The latest Unimer opinion poll contracted by the national newspaper La Nacion reveals that Costa Ricans are most worried about unemployment and the cost of living. Twenty-one percent are very worried about employment.
Another 17% say they are worried most about the cost of living. But Planning Minister Roberto Gallardo says he’s surprised at worries about costs since the economy is going through an historic era of low inflation.
“I’m surprised at the result of the survey,” Gallardo told La Nacion, “because this country is going through a period of low inflation unparalleled in the last 40 years. As for employment, never have we had more employed persons than now — nearly two million.”
Security Minister Mario Zamora sounded as if he were the only government official gratified by the results. “We’re the first national in the region not to number insecurity as the highest concern.” he told the paper.
It is true that citizen insecurity is, in most Central American nations, a number one concern as it has been in the past in Costa Rica. Zamora feels that the man on the street is now feeling a drop in lawlessness.
“From Mexico to Colombia,” he added, “security is the principal problem in public law and order.The fact that it’s now the third most important concern is apositive indicator for the country, especially since Central America is the most violent zone in the world according to the United Nations.”
Government figures show homicides have dropped 17%. They are, said Zamora, the crime that causes people a sense of fear and alarm.
Surprisingly, Jorge Vargas, head of the State of the Nation program and one of the most exacting critics of government, agrees. These lowering crime figures in the last three years have been, Vargas says, “a government accomplishment.”
Vargas noted that pessimism has been on the rise since 2001 and that employment is an issue that all politicial parties will have to face in the 2014 election campaign.
Certainly this appears true with this survey. The sense that the country was on the right course dropped 5% from an October, 2012, poll and can hardly go lower — it’s now 2.5%. That’s a great distance, notes La Nacion, from the 14% that felt the country was on the right track in March, 2011.
The Chinchilla Administration can take little solace from the poll of 1,200 persons taken from Jan 24 to Feb. 4. It shows 69% definitely feel the government is on the wrong track, up even from March 2011’s 51%.
Commentary: This final figure is telling. It shows the cumulative effects of a constant chain of scandals topped by the northern border road fiasco, frequent cabinet changes and a fragmented, fracticious congress.
La Nacion pointed out that, despite an unrelenting public relations campaign to underscore achievements, the bad news has obviously outweighed the good. Of course, it has not helped that the opposition has rubbed the President’s nose in every misstep — but that is their role.
From iNews.co.cr