 |
|
||||
 |
 |
 |
||
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
|
Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for more details |
 |
A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
|
|
|
San
José, Costa Rica, Monday, Dec. 1, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 237
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
|
 A.M. Costa Rica/Abraham
Bermúdez
Ramírez
Oxen and their carreta in San Rafael Arriba
de Desamparados
Downtown
parade not the only one
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
While 300 or more oxcart owners and their animals participated in the Entrada de Boyeros a San José Sunday, there was a smaller parade on San Rafael Arriba de Desamparados. This is an annual affair on the last Sunday of November, and these events herald the Christmas season. The downtown parade also involved musicians and those traditional tall Costa Rican characters, the marcaradas. Gasoline and diesel prices going down By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Gasoline here will drop below the $5-a-gallon mark for Christmas. The Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos has issued new prices for December, and super will be 689 colons a liter when the new prices are published. That's about $4.81 a U.S. gallon and a 50-U.S. cent cut per gallon. Plus will be $4.57 a gallon and 655 per liter. Diesel also is going down but not as drastically. The cut is just 20 centers per U.S. gallon, based on 607 per liter. The Autoridad recomputes the fuel prices every second Friday of the month based on the dollar exchange rate and the world price of petroleum. which is declining. Montes de Oca bringing debtors to court By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Municipalidad de Montes de Oca reports that in the last three months it has sent 40 cases to collections court. Municipal officials said that a second group of cases will be going to the courts in a few days. The debts include municipal taxes and services, the municipality said. Those in arrears have been notified in writing, the officials said. The cases go to the Juzgado Especializado de Cobro Judicial, which has been beefed up by a new law. The municipality includes San Pedro. Government pays aguinaldos Tuesday By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The central government will be paying aguinaldos or Christmas bonuses to 190,000 persons,including employees and pensioners. The amount is 173 trillion colons or about $321 million. That averages out to about $1,626 a person, although some get much more. The announcement comes from the Ministerio de Hacienda, which said that the deposits would be made Tuesday. About 42 percent of those getting the money are involved with public eduction, the ministry said.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes R¡o Colorado S.A.
2014 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 |
|
| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Dec. 1, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 237 | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
 Ministerio de Gobernación,
Policía y Seguridad Pública photos
|
Tale of two guns A boy in Ciudad Quesada holds a plastic gun that he is surrendering for a less warlike toy, while a police officer displays homemade single-shot shotgun confiscated in Tibás from a man who already has a robbery conviction. |
| Country marks end of the military but not elimination of
bloodshed |
|
|
By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Costa Ricans will celebrate the 66th anniversary today of the elimination of the military by the revolutionary junta that helped power after the 1948 civil war. That act is most attributed to Jose Figueres Ferrer, who was president of the junta. President Luis Guillermo Solís and other politicians will mark the event with a 10 a.m. ceremony in the Plaza de la Democracia. That is appropriate because the plaza is due west of what is today the Museo Nacional. The building used to be the local military headquarters, and it still bears the bullet holes from the civil war. A statue of Figueres has just been returned to the plaza. In the 66 years since the abolition of the military, Costa Rican officials have tried hard to reduce the impact of violence in society. As an example, police officers were trading dolls and other non-military toys in Barrio Puente Casa in Ciudad Quesada last week. The slogan was that firearms are not toys. The local Liga Internacional de Mujeres Pro Paz y Libertad in Costa Rica has the same idea and set out the usual Christmas message discouraging the giving of warlike toys as presents. Doing so gives the impression that violence is normal, said the organization. |
The central
government also tries to discourage the use of firearms and
has not recognized the legal opinion that self protection is a human
right. However, the dream frequently collides with reality. A bodyguard of a lottery vendor became a local hero last week when he shot it out with two robbers in the center of the city. The two robbers died. And there was more gunplay over the weekend. Shortly after midnight Saturday a 38-year-old man died while walking to his home in La Verbena en la Aurora de Alajuelita. He was the apparent victim of a street robbery. Saturday night in Moravia a 26-year-old man died about 9:30 p.m. when he was shot while riding a motorcycle. The assailant was on another motorcycle, said the Judicial Investigating Organization. In Paso Canoas also Saturday night a man who arrived on a motorcycle gunned down a 53-year-old man who was at a business there. In Guácimo, also Saturday night, a 43-year-old man suffered a bullet wound as he left his home to enter his car. The assailant was riding double on a motorcycle. |
| Lawmakers pass president's budget intact in unusual Saturday
session |
|
|
By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The legislature approved the full budget requested by the executive branch in an unusual Saturday session. There were 27 of 48 lawmakers in favor of the 7.9 trillion colons budget. That is about $14.6 billion. President Luis Guillermo Solís has personally sought and won support from lawmakers who had voted against the budget earlier in the week. The budget calls for 3.7 trillion colons of new debt. That's $6.85 billion. That debt will have to be placed at a rate higher than the rate the previous administration borrowed. Costa Rica has dropped in the eyes of international debt rating agencies. Those who opposed the budget said there were too many rental agreements for properties, too many consultants proposed and too many international trips and per diems. The 2014 budget is 19 percent greater than the previous year's. The budget will not be the only debt assumed by the country this year. Still on the table is an agreement with the government of China |
to
widen Ruta 32 from Moín to Río Frio, a stretch of some
100 kilometers
or about 62 miles. The Solís administration is trying to renegotiate that deal. The Chinese seek to do the project and provide $435 million in loans to finance the job. In addition to highways, the construction includes a number of overpasses. Land also has to be expropriated. Under a previous proposal, repayment is delayed for five years. Members of the president's political party, Acción Ciudadana, opposed that deal earlier in the year before he took office. The ruling text of the contract was supposed to be the Chinese one, and disagreements were to be adjudicated under Chinese law. The president and his vice president, Helio Fallas are counting the imposition of new taxes to offset somewhat the definition of the new budget. Meanwhile, even as the country assumes more debt, the colon is strengthening against the dollar. The rate today means that a dollar cost 541.19 colons, according to the Banco Central. |
| 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 Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2014 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, Monday, Dec. 1, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 237 | |||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
 Cuerpo de Bomberos de Costa Rica
Nearly 200 fire fighters are on parade.
Representatives came from all over the country.
|
|
| Fire fighters begin their week of celebration with a morning
parade |
|
|
By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Cuerpo de Bomberos de Costa Rica, the fire fighters, began their week of celebration with a parade, a Mass and a display of equipment. In addition to marchers, five fire trucks were in the morning parade to the Catedral Metropolitana. More than 200 fire fighters participated, said the agency. |
The display that
also stressed prevention was in the Plaza de la
Cultura. There also were concerts by the fire fighters' own groups. Fire fighters marched with a white ribbon on their badges to remember José García, the volunteer who became a murder victim near Sixaola. Suspects have been detained. |
Here's reasonable medical care
Costa Rica's world class medical specialists are at your command. Get the top care for much less than U.S. prices. It is really a great way to spend a vacation. See our list of recommended professionals HERE!amcr-prom
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The
contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2014 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, Monday, Dec. 1, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 237 | |||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
 |
| Former president Vazquez is easy winner in Uruguay By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Ruling party candidate Tabare Vazquez has easily won Uruguay's presidential election. The 74-year-old cancer doctor won Sunday's runoff, extending the power of a left-leaning coalition that has helped legalize gay marriage and moved to create the world's first state-run marijuana marketplace. His opponent, 41-year-old opponent Lacalle Pou, had promised to undo much of the plan to put the government in charge of regulating the production, distribution and sale of marijuana on a nationwide scale. The plan is still in the process of being implemented. Pou quickly conceded defeat after unofficial quick counts showed Vazquez with over 53 percent support while Pou trailed with about 41 percent. Thousands of Frente Amplio supporters streamed through the rain-soaked streets of Montevideo, waving party banners, and drivers blared their horns in celebration. Vazquez, 74, is a respected oncologist who helped heal rifts inside Frente Amplio in the late 1990s and led it to power in 2005, ending two decades of conservative rule that followed a military dictatorship. “I promise to work my utmost, but I cannot, should not and do not want to work alone, I want to count on all Uruguayans,” Vazquez told party loyalists Sunday night. When he was president from 2005 to 2010, his mix of welfare programs and pro-business policies helped kick-start a decade of robust growth and slash poverty. Returning to power, he will succeed President Jose Mujica, an ally and former guerrilla whose straight-talking, unpretentious style won him widespread affection in the cattle-farming country of 3.4 million people. “A third Frente Amplio government will show the world that Uruguay can be progressive and successful, reducing poverty while boasting an economy performing better than ever,” said pizza chef Richar Martinez, 39, partying in the streets with his son hoisted on his shoulders. With official results counted from almost one-third of polling stations, Vazquez had 49.5 percent and Lacalle Pou 43.7 percent. The gap was expected to widen as more results came in. The son of a union leader who grew up in a working class district in the capital, Vazquez closed his first term with approval ratings hitting 70 percent. Like Mujica now, he was constitutionally barred from holding a second consecutive term. Vazquez will need to address rising crime and education, both major concerns of voters. He promises to increase spending on schools while cutting wasteful government spending. He will also oversee Uruguay's legalization of the state-controlled production, distribution and sale of cannabis. Vazquez, who lacks Mujica's folksy charisma, endorsed the cannabis law but was less enthusiastic about it than the outgoing president and has said he might modify it, depending on its impact. Mujica's reforms to legalize gay marriage and abortion as well as marijuana cemented Uruguay's reputation as one of Latin America's most liberal nations, but upset conservative voters. The Frente Amplio narrowly won a majority in Congress in legislative elections last month, meaning Vazquez will be in firm control when his term begins March 1. Colombian general set free, and talks likely to resume By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Colombia's leftist rebels freed an army general and two other captives Sunday, paving the way for peace talks in Cuba to resume in the quest to end five decades of conflict. The Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia handed over Gen. Ruben Alzate and his companions, Corporal Jorge Contreras and civilian lawyer Gloria Urrego, to a humanitarian mission led by the International Red Cross early Sunday. The group was shuttled by helicopter to a military base near Medellin, from where they are to be transferred to Bogota. "Freed ... in perfect condition," President Juan Manuel Santos said on his Twitter account, adding that they would be reunited with their families as soon as weather permitted. Santos had halted negotiations in Havana two weeks ago after the rebels known as the FARC seized five hostages, including Alzate, disrupting the push to end violence that has killed more than 200,000 people. Santos refused to allow the talks, which had advanced farther than previous attempts, to continue until the hostages were freed. Alzate, Contreras and Urrego were released in a jungle area near where they were seized in the Pacific province of Choco. The rebels freed two other soldiers captured a week before the general on Tuesday, meaning all five hostages have now been released. The Red Cross said those released on Sunday were fit to be flown by helicopter to the city of Medellin. Santos said he would now meet his team of negotiators to discuss their return to the 2-year-old peace talks in Cuba. Alzate was the highest-ranking military officer captured by the rebels in 50 years of fighting and the incident immediately plunged into crisis peace talks taking place in Cuba. Now free, the 55-year-old counterinsurgent expert, Alzate, will have to answer tough questions about why he apparently violated military protocol and ventured upstream into the rebel-dominated Atrato River dressed as a civilian and without his normal security detail. In a statement posted online Sunday confirming the hostages' release, the FARC negotiating team in Havana reiterated its demand for a cease-fire during peace talks, a request Santos has repeatedly said is out of the question. The speed with which the crisis was resolved showed that both sides were keen to avoid an escalation that could do permanent damage to the peace talks, said Angelika Rettberg, an expert on the peace process. Ferguson cop in shooting decides to leave police job By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The white police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black teenager in the central U.S. state of Missouri after a street confrontation, sparking protests, has resigned and will receive no severance compensation. A lawyer for Officer Darren Wilson said Saturday his resignation from the Ferguson Police Department is effective immediately. Wilson had been on administrative leave since he shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown in August in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson. Ferguson Mayor James Knowles said in a press conference Sunday that neither he nor the chief of police asked Wilson to resign, adding that he will not be receiving any severance pay. Knowles said city authorities are working hard to assemble resources to fix the damage from protests and looting following a grand jury's decision Monday not to indict Wilson for killing Brown. Knowles added that officials are looking at ways to address the grievances of the Ferguson community and will increase efforts to recruit more African Americans to the police force. Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson says he will not be stepping down. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper posted Wilson's resignation letter. Wilson wrote he had been told his continued employment on the police force may put his fellow officers and Ferguson residents at risk. He added he hopes his resignation will allow the community to heal. Meanwhile, protests continued Saturday against the grand jury decision. "I mean, at this point, everybody's going to be upset anyway. Everyone's going to feel the way they feel. I'm upset. I have a 16-year-old son. It could have been him. I feel that he was absolutely in the wrong," said a Ferguson resident. A group of demonstrators set out from Ferguson Saturday on a seven-day, 193-kilometer march to the Missouri state capital, Jefferson City. The so-called Journey for Justice is organized by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP says the march's purpose is to call for new leadership of the Ferguson Police Department and new reforms of police practice and culture across the country. It says rallies and teach-ins will be held along the route each night of the march. In the Washington, D.C., area Saturday, hundreds of people angry over the decision in Ferguson marched on a local shopping mall, after rallying in the historic Georgetown neighborhood. "Every 28 hours a black person is killed in America. They are basically telling us that black lives do not matter. It's the system, it's the American system," said a protester. "Basically, if you're white, you're white. And if you're black, you must have done something, and that's the problem. That's what we are fighting to change." Saturday's protests follow demonstrations coinciding with Black Friday, the traditional kickoff to the holiday shopping season. Protesters in the St. Louis area, Chicago, New York and other U.S. cities called for a shopping boycott as a show of solidarity. Three St. Louis-area malls were reportedly shut down briefly as a result of the demonstrations. Police say 16 people were arrested in Ferguson overnight. Brown's killing has inflamed racial tensions in the country and re-ignited concerns about police brutality, especially against the nation's black population. U.N. committee condemns police brutality in U.S. By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.N. Committee Against Torture has condemned reported police brutality and excessive use of force in the United States, especially against minority groups. The 10-member watchdog committee's report, released Friday, urged U.S. authorities to crack down on perpetrators and punish those suspected of torture or ill treatment. The Committee Against Torture did not examine the August killing of Michael Brown, the black teenager shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. While calling Brown’s death a tragedy, the panel said it could not comment on the case because it had to respect the judicial decision that exonerated the officer, Darren Wilson. Committee member Alessio Bruni, however, said the panel had serious concerns about reports of the excessive use of force and police brutality, as well as the profiling of certain racial and ethnic groups, immigrants and homosexuals in the U.S. "We express concern at the reported current police violence in Chicago, especially against African-American and Latino young people, and deep concern at the frequent and recurrent police shootings of fatal pursuits of unarmed black individuals," said Bruni. Committee member Jens Modvig said U.S. officials had not provided data on such incidents and how they were investigated and prosecuted. "We have reports of widespread extensive use of force by the police, and this gives rise to concern, of course, and also that some vulnerable groups, including ethnic groups, blacks, have been particularly targeted by this force," he said. "And for this reason, the committee feels that there's a need for investigation and prosecution of all cases of police brutality and excessive use of force." The committee also condemned police use of tasers that resulted in the recent deaths of two people in Florida and Illinois, and it said it was troubled by the recent botched executions in Arizona, Oklahoma and Ohio, which caused prisoners pain and prolonged suffering. The experts also decried the prolonged detention of prisoners on death row as a breach of the Convention Against Torture, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. They noted that a U.S. judge recently found that detention on death row for decades violates the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The committee condemned the extensive use of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons, as well as at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, citing harmful psychological and physical effects. Committee members expressed deep concern that the U.S. continues to hold many people without charge at Guantanamo. They criticized the authorities' failure to investigate allegations of torture and ill treatment in this facility, as well as in other places where terrorism suspects are held in U.S. custody. Modvig said the U.S. delegation that appeared for the review expressed concerns of its own. "The delegation started by quoting President Obama that torture had been done and that lines had been crossed, but there is now a process of making up with the past," said Modvig. "Of course, the committee takes an interest in how is this done and is it done in a sufficient way, and like Mr. Bruni said, we have certain concerns about whether investigations are fully, thoroughly completed and whether punishment of law enforcement when they have crossed the line is actually, effectively put in place." Although the committee voiced serious concerns regarding the treatment of illegal immigrants, it said things were developing in the right direction with recent measures taken by Obama. This referred to an executive order to allow nearly 5 million undocumented migrants to temporarily remain legally in the United States. Goal of AIDS-free world considered to be possible By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
This year's World AIDS Day focuses on how to achieve an AIDS-free generation. The United Nations predicts that if prevention and treatment services are scaled up, the epidemic will no longer be a global threat in 15 years. But if goals are not met, the pandemic could get worse. For 30 years, Anthony Fauci has been the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In 1984, there were no drugs that targeted HIV/AIDS. There are now more than 30. Fauci describes the progress in controlling HIV/AIDS as extraordinary. "If you can put someone on anti-retrovirals relatively early in the course of their infection ... let us say they are a 25-year-old man or woman, you could look them in the eye as I do when I see them in my clinic three times a week, and tell them if they stay on their drug, you could project that they could live an additional 50, five-zero, years, which is one of the most extraordinary accomplishments in biomedical research in translation," said Fauci. But the latest study shows only 30 percent of Americans with HIV are getting the right treatment for HIV. The number drops by half for those between the ages of 18 and 24. Some experts blame the human factor: Some people are afraid to find out their test results. Others are tired of taking pills, don't feel like using condoms, and worry about the stigma that comes from having HIV. Howard University in Washington sponsors a yearly conference to examine the stigma associated with this disease. Rod McCoy, who is HIV-positive, works with an organization that provides HIV education and testing. "One of the things I am concerned about as a health educator is people staying on their meds, but also people who are not infected having the mentality of, 'Oh, people take medication, so if I get infected, I will be fine.' My concern is around the complacency around prevention because of the success of treatment,” said McCoy. Fauci tells people at forums like those at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington that complacency is why a vaccine against HIV is so needed. "When we start seeing that there is such a low level of infection and the numbers look good, that is when we are going to have a rebound. My conclusion, then, is that it really is essential to durably control and end the AIDS epidemic is to have a vaccine," he said. Even with extraordinary accomplishments in AIDS treatments that are driving down the numbers of people who get HIV, more than 35 million people around the world still have the virus, and the United Nations reports another 1.5 million people died from it in 2012, far too many lives to become complacent. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The
contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2014 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, Monday, Dec. 1, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 237 | |||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
||
|
Do you keep seeing this winter thing on television? I do, and it brings back memories. Winter meant a lot of work in the garden, even in Georgia. First, it was the angel trumpets. We lived just south of Atlanta and would get a hard frost sometime is November. Before it hit, we had to get out there and cut down the angel trumpets. This was quite a job as they could
Caladiums were another protect plant. The bulbs had to be dug annually and stored carefully then replanted in the spring. Sounds easy, but the tops usually died off before I got out there, the dog knocked over the location stakes, and I often found myself digging in the wrong places. I lost a lot of caladiums that way. But not here. Here I just plant them and let them go. There are a lot of things that I used to have to dig up and store for the winter. I remember my mom and her geraniums when we lived in New Jersey. And the iris, or was it the gladiola, and the begonias. They all had to come up and get lovingly stored in the garage, safe from the winter storms. Then there was the leaf raking, which I shouldn’t complain about because jumping in piles of leaves is a favorite childhood memory. But back to the plant protection thing. Now I only protect my plants from leaf cutter ants (or try to) and I only dig them up to split them or put them in new locations. Life is a lot simpler down here. And, while I am on the topic of that winter thing, what about poinsettias? Remember getting a couple of potted poinsettias before Christmas and then trying to keep them alive? Or reading all the advice on getting them to rebloom for a second Christmas? Forget about it. Just take it outside and stick it in the ground. Of course, by next Christmas it will be way too big to bring inside, but it is going to look terrific in the yard. Have a great winter everyone. I will. Plant of the Day
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 Gardeners Facebook page. French organization accepts Costa Rica By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The country has been accepted as an observer by the Organización Internacional de la Francofonía, the foreign ministry reported. Elizabeth Fonseca Corrales, the minister of Cultura y Juventud represented Costa Rica at a meeting of the organization in Dakar, Senegal. |
| Costa Rican News |
AMCostaRicaArchives.com |
Retire NOW
in Costa Rica |
CostaRicaReport.com |
| Fine Dining
in Costa Rica |
The CAFTA Report |
Fish
fabulous Costa Rica |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The
contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2014 and may
not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
||||||
| From Page 7: Manufacturing urged for poor countries By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A new United Nations report urges the poorest countries in the world to shift from low- to high-productivity activities to improve their economies. In its annual "Least Developed Countries Report," the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development says these countries must structurally transform their economies to free themselves from the poverty trap, which is stunting economic growth and development. Of the 48 nations the U.N. considers least developed countries, only one, Laos, is on track to achieve all seven of the millennium development goals by 2015. Only four African countries, Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda and Uganda, are likely to meet a majority of these targets. This assessment is particularly grim in light of the even greater challenges awaiting these countries in the coming years. The millennium program sets a goal for nations to halve their poverty levels by 2015. The so-called sustainable development goals, which carry on from where millennium leave off, call for eradication of poverty by 2030. According to Taffere Tesfachew, a U.N. Conference on Trade official who works with African nations, it would be nothing short of a miracle for the least developed countries to pull this off. In order for the least developed countries to achieve this miraculous performance, he says they will need to structurally change their economies. He said this means shifting labor from activities with low productivity, such as small-scale agriculture and services to more dynamic activities with higher productivity, such as manufacturing and high-value services. “Countries that have moved up are the ones that are creating opportunities for those that are leaving agriculture to engage in things where they add value, where they get training and as it happens, manufacturing tends to have that sort of feature, that is why this call for manufacturing," he said. "Countries that are using policies to shift and influence capital and labor to move into this activity sector tend to do better.” Tesfachew says these high-productivity sectors tend to pay higher wages and create a demand for goods. This, he says, encourages investment. |
