 |
| A.M.
Costa Rica Your daily English-language news source Monday through Friday |
||
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
Jo
Stuart |
|
Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for more details |
| A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page | |
|
San
José, Costa Rica, Friday, Oct. 11, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 202
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| |
 |
|
Four detained in
investigation
of illegal organ transplants By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A pizza parlor owner and three more physicians have been swept up in a probe of illegal organ transplants. The Poder Judicial announced the arrests Thursday. The physicians are two urologists and a vascular specialist. The urologists were identified by the last names of Mauro Stamati and Fonseca Guzmán. The vascular expert was identified with the last names of Monge Monge. Dimosthenis Katsigiannis is the highly personable pizza restaurant owner who was detained. His restaurant is just across the street from Hospital Calderón Guardia, and it is frequented by many of the staffers from there. The Poder Judicial said that his role was finding persons willing to donate organs, mainly a kidney and directing them to the physicians. Purchasing an organ is illegal in Costa Rica. Last June 18 agents detained Francisco Mora Palma, chief of nephrology at Hospital Calderón Guardia. and said that he had done 550 organ transplants. One elderly U.S. resident has disclosed that he paid $150,000 for a kidney and that Mora did the operation at Hospital Hotel La Católica in Guadalupe. The man could not get a transplant in the United States because of his age and physical condition. He later died. The Poder Judicial said Thursday that those who received the organ transplants were mainly foreigners. Mora and a person described as a recruiter continue in preventative detention. Got problems living here? You just have to get over it! Dear A.M. Costa Rica: Disclaimer: Like all expats, I have complained about Costa Rica and probably about all the usual things expats complain about here. The roads, the trash, the crime, the crazy drivers, the lack of signage, flagrant Gringo-gouging, and the stop-and-go legislative process. You know what I mean. But here is where I come down on all these letters from Gringos who purport to know the solutions to all the problems in Costa Rica: It is what it is. Get over it. Costa Rica belongs to the Costa Ricans. It was created by the Costa Ricans, and its future is being shaped by the Costa Ricans. The fact that the rest of us live here by choice means they are doing something right. And besides, we knew we wouldn’t be able to vote when we moved here. Sure, the country sees expats as a source of tax revenue and jobs for Ticos, but that doesn’t buy us the right to come here and create our own little corner of America (or Canada, or France, or Great Britain.) There is peace of mind in melding into the culture and the ways of Costa Rica. This means things won’t happen on the expat time schedule, whether we are talking about getting a building permit or changing your oil. You might get gouged by some businesses. Costs of things are going up, but not just here. Drivers stop without warning to pick up friends or maybe just to say “Hi.” There are thieves among us. Don’t like the trash? Look up instead of down, or better yet, pick it up in your area. Don’t like the drivers? Take public transportation — and take a book with you. Upset about rising taxes? Move somewhere with lower taxes, or for less hassle than moving, just talk to your friends who still live in your native country about taxes they are paying. Got robbed? Watch where you walk at night, lock your windows and doors, maybe adopt a dog, and put your devices away when you’re not using them. The point is: stop complaining. No place is perfect — especially the place you came from. Enjoy the beautiful geography and the diverse flora and fauna of Costa Rica. Enjoy the pleasant, courteous Ticos. Enjoy the climate and the season changes, such as they are. Get out more. Go to the beaches or the cloud forest. Isn’t that what you came here for? Count your blessings and stop whining. Nowadays after spending an hour in the bank for a simple transaction, or going to three farmacias looking for Benadryl, I say to my partner, “I’m having a Costa Rica day!” And glad of it. I could be having a _____________ day. You fill in the blank. Rob Rowntree
Manuel Antonio Lots of these proposals just will not do what he hopes Dear A.M. Costa Rica: In response to points outlined by Mr. Riden, which I found to be disturbing rather than thought provoking. 1. Control prices: Price control does not work. Refer to the 70-year experiment in the former USSR which failed miserably. Perhaps you would care to highlight how implementing steps 3 & 4 would offset the problem(s). 2. Stop treating expats like the fairy tale: Please expand on broadening the tax base - remind that corporate entities also fall under the category of "the fairy tale pitcher that never runs out of milk." 3. Shorten and streamline: An excellent idea. Please tell me where in the world this exercise takes place within a month? 4. Reduce bureaucracy: Another commendable idea which is not about to happen anywhere else on this planet any time soon. 5. Bring more revenue into the Caja: The modest sums charged for Caja will never be sufficient. Enough said. 6. Make medical translators: You are a guest in a foreign land. Learn the language. At least make an effort. 7 & 8 Educate the citizens about entrepreneurialism: If only it were that simple. 9. Foster greater understanding and cultural interchange: We have much of what you describe in my community of 200,000 (Richmond. B.C.) largely Asian from Hong Kong, China and Taiwan. End result is most of the advertising signage in our community is only in Chinese. It is not unusual to meet individuals with no more than five words of English after a decade or two of residency and proud of it. Last fall, it was found that a large segment of kindergarten entrants were unable to speak a word of English. It was reported that most (if not all) were born in Canada. ESL classes were formed. The joy of multiculturalism gone mad regardless the cost. 10. The three pillars of prosperity for individuals and the country: Having traveled extensively, found that progress and prosperity happens everywhere, regardless the language spoken as does digital technology and, cannot help but wonder what is your idea of an "expanded world view" 11. Educate the citizens to become independent, critical thinkers: This has to be a first, the family unit described as an addiction. Personal ethics are as a result of a close knit family life and independent, critical thinkers come from an education free of brainwashing, which appears to be the norm in Canada and the U.S.A. and, from what I have been told, in Costa Rica as well. J.
H. Penner
Richmond, B.C. Let's enforce noise limits on trucks and motorcycles Dear A.M. Costa Rica: A message for candidates Dear political person: If you manage to win this upcoming election, please enforce the existing noise laws as per the Ley de Transito of 2012, specifically Articulo 39 A computer translated version: All cars must use silencers or other mechanisms to help reduce noise levels produced by their engines, exhausts and speakers. Vehicles that have engine brakes should use silencer to prevent exceeding the noise limits established by regulation. It also prohibits the use of grunts, muffles muffles altered or damaged. Glenn
E. Klima
Golfito
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A. 2013 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 |
A.M.
Costa Rica advertising reaches from 12,000 to 14,000 unique visitors every weekday in up to 90 countries. |
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Oct. 11, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 202 | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| Proposed genetics law could have a wide,
unplanned impact |
|
|
By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A band concert to oppose genetically modified products is scheduled for Saturday. And Wednesday, World Food Day, activists will be at the legislature to present a proposed law for a national moratorium against genetically modified organisms. The Wednesday event is related to the Día de las Culturas in that a new release said the activists would erect an altar at the legislature to honor rural farm workers and the native cultures. The details of the proposed law are not yet available, but the same organization, BloqueVerde, has convinced municipal councils in 63 cantons to declare their lands free of genetically modified organisms. The Saturday gatherings is called "Fiesta Costa Rica sin Transgenicos," using the Spanish word for genetically modified organisms. The event features a number of local bands and begins at 7 p.m. in Los Yoses at Cafe Cambalace. Although outlined in general terms, the push against modified organisms targets Monsanto Co., the U.S. agrochemical giant. The firm uses genetic manipulation to create crop strains that are not damaged by the company's RoundUp weed killer line. The organization and other activists have spoken out about the need to defend native Costa Rican seeds, mainly corn. However, the varieties to be defended have not been specified. And genetic research to define the specific strains is expensive. According to the Oficina Nacional de Semillas, the national seed registry, which keeps track of such things, the country imported $376,096 in corn seed this year from Jan. 1 to May 22, the last day that statistics are available. That is about 89,000 kilos, according to the official figures. The origin and varieties of these seeds are not specified, but seven of the 27 varieties approved for commercial plantings are from the Pioneer Seed Co., a DuPont firm. These are mainly field corn varieties. Commercially approved sweet corn varieties appear to come from Asia. There are five varieties. With that quantity of imported corn growing in Costa Rica, there has to be substantial cross pollination with local varieties. So maintaining pure Costa Rican strains would be difficult even without genetic concerns. Purdue University says that pollen can drift up to 700 feet. Others say a mile. Depending on how the proposed law is drafted and if it is passed, Costa Rica may find itself outlawing insulin, a host of other modified crops and even the new genetically modified anti-malaria mosquito. Also banned would be products like tortillas, taco shells and Corn Flakes because they are normally made with genetically modified corn. The proposal from BloqueVerde says it sees a ban on all live genetically modified organisms. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute have genetically modified a bacterium from the mosquito's midgut and found that the parasite that causes malaria in people does not survive in mosquitoes carrying the modified bacterium, the university said in July. The bacterium, Pantoea agglomerans, was modified to secrete proteins toxic to the malaria parasite, but the toxins do not harm the mosquito or humans, it said. There already has been a moratorium on genetically modified research. Said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in an historical report on recombinant DNA : "We have essentially forgotten the anxieties that accompanied these advances especially with respect to the recombinant DNA methodology," wrote James Watson in 1976. There |
 were fears that these manufactured "mutant" genes carried with them uncontrollable capacities to harm human beings. Scientists themselves began to address these fears. In April 1974, molecular biologists imposed a moratorium on continued r-DNA work until an international meeting could be held to discuss whether such experimentation did, in fact, pose any plausible public health danger. According to Watson, "because those of us who signed the moratorium proposal were respected scientists, not known for environmental or political kookism, we were taken seriously." At the meeting held at the Asilomar Conference Center in California in 1975, 150 scientists gathered and ultimately recommended that the National Institutes of Health provide guidelines for recombinant DNA research. Watson was one of the discoverers of the double helix structure of human DNA that was announced in 1953. Nearlyall insulin sold today comes from genetically engineered E. coli bacteria because the process is cheaper and more efficient than the previous method of extracting insulin from dead animals at slaughterhouses. The process also is more sanitary. Of course, there are opponents. Natural News, a big opponent of genetic modification said "For Pete's sake, even restaurants ask if you want bottled or tap water. When you're stabbing the hormone into your body, without debate, there should be a choice!" Haemophiliacs suffer from a defective gene that fails to produce Factor VIII, an important agent involved in blood clotting, according to s-cool.co.uk, an academic and learning Web site. Genetically modified yeast can produce Factor VIII. The gene was isolated from human cells, and introduced into a suitable microbe using standard modification techniques, it said. Human growth hormone also is produced now with a genetic modification to eliminate a slim chance of carrying a disease that could exist when the substance was extracted from cadavers, said the Food and Drug Administration. Genetic modification has been used to keep tomatoes from ripening quickly, A salmon that grows bigger has been submitted for approval. There is a modified variety of papaya to resist a disease. There is modified tobacco, soy beans, potatoes, zucchini, apples, and even rennet, used in the production of cheese. Each genetic change provides an advantage to growers. Entomologists said this week that a new study finds that genetically-modified sweet corn is better for the environment and safer for farm workers because pesticide use is reduced. In Costa Rica farmers have grown Monsanto genetically modified soybeans here since 1991. There also was genetically modified corn planted then and seven times to 2001. Genetically modified cotton has been planted since 1991. In 2012 there were 281 hectares of genetically modified cotton. There also are genetically modified banana plants and pineapple plantings, although on a very small scale. There was but one hectare of modified bananas in 2012, and just 5.2 hectares of modified pineapple, according to a report to lawmakers in February. Said asource that opposed genetic modification: Unless you are growing all your own food or you are going out of your way to research and buy only non-GMO food, then you are likely eating some GM food. It is almost inevitable. |
| Joys of the local feria
extend to far more than just vegetables |
|||
| Generally
speaking, you can buy fruits and vegetables and sometimes even fish and
meat at the open air farmers’ markets, (called ferias) for less than you can in
the stores. And you can pick what you like and buy as little as
one lime or one potato, something not always possible in the
supermarkets, where packaging has become more and more the norm. I did not get any responses about someone else’s experience receiving or giving a random act of kindness (actually it is something not that rare in Costa Rica, so perhaps not worth mentioning), but I did get some suggestions about ferias in the Central Valley. A couple of readers confirmed my experience at the Sunday feria in Santa Ana, finding the produce expensive and not that fresh and the clientele mainly expat. Arturo highly recommends the feria in San Rafael Oreamuno in Cartago for high quality vegetables and good prices. It is open between 6 a.m. and noon on Saturdays. Richard told me about the longest feria, to my knowledge. It is in Alajuela on Calle Ancho. It is open from about 5 p.m. on Friday until late afternoon on Sunday. The parking lot, which is on the east side, can accommodate many cars. You can shop there in any weather since it is located in a permanent covered structure. Of course, the feria and flea market is a permanent fixture on Avenida 10 in the city. However, not much has been done to make it attractive and a must try for shoppers. According to Alexis, the feria in Hatillo 2 (there seem to be several Hatillos) is special. It is open on Sunday mornings until noon and is located north of the Circunvalación at the southern-most bend and extends from the freeway almost half a kilometer. A street light makes for easy access. The market is managed by the Municipality of San José and all of the vendors must be registered members of the same agro-producers association. They wear bright green shirts with their emblem to show their affiliation and, says Alexis, can answer most questions about their products or when a vegetable or fruit will be in season. Among the kiosks is an |
occasional tiny cafe where you can enjoy a rest and a café or freshly made empanada or pupusa in the middle of your shopping. At the southern-most section of the market street, close to the circunvalación entrance, is a small shopping center. Among the businesses there, surrounding a central parking area, is a Mas x Menos. Even more handy and what intrigues me, is the big Ropa Americana store at the far end. I was buying both my clothing and furniture from Goodwill and consignment stores when Barbra Streisand first introduced “Second Hand Rose,” a great comfort to me at the time. Alexis says this has to be the best-kept second-hand clothing-store in the city. It is clean and orderly. Every article of clothing is color-coded according to price and a big wall poster tells you what price different colors represent. One of the many helpful salespeople will tell you what 2 for 1 special is going on at the moment. There are no accessories like purses and such, but they do have a large home section, for drapes, sheets, table-runners, etc. You can express your whole life style for a few colons. Actually, I have always found more than just fresh produce and fruits to be the big draw at the ferias. There is always a new stand with a creative entrepreneur selling something new like cheese or homemade jam, or some health food, and there is the ambiance of a happy, peaceful crowd of people choosing from a bountiful supply of food and sustenance for their home or restaurant. It is nice to be a part of that throng, and a great way to start the day. In this case it is the good vibes that are contagious. |
||
 |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A. 2013 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details | ||||||
 |
|
||||
| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Oct. 11, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 202 | |||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
 Cuerpo
de Bomberos photo
|
10
new trucks delivered for towns and forests By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Cuerpo de Bomberos purchased 10 new pumper trucks. Five are for fighting forest fires, and five are for structural blazes. The Freightliner brand trucks can pump 1,250 gallons a minute and carry 1,000 gallons of water and 400 liters of foam, said the agency. Getting the trucks will be Tres Ríos, Santo Domingo, Belén, Santa Ana and San José. Forest units will be placed in Turrialba, Santa Cruz, Parrita, Atenas and San Pedro Poás. The money for the purchase came from taxes on electricity and insurance. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A. 2013 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 |
 |
||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Oct. 11, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 202 | |||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
 |
|
 |
| White House gets blame for press freedom threats By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The Obama administration's aggressive prosecution of leaks and its efforts to control information are becoming a threat to press freedom and democracy, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. A report released Thursday by the New York-based media watchdog group said U.S. President Barack Obama's actions have been a sharp contradiction to his promise of transparency and open government. Former Washington Post executive editor Leonard Downie, the report's author, said "administration officials and employees are increasingly afraid to talk to the press" due to heightened scrutiny of leaks. He said six government employees and two contractors have been targeted for prosecution under the 1917 Espionage Act for accusations they leaked classified information to the press. Downie said this was a chilling use of a law used "only in three previous cases in the past nine decades." White House officials interviewed for the report strongly objected to being portrayed as against press freedom. "The idea that people are shutting up and not leaking to reporters is belied by the facts," Obama press secretary Jay Carney told Downie. National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said there is still investigative reporting about national security issues with information from "non-sanctioned sources with lots of unclassified information and some sensitive information.'' Downie interviewed numerous reporters and editors, including a top editor at The Associated Press, following revelations this year the government secretly seized records for telephone lines and switchboards used by more than 100 AP journalists. Downie also interviewed journalists whose sources have been prosecuted on felony charges. In a statement accompanying the report, the Committee to Protect Journalists said it was "disturbed by the pattern of actions" that "have chilled the flow of information on issues of great public interest, including matters of national security." The report about the United States is unusual for the press freedom group, which has this year completed investigations on Burma, China, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, and Tanzania. The only time the United States has been the subject of a committee report was 19 years ago in a study on attacks on immigrant journalists. The committee executive director, Joel Simon, said the group decided to investigate U.S. press freedom "because journalists told us that the relationship with the administration had deteriorated to the point where it makes it difficult for them to do their job." Downie added the Obama administration's "war on leaks and other efforts to control information are the most aggressive" he had seen since the Nixon administration and The Washington Post's investigation of Watergate. He said the policies are also harmful to U.S. efforts to promote press and Internet freedom around the world. Deal on debt ceiling seen as possible after meetings By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
There was movement Thursday on a possible deal to reopen the U.S. government and raise the debt ceiling so the United States does not run out of money to pay its bills. President Barack Obama held separate meetings at the White House Thursday with top congressional Democrats and Republicans. The White House said that while no specific decisions were made, the president looks forward to making continued progress with members from both parties. House Speaker John Boehner's office called the talks useful and productive and said meetings will continue throughout the night. He is a Republican. Earlier Thursday, House Republicans offered a six-week increase in the debt limit. The current debt ceiling expires Oct. 17. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the president is encouraged that, in Carney's words, "cooler heads seem to be prevailing in the House." The president has said letting the United States default on its debts would be a catastrophe for the global economy. News of a possible debt ceiling deal sent U.S. markets soaring. The three major stock indexes rose more than 2 percent Thursday. Boehner has been insisting on linking negotiations on spending cuts to any bill raising the debt ceiling. He also has demanded talks on the president's health care program before letting the House vote on reopening the government. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid has said there will be no negotiations until the government is reopened, and claims the nearly two-week-old shutdown has caused pain and suffering across the country. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told a Senate panel that it would be a grave mistake to fail to increase the debt ceiling by the Oct, 17 deadline. The date is less than a week away. "The United States should not be put in a position of making such perilous choices for our economy and our citizens. There is no way of knowing the irrevocable damage such an approach would have on our economy and financial markets," continued Lew. He said if the debt ceiling is not raised, the Treasury would only have about $30 billion on hand and some incoming revenue, but not enough to pay all its bills. Scott Carpenter, who circled earth in Aurora 7 dies at 88 By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Scott Carpenter, an early U.S. astronaut who orbited Earth in 1962, died Thursday morning in a Denver hospice center at age 88 of complications from a stroke, his wife Patty Carpenter said. Carpenter made only one spaceflight, taking the Aurora 7 spacecraft on three laps around Earth on May 24, 1962, a few weeks after his 37th birthday. It was a flight of less than five hours and made him the fourth American in space and the second, after John Glenn, to orbit Earth. Carpenter was part of the Mercury 7 team - the seven pilots chosen by NASA in 1959 to be astronauts in response to the Soviet Union's space program. Despite his fame as an astronaut, Carpenter spent considerably more time on the ocean floor than he did in outer space. In 1965, the astronaut became an aquanaut as part of the Navy's SEALAB II project, spending 30 days living and working at a depth of 204 feet (62 meters) off the California coast. Born in Boulder, Colorado, he split his time between Vail, Colorado, and West Palm Beach, Florida, Patty Carpenter said. his given name was Malcolm Scott Carpenter but he used Scott as a first name. EU gives Sakharov Prize to Pakistani schoolgirl Malala By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The European Union has awarded its top human rights prize, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, to Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai. Malala, as she is commonly known, was shot last year and nearly killed by the Taliban in an attempt to stop her efforts to promote education for women. Malala is also being mentioned as a favorite to win the Nobel Peace Prize, which will be announced on Friday. "I am moved, I am moved beyond words to be here and honored with this great award," said Malala as she collected the award. European Parliament President Martin Schulz told the audience in France the E.U. is a proud ally of people like Malala, who stand up for equality for girls and women. "An 11-year-old who was told she's going to be killed because she simply wants to go to school. Just imagine the courage that she has shown. As far as I'm concerned, Malala is an incredible personality of the 21st century," said Schulz. While being attacked by the Taliban, she was shot in the face and evacuated to a hospital in Britain. She gradually recovered, regaining her sight and her voice, and has continued to fight for women's rights. Now, one year after the attack, many Pakistanis are proud. "It's great not only for her, for her family, but for the whole nation," said Mazhar Abba, a Pakistani journalist. "She is doing excellent work for Pakistani children. This will help improve their development,” opined Mohammad Jamal, a resident of Karachi. However, despite Pakistanis such as Abba and Jamal, not everyone in Pakistan is celebrating Malala's success. "My point of view on Malala is that the whole thing is a drama. There are a lot of issues here, like drone strikes, other things happening. You are ignoring all the issues and following a girl," explained Mohammad Sohail, another Karachi resident. In Malala's home town in Swat Valley, the girl who dared to defy the Taliban is a hero. "She is an extremely intelligent and brave girl. I want to be like her. She did a lot of work for the education of girls," said Saadia Shah, a female student in the Swat Valley. Malala pledges that work will continue for years to come. Ex-operative Valerie Plame becomes spy novel author By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The 2010 drama "Fair Game," starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, catapulted the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame onto the silver screen. Ms. Plame's life took an unexpected turn after having her cover blown by Bush administration officials shortly after her husband, former U.S. diplomat Joe Wilson, refuted government claims that Iraq's Saddam Hussein was trying to buy enriched uranium from Niger. Ten years after the scandal, Ms. Plame has returned to the world of espionage — this time as a novelist. In a pop-cultural medium where female agents are often stereotyped as femme fatales, Plame says Vanessa Pierson, the main character of her new novel, "Blowback," is a woman trying to balance personal life with career, very much like herself. “They are either over sexualized, or heavy reliance on physicality, or they are victims," says Ms. Plame. "Or basically I think of them as paper dolls.” Ms. Plame cites Angelina Jolie's role in "Salt" as an example. “Angelina Jolie looks so beautiful that she looks fabulous doing anything," she says. "But I cannot say that it has anything whatsoever to do with reality.” More recently, however, female spy characters have broken that mold and captivated audiences with the likes of CIA operative Maya, played by Jessica Chastain, as she hunts down Osama bin Laden in Kathryn Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty." "I'm all for courageous and strong women that persevere against great odds, but it really was a team effort of dozens of CIA officers over an extended period of time that led to finding Osama bin Laden," says Ms. Plame. But products of popular culture, she adds, have sometimes successfully portrayed real life aspects of modern espionage. "The government has been in bed with the entire telecommunications industry since the 1940s," she says. "They have infected everything. They get into your bank statements, computer files, email, listen to your phone calls." The 15-year-old drama "Enemy of the State," in which the protagonist, played by Will Smith, has his life upended by sophisticated government surveillance techniques and whistleblowing is a good example, and, Ms. Plame says, eerily close to recent revelations of the NSA's electronic surveillance. “There is a dynamic and a balance, of course, between security on one hand and privacy on the other," she says. "But I worry about what an overzealous prosecutor or... heaven forbid, if there is a part of the government that moved toward tyranny. Very dangerous because information is power and we now know how deep and how pervasive — I mean, this is no surprise — the NSA has gone in order to keep us safe.” "Blowback" is Ms. Plame's first in a series of novels throwing light on the shadowy life of a female spy. Sand turned to glass in Egypt credited to ancient comet strike By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A team of South African scientists writing in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters said that they have found the first evidence of a comet striking Earth 28 million years ago. “Comets always visit our skies – they’re these dirty snowballs of ice mixed with dust – but never before in history has material from a comet ever been found on Earth,” said David Block, a member of the research team and a professor of the University of the Witwatersrand. The researchers said that the comet shot into Earth’s atmosphere and blew up above what is now known as Egypt with a blast that wiped out every living thing in its path. As the fireball exploded it created a super-hot shock wave that heated the sand on the surface to about 2,000 degrees Celsius. The extreme heat and pressure formed a great quantity of yellow silica glass that was spread throughout a 6,000 square kilometer area of the Sahara that’s known as the Libyan Desert Glass strewn field. A remarkable example of Libyan Desert Glass can be found on an ancient brooch of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun who ruled Egypt from 1332 BC to 1323 BC. Egyptian jewelers polished and carved a piece of the yellow silica to form the body of a scarab that is prominently featured on the brooch. The first evidence of a comet strike, said the scientists, came in the form of a mysterious 30 gram black pebble that had been found in 1996 by an Egyptian geologist who had been exploring the strewn field. The pebble now called the Hypatia stone, was named in honor of Hypatia of Alexandria, the first well-known female mathematician, astronomer and philosopher. The researchers said that the stone, which they described as being black, angular, shiny, incredibly hard and extremely fractured, is covered with microscopic diamonds that were created by the shock of the comet’s impact. “Diamonds are produced from carbon bearing material. Normally they form deep in the earth, where the pressure is high, but you can also generate very high pressure with shock. Part of the comet impacted and the shock of the impact produced the diamonds,” said lead author Professor Jan Kramers of the University of Johannesburg. After the South African team conducted a number of tests on the Hypatia stone, they concluded that the black pebble was not just an unusual type of meteorite but instead represented the very first known hand specimen of a comet nucleus. The researchers said that comet material on Earth is incredibly rare. The only other comet fragments that had been found were microscopic dust particles found in the upper atmosphere and in some carbon-rich dust found in Antarctic ice. “NASA and ESA spend billions of dollars collecting a few micrograms of comet material and bringing it back to Earth, and now we’ve got a radical new approach of studying this material, without spending billions of dollars collecting it,” says Kramers, speaking of the European Space Agency. The South African researchers said that an international collaborative research program has been formed to continue studies of the Hypatia stone. “Comets contain the very secrets to unlocking the formation of our solar system and this discovery gives us an unprecedented opportunity to study comet material first hand,” said Block. Mother of jailed missionary visits her son in north Korea By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The mother of an American missionary who has been detained in North Korea for the past 11 months has arrived in Pyongyang to visit her son. Myunghee Bae arrived in North Korea on Thursday and was scheduled to meet with her son, Kenneth Bae, this morning. She is expected to stay in the North for about five days. Kenneth Bae was sentenced in May to 15 years of hard labor on a conviction of state subversion. His family says he has diabetes and is in ill health. North Korea rescinded an offer in August to allow senior U.S. envoy Robert King to visit Pyongyang to petition that Bae be freed on humanitarian grounds. Officials said the visit was canceled because of annual joint U.S.-South Korean military drills being held in the South. The 45-year-old Christian missionary was detained last year after entering North Korea as a tour operator. Five other Americans detained in North Korea since 2009 were eventually allowed to leave without serving out their terms, some of them after prominent Americans, including former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, visited and lobbied on their behalf. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A. 2013 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details | ||||||
| A.M. Costa
Rica's sixth news page |
|
||||||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Oct. 11, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 202 | |||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
||
|
 Municipalidad de Cartago photo
This is the monument to be
inauguratedMonument
dedication, parade
planned Sunday in Cartago By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Some 300 teams of oxen, their carts and drivers are expected to be in Cartago Sunday for a parade after the dedication of a monument dedicated to the oxcart driver, the boyero. The impetus for the monument came from the Fundación de Boyeros de Costa Rica and was supported by the Municipalidad de Cartago. The inauguration is at 9 a.m. Sunday, and the parade from the municipal building where the monument is placed to the Basilica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles follows. As is traditional at such events, there will be a blessing of each team of oxen, the cart, occupants and driver. The sculpture is by Max Ulloa Roya and it is fiberglass with a bronze coating. The event is also part of the celebration of Cartago's founding 450 years ago. Saturday at 6 p.m. the carts will be on display at the municipal plaza and there will be competitions of the oxen, folk dancing and traditional country music, said an announcement. The oxcart parade has been established in Cartago for the second Sunday of October each year. Oxen owners, their teams and carts are expected to come from all over Costa Rica. |
| Costa Rican News |
AMCostaRicaArchives.com |
Retire NOW in Costa Rica |
CostaRicaReport.com |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A. 2013 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details | ||||||
| From Page 7: God, beer and soccer in the company By
Elizabeth Morales Coto*
Special to A.M. Costa Rica Costa Rica is a highly traditional and conservative country when it comes to respecting the holidays, and the law entitles days off to do the Romería (Aug. 2), and during Holy Thursday and Holy Friday over Holy Week. All of those have
• Mother`s Day on Aug, 15th (big holiday too, which exhibits itself by having the same traffic jams as Christmas or Summer Break), • Sept. 15th (which is Independence Day), • And, of course, Saturday is el Día de las Culturas, although not a double pay day. Costa Rica is one of the very few countries in the continent that passed the liberal laws in 1884, separating clergy from state, and still keeps in the Constitución Política the Catholic religion as the official one. When someone marries in the Catholic Church, it is legally binding. It is common to hear expressions such as: Que Dios lo acompañe or Que Dios lo bendiga or Bendiciones, Amen even at the end of business emails. As a business analyst, not only for karma purposes, but also for the company´s culture and healthy climate, it might be smart to keep up with these traditions and maybe one day all employees will find true meaning in this and carry on with values close to those desired by a company owner. Not to mention respect for libertad de credo is very important in Costa Rica (religious freedom). If you can understand what football means to an American, you will get what soccer means to Costa Rica. Even the presidents grant asueto (either all or part of the day off) when La Selección is playing an important game or any other team that is a national pride. When a soccer game is on, it gets really hard for a company owner or a manager to keep everyone from listening to the game or watching it online, or even having the occasional one who brings in the mobile with the game or even switches TV channels when no one is watching and tries watching the game on mute. So strategies to keep the business going when this happens: either set a TV in the room, give them a few minutes (90 to be exact) and know that this day won’t be the greatest or be creative, record the game and promise them a nice prize for working hard by watching the game all together after a long day of work, maybe even throwing in some fun statistics or games to heat it up. Costa Ricans are told from the time they are 12 about the Derechos y Deberes del Trabajador y Patrono and being in your right senses is one of them. This means not being intoxicated during working hours, so by using these words, any manager will trigger back childhood memories from school and might get a stronger impact in their responsibility. It is a bad idea to go out for drinks with the employees, for these times in Costa Rica create what is called as the drinking buddies, and that lasts forever, whether they never get to know each other´s names. So every business owner, manager or supervisor, should try and keep a professional distance, not only to assure respect and productivity, but also to avoid sexual harassment issues (which nowadays includes both men and women). Business in Costa Rica is made at the office not the bar or the restaurant or the lounge. Problems exist to be solved, and company owners and managers should never hesitate to ask questions because specialists in this area can help and find the light at the end of the tunnel. * Ms. Morales is an engineer with a master's of business administration specializing in business strategy and development. She is a principle in CEDAD Asesores and can be reached at info@cedadasesores.com. |
