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A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
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José, Costa Rica, Monday, Oct. 20, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 207
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 Refinadora Costarricense de Petróleo
S.A.
photo
The national petroleum
monopoly, Refinadora Costarricense de Petróleo S.A., says it is
saving $5,000 a month with these solar panels on its adminstrative building in Limón. The project cost $430,000, so the company expects to break even in five or six years. Fallen servicemen to be honored Nov. 9 By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Fallen servicemen will be remembered Nov. 9 with a ceremony at the International Baptist Church in Guachepelín, Escazú. Organizers said that everyone is invited to attended, especially all former British Commonwealth country military veterans and all U.S. military veterans, their families and widows, and children of veterans. The purpose of this day is to honor all living veterans and to commemorate the sacrifices of members of the armed forces and of civilians in time of war. they said. Nov. 11, a Tuesday, is the official Remembrance Day and Veterans Day, which used to be called Armistice Day to mark the end of World War I. Pastor Stacey Steck will conduct the 5 p.m. ceremony. The church is a mile west of Multiplaza on the Caldera highway, Ruta 27, at the Guachepelin–Lindora exit. Trial set in murder of turtle defender By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A week from today has been set as the time for the trial of seven men in the death of an environmentalist who was defending the turtles on the Caribbean coast. The environmentalist, Jairo Mora Sandoval., was among a group that was stopped on their way to a turtle rescue center on the Moín beach. Mora was separated from the others and then killed. The judiciary has set the period Oct. 27 to Nov. 5 for the trial in the Tribunal Penal de Limón. Two of the suspects have the last name of Salmón. The rest have the last names of Rivas, Martinez, Cubillo, López and Delgado The case received strong international interest. Use of public credit card alleged By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Judicial police detained a 35-year-old public employee in Liberia over the weekend on the allegation that he has used a public agency credit card to fill the gas tank of his private vehicle and others. The Judicial Investigating Organization did not name the individual or say in what agency he was employed, but they did say he was an engineer. The loss to the government was estimated at 2 million colons or about $3,700. Judicial agents said that the credit crd was used to fill the tanks of third parties' vehicles, too, and that the license plate numbers written on the receipts were of vehicles that were out of service.
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Oct. 20, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 207 | |
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| Solís defends his original budget on eve of march by
unions |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Public employees will be marching today to protest and restore the 3.8 percent cuts that a legislative budget committee chopped from the 7.9 trillion-colon 2015 national budget. Within the legislature, the Frente Amplio political party has promised to do likewise. President Luis Guillermo Solís went on television Sunday night to defend his budget and said that it should not be mutilated. And, he said, although important, the fiscal deficit is not the most important challenge facing government. The defict can be handled in the long-term, he said, as he decried possible setbacks in health, education and security. The president said he hoped that the full legislature would not be tied up by a small group of legislators. He was referring to the eight lawmakers on the budget committee who voted in favor of the 3.8 percent cuts. The approved budget is 7.6 trillion colons, about $14 billion. The amount trimmed from the executive branch budget was 297.8 billion colons or about $546 million. The Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transporte, the Poder Judicial, the Ministerio de Educación Publica and the Ministerio de la Presidencia sustained the bulk of the cuts, according to a legislative summary. Solís in his Sunday talk, said that the government had made cut of 21 billion colons and improved tax collection an equal amount, which is about $38.5 million. The march by union members today is not so much a protest of specific budget cuts but a show of force to challenge the executive |
 branch. Solís submitted a budget proposal 19 percent higher than the previous year. Even with the legislative cuts, the proposed budget still is 15 percent higher than the 2014 version. In addition to the Asociación Nacional de Empleado Públicos y Privados, the march today is being supported by Frente Amplio, which is pushing for much higher taxes on businesses and those they see as being rich. Also marching will be the Asociación Nacional de Profesionales en Investigación Criminalística, which will be specifically protesting cuts to the Poder Judicial budget. Albino Vargas Barrantes. secretary general of the Asociación Nacional de Empleado Públicos y Privados, is calling for a transformation of the tax structure. |
| Why should resident expats even care about the national
budget battle? |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Among journalists, budget is spelled ho hum! Whether in a small town in Iowa or the U.S. capital hardly anyone except those involved follow budget making. That is why there is so much self-dealing among officials. So the question is, why should expats care about the Costa Rican budget? A lot depends on the expat's circumstances. A perpetual tourist with no financial links to the country can always find another beach. But a snowbird with a Pacific condo or an expat resident with property and investments share the fate of the country. Expats already felt the pinch of the fiscal deficit when the country passed a luxury home tax. Whether owners or renters, many expats live in dwellings that fall into the luxury home category, so they either paid the tax or did so indirectly with rent. Now expat residents are expressing concern as the finance ministry plans some form of a global tax of all income regardless of the source. Then there is the proposal for a value-added tax. Officials may deny |
it, but a
value-added tax collects a lot more money than a straight 13
percent sales tax. The food marketer chamber
just expressed fears that the government may actually jack up the
percentage on any value added tax. Regardless, the tax is likely to cover more categories that the existing tax, which means expats will pay more. Just ask the tourism industry which has been included administratively in the existing sales tax starting Jan. 1, 2016. And a lot of expats are involved in the tourism business, so there goes their 2016 pay raises. Some expats may be surprised to earn that the national budget of $14 billion just approved by s legislative committee, averaged out to slightly more than $3,000 for every resident here. That is unsustainable considering that many Costa Ricans are below the tax-paying threshold and that half the budget is borrowed money anyway. The Greek government is a good example. Officials there were unable to borrow more money when the 2008 financial crisis hit, and there was talk of a general default. Costa Rican's international debt has just been categorized as junk status. Such problems do not make for happy countries, which is why Costa Rica needs to chart a reasonable course out of its mess. And individual expats need to pay attention to avoid being blindsided. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Oct. 20, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 207 | |||||
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| Surprising number of Latins in U.S. opt for conversion to
Islam |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Latinos are one of the fastest growing groups in the Muslim religion. According to the organization whyIslam.org, about 6 percent of American Muslims are Latino. And according to Latino American Dawah Organization , a group that promotes Latino conversions, a little more than half of new converts are female. Greisa Torres arrived in Miami four years ago from Cuba. While she sasid she felt at home in the Florida city, where two out of the three residents are Hispanic, Ms. Torres says she lost her identity in the move and found it in the Prophet Muhammad. While she was pregnant with her second son, Mahdi, Torres converted to Islam. “It was very hard for me because we do not have family here, just my husband and my kids. On this day, my baby -- Mahdi -- he was going to be born. That is why I convert to Islam because I was scared," Torres says. According to some estimates, there are 3,000 Hispanic Muslims in Miami and more than 40,000 nationwide. Stephanie Londono has a master's degree from Florida International University and has published a study about religious conversions by Latinas. Londono says some women turn to Islam because they are repelled by Western values of success -- as measured by careers, schooling or wealth. She says they are more comfortable with traditional gender roles. |
On any Friday
afternoon, juma prayers are held at Masjid MiamiGardens --
the local Islamic mosque. The men listen to the imam speak downstairs. The women are separated and watch upstairs, through a glass barrier at the front or on a monitor mounted in the upper corner of the expansive carpeted room. Londono says her research found that some people might view Islam as giving women less freedom, but the converting Latinas see it as a positive change. “It defines their world on a clear grid of what’s permitted or 'halal,' and what’s prohibited which is 'haram.' So they know exactly where they stand," Londono says. "So the Koran becomes this guidebook that tells you exactly what to wear, what to eat, how to wash, how to behave, when to pray.” While feminist Muslims might avoid the hijab, many Latinas embrace it. Londono says they purposely speak Spanish while wearing the scarf to take a stand as a representative of Islam. Ms. Torres agrees, saying, “When people see you with the hijab, they respect you first. Second, it’s the emotion you feel because you are different. You believe in something. It’s amazing.” Also, going out in public with the hijab breaks traditional stereotypes that all Arabs are Muslim and all Hispanics are Catholic. In her transition from Jesus to Muhammed, Ms. Torres also discovered similarities in the cultures, such as about 4,000 Spanish words have their roots in Arabic -- virtually all words starting with the letters “a-l.” This dates back to the Moorish occupation of Spain in the Middle Ages. Ms. Torres finds that useful, because some of what she's learning about Islam is taught in Arabic. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Oct. 20, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 207 | |||||||
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| Epidemic of ebola fears sweeps over United States By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
For Americans, ebola started out as a disease in a far away continent, but then a man from Liberia died from ebola in a Dallas hospital, and things changed. Ebola was on American soil. Fears heightened, and they spiked even more when two nurses who treated that ebola patient contracted the disease. These new cases have prompted an epidemic of fear. One of the nurses, Nina Pham, was transferred from a Dallas hospital to the clinical studies unit at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. A top official there, Anthony Fauci, sought to allay fears at a news conference . "We fully intend to have this patient walk out of this hospital. And we intend to do everything we can to make that happen," Fauci said. The other nurse, Amber Vinson, has been moved to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. Despite assurances from America's top doctors, more than 80 percent of Americans believe ebola can be spread by many ways, including by sneezing and coughing. Those are the results of a new poll by Harvard University. Infectious disease experts say the virus can only be spread by contact with bodily fluids from someone who has the disease. The poll also shows that more than half of adults are concerned that there will be a large outbreak of ebola inside the U.S. within the next 12 months. Nurses and doctors are also raising their concerns. Nurses' groups say they haven't been trained to care for ebola patients and that they don't have proper equipment to protect them from catching the virus. Randi Weingarten heads one of the nurses unions. "Frontline providers, who are key to containing ebola, must have a voice and be involved in the development and implementation of plans," Ms. Weingarten said. Saturday, President Barack Obama used his weekly address to tell Americans keep the situation in perspective and not to give in to ebola hysteria or fear. Many Americans are calling for a ban on travel to the U.S. from West African nations affected by ebola until the virus is under control. But that would prevent the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from screening and tracking these visitors. That's what Centers head Thomas Frieden, told a congressional hearing on Thursday. "Borders can be porous. We won't be able to check them for fever when they leave. We won't be able to check them for fever when they arrive. When they arrive we wouldn't be able to impose quarantine," Frieden told members of a House subcommittee. Still, a plane that one of the infected nurses flew on is now being disinfected, and schools in Ohio and Texas closed their doors because some students or staff shared an airplane with the nurse, unnecessary procedures prompted by fear because experts say you can only get ebola from a sick person's bodily fluids. Health official doubts every hospital is ready By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A top U.S. health official says it is unrealistic to expect every hospital in America to be able to care for an ebola patient, but that health care facilities must be vigilant for possible cases and be ready to isolate anyone infected with the virus for transport to specialized treatment centers. The Director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, spoke one day after President Barack Obama warned against mass-panic over the disease. A collective sigh of relief could be felt aboard a cruise ship that docked in Texas after a passenger tested negative for ebola. A Coast Guard helicopter was dispatched to collect a blood sample from a woman who had handled specimens from America’s first ebola patient, Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan, who died earlier this month in Dallas. The episode points to mounting fears and evolving health protocols to deal with the virus. Last week, America’s third ebola patient, Dallas nurse Nina Pham, was transferred to the nation's premier health research facility, the National Institutes of Health near Washington, for treatment. Infectious disease specialist Fauci says it’s important to remain realistic. “I think this idea that every single hospital can take care of a seriously-ill ebola patient right now is not true. We do not want people to think that any community hospital is totally equipped to care for a patient,” said Fauci, speaking on ABC’s This Week program. Earlier, President Barack Obama attempted to calm an increasingly-alarmed American public. “This is a serious disease, but we cannot give in to hysteria or fear. Now, even one infection is too many. At the same time, we have to keep this in perspective. As our public health experts point out, every year thousands of Americans die from the flu,” said Obama. But a growing chorus of critics, including some Republican and Democrat lawmakers, want stronger measures to isolate the United States from African nations where ebola has killed more than 4,500 people. Rep. Fred Upton is among them. “I am going to encourage the president to really put in a no-fly zone from that region of the world, particularly for folks trying to travel here on a visa,” said Upton. President Obama said stopping flights to and from West Africa could make the situation worse by disrupting the flow of supplies and health workers to affected regions and causing passengers to go through third countries and possibly evade screening for Ebola. Oxfam seeks more support and calls ebola a disaster By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The international aid agency Oxfam is appealing to European Union foreign ministers to do more to fight ebola; a disease Oxfam said could be the definitive humanitarian disaster of our generation. The chief of the British charity, Mark Goldring, called for more troops, funding and medical staff to be sent to Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, the countries hit hardest by the epidemic. Goldring said countries that fail to make a commitment to fight ebola "are in danger of costing lives." Echoing that comment, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said, in an open letter to the BBC Sunday, that the fight against ebola is one in which the whole world has a stake. President Sirleaf said, "It is the duty of all, as global citizens, to send a message that they will not leave millions of West Africans to fend for themselves." She added that the disease was unleashing an economic catastrophe that will leave a “lost generation” of young West Africans. Meanwhile, a Pentagon spokesman said U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered the creation of a 30-member expeditionary medical support team to be able to provide emergency help in the event of an ebola crisis in the United States. The plan would be for a team of five doctors, 20 nurses and five trainers to be able to respond on short notice to help civilian medical professionals, a statement from Rear Admiral John Kirby said. The U.S. will also issue new guidelines for health workers treating ebola patients that will include using protective gear with no skin showing. The guidelines are expected to set a firmer standard than before, calling for full-body suits and hoods that protect workers' necks, setting rigorous rules for removal of equipment and disinfection of hands, and calling for a site manager to supervise the putting on and taking off of equipment. Kirby called the team “an added, prudent measure to ensure our nation is ready to respond quickly, effectively and safely in the event of additional ebola cases. ... They will not be sent to West Africa or elsewhere overseas and will be called upon domestically only if deemed prudent by our public health professionals,” the statement said. Some of the dozens of people who are being watched for possible exposure to ebola in the United States are expected to be cleared through today, potentially easing concerns about the spread of the disease after two nurses were infected. They would include Duncan's fiancee, Louise Troh, her 13-year-old son and two other people who have been in mandatory quarantine at an undisclosed location in Dallas. Also, a Dallas lab worker who spent much of a Caribbean holiday cruise in isolation tested negative for the deadly virus and left the Carnival Magic liner with other passengers after it docked at Galveston, Texas, early Sunday. However, there are still 75 health workers in Dallas who have isolated themselves and are being monitored. In a public letter on Saturday night, Texas Health Resources Chief Executive Barclay Berdan acknowledged that Texas Health Presbyterian, where Duncan first went, made mistakes, including initially not diagnosing ebola. Berdan said aggressive actions since then ensured that the hospital was a safe place, and that outside experts would be consulted to determine how two nurses became infected. Meanwhile, Fidel Castro, the former leader of Cuba, said the Caribbean island nation will gladly cooperate with the U.S. in the fight against ebola in West Africa. Writing in the state media Saturday, the 88-year-old Castro said the cooperation would be in the interest of peace in the world, and is not an attempt to resolve issues between the U.S. and Cuba. "We will gladly cooperate with American personnel in that task and not in search for peace between the two states that have been adversaries for so many years, but in any case, for peace in the world, a goal that can and should be attempted," a Cuban television broadcaster read Castro's remarks on the air. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry praised Cuba's efforts Friday for its impressive response to the ebola crisis, saying "Cuba - a country of just 11 million people - has sent 165 health professionals and it plans to send nearly 300 more" to hard-hit West Africa. Cuba has a history of sending its doctors to emergencies around the world. U.S. High Court permits Texas to check voter IDs By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed the state of Texas to enforce its strict new voter identification law in November polls, despite a lower court's ruling that it threatened to block many minorities from casting ballots. The court ruling, released early Saturday, was unsigned and contained no reasoning. The 2011 law forces voters to present photo identification before casting ballots. Texas officials, who say the legislation aims to prevent voter fraud, Saturday voiced strong support for the court ruling. However, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in a six-page dissent, said the ruling may block as many as 600,000 registered Texans from voting, a figure state officials have disputed. Justice Ginsburg said a sharply disproportionate percentage of blocked voters are African-American or Hispanic, and noted, in her words, that "racial discrimination in elections in Texas is no historical artifact." Ginsburg also noted that many rural Texans seeking a required form of identification ahead of November polls face round-trip travel times of three hours or more to the nearest government facility issuing such documents. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan also dissented. The Supreme Court order is the fourth such ruling in recent weeks on states seeking to determine whether election law changes approved by Republican-controlled state legislatures can be applied to crucial mid-term elections. Election law changes were upheld in the states of North Carolina and Ohio, while new rules in Wisconsin were blocked. The High Court majorities in each case did not give reasoning for their decisions. Swedish military is seeking disabled Russian submarine By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Sweden's military is searching its waters near Stockholm after detecting foreign underwater activity, possibly a Russian submarine in distress. The non-aligned Nordic country has deployed more than 200 men, stealth ships, minesweepers and helicopters to look for a man-made object signals from which it detected Friday. Sweden has described the search 50 kilometers east of its capital as an intelligence operation, with the mobilization one of the country's biggest since the Cold War. Russia denied Sunday that any of its submarines are involved in the incident. But the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reported that a distressed Russian submarine is the focus of the search. The newspaper said Swedish military intelligence intercepted radio signals off the coast of Sweden to Kaliningrad, home to much of Russia's Baltic Sea naval fleet, and that they were transmitted on a special emergency frequency. Broco's Peyton Manning sets NFL passing record By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning set a new U.S. National Football League record for career touchdown passes in the Broncos' 42-17 rout of the visiting San Francisco 49ers Sunday night. Manning's short touchdown pass to wide receiver Demaryius Thomas late in the second quarter gave him 509 career touchdown passes, breaking the record held by Brett Favre, a future member of the NFL's Hall of Fame. Manning — himself assured to become a Hall of Famer — tied Favre's record earlier in the game with a 39-yard pass to receiver Wes Welker. His historic night comes just three years after being forced to miss the entire 2011 season after undergoing a series of surgeries to repair his injured neck that put his career in doubt. The son of a former NFL quarterback, Archie, the 38-year-old Manning has been named most valuable player five times in his 16-year career; four of them while a member of the Indianapolis Colts. He led the Colts to numerous appearances in the postseason, including a win in the 2007 Super Bowl against the Chicago Bears. Public bus overturns on its route to Tilarán By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Posted Monday at 1:50 p.m. The Cruz Roja said that 27 passengers on a Tilarán-bound bus suffered some form of injury when the bus overturned earl today. The Cruz Roja said that three passengers were hospitalized in critical condition in the Hospital de Cañas. Five other persons also were hospitalized. The remainder suffered bruises or nervous distress from the mishap, said the rescue agency. Some were in the Clínica de Tilarán. The accident was in a location known as Tanque de Oxilación about 6:50 a.m.. The bus trip originated in Parcelas de Quebrada Azul. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
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Things
that go woosh in the night
There are times when I just can’t sleep. Maybe I’m not tired enough or maybe I am a little stiff from working in the garden. Sometimes I wonder if it’s not just the way night falls in the tropics. We were in
Alright, so that may be a little extreme, but that is how it feels to me. Or maybe twilight starts at three in the afternoon and I just missed it somehow. Whatever it is, after a few hours of darkness, I find myself disinterested in being awake but not sleepy enough to actually go to sleep. A strange situation. Still, this sudden night does give me a chance to meet some of my favorite pollinators – moths. Moths are the reason that the angel trumpet flowers outside my window smell so wonderful in the evening and, as much as I dislike the damage that moth caterpillars can do to my plants, I do love the flowers the moths pollinate. And they do love those trumpet shaped flowers. One species of hawkmoth, and we have several types in Costa Rica, has a tongue that can be 10 cm long (4 inches), reach nectar deep in the flower. The night air would be less rich without moths. Jasmine is beautifully fragrant and often visited by moths. And moths are not just night flyers. They can be seen in the morning and evening as well, which leads us to another plant pollinated by moths. It’s called the Four O’clock (Mirabilis jalapa). Originally a native of Perú, this flower opens its petals at, well, 4 p.m. to catch the early flying moths. Each flower lives only one night and, because they compete for pollinators, they produce a strong sweet fragrance. And then there are the less fragrant flowers and shrubs that are garden favorites. The brunfelsia pauciflora, or ‘yesterday, today, tomorrow’ and heliotrope are also moth pollinated. The yucca and its pollinator have a very special symbiotic relationship. The pollinating moth lays its eggs inside the yucca flower and the young caterpillars eat some of the seeds when they first hatch leaving the rest to produce new plants. So, the next time you are a little wakeful, shine a light into the flower bed and see if you can catch one of our pollinators a work. They may not have the color of our day flyers, but they enrich our gardens.
If you would like to suggest a topic for this column, simply send a letter to the editor. And, for more garden tips, visit the Arenal Gardners Web site. |
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| From Page 7: Falling oil prices have major impact By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Global oil prices are falling drastically, and a new World Bank study says they may remain low for a year or more. Lower energy costs can often help boost economic growth. Low prices might also increase political tensions and hurt investments in key energy sectors. The oil market is seeing a production surge from the United States as new techniques dramatically increase oil output, according to La Salle University economic and political expert Edward Turzanski. “Transforming the world energy market and also playing a consequential role in geopolitics, " said Turzanski. That transformation comes as economists say slowing economic growth in Europe and Asia is cutting energy demand at a time of plentiful oil supplies. That combination is driving down oil prices. Less money spent on energy leaves families more money to buy other goods and services, boosting economic growth for many nations. But low oil prices can weaken the economies and the political power of oil exporters like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Russia. Russia’s economy already is facing economic sanctions to punish Moscow for its role in Ukraine. An analyst at Strategic Energy and Economic Research said long term low oil prices will complicate Russian President Vladimir Putin's efforts to maintain domestic political power. He is Michael Lynch. “Longer term, the combination of sanctions and weaker oil prices are going to put pressure on him,” said Lynch. Rising oil production is due to techniques like fracking that collect oil that is missed by other methods, but does so at a higher cost -- between $50 and $80 per barrel of oil. High costs and low prices may make these techniques unprofitable, according to Standard & Poor's analyst Peter Rigby. “U.S. oil production could fall if prices drop below break-even levels for expensive shale oil production, causing drillers to stop drilling,” said Rigby. Renewable energy alternatives to oil also will find it harder to compete for investment dollars if oil prices drop low and stay there. Lynch said we may be entering a new era of lower energy costs, while S&P's Rigby says oil prices will remain volatile and vulnerable to global economic and financial changes. |
