Holidays are still stressful
for the police, Cruz Roja


The holidays may be a time of rest and relaxation for most, but the police and the Cruz Roja have announced ambitious plans to keep citizens safe and healthy.

The Cruz Roja will be fielding 600 workers over the holidays. The security ministry is fielding about the same number of policemen. There are three main events that will keep police and rescue personnel busy. 

The first is the Festejos Populares Zapote Curridabat 2009-2010, which begins Dec. 25 and runs until Jan. 3.  The police will be using multiple perimeters to keep out crooks, those with weapons and presumed drug pushers, the minister said Tuesday. Technicians were at the fairgrounds Tuesday installing surveillance cameras on high poles to keep watch.

The Cruz Roja, if history is any guide, can expect to treat from 650 to 800 persons at the carnival. Some of these will be those who participate in the bull riding and that unique Costa Rican version of bull fighting where a hundred participants get in the ring and try to stay out of the way of a charging bull.
Sometimes people are killed in these displays of heroics and bravery.

Dec. 26 is the Día del Caballista Nacional, otherwise known as the tope nacional or horse parade. The Cruz Roja will have 17 ambulances standing by staffed by 180 aid workers. Most of those participating know about horses, but there also is a strong tradition of drinking beer along the route. The parade is from the statue of León Cortés, up Paseo Colón and Avenida 2 to Plaza Víquez. The hotter the day, the more cans of beer, so sometimes accidents happen.

Although the downtown carnival has past into history, Desamparados has its carnival scheduled for Sunday, Dec. 27. This is developing into a major event, and police will be treating it as such.

Security ministry agencies will be reinforced by some 150 other law officers, mainly Policía de Tránsito, throughout the holidays. Traffic police will have their own priorities, which include nabbing drunk drivers. A weekend traffic death of a child in Atenas and several other alcohol-related fatalities have caused traffic officers to redouble their efforts. They will be staffing checkpoints all over the country, including in the metro area. Fuerza Pública officers also are setting up checkpoints in search of criminal offenders.

Drunk driving has been at the top of the prohibited list since last Christmas when portions of the new traffic law went into effect. Traffic police are confiscating vehicles of alcohol offenders. The driver of the car that killed the boy in Atenas just got three months in preventative detention and a homicide charge.

This brief favors tolerance
in the quest for peace

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

Peace can mean different things to different people. To some it can be a feeling or state of tranquility or quiet harmony in personal relations; freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions.

Still others may view it as a state of security or order within a community provided for by law or custom.  Some see it as the opposite of war or freedom from civil disturbance.

If someone asks me what I am looking for in life, my first thought or reply is always “inner peace”. I look at it as something personal. But can anyone find inner peace when much of what we hear and see in the media is all about war and discontent?

This is the real bloodshed over hatred, greed and lust for power. It’s the red of anger I feel that there is no peace anywhere as long as these feelings exist between countries and people.

My friends are Tico, Canadian, French, British, Italian and are of many colors, faiths, ideologies and likes and dislikes. What we have in common is respect for one another.

No one walks around with a chip on their shoulder for very long.  It doesn’t get knocked off.  It gets rubbed off with a big hug.  In order to get along with others, we must find our inner peace through tolerance, understanding, sharing and forgiveness. As a famous singer once said (god rest his soul) “We are the world!”


It's start of slippery slope

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

This issue (election code), reported in your column today seems innocent enough, but is it the beginning of a slippery slope.  Any freedom given up temporally is often followed by permanency. I have lived in Costa Rica and still have family there. I love the country and it's people and visit as often as possible, so this is not a message to interfere with your rights to govern as you seem fit. It is a message of concern for your/our future and its free style of democracy.