just looked at a map to locate Gamboa, to refresh my memory... drove through it one day when we went to the Carribean side. I'd love to learn more about what brings you to Gamboa, Okke.

At 8:55am on June 8, 2008, lizabroad said…: Welcome Okke,
Delighted to have you with us. Others have written a brief introduction of themselves on the Comment Wall on the Fieldhands Abroad page, mentioning nationality, location and history with The Field. I'm heading over there now to check it out.

There's also a discussion thread on providing support from wherever we are for Al's Denver posse organizing project.

All comments, suggestions, ideas welcome. We have no rules except, of course, continuing Al's anti-Chicken-Little stance and encouraging everyone to bring whatever they can to the table.

Looking forward to your contributions.

At 9:31pm on June 7, 2008, Nancy in B.C. said…: Welcome, Okke to Fieldhands! Please also feel welcome to visit Fieldhands Abroad under "Groups" and join us if you like. It's starting to get pretty big and diverse. Perhaps you have ideas about discussion topics that we as non-residents/non-citizens of the U.S. have a different perspective on. My strong feeling is that this election is a great opportunity to share ideas and thoughts and influence each other and contribute to the bottom-up approach to politics that Obama is using, thanks not only to him but to the internet (and Al)!
How long ago did you start reading The Field and how did you find it?