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Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for more details |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page | |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Friday, June 13, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 116
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 Ministerio de Gobernación,
Policía
Tourist police in Dominical
encountered this toucan abandoned in a house. The young bird became
another animal rescue for the week, and officers turned it over to an
animal rescue center in Quepos.y Seguridad Pública photo Trail ride Sunday in Boruca territory By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Sunday would be a good time to bring your horse to Rey Curré. The Boruca community in southwestern Costa Rica plans its II Gran Cabalgata de la Diversidad Cultural. The plan is not just for a trail ride through the spectacular scenery there, but there also are dances and other fiesta activities. The trail ride features diversity because sponsors hope that persons of all cultural and ethnic backgrounds attend. The area for the trail ride is along the Río Grande de Térraba. It will be followed by a parade of horses and riders and typical food at the local soccer field. There also will be presentations by the local young people in the Liceo Rural Indígena de Yímba Cájc. The community is right on the Interamerican highway south of Buenos Aires de Puntarenas. Fees to enter the trail ride will benefit residents of the nearby San Bosco de Rey Curré, who will be investing the funds to build a water line, something the community now lacks, said organizers.  Ministerio de Gobernación,
Policía
y Seguridad Pública photo These are fake lottery tickets. Fuerza
Pública officers said they
found a man selling these on the public street in San Juan de Tibás. The Junta de Protección Social de San José that runs the lotteries confirmed that, and the man was detained. Planning for 2015 to 2018 begun By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Unknown to many expats there are legions of government workers making plans for the period 2015 to 2018. The persons who do that at various agencies met Thursday to begin preparing a development plan for those years. Olga Marta Sánchez is minister of Planificación Nacional y Política Económica. Her ministry is in charge of putting all the proposals together. The development plan reflects the goals and aspirations of not only the central government but of the citizens. Due to the recent election, the planning is in the hands of the Luis Guillermo Solís administration. The national plan is broken down into smaller segments even to the municipal level. Trio held following San Pedro stickups By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Police Wednesday managed to track down three robbery suspects to Hatillo 2. They were spotted because the Fuerza Pública had a description of their vehicle. They are suspected of being the men who systematically threatened and robbed persons waiting at various bus stops in San Pedro. Police said there may be five separate cases involved. The suspects, when detained, had an unregistered firearm and a butcher knife. Those waiting in bus shelters are easy targets, in some cases the robbers do not even get out of their car. Solís rejects Venezuelan crackdown By the A.M. Costa Rice wire services
Posted Friday, June 13, at 1:40 p.m. The president of Costa Rica reaffirmed his rejection of the crackdown against the opposition in Venezuela and urged that human rights be respected throughout the region. "The problems of democracy can only be solved with more democracy as Thomas Jefferson said,” Luis Guillermo Solís said in an interview with Voice of America. “Affirmation of human rights regimes should be maintained and deepened throughout the hemisphere." Venezuela's attorney general ordered the arrests Wednesday of three government opponents, including a former presidential candidate and a former state oil company executive. The men are wanted in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro. The Costa Rican president also emphasized the need to strengthen trade ties between his country and the U.S. through the free trade agreement between the two nations. "The free trade agreement exists and should become a major opportunity for our exporters, our trade and the public in general," he said. Solis said that in his opinion the greatest challenges in Central America are poverty, inequality and lack of security. Solis has agreed to advance the discussion on marijuana legalization. Editors love the supernatural news stories By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Newspapers must walk a fine line between popularism and evidence. Most bend the line a little bit to generate readers. Every editor would love to have a line on a haunted house or a yeti in the suburbs. In fact, The Weekly World News considered these topics as well as space aliens to be the publication's beat. The weekly newspaper's mascot was Bat Boy, who still lives somewhere in cyberspace. Today is Friday the 13th, a day that might generate tales of bad luck. Of course, the day is no more danger-ridden than any other day. And it is not considered a bad luck day in Costa Rica. A.M. Costa Rica once toyed with running an astrology column, Many newspapers do. Television stations have their own resident seer. All is sheer hogwash, as countless double blind social science experiments have shown. So editors settled for a crossword. Costa Rica is filled with mystical characters. They are part of the national heritage. Spooks like the Carreta sin Bueyes, la Segua and El Cadejos serve a social purpose to keep men from staying out too late drinking or running around. These not only are hogwash but are in desperate need to being modernized. How about the Taxista with the Glutinous Meter or the Motocyclista sin Cabeza? So expats should enjoy today and not expect some unusual wave of bad luck. There is a good chance that every day is a bad luck day in some culture. So they should sit back and perhaps get in a ;little reading of the latest exploits of Bat Boy HERE!
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| 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, June 13, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 116 | |
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| Donation to fight drugs is really an investment, U.S.
official says |
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By
Michael Krumholtz
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff As both Costa Rica and the United States coordinate to fight the region's drug trafficking, a U.S. representative here said they look at Costa Rica as one of the best partners they have. Ray Perrin, political advisor of the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica, said the government feels very confident in the Seguridad Pública and it looks forward to more drug seizures as a result of their joint cooperation. To show this assuredness, Thursday Perrin presented Costa Rica's coast guard units with more than $100,000 worth of new technology to be used against illegal drug trafficking. Among the high-tech equipment are night-vision cameras, maintenance tools, and 10 new computers valued at $3,000 apiece. “For us it's a good investment because this is not just a Costa Rica problem, this is a regional problem,” Perrin said. “The drugs come from Colombia, Peru, or even here, and travel north to the States.” He said about 80 percent of drugs coming from South America are transported up the Isthmus of Panama, making Costa Rica a hotbed for trafficking. The other 20 percent is believed to be smuggled into Honduras through airplanes. As part of the Central American Regional Security Initiative, known as CARSI, the U.S. has worked with the area's countries to crack down on the drug trade and strengthen police forces. In Costa Rica alone they have not only made donations, but have also trained police units. Thanks to the joint cooperation the two countries have on Costa Rican waters, the Servicio Nacional de Guardacostas has been able to confiscate more than seven tons of cocaine since May. Celso Gamboa, the minister of Seguridad Pública, thanked Perrin and President Barack Obama for showing a reinforced sense of |
 Ministerio de Gobernación,
Policía y Seguridad Pública photo
Here
are some of the computers donated by the United States
confidence in his forces. He said they can be assured their continued investments into the country are well worth it. “The wager that the U.S. has made with this investment is the right wager,” Gamboa said. Perrin said that these additional investments into Costa Rica's police forces are a sign that the government trusts that Costa Rica is appropriating the money in useful ways. Anytime the U.S. invests in another nation, he said, its obligated to funnel tax money into a field where it won't go wasted. “U.S. taxpayers don't want a situation where they see other countries aren't using the money that we put into them,” he said. Thursday representatives from the security ministry also announced the death of Fernando Córdoba Brenes, who was the coordinator of Programa Regional Antidrogas. Gamboa called Córdoba an unsung hero and said he was instrumental in consolidating the country's drug control forces. |
| Walking tour will travel through the long history of
Alajuela Centro |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Architect and historian Andrés Fernández will be turning his attention to Alajuela Centro June 28 when he conducts another Brunch del Patrimonio. Fernández mainly has conducted walking tours and seminars on locations in San José. but sponsor Alianza Francesa says there is a lot to see in Alajuela too. The French cultural organization lists the Parque de los Mangos, the cathedral, the former military barracks, the central market and the Instituto de Alajuela. Alajuela dates back to 1783 when it was founded as a small village by a bishop, Esteban Lorenzo de Tristán, Alianza notes. The town grew with the country and reflected changes in tastes and even the politics in its homes and public buildings. The pre-lunch guided walking tour begins at 9 a.m. It will be in the four blocks around the park. The cost including lunch is 18,000 colons or 13,000 colons for members of Alianza Francesa |
 Alianza Francesa photo
The neoclassical cathedral of
Nuestra Señora del Pilar in Alajuela. |
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| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| 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 | ||||||
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, June 13, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 116 | |||||
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| Researchers devise how to keep boats and whales separated in
Pacific |
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By
the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute news staff
The Republic of Panama’s proposal to implement four traffic separation schemes for commercial vessels entering and exiting the Panama Canal and ports has been approved unanimously by the International Maritime Organization. Based on studies by Smithsonian marine ecologist Hector Guzman, the new shipping lanes are positioned to minimize overlap between shipping routes and humpback whale migration routes and reduce vessel speed four months a year at the peak of the whale overwintering season. Several cetacean species move through the tropical waters near the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal in the Gulf of Panama. With Smithsonian ecologist Richard Condit, intern Betzi Perez-Ortega and colleagues from Whalesound Ltda. in Chile and College of the Atlantic in Maine, Guzman recently published new results from six seasons in Panama’s Las Perlas Archipelago. Based on photo identifications of nearly 300 individual humpback whales, including 58 calves, the team estimated the total population as over 1,000 animals that visit year-round and match them to individuals sighted from the Antarctic Peninsula, Chile and Colombia. They conclude that the Archipelago, only 60 kilometers (40 miles) from the Pacific entrance to the Canal, is an important breeding area for humpback whales from the Southern Hemisphere. Nearly 17,000 commercial vessels cross the Gulf of Panama each year. This number is expected to increase significantly when new locks now under construction permit larger, post Panamax vessels to transit the canal and enter its ports. Based on his analysis of whales tagged with satellite transmitters, |
Guzman estimates
the new policy will reduce potential areas of collision between ships
and whales by 93 percent and reduce the interactions between ships and
whales by 95 percent in the Gulf of Panama. In the Pacific, an array of three schemes is also expected to significantly diminish the potential of ship collisions with coastal fishing vessels and pollution causing accidents impacting seven marine protected areas including Wildlife Sanctuaries, a U.N. World Heritage site and wetlands protected under international conventions. The Panama Maritime Authority took the lead, based on the input from the Panama Canal Authority’s Capt. Fernando Jaen and the Maritime Chamber’s Jocelyne Anchor to define the policy and shepherd it through the approval process. “This is a clear example of Smithsonian research that makes a difference,” said Acting Director, William Wcislo. “We are a research organization, not a conservation organization, but our research feeds conservationists’ efforts to protect biologically rich and vulnerable ecosystems.” “Scientific results impact conservation, but putting policy into effect takes a great deal of time,” said Guzman. “We have to be patient and consistent. It took two years of teamwork to design the policies and obtain a consensus for the traffic separation schemes for whale protection. Now Panama has six months to implement the TSS’s and the maritime industry has six months to comply.” Guzman is currently working with scientists and policy makers from Ecuador and Chile to safeguard passage for whales along the entire coast of South America and plans to expand the project to other countries in South and Central America. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| 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's Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, June 13, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 116 | |||||||
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| U.S. spokeswoman targeted by Russian derision, insults By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
She’s had songs written about her. She’s had Photoshopped images of her go viral. She’s had a verb named in her honor. In some parts of the Russian-language blogosphere, she’s become a minor celebrity. Not in a good way. Jen Psaki is the face of the U.S. State Department and seen in daily briefings fielding questions from reporters from around the world, trying to articulate U.S. foreign policy. She’s also the target of a relentless and unrivaled swirl of derision, mockery and outright insults coming from Russian bloggers, newscasters and state-run media, which operate under the thumb of the Kremlin. "I take it as a badge of honor,” Ms. Psaki said. “It is funny and entertaining that there has been a lot of time spent dedicated to Photoshopping pictures and different attacks on me over the course of time.” “I am in a good company: U.S. officials. In fact, many women who are U.S. officials over time who also have been victims of the same Russian propaganda machine, so I take it all in stride,” she said. That one of the top public officials of the U.S. government is being mocked isn’t new. What’s new is how personalized and vitriolic they are, coming mainly in places like Twitter and LiveJournal. It’s a campaign that appears to have if not the Kremlin’s imprimatur, then at least, a wink and a nudge. It also reflects the harsh rhetoric and accusations that have been slung back and forth by Washington and Moscow on the crisis in Ukraine. Moscow asserts the government that took over after Viktor Yanukovych was ousted as president in February was populated by Nazis and radical nationalists, and that Washington was directly backing it. Washington, for its part, has asserted that Moscow is directly funding and managing the insurgency roiling eastern Ukraine. Dmitry Kiselyov, the man who anchored Russia’s dominant news program on the state-run TV broadcaster before being tapped as the Kremlin’s main propaganda chief, has helped popularized the term “psaking.” In a recent broadcast, he asserted that: “People say psaking when someone makes a dogmatic statement about something they don’t understand, mixes the facts up, and then doesn’t apologize.” Much of the derision has focused on Ms. Psaki’s misstatements and slips of tongue, most of which have been minor. For example, at a press briefing April 10, she answered a question about Russian natural gas transport saying that gas largely flowed from Europe to Ukraine and Russia. She immediately corrected herself, and her comments were ignored by the majority of the media. Russia bloggers, however, piled on, saying it demonstrated the ignorance of the U.S. government. The state-run English-language TV channel RT has created a slideshow dedicated to what it has called Ms. Psaki’s misstatements. Dmitry Rogozin, a firebrand who was formerly ambassador to NATO and is now a vice prime minister, tweeted that the Psaki press briefing “lacked a laugh track.” He followed up with a derisive tweet addressed to Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, saying “Please tell Lavrov to bring Psaki some textbooks.” Some bloggers even asserted Ms. Psaki had been fired by the State Department for the gaffes, setting up the Twitter hashtag #SavePsaki, to sarcastically support her. She was not fired. Russia’s top diplomat to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, offered semi-diplomatic commentary, when asked directly by a state TV reporter if he knew her whereabouts. “I don’t know where Psaki has gone off to,” he told the Rossiya TV reporter, but hoped she would “appear again… I’ve always found it very interesting to listen to her.” Ms. Psaki isn’t the first U.S. government representative to be on the receiving end of Russian mockery — official or unofficial. Michael McFaul, who was ambassador to Moscow between 2012 -2014, was stalked by Russian state TV reporters, and routinely lambasted on Twitter, LiveJournal and other Russia blog sites. In an interview, Ms. Psaki appeared to suggest that the personal vitriol was being organized or, at least, endorsed by the Kremlin. “I do think that there is a question, that I think those who are involved and are behind these attacks should think about: that is, whether these are the actions of a world superpower which Russia is,” she said. “Should they be exerting their attention towards these personal, these inaccurate attacks toward me and other United States officials?” she asked. “I think it's pretty clear what's behind this: the disagreement over the Ukraine and our policies on Ukraine.” Former president Bush, 90, celebrates with skydive By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Former U.S. president George H.W. Bush has marked his 90th birthday with a skydive in Kennebunkport, Maine, Thursday with a group of U.S. Army veterans. Bush landed softly, away from the area where reporters stood to report on the event, one wire service said. "He had a big smile for the crowd. You could tell he was exhilarated,'' Diana Untermeyer, a family friend, said. Back safely on the ground, the former president was greeted with a kiss from wife, Barbara, and a hug from son George. "It's a wonderful day in Maine — in fact, nice enough for a parachute jump," the 41st U.S. president said before jumping. He first jumped from an aircraft almost 70 years ago when he was shot down over the Pacific Ocean during World War II. Bush, the father of 43rd U.S. president George W. Bush, has been celebrating birthdays with occasional skydives for years and marked his 75th and 80th birthdays with jumps. In 2009, when he jumped to mark his 85th birthday, his son, then-President Bush, said: "I think he's a nut to jump." Report says sloppy care given radioactive material By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. government's Accountability Office says the country faces challenges in securing industrial sites that use radioactive materials which could be used by terrorists. The agency says in a new report that investigators visited 33 sites across the country, including those involved in oil and gas production, aerospace, and food sterilization. The agency found what it describes as vulnerabilities at a number of the sites. They include open doors, no fencing, and unlocked skylights. It also found two cases where workers with criminal records, including one who had made terrorist threats, had unimpeded access to radioactive materials. The Accountability Office says terrorists could use this material to build and set off a so-called dirty bomb, spreading deadly radioactivity across a populated area. Mrs. Clinton, as frontrunner, checks support with tour By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Former secretary of State Hillary Clinton has embarked on a U.S. and Canadian tour promoting her latest book, “Hard Choices,” a memoir of her time as America’s top diplomat. The book tour has fueled speculation that Mrs. Clinton is likely to run for president in 2016 amid public opinion polls that show her as the clear favorite among possible Democratic and Republican contenders. But early frontrunner status in presidential politics is not always a guarantee of success down the road. For now Mrs. Clinton is drawing large crowds on her book tour and many Democratic supporters see it as an opportunity to urge her to run for the White House two years from now. Mrs. Clinton says she will decide on a White House run by early next year. Mrs. Clinton’s new book deals primarily with foreign policy issues during her tenure as secretary of State. But during a recent policy speech in Washington, it was clear Mrs. Clinton is also devoting considerable thought to domestic policy amid the speculation that she will be a presidential candidate in 2016. “We know that America is strongest when prosperity and common purpose are broadly shared, when all our people believe they have the opportunity and in fact do, to participate fully in our economy and our democracy,” said Mrs. Clinton. Public opinion polls show Mrs. Clinton is a huge favorite at the moment both for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination and in the general election in 2016 as well. George Washington University political scientist John Sides says she appears to be one of the strongest political frontrunners in decades. “She is a known quantity to most voters. I don’t think she has to worry about image management yet. And ultimately it is just a question of whether she thinks she has the necessary stamina and the desire to actually pull this off,” said Sides. But Mrs. Clinton has been in this position before. She was also a favorite for the Democratic nomination in 2008 but lost out in a lengthy and difficult campaign to then-sen. Barack Obama, who went on to become the nation’s first African American president. Democratic strategist Celinda Lake predicts that another Clinton campaign in 2016 would rally women voters who believe the time has come to make history again. “The vast majority of Americans said we are going to have an African American president before we have a woman president, and they were right. Well now people think it is time for a woman and there are a lot of particularly baby-boomer women who feel like, if not Hillary, then who?” If Mrs. Clinton does run, analyst Sides says she will likely take a different approach to the race, given some of the tough lessons she learned in her losing campaign in 2008. “I think one of the things they learned is not to be caught unawares in some of the early primaries and caucuses. Barack Obama’s victory in the first caucus, the Iowa caucus, was certainly a significant blow to her and gave him the momentum he needed to carry this thing all the way through,” he said. Voters have not always embraced presidential frontrunners. In 1972, sen. Edmund Muskie of Maine was the odds-on favorite to win the Democratic nomination. But he was upset by an insurgent campaign on behalf of South Dakota sen. George McGovern. McGovern went on to lose the presidential election in a landslide to President Richard Nixon. But elements of his campaign strategy were copied by other successful insurgent Democratic candidates over the years including Jimmy Carter in 1976, Bill Clinton in 1992 and Barack Obama in 2008. Republicans in Congress mull defeat by Eric Cantor By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
This week's surprise primary defeat of the second most powerful Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, Eric Cantor, is still reverberating on Capitol Hill. Some lawmakers and analysts are asking if this shake-up in the House Republican leadership will make it even harder than it already is for the divided government to tackle pressing problems such as immigration. Republican House Speaker John Boehner faced reporters Thursday for the first time since Cantor became the first majority leader ever to lose in a primary race to another member of his own party. Speaker Boehner called on Republicans to pull together to oppose the policies of Democratic President Barack Obama. “This is a time for unity. This is a time to focus on what we all know is true, that the president’s policies have failed the American people," said Boehner. Cantor lost his Virginia primary race to an economics professor, David Brat, who was supported by local conservative Tea Party groups. Brat accused Cantor of being too close to big business and of supporting amnesty for the children of illegal immigrants. Some analysts say that the American people are polarized in their political views, and that the divided U.S. government - with the White House and Senate controlled by Democrats and the House controlled by Republicans - reflects that big ideological gap across the country between Republicans and Democrats. Geoffrey Skelley of the University of Virginia says he is not sure if Congress’s ability to govern can become any worse than it already is. “But I will say Cantor’s loss will make Republican leaders very skittish and Republican members of Congress skittish about doing anything with immigration reform, because in this case, Cantor very much rejected the notion that he was soft on immigration," said Skelley. "Brat would say Cantor is in favor of amnesty and Cantor would very strongly respond to that, ‘no I’m not.'” Republican Speaker Boehner blamed the lack of action on immigration reform on President Obama. “The president is going to have to demonstrate that he can be trusted to implement a law the way it was passed," he said. Next week, House Republican members will choose a successor to Eric Cantor, and several candidates are already vying for the position. Analysts say whomever takes over as the next Majority leader may reveal a lot about which way Republicans are headed. Bergdahl headed to U.S., for more time in hospital By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. Army sergeant held by the Taliban in Afghanistan for nearly five years is set to return to the United States. U.S. military officials say Bowe Bergdahl, who has been treated at a military hospital in Germany, will arrive today at an Army medical center in San Antonio, Texas. The 28-year-old Bergdahl won his freedom two weeks ago when U.S. President Barack Obama agreed to a prisoner swap, releasing five suspected Taliban leaders from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and sending them to Qatar, which agreed to keep them for a year. Following initial euphoria in the United States over Bergdahl's release, his case has generated an intense national debate. Some U.S. lawmakers have criticized Obama for releasing Taliban officials they believe will eventually seek to harm the U.S. in some way, while others have criticized the president for ignoring the U.S. law requiring that Congress be given a 30-day notice when Guantanamo prisoners are going to be freed. U.S. military officials say Bergdahl walked away from his Afghan post in 2009. Some of his one-time military colleagues say he willingly deserted his unit. In emails sent to his parents shortly before he disappeared, Bergdahl voiced disdain for some of his Army commanders in profane terms and said he had become disillusioned with the U.S. mission there. He has yet to be reunited with his family, but that could be at the Texas medical center.  Voice of America photo
Gorilla in aluminum has
environmental messageLoss of humanity
linked
to increased technology By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
In a room glowing brightly from hundreds of twinkling LED light bulbs, the sound of Christmas carols - sung in Hindi and Punjabi - fill the air, as a misshapen Santa Claus stands atop a flying saucer and a huge spaceship with a carousel on top hovers nearby. This unusual holiday scene by artist Kenny Irwin Jr. -- a practicing Muslim -- is a bold statement about the commercialization of Christmas in which traditional holiday objects like reindeer and nutcrackers have been transformed from the familiar to the bizarre. The unusual display is part of a new exhibit called "Human, Soul & Machine: The Coming Singularity!" at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, which examines the impact of technology on human life as told through the eyes of more than 40 artists, futurists and inventors. Museum founder and director Rebecca Hoffberger is also the curator of the exhibit. Every year she picks a serious theme for a major exhibit to get people thinking. This year, it's about the blessing and the dangers of technology. "Because,” she said, “technology is becoming increasingly powerful globally at rates never before witnessed.” The exhibit begins with an exploration of what Ms. Hoffberger believes is the birth of technology: the discovery of fire. “Fire begins our capacity to manipulate our environment -- the earth -- that was a gift to all of us,” she said. That gift was a two-edged sword, she added. While it offered wonderful benefits, like heat and light, "what fire unleashed is really the whole chemical world; the ability to smelt metals and make swords, guns, tanks, and in the blink of an eye, the atomic bomb.” In light of that consideration, a whole section of the exhibit is devoted to warfare, from a single, powerful image of the atomic bomb, to a series of drawings by artist Rigo 23 that explore the ethics of drone usage. There’s even a two-meter-tall Godzilla, inspired by the original mythical figure that was first created in response to the devastating effects of the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Numerous images and signs in strategic areas of the museum remind visitors of the cost of war. Other images in the exhibition explore the destruction of the environment, as captured in a painting called "Gaia" by artist Alex Grey. "On one-half of the tree of life is earth, idyllic in harmony with human kind; we’re vegetarians, we’re not in any way harming nature. But on the other, it’s what we’ve done to manipulate nature,” Ms. Hoffberger said. And the presence of a life-size gorilla covered with aluminum sends a powerful message about the threatened existence of this great ape species and the plundering of ancient forests for the popular metal. “Aluminum, because it was so difficult to refine for a period of humanity’s time, was much more valuable than gold,” said Ms. Hoffberger. “But at the same time, the moment they found a way to refine it, aluminum became the stuff we wrap around a hot dog and throw away in the trash.” Another work of art by Alex Grey is his “Sacred Mirrors” series of paintings, which artfully explores the connection between body and soul. Adam Kurtzman’s full-size “The Bride of Frankenstein” represents mankind’s historic fascination with control over life and death. Sculptor Allen Christian, who has two works in the exhibit, is nostalgic for the days when handmade tools and objects were valued. His robot, “Ajax,” is made from items like railroad spikes that once held importance but have since been discarded. “These things are imbued with energy from the people that made them, designed them, used them,” he said. “It’s about trying to put them back together to give it a different life.” His “Piano Family” -- made out of spare piano parts -- represents a bygone era when things now made by machine were crafted by hand. “Having a piano where the family would be around it,” he said, “was about being together and this was a form where we bonded,” he said. “There was something very powerful about music that I think was lost when recordings came out when you didn’t have to participate.” There are displays in the exhibition representing the positive side of technology: a video of one of Henry Ford’s cars for example, and a wooden replica of the Wright brothers’ airplane. But the loss of humanity permeates the show. One of the most powerful is Fred Carter's series of giant wooden carvings. One of them, titled “The Final Battle,” depicts on one side the face of an anguished human and on the other, his transformation into a robot. The piece is made out of a single piece of wood, and warns of the consequences of the industrial manipulation of nature. “Fred was so worried that humanity was going to lose its humanity,” said Ms. Hoffberger. “And he shows here on the robot side, the bits of copper wire coming out of us that we’re no longer quite human.” “With every exhibition, I try to prepare something absolutely delicious for a three-year-old to eat in terms of eye candy and flashing lights,” said Ms. Hoffberger, but she also wanted something “that a Nobel Prize winner can love and learn from.” On this day a group of visiting students from a nearby school seemed transfixed by the blend of art, science, humor and imagination. Victoria Greenia, 12, said she felt the exhibition “shows how technology has helped us and yet has destroyed our environment in a way.” Angus Gatlin, 11, was mesmerized by Grey’s "Gaia." “I liked this one in specific because I thought it was really powerful…if you notice all the animals are dying…I think the whole message is, ‘Watch what you’re doing,’” he said. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, June 13, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 116 | |||||||||
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Convictions in journalist's killing praised Special to A.M. Costa Rica
A court in Honduras has sentenced the murderers of journalist Alfredo Villatoro to life imprisonment. Villatoro, host of the news program “Diario Matutino” broadcast by HRN radio in Tegucigalpa, was kidnapped May 9, 2012, and his body was found six days later. The criminal court sentenced Marvin Alonso Gómez and brothers Osman Fernando and Edgar Francisco Osorio Arguijo to life imprisonment. The Inter American Press Association welcomed a ruling. “We applaud the fact that in this case justice has been served,” said Claudio Paolillo. He is editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda. He also is the chairman of the press association’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information. “In addition to the correct action for the murder of Villatoro, we are pleased that the Honduras government is taking steps to show its determination to put an end to violence and impunity,” he added in a reference to the recent passage by the Honduras Congress of a law for the protection of journalists. In another development Paolillo denounced a campaign of harassment and aggression in Cuba launched against members of the Hablemos Press Information Center news agency and condemned an attack on its director, Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez. Guerra Pérez was attacked in Havana by a person sent by the political police, injuring him in the face, the agency reported on its Web site www.cihpress.com. The day before he had received a telephoned threat. The center also reported on recent violent actions against its members in the past two months by political police that include “coercion and intimidation, jailing, arbitrary detentions, death threats, harassment, character assassination, beatings, seizure of tools” and the blocking of their mobile phones, among other acts. “We condemn the threatening actions against the news media, to which unfortunately the archaic Cuban regime has made us become accustomed to,” said Paolillo, who also expressed his “solidarity with the independent journalists who, going against the current, survive in the face of an archaic government that does not recognize the fundamental right to freedom of expression and of the press.” Several days earlier more than 70 members of the Ladies in White movement were detained for five to 12 hours when they attempted to attend a Sunday Mass at various churches around the country. |
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| From Page 7: Formal courses in tourism planned By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The tourism professional association has entered into an agreement with a university in La Uruca to provide technical training in the field. The Asociación Costarricense de Profesionales en Turismo said Thursday that it has made the agreement with Universidad Fundepos, which is setting up a 12-month course. The programs are directed at tourism company management and encouraging entrepreneurship. The association noted that 90 percent of the companies in the field are small businesses whose operators might profit from technical training. The university said the courses are designed with international standards in mind. |
