Archive for July 29th, 2009
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
Didn’t you get my message? No, “mae”, I didn’t, is the response as one in four text messages sent over the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) cellular telephone network arrives late. Hours late.
The key behind the instant messaging is “instant”. However, for the ICE network instant can mean up to 36 hours.
ICE officials say that the delays are usually due to a saturation of the network as the system cannot handle effectively the large volume of data being transmitted, the equipment sending the overflow to a queue which then delivers the message as the demand diminishes.
Well, at least that is the explanation by the sole provider of cellular service in Costa Rica as it fails to deliver, on time, at least 25% of the messages.
Typically SMS (Short Message Service) are supposed to be sent instantly on the first try with an average delivery time of four seconds.
Adolfo Arias, director de Servicios de Telecomunicaciones del ICE, explained that if the cellular phone is turned off or outside the coverage area, the system automatically stores the message for delivery at a later time and thus the delay in message sending. (more…)
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Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
The ministrad de Salud, María Luisa Ávila, is asking businesses not to allow workers showing signs of symptoms similar to the AH1N1 and to use the right to refuse admission to visitors.
Ávila said that Article 155 of the Ley General de Salud supports the drastic measure to deny anyone infected with a transmittable disease entrance to a public or private building, like a school, a place of work, place of public meeting, etc.
The ministra added that employees should promote health standards to eliminate the spread of the virus, asking employees to wash their hands (correctly) often and to take care when sneezing or coughing.
The ministra explained that the sharing of tools and equipment at work should be limited, especially when it comes to the sharing of personal items like helmets, eyeglasses, gloves, etc. and avoid greetings with a kiss or a handshake. (more…)
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Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
Deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said he will set up bases in Nicaragua to press for his return to office as Latin American leaders urge him to continue negotiations with the interim government.
Supporters who cross over from neighboring Honduras will receive food, water and shelter, Zelaya told reporters while hiking up a hill along the border. About 3,000 people have made their way into Nicaragua so far, he said.
“There are more than 300 hidden routes through the mountains,” Zelaya said in an interview late yesterday, taking a pause under a tree. “There will be more ways to resist.”
Nicaragua’s largest opposition party denounced Zelaya’s encampments, saying in an e-mailed statement yesterday they may cause a military conflict with Honduras. Costa Rican President Oscar Arias meets with regional leaders today to push for acceptance of his 11-point proposal to end the stalemate. (more…)
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Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
Costa Rican authorities seized Tuesday about 1.4 tons of cocaine being carried in a truck and arrested two people involved in the shipment, police said.
The drug packets were moist sandy, which led the authorities to suspect that they were picked up on some Pacific beach for subsequent storage in Costa Rica.
The police detained the Costa Rican who was driving the truck and the Dominican who accompanied him.
Two weeks ago, the Costa Rican authorities and the US navy seized 1.3 tons of cocaine stashed in a ship and arrested four Columbians on board the ship.
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Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
Though América Herrera may not ever know it, she has become the poster child for a growing practice in Costa Rica, which experts define as financial or economic abuse of the elderly.
The terms used to describe this practice do not fully convey the perversity behind it. Formally it is referred to as stripping the elderly of their assets, but what it boils down to is a caregiver, friend or relative fooling an older person in order to illegally use or misappropriate their financial assets. In short, abusing a senior’s trust to raid their bank accounts or loot their valuables and property.
The First Report on the State of Elderly Adults, prepared in 2008 by the Centre for Population Studies of the University of Costa Rica, revealed that this Central American nation has an estimated 300,000 senior citizens, representing six percent of the population.
While men 65 and older represent 5.7 percent of the total male population, women in that age range represent 6.7 percent of the female population.
One major difference between men and women over the age of 65 is that there are many more widows than widowers, given that women have a life expectancy five years longer than men.
In this country that ranks second in Latin America – after Chile – in terms of quality of life, according to an index drawn up by the Economist Intelligence Unit, women are thus living longer, but often alone. (more…)
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Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
While in San Diego on a tourist visa, Gabriela Campos married her long-distance beau, Ben Maidhof, in a civil ceremony last fall. The couple then flew to Costa Rica with friends and family for a church wedding.
Walking down the aisle with her American-citizen groom, she could hardly have imagined that eventually she would be locked up in a detention cell.
When the couple flew back to the United States, Campos-Maidhof learned a painful lesson — one that millions of other binational spouses have encountered because they didn’t do enough research on immigration laws, assumed that certain requirements didn’t apply to them or tried their best to follow the rules but received bad advice.
Campos-Maidhof discovered that her tourist visa became invalid when she married a U.S. citizen. During a January meeting with immigration officials in San Diego, she was taken into custody, detained for three weeks and then deported.
“This has been the most traumatic situation I’ve experienced in my life,” Campos-Maidhof, 31, said by phone from Costa Rica.
The road to married bliss for binational couples can be paved with legal land mines. People frequently — and wrongly — presume that when one person is a U.S. citizen, it’s easy for the foreign-born bride or groom to obtain permanent legal status.
“Every week there is a couple that calls and says, ‘We met here, we want to get married and have our honeymoon (abroad) and then do the paperwork,’ ” said Jonathan Montag, an immigration attorney in San Diego. “I tell them the worst thing you can do is show up at the border with your new spouse.”
Some common pitfalls occur after the paperwork is filed. Foreign nationals in the process of adjusting their immigration status must obtain permission — called advance parole — to leave the United States. They need to file an application, and approval can take three months.
In a typical scenario, a foreign-born spouse will travel abroad for a family emergency, then discover that he or she can’t come back immediately. (more…)
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