If you haven’t paid the 2013 Marchamo waiting on legislator Luis Fishman and his appeal of unconstitutionality, forget it, it is time to pay up. Sort of.
On Wednesday the Sala Constitucional (Constitutional Court) rejected the appeal filed by Fishman on Tuesday.
The unanimous Court decision dismissed the action challenging the rate for the 2013 Marchamo set by the Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS)and approved by the Superintendencia General de Seguros (SUGESE).
Through an official communication by the Court’s press office, the justices considered the Fishman claim “had no standing and cannot be invoked to diffuse the different interests in the case”.
Due to the unease in the increase, tens of thousands of vehicle owners have not paid their Marchamo waiting on a decision, while motorcyclists have maintained a constant pressure on the government to reduce the amount to be paid.
But, hold on to your wallet just a little longer.
Late Wednesday, the Constitutional Court accepted a “recuros amparo” (appeal) by the Defensoría de los Habitantes (Ombudsman) to require the INS and the SUEGESE to hand over documents related to and explaining the reasons for he increase.
The INS had refused to hand over the sensitive data on the basis that it could not be guaranteed the information would not fall on the hands of the competition, placing it at a commercial disadvantage.
The Defensoría action was unrelated to the Fishman appeal.
As of Wednesday, the INS reports that only 151.739 had paid their Marchamo, some 33.000 less than the same period last year.
Florida Bebidas, owners of the country’s brewery, adds competition to Costa Rica’s milk market
(QExclusive) Dos Pinos, once the king and only player in Costa Rica’s milk market is now facing increased competition, not only of imports from Nicaragua, but also locally from Florida Bebidas, the same folks who brew the country’s beer.
What did the cow say to the eagle by the water on the shelf? Mu!
After buying a dairy cooperative Coopeleche, located in San Ramon de Alajuela, Florida Bebidas has launched its brand of milk Mu!, and soon will be competing in sour cream, ice cream and yogurt.
The new milk product has started to appear in the supermarkets dairy section and is under the direction of Florida Dairy Drinks and Beverages, the same division that bottles and distributes Cristal water, Pepsi products, natural drinks and juices. Florida Bebidas also owns the Cerverceria de Costa Rica, the brewer of the country’s, Imperial, Pilsen, Rock Ice and Bavaria beers. The Cerveceria also brews locally under license, Heineken.
Costa Rica produces about 2.6 million litres of milk a day of which between 60% and 65% is industrialized and the rest is used in rural areas in the preparation of cheese, sour cream and other derivatives.
Nicaragua’s Parmalat and Eskimo brands has recently begun appearing on supermarket shelves. Though it is not known exactly how much milk the two companies are importing, they are attempting to change Tico habits of buying only Costa Rican milk.
In addition to Parmalat and Eskimo, the Sabemas milk brand, which is only available in Walmart owned stores (Walmart, Mas x Menos, Pali, Maxi Pali and Maxi Bodega) is also from Nicaragua, though most Costa Rica do not bother to read the label.
Meanwhile, Dos Pinos is looking to greener pastures, so to speak, for its products. The company began this year to ship containers of UHT (long life) milk to Venezuela.
Although the three products do not appear together (used here for illustration purposes) on store shelves, Florida Bebidas now covers all drinking needs.
Jorge Pattoni, general manager of Dos Pinos, was quoted in La Nacion last June as saying “the Venezuelan market has great potential because it is highly deficient in dairy products”. The Cosa Rican milk is being marketed in Venezuela’s capital of Caracas, as well as the cities of Valencia and Maracaibo.
The price varies between the brands. Generally the range is from ¢650 colones per litre to ¢900, depending on the milk product – regular, 2%, 3%, semi-fat, no fat and non-dairy – and the supermarket.
Olman Arguedas Rojas got his business license (patente) to open a pharmacy on Paseo Colón in San José in only three days using the website www.crearempresa.go.cr, according to the office of the Gobierno Digital (Digital Government).
This marks a new record for the system. The previous record to obtain a patente had been ten (10) days.
Arguedas made the request on November 26 at 2:45pm, the license was approved on November 28 at 4:55pm and issued on November 29 at 5:28pm.
“The impression I got after using the Crear Empresa website is that I was in a first world country. I only have whoever is in charge for tihis”, Arguedas was quoted as saying on Gobierno Digital.
The objective of the Crear Empresa website is for a “single window” to allow the registration and activation of companies and businesses.
The main feature of the service is that the website is accessible to all persons, nationals and foreigners* looking to establish a business in Costa Rica.
The online process that allows the creation of a corporation, obtain a “personeria juridica” (a certificate required by banks and many institutions), legalization of company’s books and patentes, among other things, is made possibly by the use of a “Firma Digital” (Digital Signature).
The Digital Signature is combination of a card with a micro chip and software on the user’s computer, kind of a “cedula” for use online and avoid the lines at various government and non-govermental institutions.
The latest report is that more than 30.000 Costa Ricans and foreigners are using the digital signature.
*Foreigner must have a “residency cedula” to obtain the digital signature.
When I moved to Costa Rica almost 35 years ago to live my dream Costa Ricans were not as well off as they are now. Don’t get me wrong! About one-quarter of the people currently live below the poverty line but as a whole the majority of the Ticos have a lot better life than they did in the past.
One only has to look around to see what I am talking about. New cars abound. Many more people own their own homes. Most Ticos have cell phones and dress well. New restaurants and franchises are found all over the Central Valley. Malls, like the new Plaza Lincoln in Moravia, are the place to hang out for the young people. More and more Costa Ricans now have access to a lifestyle that was only reserved for the rich and wealthy foreigners in the past.
I remember that in the 1980’s when I used to travel to the States from Costa Rica, my Costa Rican friends would give me money to buy them things like tennis shoes, portable radios and other items that we not available here. Now you can find almost anything you want.
What can’t be found here, can now be ordered on-line and shipped through one of the private mail services like Aerocasillas. The other day I even saw a Mrs. Fields Cookies franchise in the mall. What a teat and contrast to yesteryear.
One would have to have lived here in the 1980’s or before to realize how much this country has changed. In reality the gap between Costa Rica and the U.S. gets narrower and narrower every year.
I used to yearn for goodies and products from the U.S. This is no longer true with all of the changes and improvements that have taken place, especially over the last decade. Recently, I spent most of month of August in the States visiting my sister. While there I noticed that flavored coconut milk in tetrpack cartons was widely sold. I had seen coconut milk or” agua de pipa” sold in the supermarkets here but never the flavored verson in tetrapack boxes. Much to my surprise I discovered the same product that I saw in the U.S. in one of our local supermarkets.
Aside form the material items and improvement in the standard of living I have mentioned above, there have been other changes which have bettered the average Costa Rican’s life and the country in general. For example, the construction of new private hospitals like CIMA and Hospital Metropolitano.
Older private hospitals like the Clínica Bíblica and Clínica Catolica have completely revamped and expanded their facilities. Public transportation has improved with the coming of commuter trains. More and more young people have access to a university education because the number of private universities which have been built. It is no surprise that university graduates are finding good paying jobs and opportunities which many of their parents didn’t have. No wonder according several polls, Costa Ricans are considered one of the happiest people in the world which is probably partly due to the improvements in their way of life.
Anyone seriously thinking of living or retiring in Costa Rica will also benefit from all of the improvements I have mentioned in this article, for instance the country’s health care, availability of products from the United States and better housing options.
The ministro de Ciencia y Tecnología (Minister of Science and Technology), Alejandro Cruz Molina, has called on public universities to increase their graduate progams, especially for PhD, with the idea of reversing the trend reported by the Informe de los Indicadores Nacionales de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (National Indicator Report on Science, Technology and Innovation) 2010-2011.
During the presentation ceremony of the report, an activity that took place on November 29 at the Casa del Cuño, antigua Aduana, Molina said the country has increased the number of Costa Ricans with doctorates from 534 in 2010 to 571 in 2011. The figure corresponds to a 0.3% of professionals with graduate degrees.
In the opinion of Minister Molina, a challenge is needed across the country, because the figure is very low and it must increased in the future.
Another issue of concern is that the majority, or 70% of postgraduate studies in the country are in the Social Sciences.
“Developed societies require progress on many fronts, one of them is in education and human resource training”, says Molina.
For the Minister it is important that new generations focus on postgraduate studies in areas like Engineering Sciences and Technology, Basic Sciences and Natural and Health Sciences.
The report data shows that 78% of those who obtained a doctorate in the Academic field did so in the U.S., Europe and Canada and 70% are male and 30% female.
In terms of investment in research and development (R & D) the report data shows that the country is far from achieving the goal of 1% of GDP, increasing from US$180.7 million (0.50% of GDP) in 2010, to US$185.9 million dollars (0.46% of GDP) in 2011.
Smashburger opened its first restaurant in Costa Rica Saturday, the first of 18 franchise locations planned throughout Latin America.
Costa Rica is the third international market for Smashburger, which has locations open in Kuwait and Canada. The fast-casual burger chain is scheduled to debut in Saudi Arabia in early 2013.
In Central and South America and the Caribbean, Smashburger is working with franchisee Richard Eisenberg of QSR International. Eisenberg is a former general manager and executive director of Yum! Brands Inc.’s Central America, Caribbean and Northern Latin America divisions. QSR International has opened restaurants for KFC, Quiznos and Teriyaki Experience in the region.
David Prokupek, chairman and chief executive of Smashburger, said in a statement: “Our expansion into Latin America is an important milestone for Smashburger. We’ve built a brand that has a strong, passionate following well beyond the borders of the United States. Costa Rica is certain to be a great market for us.”
As is typical of all Smashburger restaurants, the new unit in San Jose and subsequent Costa Rica locations will feature a regional recipe. The Costa Rica burger is topped with chorizo, grilled Turrialba cheese, refried black beans, fried potato sticks and Lizano-cilantro mayo on a classic egg bun. The burger may also be served with pejibaye frites, which are a flash-fried and seasoned peach palm fruit common in Costa Rica, served with cilantro mayo, or portobello mushroom fries.
Smashburger is not alone in its plans for growth in Latin America. Other U.S.-based brands with aggressive efforts there include Starbucks, which opened its first unit in Costa Rica earlier this year and has plans for hundreds of locations in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico. Johnny Rockets opened its largest restaurant in chain history in the Dominican Republic earlier this year, where a total of five franchise units are planned, and the brand is also scheduled to debut in Brazil before the year is out. Burger King is also expanding rapidly in Brazil under a new master franchise agreement there.
In addition to the new unit in Costa Rica, Denver-based Smashburger has 182 franchised and company-owned locations in the U.S., two in Canada and one in Kuwait.
Costa Rica News – I used to work in a travel agency and I have learned many sales techniques. I think the most effective is one where you can tell someone a truth that they didn’t know. One example of this is that in Costa Rica there is not a high and low season, or a good and bad, or a dry and rainy.
There are simply two distinct seasons offering either a dry or a green look and feel. In the dry season it is true that there will be less rain and great beach temperatures. But the green season offers more than rain (which is not all day)- it offers the beauty that comes from that rain. The rainforest become more alive, the animals more awake, the plants more diverse, and the jungle more vibrant! So there is not rainy bad low season. There are two great seasons. In addition, the country is full of microclimate so if one is too hot, cold, green, rainy, or dry for you it’s no problem because it is the opposite in a city 2 hours away!
So did I answer the question of when’s the best time to come to Costa Rica? ANYTIME! Really. Throughout the year Costa Rica receives 2 million visitors!
Peak tourist times are November through April, thus the prices are higher. Christmas, Easter, and Spring Break weeks are the most crowded.
If you are coming to see a particular species of wildlife check for which month to come. For example if you are a fisherman looking for sailfish go to the Pacific side between November and May but if you prefer snook go to the Caribbean coast from September to November. You may choose different months if you are looking for something specific but if simply want to see a turtle that’s easier. In some months you will see baby turtles, nesting turtles, leatherbacks, etc. There is never a shortage of wildlife to observe during any month in this tropical diverse wonderland!
A great thing to come for is to experience local culture. In December and January you may find more parades and festivals than usual such as the ox cart parade, Festival of Lights, and the fairgrounds at Palmares. Try to find some cultural activity while you are here. At any time you can take a tour to visit tribes and see how they make chocolate!
The recent rise in the Ministry of Finance values of used cars has hit importer, car fleet owners and the tax on selling a car. But, observes the national newspaper La Nacion, only 315 protests have been filed.
The re-evaluation will raise import duties on imported used cars, a brisk business in this country with its own chamber to look out for its interests. And only Jose Carballo, president of that Automotive Chamber, is really speaking out vigorously on the issue.
Carballo thinks that the Finance Ministry should have called a commission together, with representatives of importers, to hash over the subject instead of setting the new tax standard by decree.
Comment: Those thinkers who want to streamline government here should study that statement. The tendency to listen to everyone, even those who have never had an original thought in their lives, is an endearing and frustrating feature of society.
(If this country ever develops a movement to reduce the number of committees and commissions, the movers would have to convoke a special commission to do so, with a series of hearings, sparsely attended.
Then, no matter the outcome, the committee decision would be followed by a street demonstration with maybe even a few unruly lawmakers to spice it up.
Moreover, Carballo notes that Finance made its new list without publishing it in the official publication, La Gazeta.
The Ministry’s top tax man of the republic, Carlos Vargas, replied that the catalog for the used car taxes are published continuously in the Finance Ministry Web page.
We have survived contemporary intellectuals and visionaries since the don Pepe Figueres days right up to the moment. This country loves a visionary and it makes no difference if anything comes to fruition, if the vision is correct or even if it can be defined in human terms.
What we seriously lack is the mundane, the “doers”, those people who make things work and work well. Not to mention, they speak a comprehensible language.
My best example is the son of don Pepe, Jose Maria Figueres Olsen who after eleven years has returned home with a sustainable, survival, life plan for our country. So far, it calls for meetings, which Costa Ricans love because there is usually food, free drink and some good gossip to share. As to content, not much. Useable content, none.
Here is this futurist who has been gone for more than a decade returning to safe paradise. And he is the ex-president who collapsed the largest bank (Banco Anglo) and decided Costa Rica did not need mass transportation so the railroad got axed as well.
Right now, doña Laura is trying to put the rail transportation back on track, (A pun) however, one of the wheels fell off on the maiden run and that kind of distracted the event. But the idea is there and things are moving forward and could have moved forward much more efficiently if the plug was not pulled in the first place.
One of the issues being proposed is the need for a national emphasis on sport centers. If the rain washes out the temporary bridges, how does one get there? How about the bridges, and chance of seeing those remodeled, repaired, constructed in that crystal ball?
Some of us recall back in the days when CAFTA was being hotly debated the Arias administration went to soothsayers for the seal of approval. They were called the “Notables” whatever that is supposed to mean. At least one of them that I know for sure had no clue what was expected of him except rubber stamp whatever don Oscar wanted.
Since then, more Notables have been used to create consensus for the future as in “what and the hell do we do about the CAJA which is looking more like the Titanic every day.”
After over a year of heavy duty thinking and forehead rubbing, these Notables concluded exactly the same as did the Panamanian consultants: collect outstanding debts, try hard to collect outstanding debts, try very, very hard to collect outstanding debts and unload those thousands of workers who make little if any contribution to the work load, Oh! And in the process, clear up the stealing and if the CAJA does that, it will survive.
Other than shuffle a few senior management and director chairs around, the major conclusion was to bring accounts current and get rid of the dead wood.
Otton Solis, a perpetual candidate for president but not this time around (sure!) is a visionary junkie, to speak.
His predictions how CAFTA would drown Costa Rica with imported products never came to fruition but his logic was solid and he and his thousands of legions refused to do one positive thing to make the project work even after a multi-million dollar referendum voted him down.
Again, after brow beating and searching for the answers to Costa Rica’s problems, of which there are many, he might have had an epiphany that corruption is the root the problem.
Not a peep on how to correct or cure the culture of corruption, just that it is the root of evil. Don Otton, can’t you come up with something a little more profound than that?
Can’t any of the great thinkers, the visionaries offer some practical solutions? How hard is that?
The Bulevar in downtown San José.. Archived photo courtesy of Liveincostarica.com
It’s the beginning December and that means only one thing for most Costa Ricans: it’s ‘aguinaldo’ time.
The Bulevar in downtown San José.. Archived photo courtesy of Liveincostarica.com
On Monday the Central Government paid out ¢155 billion colones to its some 183.000 public sector employees, most of who in turn have been busy at the malls and major retail chains like Walmart, spending and spending away.
All saalaried public and private sector employees are entitled to the year end annual bonus, which for simplicity sake equals to the average of one month’s salary earned between November 1 the previous year and November 30 of the current. Employees who have been on the job for less that a full year are paid a prorated amount.
Although the central government (does not include autonomous state agencies like ICE, AyA, the Banco de Costa Rica and the Banco Nacional) – is usually the first to pay the aguinaldo to its employees, by law the aguinaldo must be paid by December 20 after which an employer faces sanctions.
For some the aguinaldo is a way of saving, keeping it on deposit for a rainy day. But, from what we saw at Walmart during its “the lowest price day of the year” event, many were out spending their aguinaldo even before it was paid.
San José’s Central Market (Spanish: Mercado central) is the largest market of the city of San José, Costa Rica. Established in 1880, it occupies an entire block on Avenida Central, 250m northwest of the Parque Central.
The market contains a complex of narrow alleys with over 200 shops, stalls, and cheap restaurants called sodas. A huge range of meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, coffees, and other products are for sale including snakeskin boots and cowboy saddles, herbal remedies, flowers, cooked meals, souvenirs, and local handcrafts. Tens of thousands of people visit the market daily.
Two blocks to the north is the Mercado Borbón, which specialises in food, with numerous butchers, fishmongers, and fruit vendors located there.
The history and stories of the market have not been collected in a series of documentaries that will be presented starting today, Tuesday and tomorrow Wednesday at the Market.
Eighteen young directors of the new Escuela de Cine y Televisión de la Universidad Veritas (School of Film and Television at the University Veritas), working for several month to portray the lives of the people who in the market, which is also a symbol of Costa Rica.
The presentation is called “Hecho en el Mercado Central” (Made in the Central Market).
Sitting in front of a computer or TV screen late into the night or leaving it on when you fall asleep could increase your chances of becoming depressed, according to a study by U.S. scientists.
The study, by a team of neuroscientists at Ohio State University Medical Center partly funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, will give screen-addicted night owls pause for thought.
The researchers – who exposed hamsters to dim light at night and picked up changes in behaviour and the brain that bore striking similarities to symptoms in depressed people – said a surge in exposure to artificial light at night in the last 50 years had coincided with rising rates of depression, particularly among women, who are twice as prone as men.
“The results we found in hamsters are consistent with what we know about depression in humans,” said Tracy Bedrosian, who led the study, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
Although exposure to night-time light has been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer and obesity, the relationship with mood disorders is poorly understood.
The hamsters involved in the experiment were exposed for four weeks to dim light at night – equivalent to a television screen in a darkened room – and the results compared to a control group exposed to a normal light-dark cycle.
The experimental group was then moved back onto a normal cycle for one, two or four weeks before they were tested.
The results showed they were less active and had a lower than usual interest in drinking sugar water – both symptoms are comparable to signs of depression in people.
The similarity extended to their biological make-up. The researchers found changes in the hippocampus – a part of the brain – that were consistent with people suffering depression.
The hamsters exposed to dim light at night were also shown to produce more of a protein called tumor necrosis factor (TNF), a chemical messenger that is mobilised when the body is injured or infected and causes inflammation in its efforts to repair the damage.
“Researchers have found a strong association in people between chronic inflammation and depression,” said Randy Nelson, who also worked on the study. “That’s why it is very significant that we found this relationship between dim light at night and increased expression of TNF.”
The scientists found that blocking the effects of TNF with a drug prevented signs of depression in the hamsters, though some other indicators in the structure of the brain were unaffected.
For instance, hamsters that were exposed to dim light at night still showed a much reduced density of dendritic spines – hairlike growths on brain cells that are used to send chemical messages from one cell to another.
The overall symptoms of depression were reversible, the researchers said. Those hamsters returned to a normal light-dark cycle saw both their TNF levels and the density of their dendritic spines return to normal after about two weeks.
“The good news is that people who stay up late in front of the television and computer may be able to undo some of the harmful effects just by going back to a regular light-dark cycle and minimizing their exposure to artificial light at night,” Bedrosian said.
QCostarica – Apple has announced that Costa Rica will have the iPhone 5 on December 14. The announcement was made through a press release by the Cupertino, California company on Monday.
Costa Rica is on the list of 33 countries that Apple is authorizing the sale.
The Apple press release includes the following countries for December 14: Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Ecuador, Grenada, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Kuwait, Macedonia, Malaysia, Moldova, Montenegro, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.
iPhone 5 is currently available in 47 countries around the world including the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan and the UK. iPhone 5 comes with iOS 6, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system with over 200 new features including: Shared Photo Streams, Facebook integration, all-new Maps app, Passbook® organization and even more Siri® features and languages.
iPhone 5 comes in either black & slate or white & silver.
Costa Rica’s authorized Apple dealer, iCon, confirmed to QCostarica that in addition to the iPhone, on sale will also be the iPad Mini and iPad Retina (or iPad 4).
The iPad Retina replaces the discontinued iPad 3 which was introduced earlier this year.
Consumers in Costa Rica have be we careful when buying the “new” iPad, mistaking the 3 for the Retina or 4.
At iCon, the staff know the difference and do not have the iPad3 in stock, offering consumers only the iPad2. However, a check of other retail stores, QCostarica found that there is plenty of iPad3 stock. The labeling says “NEW” iPad, the correct labeling for the product, however, at one store (name is being withheld intentionally) the store employee could not say if it was the 3 or the 4 (clearly the 3) or that a 4 even existed.
iCo would not say what price the new Apple products will have, though we can expect that it will be between 2 to 3 times the price in the US, the typical practice for Apple products pricing.
If you still have socked away ¢5.000 and ¢10.000 notes of the “old” family of notes the Central Bank has set a date of December 31 when they lose their commercial value, meaning they cannot be used any longer as legal tender for trade.
After December 31 the old notes will only be accepted at banks and financial institutions until May 31, 2013, after whichthey can only be exchanged at the Banco Central de Costa Rica (BCCR) – Central Bank – in Downtown San José.
The “toucan” (¢5.000) went into circulation in 1991, while the blue ¢10.000 was introduced in 1998. Both notes were replaced for the new yellow and green notes, respectively.
Old ¢5.000
Old ¢10.000
Click here for images of the new notes in circulation.
By the hour, news from Washington is that the U.S. Government is about to jump off a “Fiscal Cliff” and be in the same state of morbid economics as Zimbabwe, or perhaps make an extended political compromise which is sort of like agreeing to agree and finally the most unlikely scenario of all: settle up the difference.
Between meaty as well as heady tax issues, the great minds of Washington are figuring how to get more revenue from fewer people without putting them to work, cutting entitlements and reducing the government budget.
Qinnovation has an idea how to save tons of money on entitlements. Exactly what (R) Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah has been asking for.
Okay, we can’t solve everything but if billions of dollars are being spent on Medicare and Medicaid not to mention the persistent overbillings and fraud. Why not simply out source these costly health services to Costa Rica? We cheat just as well as any country in the world plus the health care is good.
U.S. enterprise outsources most of its medical manufacturing, it outsources call centers and customer services and here in Costa Rica we even make Raleigh baseballs. Why not out source to this peaceful little country healthcare services?
Just think of the savings and the U.S. would help make medical tourism a sure bet and not something just to be hyped at seminars! The expats would be ecstatic, especially those thousands of Baby Boomers we have been promised.
Right now there are already three hospitals accredited by the top accreditation agency in the United States, Joint Commission International (JCI) and they are Cima, La Biblica and La Catolica. Being accredited by JCI puts them on the same playing field of excellence as the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic Hospital, Johns Hopkins, etc and that seems like pretty good company.
The difference is that our three hospitals, the physicians, room, board and services are a fraction of the costs what that the U.S. pays out in Medicare and Medicaid benefits.
Just think of the economic plusses for Costa Rica. Promed would be happy as a clam at low tide, care centers would replace failing destination resorts, docs would have to pay taxes (Paper Trail), plus the Costa Rican government would get all the airport fees that would add up to mega bucks and the ICT could finally say it did something important.
The deal would be, if the Medicare patient were to be outsourced to a JCI accredited hospital or clinic here in paradise and if she/he would require follow up care in the U.S., the patient would not be able to seek punitive damages under mal-practice; only corrective services.
This makes medical cooperation more feasible since the threat of lawsuits disappear. And, Medicare/Medicaid would pay for the follow up.
U.S. Medicare physicians would have to lower their charges to the cash strapped government program as their “golden goose” patients get outsourced. It is the rule of supply and demand, not to mention if follow-up would be restricted to corrective measures only and there would be no threat of lawsuits, malpractice premiums would also drop. In fact, we might have an entirely new industry, so to speak, Follow-up Healthcare Practitioners.
This is a win – win situation proposed by Qinnovation
After making it clear a few weeks ago that he would not run for president in 2014, ex-President José María Figueres presented on Monday the first report of his new political project called “Vía Costarricense,” or “Costa Rican Way.”
The report describes Vía Costarricense as a civic movement that aims to go beyond political parties to include citizen participation in government with a focus on development. According to the report, in four months the project received more than 600 suggestions from citizens on how to improve governance in the country, through the group’s website at www.via.cr.
After 11 years of living in Europe, the former president, who served from 1994-1998, returned to Costa Rica in December 2011. In 2000, Figueres was named executive director of the World Economic Forum in Geneva, Switzerland. In 2004, news media in Costa Rica reported that Figueres had received $900,000 in payments from 2000-2003 for consulting work he did for the then-French-owned telecommunications company Alcatel, which later became involved in a bribery scandal that netted another former president.
Many Americans and Canadians are traveling overseas for cheaper medical procedures.
Pearl white sands, lush rainforests, majestic waterfalls and wisdom teeth removal? Welcome to Costa Rica, a tropical getaway for those seeking medical care on a budget.
Many Americans and Canadians are traveling overseas for cheaper medical procedures.
Reuters is reporting Costa Rica is competing with India, Brazil, Panama and Mexico for the title of top medical tourism destination. Its proximity to the United States gives it a greater edge, in comparison to further locations, like Asia.
Many people, like Canadian house cleaner Marlene Trithardt, are lured not by hiking mountainous paths or surfing the country’s famous “long lefthander wave,” but instead the idea of saving money on medical procedures.
“I chose to come here,” the 57-year-old told the site, “because I find in Alberta the prices are about 80 percent higher than in Costa Rica.”
Trithardt needed a tooth replaced but couldn’t afford the $10,000 price tag in her native Canada. Instead, Trithardt revealed her treatment in Costa Rica cost $4,000, including airfare, hotel stay, and meals for two weeks. With the time off, she explored Costa Rica’s national parks.
The number of people arriving for similar reasons is increasing. According to Costa Rica’s tourism institute ICT, about 40,000 medical tourists visited last year. In 2010 it was 36,000 and in 2009 there were 30,000 visitors. The institute revealed most of them are American and Canadian.
Massimo Manzi, director of Promed, the council for international promotion of medicine in Costa Rica, stated there were 15,000 people traveling just for more affordable dental care. He estimates medical tourism alone brought $196 million to Costa Rica’s health industry in 2011, with patients spending an additional $84 million in hotel accommodations, food and shopping.
Trithardt’s doctor, Ignacio Vargas, told Reuters that tourists represented 70 percent of his clientele.
According to Brad Cooke, head of Medical Tours Costa Rica, many patients travelling are uninsured. However, the new healthcare reformed passed in the United States requiring Americans to get basic health insurance by 2014 could reduce the demand.
“We had a gentleman, for example, who was interested in coming in for a knee procedure about six months ago and then he decided not to come,” explained Cooke. “He said he’d rather wait and see if Obamacare would cover it.”
While many doctors in the United States discourage patients from traveling overseas for cheaper treatments because of the lack of follow-up care, the rise of medical procedures conducted in Costa Rica is still high.
“We are learning how to handle this demand so that we don’t get to a point where we are facing waiting periods which would turn patients away from Costa Rica,” said Health Minister Daisy Corrales.
Meanwhile the U.S. is taking notice. Several insurance companies, like Cigna Corp, Satori and Blue Cross Blue Shield are reportedly expanding their supplier network to include overseas clinics.
There are 4.5 million people currently residing in Costa Rica.
Windstar Cruises is launching its collection of 2014 Caribbean and Costa Rican voyages with 2-for-1 cruise fares, plus bonus savings up to $1,000 per stateroom when booked by Dec. 29, 2012.
Three Caribbean itineraries and two Costa Rican itineraries comprise the collection, which is offered December 2013 through March 2014.
Windstar’s Costa Rican Sailings
Passage Through Panama: Explore the natural and man-made wonders of Costa Rica and the Panama Canal. Seven-day sailings on Wind Spirit that depart from Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica or Colón, Panama visit Bahía Drake, Costa Rica; Golfito, Costa Rica; Isla de Coiba, Panama; Panama Canal Transit; and San Blas, Panama. Departures: Dec. 8, 15, 22, 29, 2013; Jan. 5, 12, 19, 26; Feb. 2, 16, 23; and March 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 2014. Early booking savings fares start from $2,399 per person, double occupancy. Highlights include Corcovado National Park and Golfito’s rainforest.
Naturally Costa Rica: Dive, kayak, hike, or photograph through wildlife destinations on seven-day sailings aboard Wind Spirit’s round trip Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica voyages with visits to San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua; Playas del Coco, Costa Rica; Quepos, Costa Rica; Bahía Drake, Costa Rica; Curú, Costa Rica; and Tortuga Island, Costa Rica. Departures: Feb. 9, 2014. Early booking savings fares start from $1,999 per person, double occupancy.
Windstar’s Caribbean Sailings
Flavors of the Caribbean: The voyage sails from Dutch St. Maarten to French-influenced Martinique. Seven-day sailings on Wind Surf, Windstar’s flagship, round trip from Philipsburg, St. Maarten with visits to Le Marin, Martinique; Pigeon Island, St. Lucia; Roseau, Dominica; Les Saintes, Guadeloupe; and Basseterre, St. Kitts. Departures: Dec. 14, 2013; Jan. 11, 25; Feb. 8, 22; and March 8, 22, 2014. Early booking savings fares start from $1,799 per person, double occupancy. Highlights include Martinique’s Piton Creve-Coeur volcano and scenic cruising past the Pitons.
Jewels of the Windward Islands: Sail to little-known isles that are off the tourist radar such as the Grenadines and St. Lucia. Seven-day sailings on Wind Star round trip from Bridgetown, Barbados with stops at Pigeon Island, St. Lucia; St. George’s Grenada; Mayreau, St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Tobago Cays, St. Vincent and the Grenadines; and Bequia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Departures: Dec. 14, 21, 28, 2013; Jan. 4, 11, 18, 25; Feb. 1, 8, 15, 22; and March 1, 8, 15, 22, 2014. Early booking savings fares start from $1,799 per person, double occupancy. Highlights include Grand Etang National Park on Grenada and scenic cruise past the Pitons.
Yachtsman’s Caribbean: Visit ports such as St. Barts and the British Virgin Islands. Seven-day sailings on Wind Surf, Windstar’s flagship, round trip from Philipsburg, St. Maarten, calling on Falmouth Harbour, Antigua (overnight); Soper’s Hole, Tortola, B.V.I; Jost Van Dyke, B.V.I. (overnight); Virgin Gorda, Prickly Pear Beach, B.V.I. (overnight); and Gustavia, St. Barthelemy. Departures: Dec. 7, 21, 2013; Jan. 4, 18; Feb. 1, 15; and March 1, 15, 29, 2014. Early booking savings fares start from $1,799 per person, double occupancy. Highlights include local treasures at Soper’s Hole Wharf and a sail by The Baths.
For more information, visit www.WindstarCruises.com.
The second annual Intercollegiate Surf Tournament in Playa Tamarindo, Guanacaste will be held today, Saturday, December 1st.
The tournament is organized by the Surfing Commission, Liceo de Villareal with the aim of promoting the sport and creating opportunities for recreation, with the development and exposure of young talent in Guanacaste.
This initiative is seen by its organizers as a way to fight student dropouts and social risks to which students are exposed in the area. The only requirement for participation is that they are students, enrolled in school.
The first edition of this tournament was held in 2008, also in Tamarindo and had the support of the Ministry of Public Education (MEP) and the Surf federation of Costa Rica (FSC).
The organizers are hopeful that the tournament will gain greater importance to the students and they would perform and excel each year as a result of this perfect end year activity.
The organization has the support of the Youth Action Foundation (JWF), a nonprofit organization that helps prevent student dropouts by implementing various mechanisms, such as football games and now Surf.
Colombia’s third largest bank officially takes over HSBC operations in Costa Rica
Monday was the official launch of the Colombian bank Davivienda in Costa Rica and it’s Casita Roja [Small Red House] as a national and international logo. Davivienda bought the Costa Rica, El Salvador and Honduras operations of HSBC for US$800 million dollars earlier this year.
The Corporación Colombiana de Ahorro y Vivienda, Coldeahorro, was created in August, 1972. It opened its doors to the public on November 15, 1972, with the main branch in Bogotá, and three branches open to the public in the main cities of the country: Medellín, Cali, and Barranquilla.
The flag product of Davivienda for Colombians in the country and abroad who seek to own their homes. A way to begin a financial life; currently there are three types of cards at Davivienda: MasterCard, Visa, and Diners, franchise that has been operating in Colombia since 2004.
In Miami, Davividenda operates Davivienda International (DI), the international branch of Davividena, regulated and supervised by the Federal Reserve (FED) and the Florida Office of Financial Regulation (OFR). DI began operations in the United States as Banco Cafetero International Corporation in New York in 1981. To better support its Colombian clients, Bancafé transferred its operations to Miami Florida. The bank’s target market was clients with international trade and personal banking needs.
Davividena said that it was keeping the same HSBC management team but promised improvements in service.
The private bak received its formal authorization from supervisory bodies in Colombia and Costa Rica on Nov. 23. The bank said it paid US$300 million dollars for the Costa Rican HSBC operations alone.
In newspaper, billboard, television and internet ads, Davivienda announced the bank’s start of operations in Costa Rica, its website www.davivienda.cr and the start of conversion of some 30 HBSC branches across the country.
The bank’s plans, once the Costa Rica operations are underway, is do the same in Honduras, El Salvador and Panama.
There was a great turn out in Samara on Saturday, November 24, as more than 50 people gathered for the first beach cleanup organized by CREAR, a nonprofit organization helping kids after school with various educational programs
From Cangrejal to Matapalo, volunteers gathered 250 pounds of trash, including objects of all kind such as old rotten hammocks, inflatable floats, sandals and bottles. The ambiance was festive as Intercultura Language School provided space for the event with food, drinks and games for the kids.
Johanna Waite, program development director for CREAR, is promoting awareness amongst young people of the need to preserve the environment clean and safe. Marea Homeschool, another Samara organization, also helped out with the cleanup.
A teacher from Marea weight a garbage bagLaura from Bar Arriba was a big help
Projections of industrial output for Costa Rica are around 3% for next year, lower than the expected growth of 5% this year. Still, the expected growth for 2013 is better than in many European nations whose outlook is flat.
The year began by causing a euphoria among some government analysts, gaining a remarkable 13.8% in the first quarter over the same period the year before.
A slowing trend during the second quarter produced a still respectable 10.6% more than 2011. Then the rot set in and the third quarter ended with an anemic 1.9% growth.
This will average out, with the final quarter to 5% expected this year. But things look grimmer for next year, although not disastrous.
Juan Ramon Rivera, president of the Chamber of Industries, told the national newspaper La Nacion this week that industry in 2013 may not contribute to the economy by generating new jobs.
Vice President of the chamber Martha Castillo suggests that the number of jobs will probably remain at 154,000 or, at best, increase by only 1% next year.
But Economy Minister Mayi Antillon offered a brighter note, saying that measures to help solve industry’s problems were afoot and would take effect soon. Among those problems were the cost of energy. In the last five years, electricity has shot up from $0.08 per kilowatt hour to between $0.16 and $0.17.
Castillo notes that much of the drop is spurred on by a shrinking demand overseas. Industry accounts for 75% of exports for this country.
Exports, Castillo says, are still expanding but at a much-reduced rate than before. But Castillo refused to make predictions.
While other agencies guage the production, the export promotion agency Promocer looks at values of exports, a brighter picture. Value of overall exports rose 7.8% from January to October this year relative to the same 10 months last year.
Specifically, the value of industrial exports rose 9.7% in that period over 2011.Procomer notes that exports from tax-free zones has increased 11.7% so far this year.
Commentary: The energy picture this year is in part the product of a relative drought that has raised electric rates as water levels plummeted in hydro-electric dams around the country.
This caused the government electrical monopoly ICE to use more expensive fossil fuels to run generators which then caused severe hikes. Moreover, relief is not in sight. Two dams under construction by ICE are woefully behind schedule.
If ICE does not keep up with its high public expectations created in the last century, it threatens to lose more than public face. It could brake foreign investment here due to high energy costs and even cost the country some of its existing industries.
If ICE does not keep up with its high public expectations created in the last century, it threatens to lose more than public face. It could brake foreign investment here due to high energy costs and even cost the country some of its existing industries.
Blocking is available on any phone, regardless of make, model and cost.
If you happen to lose or have your cellular phone stolen in Costa Rica you can get help from your operator.
Blocking is available on any phone, regardless of make, model and cost.
Kobi (ICE), Claro and Movistar can block a lost or stolen cellular phone a the network level and in conjunction with Costa Rica’s membership to the GSMA** the cellular phone is virtually usually in some 200 countries and 800 mobile operators around the world.
Firstly, it is important that your cellular phone’s IMEI* is registered with the operator. If you purchased your cell phone from Kolbi, Claro, Movistar, Tuyo and Fullmovil this is automatic. If you did not, when you obtained your cellular service- prepaid or postpay – you were asked to identify the unit the number was to be registered on.
If you bought your cell phone from Costa Rican retailers or online for instance and you placed the SIM*** card yourself, likely the cell unit is not registered. That is, a unit is registered but not necessarily the one you were using at the time of the loss or theft.
Thus, first step is to ensure that your cellular phone is registered. Contact your operator to make the change. If not, you are out of luck, as the following will not apply.
So, if you lose or have your cell phone stolen, and you have followed the foregoing, here is what to do:
1. Call (of course from a different phone, for ‘your’ phone was lost/stolen) your operator to make a report. You will be asked to identify yourself and the number. (Note, if you phone’s IMEI was not registered, difficult to do at this stage)
2. Your operator will now block the phone. In Costa Rica this will occur immediately, but it will take up to 24 hours for the blocking to be worldwide.
Now, if you do find your phone (assuming it was only lost or the thief grew a conscience and returned it), you need to contact your operator to report the change to have the phone unblocked.
Use the following numbers to make a report:
CLARO: *10 from a Claro phone or 7002-7002 from any other phone
KOLBI: 1193 from any phone
MOVISTAR: 1693 from any phone
TUYO: 1718 from any phone
FULL MOVIL: 555 from any fullmovil phone or 905-fullmovil from any phone
*IMEI
The IMEI stands for the International Mobile Station Equipment Identity or IMEI, a number, usually unique, to identify 3GPP (i.e., GSM, UMTS and LTE) and iDEN mobile phones, as well as some satellite phones. It is usually found printed inside the battery compartment of the phone. It can also be displayed on the screen of the phone by entering *#06# into the keypad on most phones.
The IMEI number is used by a network to identify valid devices and therefore can be used for stopping a stolen phone from accessing that network. For example, if a mobile phone is stolen, the owner can call his or her network provider and instruct them to “blacklist” the phone using its IMEI number. This renders the phone useless on that network and sometimes other networks too, whether or not the phone’s SIM is changed.
**GSMA
The GSM Association (GSMA), formed in 1995, is an association of mobile operators and related companies devoted to supporting the standardizing, deployment and promotion of the GSM mobile telephone system and spanning more than 220 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world’s mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organizations.
***SIM Card
A subscriber identity module or subscriber identification module (SIM) is an integrated circuit that securely stores the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) and the related key used to identify and authenticate subscribers on mobile telephony devices (such as mobile phones and computers). A SIM is embedded into a removable SIM card, which can be transferred between different mobile devices.
The Sala Constitucional or Sala IV (Costa Rica’s Constitutional Court) accepted a constitutional motion against the ley de Delitos Informáticos, also called “Ley Mordaza” (Computer Crimes Act, also called the “Gag Law”, filed by the Ombudsman (Defensoría de los Habitantes).
The decision of the Court, repeals articles 196 and 196 bis, which carries sentenses of four to eight years in prison.
The filing by the Defensoria also includes a temporary rescinding of Article 288, which punishes with imprisonment those who disseminate secret political information.
A strong campaign RAHAB Foundation shows the reality of thousands of women, children and men who are victims of human trafficking – Trata de Personas y el Comercio Sexual, in Spanish.
RAHAB rescues these people and helps them return to society and regain their self-esteem.
The advertising campaign is loud and clear but it serves its purpose and is to impact people and make them look at the reality that many ignore.
Costa Rica today unfortunately is a place of exploitation with a high tendency to sex tourism.
If you are being victimized by this crime please go to the foundation website www.fundacionrahabcr.org, call 2248-2095. 2257-7785 or
QCostarica – Warren Buffett, probably the world’s most successful investor, has said that anything good that happened to him could be traced back to the fact that he was born in the right country, the United States, at the right time (1930).
A quarter of a century ago, when The World in 1988 light-heartedly ranked 50 countries according to where would be the best place to be born in 1988, America indeed came top.
But which country will be the best for a baby born in 2013? To answer this, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a sister company of The Economist, has this time turned deadly serious.
A study by the magazine places Costa Rica among the best in the Americas and 30th overall in the world, with a score of 6.92. Switzerland is at the top of the list with a score of 8.22, followed by Australia (8.12), Norway (8.09), Sweden (8.02) and Denmark (8.01) rounding out the top five.
In the Americas, Costa Rica places fourth and second in Latin America, with Canada having an overall rank of 9th with a score of 7.81, the United States ranking 16th with a score of 7.38 and Chile ranked 23rd with a score of 7.10.
Costa Rican Communications Minister Francisco Chacón told the Tico Times the survey is the result of “many efforts of many people in many decades.”
Its quality-of-life index links the results of subjective life-satisfaction surveys—how happy people say they are—to objective determinants of the quality of life across countries. Being rich helps more than anything else, but it is not all that counts; things like crime, trust in public institutions and the health of family life matter too. In all, the index takes 11 statistically significant indicators into account. They are a mixed bunch: some are fixed factors, such as geography; others change only very slowly over time (demography, many social and cultural characteristics); and some factors depend on policies and the state of the world economy.
A forward-looking element comes into play, too. Although many of the drivers of the quality of life are slow-changing, for this ranking some variables, such as income per head, need to be forecast. We use the EIU’s economic forecasts to 2030, which is roughly when children born in 2013 will reach adulthood.
Despite the global economic crisis, times have in certain respects never been so good. Output growth rates have been declining across the world, but income levels are at or near historic highs. Life expectancy continues to increase steadily and political freedoms have spread across the globe, most recently in north Africa and the Middle East. In other ways, however, the crisis has left a deep imprint—in the euro zone, but also elsewhere—particularly on unemployment and personal security. In doing so, it has eroded both family and community life.
What does all this, and likely developments in the years to come, mean for where a baby might be luckiest to be born in 2013? After crunching its numbers, the EIU has Switzerland comfortably in the top spot, with Australia second.
Small economies dominate the top ten. Half of these are European, but only one, the Netherlands, is from the euro zone. The Nordic countries shine, whereas the crisis-ridden south of Europe (Greece, Portugal and Spain) lags behind despite the advantage of a favourable climate. The largest European economies (Germany, France and Britain) do not do particularly well.
America, where babies will inherit the large debts of the boomer generation, languishes back in 16th place. Despite their economic dynamism, none of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) scores impressively. Among the 80 countries covered, Nigeria comes last: it is the worst place for a baby to enter the world in 2013.
Boring is best
Quibblers will, of course, find more holes in all this than there are in a chunk of Swiss cheese. America was helped to the top spot back in 1988 by the inclusion in the ranking of a “philistine factor” (for cultural poverty) and a “yawn index” (the degree to which a country might, despite all its virtues, be irredeemably boring). Switzerland scored terribly on both counts. In the film “The Third Man”, Orson Welles’s character, the rogue Harry Lime, famously says that Italy for 30 years had war, terror and murder under the Borgias but in that time produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance; Switzerland had 500 years of peace and democracy—and produced the cuckoo clock.
However, there is surely a lot to be said for boring stability in today’s (and no doubt tomorrow’s) uncertain times. A description of the methodology is available here: food for debate all the way from Lucerne to Lagos.
Costa Rica has fought admirably to preserve its pro-life laws and culture, but abortion advocates believe they have found a means to get around laws that defend unborn human life. Although abortion is not yet legal in Costa Rica, those who promote abortion are working to legalize in-vitro fertilization (IVF) as a means toward that end.
A court ruling is expected this week which may take Costa Rica off the list of the few countries that do not legally permit IVF, a process in which embryonic human beings are artificially created outside a mother’s womb, then surgically implanted in the hope that they survive until birth.
In March 2000, the Supreme Court in Costa Rica criminalized the practice of IVF. In 2010, however, 18 plaintiffs sued the government, arguing this ban violated their privacy. The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), a leading international pro-abortion organization, is behind the effort to legalize IVF in Costa Rica, and admits that its intentions go beyond this particular case:
In a case that could undermine women’s access to reproductive technologies, contraception and abortion across North, Central and South America— including the United States— the Center for Reproductive Rights today joined a legal battle against Costa Rica’s in-vitro fertilization ban. (emphasis added)
The Center for Reproductive Rights is attacking Costa Rica’s IVF laws as a means to push for greater access to abortion and contraception. CRR believes thatlegalizing IVF in Costa Rica will have, what they consider, positive repercussions for other “reproductive health” issues in the pro-life nations of Latin America. They call laws against IVF a “personhood movement in disguise, similar to efforts in the U.S. to define a fertilized egg as a person.” And should the court uphold the ban, CRR says “a multitude of family planning technologies will be at risk, including … methods of contraception, like IUDs.” They also believe a ruling in Costa Rica’s favor would “make it even more difficult to fight the draconian abortion bans in places like Chile and El Salvador.”
This technology remains oppose on moral grounds by the Catholic Church. Since IVF leads to the destruction of most of the embryos created in the process, there is a heated debate over its ethical status, although it has been accepted even by many Catholics who are unfamiliar with the nature of the IVF process and related Church teaching. It is unequivocally opposed by the Church on the grounds of both the massive destruction of human life (90 percent of the embryonic children involved do not survive the process) and the violation of the natural and exclusive procreative relationship between spouses. Further, IVF has been linked to severe health complications for women who undergo the process, and to serious health consequences for the few children who do survive until birth.
The Inter-American Court on Human Rights, a Washington, D.C.-based tribunal tasked with enforcing the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR, of which Costa Rica is a signatory), heard testimony in September 2012 from the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs allege that their government’s laws prevent them from becoming pregnant, which caused some of their marriages to split, and other emotional harm.
The Costa Rican government has long held out against legalizing IVF but now faces the possibility that this tribunal could overturn the law of the land. Not only could Costa Rica be forced to legalize IVF, but it could also be forced to compensate the plaintiffs for “damages.” Attorneys for Costa Rica argue that its Constitution protects human life “300 days before birth.” Moreover, they contend that Article 4 of the ACHR protects human life from the moment of conception; therefore, their ban of IVF complies with the law.
If the court rules that Costa Rica must legalize IVF, lawmakers in the country will have to pass legislation allowing the procedure to take place, and also establish a regulatory framework for implementation.
The Catholic Church condemns IVF because it objectifies the human person, treating him as a commodity. As the Catholic bishops of Costa Rica statedin opposing a proposed IVF bill in 2011:
[T]he fruit of human generation from the first moment of its existence, that is, from the constitution of the zygote, calls for unconditional respect that is morally due to the human being in his corporal and spiritual totality.
If IVF does become legalized, it will be even more difficult for Costa Ricans to fight against the legalization of abortion, since the constitutional defense of unborn human life would be undermined by the decision.
In an interview with LifeSiteNews (LSN), the archbishop of San Jose, Costa Rica, has denied reports that the Costa Rican bishops have retreated on the issue of public school sex education, saying that he is still urging parents to keep their children out of the classes.
Parents should “learn and see the evil that’s [in the sex ed classes], because it is profoundly hedonist,” Msgr. Hugo Barrantes Ureña told LSN. “What they want is for children to explore their bodies, to learn that the body has the potential for pleasure, that it’s necessary to discover it. It’s hedonist. Pleasure, pleasure —it doesn’t speak of an integral vision of sexuality, integrated in the human person in a total vision of the human person. It’s incomplete.”
Barrantes’ comments contradict commentators in Costa Rica who have accused the bishops of backing down because they have instructed parents to make the decision themselves and to follow their consciences.
“We haven’t softened our position,” said Barrantes. “Some have wanted to say that we bishops are retreating, in the sense that parents don’t have to act. We have only used a different way of speaking.”
Asked if he would counsel parents not to permit their children to attend, Barrantes replied, “exactly.”
The Supreme Court has ruled that the sex-ed program will be optional in response to both Catholics and Evangelicals who have objected to it.
Archbishop Barrantes Ureña also told LSN that the sex-ed program is being pushed by international organizations that are waging “war against God.” The groups, he said, fund local groups seeking to disenfranchise the Catholic Church in Costa Rica, which under the constitution has recognition as the official state religion.
“They have allied themselves in Costa Rica with groups that speak of a ‘secular state,’ of a secularist state,” said Barrantes. “They have united with groups that want to expel God from our constitution. They have united with groups that say that the constitutional oath shouldn’t mention God. It appears that the war is against God.”
Importing and distributing natural gas to replace petroleum and other fuels is in the “public interest,” with a timetable of six months being set to make the fuel available, the Costa Rican government said.
President Laura Chinchilla and Environment Minister Rene Castro signed an executive order Monday to speed up the importation of natural gas as part of a plan to make Costa Rica the world’s first carbon neutral country by 2021.
Natural gas is “a transitional fuel toward fuels that are cleaner than those derived from petroleum for industry, transportation and business,” Castro said.
“Natural gas is the cleanest and cheapest hydrocarbon, and it will help us in the transtion toward a really sustainable energy mix in the country,” Castro said, adding that natural gas emits less CO2 than other fuels when burned.
Emissions of CO2 are believed to cause global warming.
Natural gas, according to Environment Ministry figures, is also cheaper than petroleum.
For the month of November, we are spending our time in Parrita, Costa Rica.
I’ve been here many times because my parents lived and worked here 20 years ago, and it’s really enjoyable to be in a place that is almost like home. Our house is right on the beach, so I get to swim in the Pacific Ocean almost every day!
We are volunteering in the same place my mom volunteered years ago: an elementary school called La Julieta. We are teaching English to a third-grade class and a sixth-grade class. My mom and I do most of the teaching, but my siblings try to help out when they can.
With the third-graders, we teach songs in English and play games with them. They also asked us lots of questions about the United States.
With the sixth-graders, we have them write in English, practice speaking and play games to test their vocabulary.
Since a lot of people in Costa Rica listen to popular English music, we also translated some of their favorites into Spanish so they could understand what the songs meant.
The first song we translated was “Little Things” by One Direction for the girls. Then we did “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley, which everyone liked, and lastly, “What I’ve Done” by Linkin Park for the boys.
For both age groups, we video-chatted with classes from home at Pennridge Central Middle School and J.M. Grasse Elementary School, and they asked each other questions, which both groups of kids enjoyed.
In Costa Rica, kids attend school from February through November. Elementary school includes kindergarten to sixth grade, and high school is seventh to 12th. In elementary school, the students come for classes either in the morning or the afternoon, and lunch is included for school, so they don’t have to pay.
Something very different about the education in Costa Rica is that if a teacher cannot come to school for whatever reason, they don’t have class! From kindergarten through 12th grade, students wear a uniform to school.
Both elementary school and high school students learn English. In 2005, 73.6 percent of all elementary students were studying English, and here in 2012, that figure has climbed to 87.8 percent. All high school students study English.
At La Julieta, the kids can buy extra food at a little store called a “Soda,” and they have open-air rooms with no hallways because it’s hot all the time, all year-round.
I love teaching the kids, and it’s a great opportunity to practice my Spanish. We get to visit friends we’ve known for years and relax on a beautiful beach.
Costa Rica is a peaceful break from all the traveling I’ve been doing for the past four months.
From reading the laws of the land, one would think that women in Costa Rica are pretty well protected against violence, once not only permitted but encouraged by the old machismo of society.
Not so, say marchers Sunday on the International Day vs. Violence Against Women who put the court system directly in the sights for allegedly winking at violence when a case is denounced.
Sylvia Mesa of the Feminist Network vs. Violence Against Women says that prosecutors are not listening and the courts have no clear procedures or criteria to handle such complaints.
“Of all cases of accusation, 70% do not make it to formal accusation (in court) because the prosecutors demand absolute proof,” charged Mesa. As most legal workers know, absolute proof is had to obtain in family disputes — a classic “she says, he says” situation.
Mesa also blasted the alliance of the government with conservative groups in such cases as the fertilization in vitro controversy. The fertilization technique has been foiled in this country by both Evangelicals and the Roman Catholic hierarchy which lag behind more liberal public opinion.
The march Sunday, beginning at La Merced Park and marching along Av. Central to the Park of Social Guarantees, contained a sprinkling of males to show their solidarity. But it was Women’s Day Sunday.
“I came because, as women, we must support this cause,” Virginia Navarro of Cartago told La Nacion, “We must not let them mistreat us any more.” Showing the snowballing effect of women’s awareness and the trend in the upcoming generation, she had her teenage daughter with her.
Commentary: The anti-violence laws against women include even verbal violence which places the nation at the forefront of the movement. Some men scoffed at this clause when the lawmakers debated it, claiming that nothing protects the men.
Of course, the women are right in one aspect — no law, no matter how just and well-intended, is worth even quoting if it is not enforced. This was the thrust of the march this year and a number signs carried in it, some so large they needed several women to support them.
To accuse the “state” of being an aggressor was perhaps extreme. But Costa Rican women are making a point while they have people’s attention — as long as they have generations of machismo down helpless on the mat, they might as well place their foot on its windpipe.
After covering the courts in the United States, this reporter must admit that Ms. Mesa may well be right. Many prosecutors are lazy, refusing to take on a case unless it is “slam dunk,” with every “i” dotted and “t” crossed. Others are just timid and refuse to take pick in hand to scale Mt. Justice. Some may be closet machistas.
It appears that it takes modern Costa Ricans as long to build a road as it took Medieval Europeans to build a cathedral. And the results are not nearly as pretty…
The new road, currently under construction, to San Carlos has been promised for 23 years and the plan and contracts must be revised because of intervening wetlands encountered by surveyors along the route. (Oh, bother!)
The much-needed road to open the San Carlos canton’s rich farmland to exploitation was originally started during President Oscar Arias’s first term in 1989. (San Carlos is a huge, mostly rural, canton that once was proposed to be a province all of itself.)
But a break in the terrain as well as the route skirting soft wetlands will result in a change of route. It will now cost $9 million more and will delay the road further by the need for lengthy expropriations and will mean widening the road from two to four lanes.
The sad news was confirmed to the press by Ministry of Public Works (MOPT) engineer Albert Sanchez who says that 2.8 kilometers must be added to the route to avoid obstacles.
Sanchez added that one sector suffered an landslide that revealed a weakness in the planned route. Moreover, a fault 24 meters deep will add 1.4 kilometers due to the need for a detour. That’s about 3 or 4 million dollars right there.
And then there will be $5 million to provide a stable surface over soft, damp ground. Moreover, it rains so frequently in this area that engineers must add 7.5 days of downtime per month due to rains.
Despite this, MOPT and Conavi hope the route will be open by the end of 2013 — although there is always something happening to delay things.
For example, in 1992, then-President Rafael Angel Calderon tried to revive the stalled road plan, even going so far as to ceremonially place the first stone at Florencia in the canton. That was as far as he got.
In 1996, then-President Jose Maria Figueres traveled to Ciudad Quesada, the canton seat, with the ambassador of Taiwan, announcing a $35 million loan to complete the road. In May, 2001, Taiwan announced a $15 million loan to continue with the Narajo-Florencia stretch.
But construction of that link was evaluated as costing $50 million. Still another setback came in 2008 when the Taiwanese firm charged with the road abandoned the project after Costa Rica cut relations with the island Chinese nation.
Commentary: As they say here in Costa Rica, “Tenga fe, Hermano!” (Have faith, Brother!) These things have a tendency to get done, eventually. Then, they are followed by a series of corrections for defects that should have been envisioned.
To live tranquilly in this country, one must have the same placid philosophy and patience of an oxcart driver of the 19th century carrying a load of coffee to the docks at Puntarenas, miles away at about 2 miles per hour. We’ll get there when we arrive. Si Dios quiere…
The unanimous Court decision dismissed the action challenging the rate for the 2013 Marchamo set by the Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS)and approved by the Superintendencia General de Seguros (SUGESE).
