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José, Costa Rica, Monday, July 20, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 141
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 Municipalidad de Nicoya
photo
Dancers from last year's
celebration.Nicoya
festival will begin Tuesday
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Nicoya begins its annual festival Tuesday. The six-day event incorporates the holiday of the Anexión del Partido de Nicoya a Costa Rica, which is Saturday. The municipality said that marimba music will be heard each day at noon in the Parque Recaredo Briceño in the center of the community. The park is the center of the festival. This is the 191st anniversary of the decision that made Nicoya part of Costa Rica. The Colegio Técnico Profesional de Corralillo will be holding its tortilla contest Wednesday through Friday. The woman of the area compete as they demonstration how to make tortillas by hand. The municipality said that folklore groups will be coming from Perú, Lebanon, the Ukraine and Panamá. The festival begins Tuesday at 5 p.m. There is a street parade and fireworks planned. Municipal official say that the major streets have been illuminated with designs typical of Guanacaste.  Ministerio de Seguridad Pública
photo
Members of the Servicio Nacional de Guardacostas count turtle
eggs that were taken from a a boat off Playa Amor, Flamingo. The boat crew dropped off tourists on the beach but then decided to help themselves to the 165 eggs the found there, said the Ministerio de Seguridad Pública. The eggs will be relocated. Fire station started in Miramar By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Fire fighters have placed the cornerstone for a new station in Miramar, Montes de Oro, Puntarenas. President Luis Guillermo Solís participated in the ceremony Friday. The land for the station came from a donation by the municipality. Miramar with its 14,000 residents now is served by fire fighters based in El Roble, some 15 kilometers distant. The Cuerpo de Bomberos said that the new station will take about a year to construct, but that fire equipment and crews are being moved to the area to be housed in a temporary building until the new one is competed. Our readers' opinions
Dear A.M. Costa Rica: I must take exception to your editorial regarding the deal with Iran. Simply parroting neo-conservative talking points does not address the serious issues at the core of this matter. These negotiations and the international sanctions which compelled them were not about regime change. Rather, this is about containing Iran's existing nuclear weapons program. That Iran is a bad actor is widely accepted. Nonetheless, we must ask what alternative exists on the nuclear issue short of more military involvement in the Middle East. Keep in mind that the U.S. is not acting alone on either the sanctions or the deal. There are five other major world powers (economic and military) who are parties to this deal. To keep the sanctions in place if we decide to go it alone would be impossible. More likely than not, military action by Israel, Sunni Arab states, and/or the United States would be the only remaining option to stop Iran's nuclear weapons development. Is that palatable now when a peaceful path remains available? Nixon opened the door to China, and Reagan made a weapons treaty with the evil empire, the Soviet Union, based not upon trust alone, but upon inspection and verification. Both were condemned as dangerous by the neo-conservative hard liners at the time. Look where those agreements led. There will be extensive debate on the pros and cons of this deal in the next two months. This should be based on the facts of the agreement as written, not a bunch of scare tactics from the people who brought us the Iraq war (incidentally, based upon unfounded fears of weapons of mass destruction). At present, 71 percent of Americans support a negotiated settlement to this confrontation. Those who desire regime change are more likely to be rewarded by an open and prosperous Iranian economy, than by an attempt to starve the population and lob bunker busting bombs at entrenched military facilities. We tried regime change tactics in Iran when the CIA toppled the elected government and installed the Shah in the 70s. Look what that got us. No wonder they don't trust us either. Lost trust, on both sides, must be rebuilt by experience and time. Do we have the courage to give peace a chance? Wes Light
Ostional, Guanacaste, and Angel Fire, New Mexico This expats
prefers holding the euro
Dear A.M. Costa Rica: I was reading the lead article on the expats' advice on hard assets, and I'm wondering how on top of things is he ? Yes, Costa Rica is a financial disaster, and Greece is in the headlines, but the worst kept secret is that U.S.A. is in worse shape, and the Federal Reserve is in more danger than any institution on the planet. I agree with the authors suggestion to switch to hard assets and wish I didn't have colon CDs, but, I surly wouldn't switch into U.S. dollars. Why ? The Federal Reserve is leveraged at 77 to 1 and by this time next year the Chinese Yuan will be 25 percent of the International Monetary Fund's special drawing rights. This will basically begin the end of the U.S. dollar's reserve status and the Monetary Fund, which has a leverage of only 3 to 1 may take over the world's reserve function.. Combine this with the newly created BRICS world bank and the U.S. dollar is in more danger then the colon. James Rickards (an ex-CIA analyst) recently published a fantastic book that Sen. Rand Paul read parts of on the Senate floor. He points out that the end of the U.S. dollar reserve status has been planed. We all know that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner went public with Christine Lagarde, the Monetary Fund's managing director, by his side almost five years back and said the end needs to be managed and he wanted at least 20 years. Now five years has passed, and Mr. Rickards comments point out that that 20 years is too far out, and he presents solid evidence the plan is much sooner. This will soon rock the U.S. markets and shave at least 30 percent off the dollars value. he suggests the much hated euro is much safer, and his logic is sound. It isn't leveraged and will soar to its historic heights. I strongly suggest that Costa Rica's expats move into the euro over the U.S. dollar. It is quite fortunate that Costa Rica's banks offer euro-denominated accounts and that the current Greek situation has driven down the euro. Bob
Shakerdge
Paso Canoas
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, July 20, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 141 | |
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| Public workers carry the question of personal data to the
Sala IV |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Sala IV will get a chance to decide how much of a public employee's personal information should be public. Employees of the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad said they have presented such a case to the constitutional court and that the court has agreed to consider the issue. Employees of the Compañía Nacional de Fuerza y Luz also filed a similar case. In all, there are four separate cases. The cases are in response to revelations by La Nación and Otto Guevara Guth of Movimiento Libertario that showed public employees were making much more money than their private counterparts. The disclosures are newsworthy because of the country's critical financial state. The appeals are based on Constitutional provisions guaranteeing privacy of citizen information except at the order of a judge. Employees were unhappy that the salary data seems to have come from the monthly filings to the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social Many public officials and the editorial staff of La Nación, the Spanish-language newspaper, have said that this privacy rule does not apply to activities that involve public funds. Manuel González Sanz, the foreign minister, went to far as to post his most recent salary information on the ministry Web page. He makes 2.4 million colons a month, about $4,500. But deductions, including anticipated income tax, take 441,621.28, about $837. He said that citizens have the right to know the details of money that is paid from public sources. Names and other identifying information are touchy subject in Cost Rica. Most police reports do not give the full name of suspects, and official photos of arrests usually have the |
 Foreign minister's Facebook posting
face of any suspects and even those of police officers blurred or overprinted. The courts, citing a new law on privacy, have been removing relevant names from civil decisions that are made public. Names of individuals or corporations also have been deleted from a data base that contains information on criminal and civil cases. Access to such information is vital for anyone doing due diligence before becoming involved in business with firms or persons in Costa Rica, noted one private investigator. Court case files also are closed except to the individuals and the lawyers involved. On the other hand, information at the Registro Nacional is mostly open. For years the names of juvenile offenders were kept secret, although they sometimes show up in Fuerza Pública reports. Recently some Costa Rican agencies are keeping the names of juveniles secret even if they are crime or accident victims and are dead. Eventually the names will show up in the Registro Civil, which keeps an authoritative list of births, marriages and deaths. The trend toward secrecy is not restricted to Costa Ricans. Due to identity theft plenty of personal information that used to be public is now restricted, including the U.S. Social Security Death Index. |
| Government says $3.4 million was used to improve Nicoya
ferry docks |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The public works ministry says it has spent $3.4 million fixing up the docks where the Gulf of Nicoya ferries tie up. The jobs were done at Barrio El Carmen in Puntarenas Centro, at Paquera and at Playa Naranjo. The docks are used by thousands of tourists each year. The announcement coincides with the approach of the Anexión del Partido de Nicoya Saturday when politicians make a point to report what they have done in the Pacific coast communities. At Paquera, the ministry's División Marítimo Portuaria has installed two berthing dolphins. These are heavy wooden poles that provide a separation between ships. One was installed at Playa Naranjo, too, said the ministry. The dikes that protect the landing spots also were reinforced at both Paquera and Playa Naranjo, said the announcement. In Puntarenas the terminal structure was repaired. |
 Ministerio de Obras Públicas y
Transportes photo
Dock at
Paquera shows the improved access and dolphins.
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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 |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, July 20, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 141 | |||||
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| Sharp decline in solar activity puzzles scientists who study
nearest star |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
At almost regular intervals, the sun displays phenomena benignly called sunspots. Actually, they are violent storms. Space scientists closely observe this activity because it may have adverse effects on communications, navigation and even power grids. But the diminishing intensity of the last two solar cycles leaves them puzzled. When gigantic electromagnetic storms occur on the sun, scientists see them eight minutes later, which is how long it takes the light to reach Earth. It takes the first charged particles ejected by the storms 20 to 30 minutes to arrive. They are dangerous to humans, so if the storm is intense, astronauts aboard the International Space Station are advised to move into specially protected areas. After a day or two comes the biggest part of the storm, the coronal mass ejection. “That is billions of tons of solar material that’s blown away from the sun," said Alex Young of NASA's Heliophysics Science Division. "It’s traveling millions of kilometers an hour, but that is relatively slow.” |
Several
government agencies, as well as the U.S. Air Force, observe the
space weather, as they call it, 24 hours a day. NASA does it in order
to protect its astronauts and the sensitive electronics of its
spacecraft, but also because many questions about the local star still
need to be answered. One of them is why the sunspots follow a roughly
11-year cycle, from low to high activity. "Also, sometimes the intensity is higher and sometimes it is lower," Young said. "The current solar cycle that we are in is much lower than the previous one.” Another big question: Why is the sun’s atmosphere hotter than its surface? “Particles are much farther and farther apart," Young said, "but the temperature — that is, how fast these particles are moving — increases very quickly, going from tens of thousands of degrees up to millions of degrees.” Several satellites are constantly observing the sun, as well as the environment between the sun and Earth, sending pictures and other data. Young said scientists have been looking at the sun in incredible detail for only 30 to 40 years, and because the star is about 4 billion years old, that is only a tiny fraction of its long life. |
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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Colorado
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, July 20, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 141 | |||||||
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| Cuba expected to reopen its U.S. embassy today By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The United States and Cuba are set to reach a milestone in diplomatic relations today. The two countries will formally reopen their embassies, a move that is part of a series of recent steps to reset relations that soured more than 50 years ago. The reopenings are a culmination of behind-the-scenes negotiations between the two countries. Those negotiations led to a public declaration by President Barack Obama in December that the U.S. would work to normalize relations with Cuba. The change is partly a result of foreign pressure, said American University Cuba specialist William LeoGrande. “The Latin Americans had really become fed up with this old anachronistic, Cold War policy, and they let the president know at the Sixth Summit of the Americans in Cartagena, Colombia, in 2012, and said they would not come to the next one if Cuba was not invited,” he said. Workers have already removed the old sign from the Cuban Interests Section building in Washington. The new sign, designating the building as the Cuban Embassy, will be unveiled Monday. According to Cuba’s foreign ministry, today’s ceremony will be led by the Cuban foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla. A delegation of high-level officials, including national assembly members, are among those who will attend. Roberta Jacobson, the assistant secretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs, will lead a U.S. delegation. Ms. Jacobson played a pivotal role in talks to re-establish ties. The formal reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Cuba will take place later when Secretary of State John Kerry travels to Havana. In a Friday briefing, a State Department official said the U.S. flag would not be raised at the Havana embassy until Kerry arrived, although the embassy would be fully functional. However, early today, the Cuban flag was to be added to a State Department hall featuring the other national flags. Later in the day, Kerry and Rodriguez Parrilla were tto meet at the State Department and speak to the media. State Department spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. and Cuba continue to have discussions on a wide range of issues. “We began a conversation that I suspect will continue on human rights, which we know is going to be a part of this new relationship,” said Kirby. He also said the U.S. and Cuba had agreed to have conversations about fugitives and law enforcement. The State Department official called Monday’s reopenings a symbolic step, but a very important step in the next stage of U.S. relations with Cuba. The official said a tangible result of the changes is that more Americans would be able to travel to Cuba, and would do so with the support of the U.S. Embassy. The official also said Cubans would have increased access to the U.S. embassy in Havana. In the lead-up to plans to restore ties, the State Department removed Cuba from its State Sponsors of Terrorism list. U.S. officials said the move was separate from efforts to restore relations. However, the designation had been a major sore point for Havana. Other restrictions under the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba will remain in place. A vote by Congress is required to lift the restrictions. In a statement on the Cuban foreign ministry Web site, the Cuban government said the re-establishment of diplomatic ties and opening of embassies “completes the first stage of what will be a long and complex process toward the normalization of bilateral relations.” The statement also said there could be no normal relations between the two countries “as long as the economic, commercial and financial blockage continues to be fully implemented, causing damage and scarcities to the Cuban people.” However many Cubans have praised their government for enacting the changes and welcome the improved relations with the United States. Some have begun to sport clothing with the U.S. flag and other American symbols. “The dam has broken,” said Marc Hanson, an associate for Cuba at the Washington Office on Latin America. “This has been tremendous. I don’t think that anybody expected that on December 17 whenObama made his remarks that this is where we would be only six to eight months in the future.” But the warming of relations between the U.S. and Cuba is not without its critics. In a May hearing, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a Republican presidential hopeful, raised concern about whether there was enough focus on Cuba’s human rights record. “Their view of human rights isn’t just different than ours, they are flat-out wrong and immoral in their views,” he said. American Enterprise Institute analyst Roger Noriega, a former U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States, also expressed concern about U.S.-Cuba engagement at a time when there are questions about Havana’s stance on human rights. “I think we have had to lower our standards in order to raise our flag in Havana,” he said. “We are not defending human rights. We are not defending the very idea of representative democracy.” U.S. officials have vowed to continue to raise questions about Cuba’s human rights record as well as other areas of concern. American University's LeoGrande said he expected the warming of relations to result in a number of collaborative efforts between the U.S. and Cuba in the coming months. He said he expected the two countries to work more closely on issues including counternarcotics trafficking, law enforcement and the environment. Right advocates see little change despite rapprochement By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Leading human rights groups have stressed to U.S. lawmakers that historic diplomatic breakthroughs with Cuba should not shield it from rigorous American scrutiny of human rights violations. “In Iran and Cuba, the United States needs to leverage its diplomacy to look at human rights issues and not separate its diplomacy to either look, in the case of Iran, solely at the importance of nuclear peace, or in the case of Cuba, treating diplomacy as an end in itself,” said Mark Lagon, president of Washington-based Freedom House, testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “The U.S. decision to plow forward, full speed ahead, with the restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba just as 100 peaceful activists were being detained sends troubling and mixed messages,” Lagon added. Cuban-American Sen. Robert Menendez, a Democrat, seized on the discussion in relation to Cuba, and chastised his congressional colleagues for their itineraries when they visit the communist island-nation. “It’s pretty amazing to me that, when our colleagues in the Senate go to visit Cuba, they do not visit with human rights activists, political dissidents, independent journalists, because if they do, they get barred from a government meeting,” said Menendez. The Obama administration maintains that restoring diplomatic relations with Havana will further the cause of civil liberties and human rights by boosting communications and exchanges between the two countries that had been estranged for more than 50 years. When the thaw in relations was announced late last year, Cuba announced several rights-related trust-building measures, including agreeing to release 53 political dissidents, expand Internet access, and allow more visits by rights monitors. But the Communist government continues to hold dozens more political prisoners, tightly restricts freedom of expression, and uses threats and intimidation to discourage government critics, according to activist groups. At least 60 political prisoners remain behind bars in Cuba, including at least two dozen held on charges linked to peaceful political protests, according to a report this month by the independent Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation. Those figures are much lower than in past decades when Cuba was holding thousands of political prisoners. But activists warned that in some ways the progress was deceptive and reflects only a change in tactics. For instance, there has been a sharp increase in the number of short-term, arbitrary detentions, according to the Cuban Commission of Human Rights. The group received over 7,100 reports of arbitrary detentions in the first part of last year, over twice as many as during the same period in 2013. "Detention is often used preemptively to prevent individuals from participating in peaceful marches or meetings to discuss politics," according to Human Rights Watch's 2015 report on Cuba. The New York-based group's report also slammed Cuba for severely limiting the right to freedom of expression. "Only a very small fraction of Cubans are able to read independent Web sites and blogs because of the high cost of, and limited access to, the Internet," the report said. "Those who publish information considered critical of the government are sometimes subject to smear campaigns, attacks, and arbitrary arrests, as are artists and academics who demand greater freedoms," it continued. President Barack Obama has argued that increased engagement with Cuba will help give the U.S. more, not less, sway in encouraging the human rights and political reforms. Some rights groups agree with that assessment. "President Barack Obama’s historic decision to overhaul U.S. policy toward Cuba is a crucial step toward removing a major obstacle to progress on human rights on the island," said a December Human Rights Watch statement. "Rather than isolating Cuba, the embargo has isolated the United States, alienating governments that might otherwise speak out about the human rights situation on the island" said Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. The London-based Amnesty International also expressed hope that the move will offer an opportunity to "forge an agenda for human rights." "If the U.S. embargo on Cuba and its negative impact on the economic and social rights of Cubans is lifted as part of efforts to normalize relations between the two countries, it will mean Cuban authorities can no longer use the crippling sanctions as an excuse for lagging behind on its international human rights obligations." In its latest report on the state of global human rights, the U.S. State Department itself kept up the pressure on Cuba, acknowledging that widespread abuses remain a serious problem. Cuban paper say government read to expand Internet access By the
A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The Cuban government has announced plans to expand Internet access by introducing Wi-Fi hotspots across the country and reducing the cost that Cubans pay to get online. The move was announced last week in the Juventud Rebelde newspaper. The Cuban government had pledged to increase Internet access as part of talks aimed at normalizing relations with the United States. A spokesman for Cuba's state communications company told the newspaper that 35 government computer centers will have Wi-Fi starting next month. He also said the price for one hour of Internet access will drop to $2, less than half the normal cost. The cost is still unaffordable for most Cubans. Only a limited number of Cuban citizens have private Internet connections, which are not cheap. Foreigners can use the Internet at hotels, but also at steep prices. California looks to Australia to find ways to handle drought By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
As California endures a fourth year of punishing drought, state officials are looking to arid Australia for innovative ideas to tackle its water problems. Much like California, Australia was strapped for cash when it faced a megadrought, its worst-ever recorded, stretching across the 2000s. Yet by the time the Millennium Drought was over, the government had transformed its water management system into one of the most efficient in the world. The key reform used a cap-and-trade policy similar to those that have reduced greenhouse-gas emissions in many developed countries. “The government didn’t have enough money to build more infrastructure, so it developed a cap-and-trade system,” said Giulio Boccaletti, who heads the U.S.-based Nature Conservancy's Global Freshwater Program. Upgrades such as drip and computerized irrigation and aqueduct lining were built into the system and paired with urban conservation techniques such as storm water capture and recycling. Grey water systems were introduced that recycle shower and washing machine water to irrigate gardens. Sprinkler use on lawns was banned. “Their programs have reduced the average household daily water use to 55 gallons per person, compared to an average of 140 gallons in California between 2001 and 2010,” said Heather Cooley of the Oakland, California-based Pacific Institute, a non-profit environmental research group. The reforms are catching the attention of water managers throughout the American West, 35 percent of which is in severe drought. “They’ve done a lot of things we’ve been looking at as a model,” said California’s top water regulator, Felicia Marcus, who heads the state’s Water Resources Control Board. Australia’s water revolution started with agriculture, which dominates consumption, as in similarly drought-prone California. Rather than slash the water rights long held by farmers and other irrigators, the government ran a $2.4 billion buyback program to purchase water for the environment, coupled with a $4.5 billion infrastructure program. “The most significant thing we did was embrace a better water rights system designed to ensure the transition to efficient water use and innovation,” said Mike Young, a professor at the University of Adelaide. Restrictions on Australia’s water trade, in place since the late 1980s, were gradually eliminated. A national online marketplace now does nearly $2 billion in business each year. “We basically copied the banks,” said Young, who received a national award for his role in developing improved water entitlement, allocation and trading systems in Australia and is now in the U.S. working on a similar blueprint. “If you want to sell water to me, and we’re in the same hydrographic area, just log in and transfer the shares from your account to mine,” he said. At the peak of the drought, nearly all of Australia’s rice growers and many dairy farmers — both are in highly water intense forms of agriculture — scaled back production and sold water at high prices to citrus and grape growers. “The market facilitated a reallocation of water from low value to higher value use,” Boccaletti said. Getting to that point was not easy. Australia spent a decade measuring withdrawals from its major rivers before amassing enough data to move to a free market system. California, where many irrigators still lack water meters, faces similar challenges. “We don’t have that data yet,” Marcus said. Another hurdle for California is sorting out competing claims among rights holders, some of which date back more than a century. That’s difficult when most river systems in the state are not adjudicated. With regulators emboldened by emergency drought legislation, tougher metering requirements are on the horizon. California is saddled with the most complex water rights system in the U.S., a set of Gold Rush-era laws originally designed to protect the prospectors who panned the streams of the Sierra Nevada. The arrangement is obsolete and inefficient, water policy experts say. Like in most Western states, California water law grants those with the earliest claims legal priority to surface water, which becomes scarce during droughts. But the regulations discourage conservation. “It’s a use-or-lose system that prevents more economically efficient water use,” said Upmanu Lall, a leading hydroclimatology expert who heads Columbia University’s Water Center. In Australia, state governments allocate surface water to irrigators throughout the year. The percentage depends on seasonal availability, and shareholders can either sell their allocation or trade parts of it away. That kind of flexibility is impossible in California. “If your water rights are for mining or agriculture and you lease them to someone in another industry you may lose them, since they’re tied to a specific, beneficial use,” Lall said. California has had water trading for years, but activity is limited and the system more akin to in-person bartering than Australia’s computerized, highly efficient marketplace. “A real concern is that we don’t know how much water is traded, formally or informally, because no one is tracking it,” Cooley said. On top of that, lawyers have already filed four lawsuits with multiple claims challenging last month’s announced cutbacks in surface water allocations for more than 100 senior rights holders in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and watersheds. “This is our water. We believe firmly in that fact, and we are willing to take on the state bureaucracy to protect that right,” said Steve Knell, general manager of the Oakdale Irrigation District, in a statement. Many of those with more junior rights, whose allocations have already been slashed, are being hit hard, forcing them to fallow thousands of acres of cropland. Others are pumping groundwater at alarming rates. As a result, parts of California’s San Joaquin Valley, America’s most productive farmland, are sinking by more than 30 centimeters (about a foot) per year, according to U.S. Geological Survey data. “Right now the state has only about one year of water supply left in its reservoirs, and our strategic backup supply, groundwater, is rapidly disappearing,” wrote NASA’s Jay Famiglietti earlier this year. State lawmakers finally passed groundwater pumping restrictions in 2014, last in the American West to do so. But water agencies in California’s most over-pumped basins are not required to submit their plans until 2020, with sustainability targets pushed out until 2040. Australia’s 22 million inhabitants are mostly concentrated along the country’s southeastern coast, close to their water sources and serviced by a handful of integrated water management systems. In contrast, most of California’s nearly 39 million people live in large urban areas hundreds of kilometers away from their water sources — often a disparate mix that the state’s 3,000 wholesalers and retailers cobble together. |
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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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Up here near Nuevo Arenal, we seem to have been transported to the Ferengi homeworld. For those of you who never watched Star Trek or ST-DS-9 (that’s Star Trek Deep Space 9 for the uninitiated), the Ferengi are a race froma
Don’t get me wrong, rain is good. Rain makes things green. Right now I would like to send some of our rain to the areas of drought in the country because we have too much rain! A hundred inches in 6 months? Twice what we had in the same period last year? Too much rain. Too much rain is a garden problem. It leaches nutrients from the soil so fast that the pelleted works-for-three-months fertilizer needs to be applied every 6 weeks. It turns flat gardens to bogs and sucks your boots into the depths (as my friend Mary can attest). It washes out seeds and seedlings. It really requires raised or elevated beds. With lots of drainage. The best raised beds I have ever seen belong to my friend Shirley. In restructuring her garden, Shirley has had a set of raised beds made with concrete block. The beds are about 1x2 meters and a meter tall. They are well drained (if they weren’t, the plants would float away), filled with rich, well-composted soil, and arranged in a formal garden. Right now, since they are still new, they look a little raw and forlorn, but I am filled with envy whenever I see them. Once they are filled with flowers, they will be an excellent place for a garden club meeting (so everyone else can turn green with envy). As for Mary and I, I guess we will continue to slog along in the rain and look for things that like to grow in the rain. So far, my favorite rain crop right now is peanuts. They are growing like crazy.
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| From Page 7: Banks in Greece open after three-week holiday By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Banks in cash-strapped Greece opened today for the first time in three weeks. Bank customers will be allowed to make a single withdrawal of $455 a week, instead of just $65 in daily withdrawals. However, restrictions on cash transfers abroad will remain in place. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has again rejected proposals to write off part of Greece's debt, but says her government will show flexibility in new talks about how Athens structures its bailout repayments. Speaking Sunday on German television, the chancellor also ruled out forcing Greece to leave the 19-nation eurozone. She told German lawmakers Friday that a temporary Greek exit would lead to predictable chaos. Referring to the limits on Greek bank customers, Ms. Merkel told German public broadcaster ARD, "That's not a normal life, so we have to negotiate quickly" in upcoming talks on a third European bailout of about $95 billion. She also said Germany, the largest bailout lender, will do all it can to bring talks on the new relief to a successful conclusion, while gaining assurances that Greece meets new repayment terms. In Athens, embattled Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras faces new parliamentary challenges this week as his administration seeks approval of the new wave of reforms demanded by European creditors in exchange for more loans. The pro-government newspaper Avgi called Wednesday's vote a crash test for the ruling Syriza party that could determine whether the Tsipras government survives or whether the prime minister is forced to resign. The Tsipras coalition holds 162 seats in the 300-member parliament. But in a pivotal vote last week on new spending cuts, only 123 coalition lawmakers supported the measures, just three votes more than necessary to sustain a minority government. Nearly one quarter of Syriza lawmakers failed to support that reform bill, which nonetheless passed when opposition parties joined in to approve further reforms. |
