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South African Expert Advises ICE on Water Management
By Amanda Roberson
Tico Times Staff
aroberson@ticotimes.net
South African water-management expert Jacqueline King shared some of her knowledge yesterday during a water-management seminar sponsored by the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE), the state-run electricity and telecommunications monopoly, and Universidad Nacional (UNA), in Heredia, north of San José.
During a presentation entitled “A Holistic Approach to Integrated Flow Management,” King explained a cost-benefit analysis of dam projects.
“We always want the most benefits we can get from development, but we must also consider costs, which include water shortages in the wetlands, ecotourism and the life of reservoirs,” King said. “We can manage change with development or we can just let it happen – this would be closing our eyes and ears to knowledge.”
King used examples of dams built in Losotho and Mozambique to illustrate poor planning and failure to consider ecological and sociological impacts.
King's visit provided “a very important reflection,” said Gilberto de la Cruz, ICE National Electricity Planning Center Director. The institution is conducting studies of several rivers' water flows and ecologies to evaluate potential water-management projects.
UNA Rector Olman Segura said taking all costs and benefits of these projects into consideration is important considering the “crisis of resources” Costa Rica has experienced in recent years.
“In the past five decades, water has gone from being a rich resource to a scarcity,” Segura said, citing the statistic that from 1990 to 2001, demand for water in the metropolitan area increased by 12%.
Adopting laws to manage water responsibly is key to preventing this crisis from worsening, and the Legislative Assembly should pass legislature to promote responsible water management, Segura said.
U.S. Citizens Alerted About Passport Theft
Costa Rica tops the list of countries where the most U.S. passports are stolen -- from January to June this year, 783 U.S. tourists had their passports stolen here, according to a U.S. Embassy spokesman.
Authorities indicated that San José and the country's beaches are areas where the most passports are stolen. In 2005, 1,558 passports were stolen in Costa Rica, more than were stolen in Rome and Mexico City. Many victims of passport theft also have money and other personal belongings stolen, according to the embassy.
The U.S. Embassy has posted theft-prevention tips for its citizens traveling to Costa Rica on its Web site.
Immigration director Mario Zamora told the daily La Nación that groups of organized international criminals are partly responsible for passport theft. Many stolen passports are transported to Belize, where they are sold for as much as $20,000, mostly to Cubans and Colombians, he said.
-ACAN-EFE
Costa Ricans Prepare to Vote In Municipal Elections
The deadline for Costa Ricans to change their voting precinct in the Dec. 3 municipal elections is Thursday, according to a statement from the Supreme Elections Tribunal (TSE).
Citizens who have not yet obtained an identification card, or cédula, or who have changed addresses since the last election, can call 120 to change their address.
Young people who are turning 18 before or on Election Day should also report to the Tribunal's central office in San José or a regional office to solicit a cédula, which must be presented before voting.
Costa Ricans will be electing mayors and municipal officials Dec. 3 at the countries 1,952 electoral districts, and 68,271 citizens who are turning 18 have the opportunity to vote for the first time, the statement said.
Of these potential new voters, 37,390 have not yet gotten their cédulas.
-Tico Times
Costa Rican Leaders Speak Out Against Violence in Middle East
Costa Rica “deplores” the impact recent violence in the Middle East has had on innocent civilians and supports an immediate cease-fire, according to a statement released yesterday by the Foreign Ministry.
President Oscar Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has spoken out against the attacks of Israel on Palestine and Lebanon, and supports an “immediate cease-fire, without delays or conditions,” the statement said.
Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno has also expressed worry over recent violence, remarking that “these new military actions, which have cost the lives of innocent women and children …create an urgent need for a cease-fire.”
These violent acts “represent a step backward in the search for peace in this region,” Stagno said, according to the statement.
Costa Rica supports efforts to restore peace for Lebanon's civilians and install a security commission to detain violence, the statement said. The country also supports efforts by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to investigate Israeli attacks against U.N. personnel.
-Tico Times
‘Superman Returns’ Sinks Faster than a Speeding Bullet
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Finally, the last son of Krypton is back to fight for justice – Superman flies again. Directed by Bryan Singer, “Superman Returns” is based on a vague history established in “Superman” (1978) and “Superman II” (1980), starring the late Christopher Reeve.
After several years away from Earth, Superman returns to a world that apparently doesn’t need his help anymore; even his beloved Lois Lane has moved on to a new relationship and has a son. Only his nemesis Lex Luthor – played in a big way by Kevin Spacey – recently released from prison, refuses to forget his hated enemy. Now Superman must adjust to this new reality and stop an evil plan that could destroy Earth – sound familiar?
It took Hollywood a long time to bring this mega project to fruition; rumors about the actors and scripts circulated throughout the Internet and on entertainment news sources until Warner Bros. Studios finally put together a remarkable group of people to bring back the man of steel.
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New Man of Steel: Unknown Brandon Routh dons the red cape in “Superman Returns.” |
The performances are fine, but not great. The unknown Brandon Routh, who quit his job as a waiter to don the blue uniform and red cape, won’t disappoint fans as an acceptable Superman. Kate Bosworth, on the other hand, is never believable as the workaholic journalist Lois Lane. However, Oscar winner Kevin Spacey definitively transmits the essence of the fiendish Lex Luthor – if it were true that a movie is as good as its villain, this one would have been a smash. And the late Marlon Brando returns from the grave as Jor-EL, Superman’s father, thanks to archive footage and computer technology to recreate Brando’s voice.
Though Singer has experience directing successful big-screen comic-book adaptations, such as “X-Men,” it would seem that the setting of Metropolis did little to inspire his creativity, because he never achieves the magic that captivated audiences in the 1980s films starring the late Christopher Reeve. With a weak plot lacking any originality, the movie offers nothing new, neither in the story nor in the action scenes. The last minutes of the film look like a cheap soap opera and seem an unfortunate way to close a movie that promised to be an epic film – a promise that ended up broken.
However, as long as Hollywood needs something to rescue the box office, it’s likely we will continue to see sequels of this profitable franchise. Let’s hope they find different and new ideas with which to deliver them to us.
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