Archive for January 11th, 2010
Monday, January 11th, 2010
Laura Chinchilla is a comfortable frontrunner ahead of Costa Rica’s presidential election, according to a poll by Borge & Asociados published in Diario Extra. 36.7 per cent of respondents would vote for the candidate of the ruling Liberal National Party (PLN) in next month’s ballot.
Otto Guevara of the Libertarian Movement (ML) is far behind with 16.2 per cent, followed by former economy minister Ottón Solís of the Citizens Action Party (PAC) with 8.5 per cent, and Luis Fishman of the Social Christian Unity Party (PUCS) with 2.2 per cent. Support is lower for Óscar López of the Party for Accessibility without Exclusion (PASE) and Rolando Araya of Patriotic Alliance (AP).
The PLN’s Óscar Arias won the February 2006 presidential election with 40.92 per cent of all cast ballots. Solís finished in second place with 39.80 per cent. Arias had headed the government from 1986 to 1990, and was able to run again after the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly opted to bring back presidential re-election in 2003. He was sworn in for the second time in May 2006.
On Jan. 4, Solís commented on voting-intention polls placing him behind Chinchilla and Guevara, saying, “The polls fail completely in predicting electoral results in Costa Rica. The PAC is much higher in terms of popular support; we feel it in our tours.”
Costa Ricans will vote in a general election on Feb. 7. Under current regulations, a presidential run-off would be required if none of the presidential candidates garner more than 40 per cent of the vote on election day.
Polling Data
Which of these candidates would you vote for in the 2010 presidential election?
Laura Chinchilla (PLN)______36.7%
Otto Guevara (ML)_________16.2%
Ottón Solís (PAC)__________8.5%
Luis Fishman (PUSC)_______2.2%
Óscar López (PASE)________0.6%
Rolando Araya (AP)________0.5%
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Monday, January 11th, 2010
Red Bull New York signed Costa Rican defender Roy Miller, the Major League Soccer club announced on Friday.
“I have followed Roy for a few years, as he has enjoyed success in the Norwegian League,” Red Bull New York General Manager and Sporting Director Erik Soler said. “I am confident that he will be able to adjust well to Major League Soccer.”
The 25-year-old was acquired from Norwegian club, Rosenborg, while on loan with Swedish club, Orgryte.
The 6-foot-2 defender has also earned 12 caps for the Costa Rica national team and competed in the qualification round for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
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Monday, January 11th, 2010
The former CEO of Internet gaming outfit BetOnSports has been sentenced to 33 months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy.
David Carruthers’ London-based business was shut down after federal investigators linked to illegal online gambling in the United States. BetOnSports took in $1.25 billion in bets in 2004, 98% of which came from the United States. Carruthers and other executives were indicted in 2006, and he was arrested in Dallas on his way back to Costa Rica after attending the company’s annual meeting in London.
“I understand now that the business was operating outside the laws of the United States,” Carruthers said in a prepared statement read to the judge at his sentencing.
I love the idea of the federal government cracking down on the evil specter of online gaming, even though 43 states currently offer lotteries.
It also seems likely that online gambling is far less regressive than the lottery because it requires the Internet and a bank account, two things that many of the low-income people preyed on by state lotteries don’t have.
When Carruthers was detained, BetOnSports said it had 2,000 employees here during the high sports season. All lost their jobs when the company folded shortly after a federal indictment was handed up.
Carruthers’ sentencing may be a victory for prosecutors, but it’s a giant waste of resources for American taxpayers.
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Monday, January 11th, 2010
Costa Rican vulcanologists inspected the Turrialba volcano and discovered that the ridge separating two new craters formed after an eruption of ash this week had collapsed, leaving a large crater 65 meters (213 feet) in diameter.
Mauricio Mora, vulcanologist of the National Seismological Network, told a press conference Friday that this was “a normal morphological change since gas emissions erode the walls of the crater, but that does not mean that activity is building up inside the volcano.”
The formation of a new crater inside the Turrialba volcano, located in the eastern part of the country, has caused ash discharges since Tuesday.
Costa Rican experts say that no eruption of lava is likely, at least for the moment, since their studies have shown no indication of magma activity.
Mora said that while the spewing of ash continues, it has diminished and no increase in seismic activity has been registered in the area.
The National Commission of Emergencies, or CNE, maintained a yellow alert in the area Friday and continues to await the results of the studies.
Nonetheless, it recommended that local residents of the small agricultural communities located within a radius of 6 kilometers (3 3/4 miles) around the volcano not return home as a precautionary measure.
Up to now, 36 people have been evacuated from communities located on the slopes of the volcano, of whom 27 are in a shelter and nine are staying with relatives, according to CNE information.
For his part, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias said that he will visit the area around the Turrialba volcano on Saturday with his brother and presidential chief of staff Rodrigo to meet with local residents and authorities.
The Turrialba volcano, located some 8 kilometers (50 miles) east of San Jose, is 3,340 meters (10,950 feet) high and is a national park, though the CNE recommended that it be definitively shut down because of the mounting volcanic activity in recent months with the ejection of gases and now of ash.
The last time that Turrialba made a complete eruption was in 1866 and its ashes, according to historical records, reached as far as Nicaragua.
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Monday, January 11th, 2010
Why Costa Rica is called ‘The Hawaii of the Central America”Finding some the nest surfing spots in Costa Rica should not be that hard. Before visiting you should take the time to look on the Internet and find out what is the best time and where is the best surf in Costa Rica.Few places in the world can offer travelers volcanoes towering up to 12,530 feet and a seemingly endless 700 miles of coastline on the Pacific and Caribbean like Costa Rica can. Though Costa Rica is known for many of its great tourism specialties there is one that should never be overlooked: surfing.
Costa Rica’s appeal is easy to understand:
* Consistent surf year-round
* Warm water
* Easy access to thousands of breaks
* Surf conditions from mild to mind-blowing
* Surf camps and international tournaments
* Affordable prices
Where to surf
There are three main areas to surf: The Pacific North (Guanacaste-Nicoya), the Pacific South (Punta Arenas) and the Caribbean. There are also cool surf towns popping up in Jaco, Tamarindo and Puerto Viejo. The best waves occur in the rainy season (Northern Hemisphere ‘summer’) on the pacific side, and in the hot dry season (‘winter’) on the Caribbean – so you’ll always be able to find a good break.
Some of the beaches that are considered the safest:
* Playas Rajada and Jobo near La Cruz
* Bahía Junquillal Wildlife Refuge
* Play Hermosa in northern Guanacaste
* Plays del Coco
* Sámara
* Carillo
* Bahía Ballena/Tambor
* Beacheson the Golfo Dulce between Puerto Jimenez and Golfito
* The third beach at Manuel Antonio
* Little Dominicalito in Dominical
* Uvita
(more…)
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Monday, January 11th, 2010
Joan Rivers wasn’t the first to have problems with Continental Airlines in Costa Rica.
Michael Jensen, who frequents the country and got in touch with Rivers after she appeared on CNN television talk show “Larry King Live,” said he’s seen people turned away for overused passports. He had trouble himself when his facial hair didn’t match what was pictured in the passport.
“There’s someone there who harasses everyone,” said Jensen, calling from Oregon. “It’s too bad because it gives Costa Rica a bad image. That is the last thing people remember when they leave a country.”
Even stardom couldn’t help Joan Rivers talk her way past an unyielding gate agent in Liberia Airport on Sunday.
The 76-year-old comedian and actress, who spent her vacation in Papagayo in the northwest province of Guanacaste, lost her seat on a Continental flight to Newark, New Jersey when an airline employee noticed a discrepancy between the name on the boarding pass and the name on the passport.
As people were boarding the last flight of the day, Rivers was called to the counter and told her seat had been given up. The reason? Her boarding ticket read Joseph Rosenberg and her passport read “Joan Rosenberg AKA Joan Rivers.”
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Monday, January 11th, 2010
The Patronato Nacional de Rehabilitacion is an institution that cares for people with some type of disability and that some way or another do not have a family or have been abandoned. Volunteers must be of age 18 or above with minimum education of high school .Rehabilitation is the best way to make disable to be in a stable conditions.Students getting such opportunities to treat and care such disable people could be the best way to fulfill their desire to work for the society and its people.
Volunteers with the following special skills are preferred for the placement:-
Volunteers who have a background in nursing and a good grasp of Spanish will be able to interact with patients and provide care. It would be easier from them to provide care and support to the disable children and rehabilitate them faster.
Volunteers can assist by doing following tasks:-
Doctor Nurse Medical Student Pre-Med Student Standard First-Aid Health & Hygiene Training Public Health is approriate
It would help one in data collection , medical care , research related matters, volunteering , social work , running one own NGOs.
The volunteers should be patience, calm and adaptable to the surrounding.
People who can take care of the physically disabled and mentally retarded patience with much care
Base-camp International welcomes all the interested volunteers from around the world to volunteer and make a difference. If you are interested in this placement then please contact us for the details:
Email: info@basecampcenters.com
Website: www.basecampcenters.com
Mailing Address 298 Bagot Street, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, K7K 3B4
Phone: 613.541.7862
Toll Free : 866.646.4693
Fax: 613.541.1604
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Monday, January 11th, 2010
The Center for Democracy in the Americas, works on straightening out U.S. policy toward the region. We’re trying to understand how and why the Obama administration has gotten off track in its relationship with the hemisphere. Our Cuba policy associate, Collin Laverty, has written the following essay on where things stand.
When Barack Obama was elected president, the people of Latin America, as with citizens across the globe, immediately sensed an opportunity for improved relations with the United States, less hostility and war, more engagement and peace, and ultimately, improved conditions in the region and the world. Although Obama was elected to represent the interests of the U.S., and not those of the Western Hemisphere, the air was filled with expectations, hopes and aspirations about a new chapter in relations between Washington and a region whose history is marred by U.S. interference, covert operations, and support for dictators.
The Summit of the Americas in April of 2009 provided Obama with an early opportunity to make clear his goals for a new policy. Obama awed the regions’ leaders in attendance when he announced the U.S. would seek an “equal partnership,” one without senior and junior partners, and launched a new chapter of “engagement based on mutual respect and common interests and shared values.” He even shook hands with Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez and spoke publicly about the thousands of Cuban doctors serving in the region.
Just prior to the summit, President Obama ended restrictions on Cuban Americans’ ability to travel and send remittances to Cuba. In June, the U.S. conceded to demands by the region for Cuba’s readmission to the Organization of American States, ending a 47-year suspension from the organization. Soon after, Cuba and the U.S. announced the restoration of bilateral migration talks canceled in 2003. Obama’s early Latin America policy consisted of cautious engagement with Cuba, reducing rhetoric toward adversaries, and supporting Mexico’s fight against drug trafficking. Latin America’s leaders, aware of Obama’s ambitious domestic and global agenda, waited patiently for concrete signals of the new partnership he announced at the summit.
Unfortunately, Obama’s “change you can believe in” soon began to look like “more of the same.” On June 28th, Honduras’ democratically elected president Manuel Zelaya was kidnapped at gunpoint and exiled to Costa Rica. President Obama and the State Department originally spoke out against the coup and called for Zelaya’s restoration. However, the coup regime quickly hired powerful lobbyists and PR firms to lobby Congress and the executive and to influence mainstream media coverage, arguing the removal of Zelaya was constitutional. Republican Members of Congress applauded the coup, labeling it a victory against Chavez, and used brass-knuckled political tactics, such as stopping confirmation votes on Obama’s Latin America nominees, to wield influence over the policy. The administration soon began to backtrack, refusing to officially label what happened in Honduras a coup, and remained silent about human rights violations. The rest of the region, still fresh with memories of coups and military-installed regimes, forcefully opposed the coup and refused to recognize the results of the November 2009 elections in Honduras for a new president. Yet, the U.S. quickly recognized the election results.
Also in June, reports began to surface about a secret agreement between the United States and Colombia to allow U.S. access to seven military bases in Colombia. News of the deal broke not through diplomatic outreach, but from a Colombian newspaper report. Countries throughout South America, including Brazil and Chile, immediately called on the U.S. and Colombia to produce a text of the agreement, which they refused. Despite objections and demands for more transparency, the deal was signed in late October.
As Brazilian President Lula da Silva has expressed many times, U.S. policy toward Cuba has become the litmus test for U.S. relations with Latin America. Despite initial movement, the Obama administration has returned to the same policy of conditionality – demanding improvements in human rights and democracy in exchange for the loosening of US policy – that has prevented engagement in the past. The executive order allowing Cuban Americans to travel freely to Cuba failed to include authorization for academic, religious and other “purposeful travel.” The Obama Administration has not responded to Cuba’s request to include counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism and hurricane preparedness and response on the agenda for future talks. Finally, Obama has continued a USAID program focused on regime change, which is counterproductive, antagonistic, and puts the integrity and safety of those involved, on and off the island, at risk.
The Obama administration’s refusal to develop and implement a new Cuba policy – one based on U.S. national interests with a goal of fully normalizing relations – exemplifies continuity in the way the U.S. views the region, and vice-versa. A quick 180 degree turn on Cuba may be the only way for Obama to win back some goodwill with our neighbors and create the partnership he hoped to establish. After all, it was U.S. military expansionism – the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the reactivation of the Navy’s Fourth Fleet to patrol the Caribbean – and support for the coup in Venezuela that upended President George W. Bush in Latin America. Obama despite his early promise is heading in the same direction.
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