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A.M. Costa Rica
Your daily English-language news source Monday through Friday |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page | |||||||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Jan. 11, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 8 | |||||||||
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Republicans can only blame
themselves for voting outcome Dear A.M. Costa Rica: Mr. Plumley had better get his head out of the Jacó sand, wake up, and smell the coffee. Yes, Romney was a weak candidate -- that’s why he lost the election! However, it was not because the conservatives stayed home, as Plumley asserts, but because those with any real acumen crossed the proverbial aisle and voted for Obama. Mr. Barbour was correct in his analysis: The party of the angry old, heavily armed, southern white guys is on its way down, and it will continue to bleed relevance as the electoral demographic shifts in the U.S. How can a president lead the people if he is clueless about the demographics and requisites of his constituency? It was the Republicans themselves who bombed their own sinking ship, with totally out of touch remarks about the 47 percent, ending funding for planned parenthood, and other careless utterances designed to stir up emotion. They succeeded, but their short-sightedness and flippant attitudes produced the antithesis of their desired outcome. Republicans were, and continue to be, out of touch with the problems facing the citizenry. They are more concerned with fattening their own wallets and remaining exempt from paying their fair share of the tax burden. Plumley has it wrong: the American electorate was not dumbed-down this year, as it was when it elected and then re-elected Obama’s ineffectual predecessor, whose egocentric policies and economic ineptitude, together with that of his supporters, got us into this mess in the first place. The Democrats did not humiliate the Republicans this election. The Republicans managed that feat all on their own! Darlene
Mokrycki
Turrucares
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Jan. 11, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 8 | |
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| Raids reveal that there is another
highway corruption case |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Investigative raids revealed the existence of another highway scandal Thursday. The case is not supposed to be related with the long-running investigation of Ruta 1856, the new roadway along the south side of the Río San Juan in northern Costa Rica. Agents, directed by the anti-corruption prosecutor, Juan Carlos Cubillo, make four visits Thursday. One was at a home in San Isidro de Heredia. One was at a business in San Joaquín de Flores. Another was at a lawyer's office in San Pedro de Montes de Oca. The fourth was at the officers of the Consejo Nacional de Vilida, the road agency. |
The Poder Judicial said that the
subject of the investigation is an engineer with the last name of
Núñez. He worked with the Consejo and had the
responsibility of verifying the completion of contracts related to
maintenance of the nation's road network, said the Poder Judicial. At the Consejo agents gathered documents from several departments. The allegation that generated the probe is that Núñez used his former job to benefit a company related to his family and for another engineer named González, said the Poder Judicial. The company involved was incorrectly listed in a registry of firms eligible to obtain road maintenance contracts, according to the allegation, the Poder Judicial said. |
| Trio detained in the north were
transporting fake new bills |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
For a Salvadoran man who frequents the northern part of the country, December is usually the month he is arrested. He was detained for fraud in December 2011 and again in 2012, said the Fuerza Pública. This time he managed to stay free until January. He was detained Thursday as one of several persons involved in the transportation of fake banknotes. Police did not say why the man still is at liberty, although they did say he was well known to them. The 49-year-old man has the last names of Martínez Argueta, and he was detained by the Policia de Fronteras, said police. Two residents of Limón also were detained. The banknotes that were found hidden in the vehicle are copies of the new issues. There were 5,000-, 10,000- and 20,000-colon notes. The total was 700,000, about $1,400. Officers suggested that despite the security devices imbedded in new banknotes, they had trouble determining if the money was authentic. They said they had to contact prosecutors. |
 Ministerio
de Gobernación. Policía y Seguridad Pública photo
These
are some of the confiscated banknotes.
Officers said that residents of
the area around Los Chiles tipped them off to the presence of the
Salvadoran.
The arrest raises the possibility that excellent copies of the new banknotes are making the rounds. Usually fake notes range from crude efforts made with copy machines to nearly perfect banknotes imported from abroad, usually Colombia. Although many copying machines and inkjet printers are designed to reject making copies of U.S. currency, Costa Rican money is not protected that way. |
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The creative
process is impeded by a stabbing lower back pain
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| Yesterday,
out of the blue I was hit with a stabbing lower back pain. It
doubled me over, and by late afternoon I was lying in bed wondering
what could have happened. I called two of my favorite people, one
a wise woman and the other a very smart cardiologist. It seemed I
had a choice between a torn artery or a kidney stone. I opted for
the kidney stone because there is a possibility that I can handle it
myself (me and my smart cells). I try to avoid hospitals because
I think they are dangerous places, and even doctors, who can lead you
into dangerous places. But what to write about? I was going to write about the local casinos, but I was in too much pain to revisit them. It is said that the best places for inspiration or creative thinking are the bed, the bath and the bus. I spent a lot of time in bed yesterday with no particularly creative thoughts coming, and there is no way I can climb aboard a bus, although I have had some fine ideas looking out the window or at other passengers. And unfortunately, I haven’t had a bathtub in 20 years. (Just as well, because at this moment I am in greater danger of drowning myself than coming up with anything inspirational.) My dear friend Ellen has always loved to take long baths, and she has written three novels and countless articles and is now doing research and writing about global health, specifically right now, non-communicable illnesses. We have been having an ongoing disagreement over the past months. I said that the life expectancy of Americans is going to be shorter for our children than for us and that we will not live as long as our parents. Actually, I predicted that anyone born after 1930 was not going to live as long as those born before that date. And as some readers will recall I have harped on the fact that we are not as healthy as we once were. Now I see that the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine have published the results of a long-term study that confirms my own dismal predictions. I was off by five years on my prediction of longevity, and I did not take into account the fact that accidents and violent deaths would figure so strongly, even though I have questioned whether the supposition that early humans lived “short brutish lives” took into account accidents and infant mortality. We have assumed they were not as healthy as today’s people. |
Some people confuse life span with life expectancy. Life span is the greatest number of years a human can expect to live. (Somewhat less than what the Bible claims.) Life expectancy is based on the statistical prediction of the average length of time people in a designated group are expected to live. I have often mentioned that I belong to the small is beautiful crowd. When it comes to countries, small countries are easier to govern and regulate than large countries. One law passed by the Legislature applies to the entire population, even in different cantons or regions. Therefore, Costa Rica has been able to make laws affecting the health of their people throughout the country. I am grateful to them for the no smoking in any building law (including casinos) that went into effect last year. I also approve of their recent law that requires every resident (although not citizens) to belong to the national health insurance system known as the Caja. You can’t have a decent health care system without enough money to cover the cost. Of course, it is another matter to get people to obey the laws. Someone recently said that the national pastime in Greece was avoiding paying taxes. I think that in Costa Rica it is second only to fútbol. The editors and longevity researchers who write about the Blue Zones in the world (i.e. places where the people are the healthiest and live the longest), found the Nicoya Peninsula in little Costa Rica and only one, the community of Loma Linda, California, in the United States. Most of the other Blue Zones were in other small countries or islands. If my kidney is harboring a stone, I hope it remembers that small is beautiful. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Jan. 11, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 8 | |||||
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The avenue of the dead in Teotihuacan, México, passes in front of the many famous pyramids. The city was abandoned long before the Spanish arrived, and archaeologists still have many questions about the culture that built the city, which is not far from the Federal District. |
 Hector
García photo via Servicio de Información y Noticias
Cientificas
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Teotihuacan
nobles got a post mortem beauty treatment
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By
the Servicio de Información y Noticias Cientificas
In collaboration with the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, a team of Spanish researchers has analyzed for the first time remains of cosmetics in the graves of pre-Columbian civilizations on the American continent. In the case of the Teotihuacans, these cosmetics were used as part of the after-death ritual to honor their city’s most important people. A research team from the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the University of Valencia has studied various funerary samples found in urns in the Teotihuacan archaeological site that date from between 200 and 500 AD. The scientists have been researching wall paintings in Mexico and Guatemala since 2006. Published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, this project came about after contact on various occasions with other researchers in the area, namely at the national university, who wanted to know the composition and function of the cosmetics found in pots. “The conclusion that we have reached, given the structure of the pigments found, is that they are remains of cosmetics that were used in rituals following burial. At that time it was common to periodically practice a kind of remembrance worship of the deceased high nobility,” said María Teresa Domenech Carbo, director of the University Institute of Heritage Restoration of the Polytechnic University of Valencia and lead author of the study. In these rituals the high priest of the city would conduct a ceremony in the dwelling of the most noble of citizens. The reason for this is that unlike today where graves are located in central places, in those days the deceased were buried underneath the floor of their homes. “The priest would go to the home and would pay homage to the deceased with the family present. Cosmetics were used by the priest carrying out the ceremony and formed a part of the ritual. The remains of carbonaceous particles lead to the belief that aromatic material were burnt, with the priest painting parts of the body with those pigments. In addition, it is probable that the body was removed and redecorated too", explains Ms. Domenech. |
Furthermore, the researchers outline
that although one could think that these materials in the urns belonged
to the deceased in life and were put in the grave to accompany their
owner into the new life, as in the case of the Egyptians, the fact that
the make-up did not contain any organic vehicle that allows make-up to
stick to the face or body leads to the belief that they had more of a
symbolic nature. “It is not very frequent to find cosmetic products in archaeological excavations in America. These are the first on this continent to be analyzed in a serious and systematic way,” ensures the researcher. In Europe and Africa, mainly in countries such as Italy and Egypt, the analysis of cosmetic products is more common. Teotihuacan is one of the most important and most visited archaeological sites in Mexico thanks to its close location to Mexico City and its spectacular great pyramids. The culture has a close association with the Mayans to the south. As well as providing more knowledge on the funerary rituals of this millennium-old culture, the cosmetic remains found help researchers to identify the social relevance of the buried individuals and they prove the existence of fluid commerce between the different areas of Mexico. The scientists found material coming from the surroundings of Teotihuacan, such as pulverized volcanic rock pigments and other clay-like types typical of the area’s geology. Nonetheless, some remains, such as those mica and other rock particles, are not native to the surroundings and were probably imported from different parts of Mexico. This, in turn, confirms the existence of trade. “No surprise since this city dominated the entire Mesoamerican region and it has been shown that fluid trade existed in certain southern areas,” said the researcher. In addition, the appearance of these remains with the body of the deceased indicates their social status. “Unless the person was very important to this civilization they were not buried with cosmetic products. The deceased would have had to hold an important position in society, such as that of a king, a prince or a high noble,” said the expert. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A. 2013 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details | ||||||
| A.M. Costa
Rica's Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Jan. 11, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 8 | |||||||||
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| A.M. Panama |
A.M. Colombia |
A.M. Guatemala |
A.M. Honduras |
A.M. Havana |
A.M. Nicaragua |
| A.M. Venezuela |
A.M. Central America |
A.M. Dominican Republic |
A.M. Ecuador | A.M. San Salvador |
A.M. Bolivia |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A. 2013 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details | ||||||
| A.M. Costa
Rica's sixth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Jan. 11, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 8 | |||||||||
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Latin America news |
Third escapee
captured
at home in Barranca By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Judicial agents and Fuerza Pública officers Thursday afternoon detained the third of four prisoners who broke out of the El Roble de Puntarenas prison Wednesday night. He is Rafael Salomón Cascante Díaz, 24, who was serving a sentence of 14 years and six months for crimes including aggravated robbery, said the Fuerza Pública. Four men managed to escape Wednesday about 8 p.m. They stabbed a guard at the main gate to do so. Two were quickly captured by prison guards and the Fuerza Pública. Cascante was found holed up at a home in Barranca de Puntarenas. Agents and police still are seeking Randy Quirós Quirós, 20, who is the fourth escapee. He also is a robber and was serving three years and six months, officials said. State petroleum firm's union threatens strike over pay By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The union of workers at the nation's petroleum monopoly are threatening a strike if a Sala IV strips them of extra pay. The Sindicato de Trabajadores Petroleros Químicos y Afines issued the statement Thursday. That was a day after the Contraloria General de la República said it had filed a constitutional court action against two aspects of the pay the monopoly gives its workers. One item the union seeks to defend is a 24-year limit to what employees are paid when they leave the company, perhaps to retire. That means the workers get two years pay, one month for each year of service. Most government workers get far less than that. The Refinadora Costarricense de Petróleo S.A. is the government agency that imports petroleum and gasoline. Since it can pass on its expenses to the motoring public, it has no reason to be frugal. The employees also benefit from a series of extra pays that can be hundreds of dollars a year. The statement by Gilbert Brown, the general secretary of the union, said that employees were prepared to go into the streets to defend their salaries. It also said that the government should not seek to solve the fiscal crisis on the backs of the workers. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica Seventh Newspage |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Jan. 11, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 8 | |
 Voice of America photo
Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham
Lincoln'Lincoln' captures 12 Oscar nominations By the A.M.
Costa Rica wire services
The Steven Spielberg epic drama "Lincoln" leads the nominees for the Academy Awards, Hollywood's top honors, which are also known as the Oscars. Nominees were announced in Los Angeles and the story of the Civil War U.S. president garnered 12 nominations, including for best picture. "Lincoln" earned Spielberg a nomination for best director, and Daniel Day-Lewis, who plays the 16th American president, another for best actor. Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones earned nominations for their supporting roles, and playwright Tony Kushner for his adapted screenplay. President Abraham Lincoln was determined to enact the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which when ratified by the states, would end slavery in the
Other top Oscar contenders include "Les Miserables," a film based on the popular stage musical of the same name; "Argo," a film about the effort to rescue U.S. diplomats caught in Tehran during the 1979 Iranian revolution; and "Zero Dark Thirty," about the hunt for terrorist Osama bin Laden. "Silver Linings Playbook," about a Philadelphia family and a son's efforts to cope with bipolar disorder, earned Oscar nominations for Bradley Cooper as best actor, Jennifer Lawrence as best actress, and Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver for their supporting roles. This year's nominees for best actress include the oldest-ever nominated in the category, 85-year-old Emmanuelle Riva for the French-language film "Amour." It also includes the youngest, 0-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis, who stars in the fantasy drama "Beasts of the Southern Wild." The actor, producer and singer who will host this year's award show, Seth MacFarlane, helped announce the nominees at an early morning news event. Nine films will compete for best picture this year, including "Django Unchained," the Quentin Tarantino tale of slavery and retribution in the American South before the Civil War. Best foreign-language film nominees include "Amour" from Austria, which will also compete for best picture; and "Kon-Tiki" from Norway, 'No" from Chile, "A Royal Affair" from Denmark and "War Witch" from Canada. The Oscars will be presented Feb. 24 in a ceremony broadcast around the world from Hollywood. Report says Domestic worker plight is grim By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A new study finds more than 52 million people around the world, mainly women, are employed as domestic workers and most lack legal protections. The report is the first research of its kind conducted by the International Labor Organization, and is a follow-up to the adoption of the organization's Domestic Workers Convention in June 2011. The International Labor Organization reports most domestic workers experience poor working conditions and do not have adequate legal safeguards. Deputy-Director General Sandra Polaski said domestic workers are particularly vulnerable to discrimination and other violations of their human rights at work. "Live-in domestic workers in particular are often exposed to physical, mental or sexual abuse and harassment and to restrictions on their freedom of movement. Migrant domestic workers face additional vulnerabilities to exploitation and abuse," she said. The report focuses on three aspects of working conditions for domestic workers. They include working time, minimum wage coverage and in-kind payments, and maternity protection. Legislation in most countries falls short of the necessary protections. The report finds that only 10 percent of all domestic workers are covered by general labor legislation to the same extent as other workers. More than one quarter are completely excluded from national labor legislation. It says more than half of all domestic workers have no legal limitation on their working hours and about 45 percent have no right to weekly rest periods or paid annual leave. It notes that slightly more than half of all domestic workers are entitled to a minimum wage and more than a third of women domestic workers have no maternity protection. Official statistics show Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean are the regions with the greatest number of domestic workers. The report says 7.5 percent of women globally perform domestic work. In the Middle East, it notes that one in three female wage earners is a domestic worker. The International Labor Organization said it considers the estimates in the report conservative. It says official national statistics don't capture the full picture. Organization working condition specialist Martin Oetz said this is particularly the case for Africa where statistics show about 5.2 million domestic workers are employed throughout the region. He said the actual number is believed to be much higher. "This is often to do with the fact that domestic work and the services performed by domestic workers are not really perceived as work in an employment relationship, but other forms of arrangements," said Oetz. "This is why official data can be expected to underestimate or undercount domestic workers in Africa. But Africa is also a region where domestic work is widespread and very common." Of all the regions globally, the study notes Asia and the Middle East have the weakest protections for domestic workers. International Labor Organization officials say there is room, though, for optimism. They say the momentum created by the new Domestic Workers Convention already has started to translate into concrete action and results in many countries. They contend that reforms on domestic work have been achieved or are pending adoption in 13 countries. They include Austria, Bahrain, Brazil, Chile, India, Indonesia, Namibia, Paraguay, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Vietnam and Zambia. Supporters celebrate without Chávez By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez celebrated outside the presidential palace in Caracas, in a show of solidarity for the leader who remains too ill to attend his swearing-in. Chávez's inauguration for a new term was planned for Thursday, but the leader remains in Cuba, where he is recovering from cancer surgery. A massive street celebration replaced what would have been the swearing-in ceremony. Several Latin American presidents, including Jose Mujica of Uruguay, Bolivia's Evo Morales and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, were attending the celebration. |
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