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José, Costa Rica, Monday, Feb. 16, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 32
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 Casa
Presidencial
photo
Hundreds
took to the streets Sunday morning in a march against violence to children. The march is expected to lend support for measures in the legislature to increase penalties for injuries to children. Chinchilla defamation case back to court By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Of all the bad things said, true or false, about politicians, Alberto Rodríguez Baldí clearly is not unusual. But he is a man who must stand trial again because former president Laura Chinchilla said he has defamed her with a Facebook posting. The case also shows up the convoluted nature of Costa Rican law. Rodríguez was acquitted last year by a trial court in a decision that seemed to give citizens plenty of slack in talking about elected officials. Rodríguez claimed that Ms. Chinchilla has land holdings in Guanacaste and has an interest in a power generating operation. Both appear to be false statements. An appeals court just threw out the acquittal and ordered a new trial. Ms. Chinchilla is seeking 100 million colons, some $190,000. And the loser probably will face ample lawyer fees. Ms. Chinchilla had a rough four years as president, and perhaps this is why she is among the few heads of state that would seek to carry a defamation case forward. That she chooses to do so certainly chills public comments. Unlike newspapers, voters are not required to be letter perfect in their presentation of the facts. Neither are politicians, who certainly have a better platform than Facebook to respond to criticism. The new defamation trial's verdict could have a significant impact on free speech here. Climate draft balloons during discussion By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Negotiators drafting a climate change agreement have doubled the size of the text they began with. Some of the nearly 200 delegates who attended the week-long session are concerned that the expanded text may complicate efforts to combat global warming. The delegates began this round of talks with the aim of streamlining the 39-page text. Instead, the draft of this climate change agreement has ballooned to 86 pages. Ilze Pruse, the head of the Latvian delegation to the European Union who actively pushed for a pruned-down version of the text, put a brave face on the results. "We are happy that it is owned by and reflects the views of parties," she said. "It will be a guide for our negotiations in the coming months and in this respect, I think we can consider Geneva as an important step forward. … "We have to move forward in a practical and collaborative way involving all parties as well as a broad range of other stakeholders. We are all working for the same end, an international, legally binding global climate agreement applicable to all parties that keeps us on track to our below-2-degrees target and helps us to avoid dangerous climate change.” For this to be achieved, scientists say nations must cut greenhouse gas emissions to less than 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial warming. But time is running out. In just 10 months, world leaders will gather in Paris to sign a climate change agreement. The road ahead is bound to prove rocky. An end-of-March deadline has been set for governments to declare their targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The next round of negotiations is scheduled for June in Bonn. Elina Bardram, head of the European Commission delegation, put a diplomatic spin on the week’s events, saying the negotiators had laid down some good ground for further work this year. Despite this, she was barely able to contain her disappointment. She said the proceedings gave delegates little opportunity to talk about the many changes needed to tackle global warming. She said time was wasted and opportunities lost for making progress. “Between now and June, we do hope that there will be a very clear view between and among the parties about the working method, about how we are going to speed up things and how we are going to be able to also identify what actually belongs into the core agreement. … So we need to really start working on the substance of the agreement,” Ms. Bardram said. The substance of the agreement essentially focuses on the lifestyle changes that will have to be made to make life on Earth sustainable. Scientists warn that continued global warming will uproot millions of people from low-lying islands as sea levels rise. They predict serious consequences will accrue as a result of more frequent, extreme weather events, including food and water shortages, health problems and growing conflicts as people fight over dwindling resources. Ruta 32 job designated the top priority By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The executive branch has designated the widening of Ruta 32 from Limón to Río Frio as its top priority. That means that lawmakers will have to consider the measure. There is a deadline of Feb. 28 that has been imposed by the People's Republic of China, which is providing the financing. A Chinese firm has been tapped to do the job. The idea has been in the works for more than a year. A lawmaker from the same political party as President Luis Guillermo Solís was a major obstacle for the project during the presidency of Laura Chinchilla. He pointed out a number of contradictions in the proposed agreement, including that any problems would be adjudicated under Chinese law. He also pointed out that the proposed contract has had ethical problems elsewhere. The Solís administration has worked to address these issues. However, there still is the fact that no design work has been done, and the Chinese firm would agree to a deal without knowing exactly what has to be done. The proposal in the legislature is for $485 million, about $50 million more than the earlier proposal. However, some of the money for obtaining right-of-way will be put up by Costa Rica. The highway is to be widened to four lanes with overpasses at key intersections. The length is about 100 kilometers or about 62 miles. The highway is a key element in the expansion of the Limón ports. The government is even opening a second crossing at the Nicaragua border in anticipation of heavy truck traffic from Limón to the country to the north.
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Feb. 16, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 32 | |
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| Wednesday begins the countdown to Semana Santa and Easter |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Wednesday begins the period of Lent, and in Costa Rica that means a 46-day run-up to Easter Sunday. Here most of the activity comes before Easter. March 27 is a Friday, and the likely start of Semana Santa for those lucky enough to have the entire week off. Thursday, April 2, and Friday, April 3, are legal holidays as well as holy days, but plenty of Costa Ricans ignore the religious implications and spend the week at the beach or in the mountains. Tourism operators will not be taking a vacation. Semana Santa is one of the big tourism periods of the year, and the various religious spectacles and processions attract foreigners. Wednesday is the day that the faithful are anointed by ash at |
a
church
service. The weekend and days leading up to Ash Wednesday are celebrated in many countries as a time for carnival. Brazil and New Orleans are well-known for these street parties. This is not the tradition in Costa Rica. This is, however, a time for tourism operators to check their marketing and begin making preparations for Semana Santa. For expats it is a time to consider how they will celebrate the period and to make reservations early if required. For everyone this is a time to check the food storage and begin making purchases for the holiday. Merchants usually jack up the prices on traditional foods in the three weeks or so in advance of Easter. Costa Ricans usually eat a lot of sardines, imported cod and jellies made from that industrial-strength squash the chiverre. There also is a special pastry called Rosca de Pascua. |
| So many drivers fail to reclaim their cars that there's a
giveaway |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The traffic police practice of confiscating vehicles for certain reasons creates a storage problem. To solve the problem, the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes has begun donating the junk vehicles to charities, which then receive cash for the metal. Last week some 2,300 vehicles met this fate. They may not have been junk when police confiscated them, but the donated vehicles all have been in impound lots since at least 2010. Drivers never try to reclaim the vehicles for a number of reasons. There may be a stack of traffic violations and fines that the owner cannot pay. Or there may be irregularities in the title that cannot be solved. For whatever reason, the owners have walked away. The ministry workers then have the job of clearing the titles so the vehicles can be junked. The ministry maintains impound lots all over the country. The donations were to the Asociación Divino Niño Alajuelense con Esperanza y Superación Social, the Fundación Ministerio de Fuerzas Especiales in San Sebastián, Asociación Casa Diurna del Adulto Mayor Esperanza in Zurquí, San Miguel and Santo Domingo de Heredia and the Fundación Hospicio de Huérfanos de San José. |
 Ministerio de Obras Públicas y
Transportes photo
Eventually this junk car and
others will be off to the melting pot. |
| Weather prediction calls for a slow reduction in high winds |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The weather forecasters are promising a slow falling off of the windy conditions today and through the rest of the week. The forecast follows a day that saw gusts in the Central valley and on the Pacific coast of up to 100 kph, or a bit more than 60 mph. The wind knocked down several utility poles and even a cell tower. Commercial signs were smashed all over the country. |
Sunday
morning appears to be the most windy period this year. The forecast for today from the Instituto Meteorológico Nacional calls for gusts at times up to 80 kph (nearly 50 mph) with light rain on the Caribbean, the northern zone and the northern section of the Central Valley. Winds are normal at this time of year as high pressure in the north drives the weather system. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Feb. 16, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 32 | |||||
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| Aggressive AIDS adds more danger to those Cuban sex tourism
trips |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica news staff
and wire services Expats here who are sex tourists to Cuba have an additional worry. An aggressive form of the human immunodeficiency virus has been discovered in Cuba. It develops into full-blown acquired immunodeficiency syndrome within just three years. Researchers said the progression happens so fast that treatment with antiretroviral drugs may come too late. Cuba has become the sex tourism location of choice for some foreign residents here due to the relatively low cost of travel there. There also are suggestions that a few islands in the Communist country are not closely watched by the puritans in Havana. Anne-Mieke Vandamme said Cuban health officials first alerted her about the aggressive form of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. They asked for help in finding out what was happening. “We have a collaborative project with Cuba and the Cuban clinicians had noticed that they recently had more and more patients who were progressing much faster to AIDS than they were used to. In this case, most of these patients had AIDS even at diagnosis already,” she said. Professor Vandamme is a full medical professor at the University of Leuvan in Belgium. She and her team studied more than 70 patients and divided them into various groups. One group was made up of those who developed acquired immunodeficiency syndrome quickly. “So this group of patients that progressed very fast, they were all recently infected. And we know that because they had |
been HIV
negative tested one or a maximum two years before,” she said. She said that on average, without treatment, human immunodeficiency virus infection takes 5 to 10 years to become full-blown AIDS. That’s determined by the scarcity of CD-4 immune cells and the number of opportunistic infections a patient has. Usually, she said, a fast progression of HIV to AIDS is more a result of the patient’s weak immune system rather than the particular subtype of HIV involved. What’s happening in Cuba is different. “Here we had a variant of HIV that we found only in the group that was progressing fast. Not in the other two groups. We focused in on this variant, tried to find out what was different. And we saw it was a recombinant of three different subtypes,” she said. Professor Vandamme said, “Another thing was that they had much more virus in their blood than the other patients. So, what we call the viral load was higher in these patients. “ The good news is that the aggressive form of human immunodeficiency virus responds to most antiretroviral drugs. The bad news is people may not realize they have full-blown acquired immunodeficiency syndrome until it’s too late for therapy to do any good. Professor Vandamme said the variant has been seen before in Africa, but there were very few such patients and it does not appear to be spreading there. However, it is in wide circulation now in Cuba and now can be easily studied. So, there may be an African link, but further study is needed. She said it’s vital for people having unprotected sex with multiple partners to be tested early and often. |
Here's reasonable medical care
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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2015 and may
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Danish shootings called a cynical act of terror By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Danish police shot and killed a suspect early Sunday in the slayings of two people in Copenhagen since Saturday, in what the country's prime minister calls a cynical act of terror against Denmark. Authorities said the Denmark-born 22-year-old alleged gunman was fatally shot after he opened fire on officers near a train station. His previous criminal record included violence and weapons offenses, according to police. Officials said no evidence suggests other gunmen were involved in the shootings, one at a free-speech event and the other outside a Copenhagen synagogue. Police investigator Joegen Skov said Sunday, "We are still faced with a huge investigation. We need to make sure that our theory is, in fact, correct. "A number of things indicate that we did get the right man, but we still have to investigate whether he acted alone, but at the moment there is nothing to suggest that any other perpetrators were involved," Skov said. In the first attack, a gunman with an automatic weapon killed one person and wounded three police officers at a cafe. Danish media identified the deceased as film director Finn Norgaard, 55. The free-speech event was also attended by Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who is known for provocative drawings, including a 2007 cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad that led to threats against the 68 year old. The French ambassador to Denmark, Francois Zimeray, also attended the discussion. Both were unharmed in the shooting. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the deadly attacks. The United States condemned the attack at the cafe, calling it deplorable. We remain in communication with Danish authorities and have offered to be of assistance in any way needed," State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement. Hours later, volunteer Dan Uzan was guarding a bat mitzvah ceremony when he was killed and two police officers wounded in the synagogue shooting. Standing in front of the temple, Denmark's Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt offered condolences on Sunday. "Our thoughts go to the whole of the Jewish community today. They belong in Denmark, they are strong part of our community. And we will do everything we can to protect the Jewish community in our country," Thorning-Schmidt said. In light of the violence, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Jewish people in Europe to immigrate to Israel, as he did following a deadly attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris last month. Zimeray was expected to talk about the impact of last month's attacks in France on the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and the kosher grocery. Those earlier attacks by Muslim extremists left 20 people dead, including the attackers. The French magazine was known for mocking religion and had published several cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Speaking from the Danish capital on Sunday, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve observed the similar reactions in both countries. "I saw this morning the same sadness I saw in the terrified gaze of Parisians in the month of January. The same sadness, the same fright, the same dignity, the same contemplation and the same sorrow," Cazeneuve said at a news conference. Threats and attacks against cartoonists whose work has angered Muslims began with the publication of 12 editorial cartoons in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September 2005. The paper said the cartoons, most of which depicted the Prophet Muhammad, were part of an attempt to contribute to the debate about criticism of Islam and self-censorship. The cartoons eventually led to protests around the world, including violent demonstrations and riots in some Muslim countries. Between October 2005 and early January 2006, examples of the cartoons were reprinted in major European newspapers from the Netherlands, Germany, Scandinavia, Romania, and Switzerland. After major international protests, they were re-published around the globe, but primarily in continental Europe. Numerous violent plots related to the cartoons have been discovered in the years since. Artists other than cartoonists have also been the targets of Muslims for their work. British-Indian author Salman Rushdie's novel "Satanic Verses" led to death threats made against him, including a fatwa calling for his assassination issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran, in 1989. Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh was killed in November 2004 by a Dutch-Moroccan Muslim angered by Van Gogh's short film "Submission," which criticized the treatment of women in Islam. In neighboring Germany Sunday, a carnival parade was canceled on short notice in the town of Braunschweig due to what authorities called a concrete threat of an Islamist attack. Police did not reveal the nature of the threat. European Union countries want to boost security and intelligence sharing amid mounting fears of radical Islam and more attacks to come. But Anne Giudicelli, founder of Paris analysis group Terr(o)risc, said these measures only address part of the problem. "The debate is: How we can produce such people who are our children? And how it comes that they want to kill people who are their own citizens?" she asked. Obama to host summit without mentioning Islam By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
President Barack Obama on Wednesday will host a summit bringing together police, religious leaders and others to confront extremism in American neighborhoods. The White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism will look at domestic and international efforts to go after the root causes of extremism and find ways to stop young people in America and elsewhere from joining terrorist groups like the Islamic State. The January terrorist attacks in Paris raised concerns enough for Obama to schedule the long-postponed summit. In recent statements condemning extremism, he has been careful not to name Islam, but rather religious intolerance in general, as a culprit. “One of the best antidotes to the hateful ideologies that try to recruit and radicalize people to violent extremism is our own example as diverse and tolerant societies that welcome the contributions of all people, including people of all faiths,” he said. It is sometimes in America’s tough, gang-infested neighborhoods that this vision seems endangered. A YouTube video put out by the FBI showing an Islamic State fighter speaking in North American English has heightened U.S. officials' concerns that marginalized young Americans may be vulnerable to recruitment. Anti-gang and outreach efforts by forces like the Los Angeles Police Department are serving as a model for ways to stop radicalization among American youths, and police from Los Angeles and other urban areas will be part of the discussion. “There are communities in this country where law enforcement officials have worked successfully with community leaders, many in the Muslim community, to counteract those efforts to radicalize vulnerable young people, in most cases," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. "And so this would be an opportunity, a forum where the president could discuss those efforts with community leaders and law enforcement officials from across the country so they can share those kinds of best practices with leaders in other communities.” But critics say the topic is so general and the issues so complex that it will be difficult to come up with effective programs to address the causes of extremism. Security analyst Philip Lohaus of the American Enterprise Institute said a discussion on Islamic extremism would eventually be necessary. “It’s important to keep a very particular focus here," he said. "I would agree they need to make sure they’re focusing specifically on mechanisms and reasons why people would be involved in Islamic extremism, for example, rather than extremism at large, but I do think it’s a good first step, and perhaps there can be some follow-on conversations that are more targeted toward Islamic extremism specifically.” Fire at Islamic center might be an act of arson By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Investigators in the southern U.S. state of Texas are looking at whether a fire that destroyed part of an Islamic center was intentionally set. The blaze began early Friday at the Quba Islamic Institute in Houston, which includes a mosque and school. No one was injured. According to a statement by the center's staff on Facebook, "The investigators have made clear that the fire was not accidental." "Let us be clear: the investigation is ongoing," the institute added. "Please do not spread hate; spread love, tolerance, and harmony, just as Prophet Muhammad did." The space where the fire began was being used to store computer equipment and other material for a renovation project, the center said. The Texas investigation comes amid increased scrutiny on attacks on Muslim communities. Police in the state of North Carolina are looking into whether the fatal shootings of three young Muslims near a university campus last week were religiously motivated. Authorities in Chapel Hill said the killings stemmed from a long-standing parking dispute, however friends and family of the victims have called the attack a hate crime. One man has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the case. Islamic State beheads 21 Coptic Christians By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A video has emerged that purports to show militants of the Islamic State terrorist group beheading 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians kidnapped in Libya. The video, released late Sunday, shows men in orange jumpsuits being led along a beach, each accompanied by a masked militant. The men are made to kneel and one militant addresses the camera in English before the men are simultaneously beheaded. The brutal murders were portrayed as retaliation against what a masked fighter described as the hostile Egyptian church. Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of the Egyptian population and suffer widespread discrimination and persecution. In a televised speech following the killings, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi announced that he was banning all Egyptians from entering Libya and that Egypt reserved the right to respond to the murders, which he called an abhorrent act of terrorism, in a suitable way and at the right time. Before his address to the nation, Sissi called an emergency meeting with the national defense council, the country’s top security body, to discuss a possible response. News of the killings first broke on social media on Feb. 12, but the Egyptian government did not comment. The release of the video brought swift responses by religious institutions in Egypt. The Coptic Church in a statement called on its followers to have "confidence that their great nation won't rest without retribution for the evil criminals.'' Al Azhar, the prestigious Cairo-based seat of Islamic learning, said no religion would accept such barbaric acts. The video follows others last month from the extremist group that showed the immolation death of a Jordanian pilot shot down over Syria and videos showing the execution of two Japanese hostages. Since 2014, a number of persons from countries around the world have been beheaded by the Islamic State. Some of the beheadings have apparently been conducted by an individual who appears in several videos speaking English with a British accent. He is known by the pseudonym Jihadi John. The group has beheaded three Americans -- journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and aid worker Peter Kassig. They have also killed Britons David Haines, a former Royal Air Force engineer; Alan Henning, a taxi driver from northwest England; and British photojournalist John Cantlie. Earlier this month the Islamic State group announced the death of American aid worker Kayla Mueller, but blamed her demise on airstrikes by the Jordanian military. The 26-year-old woman had been held by the Islamists for 18 months. Jordan and the United States have denied she was killed in a coalition airstrike. Two senators begin trip to generate Cuban trade By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A day after the U.S. announced it was loosening restrictions on Cuban imports, two U.S. senators began a four-day trade mission to the island. Sens. Claire McCaskill from the Midwestern state of Missouri and Amy Klobuchar from the north central state of Minnesota, both Democrats, went to Cuba Saturday to explore the new opportunities with Cuba. The U.S. announced Friday it was allowing small private Cuban businesses to sell goods and services to the U.S., except for food and agricultural products, alcohol, tobacco products and some textiles. Sen. McCaskill said she was interested in finding out what the farmers in Missouri could sell to Cubans. "I come from a very big agricultural state. We would love to sell the Cuban people more rice. We would love to sell them more chicken. And more beans and more corn. So hopefully this trip will also help my farmers at home," Sen. McCaskill said. Meanwhile, Sen. Klobuchar talked about what other changes the U.S. and Cuba could see with the lifting of restrictions, including the opening of a U.S. embassy in Cuba. "President Obama has been working to bring an embassy here, and that's why we're looking at making changes to that first. I think that's really important. And then the next thing would be looking at travel restrictions. We've made some changes there -- relatives have been able to come in, but I think it's really important to lift that," Sen. Klobuchar said. Not all U.S. lawmakers have been pleased with the prospect of normalizing relations with Cuba. Some Cuban-American lawmakers strongly oppose Barack Obama's shift in policy toward Cuba, while others say it is past time to end the more than five-decades-old U.S. embargo against the island country. Obama announced late last year that he and Cuban President Raúl Castro were working together to normalize relations between the two countries. U.S. aviation regulator publishes drone rule draft By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. aviation agency published a draft of new rules that would regulate the use of small, commercial drones, if approved. The document, nearly 10 years in the making, requires in part that the unmanned aircraft stay away from bystanders, only fly during the day, and fly at a maximum speed of 160 kilometers per hour. Special certification for drone operators would also be necessary under the Federal Aviation Administration's regulations. Public comment and revision are required to finalize the document, a process expected to take at least a year. The draft publication comes as the White House Sunday issued a memorandum to federal agencies detailing safeguards against civil rights and privacy violations in drone use. It includes an order to keep personally identifiable information collected in drone flights no longer than 180 days with some exceptions. Earlier this year, a small drone crashed onto the grounds of the White House, prompting a lockdown of the complex while authorities examined it. A man later came forward to say he was responsible, telling authorities he was flying the drone recreationally and accidentally lost control of the craft. Officials said the man is a Washington resident and is cooperating with law enforcement officials. The Secret Service described the drone as a 61-centimeter quadcopter, a small, unmanned aircraft that is lifted by four propellers. Populist wave in India elevates new party in Delhi By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The Aam Aadmi or Common Man’s Party won by a landslide in local Delhi elections this week after promising to clean up India's politics. Its challenge to mainstream parties with its brand of alternative politics will be tested as it rules the capital city for the next five years. On the streets of Delhi, hawkers, vendors, auto rickshaw drivers and rickshaw pullers are all smiles after Aam Aadmi's astonishing victory. They recall how they had become free when the party briefly ruled Delhi for 49 days last year. They say policemen stopped asking for bribes and they were not harassed by officials when they tried to get licenses or ration cards. Aam Aadmi, which rose out of a street movement to combat corruption two years ago, decimated both India’s national parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress Party, winning a historic 67 out of 70 sets in the Delhi Assembly. The bedrock of its support was the city’s underclass, which makes up nearly two-thirds of the city’s 17 million people. To these residents struggling on less than $225 a month in vast slums or cramped homes, the prospect of not having to hand out petty bribes spells massive relief. Founded by Arvind Kejriwal, a former tax inspector turned activist, the party made its political debut last year in Delhi, but quit after a brief spell because it lacked a majority. He was dismissed as an agitator with no stomach for governance. The party’s efforts to make a national presence flopped. Most thought it had no future. But Kejriwal’s stunning comeback is being seen as a yearning for the promise he holds out, a much stronger focus on the underprivileged and cleaner politics. His party’s many promises include free water, cheaper electricity, more schools, affordable housing and free wifi. Bus-train collision kills at least 16 in México By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A collision between a bus and a train has killed 16 people in northern México. Another 30 people were injured Friday when the train slammed into the bus in the city of Anahuace, Nuevo León state emergency officials say. Witnesses say the bus failed to stop at a railroad crossing, despite a warning light. The death toll for the accident that happened near Mexico's border with Texas is expected to rise, authorities say. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The
contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2015 and may
not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Feb. 16, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 32 | |||||||||
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I really like the cashew nut tree; it’s absolutely lovely. First, it gets its new leaves in a dark red, really pretty against the shiny green of the old leaves. Then it gets an inflorescence of fragrant pink flowers – the scent is powerful and can fill an entire yard with perfume. Then come
I tried to de-husk a nut once – only once – by hitting it with a hammer. I thought I had protected myself adequately, but I ended up with what looked like small burns up my arm. I learned that lesson very quickly: do not try to open the nut without preparation. What preparation? One Web site I visited suggested freezing the nut first. Another said that you should fry the whole nut in oil, and another said that the oven was the best place for the cashew. A long, slow bake to defuse the toxins and then you could crack it open. Well, the ones I froze turned to mush, and I was afraid of the frying method since a friend said she had tried it and ended up with burns. Hmmmm. Sounds like the oven method next. Unfortunately, I have no more nuts to try this with . . . have to wait for a harvest. All that aside, I still think the cashew is a lovely tree. The foliage is shiny, the new foliage is a great contrast, and the apples, although tart, are delightfully crisp and tangy. Plus, the toucans can tolerate the toxic husk and seeds and will visit you to enjoy the cashew that you find too much trouble to harvest. If you have chickens, you might find them feasting on fallen cashew apples. They are quite content with them. As for me, until the next harvest period, I will enjoy my cashew nuts, shelled, roasted, and salted by somebody else – anybody but me.  A.M.
Costa Rica/Victoria Torley
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| From
Page 7: Hijacking plagues exporters and importers By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Hijackings are a continual problem for merchants, farmers and manufacturers. The latest is that of a container of new tires being sent to Panamá. The Judicial Investigating Organization said that three men jumped a driver when he stopped for a break in Jacó. They tied him up and put him in the sleeper compartment. The tires, manufactured in Alajuela, and the container carrying them were removed from the trailer. The judicial report said the tires had a value of $78,000. Prime targets for hijackers are trucks loaded with merchandise coming from the Moín docks. Flat screen televisions have been hijacked several times. Earlier this month, crooks hijacked a load of coffee headed for export. |
