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| A.M. Costa Rica's Second newspage | |||||||||
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| Costa Rica Expertise Ltd http://crexpertise.com E-mail info@crexpertise.com Tel:506-256-8585 Fax:506-256-7575 |
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 Casa Presidencial photo
Ms. Chinchilla displays a T-shirt bearing the number workers
could call to complain about salaries that are less than the minimum.Government begins campaign
to enforce minimum wages By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The labor ministry is beginning a publicity campaign to inform workers that they should be paid the minimum wage. President Laura Chinchilla attended the kickoff Monday. Sandra Piszk is the minister of Trabajo y Seguridad Social. Her office estimates that some 300,000 workers are not getting the minimum wage here. Costa Rica has a complex minimum wage structure with each occupational category having its own minimum wage from a couple a hundred dollars a month to a thousand, depending on the job. There also are hourly minimums for individuals who do not work on a monthly contract. And coffee pickers have a minimum salary based on the number of baskets of berries they collect. Ms. Piszk said that inspectors would make workplace visits. These would be generated by calls to the ministry or to a special number, 800-trabajo, that has been set up for the campaign. There will be publicity to alert workers to the campaign. The employers face the possibility of penalties if they do not bring their workers up to the minimum. Ms. Chinchilla said that the campaign was part of her administration's effort to improve conditions for the most vulnerable population. She said that this campaign for minimum wage is the beginning of an integrated campaign to address education, economic and social aspects of what she said was a complex problem. Many workers do not inform on their employer for fear of losing their job. Labor officials said they were resigned to some job loss as a result of the campaign. The campaign is being backed by the Fundación para la Paz y la Democracia U.S. Coast Guard boat will resupply at Golfito By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The first U.S. boat permitted under a new agreement has docked at Golfito to resupply and to provide shore leave for its crew. The boat is the U.S. Coast Guard vessel Hamilton that has been on drug patrol in the Pacific. The boat has 123 officers and 165 enlisted men aboard. The U.S. Embassy announced the arrival. Normally this would be a routine stop, but a measure in the legislature to permit U.S. ships to stop here has become a political football. The routine approval was appealed to the Sala IV constitutional court. Prensa Latina, the Cuban news agency, called the approval an invasion and many uncritical Internet writers picked up this theme without checking further. The embassy was quick to point out that the Hamilton, with a home port in San Diego, California, rescued three persons who became shipwrecked off the Costa Rican coast. The embassy is setting up tours for newspeople to visit the boat. Newcomers plan September meeting By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Newcomers Club of Costa Rica is kicking off a new season with a meeting Sept. 7 at the Cariari Country Club. This first meeting is an opportunity to sign up for the special interests groups that are offered by the club and meet some wonderful women new & not so new to Costa Rica, the club said The meeting starts at 10 a.m., but refreshments are served a half hour earlier. More information is available at 2293-3211 Our reader's opinion
Nation's policy allowingenvironmental abuses Dear A.M. Costa Rica: I have been dismayed and disgusted over the horrible abuses that the Costa Rican government has allowed while touting eco-friendly tourism in the country. Why has shark finning not been aggressively pursued? Does it have anything to do with China throwing money at the country? And, when is the country going to do something about all the raw sewage flowing into the ocean? I have been visiting and spending money in the country for years, not to mention supplying water to a poor school in Paraiso, but I will not visit again until some major changes are made to policy. Nor will I encourage anyone to visit the country as I have in the past. Pura Vida is a joke. Patricia Elliott
Indiana Reader considers ads as unwelcome distractions Dear A.M. Costa Rica: It seems to me that the advertisements that now lead-off each morning's A.M. Costa Rica e-mail cross the line of journalistic independence, or at the very least the appearance of same. Is A.M. Costa Rica now selling real estate? Is A.M. Costa Rica endorsing the advertiser? These ads are also an unwelcome distraction, and suggest that A.M. Costa Rica editors hold advertising as more important than news. I've never seen an ad above the masthead of The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times, and hope I never will. I am looking forward to better reporting and writing, and journalistic integrity, when I open my A.M. Costa Rica e-mail. Shawn Glen Pierson
Washington, D.C., and Sarasota, Florida |
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| A.M. Costa Rica third newspage |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2010, Vol. 10, No. 156 | |||||||||
| Catholic church at Orosi gets a fast, protective makeover |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Catholic church at Orosi which dates from 1743 has been restored with a 40 million-colon contract from a dependency of the culture ministry. This is the second stage of work at the church site. An adjacent convent, which was built about the same time was restored in 2006. The work, done by Reyco construction company, involved both exterior and interior work. In addition, the bell tower was reinforced from within, according to the Centro de Patrimonio del Ministerio de Cultura y Juventud. There also was exterior site work to clean and waterproof the fired clay walkways. The two structures are a national heritage site where Franciscan missionaries lived and preached in colonial times. Much of both the church and the convent is of adobe. The community is in the province of Cartago. The investment was about $78,125 U.S. at the current rate of exchange. |
 Centro de Patrimonio photo
Colonial church still standing in OrosiThe work on the church only took 35 days. The restoration mainly involved controlling water. Cracks in the exterior walls were patched and rain gutters were installed. The last makeover was in 1975. The church is still in operation for local religious purposes, but officials also consider it a significant tourism site. |
| Tourism officials all atwitter about social networking sites |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
In an effort to promote the country and counter some of the negative comments posted by unhappy tourists, the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo is turning to social media. The government agency has established a page on Facebook, a Twitter account and a YouTube account. The Facebook page is in English now to target the North American market. The Facebook page contains a link to the tourism institute's flashy, redone Web site. Tourism officials are impressed that Facebook reaches 500 million users. "This is the first step of the presence of Costa Rican destinations in the social networks," said Carlos Ricardo Benavides, tourism minister, in a release. He said that the pages were in English to reach the United States and Canada. A Spanish version will come later, he said. The tourism release said that Internet users spend 23 percent of their time on social networks, according to recent statistics. The tourism institute did not say how much the social network initiative would cost. Someone has to keep track of the pages. Nor did it say what kind of advertising would be used to draw people to the site. The Facebook site said that 463 persons already had expressed a favorable opinion. The page seems to have been up since July 22. The tourism institute and Benavides promoted a new arrival tax on tourists that was supposed to be used to promote the country. The tax was to replace the tourism sales tax that had been levied in the past. The tourism institute has been challenged by advertising. In a prior administration officials dropped $70,000 for a single one-page Sunday ad in The New York Times. Benavides dropped $4.5 million promoting the country at the 2006 World Cup matches in Germany. |
The institute's flashy Web page is
ranked 175,167th in the world. The
Web site contains a long list of discounts being offered by tourism
locations. But the list is only mentioned by a small button on the main
page. Alexa, the Amazon subsidiary that records Internet traffic, said that the institute Web site is visited more frequently by users who are in the age range 55-64, received some college education and browse this site from work. Average social network profiles are significantly younger, so this is a market Costa Rica can reach. President Laura Chinchilla also has opted to join the social networks. Casa Presidencial also has Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube accounts. Costa Rican tourism has been hurt by the easy access individuals now have to Internet commentary. Said A.M. Costa Rica June 7: "While in the past much of the information has been disseminated by those with a profit motive, the Internet social networks allow individuals to share first-hand information and experiences. A person is now able to consult instantly with dozens of other persons to determine if retirement in Costa Rica would fit their lifestyle or if a particular doctor, dentist or real estate broker has a good reputation." The article by Garland Baker also said: "The country is quickly reaching the point where one well-connected expat with a negative attitude can deter hundreds of people from vacationing in Costa Rica. No amount of expensive promotion on the part of the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo can counteract the damage that hundreds of expats talking about things like pollution or crime can do." The article urged tourism officials to enter social network marketing to counter these negative images. |
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| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2010, Vol. 10, No. 156 | |||||||||
| Native visitors push for passage of
autonomy measure |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A group of what some politicians call original peoples brought their demand for autonomy to the legislature Monday. The representatives of the native peoples want President Laura Chinchilla to put a 17-year-old bill on the administration priority list for passage. The bill provides for autonomy for certain native peoples on their reserves. The bill estimates that there are about 64,000 native people in Costa Rica but 60 percent do not live on reserves. The measure would guarantee what the bill calls cultural autonomy. It also provides for the creation of assemblies in |
the various native
communities and supports traditional medicine. "The state of Costa Rica has an historic debt of recognition of the human rights of our original peoples," said the Partido Acción Ciudadana in a later release. The release said that Costa Rica continues to disrespect and violate a number of rights contained in laws and international conventions. The political party called for the swift approval of the bill, # 14.352, and urged students, academics, social groups, labor organizations, religious groups and social groups to join together to push for approval of the bill. The bill had survived in the legislature during four presidential administrations, said Acción Ciudadana. |
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| U.N. chief urges nations to better
native communities |
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Special to A.M. Costa Rica
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon today urged the world to step up efforts to improve living conditions of the planet’s native communities and to protect them, saying they continued to suffer discrimination and poverty despite a United Nations declaration that aims to promote their rights. “Indigenous peoples still experience racism, poor health and disproportionate poverty,” Ban said in a message to mark the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. “In many societies, their languages, religions and cultural traditions are stigmatized and shunned,” the secretary general added. He pointed out that the first-ever U.N. report on the State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples in January this year came up with alarming statistics. In some countries, native peoples are 600 times more likely to contract tuberculosis than the general population. In others, a native child can expect to die 20 years before his or her non-native compatriots. Ban said that the landmark U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted by the General Assembly in 2007, laid out a framework for governments to use in strengthening relationships with native peoples and protecting their human rights. “Since then, we have seen more governments working to redress social and economic injustices, through legislation and other means, and indigenous peoples’ issues have become more prominent on the international agenda than ever before,” Ban added. In her statement, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, stressed that the gap between the principles of the declaration and the reality remains wide, with native peoples continuing to suffer discrimination, marginalization in health and education, extreme poverty, disregard for their environmental concerns, displacement from their traditional lands and exclusion from participation in decision-making processes. “It is particularly disconcerting that those who work to correct these wrongs are, all too often, persecuted for their human rights advocacy,” she said. Ms. Pillay, however, pointed out that: “We have cause to celebrate the progress made in turning human rights into a reality for indigenous peoples, but this International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples is also an occasion to recall that there is no room for complacency.” |
The focus of this
year’s International Day is native filmmakers, who
have given the world insights into their communities, cultures and
history, the U.N. said. The filmmakers have chronicled the belief
systems and philosophies of indigenous communities, as well as their
daily lives, the U.N. added. The UN independent expert on the rights and fundamental freedoms of native peoples, James Anaya, said the communities continued to endure oppression. “Indigenous peoples continue to see their traditional lands invaded by powerful actors seeking wealth at their expense, thereby depriving them of life-sustaining resources,” said Anaya, the special rapporteur on the situation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of native peoples. He called for the implementation of the declaration by governments, the U.N. system and other concerned authorities. States, he added, should engage in comprehensive reviews of their existing legislation and administrative programs to identify where they may be incompatible with the declaration. The secretary general noted that the world’s native peoples were responsible for the preservation of vast amounts of humanity’s cultural history, and spoke a majority of the world’s languages. They had also inherited and passed on a wealth of knowledge, artistic forms and religious and cultural traditions, he said. “As we celebrate these contributions, I call on governments and civil society to fulfil their commitment to advancing the status of indigenous peoples everywhere,” the secretary general said. Ms. Pillay said she was encouraged by the fact that in a number of countries, new tools have been created to give voice to native peoples in decision-making and to stamp out human rights violations. “We are also encouraged by the fact that support for the declaration keeps expanding, including in the countries that originally voted against this remarkable document,” she added. “We need to bring the rights and dignity of those who are suffering most to the centre of our efforts. This requires changes in practices, but we also need improved laws and institutions, without which advances are not sustainable. “On this International Day, let us reaffirm our commitment to translate the words of the declaration into effective action. Keeping this promise is our obligation,” Ms. Pillay said. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2010, Vol. 10, No. 156 | ||||||||||
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Latin American news Please reload page if feed does not appear promptly |
for rotovirus vaccine By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
After successful clinical trials, researchers are calling for widespread distribution of a vaccine to prevent rotavirus — a severe gastrointestinal illness that kills more than a half a million children around the world each year. Investigators are urging the use of the rotavirus vaccine in poor and developing countries after two clinical trials that showed it is safe and highly effective in protecting newborns against the deadly virus. The vaccine, manufactured by Merck, already is approved for use in the United States, but researchers wanted to see how well it works in less developed countries. Roger Glass is director of the John E. Fogarty International Center for Advanced Study in the Health Sciences at the National Institutes of Health near Washington. In an interview from Swaziland, Glass said the vaccine has resulted in a significant decrease in the number of rotavirus cases in the United States. "The vaccines that we are talking about have been licensed and used in the United States since 2006 and have already made a tremendous impact to reduce hospitalizations and clinic visits for diarrhea in just 3.5 years," said Glass, a physician. But Glass noted that rotavirus kills 500,000 children a year in the 72 poorest countries. Two international trials were carried out to test the vaccine's safety and effectiveness — one involving more than 2,000 healthy infants in Bangladesh and Vietnam. Some of the babies received the oral drug at 6, 10 and 14 weeks of age; another group of infants was given a placebo. Researchers conducting a follow-up study nearly two years later found the rotavirus vaccine had reduced the number of severe gastrointestinal disease cases by nearly 50 percent. A second study was conducted in Africa, where rotavirus claims almost a quarter of a million lives each year. Researchers conducting the trial in Ghana, Kenya and Mali, gave three doses of the vaccine to infants without symptoms. Investigators found there were 39 percent fewer cases of severe rotavirus with the vaccine. Researchers found the vaccine had little or no side effects, according to Glass, who said widespread use of the rotavirus vaccine would save lives. Three years ago, the World Health Organization recommended routine use of the rotavirus vaccine in countries where it has been found to be safe and effective. Glass says he hopes the results of these two studies lead to the use of the vaccine in other countries where it is needed most. |
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