Caja to get windfall of funds
from tardy government


The central government reached an agreement Wednesday to pay the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social some 185 billion colons, some of which it has owed since 1994. That's $356 million.

The money represents the required employer payments based on the individual salaries. Private companies have to pay the money every month under possible penalty of going to jail.

Rodrigo Arias Sánchez, minister of the Presidencia, said that the payment is a sign that the central government supports the Caja and other institutions emblematic of Costa Rica. Those who oppose the free trade treaty with the U.S. that the administration supports say that the trade agreement would destroy these institutions.

The Caja is the institution that provides health care to employees and also collects money for pensions.  Eduardo Doryan Garrón, executive president of the Caja, said that most of the money was owed for health care although some 13 billion colons ($25 million) would go to pensions.

Doryan Garrón said that the money would go, in part, to opening some 150 local clinics, known as Equipos Básicos de Atención Integral de Salud. Another project is a surgery tower for Hospital San Juan de Dios.

Other purchases planned include two more linear accelerators to treat cancer patients, a magnetic resonance device, 390 new X-ray devices, some 50 ultrasound machines and 370 vehicles.

The agreement is being supervised by the Ministerio de Hacienda or the financial ministry of the country. The money will be delivered in partial payments over several years, said Casa Presidencial.


Slow environmental agency
will get a reorganization


The Costa Rican environmental protection agency is going to get a makeover.

The organization is the Secretaría Técnica Ambiental, known by its initials SETENA. It is an agency of the Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía.

The agency is widely identified as a bottleneck for any kind of development or project.

Jorge Woodbridge, vice minister of Economía, Industria y Comercio, presented a reorganization plan Wednesday to fellow ministers. He said that the agency now has 800 files pending and that the goal of the plan would be to clear these projects by May 2008.

Among other actions, the reorganization would create electronic files for each application. Most projects in Costa Rica require a review by SETENA. The idea is to simplify and speed up decisions.


Supporters of turtles seek
expropriation of park land


An environmental network has directed a letter and a petition to President Óscar Arias Sánchez urging him to expropriate land that is part of the Parque Nacional Marino las Baulas de Guanacaste. This is a prime breeding ground for endangered leatherback turtles.

The network, the Red Nacional para la Conservación de Tortugas Marinas de Costa Rica, said the petition had some 7.685 names.

The land in question is a strip 75 meters (246 feet) wide and 3 kilometers long. It is 46.6 hectares or about 115 acres.

Although the perimeter of the park has been well known, some of the land inside remained in private hands. Now this land is being developed. The network said that those who built here should not be rewarded for building on park land.


Pianists, juvenile orchestra
plan fundraiser for Friday


Lorin Hollander, a noted New York pianist, will play with and direct the Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil Friday at 8 p.m. in the Teatro Nacional.

The event is a kickoff to a fund-raising program for the Sistema Nacional de Educación Musical. The Ministerio de Cultura, Juventud y Deportes wants to put some 21 music schools at key points around the country.

The concert, estimated at two hours, will include George Gershwin's “Rhapsody in Blue” with Hollander on the piano. That piece will be directed by Marvin Araya, who usually leads the symphony. In all there are seven major pieces planned.


Ministers from all over visiting


Ministers of the presidency or those with equivalent jobs from all over the Spanish-and Portuguese-speaking world are meeting through Friday at the Hotel La Condesa, en San Rafael de Heredia to lay the groundwork for a presidential summit November in Chile.

now lives in London, knew Marley in Trenchtown, the tough Kingston ghetto where they grew up. Washington says even then Marley was clearly destined for greatness.

"He was a really good person back in the day, full of ideas, really progressive, knew far much more than you would expect the average Jamaican young person to know, he was really very well informed about a lot of different things," recalled Washington. "He had a glow about him, I do not want to sound mystical, but it is true. He looked golden. I remember that about Bob different from any artist in Jamaica. He looked like he was born to do something. He did not look like he was ordinary."

Marley wore his hair in dreadlocks as a sign he belonged to the Rastafarian religious movement that accepts deceased former Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie as God incarnate. He also was a proponent of marijuana use and smoked the weed extensively. His opinion on marijuna frequently showed up in his music.

Washington sees the choice of Exodus by TIME magazine and other honors as just reward for Marley, who along with his fellow Rastafarians was looked down upon by the Jamaican establishment and treated with condescending curiosity by the western main stream.

"It is like the stone that the builders refused has now become the head of the corner. Bob Marley's stamp on Jamaican letters and stuff like that, nothing short of a miracle," he said.

Marley's honors include induction into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame and the U.N. Peace Medal of the Third World.

Earlier this month, the Anglican Church in Jamaica announced it was adding his song “One Love/People Get Ready” into its hymnbook. A spokesman for the church defended the action by saying Marley may have been anti-church, but he was never anti-God.