Archive for March 3rd, 2010
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
From March 12 to 14, some 24 companies will be offering a total of 4.500 jobs atg the sixth edition of the Feria Bilingüe del Empleo.
The job fair will be held at the CINDE offices in La Uruca and companies like Boston Scientific, Dell, Experian, Language Line, Sykes, Teletch and Amazon will take part.
The companies, offering jobs in manufacturing and services, are looking for individuals fluent in English, as well as fluency in other languages.
Entrance to the job fair is free of charge and applicants are asked to bring their resumes in digital format. As in past job fairs, many of the companies do not accept resumes in printed form.
In addition, this will be the first time Dell will be participating in the job fair, looking to hire at least 300 for its technical support and call centre units.
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Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
Public port authority workers in Costa Rica, and their trade union, SINTRAJAP, are in urgent need of international support. Following the 7 February 2010 general elections, the outgoing neo-liberal administration of Oscar Arias launched an offensive against SINTRAJAP union, which defends the public ownership of the port authority.
During his term of office, the right-wing “social democrat” president, Oscar Arias (PLN), attempted to privatize the country’s ports, in particular the sister ports Limon and Moin. The ports are administered by JAPDEVA, a public agency created to operate the ports and to use the money it raises to promote development and infrastructure works in Limon, one of Costa Rica’s poorest provinces. Supported by the local community, the SINTRAJAP dockers have held two successful strikes against privastisations, and presented their own alternative plans for the modernization and running of the port.
After the Arias administration twice failed to win a majority of workers during mass meetings, they tried to buy the workers off, by promising them 130.000 US dollars, per worker, if they accepted privatization. They also called a meeting, attended by only 20% of the workforce, at which they imposed a new pro-government ‘Board’, in contravention of ILO conventions 87 and 98.
The fake union ‘Board’, created by the Ministry of Work and, backed by the force of police officers, tried to take over SINTRAJAP offices. Hundred of workers blocked their way, and members of the genuine and legally-elected union Board are still occupying and controlling the union’s offices. They have been constant work stoppages in defense of the union.
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Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
Driving around Costa Rica with a tinted rear window now comes with a high price tag, ¢117.000 colones instead of the old fine of ¢5.000. And for Tránsito officials, tinted rear windows or “polarizados” as it is referred to in Spanish, this single item heads the list of all traffic fines issued since Monday.
At the close of Tuesday, more than 900 drivers around the country were fined for a variety of traffic violations that included not having and/or carrying a drivers license, not having the ‘2010 Marchamo” (circulation permit), not wearing seatbelts and tinted rear windows.
Although the Riteve, the annual vehicular inspection, deems tinted rear windows a “falta leve” (light fault), the Policía de Tránsito sees it otherwise and the prohibition of rear tinted windows is now part of the new Ley de Tránsito and not just prohibition in a regulation.
Thus, if you are driving a vehicle with blacked out rear windows, be prepared to fork over ¢117.000 colones to government coffers.
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Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
Citing the inability of the Cosevi and the MOPT to administer correctly the points system in the new Ley de Tránsito, a majority of the legislators on Tuesday afternoon approved removing of the points from the sanctions of the new law.
By a vote of 25 in favour to 21 Against of the 46 legislators present, at 6:11pm Tuesday, the point system was dropped from the Ley de Tránsito, leaving only the economic sanctions for traffic violations, with the exception of drunk driving and reckless driving, where violators are subject to criminal prosecution and prison.
The approval goes against the arguments of the MOPT minister, Marco Vargas, who considers the elimination of the point system a weakening of the traffic law that has only been in full effect for two full days.
The absence of four Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN) legislators meant that the legislators of the Partido Acción Ciudadana (PAC), PUSC, Movimiento Libertario, Restauración Nacional and one independent, who were opposed to the inclusion of the points system, obtained a majority of the votes.
The objections came from PLN legislators, who opposed the proposal by PUSC legislator, Lorena Vásquez. And with four legislators missing from the voting, they could not hold their ground at the time of the vote.
The Movimiento Libertatio party whip, Carlos Gutiérrez, said “this is the most sensible thing that has been done so far. The corrections to the traffic law is on track. Fortunately common sense is emerging”.
Although the point system is dead in the water today, it could make a come back in the near future.
Legislators commented that the point system could be re-introduced once the MOPT has had time to fully evaluate and reconsider the system and up to the new legislative body takes over their work on May 8.
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Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
As of Tuesday, Amnet no longer partners with the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) and the Rafiográfica Costarricense (Racsa) to bring its customers internet services by way of its cable television network.
Amnet is also the first to take advantage of the opening of the telecommunications market, the first non-state owned company to provide internet service independently.
To achieve this goal, Amnet had to rely on the Superintendencia de Telecommunicaciones (SUTEL) to intervene to guarantee direct access to the Maya I cable, which has been under the exclusive administration of ICE.
Amnet says it plans to partner with giants like Google, McAffee and Dell to bring new services to Costa Rica.
Up to now, Amnet was basically a cable television operator, paying Racsa and ICE rights to provide its customers internet access.
Amnet customers had to hold two accounts, one with Racsa/ICE and the other with Amnet. Now, customers deal directly with Amnet for all internet services.
Current Amnet internet customers now have a choice to switch over to a sole Amnet account or continue to be Racsa subscribers by way of Amnet.
The change, however, does not mean lower costs for its customers.
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Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
A Lee County woman fell victim to a common scam involving someone who claims to have won the lottery, but can’t claim the ticket.
The victim told Lee County Sheriff’s deputies she was shopping at 24600 S. Tamiami Trail in Bonita Springs when a woman approached her. The woman told the victim she needed help getting to Costa Rica.
The woman told the victim she won $300,000 in the lottery, but couldn’t claim the winnings because she doesn’t have identification.
A man approached the two women and said he also needed an identification card. He said he knew of a place to get identification cards and the victim agreed to go with the man and woman.
Once in the vehicle, a 2010 Vue, the man called the “lottery” and confirmed the ticket was a winner. The man said they had to take $14,000 with them to claim the winning lottery ticket.
The victim said she only had $3,000 and offered to loan it to the woman.
The male said he knew of someone in Target who could give them the remaining $11,000. He asked the victim to go inside and wait for the person who was giving them the rest of the money.
After ten minutes, the victim went outside the store and discovered the man and woman were gone. She contacted deputies and filed a report about the fraud.
The vehicle the suspects were driving is described as a black Vue with a black interior. The victim was unable to get the license plate number.
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