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Second news page |
 Click HERE for photo tour of 526 properties for SALE or RENT in Escazú, Ciudad Colón, Santa Ana, Rohrmoser, Curridabat, Heredia and the Pacific Coast. |
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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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 A.M. Costa Rica/José
Pablo Ramírez Vindas
Demolition has begun on charred hospital wingTheory about hospital fire
is arsonist craved notice By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Investigators think that the person who started the July 12 fire at Hospital Calderón Guardia did it to attract attention and perhaps become a hero by quelling the blaze. That is the theory which has driven the investigation into the fire that killed 21 persons and resulted in the arrest early Friday of a suspect. The detained individual has the last name of Ledezma and worked as a nurse's aide at the hospital. The fatal fire was the second at the north San José hospital, but this one got out of control. Agents said that Ledezma, 24, was seen near the storeroom in the hospital's surgical recovery wing about the time of the blaze. In addition to an accusation of murder and one of arson, Ledezma is facing investigation on an allegation of falsification of documents because agents claim he fabricated documents to obtain the hospital job. According to the agents' theory, the arsonist was planning to win personal approval and acclaim by putting out the storeroom fire, but the blaze got out of his control. An earlier storeroom fire was extinguished before it could spread. A contributing factor to the deaths — all but three being that of patients — was that the hospital lacked adequate alarms and fire detection devices as well as a viable evacuation plan. Although to blaze was confined to one wing, the oldest part of the public hospital, the entire complex was evacuated and suffered smoke damage. Major effects of Beta are north of country By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Though Hurricane Beta smashed the Colombian islands of San Andreas and Providencia and roared ashore in Nicaragua as a Category 2, conditions along the southern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica were bright and sunny for much of the weekend minus one nasty 20-minute rainstorm Saturday evening. In a season that has caused what President Abel Pacheco called the worst natural disaster in Costa Rican history, Beta rained heavily on parts of the country, but the emergency commission reported no evacuations. In preparation of the storm, Nicaraguan authorities moved tens of thousands of people into temporary shelters, and Honduras declared a state of emergency and began Saturday to evacuate more than 100,000 people from areas prone to flooding and mudslides, said the A.M. Costa Rica wire services. Providencia and San Andreas reported heavy damage but no fatalities, the wire services said. Television footage showed heavy flooding on the islands. By Sunday night, the countries had canceled their coastal warnings and the maximum sustained winds had decreased to 40 miles per hour, said the U. S. National Hurricane Center. The storm was moving west at 7 mph and forecasters predicted that it would dump some 10 to 15 inches of rain on Nicaragua and eastern Honduras. The center predicted that by this morning, the storm will have petered out over western Nicaragua. Although Costa Rica never has suffered a direct hit from a hurricane, the long arms of such storms bring heavy rains, winds and unsettled conditions. For nearly six weeks Costa Rica has been under the weather influence of one storm or another. Noche de Brujas is a night to be careful, cops said By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Halloween, called Noche de Brujas in Costa Rica is not celebrated as much as in the United States, but police agencies are on full alert today and tonight. The Ministerio de Gobernación, Policía y Seguridad Pública said all the Fuerza Pública officers in the country would be involved and paying particular attention to youngsters on their way to and from school and during the evening of the "night of witches." The custom of visiting neighbors seeking candy is gaining here, but the necessary security in Costa Rica presents some obstacles. Officials said that homeowners should verify who is at the door before opening it, particularly if adults appear in costume. They also said that sexual predators can easily attract youngsters by using candy on Halloween. They also said that street robbers sometimes use costumes and masks to hide their identities when involved in crimes. |
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with the observations of Dr. Lenny Karpman Click HERE! |
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Third news page |
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| An expression for those who are better and know it |
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| El que se mete a
Redentor muere crucificado “He who tries to play the Redeemer could end up getting crucified.” This dicho has to do with people who feel they are so good, so right, and oh so righteous that one gets the impression that they see themselves as the second incarnation of Christ. The problem is, that if you’re going to be that good, you’d better be prepared to deal with the consequences. A few years ago a young Costa Rican couple arrived in Bloomington, Indiana. He was working on a Ph.D. in chemistry at Indiana University, while she, whom we shall refer to as Sra. “L,” managed to wangle an assistantship teaching first-year Spanish; no mean feat when one considers that even the wives or husbands of full professors at IU are generally discouraged from teaching at the university. Most people hate teaching an eight o’clock class, but Sra. “L” adored it. How perverse, you may say. But she loved teaching at that hour for the pure pleasure of being able to scold tardy students and to punish their lateness by assigning extra homework. She would gleefully relate stories of how she had assigned 30 extra pages of work to such-and-such a student because he had arrived two minutes late for her class. This woman made herself so thoroughly unpopular with her students that they began to complain to the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and to request transfers out of her class. The complaints against her grew so numerous that after only one semester the chairperson of the department relieved her of her teaching position. Many other Central American students warned us about her, but for most of the two years we knew her, we never had any real difficulties with Sra. “L.” That was about to change. After being fired from her teaching job, Sra. “L” set herself up in business cleaning houses. She adored this work because it allowed her the joyous opportunity of reporting on the terribly untidy condition of the homes of the people she worked for. Finally, Sra. “L’s” husband was almost finished with work on his degree and only had to complete certain experiments connected with his dissertation. Since they only expected to be in Bloomington for a few more weeks, they didn’t want to take out a lease on an apartment. So, Sra. “L” asked if they might move in with us for this short period, to which we readily agreed. After “a few weeks” stretched into two months and then six months, the English dicho “familiarity breeds contempt” began to take on new meaning. Of course, Sra. “L” immediately started criticizing every aspect of our lives, from the supermarket where we shopped to the kind of car we drove. She even began referring to our guest room, where she and hubby were ensconced, practically as if it were her private domain and not even connected to our house! Once, former Costa Rican president Óscar Arias came to Bloomington to accept an honorary doctorate from Indiana University. I organized a breakfast for him to which all Central American students, and their significant others, were invited. It was a very pleasant and elegant occasion, and Don Óscar was extremely gracious. He talked personally for a |
moment or two with everyone present, inquiring about their
interests, their studies and plans for the future. Don Óscar appeared genuinely shocked at this news, and
mildly
reproached Sra. “L” for having spent the past two years at such a great
center of learning without studying a single thing that would have
improved her mind, developed her skills, or enhanced her enjoyment of
life. |
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 A.M. Costa Rica/Joe Taylor
Playa Galeón is just one of the 12 beaches on Contadora
Island |
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| 'Survivor' locale gets ready to host another show |
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By Joe Taylor
Special to A.M. Costa Rica Filming begins Tuesday in the Pearl Islands of Panamá for a new "Survivor." Once again the 354-room Hotel Contadora Resort on Contadora Island is serving as the command center for the upcoming $275 million production of this mega-hit television show. Mark Burnett, the show’s creator, is clearly attracted to the rugged beauty, the remoteness, and the rich pirate history of the Pearl Islands, an archipelago of nearly 200 islands 20 minutes by air from Panamá City. This will be the third time that he has filmed the show there. The area was the location for "Survivor 7" in 2003 and "Survivor All-Stars" in 2004. The security around the Hotel Contadora is significant. Most of Playa Larga, the largest beach on the island, has been roped off. Only the 350 crew members staying in the hotel and the locals with an official ID are allowed to enter. The guards tell everyone else that “the hotel is undergoing renovations” and not to proceed another step. The security in the waters around Contadora Island is even more formidable. Several dozen Panamanian soldiers in boats are patrolling the area between Contadora Island and the islands of Chapera and Mogo Mogo where most of the filming will take place. If curiosity seekers get too close to either of these islands, they will be immediately intercepted and told to leave. Crew members and locals hired by "Survivor" do not provide any information about the upcoming season because they have signed a five-year confidentiality agreement not to discuss the show with anyone. The usual rumors of enormous bribes paid to "Survivor" employees by tabloids have begun. The curtain of secrecy on the island is so thick that only those fans who are willing to outplay, outwit, and outlast the competition will ever have a chance of finding out what is going on behind the scenes on Contadora Island. For the many "Survivor" enthusiasts who have been flocking to the Pearl Islands since 2003, they do not mind being told to leave. It is all part of the excitement. Tony Ayala, manager of the Contadora Island Inn, has met many of these fans whom he calls "Survivor" trekkies. |
They come to the island
all the time, he said, adding that they want to
see where Rupert Boneham won the immunity challenges, or where Colby
Donaldson took his shirt off, or where Rob Mariano and Amber Brkich
fell in love. These travelers are easy to identify with their "Survivor" buffs, hats, and T-shirts. Their vocabulary is filled with references to previous "Survivor" sites such as Palau, Vanuatu, and Borneo, and they talk about Jeff Probst, the host of the show, as if he were a dear family friend. Ayala enjoys telling about the time when he was asked by Mark Burnett to work full-time for "Survivor." “I told him that it was a great show, but that the main concept of the show ‘sucked'. These guys work together to become a tight group and then they are encouraged to stab each other in the back. What is that all about?” he asked. Some on the island suspect, however, that Ayala is a closet fan of "Survivor." He enjoys telling about the cameo appearance he made on "Survivor" in 2003 when he served a beer to Boneham that the star had won in a reward challenge. Until the filming stops and all the clean-up work is completed in mid-December, the island will lack some of its tranquillo ambiance. The locals do not seem to mind at all. The business generated by "Survivor" is enormous. The owner of the Sagittarius, the small restaurant where many locals eat on Contadora Island, loves feeding the dozen or more soldiers who come in on a regular basis at mealtime. She says that until the arrival of the "Survivor" crew in early October, business had been extremely slow for several months. She doesn’t have to even give the soldiers a check. She just writes down the number of meals served each day and then submits the figure to "Survivor" for payment. Small boat owners and local guides also busily shuttle crewman back and forth from Hotel Contadora to Mogo Mogo and Chapera to prepare the sites for the 18 new "Survivor" contestants, each of whom hopes to leave the Pearl Islands with a million dollars in prize money. CBS "Survivor 12" airs Feb. 6 right after the Super Bowl. |
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Migrating birds along Pacific monitored for influenza
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Special to A.M. Costa Rica
The U.S. Department of the Interior is studying migratory birds on the Pacific flyway for the highly pathogenic avian influenza as part of its plan to protect the health of employees and millions of visitors to public lands it manages. The virus, H5N1, has caused mortality in nearly 60 species of wild birds in Asia and Europe, but there are no reported cases of people becoming infected from migratory birds. “The Department of the Interior is responsible for managing wildlife, including migratory birds, and for ensuring public health on more than 500 million acres of federal land across the country,” said Tom Weimer, senior advisor to the secretary of the Interior. In conjunction with the State of Alaska, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Geological Survey biologists have been strategically sampling migratory birds for |
H5N1 in the Pacific migratory flyway for several months. The efforts, Weimer said, complement ongoing avian influenza studies by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and university partners in Alaska, where birds that regularly migrate between Asia and North America are known to congregate and to nest. So far, the H5N1 bird flu strain has not been detected in any wild bird sampled in North America, but the expanding global spread of H5N1 increases the likelihood that it will eventually be detected here, Weimer said. “Introduction of this virus by wild migratory birds is just one possible pathway that the Departments of Agriculture and Interior are working together to address,” he added. Federal efforts are under way to plan a coordinated and more comprehensive surveillance and detection program that will provide an early warning if migratory birds are found to carry the virus. |
| EU's latest proposal on agricultural tariff cuts might jeopardize pact |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Washington calls a new European Union farm-trade proposal "disappointing" and says it does not cut protective tariffs enough. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Portman spoke Friday after consulting with top trade officials from the EU, Brazil, India and Australia. The EU had put forward what its top officials called a "bottom line" offer to cut agricultural tariffs and |
domestic subsidies. Brussels tied the initiative to similar-sized
concessions on trade in services and manufacturing from major
developing nations. The World Trade Organization's 148 members are due to meet in December to consider an outline for a new global trade deal intended to boost the world economy and aid poor nations. If the impasse on agricultural issues is not solved, the agreement that has so far taken four years of talks could collapse. |
| Productivity in Colombia gets a $257 million boost from World Bank |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The World Bank has approved $257 million in loans for business development in Colombia and a project designed to improve the country's environment. The bank says its board of directors allocated $250 million to fund a business productivity and efficiency project designed to create businesses, improve their access to financing, and increase overall productivity. |
The bank allocated another $7 million to Colombia for a sustainable
development project, aimed at reducing air and water pollution, improve
hygiene and urban environmental management. The bank is also loaning El Salvador $27 million to support a poverty reduction program known as Red Solidaria, designed to help the poorest Salvadorans by improving health, nutrition and education in the country. |
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