Starting on August 8th, 2013, the most important fashion industry event for Costa Rica will unfold over four days in San Jose. Costa Rica Fashion Week 2013 is more than just models sashaying down a runway; it is an important trade event for a billion dollar fashion industry that is beginning to take flight in our country.
Costa Rica is currently the style hub of Central America, and fashion industry leaders would like to see it stay that way. The Costa Rica Fashion Week event is primarily a meeting event for designers, merchants, schools, and students to learn about new trends and methodologies. Despite the country’s ongoing loss of its once-vibrant textile and clothes manufacturing industry to countries where lower salaries and inadequate working conditions run rampant, the fashion industry leaders in Costa Rica believe that this nation has what it takes to participate in the global fashion stage.
From Thursday, August 8th until Sunday, August 11th, the Antigua Aduana (Old Customs) building in San Jose will host a series of runway shows, style expo, industry workshops, press conferences, and fashion industry discussions. Designers from all over Central America, Mexico, and Colombia will display outfits, jewelry and accessories. Not everything will be Pret a Porter (ready-to-wear), there will also be some haute couture (high fashion) and conceptual designs to admire.
The serious, business-minded content of Costa Rica Fashion Week 2013 will be conducted by the Ministry of Labor, the National Institute of Learning (INA in Spanish), the Textile Chamber of Industry in Costa Rica (CATECO), and others. The ongoing success of Costa Rica Fashion Week has been due to the hard work of Tica supermodel Leonora Jimenez, whose work has been recently profiled by the Costa Rica Star.
Some of the sponsors of this event include Cosmopolitan Latin America, 104.7 HIT FM, and Costa Rica’s Ministry of Culture and Youth Affair. To find out more about the event, follow #CRFW2013 on Twitter.
Thanks to the quick response of lifeguards, the Cruz Roja (Red Cross) and surf instructors in Jaco Beach, ten teenage tourists lived to enjoy another day in Costa Rica. Such was a recent scene witnessed and described by Captain Richard Barone, a nature conservation activist known as Capi from his blog Capi Writes.
According to Capt. Barone, the teenagers were playing in the rough surf conditions of Jaco, a beach that not only attracts surfers from around the world but also expats and many other tourists. Jaco Beach, which is often called “Gringo Beach” by derisive Ticos, is easy to get to from San Jose, which adds to its status as a popular tourist destination, but it is not the most ideal beach for swimming.
To get the full account of the incident, please read Capi’s blog post here. Sadly, this is not something unusual, and it bears paying attention to the following few paragraphs, which have been slightly edited for spelling and grammar:
The most shocking aspect for me to witness was the ungratefulness and ignorance of the tourist group, which had been warned by several other lifeguards on the beach of the serious currents that afternoon.
As is typical of drowning and near drowning events, for many of the teens present it was their first experience in the ocean. Some of the teens were in visible shock after the event as they walked off the beach while others appeared to brush the event off in denial of the near tragedy.
However for the most part the typical tourist group seemed unimpressed as did the few typical gringo bar flies present that shrugged not amused…
Not only did the tourists appear ungrateful but they crassly displayed their lack of social skills leaving the lifeguards, ambulance personnel and surfers without so much as a thank you, let alone an offering of a drink or lunch!
Capi has updated the blog post to indicated that the teenagers did return afterward to thank their saviors, one of them being Tico lifeguard Seco Herrera Samudio, pictured in this article. Capt. Barone has also promised to post a video of the incident at a later time.
Most beaches in Costa Rica do not have lifeguards on duty, and few of them post warning signs with regard to surf conditions. Jaco Beach, however, enjoys protection by brave lifeguards, trained Red Cross workers, and members of the Tourism Police -a special unit of Fuerza Publica. These protectors of life and safety in Jaco Beach are proactive; they are known to warn tourists about rip currents and other dangerous surf conditions that could prove to be too much to handle for the average swimmer. Warning signs are posted in Jaco Beach, but they are often ignored by tourists who have had too many bottles of Imperial at the numerous beach bears.
The situation for lifeguards in Costa Rica will hopefully change in the future as greater awareness of their hard work appears in the media. Last year, for example, Tica model Andreina Samudio, a smoldering beach bombshell who is also an avid surfer, completed lifeguard training in Jaco Beach -which culminates with a four and half kilometer ocean swim across Jaco. Although Andreina will probably earn a lot more with her modeling gigs, her lifeguard certification brings certainly brings attention to this noble profession.
In a previous article, the Costa Rica Star wrote about how a veteran lifeguard came out of retirement in Dominical to perform a heroic rescue. Since then, the National Association of Lifeguards in Costa Rica has continued its efforts to keep professionalism high among these guardians of the beach. Lead by Captain Luis Hidalgo, the Association has trained more than 700 lifeguards in Costa Rica over the last 13 years. Greater awareness and visibility of lifeguards in Costa Rica is a win-win situation.
Public health officials in Costa Rica are hard at work to control outbreaks of two dangerous infections diseases: Dengue fever and H1N1. Both diseases are taxing the resources of La Caja (Costa Rica’s system of public health care facilities) and the Ministry of Health, although both entities are confident that the country’s mortality rate on those two diseases will remain as the lowest in the Americas.
According to online news daily Costa Rica Hoy, health officials from la Caja estimate that more than $500 million have been spent on treatment and paid sick leave of patients who fall ill from dengue fever. According to actuaries studying figures from La Caja’s hospital and epidemiological expenditures, the costs in 2013 have been not only been higher than in the previous year; they are also higher than similar costs during 2008 and 2009 combined.
Dengue hemorrhagic fever, which can be fatal, has already claimed a couple of lives in Costa Rica. The Ministry of Health has been actively involved in controlling the vector population of Aedes aegypti, the carrier mosquito that breeds in stagnant pools of water located in the tropics. Efforts in controlling this potentially deadly insect include habitat destruction and fumigation.
Although the number of dengue fever cases are multiplying in Costa Rica, health authorities have managed to keep mortality down. Such is not the case is in Honduras, where the AFP news agency reports that five people have died from the disease. Nicaragua has lost five people to dengue, and the disease has traveled beyond Central America to the Madeira region of Portugal, Pakistan, Greece, and the Philippines. It is in this last island nation, however, where hopes are high for a dengue vaccine to emerge in the near future.
The Elusive H1N1 Vaccine
There is also concern over the influenza A virus subtype H1N1, which reached pandemic proportions in Costa Rica between 2009 and 2010, when 50 people died from this deadly infectious disease. The Ministry of Health has reported that eight people in Costa Rica have succumbed to this powerful flu strain, for which vaccine availability is scarce these days.
H1N1 vaccine production for the Northern Hemisphere starts in October of each year, which coincides with the mutation of this pesky virus. These vaccines have a shelf life of about seven to eight months, and right now they are desperately needed in Costa Rica, the Caribbean and North America. For this reason, the Ministry of Health in Costa Rica warns against unscrupulous pharmacists and drugstores that may offer H1N1 vaccines that have already expired to unsuspecting patients.
Coco Island and her surrounding maritime zones in Costa Rica have been protected by standing legislation over the last few years. This, however, has done little to prevent the incursion of nefarious shark finning crews who thumb their noses at the law and prey upon the selachian species that make the waters of Coco Island their home.
According to online news daily Costa Rica Hoy, illegal fishermen and shark fin poachers continue to operate around Coco Island despite the increased of law enforcement officers in the area. In mid-July, a joint effort from the National Coast Guard Service and National Park Rangers resulted in the confiscation of fishing gear and catch from a fishing vessel that had cast its lines near the island. According to Geiner Golfin, administrator of the Coco Island National Park, authorities did not find detached shark fins aboard the vessel; however, their intelligence on this particular crew led them to confiscate their shark catch and gear.
This is what the Coast Guard and Park Rangers in Costa Rica know about the current situation in Coco Island:
The waters of Coco Island are brimming with marine life, which in turn attracts a rich diversity of shark species, which in turn attract nefarious shark finning crews.
The shark fin poachers are motivated by the lucrative demand for shark fins, which are considered an expensive delicacy in certain Asian cultures -particularly in China and Taiwan. With the economies of China and other Asian nations in full bloom, more people can afford -and want- shark fin soup.
There is enough evidence to belief that shark finning around Coco Island is organized by a commercial fisherman in Puntarenas who owns a tuna fishing fleet. In recent years, however, this fleet has used tuna catch as a cover and have focused on shark finning. They used to hack the fins off sharks while at sea and throw them overboard where they suffer as they bleed and sink to death.
Increased enforcement by the Coast Guard around Coco Island and other areas in Costa Rica has forced this fake tuna fishing fleet to operate a clandestine dock where they hack off fins and dispose of the sharks surreptitiously. Authorities are working to find this dock and shut it down, but another illegal shark finning dock could be set up in just a few days.
Administrator Golfin laments that legislation in Costa Rica does not allow for a full vessel confiscation. Still, the Coast Guard and Park Rangers vow to continue frustrating the efforts of these crews by confiscating their catch and their fishing gear. They can’t get to all of them, but their actions have caused enough consternation to provoke ire among some shark fin poachers who have launched death threats at the Park Rangers.
Brother and sister, Kattia and Mario Fonseca, residents of Los de Santo Domingo, on their way to the Basilica on Saturday. Photo MARCELA BERTOZZI/La Nacion
Despite the rain and cold air, it did not break the will of hundreds of faithful who chose yesterday to advance their “romería” to the Basilica de los Angeles, in Cartago, home of La Negrita.
Brother and sister, Kattia and Mario Fonseca, residents of Los de Santo Domingo, on their way to the Basilica on Saturday. Photo MARCELA BERTOZZI/La Nacion
Romeros could be spotted from early in the morning Saturday.
The traffic police was forced, starting shortly after 8am, to completely close off one lane of the autopista Florencial del Castillo (San José – Cartago highway) to ensure the safety of walkers.
Staring Wednesday, vehicular traffic between Curridabat on the east side of San José, though La Union and Ochomogo and onto the Basilica in Cartago will be “regulado”. A couple of thousand police and Red Cross workers will be on and to provide safety and first aid to the romeros.
Traffic official, Diego Herrera, told the media that the number of romeros coming out early this year exceeded expectations.
The La Nacion reports that about 40 residents from Tilarán, northwest of Arenal, departed early in their six-day and 220 kilometre trek to reach La Virgen. The group is being accompanied by a truck to carry their luggage as well as food, water and medication in case of an emergency.
Remember the La Nacion has an interactive map accessed by your smartphone or tablet. The app tells you the distance you would still have to travel to reach the Basilica. You can find the map and download the app at www.nacion.com/romeria
In Costa Rica only two Hybrid models are available for sale, the Prius and Camry from Toyota.
Costa Rica’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by the year 2021 is becoming complicated by the increasing number of motor vehicles transiting her roadways. This would not be a problem if a great number of cars, trucks and motorcycles in Costa Rica were energy-efficient or featured low-emission systems, but the sad truth is that the majority of them aren’t.
In Costa Rica only two Hybrid models are available for sale, the Prius and Camry from Toyota.
According to a recent news report by radio station Monumental, 93.5 FM, the General Customs Service in Costa Rica reports that only 157 hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles, such as the Toyota Prius and Nissan Leaf, have entered the country in the last five years. This is exacerbated by the fact that more Ticos are interested in acquiring cars thanks to increased marketing by auto dealer and greater availability of credit for auto loans. Costa Rica is clearly turning car-crazy; buyers are shrugging off the exorbitant taxes on motor vehicles and purchasing them at a fast clip, but Tico buyers just aren’t into environmentally-friendly cars that much.
There is a very slight glimmer of hope in that last year was the best on record for orders of hybrid and electric vehicles in Costa Rica; the bad news, however, is that it was a very low number: 55. Compare that to the 7,800 used and 16,000 new cars that entered out country in 2012 -and many of them were gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles (SUVs).
New Incentives Are Not Enough
The administration of President Laura Chinchilla has tried to implement incentives to increase the number of low-emission, energy-efficient cars in Costa Rica. The latest incentive is a tax break on these vehicles, which could cap them at a 10 percent maximum rate of sales tax. In an interview with Radio Monumental, the director of corporate affairs for Purdy Motor -a major Toyota auto dealer in Costa Rica, explained that this tax reduction follows other government initiatives such as subsidies for bus companies and taxicab fleets to replace their aging fleets with hybrid and electric vehicles, but he also said that the new consumer incentive may not be enough.
Minister of the Environment explained that car buyers in Costa Rica could save on average $1,300 when they purchase a “green car.” This may not be enticing enough for Tico car buyers, who may need extra motivation to get behind the wheel of a hybrid or electric motor vehicle. Incentives at the dealer or financing levels may work out better, but thus far there are no plans to implement them.
Moving from New York City to a small town in the U.S. is quite a culture shock on its own. But Rick Macsherry, 60, and Christina Spilsbury, 58, did one better. In 1989, they moved to a small fishing village on Costa Rica‘s northern Pacific coast.
Back then, Tamarindo was tiny and remote, accessible only by a bumpy dirt road that fronted the beach.
“When we moved here, there were only about 50 people, locals and expats,” recalls Christina.
The only foreign visitors were sport fishermen (Tamarindo remains a fishing destination today), pioneering surfers in search of consistently good waves, and a handful of adventurous tourists who stayed at the few small hotels in town. Ticos, as Costa Ricans call themselves, flooded the area between Christmas and Semana Santa, or Holy Week, as they still do today.
But otherwise, Tamarindo was a very quiet place.
Today, it’s a tourist destination and busy little town full of expats of various nationalities—from Italian to Argentinian to Israeli to Canadian. There are restaurants, from take-away to sit-down gourmet of every cuisine. Grocery stores are packed with imported items like hummus and frozen waffles.
But it still manages to retain a funky, laid-back character. It’s a beach town through and through. Where sunset drinks on the beach are the only unmissable appointment on your calendar. And while there might be plenty of tourists walking the streets and laying out on the beach during high season, the town’s long-term residents remain close-knit.
Christina’s grandmother was from Costa Rica, and she had family in San Jose, the country’s capital. So the couple had visited the country before and traveled around extensively. The funny thing is despite their obvious affinity for the place the couple never intended to move here permanently.
But then Christina, a writer, was offered a grant to work on her next project. Knowing the money would be enough to support themselves for a while in Costa Rica, they headed south. And during that year-long stint in Tamarindo, they fell in love with the place. After a short trip back to New York, they moved back to their new home.
Location was a big factor: “I love the beach,” says Christina.
But so was lifestyle.
“We really thought the thing that’s most valuable in life is time,” explains Christina. “We definitely pace ourselves so we have time to enjoy the place we live. And we have a lot of friends. Here there’s time to make friends…and plenty of public space like the beach to meet people.”
Christina and Rick have seen a lot of changes over the years.
Cost of living in Costa Rica, for one, has increased since the 1980s. But…
“We can still afford to have a gardener and a cleaning woman, something we couldn’t afford in the States,” says Christina.
Plus, health care is cheap. The couple feels blessed not to have had any serious medical issues over the years. But they do report that their local dentist charges a fifth of what it would cost in the U.S. for treatment.
These days Rick and Christina keep busy with their catering business, based in Playa Langosta, just south of Tamarindo. The area has become a destination for weddings and large family reunions over the years, according to Christina, and Sunset Catering serves that need. But they still make time for what’s really important.
“We walk the beach and swim every day,” says Christina. “And at the end of the day we always watch the sunset.”
At the National Assembly in Costa Rica, legislators are waiting to deliberate upon the merits of curious proposal to intercept, collect and store electronic communications in a fashion similar to what the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States already does around the world.
The legislative proposal goes by the lengthy name of Integral Reform to the Law on Registration, Interception, and Review of Private Documents and Electronic Communications.
The Orwellian scope of this law, however, has moved the Active Centre for Human Rights (CADH in Spanish) of Costa Rica to nickname the proposal “Project Snowden” after former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, who shocked the world with his leak of information about the shadowy, yet overbearing, world of the NSA.
The legislator behind this proposal is Carlos Gongora, who used to belong to the Libertarian Movement political party but later switched to the more popular Social Christian Union (PUSC in Spanish). The essence of his proposed reform is to force electronic communications providers in Costa Rica to backup all communications made on their networks and store them for two years for the purpose of turning them over to law enforcement elements when they come calling. This means that if you are reading this article on your Kolbi mobile device in Costa Rica, ICE will know about it for the next two years.
Monitoring Sensitive Information According to a news report by University Weekly, published by the University of Costa Rica (UCR), the CADH is very concerned about Project Snowden since it infringes upon Article 24 of our Constitution. CADH spokesperson told University Weekly that:
“What this legislative project aims to accomplish is legitimize and justify the interception and monitoring of communications of anyone in our country”
Mr. Garita is concerned that Project Snowden could be used not just for criminal justice purposes, but also for financial, commercial and political uses. This is not an unfounded fear; the Costa Rica Star has previously written about the National Directory of Intelligence and Security (DIS in Spanish) and how this agency can virtually spy on anyone in Costa Rica with impunity. There is also reason to worry about potential data breaches.
Legislator Gongora, however, thinks that the growth of organized crime in Costa Rica calls for stricter measures such as what he is proposing. There is already a law that authorizes wiretapping and other snooping activities as long as they have appropriate search warrants approved by a court of law. What legislator Gongora wants is to expand such monitoring to unlawful actions besides organized crime.
Such a reform to existing law would require monitoring centers and availability of judges around the clock. Adding to this burden would be the storage of the personal and sensitive information that Project Snowden calls for, which Professor Alfredo Chirino of the UCR School of Law labels as completely unnecessary.
Law enforcement officials responding to reports of noisy neighbors came upon a small marijuana cultivation and distribution operation in a suburb of San Jose.
The incident took place around six in the afternoon. Neighbors living in a multifamily residential complex in Cedros, a small community in the Montes de Oca canton, complained that the noise coming from an apartment was excessive even for the time of day, around 6:00 on a Thursday evening.
Officers from the local Fuerza Publica (the national police force in Costa Rica) detachment responded to the call but the noise had already subsided. The neighborhood has several housing units, which made it difficult to ascertain the precise apartment where the unbearable noise had been coming from.
The Fuerza Publica officers looked around the residences and noticed two tall marijuana plants in balcony, gently swaying in the breeze and in plain view. The plants were about a meter high and nicely potted. After interviewing a few neighbors, the officers determined that this was the apartment where the loud music was coming from earlier. They knocked on the door and obtained permissions to search the premises from the tenant.
In the room with the balcony where the Cannabis sativa plants were located, officers found further evidence of a distribution operation: two packages of compressed marijuana buds, weighing about three kilograms in total, plus a vacuum-sealing machine and several plastic bags. The paraphernalia and the ganja were confiscated by the Fuerza Publica officers.
In a slow and hesitant slurred speech, the tenant who opened the door explained to the officers that he sublets the marijuana room to another individual, and that he had nothing to do with the apparent distribution and growing operation. Still, however, the Fuerza Publica officer took him in custody and delivered him to the local prosecutor’s office.
In the meantime, marijuana advocates in Costa Rica are seeking legalization of this herb. In the past, President Laura Chinchilla has expressed support for legalization of certain drugs as an alternative to the bloody War on Drugs sponsored by the United States. The Drug War, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives in Mexico and the U.S. alone in the last few years, has done little to reduce drug trafficking in Costa Rica. Old-fashioned police work, however, has managed to keep one Mexican drug cartel from spreading in Costa Rica.
There is a war going on in Costa Rica, although the belligerents are not infantry units taking positions across the provinces. Instead, the combatants go by the names of Grupo Gessa, Wal-Mart Stores and others. Their objectives are clear: to get your hard-earned colones -though they will take your dollars as well- and to earn your continued patronage.
Anyone can lose in this war, but in most cases the casualties are pulperias -those small neighborhood convenience stores that are staples of life in Costa Rica.
Major Price Differences In Costa Rica, the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce (MEIC) compares the retail prices of groceries and other supermarket products a couple of times a year.
Newspapers and other media outlets also check and compare supermarket prices as a service to their followers. Up until a few years ago, price differences were negligible; but, a survey by the MEIC in 2011 revealed that the supermarket wars were heating up.
During Semana Santa (the Holy Week of Easter) in 2011, the MEIC surveyed 14 products traditionally consumed in Costa Rica and Latin America during this period of religious observance among the Catholic faithful, which calls for abstinence from liquor, meat, sweets, and other items of indulgence.
This practice of giving up on consuming certain things and fasting during some periods comes from the old Lent tradition of observance and contemplation from the sunrise on Ash Wednesday until sundown on Easter Sunday, but in Costa Rica it has changed throughout the years to only encompass Semana Santa and includes fish, seafood and some sweets.
Among the items surveyed by the MEIC we find:
Canned fruit cocktail
Canned squid
Canned tuna
Heart of palm (palmito)
Shark filet
Tilapia filet
The maximum price found on that MEIC survey was 144 percent, and the supermarkets they visited were:
Auto Mercado
Mas x Menos
Hipermas
Pali
Mega Super
Perimercado
Jumbo
Maxibodega
It is important to note that Maxibodega, Hipermas, Pali, and Mas x Menos are all owned by global retail leviathan Wal-Mart, and that many of those stores have undergone name changes since -they may be known as Maxi-Pali or just Walmart these days.
So, a can of tuna brand Gomes, with or without jalapenos, would have cost you 520 colones at the Walmart in Heredia and Curridabat; the same can would have cost 1,270 colones at the Perimercados in Escazú and Pavas. AutoMercado, a supermarket that caters to expats and the gourmet crowd, offered a can of Sardimar tuna for 995 colones in its Plaza Mayor, Heredia and Tres Rios locations while all Pali supermarkets offered the same can for just 490 colones.
AutoMercado is no stranger to being labeled as one of the most expensive supermarkets in Costa Rica; after all, they specialize in imported and gourmet offerings. But even when it comes to the basic basket of 43 goods considered essential to a balanced nutrition in Costa Rica -including the omnipresent rice and beans, AutoMercado still comes out as being one of the priciest.
Case in point: a 2012 comparative report by Channel 9’s Hoy TV news program, which cited MEIC data confirming that AutoMercado was the most expensive supermarket when it came to this basic basket of goods.
Here’s the breakdown, in colones, from last year’s survey on those 43 products:
AutoMercado Alajuela: 113,776
Perimercado Santa Rosa: 112,201
Supermercado Cristal Curridabat: 108,316
Maxi Pali Paraiso: 94,473
Maxi Pali Higuito: 93,537
Super Rosvil Grecia: 92,733
Even different Walmart supermarkets show price variances in Costa Rica. In 2011, sports daily Al Dia compared prices on 16 basic goods, including black beans, rice, sugar, pasta, corn flour, coffee, sour cream, and personal hygiene items.
Al Dia’s small basket of goods yielded the following results in colones:
Mas x Menos: 14,204
Pali: 13,731
Wal-Mart: 13,533
Jumbo: 13,532
Megasuper: 13,121
Maxibodega: 12,748
As you can see from the list above, Walmart’s pricing across its supermarkets in Costa Rica is not even. It is interesting to note that Pali, which is marketed as a working-class supermarket where many Nicaraguan immigrants do their shopping, is more expensive than Maxibodega – a more upscale Walmart offering. Wal-Mart Stores, however, is not the only culprit of this practice; Grupo Gessa owns both Jumbo and Perimercado supermarkets, where prices often do not match.
According to a Prensa Libre report from 2006, the big supermarket chains were guilty of offering basic goods at their most expensive prices back then, and they were largely unable to attract customers who found better deals at their neighborhood “mini-super” establishment. That has clearly changed in Costa Rica, and the mini-super stores are now languishing next to their predecessor pulperias -both are casualties of the supermarket wars.
The Displacement of Pulperias in Costa Rica
A previous article in The Costa Rica Star examined how North American-style convenience stores such as AM/PM and Fresh Market are effectively taking market share away from pulperias and mini-super stores in Costa Rica. AutoMercado even jumped in the game, opening more than a dozen “Vindi” convenience stores, and there is speculation that Wal-Mart Stores may explore opening one of its smaller Neighborhood Centres in Costa Rica in the future.
Walmart and AutoMercado are hardly alone in this attack of pulperias. According to El Financiero, a company named Flalo S.A. has already opened Deli Mart in Los Yoses, and they plan to open five more in the Central Valley.
Musmanni, a bakery giant in Costa Rica, already has 22 convenience stores and plans more; it is important to note that Musmanni is a Fifco (Florida Ice) brand, owners of the iconic Imperial beer and distributors of the Canadian brand Labatt in the United States. With these giant corporations able to invest millions of dollars to capture the convenience store market in Costa Rica, pulperias don’t stand a chance.
In the end, the supermarket wars in Costa Rica are a matter of business competition, which is good for the consumer but deadly for pulperia owners.
With the objective of “early warnings” detecion of criminal groups entering Costa Rica, the Ministro de Seguridad Publica, Mario Zamora, is proposing installing “Tico eyes” to spy on mafia activities in embassies of Colombia, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama.
Mexico embassy in San José, Costa Rica
The plan was presented by Zamora three weeks ago to the Comisión de Seguridad y Narcotráfico del Congreso (Commission on Security and Narcotics), as part of the reform of the Ley Orgánica del Ministerio de Seguridad Pública.
The plan is to keep tabs on Colombian and Mexican cartels that continue to operating in Costa Rica, as well as other criminal organizations in the world with eyes on Costa Rica.
The proposed bill would allow experienced and incorruptible Costa Rican police officials installed in the four embassies in Costa Rica. “Their work will be 100% police intelligence, and are not going to stop anyoone, but will be aware of all the movements and plans of the Mafia”, said Zamora in an interview with La Nacion.
The minister pointed that these officers, in carrying out their missions, could prevent entry into the country by undesirables, especially those related to drug cartels.
The initiative transcends almost two month after the arrest on June 6, in Madrid, Spain, of Arthur Budovsky, the leader of the largest money laundering operation in world history, and operating out of Costa Rica. Budovsky had lived in Costa Rica and became a citizen, since 2006.
At the end of June, the Mexican Judicial Police revealed that the Caballeros Templarios (Knights Templar), one of Mexico’s bloodiest criminal groups, is settled in Costa Rica for more than a year and responsible for the murder in Costa Rica of model Pamela Céspedes Segura and former military officials, Sigifredo Fernández Sierra, on November 8, 2012. The murders took place on the San José – Caldera highway.
“The idea is for the police agents work on research and profiling and not on dimplomatic matter. Although they are cops, I don’t see them arresting anyone. They would kind of a sentry”, said Zamora.
Zamora added that idea of having agents within the Nicaragua and Panama embassies is because criminals usually use the neighbouring borders to make their way into Costa Rica.
The minister commented that of the 14.000 Fuerza Publica (police) officials only about 35 could meet the requirements that includes at least 12 years on the force, hold the rank of commander and have an unblemished record.
The initiative has the green light from Francisco Segura, director of the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) – the country’s judicial investigative police.
On board is also Carlos Chinchilla, president of the Sala Tercera (Supreme Court), calling the Zamora initiative as positive.
Support for the initiative comes from Carlos Gongora, president of the legislative committee on drug trafficking and national security. Gongora said, “the idea is very good, as they (police officials) would not be military attaches, as in other countries”.
In a razor-thin preliminary count, political expert Luis Guillermo Solis appears to have defeated lawmaker Juan Carlos Mendoza for the Citizen Action Party (PAC) nomination for presidential candidate from the party. The 23,500 votes were cast Sunday, counted Monday and now the Supreme Elections Tribunal is recounting.
The margin was a hair — 72 votes, that apparently give Solis the win with 35.5% of the vote over Mendoza with 35.2%. Former Limon Deputy Epsy Campbell came in third with a respectable 24.9% while Ronald Solis, also a former lawmaker, racked up 4.2% of the votes.
PAC general secretary Olga Marta Sanchez confirmed Wednesday that a laborious hand recount would begin immediately because of the narrow margin. PAC members were appalled at such a disappointingly low turnout during the primary.
Of the 350,000 ballots printed, 93% were unused. Campbell herself mourned that she was unable to convince more of the few voters who turned out to give her more than the nearly a quarter of the final count. As it was, her forces asked for a copy of the count of the 290 voting tables.
It is unlikely that the results of the recount will be ready before Friday. Next weekend, the party general assembly session will decide if they want to try to forge a coalition with other opposition parties for the election.
Comment: Unless their candidate can generate more enthusiasm than was indicated in the meager primary turnout, it appears that a coalition is the only way they can achieve a respectable showing in the Legislative Assembbly, let alone winning the Casa Presidencial.
Such a coalition, difficult as it may seem, is their only chance to beat National Liberation Party’s mean machine. But they are too liberal to appeal to the Libertarians and even the Social Christians. Moreover, they are rent with internal disputes that have moved PAC founder Otton Solis to become inactive.
The cars on the right are not parked. Photo from Potholes & People www.akingslife.com
Journalist and radio personality Amelia Rueda, in her Friday morning radio program “Nuestra Voz” (Our Voice) she asks, What is wrong with the people who drive? We must reverse this culture “I do what I please” on the roads.
Doña Amelia says drivers in Costa Rica are people who think they can handle their car as if it were a loaded gun. And given that the Government has demonstrated that it cannot control what happens on the roads, she proposes a public initiative to intervene with draft a bill.
Some of the comments by visitors to AmeliaRueda.com:
“It is complicated, are going to penalize with prisons? If the prisons are overcrowded … with higher fines? As if there aren’t enough traffic officials to enforce them. With cameras and then appealed and the Sala IV strikes them down? …until drivers do not understand the harm they do by driving recklessly there is nothing that will make a difference”
“What happens is that drivers do not RESPECT others. Here (in Costa Rica) it is me first, me second, then me…the tougher previous law with higher fines worked until famous the SALA IV butted in, but we also need honest cops…laws serve us nothing if there are no good cops who enforce them”
“In this country, everyone does what he or she wants, it’s time to do something…”
Make your voice heard, voice your opinions in the comments section below or our Facebook page!
The Romeria 2013 is underway. Though the major days for the traditional walk to Cartago is on August 1 and 2, thousands have are taking advantage of the good weather this weekend to make their trek.
A Romería in Spanish or “Romaria” in Portuguese is a religious pilgrimage. The word “Romería”/”Romaria” comes from “romero”/”romeiro”, meaning those travelling towards Rome. It is a Catholic celebration that consists of a trip or peregrination (in cars, floats, on horseback or on foot) that ends at a sanctuary or hermitage. It is not necessarily always a trip, but in some cases a celebration that lasts all day long.
One of the most famous examples of a romería is that of Nuestra Señora del Rocío, in which the faithful move to the Sanctuary of the Virgen del Rocío in the village of the Rocío, in Almonte, Huelva. The Romería of the Virgin of Navahonda, celebrated in spring in the Madrilenian municipality of Robledo de Chavela is representative of this tradition. There are Romerias also in The Canary Islands. An example is La Romeria de Santiago Apostol, en Gáldar.
The New World. Another representative example, in Mexico, is the Romería of the Our Lady of Zapopan, which this considered the third most important peregrination in the country, after the one of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and the Virgin of San Juan de los Lagos. The Romería of the Virgin of Zapopan consists of a route 8 km in length, from the metropolitan Guadalajara Cathedral, to the Basilica of Our Lady of Zapopan. It is made every 12th of October, and figure of the virgin goes accompanied by more than 3,000,000 people.
In Costa Rica, it is traditional to make a Romería to Cartago on August 2 to make requests and give thanks to the Virgin Mary black statue, affectionally nicknamed La Negrita, located inside the cathedral. People all over the country and even other Central American countries attend to it by foot or horse.
According to the Catholic Church, some 2 million faithful will make the trip to Cartago by next Friday.
If you plan on participating in the Romería this year, La Nacion is offering a special service, http://www.nacion.com/romeria an interactive map accessed from your mobile device (phone or tablet) that tells you the distance you still have to go to the Basilica, and the location of Cruz Roja (Red Cross) stations, police posts and recycling bins.
By Cynthia González, Vozdeguanacaste.com – After a delay of 45 minutes, the President of the Republic, Laura Chinchilla Miranda, arrived at the civic events of the celebration of the 189th anniversary of the Annexation of Nicoya. This was her last appearance in Guanacaste during her period of government, which ends in May next year.
A day before the event, Mayor Marco Jimenez announced the change to the agenda of annexation activities agreed on in the City Council, moving the protocol events to the afternoon to avoid having President Chinchilla be met with a wave of more than 800 demonstrators from various groups, who were present on the morning of July 25, marching through the streets of Nicoya with banners and flags and thronging the colonial square of Recaredo Briceño Park.
After the sudden change of schedule, the cultural events were initiated at 5 p.m. by the Minister of Culture, Manuel Obregon, accompanied by the Orchestra of the National Music School (SINEM) of Nicoya and the Municipal Symphonic Band, playing themes characteristic of Guanacaste folklore and attracting the attention of the public, who drew close to the stage.
Marco Jimenez shared a few words on stage, devoting time to validating the actions of the protesters in the morning on the grounds of being “indisputably valid demands.” Without reverting to giving his full support to their actions, he recalled the promises made by the government in the past to pave the roads leading to the various communities surrounding Nicoya.
For his part, Luis Antonio Aiza, legislator for Guanacaste from the National Liberation Party, was responsible for giving the government accountability report to those present, leaving the space open for Chinchilla to enjoy the celebrations without going into further political details.
The activity presented no setback, and the event ended with a traditional dance improvised by Chinchilla, Aiza and Jimenez, amidst the applause of those present who bid farewell to the president in her last visit to Nicoyan lands.
The United States has donated US$4 million dollars for the improvement of security at the northern border with Nicaragua, that includes the purchase of weapons, technology, hiring more staff and the construction of a new office near the planned highway.
Border security at Peñas Blancas will be improved with the financial aid of the U.S.
The ministro de Seguridad Publica (MSP), Mario Zamora, said the money will be used to create a modern border office at Tablillas de los chles, an small border town on the southeast of Lake Nicaragua. The donated money will also go towards the purchase of eight police dogs, four for drug-sniffing and four for weapons and bomb sniffing.
U.S. Embassy in San José (Costa Rica) spokesperson, Eric Turner, said the funds are part of a continuing financial support to help the country combat drug and weapons smuggling, by better securing its borders.
The Los Chiles border will also be the site of a new highway that will connect the the countries. According to the La Nacion, the road will open in 2015.
Eight out of every 10 trailers operating on Costa Rica’s roads have mechanical problems, the Policia de Tránsito (traffic police) has found.
The statistic was provided by Germán Marín, director of the traffic police force.
Bald tires, missing lights, faulty suspension and faulty brake systems are some of the problems found with 80% of the truck trailers in circulation.
Owners of truck trailers are required to submit the rig to a vehicular inspection on an annual basis. Fernando Mayora, manager of Riteve, says the trailers that are submitted have problems with their brakes, lights and tires. Last year Riteve inspected 4.998 truck trailers, this year so far the number of inspections is at 2.840.
Francisco Quirós, director of the Cámara Nacional de Transportistas de Carga (Canatrac), said the regulations for the inspection of trailers is new and the industry cannot be expected to comply “overnight”.
Quirós told La Nacion that his group has asked the Consejo de Seguridad Vial (Cosevi) for an extension in the time for trailer owners to comply.
“We asked for a rational period of 18 months”, said Quirós, explaining that the regulations have been confising for the past ten years and cannot now immediately demand owners to comply.
Adding to the problem is that the majority of trailers do not have a license plate, preventing Riteve to register them, according to Carlos Rivas, legal counsel to the Cosevi.
Rivas explained that without a license plate the Riteve cannot carry out an inspection, so it is up to the traffic police to force the registration of trailers and that they meet the requirements.
Marín, for his part, explained that traffic controls are constant on the main routes and his traffic officials will pull over trailers without license plates. However, the majority of trailers operate on secondary routes or side roads where there are few controls.
The Constitutional Court ruled in favour of an action against the articles of law in the previous Ley de Transito (October 2008) that set a fine of ¢108.000 colones for not carrying the necessary equipment to change a tire, a set of jumper cables, took kit and first aid kit.
The Court ruled the fine, 30% of a basic monthly salary, disproportional and excessive considering the economic conditions of most the population in Costa Rica. The Court also clarified that requirement to have on hand the equipment as reasonable, but not the fine.
The Court ruling only affects those who appealed their ticket under the previous law.
Carlos Rivas, legal counsel to the Consejo de Seguridad Vial (Cosevi) explained that the current law (in effect on December 2012) does not require the kit and tools and that drivers who lose their appeal will be required to pay only the ¢2.000 colones fine set out in the traffic law prior to 2008.
Rivas also said that for those drivers who paid their fines – the ¢108.000 colones – they will not be getting a refund on any fines already paid.
The current traffic law set out a fine of ¢20.000 colones for a driver in a vehicle that does not have a spare tire and the tools to change it. The tool kit, fire extinguisher, reflective vest and first aid kit is not required.
Costa Rica will host the Global Youth Summit sponsored by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the United Nations announced today. The meeting will be in session from September 9 to 11 and will discuss the use of new information and communication technologies to improve the quality of life and influence the post-2015 development agenda.
In remarks broadcast by the UN radio station, the Ambassador of Costa Rica to the UN, Eduardo Ulibarri, said the forum aims to encourage youth participation in global decision-making affecting them.
According to Ulibarri, over 500 youngsters worldwide will attend the summit, which will be open to all those wishing to participate via the Internet.
The UN is currently working on the development of the so-called Post-2015 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which will give continuity to the Millennium Development Goals adopted in 2000 to be completed by 2015.
Gisele Bündchen slipped into a leopard-print bikini to hang on the beach in Costa Rica today. In addition to her sexy printed two-piece, Gisele wore an oversize sun hat and body harness to carry her baby daughter, Vivian Brady, and played with a friend’s dog between dips in the ocean.
Gisele Bündchen is 33 on July 20 is relaxing with family and friends in Central America after a busy couple of months; she spent time in Paris while shooting for Vogue and brought her sons, Jack and Benjamin Brady, to Disneyland for a fun family outing in Anaheim, CA.
Gisele’s tropical vacation could also be a celebratory one, as she rang in her 33rd birthday earlier this week. She took to Instagram to share cute photos of her big day while exploring the outdoors with Ben and Vivian and also included a sweet tribute to her twin sister, Patricia.
The model has showed off her hot body in front of cameras for years, and she’s brought even more sexiness since becoming a mom. Gisele’s career and family life may keep her busy, but she still finds time to hit the beach and maintain her toned figure and gorgeous tan.
More of Gisele’s hottest bikini moments at QMaxine!
In the wake of the visit of the political leader of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, journalist Gustavo Arias of business weekly El Financiero, owned by Grupo Nacion, published a series of facts about the Asian economic powerhouse and her environmental record as it relates to Costa Rica.
Mr. Arias did not mince any words when mentioning the irony of China’s Presidential visit to Costa Rica taking place around the time when the United Nation’s World Environment Day is celebrated. The visit seemed to be a success for both nations, at least in terms of signing agreements, treaties and establishing a climate of friendship. Mr. Arias, however, is not too sure about Costa Rica’s friendship with a nation he calls a global “toxic bomb.”
On his June 5th column in El Financiero, Mr. Arias lamented the fact that Costa Rica sought friendship with a country that practices an economic model that is destructive and opposed to sustainable practices. He then set out to list the supporting facts:
China has the worst track record in terms of preventing carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions, which represent 24 percent of the global output.
More than 75 percent of Chinese cities have very low air quality levels, which make them unsafe for humans. This includes the city of Linfen -although it is important to note that this city is trying to clean up its act (pun intended).
More than 55 percent of China’s aquifers are contaminated.
About 60 percent of energy consumption in China comes from coal, which is one of the least-clean energy sources around.
The Chinese government has admitted that the use of toxic and noxious chemicals have endangered both life and their ecosystems. However, just like the United States, China does not wish to partake in emission-reduction plans that may hinder their economic growth. In other words, it may be too late to turn back the industrialization clock for China.
In the end, Mr. Arias argues that, while Costa Rica’s environmental track record is far from perfect and the country engages in greenwashing from time to time, a partnership with China could spell greater environmental losses to our country.
Dozens of children from the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica recently gave Mother Earth a nice present in advance of August 15th: 500 fruit trees planted in strategic areas. According to Yency Arroyo Murillo of Diario Extra, business leaders and public officials from the Municipality of Osa helped in coordinating this noble cause.
The trees have been planted alongside some of the major roads around town. Most of the species planted are fruit trees that yield delicious treasures such as sour sop, lemon, mango, and papaya. The idea is to provide shade and oxygen to human residents and nourishment to the plentiful wildlife that calls Osa home.
The planting activity above is part of an ongoing reforestation effort that seeks to revert some of the harm caused to Costa Rica over more than three decades of irresponsible farming and logging. Before the middle of the 20th century, the forest coverage in Costa Rica was almost 75 percent. By 1983, that coverage was drastically reduced and the alarm was sounded. Since then, reforestation and reclamation of forest land has managed to increase forest coverage to 52.3 percent, with a goal of reaching 60 percent in the next few years.
The Costa Rica Star recently explained the goals of two major programs in Costa Rica that are helping advance the national carbon neutrality initiative by means of reforestation:
“MINAE and FONAFIFO have managed to reclaim a good portion of the forest land lost thanks to programs such as Payment for Environmental Services Program (PSE in Spanish) and the Strategy to Reduce Carbon Emissions Caused by Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+ in Spanish). The PSE program has been particularly effective in this regard since it encourages participation of land owners.”
By getting children involved in reforestation, Costa Rica is effectively planting a seed in her young people. Accomplishing environmental protection goals is much easier when people are aware of the intrinsic benefits and actively contribute to protecting the ecosystems they live in.
Mike Periu, a Miami-based financial expert whose work has appeared in CNN and Yahoo!, recently published a report on the five most expensive places to live in Latin America. Costa Rica occupied fourth place, which closely follows Uruguay, Brazil and Venezuela.
It is important to note that Uruguay has a high economic development index and Brazil is the “B” of the BRICS nations slated to become the next world economic powers, the other countries being Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Venezuela is a top oil producer. So how did Costa Rica, the Switzerland of the Americas, end up being more expensive than Switzerland herself?
Mr. Periu wrote the article with a specific audience in mind: People who are contemplating moving to a Latin American country. He urges people to think about security, stability, employment opportunities, but -above all- the cost of living. Mr. Periu chose the Big Mac Index used by The Economist over other indicators such as the Consumer Price index to make his point. The Big Mac Index, which is loosely based on the purchasing power parity (PPP) concept, is a fun way to compare how currency exchange rates fare across nations.
The Big Mac Index is fun and populist, but in many cases it should be taken with a grain of salt -or with a packet of ketchup. In fact, The Economist has commented on its own, unique index:
“Burgernomics was never intended as a precise gauge of currency misalignment, merely a tool to make exchange-rate theory more digestible.
PPP signals where exchange rates should be heading in the long run, as a country like China gets richer, but it says little about today’s equilibrium rate. The relationship between prices and GDP per person may be a better guide to the current fair value of a currency.”
So The Economist admits that pricing a Big Mac around the world should not be equated to economic theory by Adam Smith, John Maynard Keynes, Shinzo Abe, or Ben Bernanke. Mr. Periu does not consider per capita gross domestic product (GDP), nor does he consider ongoing monetary policy by the United States Treasury or the Central Bank of Costa Rica. Mr. Periu wrote his oft-cited article back in March of 2013, and he appears to have used the “gourmet” version of the Big Mac Index at the time. If we check The Economist’s interactive currency-comparison tool (highly recommended), we see that Colombia has beat us at the expensive game, at least in late July 2013, and that a Big Mac in the U.S. costs more than in Costa Rica.
In the past, The Costa Rica Star has commented on the apparent pricing disparity of McDonald’s products between, say, Cleveland and San Jose. It is easy to come away with the impression that Costa Rica is the most expensive country in the world if a restaurant in Cleveland is running a “Two for Tuesday” special and Big Macs cost just a buck. Most of the time, however, Americans are paying more for their beloved Big Macs than Ticos do.
“The UK, along with the United States, Chile, New Zealand and Costa Rica are rated as being in the -/+ 10% for their currencies, which puts them at the centre of the survey.”
The fact that many tourists and expats are victims of sticker shock as soon as they land at the Juan Santamaria or Daniel Oduber Quiros airports does not make Costa Rica as expensive as Norway -a top oil-producing nation. There is no question that San Jose is the most expensive city in Central America, and that Managua is the cheapest; this would imply that tourists get more bang for their buck in Nicaragua, a country where tourism is not even a fraction of what her southern neighbor constantly realizes. Oh, and to add fuel to the fire: Real estate in San Jose is the most expensive in Latin America, but that does not seem to stop buyers.
A better PPP index that also uses pop culture to make it more accessible is the UBS Wealth Management annual survey of the world’s most expensive cities, which takes into consideration a basket of 122 goods and services in addition to the currency exchange. On top of the Big Mac, UBS adds buying an iPhone, purchasing groceries, paying for rent and utilities, and other factors. No cities in Costa Rica make UBS’ list, but it is fun to follow part of its rationale:
“In Tokyo it takes nine minutes of work to earn enough to buy a Big Mac, while in Nairobi it takes 84 minutes”
How long does it take for a Tico worker to buy a Big Mac in Costa Rica. Let’s assume the salary of a Fuerza Publica police officer in the 80th percentile, which means she earns about $800 per month working between 40 and 48 hours a week. She makes a little less than $4.20 per hour, so it would take her about 50 minutes of work to buy a Big Mac -or about 15 minutes of her shift to buy a delicious cheese empanada. Not quite Tokyo, but definitely not Nairobi.
The government of Costa Rica could save up to $70 billion in infrastructure expenditures from now until 2050 by following the advice of the International Energy Agency (IEA). A recent research study by that agency, which was reported by Leticia Vindas Quiros of business weekly El Financiero, explains that Costa Rica has clear options in three major transportation categories:
Trips that can be avoided
More efficient modes of transportation
Taking advantage of emission-free technology
The report by the IEA gives clear examples based on 30 cities around the world that have vastly improved their transportation systems and saved lots of money in the process. One such example is Belgrade in Serbia, which managed to triple its train ridership, which in turn cleared highways from traffic jams. This is very promising for Costa Rica, since the ongoing reactivation of the urban train system serving the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM in Spanish) is the only transportation initiative that has worked thus far.
Other initiatives such as bus services that would run across urban sectors succumbed to silly bureaucratic games and monetary interests that either supported or opposed the project. This is a shame for Costa Rica, since the IEA explains that New York and Seoul are two major cities where bus services have seen increased efficiency.
Bicycle lane projects for downtown San Jose have also stalled, not so much due to bureaucracy but because the growing number of vehicles entering the capital city of Costa Rica leave no room for improvements. The old capital of Cartago, on the other hand, is emerging as a model city where bike riders have their own lanes and train riders are enthusiastic about their new transportation option.
What about a comprehensive plan to rezone the GAM and transportation therein? Once again, bureaucracy, indecision and corruption got in the way. The proposals for Regional Urban Planning of the GAM (PRUGAM in Spanish) and the Territorial Organization of the GAM (POTGAM) were discarded after almost 11 million euros were spent on nothing. Urban planners and academics criticized the plans and mocked the spending, and now Costa Rica is waiting for the GAM Plan 2013 to be unveiled at the end of the year.
Until then, Costa Rica has the IEA research study and its potential savings to consider.
Having her agenda cleared for Thursday morning, Presidenta Laura Chinchilla took the opportunity to visit the Murciélago police school, which operates on a 57 hectare estate, facing the ocean near the Nicaragua border, which belonged to former Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza, expropriated in 1978.
The presidenta’s Thursday morning agenda cleared up with the decision the night before by Nicoya city council, changing the commeration ceremonies from 10am to 5pm, amid fears of protests against the government.
At Murciélago, Doña Laura delivered 40 double traction police vehicles to the Ministerio de Seguridad Pública for use in border patrol and saluted the 195 police officials being trained in border security.
The police unit protects, especially, the 160 kilometre trail that runs parallel to the San Juan river.
The announcement of more police presence along the border comes four days after it was learned that Nicaragua is alleged to be offering Costa Rican territory for oil exploration concessions, and possible new demands against Nicaragua for the violation of Costa Rica’s sovereingty.
This latest action by the Daniel Ortega administration caused tensions to increase since the alleged invasion by Nicarauga in 2010 of the Isla Calero, in the northern Caribbean, triggering an international court battle that is still before the International Court in The Hague.
In a press release, Chinchilla said yesterday that the government “will continue to strengthen security along the northern border, both to protect the sovereign rights of Costa Rica who were affected by the intrusion to Isla Calro as combating drug trafficking and in defense of rights of Costa Ricans and Nicaraguans in the area “.
In the statement, the Presidenta added that the government will, first, open a Coast Guard station in Cuajiniquil, Santa Cruz, “which will provide major maritime control,” said Casa Presidencial.
The second, is to build a “coyote station” in Nandayure, a station with an area of 1.500 square metres and will dock a surveillance vessel valued at US$300.000 dollars.
Back in Nicoya, Doña Laura arrived 45 minutes late, when forced to travel by car after the police helicopter ran into mechanical problems. The tardiness was also due to the Presidenta’s stop at her hotel room at the Riu Guanacaste in Playas del Coco.
In Nicoya, rain dampened the anti-government protests by the 34 groups that make up Foro de Guanacaste and trade unionists led by Wilmar Matarrita, linked to the Frente Amplio and with electoral aspirations within that party, the protestors kept their word to march through the centre of Nicoya.
In the end, what appeared could have been a difficult day for Presidenta Laura Chinchilla, in minutes after 5:45pm the Presidenta and her cabinet their session and went home.
According to a report and figures released titled “State of the Region”, SICA writes that Central America is the most violent region in Latin America per 1,000 inhabitants that is not at war.
How accurate is that statement remains in doubt. However there is no question countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras are depicted as wholesale killing fields.
But then come comes the #4 spot, Pura Vida, our country. Our nation of peace.
The World Health Organization (WHO) generally classifies 10 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants as endemic. Costa Rica is pushing the envelope with an estimated (And I mean estimated or reported) 9.7 homicides per 100,000 population. Close to endemic.
In my opinion, and not so humble, the Caribbean and some parts of the Pacific are made for target practice or even more horrific crimes such as that of Jairo Mora, the asphyxiated environmentalist who after being beaten, tortured died a horrible death and despite global pressure, little is being done about it.
To make Costa Rica even less inviting, “A report on the Financing Blog titled “Your Insurance” says that of all 100% Latin American countries, Costa Rica comes in 4th on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) list. If you live here, then the CPI is the most important measure of the cost of living in real terms as opposed to artificial inflation figures. And, this says, “Wow, we are one expensive place to live or visit.”
As a side bar, numero uno on the list is Venezuela, then comes Brazil, Uruguay ranks third and then comes Paradise finally followed by Chile. That is quite an array and not the best of reputations.
In short, Costa Rica is on the hit list for killing or be killed (#4), we are on a similar hit list for the cost of living, also #4 in all of Latin America. It costs a lot to live and die here.
And when taking in consideration more subjective subjects matter, again it is still an “ouch”.
For example, how is it possible that 11,000 plus Costa Ricans drink arsenic laced water every day of their lives and there is no answer according to our crack experts in the government. “It is in the soil,” they say. But how did it get from raw earth into the drinking water unless like the roads and bridges, the pipes have rotted away for lack of maintenance.
We have some quasi war on drugs which all to quickly is swept under the carpet. A few weeks ago we had this big scandal concerning doña Laura and an implicated drug trafficker from Colombia who apparently married a Tica for citizenship. The Gabriel Morales scandal. Like most scandals it is now a thing of the past because we need to move on to more important things like the elections or even Chinatown.
Freedom of the press; another touchy sensitive spot.
If I write something directly demeaning to or about the president, be it true and correct or not, I might spend time in jail. So there is a caution sign saying yield to contrived press freedoms because they are might be interpreted by the government as “freedom speech”, “appropriate” or “defamation” and you never know which until it is too late.
In Costa Rica about the only thing you can depend on beside death and taxes is one more “shot in the foot” until the toes are all gone.
When you walk around a city, there are things you can just sense, like if you’ve wandered into a bad neighborhood. A traveler visiting Rio, Manila or Caracas, does not need a report to learn that these cities are unequal; she can see it directly from the taxicab window.
This is because in most cities inequality is conspicuous, but also, because cities express different forms of inequality that are evident to casual observers.
Cities are highly heterogeneous and often unequal with respect to the income of their residents, but also, with respect to the cleanliness of their neighborhoods, the beauty of their architecture, and the liveliness of their streets, among many other evaluative dimensions.
Until now, however, our ability to understand the effect of a city’s built environment on social and economic outcomes has been limited by the lack of quantitative data on urban perception.
Researchers from MIT Media Lab may have found a way to measure this “aesthetic capital” of cities, with their website Place Pulse, a tool to crowdsource people’s perception of cities by judging digital snapshots
—a sort of “hot or not” for urban neighborhoods.
Some 4,000 geotagged Google Streetview images and 8,000 participants later, the team found that by using digital images and crowdsourced feedback, they can accurately quantify the diverse vibes within a city, which in turn can help us better understand issues like inequality and safety. The results were published yesterday in the journal PloS One.
The results could be used to someday map the intangible uniqueness of neighborhoods around the world, which could help improve neighborhoods and design future cities.
The data could also add some weight to the controversial “Broken Windows Theory,” which suggests that physical signs of disorder in a neighborhood—like broken windows—can lead to crime, causing a vicious cycle. The theory has been hotly debated since it came out of Harvard in the 80s, partly because it’s hard to actually measure and quantify “disorder.”
The Place Pulse experiment could change that. From the study:
Cities are not just collections of demographics, but places that people experience. Urban environments are known to elicit strong evaluative responses, and there is evidence and theories suggesting that these responses may affect criminal and health behaviors. Yet, we lack good quantitative data on the responses elicited by urban environments. Place Pulse is an effort to help collect quantitative data of urban perception to help advance these research efforts and open new avenues of research.
In other words, there’s more to measure in a city than just demographics and income. Things like energy level, architecture, beauty, and so on can impact people’s social behavior. While Place Pulse 1.0 was a small experiment—it looked at images from just four cities, Boston and New York in the US and Salzburg and Linz in Austria—the method proved effective enough to be worth exploring further, according to the report.
Now MIT has expanded the study out to 56 cities around the world, with more than 100,000 geotagged images. Place Pulse 2.0 also measures more characteristics, looking at how boring, depressing, lively, safe, and wealthy the cities seem.
The team wants to use this second, larger dataset to train machine learning algorithms to understand what kind of features in the photos lead humans to answer the way they do—in a sense, to teach computers intuition, so the research could scale.
The Place Pulse experiment is simple. Like Mark Zuckerberg’s infamous pre-Facebook FaceMash site, it shows two images side by side and asks people to answer questions like “which place looks safer?” or “which place looks more upper-class?”
The first experiment found that the US cities, Boston and New York, were more unequal than the Austrian cities. There was a wider gap between “good” and “bad” neighborhoods. The researchers compared the results with actual statistics on homicides in New York and found a strong correlation between their data on how safe neighborhoods seem, and the existing data on how safe neighborhoods are.
With a larger dataset, being analyzed by learning machines, the findings could be used to design the city of tomorrow. “Ultimately, the goal of this study,” researchers wrote, “is to contribute to our understanding of the urban environments that we have built, with the goal of improving them, and their ability to include their citizens, while also informing the construction of future cities.”
FBI Press Release – Frank Politicchio was sentenced by United States District Court to four months in prison and three years of supervised release, for his involvement in an illegal sports bookmaking operation based in Costa Rica, according to the FBI website.
U.S. District Judge Vanessa L. Bryant in Hartford, Connecticut, also ordered Potolicchio, a Norwalk resident, to forfeit US$100.000.
According to court documents and statements made in court, after a long-term investigation led by the FBI Fairfield County Organized Crime Task Force, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, and the Stamford Police Department, Potolicchio and 19 other individuals were charged with various offenses related to their involvement in an illegal Internet sports bookmaking operation and illegal card gambling clubs in Stamford and Hamden that were controlled by the Gambino Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra.
The investigation, which included the use of court-authorized wiretaps, revealed that Potolicchio was involved in a large-scale sports bookmaking operation in which gamblers placed bets with offshore Internet sports-gambling websites, particularly www.44wager.com, based in Costa Rica.
FBI analysis of the sports-betting website utilized by the co-defendants has determined that the total gross revenues of the Stamford-based gambling operation were nearly US$1.7 million from October 2010 to June 2011.
On February 13, 2013, Potolicchio pleaded guilty to one count of operating an illegal gambling business.
By Henry Morales, Vozdeguanacaste.com – On July 24, the community of Filadelfia in the Canton of Carrillo received the Government Council headed by president Laura Chinchilla Miranda, who attended along with representives of 10 ministries, including Leonardo Garnier of the Ministry of Education, Allan Flores of the Ministry of Tourism, Rene Castro of the Ministry of Environment and Manuel Obregon of the Ministry of Culture.
In addition, in the community hall more than 500 people attended to observe the rendering of accounts of Chinchilla’s cabinet as well as the four legislators of Guanacaste.
The president opened with words of gratitude to the community of Filadelfia and said, “We receive the government on the basis of three great challenges, the global crisis that affects Latin American countries, the crisis of public finances, which is a product of the large fiscal deficit, and the financial disaster of Costa Rican Social Security (CSSS).”
Later she acknowledged problems that have happened in her administration and talked about the poor perception of the population reflected in the polls. “Although it’s certain that we’ve had setbacks, we have face these challenges in a brave and decisive way,” she said, and added, “Our government will be remembered for our achivements and advances that we have left as a legacy to our nation.”
The president ended with the expression, “The annexation of Guanacaste teaches us that to reach our dreams, we have to annex ourselves and unite wills.”
“There are many ways in which they have wanted to measure use and one way has been the opinion surveys but I want to tell you that once again you have received us with joy and affection… This support, especially from the women, is what determines the government, not the surveys,” affirmed Chinchilla.
“Hay muchas maneras que han querido medirnos y una forma han sido las encuestas pero yo quiero decirles que una vez más nos han recibido con alegría y cariño…ese apoyo sobretodo de las mujeres es lo que determina al gobierno no las encuestas”, afirmó Chinchilla.
Carlos Cantillo, mayor of Ciudad Arqueológica, expressed his annoyance with the press and said, “Some communication media want to embarras our president and our government, and this isn’t fair because the press is a private business.”
Next, the different members of the cabinette were presented on the stage.
Pedro Castro, minister of MOPT, recalled that during the last year for Guanacaste “there has been an investment of $60 million, of which $40,000 were invested in the interamerican Cañas – Liberia northbound route.”
Leonardo Garnier highlighted the invesment in many educational centers in the region, for example Leonidas Briceño School in the amount of $1,600,000, the high school in Marbella of Santa Cruz with $904,000, the high school of Copal of Nicoya in the amount of $1,000,000, John F. Kennedy school in Liberia with $276,000 and the Technical Professional High School of La Fortuna of Bagaces with an investment of $220,000.
Agreements Signed
The president along with Mario Zamora, minister of Public Security, Pedro Castro of MOPT and Jose Luis Araya, official of Finance, signed an agreement that establishes a reform of the municipal regimen establishing a tax of $3.50 to foreigners who enter the country through the Daniel Oduber Airport in Liberia.
These funds will be destined to federations, confederations and municipalities of Guanacaste to use in county works.
In addition, Chinchilla came to an agreement with Marcos Jimenez, mayor of Nicoya, to change the time of the celebration of festivities in the Colonial City to 4 p.m. in the colonial plaza of Recaredo Briceño park.
Costa Rica is currently the style hub of Central America, and fashion industry leaders would like to see it stay that way. The Costa Rica Fashion Week event is primarily a meeting event for designers, merchants, schools, and students to learn about new trends and methodologies. Despite the country’s ongoing loss of its once-vibrant textile and clothes manufacturing industry to countries where lower salaries and inadequate working conditions run rampant, the fashion industry leaders in Costa Rica believe that this nation has what it takes to participate in the global fashion stage.
