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| A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page | |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Friday, March 7, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 47
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Taxi drivers get tiny raise
based on low exchange rate By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Taxi drivers are getting a 10-colon a kilometer raise, about 2.24 percent, the nation's regulating agency said Thursday. The one exception is the firm that supplies taxi service at Juan Santamaría airport. The agency said that the firm, Taxis Unidos Aeropuerto Internacional Juan Santamaría S.A., still has not made its concession payment for 2006, 2007 and 2008, so the rate will remain as it has been since 2012. Taxi rates are reviewed twice a year, in February and August. The taxi drivers miss out because the quickly strengthened dollar has not been considered. The Autoridad Reguladora de Servicios Públicos used an exchange rate of 519.63 colons to the dollar for the computation of the new 615-colon-a-kilometer fee. In fact the exchange rate Thursday was 564 colons to the dollar. Former Quepos resident sentenced in child case By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A former elder in the Jehovah's Witnesses denomination has been sentenced for committing a lewd act upon a child. The man, Michael Norris, lived in Quepos from 2006 until he recently flew back to California to face a warrant for his arrest in Santa Barbara. According to the criminal division of the Santa Barbara Superior Court, Norris was sentenced to three years in Wasco State Prison in California last week. Through a plea agreement in which he must register as a sex offender, the 69-year-old man was charged by the district attorney with just one count. The criminal trial received a great deal of attention from concerned advocacy groups. Advocates for Awareness of Watchtower Abuses deals specifically with giving basic rights and monitoring common transgressions among members of the Jehovah's Witnesses community. President Lee Marsh said that the legally incorporated organization will be keeping close tabs on Norris, even if he possibly returns to Costa Rica upon his release. “We will not forget about him, and as soon as Norris is out we will do what we can to limit his preaching activities where ever he chooses to reside,” Ms. Marsh said via email correspondence. “What we know is that the Jehovah's Witness elders are under orders not to disclose to anyone that a person in the congregation is a convicted and registered sex offender.” Messages left for Ben Ladinig, the deputy district attorney that was involved with the case, were not returned by Thursday night. A representative from Santa Barbara court's criminal division said Norris must serve the full term of three years. Gas supplier ordered to quit business for taking cylinders By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The nation's regulatory agency has revoked the concession of Solgas LPG de Costa Rica S. A. on the allegation that it took and used gas cylinders of other companies. The revocation is effective as of May 27, but the company may go to court. The Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos said it acted on complaints from other providers of liquid petroleum gas. The order also says that the firm has to return all cylinders that belong to other companies. Gas companies are in the news because the Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía is establishing new rules that will allow bar code scans of each cylinder to provide a readout of its history. Many cylinders are being replaced, and newer types of valves are being installed for safety. Signals being unveiled for metro area rail lines By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The transport ministry said Thursday that it would put into service today the first two rail crossing signals for motorists. Since the reactivation of the valley train line, motorists have been clashing with trains. A spectacular collision between a train and a truck Tuesday morning closed the Circunvalación near the Universidad de Costa Rica for four hours. There the train line crosses the six-lane highway, and there are no signals. However, train engineers generally provide extensive warning with the train horns. There have been three collisions between vehicles and trains in the last four days. There also has been an earlier one where the truck suffered damage. A pedestrian died at that crossing, too, in February. There have been other deaths, including one of a police officer since 2012. Railroad officials did not put in crossing gates or other signals because of the expense. The early morning horn blowing by train engineers at each street crossing was enough for a Barrio Otoya hotel owner to hire crossing guards so his guests would not be jolted out of their sleep at 5:30 a.m. Police begin a campaign against window breakers By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Crooks, mostly young men, have a steady business along the Circunvalación in Hatillo. When vehicles stop at traffic lights there, the crooks break a side window and try to steal whatever is in reach. Main targets are women driving alone. They usually leave their purse on the passenger seat. Business was slow when officials closed the highway due to a washout nearby. But now the highway is fully back in service and so are the young crooks. Many are well below 18. The Fuerza Pública officers in Hatillo said Thursday that they were setting up preventative campaigns along the highway. There are only three traffic lights, so the zones where motorists are at risk are limited. The young crooks even have their own name in Spanish: quiebravidrios, basically "window breakers." A major problem for enforcement is that the youngsters because of their age usually are returned to the streets when caught. Lawmaker agree to accept $35 million for innovation By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Lawmakers have given final approval to a $35 million loan from the Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo that is designed to be used in a five-year program to encourage innovation. Some $25 million will be invested in what the lawmakers call human capital, that is scholarships and grants for some 500 individuals. The remainder, $10 million, will be be bestowed on some 200 Costa Rican companies over the five years. The use of the money will be supervised by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología y Telecomunicaciones with the help of the Promotora de Comercio Exterior.
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| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by A.M. Costa Rica.com Ltda. 2014 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details | ||||||
A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, March 7, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 47 | |
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| U.S. student flow to Costa Rica is measured by annual surveys |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Institute of International Education is pretty confident of its report that Costa Rica got 7,900 U.S. students to study here in the academic year 2011 to 2013. A spokesperson for the institute said Thursday that the number comes from a survey that counts only those students who received academic credit from an accredited U.S. institution of higher education after they returned from their study abroad experience. So the entities being surveyed are not the students but the academic institutions that gave credit for the work abroad. And the number probably is higher. Students who travel and take courses abroad without receiving academic credit are not reported in the institute's survey nor are students who are enrolled overseas for degrees from non-U.S. institutions. So students who, for example, take Spanish courses at the Universidad de Costa Rica are not counted unless they have an arrangement to transfer the credit to some U.S. college or university. Many public and private schools that offer Spanish courses here provide that option, but not all students take advantage of the possibility. "So the 7,900 students who received credit at a U.S, institution for study in Costa Rica in 2011/12 went as part of their education at their home institution," said the spokesperson. "They went for |
periods of
anywhere from two weeks to a full year, with the trend being more
toward short-term, an academic quarter, a January term, a summer term,
etc., although some certainly could have gone for a semester or a year.
Any amount of time for which their studies earned them academic credit." Although Spanish courses are popular, they are by no means the only reason students come here. There are many active programs in environment and ecology as well as government, medicine and human services. The Institute of International Education has just announced an ambitious plan to double the number of U.S. students who study abroad over the next five years. The project has the support of hundreds of U.S. academic institutions, and the institute itself has put in $2 million for scholarships. For Costa Rica, the results could be lucrative because the country ranks eighth in the institute list of foreign lands that provide classes for U.S. students. That was the subject of a news story Thursday HERE! The institute survey showed that about 295,000 U.S. students studied abroad in the 2011 to 2012 academic year. These visiting students are large consumers of short-term property rentals, tours and adventure experiences. A new survey will be done in November, the institute said. The institute maintains a Web site that lists available programs abroad. |
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Hollywood
evening highlights some of the big problems of society
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| The American Oscars program was
Sunday, and although I had not seen one single movie of those
nominated, I watched the whole thing, waiting for Bette Midler to
sing. Besides having a lovely voice, Ms. Midler has the same
qualities as Barbra Streisand as a singer . . . and you can understand
every word she sings, unlike most of the popular singers of today who
seem to be drowned out by the instruments or maybe they just don’t
enunciate. Finally, at 10 p.m., Bette sang “You are the Wind beneath My Wings,” following the tribute to the long list of people in the movie industry who have died this past year. I thought the funniest part of the evening was the commercial for Pepsi Mini. It was a huge production with several scenes and lots of action, including a building blowing up, to show people overjoyed to drink from a smaller can of Pepsi. As a once upon a time copywriter, I would have done it all with a simple, “It stays cold until the last drop.” Along with Bette, this was the year of the women and minorities. Ellen DeGeneres, of TV, and a role model for LGBT was the host for the program. Alfonso Cuaron of Mexico and mastermind behind the movie “Gravity,” won an Oscar. Two first-time actors from Africa were nominated for their supporting roles, and Lupita Nyong’o of Kenya won. Director Steve McQueen won as best director of the movie, “Twelve Years a Slave.” Two of the nominees were women over 75, Judy Dench and June Squibb. The documentary, “20 Feet From Stardom,” featuring many black female singers, also won. In spite of the encouraging outcome of the Oscars, neither women nor young black men will have achieved equality with the remaining population until the following conversation won’t enter our minds. Michael Dunn was found not guilty of murder in a Florida Court, claiming self defense when he shot into a car of black teenagers 10 times, killing 17-year-old Jordan Davis. Dunn had told the teenagers to turn down their music and they refused. After covering the story, Esther Armah, political commentator and writer on Alternet, wrote the following: “I hear an emerging and troubling "what do we tell our black boys about how to behave?" narrative. This framing is deeply problematic. It is the equivalent of asking 'what do we tell girls and young women about what to wear and how to act so they don't get sexually assaulted?' . . . . ”It implies if black boys would just |
behave differently they would be less likely to meet the bullets from ‘stand your ground’ gun-toting white men equipped with irrational fear and backed by a law that legitimizes their feelings.” And, I might add, how can women behave differently so they will not continue to be raped by soldiers in wartime and peace, attacked on the street, or college campus? Until those questions are no longer a part of our thoughts, neither women nor young black men will be entirely free and able to just be or realize their own potential. Although there were also some excellent documentaries, some showing the violence and injustice and shameful actions of governments, the Academy seems to have had enough of violence and is now concentrating on greed and what someone in a court trial in Florida has call “affluenza.” Loosely defined, affluenza is the state of being so rich you don’t appreciate the consequences of your criminal acts, which, if you are rich enough, are called mistakes. So money and its loss seem to have captured the Academy. But the movie that won in the best picture category was “12 years a Slave,” and is the story of freedom and its loss. In the movie, “12 years a Slave,” Solomon Northrup, a freeborn black man living in New York State in 1853, makes the mistake of going to Washington, D.C., part of the slave-owning South. He is kidnapped and sold into slavery. His treatment is appalling and in some cases, justified, according to a plantation owner, by the Bible. I have no idea what this has to say of the way of the world, if anything. Just maybe the world, along with Hollywood, has had enough of war and its glory, of violence as a choice in solving problems. You wouldn’t know it by the news, but humans have other serious problems on a personal level with which we have to deal. One of them is freedom. We need a world where people who have every right to be free are not punished by others who object to behavior that happens to arouse their anger or lust. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, March 7, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 47 | |||||
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| Top drummer helps scientists probe the internal clock of the
brain |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Researchers at the University of California say exposure to rhythm may help people with neurological diseases lead a better life. In their experiments, they are using the expertise of a well-known rock drummer. Scientists say that timing is a key part of how the human brain works, and when the timing is off, so is the processing of information. Using advanced technology, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, are monitoring the brain of Mickey Hart. The drummer for the world-famous rock group The Grateful Dead is trying to navigate through a computer game using a set of electronic drums. Neurologist Adam Gazzaley says the experiment combines neuroscience, gaming and the virtual world. “So we couple these three different worlds together and use them to inform each other and create really the most powerful real time neural activity visualizer that anyone has ever seen," he said. Hart wears a special headgear with screens and sensors as he plays. In the other room, scientists monitor how his brain responds to the rhythms, together with his eye movements, pulse and temperature. All this translates to a real-time display of his brain’s activity. Hart says he is intrigued to know how what he calls, "this master clock,” works. “What is this power and how do we use it and how to we repeat and how can we make a better world using the tools that we have been given," he said. "This super organism, there is nothing better than this, this master clock." |
 Voice of America photo
Mickey Hart combines rhythms
with skill to test timing.Gazzaley says he wants to see if rhythmic patterns could potentially re-wire damaged connections in a patient’s brain. “So the idea is if we can teach the brain how to become a better timing machine, better rhythmically, that you, your brain can perform at a more optimal level and it will translate into how you interact with the world around you and lead to a better quality of life," he said. Scientists say their ultimate goal is to use rhythm training and even video games to improve cognition and have a positive impact on the lives of people, with and without neurological issues. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, March 7, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 47 | |||||
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| Temperature affects altitude where malaria vectors thrive By
the University of Michigan news service
Researchers have debated for more than two decades the likely impacts,
if any, of global warming on the worldwide incidence of malaria, a
mosquito-borne disease that infects more than 300 million people each
year.Now, University of Michigan ecologists and their colleagues are reporting the first hard evidence that malaria does — as had long been predicted — creep to higher elevations during warmer years and back down to lower altitudes when temperatures cool. The study, based on an analysis of records from highland regions of Ethiopia and Colombia, suggests that future climate warming will result in a significant increase in malaria cases in densely populated regions of Africa and South America, unless disease monitoring and control efforts are boosted and sustained. "We saw an upward expansion of malaria cases to higher altitudes in warmer years, which is a clear signal of a response by highland malaria to changes in climate," said theoretical ecologist Mercedes Pascual, senior author of a paper scheduled for online publication in Science. "This is indisputable evidence of a climate effect," said Ms. Pascual. "The main implication is that with warmer temperatures, we expect to see a higher number of people exposed to the risk of malaria in tropical highland areas like these." More than 20 years ago, malaria was identified as a disease expected to be especially sensitive to climate change because both the Plasmodium parasites that cause it and the Anopheles mosquitoes that spread it thrive as temperatures warm. Some early studies concluded that climate change would lead to a big increase in malaria cases as the disease expanded its range into higher elevations, but some of the assumptions behind those predictions were later criticized. More recently, some researchers have argued that improved socioeconomic conditions and more aggressive mosquito-control efforts will likely exert a far greater influence over the extent and intensity of malaria worldwide than climatic factors. What's been missing in this debate has been an analysis of regional records with sufficient resolution to determine how the distribution of malaria cases has changed in response to year-to-year temperature variations, especially in countries of East Africa and South America with densely populated highlands that have historically provided havens from the disease. Ms. Pascual and her colleagues looked for evidence of a changing distribution of malaria with varying temperature in the highlands of Ethiopia and Colombia. They examined malaria case records from the Antioquia region of western Colombia from 1990 to 2005 and from the Debre Zeit area of central Ethiopia from 1993 to 2005. By focusing solely on the altitudinal response to year-to-year temperature changes, they were able to exclude other variables that can influence malaria case numbers, such as mosquito-control programs, resistance to anti-malarial drugs and fluctuations in rainfall amounts. They found that the median altitude of malaria cases shifted to higher elevations in warmer years and back to lower elevations in cooler years. The relatively simple analysis yielded a clear, unambiguous signal that can only be explained by temperature changes, they said. "Our latest research suggests that with progressive global warming, malaria will creep up the mountains and spread to new high-altitude areas. And because these populations lack protective immunity, they will be particularly vulnerable to severe morbidity and mortality," said co-author Menno Bouma, senior clinical lecturer at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. In addition, the study results suggest that climate change can explain malaria trends in both the highland regions in recent decades. In the Debre Zeit region of Ethiopia, at an elevation range of between 5,280 feet and 7,920 feet, about 37 million people (roughly 43 percent of the country's population) live in rural areas at risk of higher malaria exposure under a warming climate. In a previous study, the researchers estimated that a 1 degree Celsius temperature increase could result in an additional 3 million malaria cases annually in Ethiopia in the under-15 population, unless control efforts are strengthened. "Our findings here underscore the size of the problem and emphasize the need for sustained intervention efforts in these regions, especially in Africa," Ms. Pascual said. Pope's impact on U.S. flock is minimal, surveys show By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Late last year the British newspaper The Sunday Times reported that Pope Francis had inspired a surge in attendance at churches in Britain and other countries. The report triggered a debate about whether the new pontiff has been bringing about a change of heart among former Catholics, many of whom lost their faith in the Church after decades of scandals and doctrinal rigidity. There has been evidence of pews refilling in places like Italy and in the pope’s native Argentina. The so-called Francis Effect is credited with a record turnout at last year’s pilgrimage to the Basilica of the Virgin of Lujan, the nation’s patron saint. Surveys by the Pew Research Center in Washington, however, suggest the effect is negligible in the United States, which has the fifth largest Catholic population in the world, and where ex-Catholics represent 10 percent of the national population. The Church of the Nativity in Timonium, a suburb of Baltimore, Maryland, is one of the few that has managed to buck the trend. It has been attracting worshippers for years with methods that now have the blessing of Francis. From the outside it looks like an ordinary suburban church, but inside the darkened chapel a seven-piece band accompanies the Mass, which is magnified on large TV screens throughout the church as well as in the café. The priest, Rev. Michael White, is in demand as a speaker around the country because of a book he wrote called "Rebuilt," about his success in bringing parishioners back into the pews. "Before the book, you know how many invitations I received to speak? That would be none, ever. Not once!" he joked during a recent homily. Switching to a tone of humility he added, “there are plenty of pastors out there who are far better at this than I am.” If that is the case, then the church needs them badly. Surveys show a third of Americans who were born into the Roman Catholic faith have left it. If America’s 23 million ex-Catholics formed their own denomination, it would be the second largest in the country, after Catholics themselves. Like Pope Francis, Rev. White does not contradict Vatican teaching, but he has dispensed with the elaborate rituals and ceremony that can be found in many Catholic churches. Instead, the Church of the Nativity borrows heavily from Evangelical Protestant megachurches, with a kind of worship style where you would be forgiven if you thought you'd stepped into a pop music concert or a coffee shop. Tom Corcoran, a lay minister at the church who co-authored the book with White, concedes there has been criticism from traditionally-minded Catholics. "You hear those whisperings of 'Catholic light,' or -- we have a café here - Our Lady of Mt. Starbucks,” he said. “I think if you want to do anything worth doing, you're going to get criticized." His church’s new approach predated Francis, with his own emphasis on simplicity and message to Catholics that they should be more outward-looking and adopt methods that have worked for Evangelicals. "Since we've written our book 'Rebuilt,' people have come up and said, 'Hey, it's like you guys were quoting him even before he was pope,' and all that kind of stuff," Corcoran says. "We can be so focused on our sanctuary, our buildings, and wait for people to come to us,” says Rev. John Conley, a Jesuit scholar at Loyola University Maryland. "Now decades ago you could be in a religious nation like America. We had so many immigrants, who basically would follow this tradition. We can no longer do that today." Although the Church of the Nativity's Mass still hews to basic tradition and some segments are even conducted in Latin recent convert Cathy McErlean says she was attracted to the church by the informal style. "It was a lot less intimidating than a more traditional Catholic environment," she said. The pope's less-intimidating style, not to mention his emphasis on social justice, has turned him into a virtual rock star even among non-Catholics. Time magazine named him Person of the Year and even Rolling Stone magazine put him on its cover. That said, the new pontiff’s style has not undone all the damage of the clerical scandals and doctrinal rigidity that are among the main reasons many American Catholics left in the first place. U.S. Senate votes to keep sex claims with commanders By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. Senate has defeated one measure to boost prosecution of sexual offenders in the armed forces and unanimously voted to advance another. Passionate debate centered on whether to remove authority for such prosecutions from the military chain of command. The Pentagon reports that 26,000 cases of unwanted sexual contact occurred in America’s armed forces in 2012, only a small faction of which were prosecuted. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called that unacceptable. “These are really courageous men and women. And while we cannot protect every member of our military from harm at the hands of America’s enemies, we should at least guarantee them protection from harm at the hands of their fellow service members," said Reid. Thursday, the Senate ended debate on a bill that boosts protections for victims of sexual assault and holds military commanders accountable for their units’ compliance with regulations on sexual conduct. But it retains commanders’ authority to decide which cases are brought to trial. That is a problem, according to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat. “The people who do not trust the chain of command are the victims," said Sen. Gillibrand. Sen. Gillibrand championed a competing bill that would have given military prosecutors authority to decide which cases to try. It was defeated on a procedural vote despite the backing of many sexual assault victims, including Paula Coughlin, who helped bring the issue to the nation’s attention more than 20 years ago. Ms. Coughlin and scores of other service members, most of them female, were assaulted at a 1991 military symposium in Las Vegas, Nevada, an incident that came to be known as the Tailhook scandal. Ms. Coughlin, then a Navy lieutenant, says she first reported the abuse to her commander. “And he was not receptive. In fact, he brushed off the complaint. The military chain of command is inherently biased, whether they do not believe that the victim was actually assaulted, or whether prosecution of that assault would adversely affect their command," said Ms. Coughlin. Ms. Coughlin went public with her allegations, triggering a widely publicized investigation that led to demotions and early retirements of top Navy commanders. Today, the Pentagon says it has zero tolerance for sexual misconduct. But Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel defends the role of commanders in deciding prosecutorial matters. “It is my strong belief that the ultimate authority has to remain within the command structure," said Hagel. The Pentagon strongly opposed the defeated Gillibrand bill, but backs the alternative measure, which is widely expected to be approved by the Senate next week. During floor debate, senators were unanimous in condemning sexual abuse. For Paula Coughlin, the emotional scars of the Tailhook experience are still with her. She says, “Not a day goes by that I do not think how things could have been for me in the military, and how they should have been.” Republicans wanted deep cuts in Obama's proposed budget By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The release of the U.S. fiscal budget for 2015 is getting a lukewarm response from both supporters and critics of President Barack Obama. The $3.9 trillion budget promises to lower the annual deficit even as it expands opportunities for poor and working-class Americans. But critics say it does so by raising taxes on the wealthy while ignoring the nation’s most pressing fiscal problems. Whether it’s improving aging roads and bridges or expanding opportunities for low-income Americans and school-age children, President Barack Obama says it’s about making the right choices. “As a country, we have got to make a decision if we are going to protect tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, or if we are going to make smart investments necessary to create jobs and grow our economy, and expand opportunity for every American,” said Obama. The president proposes paying for some of those programs by eliminating loopholes and raising taxes on wealthy Americans. Republicans say this budget, however, is nothing more than an election year blueprint, one that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said is bad for the economy. "It’s time the president realizes that doubling down on the same failed policies is simply not going to work. Yet that's what this budget proposes to do,” he said. Those who study economic minutiae are not as harsh in their assessment. Marc Goldwein, a senior policy director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said, “I do think the president importantly focuses on investments, and I appreciate that he actually does reduce the deficit in this budget, but I don’t think he goes nearly far enough.” That's because discretionary spending, which includes things such as job training and transportation projects, makes up less than a third of the nearly $4 trillion the government will spend next year. The largest share will go toward paying fixed costs for programs such as Social Security and Medicare. "The smart thing to do would actually be to accompany entitlement reform and immigration reform, so we have this new tax base and we have a system where we can afford to actually pay the benefits," said Goldwein. Without major reforms to entitlement programs and what he called an unwieldy tax code, Goldwein said U.S. debt will become unsustainable. While he admitted that lawmakers are unlikely to approve the budget in an election year, he said neither Congress nor the president can afford to wait too long. Midwives seen as remedy to help low-income moms By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Home births in the United States are increasing, although they still account for only 1 percent of overall deliveries. Los Angeles is one place where there is a rising interest in giving birth at home with the help of midwives. Some of those midwives are making an effort to reach out to minority women. In 2012, Jasmine Lavender delivered her second child in a bathtub in south Los Angeles. “It was an amazing experience. Very empowering. You know I encourage other moms to have a vaginal birth. It was life changing to be honest,” she said. She chose to give birth in an informal setting because she feels the hospital performed an unnecessary and rushed surgical procedure, a Caesarean-section, when she delivered her first child. “I was on a time clock and my time was out,” she said. The tub where Jasmine gave birth is located at The Community Birth Center. The women who work here specialize in maternity care. But founder Racha Lawler said they also offer some general health services. “It’s seeing ourselves really truly as a clinician. Where, you know, as a midwife you can draw people’s blood and test people’s blood and test people for STDs. You can, you know, teach women about how their bodies work in regards to their ovulation and fertility," she said. "So why not make sure everyone in the community knows that?” Ms. Lawler, a licensed midwife, also goes to the patient's home to help her give birth. And after the birth, she provide services to the mother and her newborn. Midwife apprentice Tanya Smith-Johnson said the center believes in keeping the process as natural as possible. “We do things to keep women from tearing. You know, rub oil as opposed to, 'Ok You tore? We’re just going to suture you up. We’re going to cut you,' that kind of thing. We do all the things to make it as few interventions as possible,” she said. When the center first opened, there were about 300 licensed midwives in the state of California. Most of them were white. But Ms. Lawler hopes to double the number of midwives of color through advocacy and free mentorship for apprentices like Tanya Smith-Johnson. “The stats show women of color, we’re the ones who need maternity care. Our babies die at rates three or four times that of white women. And one of the solutions to that is having more women of color tend to women like themselves,” Ms. Smith-Johnson said. World Health issues rules on contraception rights By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The World Health Organization says human rights must be respected and protected when women seek contraception services. World Health has issued new guidelines for policy makers and healthcare providers in conjunction with International Women’s Day Saturday. The World Health estimates over 220 million women are not able to meet their needs for modern contraception. It says many are among the most vulnerable, including the poor, those living with HIV and women displaced by conflict or other causes. Marleen Temmerman is an obstetrician and director of the World Health’s Department of Reproductive Health and Research. “It’s the first time that there is a guidance from the WHO where human rights is actually in the title – and not only in the title, but also in the content of the guidelines. We have guidelines for contraceptive use from the medical perspective looking at what is safe – what are the medical eligibility criteria – what the contraindications and so on. But now we have worked towards ensuring human rights in the contraceptive guidelines,” she said. World Health has been developing the guidelines for the past year. “We want to make sure that the human rights principles, such as acceptability, accessibility, affordability, choice, informed consent are high in the guidelines,” she said. The guidelines recommend providing sexual and reproductive health services to women and girls, including family planning information and contraceptive methods. Dr. Temmerman said that access to contraception has risen on the political agenda in recent years. “If you look at the Millennium Development Goals, number five is to reduce maternal mortality. And that of course is linked to better care, better antenatal care, better delivery care, but also to the rights of a woman to decide when she will get pregnant. How many children she wants.” She said millions of women must seek permission of their husbands to use contraception, while adolescent girls need permission from their parents or guardians. Many adolescent boys also lack access to modern contraception. Dr. Temmerman said women and girls often have no power in deciding whether to become pregnant. “Many women are coerced in their decision to be pregnant or not to be pregnant by their family, their father, the mother, the husband, the mother-in-law, the society, the community, by cultural and religious obstacles. But sometimes also by the governments, who are forcing tubal ligation, forcing sterilization onto some women and not giving access to others,” she said. She added that teenage girls – who become pregnant – may face severe risks. World Health estimates 16 million girls between 15 and 19 give birth each year. Nearly all the births are in low- and middle-income countries. “We see a lot of pregnancy complications in adolescents that are really leading to a lot of mortality and morbidity, so a huge health burden,” said Dr. Temmerman. World Health reports some of the problems associated with negative outcomes for adolescent pregnancies include hemorrhaging, obstetric fistula, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections and mental disorders, such as depression. Dr. Temmerman said countries where women and girls have access to modern contraception often fare better overall than countries that do not. “I think what we have to do is to look at statistics. Those countries -- which are providing sexuality education and information to the population and to the youth in the schools – those countries which are providing adolescents and women-friendly services – have the lowest figures of unwanted pregnancies, maternal mortality and so on. So, health wise they do much better.” She said besides the health benefits of investing in reproductive services, countries benefit economically by having a more productive workforce. The new World Health guidelines say sexual and reproductive health services should help ensure “fully-informed decision-making and respect dignity, autonomy, privacy and confidentiality and be sensitive to individual needs.” Cheap, easy test urged to catch cervical cancer By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Most people think of malaria, AIDS and childbirth as leading causes of death for women in sub-Saharan Africa. But there's another killer: Cervical cancer. There is a simple test and technology that can save the lives of women in developing countries. Every year, around the globe, half a million women develop cervical cancer and more than a quarter of a million die. The overwhelming majority of those deaths occur in developing countries. In Burkina Faso, Adjaratou Kinda learned too late that she had cervical cancer. "They said there is nothing else they can do for me here," she said. A simple, inexpensive test could have saved her life. In developed countries, most women can be screened for cervical cancer with a non-invasive test at a doctor's office. If lab results show abnormal cells, they have options: cryotherapy, killing pre-cancerous cells by freezing the cervix, and, in more advanced cases, radiation or surgery. In developing countries, women don't have these options. As a result, in sub-Saharan Africa, women who are HIV positive are surviving AIDS, but dying of cervical cancer. "In the pre-cancerous stage there are no symptoms. There’s no pain. There’s no bleeding. There’s no discharge," said John Varallo, who is with Jhpiego, a non-profit health organization. "The woman feels well. But that’s when she needs to be screened." Jhpiego is helping establish programs in Burkina Faso and other countries so doctors, nurses and midwives can screen and treat pre-cancerous cells in one visit. A solution of simple table vinegar turns pre-cancerous cells white. During the same visit, cryotherapy kills them. It takes 10 years or more for those cells to become cancerous. And yet cervical cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among women worldwide. "It’s projected that by 2030, 98 percent of those cases will be occurring in developing countries. And, it’s really unnecessary because cervical cancer is almost completely preventable," said Varallo. The World Health Organization calls cervical cancer a leading public health concern, and now with an inexpensive test, more women can be screened and their lives saved. "It’s relatively easy to learn, does not require anesthesia, does not require electricity and you put a probe on the cervix with compressed gas through a tank and you do, what we call, a double freeze technique," continued Varallo. Varallo says the procedure is 95 percent effective. If screening and treatment can become more widespread, there will be no need for women like Adjaratou Kinda to learn that it's too late. Several advances suggest treatments to cure AIDS By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Scientists in the U.S. are calling attention to a pair of promising treatments that could lead to a cure for AIDS. In a study published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors at the University of Pennsylvania removed blood cells from a dozen HIV patients and used a technique that removed a protein that allows the virus to latch on to blood cells. Doctors injected the blood cells back into the patients, then took them off their antiviral medication for a month. The virus returned in all but one of the patients, but doctors found that the treated blood cells appeared to be protected from the virus. The results of the study could mean that some HIV patients could be freed from taking daily medication to control their infection. Meanwhile, doctors at an AIDS conference in Boston Wednesday announced that a second infant in the U.S. born with HIV now shows no sign of the virus, thanks to undergoing aggressive drug treatments immediately after she was born in a Los Angeles-area hospital last year. The first reported case of its kind occurred in the southeastern state of Mississippi, where an HIV-infected baby girl was put on antiviral drugs about 30 hours after she was born. Doctors continued to treat the child until she was 18 months old, when the mother stopped taking her to her appointments. When the mother resumed the baby's treatments several months later, doctors found no sign of HIV in her blood cells. The girl is now 3 years old and remains free of infection. A group of California scientists are about to launch a study funded by the U.S. government that will determine if early, aggressive treatment of HIV-infected babies will allow them to discontinue the drugs if tests prove they are free of the virus over a long period of time. Frequent school moves seen hurting kids' esteem By
the Warwick Medical School news service
Frequent school moves can increase the risk of psychotic symptoms in early adolescence. Researchers at Warwick Medical School have shown that frequently moving schools during childhood can increase the risk of psychotic symptoms in later years. The study, published in American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, found that school mobility during childhood heightens the risk of developing psychotic-like symptoms in early adolescence by up to 60 percent. Suffering from psychotic-like symptoms at a young age is strongly associated with mental health problems in adulthood, including psychotic disorders and suicide. Swaran Singh, who led the study, explained, “Changing schools can be very stressful for students. Our study found that the process of moving schools may itself increase the risk of psychotic symptoms – independent of other factors. But additionally, being involved in bullying, sometimes as a consequence of repeated school moves, may exacerbate risk for the individual.” At the age of 12, participants in the study were interviewed to assess for the presence of psychotic-like symptoms including hallucinations, delusions and thought interference in the previous six months. Those that had moved school three or more times were found to be 60 percent more likely to display at least one definite psychotic symptom. The authors suggested that moving schools often may lead to feelings of low self-esteem and a sense of social defeat. This feeling of being excluded from the majority could also render physiological consequences. Cath Winsper, senior research fellow at Warwick Medical School and part of the study group said, “It’s clear that we need to keep school mobility in mind when clinically assessing young people with psychotic disorders. It should be explored as a matter of course as the impact can be both serious and potentially long lasting. Schools should develop strategies to help these students to establish themselves in their new environment.” |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, March 7, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 47 | |||||||||
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Cuba and UK will
talk to improve economic ties By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Cuba has accepted a European Union invitation to begin talks on improving ties. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez says his country is willing to discuss human rights as part of discussions that would end what it considers a one-sided relationship with Europe EU officials said last month the bloc would seek to upgrade ties with Cuba to broaden economic cooperation. They cautioned they would demand more progress on respecting rights and civil liberties. Rodriguez says Cuban diplomats will work with EU officials to determine the details and dates for negotiations. The European Union lifted sanctions on the Communist-ruled country in 2008. But its 1996 common position' on Cuba places human rights and democracy conditions on improved economic relations. EU foreign ministers say they are seeking better ties with Havana to support Cuba's market-oriented reforms and position European companies for any transition to an open economy. Venezuelan protest planned By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Opponents to the Venezuelan government will be staging what they say will be a peaceful demonstration outside the Venezuelan Embassy today at 9 p.m. The demonstrators are members of Revolución Liberal and Operación Libertad and their supporters. Many are students just as many of the protesters in Venezuela are students. The groups said they were expressing solidarity with protesters in Venezuela and agitating against the policies of former president Hugo Chavez. The embassy is in Rohrmoser. |
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| From Page 7: Transport costs of goods here called high By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Commerce in Central America is restricted by the cost of transportation, according to a study by the World Bank. The study equated high transport costs here as being in the same league as in some developing African countries. The estimate was that moving freight costs shippers about 17 U.S. cents per ton per kilometer on average. The World Bank report, outlined Thursday, said that some of the costs can be attributed to infrastructure and wait times at border crossings. However, the main expense comes from the lack of competition, it said. The study listed such expenses as the requirements for establishing transportation companies, rules that limit the participation of foreigners in such companies and the tacit territorial agreements among various cargo companies. There also are prohibitions on the use of foreign licensed vehicles for transport within some countries, it said. In Costa Rica these restrictions affect about 22.5 percent of the total volume of exports, the study said. It also noted that the costs also apply to shipments by sea because goods need to be transported by carrier to get to the ships. The study was presented at a session arranged by the Ministerio de Comercio Exterior. |
