(qCOSTARICA) After waiting almost to two years (from his nomination) to take charge at the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica, Stafford Fitzgerald Haney, the second black ambassador in the history of United States-Costa Rica relations, says “there is need to assist in teaching English.’
In an interview with La Nacion, while the children wandered the residence in San Rafael de Escazu, Haney said he still looking for a futbol (soccer) team to support and has already located the synagogue he will attend on Saturdays to practice his Jewish religion.
Haney, coming to Costa Rica following living in Israel, working as a marketing manager for a New York based investment firm, says he already, in his first two weeks in the country, settled in and concluded that in his list of intentions, he should prioritize cooperation programs teaching English.
“There is a need to help in teaching English for the whole country (…). There are many people who do speak it, but the is room for improvement, no doubt, and so we want to work with allies in the government and other organizations,” he said in his diplomatic tone.
During the presentation of his credentials on June 30, Haney had the opportunity to meet the new Cuab ambassador to Costa Rica, Danilo Sanchez.
Asked if and how the warning between the U.S. and Cuba will affect Costa Rica, Haney, said “we hope our friends and allies will help the people of Cuba with his historic opening”.
Asked if the U.S. sees China’s presence in Costa Rica and the region as competition and if the U.S. will compete with the Chinese, Haney’s answer was very diplomatic, “if any country wants to join the group of nations and respects the rules, they are more than welcome. China’s entry can be positive and has been, provided they comply with local and international trade laws”. On the competing, Haney said the U.S. government doesn’t see it at such. “We see opportunity for all,” he said.
Asked about Russia as a “destabilizing factor” in Central America, Haney responded by saying “what we see is a relationship with problems with the northern neighbour (Nicaragua) … what we see it that they (Russians) have relationships with many countries in the region and we expect it to be positive (…)”.
Asked he is was satisfied with America’s image in Costa Rica, Haney said, “We can always do more, I am very encouraged to know more Ticos (Costa Ricans) and listen to them”.
On the question of pro gay rights, Haney said the U.S. is always willing to contribute to any country their experience on the issue. It has been quite a long way to reach the Supreme Court decision (of June 26). Personally, I see it as civil rights; each society must go their own way, as we did before and as other countries in Latin America.
Sources:
- Nacion.com – Nuevo embajador de EE. UU. en Costa Rica: ‘Hay necesidad de ayudar en la enseñanza del inglés’
- Rree.go.cr – Nuevos Embajadores de Cuba, Estados Unidos, República Checa, Belice, Haití y Hungría presentaron Cartas Credenciales
I agree with the new Ambassador, that promoting the teaching of English is a worthy endeavor, to promote the Costa Rica Economy in the areas of tourism and foreign direct investment by Multinational Companies in Call Centers and the like.
Cultural imperialism, and you want more of it with the multinationals and call centers?
Whatever, unfortunately English-speaking Ticos are currently better off than their non-English-speaking peers, so I’m not going to object. As an individual matter, English helps Ticos. However, as a collective matter, the emphasis hurts them.
After all, they just get jobs at call centers run by multinationals, not a very good longterm economic development plan.
A bilingual job position at a Multinational’s call center, is better than picking coffee, or bananas, or performing some other menial job task in the service sector.
House slaves were also better off than field slaves.
Sure, at the moment it makes a lot of sense for many Ticos to learn English, and I encourage them to do so. My concern is that the sights are being set too low. If Ticos don’t even aspire to move up higher on the economic development chain than this, you can count on them not climbing very high.
As for the US ambassador, some, maybe most of this stuff he has to do. It’s his job after all to promote US interests in Costa Rica, and the US is interested in a low-wage English-speaking workforce. Although there is some overlap between what’s in US and Costa Rican interests, insofar as the interests diverge, we can count on US ambassadors favoring US interests.
Learning English is a gray area. There is a good bit of overlap between the two countries’ interests here, but at some point the interests do diverge. I would feel better if the ambassador subordinated learning English to broader economic development goals for Costa Rica, rather than making it the priority.