The Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA), slated to make its grand debut on the Legislative Assembly floor this week, remains in the wings as the National Printer works to reprint the massive pact and accompanying texts – a requirement that must be fulfilled before debate can begin.
The assembly's Foreign Affairs Commission, which debated CAFTA for more than a year and voted in December to send it to the assembly floor, also voted that the official government daily La Gaceta must republish the agreement, along with the interpretive statements the commission had approved and the supporting and opposing opinions presented by various parties in recent weeks.
The National Printer, which publishes the daily, told wire service ACAN-EFE yesterday that the massive publication won't take place until Jan. 26, making it unlikely that discussion will begin before February.
La Gaceta first published the text of the more than 2,000-page agreement in November 2005 at a cost of almost $70,000; Legislative Assembly Executive Director Antonio Ayales has said the re-publication of CAFTA and the additional documents will cost more than twice that amount (TT, Jan. 12).
The Citizen Action Party (PAC), which, with 17 legislators in the 57-member assembly, is the largest anti-CAFTA group, has long made CAFTA's public dissemination, or lack thereof, an issue in the debate about the agreement. In July, PAC legislator Alberto Salom filed a case before the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) alleging that the government had not printed enough copies of the agreement – in 2005, it published 1,500 copies, down from its normal run of 4,000 – but the court rejected his claim.
The National Printer is expected to announce the details of the new printing today. Depending on those results, Salom may take up the issue again, his chief of staff Jens Pfeiffer told The Tico Times yesterday.
According to Pfeiffer, the small print run and poor distribution meant many citizens in outlying areas had no access to the text of the pact, which would reduce or eliminate most tariffs on items traded between the United States and Central America. |
Public Security Minister Fernando Berrocal yesterday issued a personal note to journalists apologizing for alleging corruption among previous officials of the Immigration Administration Thursday during a press conference.
The conference was held to announce the arrest of two people allegedly connected with a ring dedicated to trafficking Chinese people to Costa Rica.
Officials had been monitoring the group since the end of last year, when a representative approached Immigration Director Mario Zamora and offered him $5,000 for every visa he would approve for a Chinese citizen. With the backing of the Judicial Branch and investigators, Zamora accepted the offer, and cash payments that totaled approximately $20,000 were made to a Judicial Branch bank account, officials said.
Berrocal said he is sure Immigration had corrupt high-level officials who accepted such bribes during previous administrations, but would wait for investigations to prove him right.
“This was how it worked in recent years,” Berrocal said at the press conference, visibly emotional. “This has many, many implications.”
In yesterday's statement, the minister said “I lament that the declarations I made last Thursday at the press conference... could have hurt honest officials from previous administrations.”
“The investigation of this case is in the hands of the Prosecutor's Office. I am sure judicial authorities will establish the truth,” he said. “The fight against corruption should be a commitment to national unity and should not be politicized.”
Berrocal said he will abstain from commenting to the press about this case in the future. |
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“I’ve been cooking gourmet meals for the whole household, but, you know, I think they would just as soon eat gallo pinto. I’m not going to do it anymore.”
The person speaking was a Canadian married to a Tica friend of mine. My friend and my husband had left us alone to speak English while they visited in Spanish.
“At least they’ve been eating it,” I replied. “My husband won’t even touch my lasagna, a dish for which I’m famous among my friends and relatives in the States.”
All right… those of us who live here all know that when we get together, we tend to complain about either the Ticos or their beautiful country. I sometimes imagine that when they get together, they tend to complain about us, as well. It’s normal, and despite the fact that I have been witness to a few virulent and unjustified attacks, in most cases it’s harmless, even affectionate.
Food, of course, is a prime target. Not only is it something that is extremely important to us, it is a source of numerous and compelling cultural differences, especially in what we eat, how often we eat it and how we prepare it.
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Always Together: Rice and beans form the staple of the casado, a traditional plate of the day, accompanied here by cabbage salad, fish, mashed potatoes and plátano maduro. |
Tammy Zibners | Tico Times |
A Gringo once asked me if I knew what the national dish of Costa Rica was. When I answered, “No,” he replied, “Leftovers” (referring, of course to gallo pinto). It’s just another tacky Tico-bashing joke, but it reveals a good deal about our attitudes. We all need to practice a little more tolerance. The Italians have a constructive saying: “Tutti i gusti son gusti” (“All tastes are tastes”). This means that the fact that I would much rather eat a crunchy stir-fry than gallo pinto doesn’t mean that I have better taste, just that I have different taste.
My husband, bless his soul, always claims that the crunchy stir-fry hasn’t finished cooking.
Food variety is another issue. I had a highly stressed friend in the United States whose husband demanded that each week she prepare exact menus for the household, with no repetitions. I wasn’t married to a tyrant like that, but I do remember always worrying about what to have for dinner that wasn’t the same as the night before. Those days are over! All I need to do anymore is make sure there is a sufficient supply of rice, beans, salad and plátano maduro.
And here’s the point. We need to understand that most Costa Ricans eat basically the same thing every day. As a result, their perception of food is different from ours. If theirs seems odd to us, ours seems odd to them. To them, it must seem rather like suggesting that we change houses every day. Why go to all that trouble?
Sometimes, my husband’s sons visit and bring boxes of pizza. Because we live in the mountains and don’t go out, I gorge. Then, as far as I am concerned, I have eaten. After they leave, my husband generally complains that he hasn’t eaten any “comida” (food). What he means, of course, is that he hasn’t had his ration of rice and beans. Until he does, he has had only snacks.
And he won’t hear of risotto a la milanesa or rice croquettes. Yes, even the preparation of the rice always has to be the same. This drives me crazy, but, let’s face it, there are worse things.
The rice-and-beans meal in a restaurant is called a casado (“married”) – because they are always together. The Costa Rican diet is based on this couple. Rice and beans are almost always present and usually form the bulk of the meal. They are often accompanied by some form of cooked ripe plantain (plátano maduro) and a salad, usually cabbage. Picadillo (chopped, sautéed vegetables or potato), eggs, a small piece of meat, chicken, fish or a regional dish may also be present.
In the Caribbean province of Limón, the rice and beans often take the scrumptious form of what the limonenses call, of all things, “rice and beans.” Here, the beans are cooked in what is called leche de coco, which is not coconut milk as we know it, but rather the liquid from strained coconut pulp.
Once in a while, there are exceptions. A popular alternate dish is olla de carne (“pot of meat”). This is a kind of meat soup, usually consisting of rib meat, potatoes, corn on the cob and especially large chunks of vegetables unfamiliar to us: plátano verde (green plantains), yuca (cassava), chayote (mirliton squash), ñampí (taro root) and tiquisque (blue taro). It is served in a bowl with rice on the side.
The fact is that, if it weren’t for the trans-fats – the manteca (in Costa Rica, this is solidified palm oil), the margarine and the highly processed oils – the Costa Rican diet would be much healthier than that of most Gringos. The combination of rice and beans forms a perfectly acceptable protein, free of the hormones and antibiotics found in meat. Add the perpetual cabbage salad and the potassium-rich plantain, and no está mal. Unfortunately, the lack of information here about the nature of fats sabotages the entire deal.
It’s also true that, when Ticos are not eating at home, they are probably out eating fried chicken, greasy hamburgers or French fries.
Too bad.
And just who, I might ask, is responsible for that? |
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