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 The Museo Nacional wants expats to know that a big party is planned at the downtown facility Sunday. Case of news photographer goes to constitutional court By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The journalists professional organization says it has filed a constitutional court case in support of a Diario Extra photographer who had his films and videos confiscated at the scene of a May 1 helicopter crash near Cerro de la Muerte. The organization, the Colegio de Periodistas, said that the police action against the photographer was a clear restriction of his rights of expression and an abuse damaging the circulation of ideas and opinions. The photographer, Elías Alvarado Jiménez, works double duty for the daily newspaper and its television outlet, Channel 42. He is based in Pérez Zeldón. This is the helicopter that crashed carrying some 395 kilos of cocaine from the Osa Peninsula to Turrialba. Alvarado was one of the few news photographers at the scene. The case seeks to have the Sala IV constitutional court to declare that the government violated the rights of the photographer. Police at the scene were nervous because they were expecting narcotraffickers to show up to try to recover the cocaine. There also is a question of whether the photographer was carrying credentials. Security guard sentenced to 29 years for murder By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A Colombian security guard has been sentenced to 29 years in prison for the shooting death of a young police recruit. The man has the last names of Roba Monroy, and he was working at Avenida 7 and Calle 3 March 15, 2008. Dead was Mailyn Andrea Martínez Anchía, 21, who was a student in the Escuela Nacional de Policías of the Ministerio de Seguridad Pública. A summary provided by the Poder Judicial said that Roba fired on the woman and others inside a local bar. At one point more than 100 persons, many in the dress of Goths, assembled outside the storefront that Roba was guarding. The man exchanged shots with officers before surrendering. The verdict came Monday night in the Tribunales de San José. Children contagious longer, health ministry reports By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The health ministry said Tuesday that children under 12 can remain contagious with swine flu for up to 10 days. Older persons infected with the virus can pass it on from the first day to the seventh day, the ministry said. The ministry suggested that these periods should be taken into consideration when calculating the possibility of contracting the disease. So far there are eight confirmed cases in the country, said the ministry. And there is one death. Heath officials are continuing to follow the trail of the Boston Choral group Canta Mundi, which had three members come down with the disease when the singers returned to Boston April 29. The group toured many Costa Rican cities and tourism sites. In addition health officials are trying to locate passengers who flew in to Daniel Oduber airport Tuesday from México. A passenger on the flight is a possible flu sufferer. The swine flu virus continues to spread worldwide with mainland China reporting its first case and Japan confirming its first four cases. The World Health Organization says globally at least 61 people have died with more than 4,700 cases reported in 30 countries. 56 of those deaths are in Mexico, which has been at the epicenter of the outbreak. World forced labor profits estimated at $20 billion By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The International Labor Organization says criminals are making $20 billion a year from forced labor and that figure is substantially higher when profits from sexual exploitation are factored in. A new report launched by the organization in Geneva finds the impact of the global economic and jobs crisis is worsening the forced labor problem. New data from the International Labor Organization finds criminals now are making five times more in profits from forced labor than they did four years ago. At that time, the organization reported they were making huge profits of $32 billion a year. That included $28 billion from sexual exploitation. Roger Plant, heads the organization's Special Action Program to Combat Forced Labor, said illicit profits from forced labor are likely to be much more now. "In 2005, we looked at $4 billion of profits outside the sex industry. We are now saying, we have a loss to the workers of $20 billion outside the sex industry. So, we are likely to be dealing with a much more serious problem, "he said. That would add up to $52 billion, if the profits of sexual exploitation were the same. The International Labor Organization calls forced labor a global problem. It says this form of modern slavery operates in multinational companies in industrialized countries, not just in the informal sector of developing countries. The U.N. agency reports more than 12 million people around the world are trapped in all forms of forced labor. Between 40 and 50 percent are children under the age of 18. Plant says child labor is a particularly serious problem in West African countries. He adds the whole issue of forced labor has not received enough attention in Africa. The report finds people are forced to work very long hours under bad conditions for no pay or very little pay in a wide range of industries. It says forced labor is appearing in electronics, automobiles and modern textiles, as well as in brick kilns, small fishing boats and backward agriculture in developing countries. Arias to open Expotur By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
President Óscar Arias Sánchez will be among those speaking at the inauguration of Exportur 2009 tonight in the Teatro Nacional. The event is the country's major tourism marketplace, and an estimated 250 foreign tourism wholesales are in town to negotiate contracts. This is the 25th year.
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Coastal residents rally today
against maritime zone evictions
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Residents who believe their coastal communities are being destroyed by the country's maritime law are taking to the streets in front of the Asamblea Legislativa today. The organization has been named Frente Nacional de Comunidades Amenazadas por Politicas de Extinción and members are supporting a legislative initiative to modify the existing maritime zone law. Victoria Quirós Ramírez, a proponent of the bill, said that the goal is to provide protection to coastal communities that have existed for generations and are now being threatened by evictions, demolitions and millions of colons in fees to remain. She cited communities like El Muelle de Tambor de Cóbano on the tip of the Nicoya Peninsula where 110 families have been given until June to leave their dwellings. She said some residents of Ostional face the same problem. Last week in Montezuma on the peninsula there was a push for evictions, voiding of business licenses and demolitions, she said. This also is taking place in Dominicalito, Dominical, Pochote, Penas Blancas, Costa de Pajaros, Isla Venado, Isla Cedros, she said. Another reader added Matapalo to the list. On the Caribbean, Puerto Viejo and Cahuita residents face similar problems. The organization grew out of a meeting of community representatives in Nicoya Feb. 27. That was the same day that A.M. Costa Rica reported that the Sala IV constitutional court had invalidated a law that would protect Cahuita and Puerto Viejo homeowners who are within the 50-meter section of the maritime zone. As a manifesto issued by this group said, they and their ancestors have lived in and used what is now the maritime zone for years and that the government and other institutions have taken advantage of their poverty and lack of knowledge and resources to make their situation illegal. |
The maritime law went into effect in
1977. In the case of Cahuita and
Puerto Viejo residents lived on that land for nearly 100 years, but
they had no documents to prove it. Very little of Costa Rica's coastal land is under private ownership even though most of it supported dwellings and homes long before the maritime zone law. The law specifies that property from mean high tideline to 50 meters inland is public and cannot be developed except for very few uses, like marinas. The next 150 meters inland is controlled by the state and the local municipality. Private ownership is not allowed, but the municipal officials in conjunction with the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo can grant concessions for use. The group said that residents of the communities know that the hidden agenda is to evict them from their lands and homes in favor of powerful economic interests who want to exploit the zone. The courts have ordered municipalities to destroy many structures in the maritime zone even though some predated the maritime law. Business in Playas del Coco and in Quepos have been bulldozed. The law favoring Cahuita and Puerto Viejo provided those communities with city status and exempted the land from maritime zone rules. Now that the Sala IV has stripped the communities of city status, whole sections of beachside homes could be demolished. The organization includes communities in the provinces of Limón, Guanacaste and Puntarenas. It is not constitutionally possible to have acquired any valid rights in the maritime zone of Cahuita and Puerto Viejo after 1977, the year in which the maritime zone law went into effect, the court said. Many inhabitants of the area came later than 1977, and many who were there earlier will have trouble proving that. Residents of that area have developed a legal process to prove and acquire title to their land. Even in today's market some ramshackle homes are sitting on million dollar beach properties. |
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Campaign against tuna farm
and shrimp trawlers to be highlighted by fiesta
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
An environmental organization is continuing its campaign against tuna farming with a two-day fiesta in Río Claro de Pavones, not far from the proposed site of the controversial operation. The organization Programa de Restauración de Tortugas Marinas launched a campaign almost as soon as Granjas Atuneras Golfito S.A. announced the proposal. The idea is to install 10 tuna cages at the mouth of the Golfo Dulce to fatten yellow fin tuna provided by local fishermen. The project was suspended by court order May 9, 2007, due to a series of inconsistencies referring to contamination threats to the surrounding ecosystem and its impact on sea turtles, said the organization. However the project is now back on track awaiting approval from the minister of the environment. |
"The
project would offer little if any economic feedback for the rural
communities that surround the Golfo Dulce," said the Programa de
Restauración de Tortugas Marinas. "What’s more, the
project threatens to disrupt the gulf’s delicate ecosystem, a natural
resource that supports local fisheries and sustainable tourism
opportunities." The organization said it hopes to generate enough support to put a referendum on the ballot next year, if necessary. Meanwhile, the fiesta has been set for May 23 and 24, starting at 9 a.m. The organization also has been campaigning against shrimp trawling because the nets can kill sea turtles. That campaign also is noted in the announcement for the fiesta. The organization promises boat races, food, and handicraft of the Guaymi native Costa Ricans who live nearby, among other activities. |
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Archaeologist described
eBay's unexpected artifact impact
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By the University of California
at Los Angeles news service Having worked for 25 years at fragile archaeological sites in Peru, archaeologist Charles Stanish held his breath when the online auction house eBay launched more than a decade ago. "My greatest fear was that the Internet would democratize antiquities trafficking, which previously had been a wealthy person's vice, and lead to widespread looting," said the University of Califonia at Los Angeles professor. Indeed, eBay has drastically altered the transporting and selling of illegal artifacts, Stanish writes in an article in the May/June issue of Archaeology, but not in the way he and other archaeologists had feared. By improving access to a worldwide market, eBay has inadvertently created a vast market for copies of antiquities, diverting whole villages from looting to producing fake artifacts, Stanish writes. The proliferation of these copies also has added new risks to buying objects billed as artifacts, which in turn has worked to depress the market for these items, further reducing incentives to loot. "For most of us, the Web has forever distorted the antiquities trafficking market in a positive way," Stanish said. Looting, which is illegal, is widely recognized as destructive to cultural heritage because it can remove from public ownership tangible links to a people's past. In addition, looting is perceived as the enemy of scholarship because it typically is done without regard to any appropriate methods that allow scientists to date objects and to place them in a larger, more meaningful context. Stanish is one of the world's premiere authorities on Andean archaeology and supervises one of the world's largest collections of working archaeologists, Stanish has been tracking objects billed as antiquities on eBay for more than nine years. His conclusions also are formed by experiences with the U.S. customs service, which occasionally asks him to authenticate objects. In addition, Stanish has visited a number of workshops in Peru and Bolivia that specialize in reproductions of pottery and has interviewed these artisans. While his background is in South American archaeology, he has tracked eBay listings of antiquities from many cultures. "Chinese, Bulgarian, Egyptian, Peruvian and Mexican workshops are now producing fakes at a frenetic pace," he writes. When he first started tracking eBay's sales of antiquities, Stanish focused mainly on objects related to his field. At the time, the ratio of real artifacts to fakes was about 50-50, he estimates. About five years later, 95 percent were fakes. Now, he admits, he can't always tell, because the quality of the fakes has improved so much. He estimates that about 30 percent of "antiquities" currently for sale on eBay are obvious fakes, in so much as creators mix up iconography and choose colors and shapes for visual effect rather than authenticity. Another 5 percent or so are genuine treasures. The rest fall in the ambiguous "I would have to hold it in my hand to be able to make an informed decision" category, he writes. Stanish admits himself to occasionally being duped by fakes encountered in shops in areas where both looted items and fakes are sold. The advent of eBay has had the biggest impact on the antiquities market by reducing the incentive to unearth precious treasures in the first place, Stanish has found. |
 Pottery head. Real or fake?
"People who used to make a few dollars selling a looted artifact to a middleman in their village can now produce their own 'almost-as-good-as-old' objects and go directly to a person in a nearby town who has an eBay account," he said. "They will receive the same amount or even more than they could have received for actual antiquities. "The advent of eBay has had the biggest impact on the antiquities market by reducing the incentive to unearth precious treasures in the first place, Stanish has found. "People who used to make a few dollars selling a looted artifact to a middleman in their village can now produce their own 'almost-as-good-as-old' objects and go directly to a person in a nearby town who has an eBay account," he said. "They will receive the same amount or even more than they could have received for actual antiquities." As a result of the rise of a ready market, many of the primary purveyors have shifted from looting sites to faking antiquities. In addition to linking craftsmen with a market for cheap fakes, eBay has tended to have a depressing effect on prices for real looted artifacts, further discouraging locals from pillaging precious sites. "The value of . . . illicit digging decreases every time someone buys a 'genuine' Moche pot for $35, plus shipping and handling," he writes. (An authentic antiquity would sell for upwards of $15,000.) So far, authentication techniques have struggled to keep abreast of increasingly sophisticated fakes, Stanish said. Pottery can still be authenticated reliably, although the process is costly. In addition, forgers tend to only guarantee the authenticity of their pieces as long as no form of "destructive" analysis is used. While just a tiny flake of pottery is required for thermoluminescence dating — the gold standard for pottery — the process is technically considered destructive, Stanish points out, so the test invalidates such warrantees, no matter its conclusion. Thanks to laser technology and chemical processes for forming antique-appearing patinas, stone and metal, reproductions are almost impossible to authenticate using today's technology, Stanish writes. However, the prospect of authentication techniques eventually catching up with today's fakes is also having a chilling effect on the market for antiquities, by dramatically adding to the risk of illicit, high-end trafficking. "Who wants to spend $50,000 on an object 'guaranteed' to be ancient by today's standards, when someone can come along in five years with a new technology that definitively proves it to be a fake," he asks. |
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Freed U.S. journalist in Iran
just wants to relax By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. journalist Roxana Saberi has spoken to reporters for the first time since being freed from an Iranian jail, saying she has no immediate plans and just wants to relax with her family. Wearing a blue headscarf, Ms. Saberi told journalists in Tehran Tuesday she is very happy and thankful to all the people who helped her. The 32 year old was arrested in January while buying a bottle of wine, which is illegal in Iran. She was later charged and found guilty last month of espionage. After Ms. Saberi's lawyer appealed the court's decision, a judge reduced her sentence and freed her from prison Monday. Ms. Saberi's father, Reza, says the family is preparing to take her back to the United States, but he has not said when they would go. U.S. President Barack Obama has welcomed Iran's decision on Ms. Saberi, calling it a "humanitarian gesture." The United States continues to stress that the journalist was wrongly accused. France plans to disconnect illegal music downloaders By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The lower house of the French parliament has approved a bill that will cut Internet connections to those who repeatedly download music and films illegally. The legislation, passed by a vote of 296 to 233, goes before the French Senate Wednesday, where it is expected to pass. The legislation gives Internet users two warnings for illegal music or film downloads. After a third infraction, Internet connections would be cut. If the legislation is adopted, France will become the first country to target Internet users in such a way. The measure enjoys strong support from the international film and music communities, which have complained of declining sales in the face of illegal on-line file sharing. But critics say the bill will intrude on Internet users' civil liberties and will be difficult to enforce. French lawmakers rejected the same legislation last month, when only a handful of deputies showed up to vote on the measure. In a related development, the European Parliament passed legislation last week saying the basic rights of Internet users can not be restricted without a court order. It was not clear Tuesday how or if that conflict will be reconciled. |
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Rules proposed to help coral reefs under threat Special to A.M. Costa Rica
An international team of scientists has proposed a set of basic rules to help save the world’s imperiled coral reefs from ultimate destruction. Their proposal is being unveiled at the World Ocean Conference 2009 in Manado, Indonesia, where leaders of six regional governments plus Australia and the United States are meeting to declare the largest-ever marine reserve in world history, the Coral Triangle Initiative. “The catastrophic decline in the world’s coral reefs demands urgent management responses on two fronts,” say the researchers. They are from the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, The Australian Museum, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, James Cook, Perpignan and the United Nations Universities and The Nature Conservancy. The key to saving threatened coral ecosystems is to maintain the links between reefs allowing larvae to flow between them and re-stock depleted areas, the team argues. The researchers propose six ‘rules of thumb’ for keeping coral ecosystems viable: (1) allow margins of error in extent and nature of protection, as insurance against unforeseen threats; (2) spread risks among areas; (3) aim to create networks of areas which protect all the main types of reef creatures, processes and connections, known and unknown; (4) protect whole reefs where possible and place buffer zones around core areas. (5) allow for reef species to spread over a range of distances, especially 20–30 kms; and (6) use a range of conservation approaches, including marine protected areas. The rules are designed to operate in a range of situations, including where detailed scientific knowledge of local coral reefs and their species is sparse, the team says in a review article in the journal Coral Reefs. |
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