Archive for November 17th, 2009
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
Two photographers who claim they were shot at during Tom Brady [stats] and Gisele Bundchen’s Costa Rica wedding have punted their $1 million lawsuit from federal to state court in NYC because Mrs. Brady is not an American citizen!
Word is, the federal court did not have jurisdiction in the matter because the plaintiffs – photographers Yuri Cortez and Rolando Aviles and their photo agency, Agence France Presse – are foreign citizens, as is Bundchen, who is Brazilian. (If Bundchen were an American citizen, we’re told, then the so-called “diversity jurisdiction” would have applied and the federal court could have heard the case.)
But more important, why isn’t Gisele a citizen??? She is married to Mr. All-American, after all.
We’re told Mrs. B has a green card, which allows her to take all those veddy profitable modeling gigs in the U-S-of-A. However, she reportedly has not yet applied for citizenship.
As for the lawsuit, last week, the photographers’ attorney re-filed it in New York state supreme court. Since the alleged shooting happened in Costa Rica, they will have jurisdiction questions in the New York courts as well.
We’re told the plaintiffs will argue that Brady and Bundchen are residents of NYC. (Although the two reportedly are trying to liquidate their real estate holdings in the Apple and have settled in Boston.) The photographers also plan to argue that Brady was in Gi’s West Village digs when he hired a Massachusetts security company for the wedding gig. The local company then subcontracted with a security firm in Costa Rica.
Cortez and Aviles sued the Bradys in September, claiming they were attempting to photograph the New England Patriots [team stats] QB/QT’s wedding to the Brazilian supermodel last April when they were rousted by security guards hired by the couple.
The guards demanded their cameras and film, at which point, the photogs say, they fled the scene. As they were racing back to their cars, the guards allegedly opened fire, blowing out a back windshield in the cameramen’s vehicle.
Last week, security guard Alexander Rivas Barahona was taken into custody in Costa Rica in connection with the alleged shooting. Both Brady and Bundchen have publicly stated that they do not believe there was any gunplay on their special day.
File Under: Shotgun Wedding?
Posted in Costa Rica News | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
The Brazilian coach is confident that Costa Rica can still make it to South Africa, despite facing a deficit after their Saturday loss…
Costa Rica’s ambitions of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup were dealt a huge blow last weekend, when they were beaten 1-0 by Uruguay, but head coach Rene Simoes still thinks the Ticos can make it to South Africa.
Simoes’ men travel to Uruguay for the second leg of their play-off match in midweek, and he is looking to take positives from their home defeat at the weekend.
“The first half was decisive. Our form was poor. In the second half, we started playing, even though we had ten men,” Simoes told the press after the game.
“If we had played the first half the same way we played after the break, we would have seen another result.
“We must believe we can qualify. This is not over. There are 180 minutes. We are 1-0 down after the first half. It is not over at all. In 1950, Uruguay won the World Cup at the Maracana. Why can’t we win at the Centenario?” concluded the Costa Rica boss.
The Ticos know that nothing less than a win will do them if they are to qualify for the World Cup finals next year.
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Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
Can you imagine the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) offering its customers “customer service”? At least that is the plan by the state institution to face the coming of competition in the telecommunications sector.
The program called “salvavidas” (lifeguard) is a program by the Plan de Evolución de los Sistemas de Soporte a las Operaciones del Negocio (Pesso), an ambition of the institution to change its processes and better customer service.
Pesso is expected to introduce at least 7 programs costing the institution some us$150 million dollars as way to survive in a competitive market which is soon coming to Costa Rica.
The first of the Pesso programs is expected in February 2010. “If we don’t succeed we cease to exist. It’s that radical”, Javier León, director of program.
León explains that ICE has tried to bring together its “popurri” (potpourri) of services without success, especially in the process of integrating applications and technologies.
The major problem facing ICE is its ability to react quickly to the competition.
León explained that if a competitor offers a product, ICE is ill equipped to respond, taking at times up to a year or more to adjust. This has workerd well for ICE in the past, since it has been the only provider of telecommunications services. But, in the face of competition knocking on Costa Rica’s door, ICE has to be able to respond quickly of be left behind.
Without going into specific detail, ICE’s systems are for the most part propiatery and difficult to integrate. Integrated billing has been a major money loser for the state institution, losing almost us$2 billion dollars for not being able to integrate the SIMP and Gitel systems.
One of the major ojbectives of the Pesso is to focus on customer service. Of the seven Pesso programs, the main focus is on the Gestión de la Relación con los Clientes (CRM), which focuses on understanding the needs of the customer, customer service and support. This program has already begun operating but it won’t be until next year when it is fully integrated into company policy.
Other programs inlcude network planning and design, management of expenses and income, billing and business applications.
The hope of ICE, with the Pesso program, is to be able to quickly bring to market new services and respond to consumer demand and market changes.
Operators like Movistar, Tigo and Digicell are all looking at the Costa Rican cellular telephone market to compete with ICE.
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