Remarks
Stanley A. Motta
Wilson Awards Dinner
Miami Beach, Florida
January 28, 2016
Amigos todos,
Before saying a few words this evening, I would like to ask you to please join me in recognizing
someone else who is here tonight. The road to receiving an honor like this is built on the love
and support of our families. I am certain that without this person’s role in an important moment
in my life and the life of my entire family, I most likely would not be standing here this evening.
It was exactly 17 years and 12 days ago, at noon, in this same city, that a young man received
at the Ryder Trauma Center an unidentified woman who had been helicoptered in after being
shot 4 times at point blank range, with one of the bullets nicking her heart. That young Doctor
miraculously saved the ladies’ life, and in the process my own. That lady is my wife Linky and
the young man I ask you to recognize was Dr. Danny Sleeman; Danny please stand for a
moment.
Thank you for joining us, I am eternally grateful.
Quite frankly my difficulty in accepting recognitions like the one presented tonight is that I truly
feel that my accomplishments are a composition made up of the efforts of many people, some
who have since passed on, some who could not make it here tonight (most importantly my sister
Sandra), and others who are here tonight.
Most of them have little reason to understand how extraordinary moments shared with them
have influenced my life. The influences have come from partnering, especially with my brother
Pancho and with so many others. They also come from working together, traveling together,
and even playing golf together; but no matter the circumstances these interactions have been
based on a true friendship, a willingness to exchange thoughts, beliefs and ideas knowing that
the other is listening. Or, as the Wilson Center would define it, a “trusted space for ideas,
discussion and debate”.
I say that my life is a composition of many, because I believe that life is really made up of a
mosaic of experiences and those experiences are all based on relationships. My friends and
family have gone through so much. They have been exiled from their countries, lived through
family kidnappings, survived air crashes and played important roles in both public and private
life; when they have been called on to do so. They have worked on national, regional, and
international issues. They have created companies that give meaningful employment, and in
spite of some very difficult times contributed so much to the region, when the easy thing to do
would have been to leave.
As a group we have succeeded and we have failed, but through it all we have learned and
grown wiser. We have distributed merchandise, learned to play video games, constructed
buildings and shopping centers, formed and merged banks, insurance and technological
companies, stared in the media game, laid some cable, sold automobiles and of course played
with a bunch of airplanes.
In the past, many times I have said that no one makes it on his or her own. It is a father, uncle,
professor, friend or colleague who helped us get us to where we are. There is no way of
thanking each of you without for certain leaving others out, but since you know who you are
please just accept my heartfelt gratitude for contributing so much to Linky’s and my life.
I would also like you to know of the profound influence that my father Alberto had on our family
and on the entire organization. We try hard to follow his example; we endeavor to live up to his
standards and to honor his name. It makes us strive to be better everyday, and it is here that I
truly believe the magic of my father’s legacy is. He set the bar very high but he gave all of us a
real code on how to reach for excellence.
As we move into this new century we have the tendency to exaggerate how wonderful the last
one was, because of its technological advances. We push aside or conveniently forget the
human tragedy of two World Wars, the great Depression, not to mention the Korean and
Vietnam conflicts, or the foolish avoidable conflicts in our own region.
Today’s problems of terrorism and immigration, while serious, pale in comparison to the trials
and tribulations of the past. So I am confident that, while it will not be a quick fix, our society will
overcome these difficulties.
Latin America has been very fortunate in that we have no major religious or racial differences.
We are not torn as a region by whom we worship or by the color of our skins. The question then
becomes: which are our problems?
Frankly I believe that today we face pretty common objectives, and while each country might
differ in its priorities I believe the subjects on the agenda can mostly be summed up in:
Education, Public Health, Public Transportation, Transparency, Security, and the Environment.
Our countries have not only been blessed with good people, but they have also been blessed
with incredible natural resources. Somehow, however, we have not been able to turn oil,
minerals, natural farmland, and a long list of other wonderful resources, such as our natural
habitats, into long-term economic and social development that would help us in constructing the
society we should rightfully build.
As you know, I come from a small country that has prospered very well over the last 25 years.
So I ask myself, what have we done right and why have we been so fortunate while some of our
fellow Latinos have not done as well?
I think one of the keys is having been able to build a diversified, competitive economy that does
not depend overwhelmingly on one sector.
I also find continued hope when I see the manner in which we administer one of our most
valuable resources: The Panama Canal.
Many times I have said that I greatly admire the United States of America for building the
Panama Canal; an engineering feat accomplished between 1904 and 1914 that not only created
one of the man-made wonders of the world, but an asset that has contributed so much to world
trade.
I also greatly admire that this powerful country recognized, in the 1970s, that the time had come
to peacefully turn over the administration of the Canal to Panama. As President Carter has said
“we put what was right ahead of what was our commercial interest.” While the transition took 20
years, the cooperation of the United States during this period, in making it happen properly and
honoring its commitments, has not been given significant recognition. In life it is not enough to
want to do it, but also to do it right.
I also believe, that the Panamanian administration of the Canal has not been given significant
coverage even if it has been internationally recognized that Panama has administered the Canal
as well, if not better than the US. We have also had the courage to undertake its expansion so a
new generation of ships will begin transiting later this year.
So why has this been so important to Panama’s progress? Yes, it has contributed significantly
to the coffers of the Government, but more importantly, since we struggled to gain the
administration of the canal, we felt we needed to prove ourselves worthy of its care.
We have done so with transparency and the Panamanian people have been vigilant of its
administration.
Can you imagine how much better off we would all be if we as a people applied the same
principles of care and interest to all of government?
It has of course not all been roses. We still face difficult development challenges in Panama. In
particular I am concerned about one that we share with the rest of the countries of the
hemisphere, and which has to be our number one priority: the education of our people.
Fixing our education system will not be easy but I can think of no other road out of poverty;
currently popular subsidies are only a temporary remedy that usually run out of resources within
a generation, and like drugs, they are painful to withdraw from.
Educating our people to be more productive and to be better citizens that demand more from
their elected officials, is a longer term permanent fix to many of our challenges. Maybe if we can
get our people to look at the education of our children as we Panamanians once viewed the
turnover and administration of the Canal, we might stand a better chance.
I have no magical recommendation as to how to improve education. I can only ask that all of us,
as citizens of the region, take interest, contribute, and work towards making our people the most
valuable resource we have.
This new century will soon see the millennial generation come to power, as we give way to their
new ideas. Things will change, and I think for the better. Corporate Social Responsibility will
play a more significant role in our companies, as society will not judge them and us solely by our
bottom line but also by how we contribute to solve society’s problems and also how we impact
the environment. This is something I have become aware of over the years and I am totally
convinced it is an issue we all also have an obligation to work on.
I come from a family of storytellers, and to close my remarks tonight I was struggling over which
of two stories to tell. The first is about how I feel about Latin America and the second about my
parents and I guess how they influenced my life.
Instead of discarding one I decided to tell you both.
How I personally feel about Latin America reminds me of a story about Winston Churchill.
Sir Winston, after having been Prime Minister, was sitting in the bar of the Savoy Hotel with the
fellow who used to be his scientific advisor during the War. All of a sudden he asked him, “if we
poured into this room all the alcohol I have consumed in my lifetime do you think it would fill the
room?” The scientific advisor quickly took out a slide rule and started to make some
calculations. When he was finished he said, “Sir Winston, I believe that if you stood up, the
alcohol would probably reach the height of your nose.”
With that, Sir Winston looked up at the ceiling and responded, “there is so much to do and so
little time in which to do it.”
The second story.
I grew up in Colón, a port city only 50 miles from Panama City. It was there that my father
transitioned the family business from a retail store to a wholesale operation and began the Duty
Free Business. Since we are Latinos and don’t always make appointments, people would show
up at the last minute. As there were no decent restaurants in town, my father was always
bringing people home for lunch, only advising my mother at the last minute. He would not only
expect our wonderful Caribbean cook to provide the meal but would expect my mother to join
them for lunch.
One week when he was calling for the 4th or 5th time, and being the natural salesman that he
was, he began “selling” to my mother that he wanted to bring home some “lovely people.” That
he was sure she would enjoy meeting them. After hearing about how lovely the people were,
she told my father, “Albert I am tired of lovely people, why don’t you bring me an SOB for a
change.”
In that spirit, the Wilson Center, Luis Alberto and myself would like to thank you all for joining us
for dinner this evening.