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A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
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José, Costa Rica, Friday, May 22, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 100
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 Ministerio de
Cultura y Juventud
photo
This work is among 20 being featured
by the Galería Dinorah Bolandi in the Teatro Popular Melico Salazar through July 26. The exhibition by Carlos Aguilar is titled La Madonna y el niño. Mosquito sex change seen as control factor By the Virginia Tech news staff
Researchers with the Fralin Life Science Institute at Virginia Tech have identified a gene responsible for sex determination in mosquitoes that can transmit yellow fever, dengue, and chikungunya viruses. Only female mosquitoes bite because they need blood for developing eggs, and researchers believe that a higher ratio of males could reduce disease transmission. In a study published in the Science Express, the scientists identify a male-determining genetic switch called Nix in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that underlies the difference between males and females. These master switches often reside in genomic black holes, which is why none had been found in mosquitoes or other insects before. “Nix provides us with exciting opportunities to harness mosquito sex in the fight against infectious diseases because maleness is the ultimate disease-refractory trait,” said Zhijian Jake Tu, a professor of biochemistry in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and a Fralin Life Science Institute affiliate. The scientists injected Nix into mosquito embryos and found more than two-thirds of the female mosquitoes developed male genitals and testes. When they removed Nix using a genome-editing method, male mosquitoes developed female genitals. The study provides the foundation for developing mosquito control strategies by converting females into harmless males or selectively eliminating deadly females. “We’re not there yet, but the ultimate goal is to be able to establish transgenic lines that express Nix in genetic females to convert them to harmless males,” said Zach Adelman, an associate professor of entomology. Aedes aegypti is an invasive species originally from Africa that first began to spread around the world by ship in the 1700s. This species is a major health problem because it is highly adapted to human environments. Aedes aegypti is among the small fraction of mosquito species that transmit pathogens to humans. “Targeted reduction of Aedes aegypti populations in areas where they are non-native could have little environmental impact and drastically improve human health,” said Brantley Hall, a doctoral student in Tu’s lab and co-first author on the paper, together with Sanjay Basu, a postdoctoral associate in Adelman’s lab. Ecuador's officials want to be editors. too Special to A.M. Costa Rica
The Inter American Press Association describes as a new attack the fines levied by the government of Ecuador on privately owned and independent media for content that it regarded as counter-productive to the interests of the authorities. The association declared that the government wants to determine what is news and information of public interest and how facts should be published, which it says represents a clear interference and a violation of the editorial freedom that the press must have for a democracy to exist. The newspaper La Hora maintained its constitutional right to resist paying a fine of $3,540 imposed by the superintendency of information and communication, the entity enforcing the communications organic law, for not having covered and published declarations by the mayor of Loja Feb. 23. Association President Gustavo Mohme, editor of the Lima, Perú, newspaper La República, declared, “The argument for this fine provides us the rationale for what we have been saying about this law, it being a weapon that the government uses to intervene in content and overrule the editorial criteria of the media.” He added that the Ecuadorean government “once again is showing how it uses regulations to control public discourse.” Claudio Paolillo, chairman of the association's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information and editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda, stated that with this new attack the government, through its state interventionism of communications “comes to the point of defining what is information of public interest, where and when it should be published, and what is the language that the media should use,” in order to publish the official texts that the government demands. The Ecuadorean authorities, not being satisfied with the publication of a response that a minister called for in El Universo, demanded that the newspaper re-publish the document, information that will have to appear in the space indicated and with the headline and adjectives required by superintendency. Not complying with these requirements the newspaper could see a reoccurrence of the request or face contempt charges and being ordered to pay increased fines. Additionally, the newspaper El Comercio was ordered by the superintendency to publish on its front page a correction and public apologies to a minister and the general manager of a state-run hydraulic project as a result of a news item published April 5. The order was the result of a complaint filed by the minister.  Ministerio de Obras
Públicas
y Transportes
photo
Right now there are no turns
permitted across the tracks to the left.
Sabana rail crossing will get
gates
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Transport officials plan to reopen the Sabana crossing in June once lights and gates are installed at the railroad tracks. The crossing has been officially closed since March 2013, but there still are unofficial turns to the north as motorists cross the tracks after evading barriers that have been erected to prevent this practice. The location is just south of the Gimnasio Nacional on the southeast corner of Parque la Sabana. The location has been the scene of vehicle encounters with trains. The site will be the first with crossing gates for the valley train line.  Cell Press photo
Image compares ancient Taimyr wolf
lower jaw to a modern pipette.
Bone shows humans' long link
to dogs
By the Cell Press news staff
Dogs' special relationship to humans may go back 27,000 to 40,000 years, according to an analysis of an ancient Taimyr wolf bone reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology. Earlier genome-based estimates have suggested that the ancestors of modern-day dogs diverged from wolves no more than 16,000 years ago, after the last Ice Age. The genome from this ancient specimen, which has been radiocarbon dated to 35,000 years ago, reveals that the Taimyr wolf represents the most recent common ancestor of modern wolves and dogs. "Dogs may have been domesticated much earlier than is generally believed," says Love Dalén of the Swedish Museum of Natural History. "The only other explanation is that there was a major divergence between two wolf populations at that time, and one of these populations subsequently gave rise to all modern wolves." Dalén considers this second explanation less likely, since it would require that the second wolf population subsequently became extinct in the wild. "It is possible that a population of wolves remained relatively untamed but tracked human groups to a large degree, for a long time," adds first author of the study Pontus Skoglund of Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute. The researchers made these discoveries based on a small piece of bone picked up during an expedition to the Taimyr Peninsula in Siberia. Initially, they didn't realize the bone fragment came from a wolf at all. This was only determined using a genetic test back in the laboratory. But wolves are common on the Taimyr Peninsula, and the bone could have easily belonged to a modern-day wolf. On a hunch, the researchers decided to radiocarbon date the bone anyway. It was only then that they realized what they had: a 35,000-year-old bone from an ancient Taimyr wolf. The DNA evidence also shows that modern-day Siberian Huskies and Greenland sled dogs share an unusually large number of genes with the ancient Taimyr wolf. "The power of DNA can provide direct evidence that a Siberian Husky you see walking down the street shares ancestry with a wolf that roamed Northern Siberia 35,000 years ago," Skoglund says. To put that in perspective, "this wolf lived just a few thousand years after Neandertals disappeared from Europe and modern humans started populating Europe and Asia."
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| The contents of this Web site are
copyrighted by Consultantes Ro 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 Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, May 22, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 100 | |
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| Immigration police put crimp in Sixaola tourist visa
passport scam |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Immigration police cracked down Thursday on the long-running scam by which expats could have their tourism visas renewed without leaving the country. Police detained three immigration workers at the Sixaola border crossing as well as two other individuals. The way to obtain visa renewal for about 60,000 colons, some $120, was well known in the expat enclaves on the Caribbean coast. A taxi driver would collect passports and money to take them to the border post. There the passports were stamped to show that the individual named therein left the country. Then a fake stamp from adjacent Panamá was applied to show the fictitious arrival in Panamá. First World tourist have to leave the country every 90 days, and this generates a resident known as a perpetual tourist. Some individual have been renewing their visas either legally or illegally for more than a decade. Despite laws to the contrary, many work here. |
The arrests
also underscore the proposals made by a number of residents in an
informal poll Sunday. The frequent suggestion was that Costa Rica
should allow tourists to renew a visa simply by paying a fee at a bank.
That would be a boon to snowbirds who own property here and seek to stay four or more months during the Northern Hemisphere winter Such a provision was in the last immigration bill, but when the measure finally past the legislature, technicians had changed the wording so that renewals did not apply to 90-day tourists. Fake exits and returns take place at other border posts. In fact, wanted individuals have been known to enter and exit Costa Rica without generating any paperwork at all. The arrests Thursday took place while tourists were lined up at the border post seeking to make a legitimate crossing. The arrests might cause trouble for some long-term tourists because agents at the border question and sometimes deny entry to those who have been exiting and entering Costa Rica repeatedly. |
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Little guy,
long fall The security ministry has found it gets a lot of favorable public relations when officers help stricken wild creatures. This monkey made all the major news stations Thursday. The mono titi fell and sustained a head injury in San Antonio de Paso Canoas. A branch may have broken. The creature was knocked out when a member of the Policía de Fronteras found it. The animal was moving normally when it was caged for transportation to a shelter for recovery. |
 Ministerio de Seguridad
Pública photo
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| Cartago utility provider is offering broadband Internet
connections |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Cartago's utility service is offering a fiber optic network that can provide broadband Internet access of up to 100 megabits per second. The agency said that it can provide service to 46,000 users. The agency, the Junta Administrativa del Servicio Electrico |
Municipal de
Cartago, also provides other utilities. The agency began hooking up
customers in January as a pilot project, it has reported. The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad is expected to debut a similar service later this year. Cartago residents can find out the details of the service at the agency's Web site. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A. 2015 and may not
be
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, May 22, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 100 | |||||
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| Fake
tweet that shook up stock market considered by media professor |
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By the University at Buffalo news
service
A false tweet from a hacked account owned by the Associated Press in 2013 sent financial markets into a tailspin. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 143.5 points and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost more than $136 billion of its value in the seconds that immediately followed the post. Once the nature of the tweet was discovered, the markets corrected themselves almost as quickly as they were skewed by the bogus information, but the event, known as Hack Crash, demonstrates the need to better understand how social media data is linked to decision making in the private and public sector, according to Tero Karppi, an assistant professor in the University at Buffalo's Department of Media Study. Based on its speed, Hack Crash was identified as a computer-based event, initiated by sophisticated algorithms designed to identify and evaluate Internet content that could influence markets. Those algorithms launched what amounted, in human terms, to a panicked trading spree, executing thousands of trades per second, all because of the assumed gravity of one social media posting. “We need to begin to identify the different ways social media is being connected to modern finance. This includes an understanding of how things spread online and how the Internet infrastructure is designed for things to spread,” says Karppi. Though not all tweets are equal, under certain conditions, posts can spread like spilled milk across a table. Add critical credibility factors to the mix and it’s as though that same milk |
has been spilled just as one
end of the table is being lifted off the ground. That’s what happened on the afternoon of April 23, 2013, when hackers broke into the AP’s Twitter account and sent a message that a pair of explosions at the White House had injured President Barack Obama. As a trusted news organization with millions of Twitter followers, the AP tweet, albeit a malicious hack, had inherent authority and popularity, being retweeted 4,000 times in less than five minutes. The information spread into financial markets in micro-seconds and the markets responded. Nobody knows for sure what exactly caused the flash crash in the markets, but many financial analysts researched in the study argued that high-frequency traders who use algorithms both to execute trades and to get important signals of the future from social media feeds were involved. Financial algorithms execute trades based on many variables, sometimes performing autonomously. And they move faster than human thought. Since the markets operate on uncertainties and probabilities, the algorithms presumably responded to the uncertainties and probabilities implied by the false tweet, but Karppi says it’s impossible to know the specific genetics of these algorithms. Hack Crash is often cited as an indication of a system failure, but Karppi says it’s an example of algorithms working according to design. To understand Hack Crash it’s necessary to continue exploring the relationship between social media, the market and its algorithms. |
Here's reasonable medical care
Costa Rica's world class medical specialists are at your command. Get the top care for much less than U.S. prices. It is really a great way to spend a vacation. See our list of recommended professionals HERE!amcr-prom
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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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 Fifth
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, May 22, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 100 | |||||||
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| U.S. Senate passes fast track for Trans-Pacific Partnership By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. President Barack Obama’s trade agenda scored a major victory Thursday when senators advanced a bill to facilitate approval of a massive 12-nation Pacific Rim free trade pact. The Senate barely cleared a procedural hurdle when it voted 62-38 to end debate on trade promotion authority, which subjects negotiated deals to simple-majority votes of approval or disapproval in Congress with no amendments allowed. The procedural vote all but assures final Senate passage of trade promotion authority, for which only a simple majority is required. That vote could come as early as today. “I am very happy the Senate has decided to take another step forward on this very important initiative,” said Republican Majority leader Mitch McConnell moments after the vote concluded. The president also commented, praising the move. "I want to thank a bipartisan group of senators who took a big step forward this morning on a trade agenda that is consistent with strong labor standards, strong environmental standards, and open up access to markets," said Obama. "It's an agenda that’s good for U.S. businesses, but most importantly for American workers." Trade promotion authority , also known as fast track, would speed approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership of nations that account for about 40 percent of global economic output. The partnership has overwhelming Republican support as well as the backing of a handful of pro-trade Democrats, a coalition that ultimately prevailed despite fierce efforts by opponents to block or delay the bill’s advancement. Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown objected to ending debate before scores of proposed amendments to the legislation had been aired. “We make decisions here that throw people out of work,” said Brown. “We are going to vote on this without even having amendments on how to take care of those workers and how to do trade enforcement. It simply does not make sense.” McConnell and the bill's author, Sen. Orrin Hatch, stressed that the chamber could vote on a series of amendments prior to the bill’s final passage. “I’m willing to work with my colleagues to get us there,” said Hatch, another Republican. “We need to get this bill passed. We need to pass it for the American workers who want good, high-paying jobs. We need to pass it for our farmers, ranchers, manufacturers, and entrepreneurs who need access to foreign markets in order to compete. We need to pass it to maintain our standing in the world.” Votes on major trade issues often do not break down on strictly partisan lines. For example, Sen. Jeff Sessions, a Republican, voted against advancing trade promotion authority, arguing that Congress should not surrender its right to amend trade deals and that previous pacts have led to net job losses in America. “As in the past, it appears this agreement will reduce jobs and reduce wages, too. And reduce manufacturing. We cannot be a strong nation without a manufacturing sector,” said Sessions. Should it pass the Senate, trade promotion authority would need to be approved by the House of Representatives before President Obama could sign it into law. The president faces considerable opposition from members of his own party in the House, where Democrats also say they're concerned about labor conditions for workers in some of the Pacific nations. The bill grants fast track powers for six-years, meaning the president’s successor would also have use of the tool. Six Baltimore law officers facing criminal indictments By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The top prosecutor in the eastern U.S. state of Maryland says all six officers charged in the police-custody death of an African-American man have been indicted by a grand jury. State Attorney Marilyn Mosby said the grand jury found probable cause to formally indict the Baltimore Police Department officers in the arrest of Freddie Gray, who died in April after being injured while in police custody. At a news conference Thursday, Ms. Mosby said the grand jury had brought a range of charges against all six officers and had affirmed the most serious charge, second-degree depraved-heart murder, against Caesar Goodson, the driver of the van that transported Gray after his arrest. Gray was arrested April 12. He died in a hospital a week later of spinal cord injury and became a symbol of what protesters say was police brutality against African Americans. His death brought to a boil long-simmering tensions between the police and poor neighborhoods in this majority-black city, culminating in rioting and looting. U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch has opened a federal investigation of the Baltimore Police Department, to determine whether the force had engaged in a pattern of civil rights violations. Patriot Act reauthorization faces problems in Congress By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. lawmakers of both parties and in both houses say they are unsure how Congress will deal with the federal government’s expiring authorization for domestic surveillance in the fight against terrorism. Unless Congress acts, the National Security Agency will cease collecting Americans’ phone records June 1, the expiration date of the Patriot Act passed after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The law grants the U.S. government broad powers to probe and prevent terrorist plots. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican, said Congress must “make sure we have access to the data we need to prevent another 9/11.” To date, only one chamber has acted. The House of Representatives voted last week to keep phone records in the hands of telecommunications companies unless the NSA obtains a court order to review them. Senate passage of the same bill would quickly and easily solve the problem, according to Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy. “Just bring up the House bill and pass it. That’s the most logical, the one that would protect our national security,” said Leahy. That path is ruled out by the Senate’s Republican leadership, though, which favors reauthorizing the existing program. Instead, key senators have crafted a stop-gap measure that would extend the government’s snooping capabilities for two months. A temporary fix would allow deliberations to continue, according to Sen. Richard Burr, chairman of the Intelligence Committee. “I hope that, because of the seriousness of the issue, we will get some period of time to be able to take an alternative to the floor and to have a real debate and a real chance for members to put their amendments to it,” said Burr, a Republican. The Senate is expected to hold domestic surveillance votes Saturday. But therein lies a calendar conflict. By Saturday, the House of Representatives will have adjourned for a week-long recess and be unavailable to vote on any Senate-passed bill by the June 1 deadline. “The House has acted,” said Speaker John Boehner when asked about the disconnect between the two legislative chambers. “Time for the Senate to act. If they act, we'll certainly look at what they do and make a decision about how to proceed.” Some senators are betting the House will find a way to vote on any Senate-passed bill. “We cannot let the whole program lapse. Nobody wants that to happen,” said Sen. John McCain. “We know the House doesn’t want the whole program to lapse. I predict that’s not going to happen.” Pressed on just what the House might do, McCain, a Republican, predicted a solution would be found through some sort of procedural maneuver. The NSA program recently was ruled illegal by a federal appeals court, and its constitutionality ultimately could be decided by the Supreme Court unless Congress acts to reform it. The White House wants the government’s bulk collection of phone data ended, but does not want information to disappear entirely. 2016 campaign under way in key state in U.S. Midwest By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Although the November 2016 presidential election is over a year and half away, campaigning to choose party nominees is already underway in Iowa, a key state because it holds a party caucus early in the election season. Though Cedar Falls, Iowa, has a population just over 40,000, right now it is the epicenter of the race for the White House. Republican party presidential hopefuls are pressing the flesh and answering voters' questions on issues ranging from immigration reform to marriage equality. “My biggest concern as a voter is that America has to come back to God," said Linda Morris. Republican voter Morris was among a group attending a breakfast with candidate and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. “We have gone down the wrong path for the last eight years," she said. Conservative voter Curtis Bartlett agrees. He wants a president that can reverse escalating racial tensions in America. “I don’t understand why whites and blacks can’t get together and sit down and talk over what one person wants, the other person wants too," said Bartlett. Bartlett’s list of concerns also includes the debate over same-sex marriage. It’s an issue that attracted dozens of protestors outside Cedar Falls High School. Inside, Huckabee joined fellow presidential hopeful former senator Rick Santorum on stage to speak with conservative voters who oppose same-sex marriage. “I don’t think it’s that big of an issue," said Lynn Brant. As a Democrat, Brant supports same-sex marriage. In his party, the leading presidential contender is former secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who also visited Cedar Falls to interact with potential supporters. “It looks like Hillary might be a shoo-in, but I hope not. I hope that there is a debate that she will have to defend herself and the Democrats will have a choice," said Brant. Iowa matters for these candidates because it is the first state to hold an election, called a caucus. The results can either boost or sink aspirations for the White House early in an election year depending on who wins or loses. For Republicans this year, Iowa is the place where they can build name recognition and momentum ahead of the caucus. But the growing field of candidates all vying for attention and campaign funding concerns Curtis Bartlett. “Because are you going to wipe out somebody who could be a good candidate right away because they can’t get the finances?" asked Bartlett. More finances means more advertising, and in an election expected to break all previous records for money spent, every dollar counts. Child brides are spotlighted by wedding of Chechen girl By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The recent marriage of a 17-year old Chechen girl to a local police chief who was 30 years older and already had a wife caused an outcry in Russia and beyond. The bride was reportedly forced to marry and her parents were intimidated into giving their consent. The union, supported by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, spotlighted yet again the plight of many underage girls in developing countries. Russian law bans forced, underage and polygamous marriages. But in Russia's remote Caucasus region, tribal laws and traditions carry more weight than state law. And so on Saturday, 47-year old Nazhud Guchigov married a 17-year old bride. Chechen leader Kadyrov attended the wedding and one his aides was at the bride's side for most of the ceremony. Police warned Russian journalists who investigated the controversial wedding to stay away. Despite laws against child marriage, in developing countries one in every three girls is married before reaching age 18. One in nine is married under age 15. The problem was discussed at a symposium in Morocco this week. "We realize now that if we do not accelerate the pace, and if we do not respond more or put more programs in place, there will be 1.2 billion girls who will be married before the year 2050," said Lakshmi Sundaram, head of Girls Not Brides. Bangladesh, India and Niger are the most affected countries with three in every four girls getting married before age 18. The practice continues mostly due to persistent poverty and gender inequality and is often arranged by a girl's parents. "So it is at this level that we must first intervene. And the second level is at the community level, for the community to start perceiving these dangers," said Sidikou Moussa, a child advocate from Nigeria. Experts say governments in the affected countries need to do more to keep girls in the educational system and protect them from abuse and violence. European union approves plan to track conflict metals By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Metals mined from conflict zones in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo are often sold by warlords to buy weapons. This week European lawmakers voted to force manufacturers to prove that their supply chains are not inadvertently fueling conflicts and human rights abuses. Covered in dust, and working in dangerous conditions along hot, narrow tunnels, teams of miners carve at the face of a tin mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The rich resources of this and other central African countries – elements like tungsten, tin, tantalum and gold – are sold to make the latest mobile phones and laptops. But the vast profits are often pocketed by warlords, said Lucy Graham of Amnesty International. “In places like the east D.R.C., Central African Republic and Congo, armed militia groups mine these products and then sell them for arms and ammunition. Those minerals enter the global supply chain and then end up in the products we use every day. And at the moment European companies have no obligation to check where the minerals in their products have come from,” said Ms. Graham. It seems that is about to change. European lawmakers burst into applause Wednesday after the chamber voted to force European companies to ensure the minerals they import – or products that contain such minerals - are not contributing to conflict or human rights abuses in other countries. The law is modeled on the United States’ Dodd-Frank Act, under which U.S. companies must inform regulators if they use metals from D.R.C. or neighboring countries. French lawmaker Marie Arena argued in favor of the European legislation. She said that the Dodd-Frank Act achieved true change in the countries of origin. It took time but it did achieve an improvement. Several European lawmakers voiced fears over the impact on local economies in Africa. Cecilia Malmstrom, EU commissioner for international trade, noted the risk of trade diversion. "We do run a high risk of further disrupting global supply chains and driving them away from Africa altogether. We also risk creating trade diversion resulting in prejudice against individual countries or even the whole continent and that would to plummeting prices for minerals from certain origins," said Ms. Malmstrom. Amnesty International said European industries lobbied heavily against the move towards compulsory oversight of supply chains. “I can’t overstate what a groundbreaking step this was. When the proposal originally came out last year, it was completely voluntary,” said Ms. Graham. The proposal for a compulsory system now goes to individual EU member states for further scrutiny. Campaigners say Brussels has sent a powerful message to big business – that profits made on the latest technology should not have their origins in war. |
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| 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, Friday, May 22, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 100 | |||||||||
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U.N.
surveys well-being in Latin America
Special to A.M. Costa Rica
People’s well-being means much more than living below or above the poverty line, according to 30 experts, government and parliament officials from 10 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, who gathered in Quito at a seminar on well-being measurements sponsored by the U.N. Development Programme and the Government of Ecuador. The analysis, discussions and examples of how countries are already adopting new ways to measure progress will be used in Programme ’s next Human Development Report for Latin America and the Caribbean 2016 "Multidimensional Progress: Well-being beyond income." The report will focus on what pushes people up the economic ladder, into the middle class and what prevents them from sliding back into poverty. The Programme’s studies show that people’s and households’ capabilities and assets, such as the level of education, owning a home, access to social protection, and other cushions are crucial to prevent people from falling into poverty. "It is crucial to redefine the very idea of progress; what it means to live well and how people perceive the transformations in our societies, since income alone doesn’t give us the full picture," said Jessica Faieta, U.N. assistant-secretary general and Programm director for Latin America and the Caribbean. "It is also essential to focus on exclusion, discrimination and vulnerabilities that still limit people’s opportunities: public policies in the region must reflect that." "When we speak of well-being and living a good life, I think of enhancing each Ecuadorian’s capacity, while improving and expanding their access to basic services," said Cecilia Vaca Jones, minister coordinator of social development of Ecuador, "And people’s testimonies are crucial to better understand, address and meet their diverse needs at the local level." The Programme analyzed and released the 2013-2014 Gallup survey data that gives an insight into well-being perceptions in Latin American and Caribbean. Most people (71 per cent) said they were as satisfied with their standard of living, all the things they can buy and do, as people in the European Union and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, known as the rich countries’ club. People in Latin American and Caribbean are also the most satisfied with their routines: 49 per cent of people said they strongly agreed with the expression "you like what you do every day," compared with 38 per cent in North America, 37 per cent in the Nordic countries and 20 per cent in East Asia. Moreover, in Latin America and the Caribbean, older or less educated people are more likely to show higher levels of concern. While 44 per cent of the total population said they felt worried yesterday, this proportion jumped to 50 per cent for those aged 50 or more, while the rate for those with eight years or less of formal education rose to 49 per cent. Perceptions also differ between women and men. The survey revealed that in Latin America and the Caribbean a higher proportion of women (46 per cent) than men (41 per cent) felt worried yesterday, and women were slightly more worried about money (33 per cent) than men (29 per cent). In addition, more women (27 per cent) than men (17 per cent) reported having felt sadness during the day before being surveyed. About one third (31 per cent) of Latin Americans expressed concern about money. The 20 per cent poorest population were also most worried about money (39 per cent). Also, interviewees in the age group 30 to 49 were the most anxious about financial issues (35 per cent). "It is interesting to note that a third of the population in the region claims to experience money worries, even though two thirds are poor and vulnerable,"said George Gray Molina the Programme's chief economist for the region. "Material progress and perceptions of well-being don’t often coincide. That’s why we are here in Quito, listening to experiences on alternative notions and measurements of well-being, such as those from Bolivia and Ecuador." About 25 per cent live on less than $4 a day and 38 per cent live just above the poverty line earning $4 to 10 a day, totalling 68 per cent, according to Programme statistics |
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| From Page 7: 12 firms share grants totaling $400,000 By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Some 12 small businesses divided a $400,000 grant awarded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología y Telecomunicaciones. The grants were part of a program of innovation and human capital. Among the winners were the firms La Pequeña Granja, which makes cosmetics from goat milk, Convertica Industrial, which is in the graphics business, and Solara, which makes devices to measure air pollution. |
