 |
|
|
||||||
|
||||||
 |
||||||
|
||||||
 |
||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
 |
||
 |
 |
||
 |
 |
||
 |
|||
Nicaraguan and Costa Rican Foreign Ministers
Discuss Peaceful Resolution of Differences
By Amanda Roberson
Tico Times Staff
aroberson@ticotimes.net
In a symbolic act of friendship, Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Norman Caldera and Costa Rican Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno sat side by side during a press conference to recap Caldera's visit to Costa Rica yesterday.
The ministers announced plans to resume yearly meetings of a bi-national commission -- which last met in Granada, Nicaragua in 1997 -- to resolve differences peacefully.
Nicaragua recently brought complaints of xenophobia and discrimination against Costa Rica before the Inter-American Human Rights Commission over the case of Natividad Canda, a Nicaraguan citizen who was attacked by dogs in November 2005 while attempting to enter a Costa Rican warehouse and later died from his wounds (TT, Nov. 10, 2005). The complaints also addressed the death of Nicaraguan José Ariel Silva, who was lynched by a group of Costa Ricans last December.
These complaints -- among other issues, including an ongoing dispute over navigation rights of the San Juan River that partially separates Costa Rica and Nicaragua -- have drawn attention to the countries' relationship.
Both ministers expressed hopes that the reestablished bi-national committee will allow for peaceful resolution of these and other disputes.
“This is the next firm and concrete step toward a good relationship,” Stagno said, explaining that the commission will likely meet in October in Costa Rica and will be made up of sub-commissions to address topics including security, borders and cartography and development. Additionally, the ministers plan to reestablish a “mixed commission” to address topics including health, education, job opportunities and others related to social and economic development.
“We believe peaceful solutions are absolutely possible,” Caldera said, adding that the commission will work on any issue that concerns both countries, including prevention of crime and drug trafficking.
Prisoners to Build More Furniture for Schools
Costa Rica's schools have chronically suffered from a shortage of desks and chairs for their students, but the expansion of an agreement between the Public Security Ministry and the Public Education Ministry (MEP) through which prisoners build furniture for schools seeks to end this problem by having prisoners build 80,000 desk-and-chair sets by the end of next year, according to a statement from MEP.
Nationwide, there is a shortage of 30,000 sets, especially in San Carlos, in north-central Costa Rica; Talamanca, in the southern Caribbean; and Guápiles and Turrialba, on the Caribbean slope, the statement said.
The expanded agreement also allows the Education Ministry's regional offices to collect and distribute furniture to nearby schools. In the past, schools far from San José have had to wait to receive furniture from the capital, the statement said.
Each desk-and-chair set costs ¢11,900 ($23), while the sets of one table and four small chairs used in preschools cost ¢25,800 ($50). This school year, MEP's spending on furniture will reach ¢600 million ($1.16 million), according to the statement.
Education Minister Leonardo Garnier told The Tico Times during a recent interview that the notorious desk shortage is more of a logistical problem than a financial one. When school starts every February, schools across the country complain of kids sitting on the floor because furniture has not arrived on time (TT, July 7).
-Tico Times
Costa Rica Could Suffer Wood Shortage
The Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE) estimates that Costa Rica could face a wood shortage within the next year because of illegal logging and insufficient reforestation efforts, according to a statement released by the ministry yesterday.
This shortage could mean $115 million in additional costs yearly for the country to meet the demands of its construction and agro-exportation sectors.
To avoid a wood deficit, Vice-Minister of Environment and Energy Jorge Rodríguez said the ministry will carry out a program to “promote reforestation and forest management and push forward the modernization of the forestry industry and the fight against illegal cutting.”
The program will include new legal mechanisms, institutional programs and training of workers in new technology to manage forests, the statement said.
“Costa Ricans depend on wood production, but this requires a base of programs and technology for control and sustainability,” Rodríguez said.
-ACAN-EFE
Foreign Investment
Creates Jobs with Better Salaries
Direct foreign investment in recent years has created jobs with better salaries and resulted in an increase in productivity, according to a statement from the Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency (CINDE).
Salaries of employees working for companies that produce electronics and medical supplies and offer information technology services have increased an average 14.3% from 2001 to 2005, the statement said.
According to the agency's calculations, approximately 40,000 Costa Ricans work for foreign companies in free-trade zones, and these workers earned twice as much as Costa Ricans working in the local manufacturing industry, the statement said.
In addition to a better salary, Costa Ricans working for foreign companies also enjoy “better transfer of technical knowledge and organizational culture and constant specialized training,” according to the statement.
-ACAN-EFE
Save the Tico Humpbacks: A Whale of a Proposal
 |
The biggest being you are likely to see in Costa Rica is the humpback whale, and now is probably the best time of year to see one here. These massive creatures arrive from as far away as the Southern Ocean International Whale Sanctuary, the ring of ocean surrounding Antarctica. The whales are coming back home to court, mate, give birth to the next generation of Costa Rican whales, and generate a lot of money for Costa Ricans working in tourism.
They make the now famous Antarctic-to-Costa-Rica trek, one of the longest in the animal kingdom, because Costa Rica’s waters are a prime place to make a little whale big enough to survive in cold seas full of large predators. Around the end of the rainy season, they head back to the Southern Ocean, the best place in the world for these unique mammals to become full-sized whales.
Adult whales need to eat more than your car weighs every day to grow bigger than a bus, and they cannot find that much food in Costa Rica. The Southern Ocean is where whales feast on vast amounts of shrimp-like krill and other tiny creatures that congregate into cloud-sized swarms. But Costa Rican-born whales may be in big trouble when they head back south for food this year.
 |
Finshots: Photographs of fin prints can be used to identify whales born in Costa Rican waters. |
The same whales that thrill tourists and locals alike and support one of the fastest-growing segments of Costa Rican tourism may be hunted and killed by illegal Japanese whalers when they return to the Southern Ocean. According to the May 2006 issue of National Geographic Adventure magazine, when the whales arrive south, Japan plans to kill 50 or so humpbacks in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary for research and later sale of the meat. Fifty dead Tico whales would probably mean the end of Costa Rica’s whale watching, as probably only about 50 of these endangered species come to Costa Rica each rainy season.
So what can tiny Costa Rica do against a powerful First-World nation that is an expert at exploiting the resources of other countries? Probably not much, but perhaps we could take an important symbolic step. Using fin-print photos, why not declare the easily identifiable whales born in Costa Rican waters Ticos, and ask the countries of the world to respect these citizens and not kill them when they visit other places? The whales will generate far more money in the long run from whale watchers in Antarctica and Costa Rica than they will with a onetime sale of meat in a fish market.
Tourists of the world are already starting to boycott nations that support whaling. By declaring whales born here to be Ticos, Costa Rica would set a worldwide example of helping to protect these mysteriously intelligent mammals that have been hunted to near extinction in the past. We would also be poised to receive all the tourists who will stop going to offending destinations that normally compete with Costa Rica.
Too bad Nicaragua doesn’t see the writing on the wall. If it worked together with Costa Rica to develop dolphin and whale tourism, both countries could make untold money year after year. Sadly, at least one Japanese whale-factory ship is registered in Panama, and that might not bode well for our other neighbor’s marine tourism prospects. The three countries working together would be that much more influential, and could help establish the area as a mega marine tourism destination.
If you like the idea of Costa Rica’s whales not being killed when they visit feeding waters, or if you like to make money working with tourism, tell everyone you know to help save these whales by declaring them officially Ticos.
For more information, call 835-6041, e-mail shawn@costacetacea.com or visit www.costacetacea.com.
Editorial Cartoon | Weekend | Exchange Rates | Fishing | Culture | Classified Ads
Display Ads | Subscribe! | Travel Guide | Archives | Links | About Us | Newsstand Locations
Contact Us | Policies