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Second news page |
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| Costa Rica Expertise Ltd http://crexpertise.com E-mail info@crexpertise.com Tel:506-256-8585 Fax:506-256-7575 |
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 A.M. Costa Rica/Saray
Ramírez Vindas
Franklin Chang discusses the strategic plan with Dulce Cortez
Artavia and Esteban Badilla Vargas, both of a Cartago technology
institute.More cash for science, math is message from experts By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A strategic plan for development of science and technology for the next half century can be summed up in two words: more money. That was the message some 200 academics brought to President Abel Pacheco and president-elect Óscar Arias Sánchez Thursday. The three-volume document, Estrategia Siglo XXI, diagnoses the current situation in the sciences and mathematics and present a vision of what could be. Naturally, the document calls for improvements in the teaching of math and science and more spending in the technology sector. However, it also examines existing laws that cover innovations and patents. Lead authors were Alejandro Cruz and Gabriel Macaya, both former university heads. Also participating was Costa Rican-born astronaut Franklin Chang. The year-and-a-half project was mostly by the CR-USA Foundation. The presentation was held at the Cenrto Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología. Convention center hopes expressed for San José By José Pablo Ramírez Vindas
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff San José is setting up a board of tourism to push for a downtown convention center, more marketing of the city and the promotion of urban tourism investments. Johnny Araya, mayor, was among those who signed a document to that effect Thursday morning. The city has suffered from the success of the Daniel Oduber airport in Liberia and the public perception that San José is dangerous. In the past nearly every tourist to the country stayed at least one night in San José. Now the Liberia airport can have tourists at the Pacific beaches in a half hour. In addition, hotels near Juan Santamaría airport have blossomed. Araya also has a plan to redevelop the city. The Junta de Turismo de San José will have seven members, including the mayor, and will work to strengthen the development of local tourism, said the incorporation papers. Officials hope to take advantage of the city's geographical location and develop one-day tours to visit sights of interest that exist already in the city. The convention center would be in the vicinity of the Estación al Pacifico train facility at Avenida 20 and Calle Central. The central government is planning to construct a convention center west of town. Our reader's opinion
Carazo's treaty commentmakes him unhappy Dear A.M. Costa Rica: What is probably not well known by American expats who came to the country recently is that (and I know its hard to believe) but [Rodrigo] Carazo's administration was 10 times worse than Pacheco's. During his lovely administration, we took the effect of overnight devaluation and hyper inflation. I don't have a clue what he thinks he is doing because no Costa Rican that knew what went on would even listen to him. There is a big difference between having a CR monopoly and a "different" monopoly. For starters I won't be shelling my $ to support the ridiculous privileges that such employees get right now. Second, if they don't perform, their sales will suffer — and they WILL care about that. Third, the telecom business right now is so active that no goverment bureaucracy can stay up to date as it is. A bureaucrat does not care about anything but their benefits and their guarranteed job. A foreign company will care about profits and if it is necessary to raise the landline fee, SO BE IT, I want the service that I need NOW, not in 10 or 20 years This comment deserves absolute comptent: "He said he didn't think that the full 57 member votes would be sufficient" What is he up to now? He wants us to reject DEMOCRACY? I am sorry if his mind is fading away, but if the PEOPLE representatives approve it, IT WILL BE SO! Mr Carazo, please enjoy the retirement check you get from us every month and SHUT UP Carlos Salazar
Moravia, Costa Rica |
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on our real estate page HERE! |
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Third news page |
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| San José,
Costa Rica, Friday, April 7, 2006, Vol. 6, No. 70 |
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| Whoops!!! A worker unloads gravel from a truck that pushed through an old banana company railroad bridge over the Río Naranjo south of Quepos. The improvised bridge has welded rails as a deck and some gave way under the weight of the vehicle this week. |
 A.M. Costa Rica/Fred
Schutter
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| A new option in agricultural products at Pavas feria |
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| I used to walk to the
feria
(farmer’s market) in Plaza Víques. The market was about
four blocks long on a level street, with several streets perpendicular
to it, also with stands. I could buy everything from fruit and
vegetables to chicken and fish, juices and flowers. There were a
number of little outdoor sodas serving breakfast to both the customers
and the farmers who probably left home with no time for a substantial
breakfast. The feria in Pavas is also on Saturday morning, but it is considerably farther from my new home. It is just past the American Embassy compound on a street running into Pavas’ main street. So I usually take the bus to get there and carry purchases back in a taxi. This market is located on one long street that runs downhill and then slightly up another hill. It goes past the post office, which is conveniently open on Saturday morning. I don’t like doing hills but I usually walk down the hill to see what is available and check out the prices. I start loading my cart on the way back up. I hardly notice I am walking up a hill because I am so busy looking at the produce on both sides, often looking in vain for grapefruit. Otherwise, this market has most of the same variety of foods as Víquez with the addition of some stands selling Chinese vegetables, others with organic produce, and more flower kiosks. There are also about the same number of beggars and musicians. There are no sit-down sodas, but empanadas and Chinese tacos and other snacks can be bought to eat as you walk. Although I seem to be paying more for orange juice ($2 for a two-liter bottle), perhaps the price has gone up at Víquez. Otherwise, most of the fruit and vegetables go up and down with the seasons. Tomatoes and mangos, two of my favorite things, right now are as low as 50 cents a kilo for tomatoes and 75 cents for a kilo of mangos. I seldom saw foreigners in the Plaza Víques feria. I seem to run into them everywhere at the Pavas market. So Saturday morning is also a time for short visits with those I know and “hello, where are you from?” chats with new acquaintances. This past week I took my upstairs neighbor who recently arrived from North America. He brought along a |
digital camera with which he was planning to take pictures of the colorful stands and crowds. The taxi driver returning us from the market was very friendly and talkative. He told us that when he wasn’t driving a taxi he worked for a foundation that helped children and old people who were homeless. He also said that he spent three months in Texas every year working for the company of a friend. He could make as much in three months as he did in about a year here. I asked him if it was difficult getting to the U.S. (I had visions of him making his way from here through Central America and over the Mexican border.) He said he had a 10-year visa. When I asked how he managed that, he shrugged and said he had no idea. He was not illegal in the U.S. but, of course, our
conversation made me
think about the ballooning issue of illegal immigrants, not just in the
U.S. but all over the world. They are economic refugees, if
you will,
who enter countries illegally, most of whom work hard, and live
frugally, sometimes under terrible conditions, in order to save money
to take back home. Meanwhile, many of the citizens of these
richer
countries are finding it harder and harder to sustain the standard of
living they have grown used to. It is going to take a Solomon to deal
adequately with these situations. |
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Fourth news page |
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| San José,
Costa Rica, Friday, April 7, 2006, Vol. 6, No. 70 |
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| Policemen keep an eye on a
supposed bank where criminals have taken hostages. Other officers are
trying to edge closer during the training exercise. |
 A.M. Costa Rica/José
Pablo Ramírez Vindas
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| Hostage training resembles real event a year ago |
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By José Pablo Ramírez Vindas
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff In a situation that strongly resembled the 29-hour standoff March 7 and 8, 2005, in Santa Elena, police faced a training simulation Thursday where four hostages were being held in a bank by heavily armed men. The training at the Academia de Bomberos in Patarra, Desamparados, lasted most of the day. Police officers have been engaged in a 15-day course about crisis management under French police experts. |
According to Jorge
Rojas, director of the Judicial Investigating
Organization, such training is important, particularly in cases of
kidnapping. Rojas' agents, Fuerza Pública officers and others from a number of different agencies participated. Police have been criticized for their handling of the standoff in Santa Elena at the Banco Nacional where hostages died during the 29 hours. One policeman died in an abortive raid. Robbers faced armed guards and the lone bandit ended up keep police out for more than a day. |
| World has entered an era of mobility, U.S. aide says |
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Special to A.M. Cost Rica
With people moving back and forth between countries instead of simply immigrating or emigrating, the United Nation’s top migration official said that the world was entering an “era of mobility” in which international cooperation would be more effective than restrictive laws. “I come from a country with a long history of providing migrants to the rest of the world, which has now become a country of destination,” Peter Sutherland, born in Ireland and now Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s special representative on migration, told the annual session of the Commission on Population and Development, which is focussing on the issue this year. “For years, we condemned countries that would not allow their people to leave,” he said, adding that, now that movement was possible, there was a need for “coordination instead of control, both nationally and internationally.” He said that priorities in this new era remain the protection of migrant rights while ensuring the maintenance of the right of countries to determine |
who should cross their
borders, with certain exceptions. In addition, he said a cooperative dialogue must begin between developed and developing countries, both bilaterally and regionally, such as the dialogue between the European Union and Africa. Business, non-governmental organizations and trade unions should “all be at the table of the debate,” since all have a stake in managing effectively migration flows, which had multiple ramifications for the economy, labor, employment and education. The benefits of migration were well known, said Sutherland, suggesting that an expanded dialogue could “find out ways to compensate who loses out,” be they local workers having to compete with immigrants or countries losing skilled professionals. Throughout the week-long population meeting, which opened on Monday, UN officials have stressed that, with 200 million people living outside their home countries, more than any time in history, partnerships must be created between countries that receive migrants and their countries of origin. The topic is a hot one in many parts of the world. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica will be published four days next week. There will be no newspaper Good Friday. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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