Archive for September, 2008
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008
The Big China and Taiwan Tussle: Dollar Diplomacy Returns to Latin America
On August 19th, 2008, Taiwan’s new president Ma Ying-Jeou concluded his first trip to Latin America, one of the most important geopolitical regions in the world for his island nation. The purpose of the trip was to attend the inaugurations of Dominican Republic president, Leonel Fernandéz, and his Paraguayan counterpart, Fernando Lugo. During his trip, President Ma made a brief refueling stop in Panama, where he received a warm welcome from the Panamanian President Martín Torrijos. On his way from Paraguay to the Dominican Republic, President Ma also met with Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and the Vice President of Guatemala, Rafael Espada.
Ma’s trip carried two flags: one was that he was not to be seen as an exponent for “Transit Diplomacy,” a tactic in which his predecessor, Chen Shui-bien has specialized. “Transit Diplomacy” stands for conducting rapid diplomacy while briefly stopping over in a third country, usually the United States. The second one was Ma’s announcement that he did not intend to hand out any grant money during his trip and that all charitable donations and investments should be processed through government procedures. This announcement suggested that Taipei was terminating its own version of “Dollar Diplomacy.” (more…)
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Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008
Presidency Minister Rodrigo Arias called on lawmakers yesterday to approve as quickly as possible the last bill required to implement the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA).
The bill, intended to strengthen intellectual property rights, was struck down by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) because lawmakers had not consulted the indigenous community on a clause that would affect them.
A congressional committee yesterday voted to delete the problematic clause and pass the bill again. The entire process could take six weeks to three months, said Oscar Núñez, faction head for the National Liberation Party (PLN). The timeline depends on whether the anti-CAFTA Citizen Action Party (PAC) again challenges the bill’s constitutionality before the Sala IV.
Either way, Costa Rica will miss an Oct. 1 deadline for entering the pact, an extension already granted by CAFTA partners from an original February deadline. President Oscar Arias will ask for another extension in a meeting Wednesday in New York City with U.S. President George W. Bush and other Central American presidents.
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Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008
Costa Rica has dedicated a considerable amount of time, human resource and territory to protect its unique biodiversity. Currently, around 25% of Costa Rica’s territory is under a certain protection plan or law.
However, marine life and ecosystems still have quite a few ground to cover in order to have similar benefits as dry land. This is why the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications (Minae) created two new categories which by a law decree will protect selected marine areas within Costa Rican waters.
The first category created by the Minaet is the “Marine Reserve” and will apply to coastal oceanic marine areas which will primarily guarantee the preservation, health and viability of its natural ecosystems. The area appointed as a Marine Reserve will also need to benefit human communities throughout the sustainable use of its natural resources. The use of the natural resources will of course need to be done under strict technical criteria as well as be of low impact to the environment.
The second category created is called the “Management Marine Area”. The Management Marine Area will be a protected region in which professionals will carry out activities that will guarantee the preservation and protection of marine biodiversity for a long term period. The Management Marine Area will also need to provide a sustainable natural resources as well as environmental services to nearby communities.
The first targeted areas to be assigned this new marine protection law will be near Costa Rica’s Coco Island in its Pacific Ocean.
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Monday, September 22nd, 2008
During President Oscar Arias’ recent visit to Spain, Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero offered Costa Rica $35 million to be invested in the development of water treatment projects.
The donation made by the government of Spain places Costa Rica as the first country to benefit from the 1.5 billion Euros fund created by the European country for water related projects.
Government officials have already determined which coastal areas will receive funding for the proper treatment of its waters. The Central Pacific coastal town of Puntarenas will receive the largest cut at $18 million for the development of a water plant which will extract contaminating substances from used water before it is discharged into the sea.
The project will benefit Puntarenas’ 120,000 residents as only 30% of the current population counts with appropriate water treatment plants. Puntarenas has evolved from being one of the country’s most contaminated beaches to one of the cleanest beaches in just over a year.
The Costa Rican government expects Puntarenas to become a pioneer in water treatment by building a large water treatment plant as well as a modern sewer system. Costa Rican authorities must present Spain a detailed plan of how the funds will be invested.
The remaining funds will be distributed among other remote areas within Costa Rica which present the characteristic of having a tourism attraction potential but still needs potable water.
Seven million dollars will be invested in the province of Limon in Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast while Golfito in the South Pacific Coast and San Carlos in the Northern plains will receive $5 million each.
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Monday, September 22nd, 2008
Its Cannes in a much smaller and humbler proportion, the Icaro Film Festival gathers documentaries, short films and reports from all Central America and presents them to the Costa Rican people.
For the 2008 Costa Rican Icaro Film Festival, the organizers will give movie buffs the opportunity to see all 17 nominated films as well as the winners of each category from the Central American Icaro Video and Film Festival held in Guatemala last year. Film categories range from reports, to documentaries and short films.
During the festival’s closure, Costa Rican filmmakers will present their new proposals to the judges for an opportunity to represent Costa Rica in the next Central American festival this coming November in Guatemala.
Issues such as cultural diversity, human rights and environmental threats are the main subject of the films which participate in the Icaro Film Festival. The festival was started by the Guatemalan production company Casa Comal, Arte y Cultura and is the first and only film festival of its type.
The Variedades Movie Theatre in downtown San Jose will be presenting last year’s films as well as this year’s Costa Rican artists’ proposals. Films by the Costa Rican artists will be judged by Brazilian producer Fernanda de Capua, Puerto Rican filmmaker Freddy Marrero Alfonso as well as Costa Rican filmmaker Antonio Iglesias.
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Monday, September 22nd, 2008
The director of Costa Rica’s Immigration Department has denounced 24 of the department’s officials for illegally selling entry stamps to citizens.
Immigration officers stationed mainly at the Juan Santamaria International Airport in Alajuela had been making quite a profit over the years by charging from $150 to $300 for stamping Costa Rican’s passports with the official entry and departure seal.
The illegal actions carried out by immigration officers were well known to authorities as well as hundreds of Costa Ricans who traveled to the United States in pursuit of the American Dream.
Immigrants would leave for the U.S with a tourist visa which has a legal validity of 6 months. In order to “fool” U.S Immigration Department, several of these immigrants would mail their passports to Costa Rica in order for an officer to stamp its pages to make it look as if the person had actually traveled to Costa Rica.
In a few other occasions, it has been reported that some of the Costa Rican immigration officers even traveled to the United States to stamp passports abroad.
After the accusation carried out by the Costa Rican Immigration Director, the United States deported over 200 Costa Ricans as well as cancelled visa permits previously given out to Immigration officers thus prohibiting their entrance to the U.S.
Officers are currently being investigated by legal authorities in order to determine how they will be sanctioned.
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Monday, September 22nd, 2008
Colombia’s Chief Prosecutor Mario Iguaran has weighed into the battle to get lCosta Rican lawmakers to get serious about the Law Against Organized crime. Speaking at a conference of presecuting attorneys in Cartagena, Colombia, last week, Iguaran warned that Costa Rica could become another Colombia–or worse.
Costa Rica’s Prosecutor General Francisco Dall’Anese had been frank with the conference in laying out his troubles trying to get the Legislative Assembly to speedily pass an effective law that would not only treat crime but also terrorism. But lawmakers here have taken their time (as is their wont), first separating the organized crime portion from the Comprehensive Crime Bill originally presented, then dawdling through in committee.
But Iguaran was blunt. “We exhort countries like Costa Rica to develop laws and instruments with which they can dismantle transnational narcotics and terrorist organizations,” he said, adding that Costa Ricans, if they do not act promptly, “will have the same horrific and difficult experiences that we Colombians have had.”
In a recent appearance before the Legislative Assembly, chief of Costa Rica’s Police Intelligence and National Security Agency, Roberto Solorzano, used nearly identical words. Dall’Anese himself has also exhorted the lawmakers, complaining that he does not have the legal tools to counteract destabilizing organized crime. Costa Rica’s criminal conspiracy statutes in particular are so weak they are all but nonexistant.
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Monday, September 22nd, 2008
Costa Rica’s state insurance monopoly sought yesterday to calm clients worried about the fate of insurance giant American International Group (AIG), which reinsures 22 policies here and narrowly avoided bankruptcy this week.
We want to tell all Costa Ricans, and especially our clients, not to worry, said Guillermo Constenla, president of the National Insurance Institute (INS). The institute is financially and technically sound.
The 22 policies, which range from fire insurance to worker compensation, belong to multinational companies and state entities, including Juan Santamaría International Airport in Alajuela, west of San José. If disaster struck every client at once, the total cost would be $940 million, with AIG bearing most of the burden, Constenla said.
The U.S. Federal Reserve’s $85 billion takeover of AIG Tuesday calmed nerves at INS and persuaded the institute to stick with AIG, which reinsures less than 1 percent of INS policies, Constenla said. Still, if AIG’s credit rating drops further, he said, INS will switch the policies to another reinsurance agency.
We have to remain alert, he said. If the rating goes down, we’ll start to worry. Then the red light goes on.
AIG’s troubles come amid a worsening global credit crisis that has led the investment bank Lehman Brothers to file for bankruptcy protection and the brokerage firm Merrill Lynch to seek takeover by Bank of America. Yesterday, as bank lending came to a near halt, the Federal Reserve (Fed) and the world’s other major central banks pumped $180 billion into money markets overseas, according to wire reports.
Top U.S. congressional leaders were meeting late Thursday with the Fed to come up with a possible major U.S. government bailout, possibly similar to that in the late 1980s when the savings-and-loan failure threatened the stock markets.
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Monday, September 22nd, 2008
A team of researchers in Costa Rica’s Alberto Manuel Brenes Reserve have been searching for plants that might help cure the mosquito-transmitted disease known as malaria. While not a common disease in Costa Rica, the country’s tropical rainforests have a wide diversity of plants that sometimes cannot be found elsewhere in the world– and some of these species might contain medicinal properties to help stop malaria and other diseases. An estimated 1-3 million people die each year from malaria.
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Monday, September 22nd, 2008
In a recent visit from India’s ambassador to Costa Rica, Deepak Bhojwani, he mentioned his country’s interest in opening a consulate in Costa Rica.
According to Bhojwani, the only issue that is setting them back at the time is the lack of budget to do so. Bhojwani, who is stationed at India’s embassy in Bogota, mentioned that previously there was very little exchange between Costa Rica and India thus the need of a local embassy was irrelevant.
Due to an increase of imports and exports between both countries, India is now very interested in having an embassy in Costa Rica. Costa Rica has also stated that budgets are being adjusted in order to open a Costa Rican Embassy in India as well.
Bhojwani was recently in Costa Rica to present a book written by pacifist Gandhi called “The Story of My Experiments with Truth”. Costa Rica’s current president and Nobel Prize Winner Oscar Arias, attended the ceremony in which he and Bhojwani met.
Costa Rica exportation of goods to India has increased from $10.5 million USD in 2006 to $28 million USD in 2007. This increase moved India from rank 37 to 30 within Costa Rica’s exportation destinations.
Costa Rica exports mainly computer parts as well as unprocessed wood to India. In addition, imports from India to Costa Rica also increased to $40.2 million USD in which the main goods are medicine and textiles.
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Saturday, September 20th, 2008
A while back I was walking back to my car after having a beer in a small town when I saw a girl getting punched out by her husband. He was really giving it to her bad. He kept punching her in the face and she kept trying to back up and not get hit so hard. As it turned out she backed into a carport and therefore no one could see them but me. I am 6ft.4 and 240 pounds and know how to fight so I told the guy to stop hitting her or I would kick he ass. That just got him mad, so he came at me and I decided that if I am going to hit him I will hit him hard and that way I will only have to hit him 1 time and so I did and he went down bad and never got up again.
The end? Oh no, that was just the start because across the street from where I was standing is a park full of tough guys and druggies and all they saw was a gringo hitting a tico so ALL of them came to kick my ass. All I could see was guys all around me and then the fun began as they tried to kill me. I was later told that there were about 20 to 30 (not sure how many were fighting and how many were watching) guys and they were trying to do everything to hurt me but I just kept punching and kicking as hard as I could. As I punched 1 guy in the head his head would hit others so I was taking out 2 or 3 guys every punch. In the end it got crazy because when their heads hit they would start fighting each other. Good thing for me because as time went on I was starting to get tired and I was able to get out while they were fighting each other.
I think it’s important to let the people know what happened before you do anything
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Friday, September 19th, 2008
In a daring, middle-of-the-night strike on the high seas, the U.S. Coast Guard over the weekend captured a submarine off the Costa Rican coast stuffed with 7 tons of cocaine, worth $187 million on the street.
Four Colombian drug runners were taken into custody on board the 59-foot steel and fiberglass vessel – which was equipped with sophisticated navigational devices.
The treacherous operation took place in international waters off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica over the weekend.
The partially submerged sub was spotted by a U.S. Navy aircraft the nigh of Sept. 13.
It alerted the Coast Guard, which sent a team of special agents to surprise the smugglers.
The vessel was likely capable of traveling from South America to the U.S. coast without stopping for fuel or supplies, said the Coast Guard.
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Friday, September 19th, 2008
Costa Rica plans to join Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua in Venezuela’s Petrocaribe plan. It shouldn’t.
There’s no free lunch or free gas.
By joining the Petrocaribe agreement promoted by the government of Hugo Chavez, as the Oscar Arias administration plans to do later this month, Costa Rica might avoid a big increase in its annual oil bill.
But paying the world price for petroleum wouldn’t bankrupt the country.
Meanwhile, participating in Petrocaribe could result in Costa Rica coming under pressure to share Chavez’ economic philosophy, which will damage the country, as well as the region. (more…)
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Friday, September 19th, 2008
The International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer is celebrated each year on September 16th as set forth by the United Nations. This year, Costa Rica received a special mention due to its contribution within the refrigeration field.
Thanks to the hard work of hundreds of environmentally conscious people and organizations, the Ozone Layer’s hole diameter has gone back to the size it had back in September of the year 2000 in just 2 years of labor.
Over 193 countries, including Costa Rica, have committed in contributing to reverting the ozone layer’s hole diameter which is currently over 28 million kilometers wide. The size of the gap can roughly be pictures as three times the European continent.
A representative for the Costa Rican Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE) mentioned that Costa Rica received a special mention for its special project due to its intervention in the reduction of CFC and methyl bromide which are the Ozone Layer’s number one cause of destruction.
In just 5 years, Costa Rica has launched several programs within its private and public sector in order to reduce gas emission which have had not only a great acceptance by the people, but great results as well.
Costa Rica’s goal is to bring down its gas emission level down to 0% by 2010.
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Friday, September 19th, 2008
It is estimated that there are only 250 Lapas Verdes living in Costa Rica. Lapas Verdes are found in countries of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador and are on the endangered list. In English, the Lapa Verde is the Great Green Macaw, or sometimes, Buffon’s Macaw. It is the largest of all in the parrot family. 80% of Lapas Verdes in Costa Rica live in the Yellow Almond Tree (or Almendro Amarillo in Spanish). Problem is that the wood of these trees is highly coveted for a variety of uses. The trees grow to some 40 meters in height. The legislature of Costa Rica has declared that as long as the Lapa Verde remains on the list of animals endangered, they will prohibit the exploitation of the yellow almond. The 66 known Lapa Verde nests are all located in these trees in Costa Rica. Costa Rica puts its money where its mouth is when it comes to protecting its precious environmental resources. Thank god that in this county every attempt at doing so does not end up as a means used to serve some political ends. Here the means serve a noble end, that is, to PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT.
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