The more I read and see, it is impossible for Costa Rica to join the developed nation world as so much desired by Laura Chinchilla.and Oscar Arias.
And, why should we?
To borrow more money where we means to pay it back? Numbers are data until they reach the level of information but if 47+% of all revenue (Including borrowings) is used to pay government salaries; do you think we should pull the plug and start again? Perhaps do a bankruptcy?
And why not revert to that mystic Costa Rica” culture” we once were and do what we did best? And that would become again a delightful, safe, even a banana republic with jungles that meet the sea, cities with weekly festivities and the kids would play in the streets at night and even adults would feel safe. (Plus, only limited fast food joints LOL). Other countries would be more advanced but we would be more civilized.
Or is it too late? But Argentina did it?
I have read most all the comments to clean up Costa Rica and the answers seems to be we need to depend on our “culture”. Hell, Guatemala has 1,000 times more ancient cultural than us and moreover, what is our special culture?
We are ranked right up there in violence.
Running below the radar are the major drug cartels equipped with arms, helicopters and clandestine helicopter pads who kill each other on a limited basis as in Mexico; they are too close for me. Who is bribing the Limon judge and the other court officials of justice, who let the big-time trafficantes walk, or even those who have enough money to make the pay off and escape justice with political “ins”? What ever happened to the mayor in the Oso Peninsula who had his driver search the streets of San Jose for poor, very poor under aged girls and allegedly sold them for sex? (He’s still mayor) What happened to the two convicted former presidents who now walk free only because of judicial manipulation designed to fine the guilty but not do jail time? (Sounds like Sodom and Gomorrah but not that bad, yet)
Even the Tico leniency of shark fining is appalling as the Thai lady went home unabated because she only docked here to refuel her boat which was safe since she did not off load the fins which is illegal. I guess, using that as a point of law, I can kill an entire yacht crew and so long as I do not drop their bodies on CR shore, I’ll sail on to the next port? Or better yet, as the finers do, literally tie body parts to the fish skeletons and have not committed a Tico crime. Okay. I killed a guy at sea, chop him up but strung him together: Free of law?
I want to go, “To Back to the Future”, no matter how naïve that sounds.
My heart returns to when we were naïve and not a country where the Chinese built a spectacular stadium that is useless for international sport because the track and field events have been installed incorrectly. Ah! But the place is great for concerts and soccer events.
We have a president who reminds me of Papa Francisco, a populist.
The difference is our populist needs to be elected by the people and governed by a mixed legislator and there is no such thing as a transitional stage, assistance from the last administration who took a deep sigh of relief on the May 8, inauguration day, and hit the road to Guanacaste for a well deserved vacation. It is a hard job to dodge bullets.
Is it time to stop being what we are not; developed. I mean, is it really possible by the longest stretch of imagination to unrob the bank?
The list off mistakes and almost infantile pages of corruption are endless, but one of my most important are the thousands of people in the north who eat, drink and clean with arsenic laced water. How bad can that get?
We are not a developed country and far from it. Do we really want to be developed?
I’m not sure.
