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A.M. Costa Rica third newspage
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San José, Costa Rica, Monday, April 16, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 74

An analysis on the news
Arias decision on referendum takes politicians off the hook

By Jay Brodell
editor of A.M. Costa Rica

What a clever move.

That was the essence of a number of comments after President Óscar Arias Sánchez said he would order a referendum on the free trade treaty.

In one stroke, Arias put the burden of deciding on the treaty in the hands of the citizenry. He also stole the thunder from the anti-treaty forces. And he ducked the consequences of treaty ratification.

In addition, Arias and his advisers will put a 90-day deadline on the public vote. If anti-treaty opponents had their way, they would take nine months to gather signatures to force a referendum and perhaps stall long enough so that the proposed treaty would become void.

Arias also is taking the battle into an area where he maintains an advantage. His Partido Liberación Nacional has a strong network designed to turn out the vote. And Arias is a persuasive speaker.

The referendum law said that government institutions cannot use resources to support or oppose a referendum. That area is not clearly defined because the law is new. The measure only became effective a year ago.

The law also prohibits participation by foreign individuals or companies in the campaign for or against the referendum question. Left unclear is if a Costa Rican corporation that is a subsidiary of a foreign firm can donate to the campaign.

The referendum law established a limit of 20 base salaries as the amount that any entity can donate to a referendum campaign. A base salary is a method used in Costa Rica because the value of the colon keeps changing. The individual limit would seem to be about $7,500 per person, according to the law or about 4 million colons.

Anti-treaty organizations already are talking about fraud when they consider the referendum. Public opinion polls have shown that about 65 percent of Costa Ricans favor the treaty. But any poll on the treaty is really asking individuals a question on which they have very little background to formulate a response. Most have never read the treaty. Even reporters who have are confused by the detail and the many references to sources outside the agreement.

The backers of a positive referendum vote probably will profit from the strong publicity campaign that has been waged thus far in support of the agreement. The stress has been on jobs and development.

Opponents of the treaty will have to present a well-defined option. So far they have talked about alternatives in abstract terms. They have talked about development with a Costa Rican emphasis without saying exactly what that is.

Meanwhile, the many laws that implement the free trade pact will continue to go forward in the Asamblea Legislative where treaty supporters maintain a 38 to 19 edge. Opponents cannot seek referendums on these measures because the law restricted the country to one such public vote a calendar year.

The passage of the dozen implementing laws will have much the same effect as passage of the free trade treaty.

Arias had the option of going to court to seek a ruling to throw out the decision Thursday by the Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones to permit opponents to gather signatures to seek a referendum. But such challenges would take months and could fail.

The Asamblea Legislativa is expected to approve the request by Arias to seek a referendum. Under the law some 5 percent or about 130,000 signatures from voters or an executive branch or legislative branch initiative is sufficient to call a referendum.

The election tribunal will be in charge of the voting locations, the staff there and the final counts. Citizens will vote either yes or no.

Still unclear is how big a turnout is needed to have a valid referendum. They law says 30 percent is needed unless the matter is one that requires a two-thirds vote in the legislature. Then 40 percent turnout is required to have a valid referendum. In any case, all votes, including voids and blank ballots are counted to determine the turnout percentage.

The treaty is believed to require the two-thirds legislative vote. If the referendum is passed, the measure is immediately sent to the La Gaceta official newspaper for publication. The legislature would not have to cast a vote on the agreement. So lawmakers are off the hook as well as Arias.

You can have your chocolate cake and remain righteous, too

La carne es debil.

“The flesh is weak.” This dicho, of course, can have many connotations, and it’s the second half of the English expression the begins, “The mind is willing. . . ” This part is usually implied when the dicho is used.

I’m reminded of a dear friend who is struggling to give up cigarette smoking. He has tried many times to stop, but he has always gone back. Once he quit for a whole month, but then he was with some friends one evening who were smoking, and he gave in to the temptation. Unfortunately, it apparently just takes one cigarette to get him started again even after a month’s hiatus.

Last year this friend started experiencing severe leg pain and was subsequently diagnosed with serious blockages due to plaque buildup in veins in both legs. A lifetime of smoking has undoubtedly hastened the onset of this dangerous vascular disease. Wednesday, the day after we returned to Indiana from Costa Rica, we took him to the hospital for surgery to install two stents in each leg in order to relieve this condition. Now he is faced with the absolute necessity of quitting smoking. It has literally become a matter of life and death. It is too bad that my friend had to reach this point before he realized just how truly bad smoking was for his health.

Clearly la carne or “the flesh” sometimes has to be protected from its own wants and desires, as in my friend’s case. His body’s physical addiction to cigarettes is a threat to the very “flesh” that craves them. I do hope he can exert enough will power to overcome this dependence. He’s planning soon to build his dream house in Costa Rica, after all, and I’d like to see him live long enough to fully enjoy it.

I was reminded of today’s dicho in an e-mail message from another friend who is going to be spending a week in Palm Springs, California, without the company of his significant other. I wonder if he was trying to communicate to me something a bit subtler in nature than his itinerary. Sometimes, you know, the mind is just about as weak as the flesh, and in those cases people can get themselves into some real trouble. I hope this fellow

The
way we say it

By Daniel Soto

will exercise some prudence in his behavior.

This dicho puts me in mind of a refrán, which is similar to a dicho but more like what we would call an “adage” in English. Anyway, the refrán I’m thinking of is Todo lo que me gusta, es illegal, immoral o me engorda. Which is to say, “Everything I like is either illegal, immoral, or makes me fat.”

But, succumbing to temptation is not always the great sin it’s cracked up to be, in my view. Eating that big piece of chocolate cake in the middle of the night, from time to time having one too many zarpes, peering libidinously among the pages of Playboy Magazine, or even the occasional tryst are not lapses likely to relegate one to the pits of perdition in perpetuity.

Such transgressions are part of the stuff that makes us human. It seems to me that it’s the things we indulge in that are likely to hurt others as well as ourselves that present us with the real moral dilemmas of this life.

It bears remembering what Mae West — as wise a woman in the ways of the world as ever walked the planet — once said: “When I’m good, I’m very good, but when I’m bad, I’m better.”

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A.M. Costa Rica Second newspage
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San José, Costa Rica, Monday, April 16, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 74

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San José, Costa Rica, Monday, April 16, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 74

Casino owner dies in early morning head-on crash with truck
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Popular casino owner Graeme Doughty, 41, died early Friday when his four-wheel-drive vehicle collided head on with a truck in Coronado. Doughty was one of the principals in the Casino Paradiso Costa Rica in the Clarion Hotel Amón Plaza in Barrio Amón, San José. He was a British citizen. The funeral is expected to be today but details were	unavailable. He is survived by a wife and a baby. The casino remains open frequently to 4 a.m., so for Doughty to be on the road headed home at 5 a.m. when the crash happened was not unusual. His vehicle was heavily damaged and came to rest on its side. Rports from the scene said that the truck driver said that the Doughty vehicle strayed over the center line.

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San José, Costa Rica, Monday, April 16, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 74