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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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threatens Caribbean coast By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A low pressure system off the Atlantic Coast of Panama has forecasters worried. According to the Instituto Meteorológico Nacional the system is intensifying and should generate clouds and rains of variable intensity on the Caribbean coast and the northern zone. The extra rain in an already wetter-than-average season is causing the Reventazón, Chirripó, Barbilla and Colorado rivers to overflow, the emergency commission said. As a result, the Comisión Nacional de Prevención de Riesgos y Atención de Emergencias has declared a yellow alert for the cantons of Siquirres and Matina and a green alert for the rest of the Atlantic Coast. A yellow alert means that officials are asking residents to stay alert and take seriously any information or warnings they pass to the public. Local emergency committees indicated that the flooding is causing damage in key parts of the infrastructure in some communities. In Estrada, the rising river has already taken out the bridge that leads to the local cemetery, the commission said. The weather institute said that the low pressure system is moving gradually northeast and should have hit Costa Rica late Sunday night or early this morning. As a result, forecasters predict a wet week for the entire country. The busiest Atlantic hurricane season in recorded history does not officially end until Nov. 30 and forecasters say that more storms are possible. Costa Rican watermelons little-known success story By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Costa Rican watermelons, cultivated primarily on the Central Pacific and in Guanacaste have been selling well in European and North American markets, said a report from the Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería. According to a recent report by the Servicio de Información de Mercados del Consejo Nacional de Producción, the countries of Holland, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Ireland, Poland and the United States are some of the nations that import Costa Rican watermelons. Even though Tico watermelons only make up 2.1 percent of the total U.S. watermelon market, that portion still accounts for 10.3 million kilos worth approximately $2.7 million, the ministerio said. Holland has become the fruit's primary destination. Costa Rica shipped more than 14.2 million kilos there. In total, Costa Rica has exported more than 37,756 tons of watermelon worth $7,417,051 in the months between January and May of this year, the ministerio said. That's a 22 percent increase from last year. In Costa Rica, the fruit is primarily harvested in Orotina, San Mateo, Bagaces, Cañas, Parrita, San Carlos, Upala and Guápiles, the ministerio said. Supermarket stickup leads to Goicoechea chase By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
After a car chase through various sectors of Goicoechea and surrounding areas Saturday, Fuerza Pública officers arrested five suspects minutes after a supermarket robbery, police said. Police said that four men entered the establishment flashing firearms. They threatened the owners, cleaned out the cash register and stole a few cases of liquor for the road as well, officers said. The fifth robber waited outside in the getaway car, a white Hyundai Excel with tinted windows, police said. The owner of the market called the police with a description of the car and a short while later, the officers found a vehicle matching the description. The driver led police on a chase through Goicoechea before stopping near the Coyella Fonseca stadium, officers said. The officers recovered stolen merchandise, they said. Arrested were suspects with the names Alvarez Bonilla, Acuña Morales, Matarrita Rivera, Barrantes Vásquez and Cascante Zúñiga, Man pulls machete on companion, cops say By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Fuerza Pública officers in Betania de Puerto Carrillo, Hojancha, Guanacaste, arrested a 24-year-old man to face an allegation of hacking at his 22-year-old companion with a machete Sunday, officers said. The man, identified by the last names Sánchez López attacked his girlfriend, María Lidieth Díaz Zúñiga on the main street about a kilometer from the school in their town, officers said. The women was taken to the hospital with wounds on her left arm and head, officers said. Police said that they have no motive in the case. OAS will monitor vote for Venezuelan congress By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The Organization of American States has agreed to oversee Venezuela's Dec. 4 Congressional elections. Ruben Perina, the OAS mission chief in Venezuela, said election authorities have agreed to give his organization free access to all necessary information and to the technology that will be used for voting. Several opposition groups had called for outside observers, arguing that the Venezuelan electoral commission is biased in favor of President Hugo Chavez's ruling party. Chavez's party hopes to expand its slim majority in the Congress to two-thirds of the seats. Such an increase would make it easier to pass constitutional reforms. |
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| Fatal guard dog attack generates mixed reactions |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A news story Friday about a guard dog killing a burglar has generated mixed reactions among readers. Costa Ricans appear divided over the issue, too. Early Thursday a drug user known to police in a town near Cartago broke into a salvage yard with theft on his mind. But he had the misfortune to run into two rottweiler guard dogs. Several A.M. Costa Rica readers applauded the actions of the dog, who bit the 25-year-old intruder repeatedly and held on to his bleeding body for more than 90 minutes. Police officers who knew the intruder did not seem anxious to intervene. A television news segment pictured firemen using a high-pressure hose to drive the dog away from the intruders body. He died of blood loss a short time later in a hospital. "You guys are savages! Oh, my GOD how can you possibly live with yourselves if you let dogs eat another human being," said one reader in a hasty note to the newspaper. Another said "I have more sympathy for a poisonous snake in my house than a ladrone," using the Spanish work for a crook. Costa Ricans, who do not support a death penalty even for first-degree murder are uncomfortable with |
the death penalty being
applied by a dog for burglary. Several said that police should have shot the dog when they arrived. The salvage yard owner did hit the animal with a stick but to no effect. Particularly troubling was the televised account that showed the dog walking a short distance from his prey several times. The dead man was homeless and lived a nomadic lifestyle in the vicinity of Lima de Cartago. Police reported later that he had had a handful of court appearances this year for theft, burglary and robbery. There was a clear difference between the responses of expats who live here and readers from the United States and Canada. Most expats sided with the dog. Clearly they have been victimized by the petty thefts and other crimes that appear to be on the upswing here. Those living elsewhere were more compassionate. Costa Ricans expressed concern about how the dog would behave if the prey were a child instead of a burglar. Personal liability laws here are not well defined, and the dead man was believed to be an illegal immigrant. So there probably will not be a court case. Police, too, are unlikely to bring a case against a local merchant. And the owner said he will keep the dog as protection against thieves. |
| A dictionary of slang provides some interesting words |
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| ¡Que bostezo! "What a yawn!" This is what most young Costa Ricans say when they consider someone or something to be boring. Today’s dicho comes from a wonderful dictionary called "Nuevo Diccionario de Costarriqueñismos," Tercera Edición ("New Dictionary of Costaricanisms," 3rd edition) published by the Editorial Tecnológia de Costa Rica, ISBN 9977-66-122-7, for those interested in purchasing it. I was looking through this fascinating tome the other day in search of inspiration, but I got so enthralled that I never made it past the letter “B”. So, I hope you won’t find today’s column too bostezo. I came across the word botado, which literally means “a throw away” or also sometimes “very cheap.” But in Costa Rica botado refers to someone who is overly generous with money. For example, we might say: Diego es muy botado porque siempre nos invita a una cerveza, meaning “Diego is too generous because he’s always inviting us to have a beer.” In English we might say that Diego really throws his money around. Then comes the word botella, which mean “bottle.” In English we use the word bottleneck to refer to a narrow place, such as a stretch of highway where construction work forces all the traffic into a single lane. In Costa Rica we express this idea by saying: el trafico esta enbotellado. But, also if you go to the bank and, as usual, the lines look like dragons at a Chinese New Year celebration, you just might also happen to notice one teller who is goofing off, joking with colleagues and customers and generally slowing things down even more. You might say of this slacker that el es una botella, or “he is usless.” I also found the word bozal, or “muzzle,” in English. This is the device we place over a dog’s snout to keep his mouth shut. In Costa Rica this word has an additional usage in that you can say to someone, ponerse un bozal, or “put a muzzle on it,” meaning “keep your mouth shut.” But it’s really not considered quite as rude as it may sound. Brete, in standard Spanish, means “fetters, shackles, or a tight spot.” But Costa Ricans use it to refer to their jobs. We sometimes say in English that “he is fettered to his desk chair,” meaning he’s a slave to his job. This conveys pretty much the same sense as when a Costa Rican refers to his job as his brete. So now let’s try putting all our new costarriqueñismos together in a couple of sentences and see what we come up with. |
Ese mae es una botella en el brete, solo es popular porque es
un
gran botado, sin embargo todos pensamos que es un gran bostezo. Pero,
ponete el bozal y no cuentes. “That guy is useless at work. He’s only popular because he throws his money around, nevertheless everyone thinks he’s a big bore. But, put a muzzle on it and don’t tell.” Interesting right?! This kind of “Ticospeak” will make
you very
popular at the local cantina, especially if you are one of those gringos
botados. Soon enough, though, I began to pick up the
dialect. My brother-in-law, out in California, once remarked in an
accusatory tone that I talked just like a damn Hoosier. But far from
being an embarrassment to me, I took this a great compliment because I
was – and am – proud of where I live and proud of myself for having
mastered “Hoosierspeak.” |
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A reader's commentary
Election tribunal shows bias
toward traditional parties
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Robert Nahrgang S.*
Special to A.M. Costa Rica Costa Rica’s fourth official power has shown a biased hand. That’s right; Costa Rica has four powers of government. Most countries seem to think three separate and independent powers (Executive, Legislative and Judicial) suffice, but the Costa Rican Constitution framers somehow felt it needed a fourth: the Supreme Election Tribunal. and it turns out to be biased. While the Costa Rican Constitution is clear that “the Government of the Republic” is to be exercised by the “people” and the three above-mentioned powers, it also states that the tribunal is “with the rank and independence of the Powers of the State,” thus another power. Under Article 9 of the Constitution, the Tribunal is given the responsibility “of the acts relative to voting.” If the U.S. had had such a tribunal, maybe there would not have been so much hullabaloo during the closely contested 2000 presidential race decided in Florida with partially punched voting cards, dubious recount criteria and Supreme Court appeals and resolutions. Well, maybe, but that issue is not germane to this commentary. This past week the electoral tribunal handed down a ruling that has left many a political scientist and common man wondering about whose side the tribunal is on when it comes to electing public officials: the traditional political parties or the voter? What happened was that one of the non-traditional political parties had petitioned the Tribunal to accept votes cast in blank as valid votes. The Tribunal said no. What the tribunal said — in so many words — was that a voter cannot express a non-preference vote on the ballot. Write-in candidates, under any circumstances, |
are not eligible to be
elected. That, in itself, shows the influence of
the political parties. You might argue that if none of candidates are
to your liking, don’t even bother to vote. Not voting and voting in blank are not equivalent forms of political expression. Not going to the polls is choosing not to vote. Going to the polls and voting in blank is voting, and, as such, should form part of the official tally. But in Costa Rica it doesn’t. Bear in mind that reaching political power in a democracy is a numbers game. The closer the contest the more important is each valid vote. Ask loser Al Gore about that. In Costa Rica, numbers have a particular importance with an election law that permits a presidential candidate to win the election by garnering only 40 percent of the valid vote. Otherwise a runoff election is called for. This is what occurred for the first time in Costa Rica when Abel Pacheco reached the presidential seat in 2002. Numbers take on more even significance today with the power bases of the traditional parties around 30 percent, but slipping. For traditional parties, that 10 percent or a bit more of the vote is their minimum target. But for an incipient party, that 40 percent is a way out target for an outright win, so to force a runoff means the chances of winning are enhanced. Because a general disenchantment has taken place among voters with traditional parties, new parties and voter abstention are on the rise. Suffering from shrinking numbers of their support bases, traditional parties have picked up a sizable percentage point gain with the tribunal’s ruling of keeping the total vote as small as possible. In my view, this is a reflection of bias in favor of traditionalism. And that’s not good for a country immersed in traditional problems unsolved by traditional solutions. * Mr. Nahrgang of Escazú has lived in Costa Rica 40 years. |
| British parliamentary debate hits on investment here |
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By Jesse Froehling
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff An Inter-Parliamentary Union visit to Costa Rica and Nicaragua by members of the United Kingdom Parliament resulted in the first debate of its kind since the British controlled the Nicaraguan Mosquito coast more than 100 years ago. At issue was whether more United Kingdom investment in the countries would be beneficial. Member of Parliament Norman Baker of Lewes had been included in the visit and was heavily in favor of the United Kingdom investing more of its foreign resources here and in Nicaragua. In a gentlemanly exchange in Parliament with the minister for Europe, Douglas Alexander, the two clashed on many issues of investment in the two countries. Early in his statement, Baker voiced his concern about the stretched resources of Ambassador Georgina Butler who has diplomatic duties not only for Costa Rica but also in Nicaragua now that the British Embassy there has closed. “We have now got to the stage at which the engine is running so slowly that it is in danger of stalling. A little more investment from the UK would repay itself many times over in terms of the benefits to the UK that would flow from it,” Baker said. Alexander responded by citing a December 2003 report “UK International Priorities: a Strategy for the Foreign Commonwealth Office.” In the past seven years, the British Parliament has opened 28 new embassies abroad. In the same time, the government has closed 26, one of which was in Managua. “None of those decisions has been taken lightly, but it is essential that we align our resources to our overall priorities and have the ability to respond to change. I assure the House and the honorable gentleman that we are not abandoning countries,” Alexander said. Baker was also concerned that the United Kingdom Trade and Investment services here had been downgraded to serve only as a response mechanism rather than actively pursuing British investment opportunities here. “We met business people from UK companies in Costa Rica. Frankly, some of us were embarrassed by the lack of support that we appear to be giving to those companies, which want to expand, to the benefit of both Costa Rica and Britain,” Baker said. He voiced this concern in his statement and also during an interruption of Alexander's responses. |
“I, for one, very much
regret the cuts that have been made, because I
believe they are self-defeating. Does the Minister agree that it would
be sensible to have a cost-benefit analysis carried out to discover
whether any increase in posts in these countries, and perhaps more
widely, might pay for itself in terms of benefit to the British
economy?” he asked, speaking of added personnel. “I assure the honorable gentleman that, as part of the spending review process, careful consideration was given to the relative return, on the basis of the commitment of resource to United Kingdom Trade and Investment, and to a need for UKTI to be a customer-led organization,” Alexander responded. However, Baker shied away from extending his enthusiasm north to Nicaragua. He met Daniel Ortega and described “some sort of unusual pact” between the Sandinistas and President Arnoldo Alemán. “The situation is far from stable at present,” he said. Baker's largest concern was the lack of infrastructure that causes the Atlantic Coast and particularly the town of Bluefields to be disconnected from Managua and the rest of Nicaragua. He felt that the British investment in that problem would be beneficial to both countries. Currently the only access to Bluefields is by boat or plane. “It is a pity for Nicaragua that it cannot or has not developed the Atlantic coast. Its geographical position is useful in terms of trade, with openings to the Pacific and the Atlantic. It seems that the Atlantic coast is entirely ignored,” he said. Alexander responded: “Since taking over responsibility for Nicaragua, the ambassador in San José has paid four visits to the Atlantic coast region and has made a point of raising a number of the concerns with the Nicaraguan authorities in Managua, reinforcing the message of the under-secretary of state for international development,” In his final remarks, Baker talked about the San Juan River dispute. At issue is whether or not Costa Rican police may carry firearms on the river. “I am concerned that the stability of both countries should not end up compromised by what appears to be a very small dispute, and that valuable resources that ought to be spent on improving the lot of the population at large should not be spent on military matters. If the [British] Government could help in any way — perhaps they can, having been involved historically in the region — that would be very welcome,” he said. |
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