With so many problems
country is no paradise

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

How can anyone refer to Costa Rica as being Paradise?  If you call living under barbed wire, steel bars on all windows and doors and expensive alarms systems Paradise you have a misconception of Paradise.  Plus the steel gates, zero lot lines, horrible traffic, rude drivers and corrupt transit policía Paradise?  Rude neighbors in some neighborhoods, car alarms going off at all hours of the night coupled with alarm systems for homes going off because the people set off their own alarms and don’t remember how to re-set them (loud music etc). 

The noise pollution is also horrendous.  The truck traffic in your quiet neighborhoods, the jake brakes without the baffles.  They have laws but are selectively enforced.  They have policía without the ability to arrest people in the act of committing crimes.  The country has the policía municipal, turistica policía, transito policía, OIJ policía, fuerza publica and droga policía of which none have the ability to act as a general police force. 

During one trip to Jacó Beach I personally observed drug sales in plain view of the policía, and they did nothing, absolutely nothing.  Now if I can see this as a person walking down the street, why or how can the policía that are supposed to be protecting the public from this not see or understand what they are seeing? 

I have been robbed numerous times and the OIJ comes hours later for the investigation and tells me it happens all the time. Then two weeks later they call to tell us they have no leads and the case is now officially closed.  They have so much crime that they have to let the criminals out of jail after being arrested probably due to overcrowding.  Then they expect these same criminals to appear in court when the time comes, except the time never comes.

The impuesto or tax is a whole other topic of which amount to legalized robbery of the citizens.  You buy a car here, any type of car, and you pay a price that is inflated and overvalued due to this impuesto.  Now you are stuck with a car that is difficult to sell when you decide that you have had enough of living in Paradise.    

The country filed a brief (friend of the court) in Arizona to protest their checking for illegal people in the country.  Yes, a document check.  This country employs that very same tactic that they have protested.  I have been stopped numerous time driving to Guápiles, San Carlos and Guanacaste, been subjected to drug inspection with the dog inside and outside my car sniffing for drugs, plus once they see my passport they look harder for drugs. 

Oh yeah they have automatic weapons in hand with their fingers on the trigger just waiting for the command to fire.  I have never been subjected to this type of traffic stop anywhere in the U.S.A. with a police officer with an automatic weapon pointed in my direction.  Another example of contradiction at its finest.

The crime is another example of Paradise?  Your home, car or anything of value is a target for the numerous criminals that roam each and every city in the Central Valley.  Did I forget to mention the carjacking and the bus jacking where the driver has to pay protection to the criminals? 

I have traveled to every Central American country for 15 years (business and pleasure) before settling in Costa Rica, although I was well aware of some of the differences between here and the U.S.A.  But once you are a full-time resident do you really see the true Costa Rican lifestyle.  I guess you can call it Paradise if you are deaf, dumb and blind. 

Basically the country needs an enema so they can install a policía force that can equally enforce their laws.  Re-evaluate their tax structure so it fair and balanced.  We have had to pay off the aduana to get things into the country because it’s the course of doing business here.  Then purge the government of the corruption at all levels, then and maybe then might you have Paradise. 

I guess it’s another reason why we have the right to keep and bear arms to protect our self and family from the criminal elements but not in Costa Rica. You have to jump through hoops to have a permit for a weapon.


Chocolate genome sequencing
opens door to modified food

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

From your Dec. 29 edition "Big step for better chocolate:"

"The production of high quality chocolate, and the farmers who grow it, will benefit from the recent sequencing and assembly of the chocolate tree genome, according to an international team from 20 institutions."
 
Genetically modified foods are proving to be far inferior, severely allergenic and sometimes even lethal to the consumer. Now they are going to ruin chocolate! one of the most coveted and beneficial fruits "of the Gods" designed perfectly for our consumption.

Hopefully Costa Rica will preserve this treasure of a heritage food, from Nature in its original form!

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University of Rochester photo

The two scientists found that species diversification of lizards on the four islands reached a plateau millions of years ago and has essentially come to an end.

Glor said the extent and quality of the data used in the research allowed him and Rabosky to show that species diversification of lizards on the islands was not continuing and had indeed entered a state of equilibrium.

"When we look at other islands and continents that vary in species richness," said Glor, "we can't just consider rates of accumulation. We need to look at the plateau points."

Glor emphasizes that a state of equilibrium does not mean that the evolution of a species comes to an end. Lizards will continue to adapt to changes in their environment, but they are not expected to develop in a way that increases the number of species within a habitat.

Glor believes his work with Rabosky represents the "final word" on the importance of limits on species diversity over the rate of speciation when explaining the species-area relationship in anole lizards.