(QNICARAGUA) World Bank Report – Nicaragua is what many experts call a paradise of renewable energies. The country has extensive geothermic resources––resulting from its large volcanic chain and seismic activity––with excellent exposure to the wind and sun and a variety of water sources.
In terms of energy output, the country has the capacity to generate 5,800 megawatts (MW) annually from clean sources. Currently, however, just over 5% of its renewable potential has been developed.
Paradoxically, Nicaragua was until recently dependent on oil-based products, which were expensive and far from environmentally friendly. This was in addition to limited power lines and one of the highest electricity rates in the region at an average rate of US$ 0.24 per kilowatt/hour.
In 2006, this scenario led the Nicaraguan government to address the need to change its electrical grid. With the government’s openness toward private investment, 58% of the country’s energy is currently produced by renewable sources whereas the remaining 42% comes from oil-based bunker fuel, according to estimates of the Nicaraguan Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM).
In the region, Nicaragua is second only to Costa Rica in terms of the share–– 21%––of renewable, non-hydraulic energy in the region. The energy output of its geothermic resources is considered the best in Central America, with estimated potential reserves of 1,500 MW (in addition to the country’s energy system capacity, which is 1,300 MW). However, just 154 MW have been installed by the country’s power plants, Polaris and Momotombo.
What is geothermic energy?
Imagine large water reservoirs hundreds of kilometers deep that come into contact with magma. The resulting steam produced needs to escape, for which reason one can see large columns of steam shooting skyward in some areas.
Geothermic plants channel that steam to generators and when the water cools it returns to the depths. That is why it is an inexhaustible source of clean energy.
According to World Bank experts, geothermal energy can be a relatively inexpensive source of electricity, especially compared with fossil fuels.
“The generation of this type of energy is not only important for its positive effects on the economy, but also for its reduction of GEI emissions by almost 80,000 tons,” said Hasan Tuluy, World Bank vice-president for Latin America and the Caribbean, during a visit to the Polaris plant on October 22.
“This project will mean a savings of $88 million for the country through the reduction in oil imports. We will substitute the bunker fuel consumed in Nicaragua with clean, renewable energy,” said Alejandro Arguello, head of corporate development at Polaris, during the visit.
With the idea that the Polaris power plant in San Jacinto, in León, will supply nearly 20% of Nicaragua’s energy needs, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) partially financed the $450 million, 72MW plant.
Wind farms
Nicaragua is also focusing on another renewable energy source: wind. Huge white windmills erected on wind farms can be seen along many of the country’s roads.
On the banks of Lake Cocibolca, in Rivas, is the country’s third wind plant, Eolo. This month, thanks to a $110 million investment, 22 wind turbines will officially begin operation, providing an additional 44MW of energy to the national network. It is estimated that Eolo will not require any fossil fuel supply.
MAVEN, the second mission for NASA’s Mars Scout Program and will obtain critical measurements of the Martian upper atmosphere to help understand the climate change over the Red Planet’s history, is set to launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket on November 18. Liftoff will occur from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex.
MAVEN is the first spacecraft devoted to exploring and understanding the Martian upper atmosphere. It will orbit the planet in an elliptical orbit that allows it to pass through and sample the entire upper atmosphere on every orbit. The spacecraft will investigate how the loss of Mars’ atmosphere to space determined the history of water on the surface.
Taking part in the project is Costa Rica’s own, Sandra Cauffman, who is Deputy Project Manager.
Sandra has been working with NASA for the last 25 years, moving to the United States with her mother and stepfather at 21, before graduating from Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR) as an Industrial Engineering major.
“When I came here I had to start from zero, changing my major from Engineering to Physics. I first worked with a company under contract to NASA, and after three years with them I was offered a job directly with the space agency”, Sandra says in telling her story to the local press.
Sandra grew up in Hatillo 3, on the south side of San José and attended the Republica de Paraguay grammar school in Hatillo and the Luis Dobles Segura high school in La Sabana.
“I am very proud to represent my country in this, but more to plant a seed in the youth of Costa Rica and to tell them that nothing is impossible…poverty is not an excuse, because we were poor…keep studying”, says Sandra.
By: Arianna Mckinney, Vozdeguanacaste – At the beginning of October, the Administrative Environmental Court ruled for the third time that the Nosara garbage dump must be closed, adding more force to previous orders to close the dump, which have been received since 2007.
The court decision is the resolution of a denunciation that was filed in February of 2011 against the Ministry of Health and the mayor of Nicoya, Marcos Jimenez, by Dianu Madrigal, an environmental manager who lives in San Jose but has family in Nosara. When she visited them a couple of years ago and saw the dump, she decided that something needed to be done to protect the environment. Madrigal affirmed to The Voice that “open-air garbage dumps bring many consequences. They don’t have one positive aspect.” One of her main concerns is that liquids leaking from the garbage could contaminate underground waters, especially in such a hot climate.”
Marcos Avila, the syndic of Nosara, said, “This order [to close the dump] has been there for a long time but it has never been completed. I think and I’ve been analyzing that if it has to close, than it must be closed, and the municipality will have to take responsibility for coming here and collecting this garbage. The community can’t pay for the garbage and take it to Santa Cruz.”
Municipality Appeals the Order
The municipal mayor acknowledged that they received the court order but are appealing it because the land where the dump is located is private land registered to the Nosara Civic Association and the municipality cannot invest public funds in land that is not municipal.
Nonetheless, the Nosara Civic Association (NCA) and the Nosara Recycling Association have been communicating with the Municipality in an effort to resolve issues in a collaborative way.
Alvin Rosenbaum, president of the NCA, remarked, “Obviously the lack of municipal responsibility for the dump has been a serious problem for the Nosara District. NCA has pending requests for Nicoya to cooperate but, to date, we have been on our own.”
The Nosara Recycling Association has also been in contact with the municipality to propose possible solutions to the local garbage situation, but Jessica Sheffield Zamora, vice president of the Recycling Association, said the association doesn’t want the dump to be closed until they can set up an alternative way of handling the garbage.
However, Sheffield affirmed that they have been aware of the problem with the dump since the Recycling Association was formed in 2008. She said that there are four main concerns: the potential pollution of the aquifer since the dump has no lining, the threat of dengue from potential mosquito breeding grounds, the affect on biodiversity in the dry forest where the dump is located and the possibility of trash being carried to the Nosara River in rainy season from the creeks behind the dump.
Their short-term goal is to move the trash from Nosara to a regulated landfill. They proposed to the environmental department of the municipality a plan in which they would raise funds to truck the garbage to Nicoya and from there the municipality could take charge of sending it to the landfill in Santa Cruz, as it does with garbage from Nicoya and Samara. However, she said the municipality turned down the idea due to lack of funds.
After that, the Recycling Association looked for another way to work with the municipality. “We went to the municipal council and presented the idea not only of moving the trash but also of our recycling center and that we are doing the work of the municipality basically,” Sheffield related.
This was done in August, and Sheffield said the council approved a budget for 2014, but they still don’t know how much that budget will be or how it will be used. “We want to help solve the problem. We want to partner with the municipality. They’ve never given a dime for trash in Nosara so this would be a big first step,” she said.
Sheffield said their end goal is to treat garbage in Nosara with a proper landfill, but the cost would be about $1 million, including the cost of performing a technical closure of the current dump. Toward that end, a team from the University of Florida will be coming and conducting a study.
Recycling is Half the Solution
Sheffield said the association’s first main project focused on recycling because recycling can reduce the amount of garbage being sent to the dump by 50%, and if organic matter is also separated out, that would be another 20 to 30% of the waste material.
The Nosara Recycling Center, built with funds raised by the association and the community, officially opened in October, and has an administrator and a staff of ten local women who are conducting a large educational campaign, going house to house to teach people how to recycle.
At present, Sheffield said they aren’t receiving a sufficient amount of materials to cover the cost of the truck, which is collecting items from Guiones and Playa Pelada from Dos Lorenas in the town of Esperanza to the Nosara river mouth on Wednesdays twice a month for now, but they hope that in high season they can collect enough to send a truck once a week and possibly extend the route to include Nosara town.
“We have no income right now. Eventually we should be sustainable if we have enough recyclables to sell and pay for everything,” Sheffield affirmed.
To encourage more recycling, they are also holding prize raffles for people who take recyclable to the center. For information about what items can be recycled, check recycling guide at www.nosararecycles.com.
SINTERCAFE – International Coffee Week – is an annual event known worldwide which involves both producers and consumers. Each November Costa Rica once again becomes the meeting place for key decision makers from the most important coffee companies in the world.
On Thursday, the 27th edition of SINTERCAFE starts perking at the Marriott Los Sueños hotel, on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast town of Herrdura, minutes north of Playa Jacó.
SINTERCAFE without a doubt is the most interesting and best attended coffee event taking place in a coffee producing nation.
Each year more than 500 participants come to SINTERCAFE to have the opportunity to exchange information, to share their experiences, and to interact with the worlds Coffee Community in order to strengthen coffee commerce.
Yes, you read that correctly. If the trends in the first 9 months of 2013 continue, this year will be one of the ten warmest years on record since 1850. This is according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which says that January to September 2013 match with January to February 2003 as the seventh warmest 9 month period on record.
It gets worse!
“Temperatures so far this year are about the same as the average during 2001-2010, which was the warmest decade on record,” said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud in a press release. “All of the warmest years have been since 1998 and this year once again continues the underlying, long-term trend The coldest years now are warmer than the hottest years before 1998,” he said.
And Worse!
The provisional WMO statement confirms that global sea level reached a new record high. Sea level has been rising at an average rate of about 3.2 milimeters per year (mm/yr), with inter-annual variability, since altimeter satellite measurements began in 1993. This is close to the observed rate of about 3 mm/yr of the most recent decade of 2001−2010 and double the observed 20th century trend of 1.6 mm/yr.
And this has real-world consequences for millions of people, like those recently the victim of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines .
“Surface temperatures are only part of the wider picture of our changing climate. The impact on our water cycle is already becoming apparent – as manifested by droughts, floods and extreme precipitation.”
“The Philippines is reeling from the devastation wreaked by Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda), the most powerful tropical cyclone ever to hit the country and one of the most intense ever recorded anywhere. It is still struggling to recover from Typhoon Bopha (Pablo) one year ago. Although individual tropical cyclones cannot be directly attributed to climate change, higher sea levels are already making coastal populations more vulnerable to storm surges. We saw this with tragic consequences in the Philippines,” said Mr Jarraud. He added that, although the relationship between climate change and the frequency of tropical cyclones is a matter of much research, it is expected that their impact will be more intense.
The WMO issued this brief as diplomats are gathering in Warsaw this week for the next round of international climate change negotiations. Chances are, nothing huge will come from these negotiations and humanity will continue to sleepwalk towards our own demise.
(Bloomberg) Private telecommunications companies in Costa Rica are at a disadvantage to the state-run operator two years after a government monopoly ended, said Victor Garcia, an executive with America Movil SAB’s local unit.
“The playing field has not been leveled,” said Garcia, the head of regulatory services at Claro, in an interview today in San Jose, Costa Rica. “There are institutional asymmetries that operate fundamentally against the newcomers.”
Claro currently holds 20 percent market share in Costa Rica and has some 1.2 million clients, Garcia said. The company’s reach is limited by restrictions at the municipal level on installing infrastructure and a more limited radio spectrum to provide data services compared to state-run ICE, Garcia said.
ICE has “50 years of offering first-class telecommunications” in Costa Rica, said Elbert Duran, the company’s communications director, via e-mail.
Claro, the first private operator to enter the Costa Rica market in late 2011, has expressed interest in the potential auction of an additional 70 MHZ of bandwidth that was originally offered in 2010 but was never released, Garcia said.
The total number of mobile users in Costa Rica has multiplied by 3.4 since the market opened two years ago, Foreign Trade Minister Anabel Gonzalez told reporters today, without giving exact figures.
I would say that most foreigners of the nationalities of Canadians, Americans, and Europeans, resident in Costa Rica, take little, or no interest in Presidential Elections in Costa Rica. As we are currently in the midst of a Presidential Election Campaign, culminating in a vote early in the month of February, 2014, I would suggest that to the extent that the law permits, it would be in the interest of such foreigners to become involved.
Foreigners who are Naturalized Costa Ricans are eligible to vote, like any other Costa Rican. Such Naturalized Citizens are only banned from holding the Offices of President, President of the Supreme Elections Tribunal, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (Constitutional Court).
Foreigners who are not Naturalized Costa Ricans, may not participate directly in the Election, or Political process. However, such foreigners may participate indirectly by way of campaign contributions for the candidate, or Party of their choosing, or patronizing the business enterprises of the candidate, or Party of their choosing; in other words, voting with their “pocketbook”.
In order to effectively participate in the Election, or Political process, such foreigners will be faced with having to address long-standing values that they have held from their home countries. Compromises will be necessary as distasteful as they may seem. The most fundamental compromise for foreigners will be that corruption is an integral part of the Political process, not only in Costa Rica, but in Latin Countries generally.
Yes, corruption does exist in the Political process of the home countries of the foreigners as well, but I can assure you that after fifteen plus years of living here, it is nothing like the level that exists in Costa Rica, nor is it so outwardly practiced. Having said that, it is better to undertake an evaluation of a person for the position of President, who is competent and will “get things done”.
The selection by the President of the Ministers and the Advisers who will occupy the Executive Branch of Government is fundamental to a Government’s success. Forget the inevitable “kick-backs” and the benefiting of family and friends with public funds and opportunities at the expense of the Country. If the Economy of Costa Rica is enhanced and the infrastructure is improved through prudent Presidential decision making, this has to be the goal.
The history of the current Presidential Candidates is available on the Internet to be scrutinized by those foreigners who care to be involved.
The national Spanish language newspaper La Nacion advised its readers to take care in figuring their on line savings by buying on the Internet and not from local stores. The disappointment comes at customs where duties and transportation costs may send the price sky high.
Remember, say the writers in weekend edition, sticker price is not the only consideration — much depends on such factors as weight of the purchased item that drives up shipping fees, taxes as well as sticker price.
The paper used as an example what appeared nearly a steal on Amazon.com — a pair of boots that had been offered at US$100 but were half that. The shopper pressed “purchase” and thought no more of it until they picked up their package at the import window. The extra charges brought the footwear to US$156, said the paper.
First comes the transportation cost. Next, The come taxes on the item in the country of origin. Then there are the charges of your courier company, for international shipping but also handling in customs. Once in the country, customs sets an additional charge.
Customs can charge four taxes: The import duty (0-15%), selective consumer tax (between 5% and 20%), the Emergency Law takes a 1% cut and the sales tax which went into effect this year on Internet trade (13%). Customs duties are hard to calculate: they can run from only 1% on books to 55.71% on a videogame console.
Red tape can create a snarl, as well. If you order such items as cosmetics, medicines or food, you’ll have to get a special import permit. Not only does this take time but can be costly as well,. “In cases of restricted articles like these, processing permits may cost $10 to $12,” cautions manager Carlos Herrera of Aerocasillas.
Herrera suggests that to avoid those headaches and nasty surprises when you pick up your package, consult before hand with the importing courier company for their input. They’ll give you the real price you will pay when all is said and done.
Costa Rica wants to do its part to help the affected by Typhoon Haiyan, the Category 5 mega-storm that pounded the eastern Philippines on November 8, has left at least 10,000 people dead and many more injured while destroying critical water, electricity and transportation infrastructure. Towns and villages are leveled in an already impoverished region.
There’s little water to drink or food to eat. According to all accounts, the need for outside assistance is urgent.
The Philippine Red Cross is deploying rescue teams to affected areas of the country.
Logistics equipment including mobile storage units, pre-fabricated offices and generators, is being sent from the UN humanitarian response depot (UNHRD) in Malaysia to set up operational hubs at Tacloban and Cebu airports. Some 300kg of IT equipment including digital radios are being sent from UNHRD in Dubai. The WFP is drawing upon $2m to buy high-energy biscuits and rice, but will be appealing for more funds as the needs become clearer.
The UN’s World Food Program is providing emergency food assistance to families and children.
UNHCR, the UN agency for refugees, plans an emergency airlift of tents, plastic sheets, blankets, mats, water containers and cooking utensils for 16,000 families. UNHCR will also distribute 50,000 solar lanterns.
UNICEF is asking for funds to help children in urgent need of access to safe water, hygiene supplies, food, shelter and a safe environment.
In Costa Rica, the government starte today a collection and will end Friday, December 6.
Donations can be made by deposit to the Banco Nacional (BN): 100100-7 in Colones and 68666-7 in dollars and the Banco de Costa Rica (BCR): 176003-3 in colones and 204-6 in dollars.
The World Food Program, which provides emergency food aid to families and children, is accepting donations online and through PayPal.
The United Nations (UN) is urging the international community to send aid to the Phillipines. In Manila, the government has declared a national disaster, which allows authorities to control prices and release emergency funds to rebuild the affected areas.
In series of raids Costa Rica’s Drug Control Police – Policía de Control de Drogas (PCD) – dismantled a drug trafficking ring that operated from a San José hotel and included distribution of illegal drugs in the Liberia prison, in Guanacaste.
Accordig to the director of the Dirección de Inteligencia y Seguridad (DIS), Celso Gamboa, a total of 20 people were arrested in the nine raids in San José, Puntarenas and Guancaste.
Authorities say their investigation bega in June, following complaints. The “Hotel España” located in downtown San José’s “red zone” was the headquarters for the gang that Presidenta Laura Chinchilla called, during a press conference Tuesday, the “most aggressive” operating in the country.
In the raids, police seize drugs, cash and vehicles.
The four Baileys are in place, the road is paved and the lines painted. What is left are last minute inspections and removal of the barriers.
Starting at 4pm Wednesday, the traffic on the Circunvalación will resume. However, there will still be closures between 10pm and 5am, says CONAVI officials, this for security reasons.
On Wednesday, work begins on the permanent structure that once finished next May will be a six lane bridge.
ORIGINAL POST EARLIER TODAY….
The Consejo Nacional de Vialidad (CONAVI) assures that the Circunvalación between Pavas and Hatillo 8 will open before the November 17 deadline.
In fact, on Monday work was suspended for several hours allowing vehicular traffic on two of the Bailey bridges, to alleviate the congestion caused by the day’s protests in San José.
CONAVI officials said Monday afternoon all that by Thursday or Friday at the latest, all four Bailey bridges will be open, restoring normal traffic conditions to the area.
The following week construction of a permanent bridge commences.
Striking hospital workers seen outside the downtown San José medical centre this morning
Fighting for dignity and respect, employees of the Calderón Guardia hospital went on strike today, saying they will not accept outside hospital officials to take control the medical centre.
Furthermore, the workers of the public hospital say they will not tolerae further intervention without justification or imposition by the board of directors of the Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social (CCSS).
The workers have the support of the National Medical Union (Unión Médica Nacional).
The strike action is not related to Monday’s general day of protest by public sector health workers.
Thousands protested on Monday against the Costa Rican government’s market-oriented economic policies.
“These policies have come to destroy the institutions of social welfare we have in our country, replacing them with poverty and the concentration of wealth in the hands of the few,” Luis Chavarria, leader of the UNDECA public employees union.
Unions from the sectors of education, healthcare, utilities, telecommunications and the ports, along with social groups defending citizens’ rights, took part in a the one-day general strike and were on hand for the peaceful march that blocked one of San Jose’s busiest thoroughfares.
Wrapped in the flags and wearing the T-shirts of their respective unions, workers shouted slogans and waved banners against the corruption, the new taxes and the government of President Laura Chinchilla.
Besides the demonstrations, workers in the Caribbean port city of Limón prevented the arrival of a cruise ship with some 2,000 tourists aboard.
ANEP, the largest association of unions in Costa Rica, called on citizens to take part in the strike to protest the “accelerated process of concentrating wealth among the few, and the sustained growth of inequality.”
The little people statues at the front of Costa Rica’s Central Bank building in downtown San José.
In Costa Rica, publicly-owned banks have been available for so long and work so well that people take for granted that any country that knows how to run an economy has a public banking option. Costa Ricans are amazed to hear there is only one public depository bank in the United States (the Bank of North Dakota), and few people have private access to it.
So says political activist Scott Bidstrup, who writes:
For the last decade, I have resided in Costa Rica, where we have had a “Public Option” for the last 64 years.
There are 29 licensed banks, mutual associations and credit unions in Costa Rica, of which four were established as national, publicly-owned banks in 1949. They have remained open and in public hands ever since—in spite of enormous pressure by the I.M.F. [International Monetary Fund] and the U.S. to privatize them along with other public assets. The Costa Ricans have resisted that pressure—because the value of a public banking option has become abundantly clear to everyone in this country.
During the last three decades, countless private banks, mutual associations (a kind of Savings and Loan) and credit unions have come and gone, and depositors in them have inevitably lost most of the value of their accounts.
But the four state banks, which compete fiercely with each other, just go on and on. Because they are stable and none have failed in 31 years, most Costa Ricans have moved the bulk of their money into them. Those four banks now account for fully 80% of all retail deposits in Costa Rica, and the 25 private institutions share among themselves the rest.
According to a 2003 report by the World Bank, the public sector banks dominating Costa Rica’s onshore banking system include three state-owned commercial banks (Banco Nacional, Banco de Costa Rica, and Banco Crédito Agrícola de Cartago) and a special-charter bank called Banco Popular, which in principle is owned by all Costa Rican workers. These banks accounted for 75 percent of total banking deposits in 2003.
InCompetition Policies in Emerging Economies: Lessons and Challenges from Central America and Mexico(2008), Claudia Schatan writes that Costa Rica nationalized all of its banks and imposed a monopoly on deposits in 1949. Effectively, only state-owned banks existed in the country after that. The monopoly was loosened in the 1980s and was eliminated in 1995. But the extensive network of branches developed by the public banks and the existence of an unlimited state guarantee on their deposits has made Costa Rica the only country in the region in which public banking clearly predominates.
Scott Bidstrup comments:
By 1980, the Costa Rican economy had grown to the point where it was by far the richest nation in Latin America in per-capita terms. It was so much richer than its neighbors that Latin American economic statistics were routinely quoted with and without Costa Rica included. Growth rates were in the double digits for a generation and a half. And the prosperity was broadly shared. Costa Rica’s middle class – nonexistent before 1949 – became the dominant part of the economy during this period. Poverty was all but abolished, favelas [shanty towns] disappeared, and the economy was booming.
This was not because Costa Rica had natural resources or other natural advantages over its neighbors. To the contrary, says Bidstrup:
At the conclusion of the civil war of 1948 (which was brought on by the desperate social conditions of the masses), Costa Rica was desperately poor, the poorest nation in the hemisphere, as it had been since the Spanish Conquest.
The winner of the 1948 civil war, José “Pepe” Figueres, now a national hero, realized that it would happen again if nothing was done to relieve the crushing poverty and deprivation of the rural population. He formulated a plan in which the public sector would be financed by profits from state-owned enterprises, and the private sector would be financed by state banking.
A large number of state-owned capitalist enterprises were founded. Their profits were returned to the national treasury, and they financed dozens of major infrastructure projects. At one point, more than 240 state-owned corporations were providing so much money that Costa Rica was building infrastructure like mad and financing it largely with cash. Yet it still had the lowest taxes in the region, and it could still afford to spend 30% of its national income on health and education.
A provision of the Figueres constitution guaranteed a job to anyone who wanted one. At one point, 42% of the working population of Costa Rica was working for the government directly or in one of the state-owned corporations. Most of the rest of the economy not involved in the coffee trade was working for small mom-and-pop companies that were suppliers to the larger state-owned firms—and it was state banking, offering credit on favorable terms, that made the founding and growth of those small firms possible. Had they been forced to rely on private-sector banking, few of them would have been able to obtain the financing needed to become established and prosperous. State banking was key to the private sector growth. Lending policy was government policy and was designed to facilitate national development, not bankers’ wallets. Virtually everything the country needed was locally produced. Toilets, window glass, cement, rebar, roofing materials, window and door joinery, wire and cable, all were made by state-owned capitalist enterprises, most of them quite profitable. Costa Rica was the dominant player regionally in most consumer products and was on the move internationally.
Needless to say, this good example did not sit well with foreign business interests. It earned Figueres two coup attempts and one attempted assassination. He responded by abolishing the military (except for the Coast Guard), leaving even more revenues for social services and infrastructure.
When attempted coups and assassination failed, says Bidstrup, Costa Rica was brought down with a form of economic warfare called the “currency crisis” of 1982. Over just a few months, the cost of financing its external debt went from 3% to extremely high variable rates (27% at one point).
As a result, along with every other Latin American country, Costa Rica was facing default. Bidstrup writes:
That’s when the IMF and World Bank came to town.
Privatize everything in sight, we were told. We had little choice, so we did. End your employment guarantee, we were told. So we did. Open your markets to foreign competition, we were told. So we did. Most of the former state-owned firms were sold off, mostly to foreign corporations. Many ended up shut down in a short time by foreigners who didn’t know how to run them, and unemployment appeared (and with it, poverty and crime) for the first time in a decade.
Many of the local firms went broke or sold out quickly in the face of ruinous foreign competition. Very little of Costa Rica’s manufacturing economy is still locally owned. And so now, instead of earning forex [foreign exchange] through exporting locally produced goods and retaining profits locally, these firms are now forex liabilities, expatriating their profits and earning relatively little through exports. Costa Ricans now darkly joke that their economy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the United States.
The dire effects of the IMF’s austerity measures were confirmed in a 1993 book excerpt by Karen Hansen-Kuhn titled Structural Adjustment in Costa Rica: Sapping the Economy. She noted that Costa Rica stood out in Central America because of its near half-century history of stable democracy and well-functioning government, featuring the region’s largest middle class and the absence of both an army and a guerrilla movement. Eliminating the military allowed the government to support a Scandinavian-type social-welfare system that still provides free health care and education, and has helped produce the lowest infant mortality rate and highest average life expectancy in all of Central America.
In the 1970s, however, the country fell into debt when coffee and other commodity prices suddenly fell, and oil prices shot up. To get the dollars to buy oil, Costa Rica had to resort to foreign borrowing; and in 1980, the U.S. Federal Reserve under Paul Volcker raised interest rates to unprecedented levels.
In The Gods of Money (2009), William Engdahl fills in the back story. In 1971, Richard Nixon took the U.S. dollar off the gold standard, causing it to drop precipitously in international markets. In 1972, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and President Nixon had a clandestine meeting with the Shah of Iran. In 1973, a group of powerful financiers and politicians met secretly in Sweden and discussed effectively “backing” the dollar with oil. An arrangement was then finalized in which the oil-producing countries of OPEC would sell their oil only in U.S. dollars. The quid pro quo was military protection and a strategic boost in oil prices. The dollars would wind up in Wall Street and London banks, where they would fund the burgeoning U.S. debt. In 1974, an oil embargo conveniently caused the price of oil to quadruple. Countries without sufficient dollar reserves had to borrow from Wall Street and London banks to buy the oil they needed. Increased costs then drove up prices worldwide.
By late 1981, says Hansen-Kuhn, Costa Rica had one of the world’s highest levels of debt per capita, with debt-service payments amounting to 60 percent of export earnings. When the government had to choose between defending its stellar social-service system or bowing to its creditors, it chose the social services. It suspended debt payments to nearly all its creditors, predominately commercial banks. But that left it without foreign exchange. That was when it resorted to borrowing from the World Bank and IMF, which imposed “austerity measures” as a required condition. The result was to increase poverty levels dramatically.
Bidstrup writes of subsequent developments:
Indebted to the IMF, the Costa Rican government had to sell off its state-owned enterprises, depriving it of most of its revenue, and the country has since been forced to eat its seed corn. No major infrastructure projects have been conceived and built to completion out of tax revenues, and maintenance of existing infrastructure built during that era must wait in line for funding, with predictable results.
About every year, there has been a closure of one of the private banks or major savings coöps. In every case, there has been a corruption or embezzlement scandal, proving the old saying that the best way to rob a bank is to own one. This is why about 80% of retail deposits in Costa Rica are now held by the four state banks. They’re trusted.
Costa Rica still has a robust economy, and is much less affected by the vicissitudes of rising and falling international economic tides than enterprises in neighboring countries, because local businesses can get money when they need it. During the credit freezeup of 2009, things went on in Costa Rica pretty much as normal. Yes, there was a contraction in the economy, mostly as a result of a huge drop in foreign tourism, but it would have been far worse if local business had not been able to obtain financing when it was needed. It was available because most lending activity is set by government policy, not by a local banker’s fear index.
Stability of the local economy is one of the reasons that Costa Rica has never had much difficulty in attracting direct foreign investment, and is still the leader in the region in that regard. And it is clear to me that state banking is one of the principal reasons why.
The value and importance of a public banking sector to the overall stability and health of an economy has been well proven by the Costa Rican experience. Meanwhile, our neighbors, with their fully privatized banking systems have, de facto, encouraged people to keep their money in Mattress First National, and as a result, the financial sectors in neighboring countries have not prospered. Here, they have—because most money is kept in banks that carry the full faith and credit of the Republic of Costa Rica, so the money is in the banks and available for lending. While our neighbors’ financial systems lurch from crisis to crisis, and suffer frequent resulting bank failures, the Costa Rican public system just keeps chugging along. And so does the Costa Rican economy.
He concludes:
My dream scenario for any third world country wishing to develop, is to do exactly what Costa Rica did so successfully for so many years. Invest in the Holy Trinity of national development—health, education and infrastructure. Pay for it with the earnings of state capitalist enterprises that are profitable because they are protected from ruinous foreign competition; and help out local private enterprise get started and grow, and become major exporters, with stable state-owned banks that prioritize national development over making bankers rich. It worked well for Costa Rica for a generation and a half. It can work for any other country as well. Including the United States.
The new Happy Planet Index, which rates countries based on how many long and happy lives they produce per unit of environmental output, has ranked Costa Rica #1 globally. The Costa Rican model is particularly instructive at a time when US citizens are groaning under the twin burdens of taxes and increased health insurance costs. Like the Costa Ricans, we could reduce taxes while increasing social services and rebuilding infrastructure, if we were to allow the government to make some money itself; and a giant first step would be for it to establish some publicly-owned banks.
Article by by Ellen Hodgson Brown, Dissident Voice
(AFTERBIZLIFE) And how will look like cell phones in the near future? New form factors do not appear for a long time, but if the world is seeking a more comfortable gadgets, even mobile phones in the coming years can expect a rebirth.
Predicts a small revolution in its futuristic concept iPhone Italian artist Federico Ciccarese.
It turns out that wearing the iPhone in your pocket or purse is not too wise and no convenient. We must make sure that any sharp objects will not scratch the way the phone. Therefore, Federico proposes to carry iPhone in hand, the phone is made on the original design, it’s a cross between a bracelet and a glove.
In order to secure the phone in the palm of your hand, you need to stretch between the fingers of metal (aluminum, I suppose) holders, the screen will fit comfortably on the back side. Specifications futuristic iPhone author did not mention, judging by the illustrations, screen size is three inches, with a matrix of class Retina its resolution of approximately 480 × 800 pixels. And, of course, there is a powerful processor Apple A5X, as posted on the front camera for video on the Facetime. The renderings look amazing, and we love the sci-fi look of the thing, but the creepiness and probable discomfort created by the legs make it a non-starter.
What do you think of Federico Ciccarese’s concept iPhone ?
Costa Rica has witnessed a five-fold rise in illegal cigarette seizures since 2012, suggesting illegal groups are capitalizing on a new tobacco law to flood the market with contraband products.
So far this year, Costa Rican authorities have recovered 12.3 million illegal packs of cigarettes, compared to just 2.3 million throughout all of 2012, reported La Nacion.
According to Policía de Control Fiscal (PCF) – Financial Control Police – director Luis Alonso Bonilla, the increase is due to more effective policing, while a spokesman for Tabacalera Costarricense – a subsidiary of tobacco giant Phillip Morris International – said the increased seizures showed the growing flow of illegal cigarettes into the country.
The surge in contraband cigarettes comes in the wake of an anti-smoking law — introduced in March 2012 — which significantly increased taxes on cigarettes. In February, CRHoy reported illegal cigarette seizures had fallen from 2011 to 2012, despite the new law. However, that trend seems to have been drastically reversed, with 2013 seizures representing an almost three-fold increase on the 4.4 million packets recovered in 2011.
According to La Nacion, tax revenues have fallen considerably, from around $51 million in 2012, to around $34 million in the first ten months of 2013. This will represent a 10 percent decrease in revenues, despite the tax hike, if the average monthly sales for 2013 are maintained during November and December.
[callout]Smoking in Costa Rica.In March 2012, Costa Rica passed one of the strictest smoking regulations in the world by a 45-2 vote in favor. This legislation has banned smoking in buses, taxis, trains and their terminals, work places, public buildings, restaurants, bars, casinos, and all enclosed public-access buildings, granting no exceptions (no separate “smoking areas” are permitted). It also bans smoking in outdoor recreational or educational areas such as parks, stadiums and university campuses.
The bill requires cigarette packs to display text and photo warnings on at least 50 percent of packaging. It introduced a 20 colons tax per cigarette and prohibits any form of tobacco advertising, the use of misleading terms such as “light” or “milds” and the sale of small packages or individual cigarettes (setting a minimum of 20 cigarettes per package). Compliance with the law has been surprisingly high and smoking has disappeared in banned areas. Several programs and promotional campaigns have been started by the government and private institutions to promote quitting smoking, with very positive results. [/callout]
The contraband cigarette trade is run by five organized criminal groups, according to the PCF, reported La Nacion, and costs the country $23 million in taxes, reported CR Hoy. Illegal cigarettes often enter the country from Panama, and originate from China, Canada and Paraguay. (See La Nacion’s graphic illustration of the issue to the left)
InSight Crime Analysis
According to British American Tobacco – the leading group of tobacco companies in Central America and the Caribbean – the global illegal tobacco trade is growing and increasingly dominated by organized crime. In a 2008 report (pdf) by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, Latin America was home to 21.4 percent of the global market in illegal cigarettes — making it the region with the biggest portion of the trade.
An investigation earlier this year by elPeriodico in Guatemala noted that 70 percent of cigarettes smoked in Panama were illegal, compared to just ten percent in Costa Rica suggesting that the effect of the new law in Costa Rica has likely been exacerbated by the fact it is bordering a thriving market. Key contraband transit routes originating in Panama also pass through Costa Rica, making it easy for criminal groups to capitalize on the law change.
After reading the title you are probably asking, “What does encelulado mean in English.” The closest translation I can come up with is “to connected one’s cell phone frequently or almost continuously.”
Everywhere you go in Costa Rica you’ll see people who are walking around with a cell phone in their hand. Whenever I take the bus I notice the first thing most of the passengers do after siting down is whip out their mobile phone. Everyone seems to be connected to their phones much like having an umbilical cord. If they are not texting they are talking, surfing the web or listening to music.
It seems that it is almost impossible for some people to disconnect themselves from their cell phones. “Cellulitis” is a skin disease but it seems like a good word for describing people who are connected incessantly. I must admit that I am guilty of listening to music on my phone so I don’t get bored when I travel by the bus. It also makes the trip seem shorter. I own two cars but usually take the bus from Heredia to San José to avoid getting stressed out by driving in heavy traffic.
According to recent studies by the telephone providers Claro and Movistar, people in Costa Rica are connected more to the Internet and consume more data than any other country in Central America. In fact, they use more data than El Salvador, Panama and Nicaragua together. Fifty percent of the two company’s clients have smart phones; Eighty percent use the Internet; and fifteen percent use social networks like Facebook and twitter.
According to the statistics there are 5.3 million cell phones in Costa Rica or 119 phones per 100 people. Some here communicate more with their families, who they live with, by cell phone than in person. Those who live “encelulados” can suffer the consequences like stress, bad moods, digestive problems, injury to fingers from overuse and irregular sleeping habits. Local psychologists recommend that people limit the use of their phones so as not to suffer from any of the maladies above. People with children who have phones should particularly be aware of the downside of using these devices constantly. Many expats and retirees are also guilty of using these devices in excess.
Preliminary design of the new international airport. Source: Aviación Civil
If all goes according to plan, the San José international airport will be located in Orotina, some 40 kilometres west of the current international airport.
The planning for the new airport is expected to begin next year. Costa Rica’s Civil Aviation (the Dirección General de Aviación Civil) informs that the hiring of the expert will be in early 2014 and be responsible for proposing the most viable land for the new international airport
Aviation’s director, Alvaro Vargas, explained there are three potential sites in Orotina. The hired expert will be resonsible for recommending the best site.
The initial plan for the new airport is for two runways and twice the number of gates of th current. The plan also includes train transportation to and from the airport and San José
The Juan Santamaría international airport, named after Costa Rica’s national hero, Juan Santamaría, replaced the previous one in downtown San Jose where Parque La Sabana is located today.
Aerial view of the San José airport
No major changes were made to the terminal until November 1997 when the government issued a decree requesting participation of private companies to manage the operations of the airport.[
After a few years of legal challenges and contract negotiations Alterra Partners was given a 20 year concession and started
managing the facilities in May 2001.[ It was also expected that the company would finish the necessary expansion and construction of new facilities, however in March 2002 Alterra announced it would cease any further construction due to disagreements over financing and airport use fee billing with the government.
The dispute was extended for a few years and problems started at the terminal; in 2005 the International Civil Aviation Organization pointed out that the airport did not comply with safety regulations.
In July 2009 Alterra yielded the contract to a consortium composed of Houston-based Canadian-American company ADC & HAS and the Brazilian company, Andrade Gutierrez Concessores (AGC) – subsidiary of the conglomerate Andrade Gutierrez. In December 2009 Alterra Partners changed its name to AERIS Holdings, S.A. In November 2010 Aeris announced it had finished the expansion and construction of new facilities with the installation of the 9th boarding bridge.
Check-in counters in the main terminal of the Juan Santamaría International airport
Juan Santamaria International Airport is the largest and busiest airport in Costa Rica, having experienced a constant increase in traffic since its opening in 1958, boosted by the growing flow of tourists. The airport reached the million passenger for the first time in 1991, and it has been serving more than four million passengers yearly since 2007.
(Hotel News Source) The milestone is significant one for Autograph Collection, having reached 50 hotels in 13 countries in less than three years. In keeping with the inspiration of Autograph Collection to offer extraordinary travel experiences and Marriott International’s global commitment to sustainability, Hotel Punta Islita holds the highest certification rating in sustainable tourism from the Costa Rican Tourism Board, among numerous other ecological accolades, making it a leader in environmental hospitality in the region. Representing the first hotel to join Autograph Collection in Central America, Hotel Punta Islita rests on 85 picturesque acres along the Nicoya Peninsula in the southwestern part of Guanacaste province. Recently named one of Travel & Leisure magazine’s Top 100 Hotels in 2013, the unique design of the hotel affords each of its 57 guest room stunning views of the Pacific coast line. Speaking at an exclusive media event held today in New York City, President and Chief Executive Officer of Marriott International, Arne Sorenson, said, “To reach 50 hotels in less than three years is a testament to the vibrancy and success of Autograph Collection as an innovative business venture.” He continued, “Through championing independence and welcoming extraordinary hotel experiences like Hotel Punta Islita, Autograph remains one of the fastest growing independent hotel collections in the industry.” Owned and operated by Grupo Islita, the secluded sanctuary specializes in sustainable tourism and programs involving guests on items including reforestation, animal protection and water conservation, Support for local arts and education are signature elements of the Hotel Punta Islita experience, and the hotel’s Villafranca-Zurcher Foundation (Fundacion VZ) has championed ground breaking programs including the Islita Contemporary Art Museum and the Islita Creative Center. With a passionate dedication to help alleviate poverty and reverse environmental degradation in the region, local residents comprise more than 85% of the hotel’s staff, resulting in a deep and heartfelt connection to the local community. Introduced in 2010, the vision behind the Autograph Collection is to offer an evolving group of passionately independent hotel experiences ranging from a 15-room boutique hunting lodge in the mountains of Colorado to a 19th century neoclassical palace in the majestic city of Prague. Exactly like nothing else, each hotel is thoughtfully chosen for its quality, originality, bold character and capacity to offer today’s modern traveler a range of unique experiences suited to their individual sense of style and adventure. While still relatively new, the distinct portfolio has proven to be a highly successful venture due to its discerning selection process and unique ability to create memories through enriching travel experiences. Hotel Punta Islita is one Costa Rica’s most awarded, off the beaten path destinations, catering to sophisticated travelers who value authenticity, uniqueness and connection to the local community. Amenities include a nine-hole executive golf course, two swimming pools, Spa, a secluded beach front with beach club, two restaurants, and small group meeting space. The hotel also has a private landing strip for small commuter aircraft, with commercial flights operating from San José on a regular schedule throughout the year.
A study of various colored poison-dart frogs suggests that mating behaviors of green versus red frogs of the same species are not exactly the same. Pictured is a red granular poison frog, Oophaga granulifera. (Photo : Wikimedia Commons )
A study of various colored poison-dart frogs suggests that mating behaviors of green versus red frogs of the same species are not exactly the same. Pictured is a red granular poison frog, Oophaga granulifera. (Photo : Wikimedia Commons )
(Nature World News) A study of various colored poison-dart frogs suggests that mating behaviors of green versus red frogs of the same species are not exactly the same.
Beatriz Willink of the University of Costa Rica led the research, which sought to determine if green variants of granular posion frogs were more or less conspicuous to potential mates and predators than red frogs of the same species (Oophaga granulifera).
The bright colors of the poison-dart frogs serve not only to attract potential mates, but also to ward off predators, such as birds, by signaling to the predators that the amphibians are poisonous. A red poison-dart frog, it is assumed, has a competitive advantage over a green one because the red coloration is a clear warning sign to predators that it is poisonous.
To test the frogs, Willink and her collaborators measured how the colorful skin of the frogs contrasted against the natural background in the southwestern lowlands of Costa Rica. They chose to test the frogs based on color because at least one species of poison-dart frog is known to make mating choices influenced by skin color. The research team also measured the mating call activity of both red and green poison-dart frogs to account for whether green-colored frogs adjust their actions based on the availability of potential mates.
The study’s results revealed that green-colored frogs, despite being less visible in some cases, can appear as bright as red frogs to members of their own species, but not to birds.
“Green frogs therefore seem to adjust their sexual behavior accordingly: They can deliver relatively conspicuous signals to females while being less conspicuous to potential predators,” the researchers said in a news release.
The team found that green males vocalized mating calls less frequently than red males when advertising to distant females. But if a female was within close range, the team found that the green frogs vocalized as much as their red counterparts.
In the right context, the researchers concluded, green male poison-dart frogs appear to see a trade-off in the risk of predation versus the benefit of securing a mate by drawing attention to itself.
“Our results support the notion that populations of phenotypically or observably different divergent species may use different solutions to the trade-off between natural and sexual selection, by adjusting the place and time of displays to risks and opportunities,” Willink said. “In poison frogs this may have contributed to the dramatic variation in color pattern conspicuousness observed across species.”
Costa Rica is approaching best practice in fiscal reporting and forecasting, according to a new report published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The Fiscal Transparency Assessment (FTA) report notes that, following a number of significant reforms in recent years, the country meets the basic requirements for fiscal risk disclosure under the new IMF’s fiscal transparency code (FTC).
The assessment identified areas that can be further improved, such as: (i) most fiscal and budgetary information is on a cash basis; (ii) there is insufficient reconciliation and comparability between accounting, budgetary, and statistical information and revenue, expenditure, and financing forecasts; (iii) the budgetary system is very fragmented and dual given that part of the budget is approved by the Legislative Assembly (41 percent of expenditures) and part is approved by the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic (59 percent); (iv) the government does not revise the budgetary framework for the year in progress; (v) there is no statement of numerical targets for the main fiscal aggregates; (vi) fiscal projections cover only five years; and (vii) no fiscal risk aggregate report is produced on aspects such as macroeconomic risks, contingent liabilities, guarantees, concession contracts, and the indebtedness of municipal governments.
The report also noted the Costa Rica government’s plans for further improving the timeliness, quality, and comprehensiveness of its budgets, statistics, and accounts. The government has prepared its own action plan to implement the recommendations provided in the assessment. The Costa Rica government’s action plan in response to this report is available at the end of the report.
The report was carried out at the request of the Costa Rica Government by a Fiscal Affairs Department team which visited San Jose in March 2013. It is part of a pilot assessment that uses a new assessment format based on the ongoing revisions to the FTC, which is expected to be finalized in the first half of 2014.
Background on FTAs
FTAs will replace the fiscal transparency ROSC1 as the Fund’s principal instrument for evaluating the transparency of countries’ fiscal reports, forecasts, and risk management. They examine the extent to which a country’s published fiscal information provides a complete and accurate picture of its fiscal position, prospects, and risks.
The Ireland FTA was one of several pilot assessments that are based on a working draft of the revised FTC.
Building on the recommendations of the 2012 IMF Board Paper “Fiscal Transparency, Accountability, and Risk”, the FTA improves on the fiscal transparency ROSC by:
Placing greater emphasis on the quality of reported information, rather than the clarity of reporting procedures;
Offering countries with a clearer summary of how their fiscal reports, forecasts, and risk analysis compare against international standards;
Undertaking a more rigorous analysis of sources and scale of any gaps in countries’ published fiscal information; and
Providing countries with a sequenced, medium-term action plan for addressing those gaps.
The wave of green turtle deaths in Central America has spread to Costa Rica, where 44 of the animals were found dead along the Pacific coast.
Green turtle deaths have also been reported in Nicaragua and El Salvador, with scientists suspecting that a toxin released by algae may be responsible.
Experts are performing necropsies on the green sea turtles (chelonyas mydas) found dead in Guanacaste province and the results are expected within a week, veterinarian David Herrera told Efe.
A scientific team that obtained live and dead specimens to study only found indications of human activity behind the deaths in three cases, leading experts to suspect that a neurological syndrome is to blame, Herrera, a member of the team, said.
The team, however, has not ruled out human causes in the turtle kill, Herrera said.
At least 233 turtles have died this year from ingesting “toxic substances” in El Salvador, the Salvadoran Environment and Natural Resources Ministry said.
Hundreds of dead sea turtles washed up in San Juan del Sur, on Nicaragua’s Pacific coast, Nicaraguan Foundation for Sustainable Development, or Fundenic-Sos, biologist Fabio Buitrago said in September.
Environmentalists suspect that the sea turtles were killed by fishermen using explosives, a possibility being investigated by Costa Rican biologists.
Between 10,000 and 30,000 sea turtles are killed annually in Costa Rica by fishermen using illegal methods, the Widecast turtle protection organization said.
The government has asked the heads of all public institutions, especially those that provide essential services, to dock the wages of all employees who did not show up for work , to participate in today’s protests.
According to the Ministro de la Presidencia, Carlos Ricardo Benavides, he said to have spoken to some of the heads of autonomous institutions, asking them apply the law, that includes not only a reduction of wages, but also other sanctions to any employee who abandoned their duties. The minister did not elaborate on the “other” sanctions.
“We are aware that the citizen has the right to demonstrate, and workers have the right to strike for employment-related reasons, but no one has the right to interrupt essential services for the majority,” said Benavides.
Different labour groups are continuing to block access at strategic points in the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM in Spanish) and caused essential services like appointments at medical clinics and hospitals to be missed and disrupted classes in schools due to teachers out in protest, demanding a reduction in electricity rates and improved pay and working conditions.
En masse motorcyclists blocked off all access around the INS building in Barrio Amon, demanding a reduction in the Marchamo (circulation permit).
Asked why there has been no formal petition of their demands against the government, collectively labour leaders say, what is the point? since this government has failed us.
To alleviate the tremendous traffic congestion caused by today’s protests, the Ministerio de Obras Publicas y Transportes (MOPT) to decided to open two of the four Bailey bridges on the Circunvalalción, to vehicular traffic.
The opening was temporary and a last minute decision.
Starting at 7:30am this, all workers and machinery were cleared of the work site and traffic police allowed the flow of traffic for most of the day, to 2:30pm. But only for today.
MOPT officials say the road, between Hatillo 8 and Pavas, will re-opened fully – all four temporary bridges – before the end of the week.
Protestors began to have their mark felt on the city of San José from the early hours of the morning Monday.
It all began minutes before 6:00am. A red colour truck with “tumbacosos” (loudspeakers) and an Undeca union flag blocked the Avenida Segunda at the Parque La Merced. Meanwhile, in La Sabana, in front of the ICE central offices, a considerable group of protestors started to gather.
Dozens of union leaders began their protests in front of the Hospital Mexico (in La Uruca) and the San juan de Dios hospital (downtown San José), all ahead of the programmed 8:00am gathering in the Parque Central.
Heading into San José, on the Autopista Genera Cañas from Alajuela, was congested more than usual and and starting earlier. At 6:20am traffic into San José was already backed up by the Hospital Mexico. By 7:30am the bumper-to-bumper was at the Firestone, a short distance from the Juan Santamaria international airport.
In La Sabana, more than 2.500 members of the Frente Interno de Trabajadores (FIT) are expected to start making their way to downtown, where they will join the thousands more in the middle of downtown San José.
If you haven’t heard it yet, here it is, avoid if you can downtown San José, La Uruca and San Pedro.
More than 100 traffic officials are assigned to control traffic and more than 200 officials of the Fuerza Pública (police) to maintain security.
The photo is courtesy of Taringa! a virtual community where users can share all kinds of information such as funny photos, web memes, and breaking news in the form of posts. Click here for more Costa Rica photos posted on Taringa.
By Jason Holland (International Living) – I have a pretty standard morning routine. I’m awakened very early by roosters but stay in bed for a while as the sunrise filters into the bedroom. I start the coffee, open the sliding doors, step out to my deck, and look down into the valley below. I usually see hummingbirds buzzing around my flowers, sometimes a blue-crowned mot-mot.
Some mornings one of my neighbors, a farmer, has been up even earlier to let his cow and oxen graze in the vacant lot next door.
I’m not out in the country or living on a farm. I’m in the middle of the largest urban area in Costa Rica, the capital, San José, founded in 1738.
Most people visiting Costa Rica fly into this city, site of the main international airport, but head out as soon as possible for Pacific or Caribbean coast beaches. And the majority of expats live on the coast or in more rural areas of the Central Valley.
On my first trip to the country in 2005, I felt the same way. San Jose (population: 300,000-plus, with more than a million in the metro area) had traffic, tall buildings, and noise. But after living in Escazú, a suburb just 10 minutes’ drive from downtown, for the past year, I’ve discovered another side to the city.
It has the best shopping and dining in the country, including imported items found nowhere else and international cuisine. There are also North American-style amenities like health clubs and movie theaters, as well as cultural activities like jazz clubs, art festivals, museums, and more.
As far as weather, San Jose benefits from altitude—starting at 3,000 feet on the valley floor and going up from there in the hills that surround the city proper. That means despite its location in the tropics, this area has a very temperate climate—never hot, never cold.
I came to San Jose because of the down-the-street convenience to the best public and private healthcare in the country. My son needed testing (available for a fraction of U.S. prices) at the private CIMA Hospital, 10 minutes’ drive from our home, and visits to a specialist ($80 per visit in the private system) available only here.
We also use the public clinic, part of the Caja universal healthcare system. All his care at the local clinic is free, though there can be wait times for non-emergency procedures, which is why we sometimes use private providers.
Another huge plus to living in San Jose is that it’s centrally located and the transportation hub for this West Virginia-sized country. All the major highways run through the area. In less than a couple hours’ drive, you can be on a beautiful tropical Pacific beach enjoying an ice-cold Imperial…or in a dense jungle with no sound but the cry of howler monkeys in less than an hour…or swimming in a waterfall pool after a careful hike downhill through the forest.
San Jose has a reputation for expensive real estate. But there are still plenty of deals out there…good locations in safe neighborhoods.
A two-bedroom condo in the exclusive Bello Horizonte neighborhood, with city views, is $150,000. A three-bedroom home with a large yard in Santa Barbara de Heredia—basically in the country, although the city is close by—will run you $98,000.
Rentals are cheap, too. A large two-bedroom house perched on a hill in San Antonio de Escazú is $450 a month unfurnished. One of the highest points around San Jose, it offers amazing views of the entire metro area. A high-end three-bedroom condo near the best shopping in Escazú is $875 a month unfurnished.
At the release party of her latest album ARTPOP at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York, the 27-year-old diva, Lady Gaga, went airborne in the Volantis, which the singer has dubbed ‘the world’s first flying dress.’
Featuring an uber-modern white curvy body mold made of fiber optics, the battery operated high-couture hover vehicle flies through the air through the use of six booms in a hex formation.
TechHaus, the technical branch of the Haus Of Gaga, worked on the invention for over two years.
Gaga addressed crowd at the record release party, dubbed ARTRAVE, revealing that the singer worked with engineer Benjamin and designer Nancy to create the device.
‘I wanted to make today about something even more important to me. And what that something is the youth of the world. Benjamin and Nancy are here with me today. Their minds are just so boundless,’ said Gaga. ‘I will be a vehicle today for their voices… Youth all over the world.’
Before she stepped into the flying dress, the Applause singer originally stepped out on stage in white astronaut’s suit before stripping down to a black body suit with white sparkle knee-high boots and a protective helmet.
The singer commented that the flight was “maybe a small step for Volantis,” but “a big-time step” for Lady Gaga.
After Gaga landed, the crowded was escorted to the ARTRAVE party where the walls were lined with Jeff Koons statues of Gaga straddled an orb. The surrounding artwork was reminiscent of the cover of the ARTPOP album.
For the party, Gaga changed her outfit yet again, going steampunk for the affair with bronze clockwork-looking goggles, black sky-high platform shoes and a metallic high-concept floor-length coat that zipped to the side and featured extreme shoulder pads and bronze buttons.
Gaga later revealed that her ultimate goal is to stage the first musical performance from outer space.
ARTPOP will hit stores on Monday, Nov. 11.
Pre-flight outfit: Before she donned the fiber optic shell of the flying dress, Gaga stripped down to a black leotard and white go-go bootsSeeing double: The artist posed next to an image of herself, mirroring her postmodernist leaningsRemember whose party this is: ARTRAVE was filled with Jeff Koons statues of the divaGiant Lady Gaga: The life-like sculpture depicted the singer in the buffAfter-flight outfit: Gaga goes steampunk with a metallic high-fashion coat, extreme platforms and goggles
Health workers, teachers and professors, motorcyclists, drivers and many others will be protesting today in Costa Rica, with the major concentration in San José, starting at 8AM today Monday. Port of Limón workers will be shutting down the port in protest.
The meeting point for the mass of protestors is at the Parque Central on Avenida Segunda, in the heart of the capital.
The protest is against hikes in electricity rates, the dialogue on the government’s fiscal (tax) plan and the increase in the cost of the Marchamo.
According to Albino Vargas, head of the Asociación Nacional de Empleados Públicos (ANEP) – the largest of the workers union in the country – the main focus of the protest is the proposed adjustment in electrical rates.
Map shows the areas to avoid on Monday. The meeting point for all groups is at the Parque Central, from where each group will follow their planned route,the UNDECA heading west to the Hospital Mexico (blue); ICE workers will head west to the ICE headquarters in La Sabana; APSE- ANDE members will head east to San Pedro; and the motorcyclists will split, one group moving towards the INS building in Barrio Amon the other to the SUGESE in San Pedro.
In the Health sector affected services will include outpatient and medical appointments at state hospitals and clinics. Luis Chavarria, head of the Unión Nacional de Empleados de la Caja (Undeca) – health sector union – stressed emergency and critical care services will not be interrupted.
Costa Rica’s Communications Minister, Carlo Roverssi, said Sunday afternoon by way of a press release that the union action is meaningless and protestors are “distorting groups of social peace”.
Presidenta Laura Chinchilla on Sunday said there is no reason for protesting and “is irresponsible and unjustified”
More than 400 police, both of the Fuerza Publica and Tránsito (traffic) will be on hand to ensure the vast majority of the population has free movement in the capital and major routes around the country.
Although there are no planned protests (save for the Limón dock workers strike) around the country, but it does not preclude last minute groupings of manifestations.
(QNICARAGUA) Directors of the Foundation of the Italian football club Inter Milan are considering installing an academy for teaching that sport discipline in Nicaragua, the sources said today sporting institution visiting this nation. Delegates of the Foundation are for the third time in this country in order to shape the project, which would favor the development of generational change in the most universal of sports.
As planned, this time the team that association will hold several meetings with representatives of various agencies that may participate in the program, national sports officials and technicians.
The football school that could be built in this country would be linked directly to the Inter Campus, an expanded social program for several countries and aimed at infants whose sense of life revolves around football practice and have talent for it.
The word natural resource is usually defined as a material source of wealth, such as timber, fresh water, or a mineral deposit, that occurs in a natural state and has economic value. In Costa Rica’s when we think of natural resources the following usually come to mind: bananas, pineapples and coffee and in recent times, pharmaceuticals, financial outsourcing, software development, and ecotourism.
Well after 33 of living here I would like to redefine the word resource. I consider Costa Rica’s beautiful women to be the country’s number one resource. I feel fortunate to live in a country of traffic-stopping gorgeous women. Every time I walk down the street I see a parade of beautiful woman. Believe me my perception is not distorted. All of my male friends both Costa Rican and North American agree with me 100 percent. It is absolutely incredible that one place can have so many naturally beautiful woman. As one of my Costa Rican male friends stated in a typical macho fashion, “The reason the woman are so beautiful here is because we know how to make love to them.” Whatever the reason for their good looks, beautiful woman abound here.
Another good Costa Rican friend of mine often says, “Las mujeres son como las florers, hay que verlas.” “Women are like flowers, they are meant to be seen.” He also says, “No tiene nada de malo, echarse un taco de ojo.” “There is nothing wrong with checking out the eye candy.” I agree completely.
I would say that the two things that bring single men to Costa Rica are the country’s spring-like weather and knock-out woman. The latter dress simply with jeans and a blouse and exude sensuality through every pore in their body. Ticas are not embarrassed to flaunt their attributes and femininity. I know an American woman who lives in Costa Rica who remarked to me that all of the ticas dress like prostitutes. This is definitely not the case. The woman here are comfortable about their appearances and have no hang ups about flaunting what they have.
Everyone knows that looks are not everything, but they do help. Not only are the majority of the woman good looking here but they are more friendly and approachable than their American counterparts. Almost all of them have beautiful and radiant smiles. An American friend of mine once told me, “If you want to see the most beautiful smiles in the world, visit Costa Rica.” He was right.
Most women here like men from the States because gringos do not seem to be as hung up on machismo as most Latin men and know how to treat a lady. If you are a middle age or older man, many a younger Costa Rican woman will go out with you. I am a widower who was married to a wonderful Costa Rica woman for almost 20 years. I was about fifteen years older than my wife and my age never proved to be an obstacle. My present girlfriend is about 25 years young than I am and very devoted and appreciative. As they say in Spanish, “El amor no conoce la edad.” “Love isn’t limited by age.” This saying is especially true in Costa Rica.
In terms of energy output, the country has the capacity to generate 5,800 megawatts (MW) annually from clean sources. Currently, however, just over 5% of its renewable potential has been developed.
