JANUARY 23, 2007

POINTING Tourists the Right Way: Minister of Public Works and Transport Karla González, Presidency Minister Rodrigo Arias and Tourism Minister Carlos Benavides yesterday demonstrated some of the new signs that will soon grace Costa Rica's roads. González's and Benavides' ministries are collaborating on the road sign project, which seeks to better orient national and foreign tourists on their way to popular spots like beaches, national parks and wildlife reserves.

PUSC, There it Is: The leadership of the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC), following a dismal showing in last February's presidential elections and a drastic drop in mayoral wins in December's municipal elections, has decided to make a small change in the party's name – by dropping the word “ partido, ” or “party,” and moving from “PUSC” to “USC.” Party president Luis Fishman told The Tico Times yesterday that one of the reasons for the change was that the old name sounded too much like “pus,” and that he doesn't care whether the party's five Legislative Assembly members agree with the change or not.

A U.S. ship yesterday rescued 57 Peruvians and Ecuadorians lost at sea 70 nautical miles from the Osa Peninsula, in the Southern Zone, according to Public Security Ministry spokesman Guillermo Solano.

Tourists on their way to beaches, volcanoes, national parks and other popular Costa Rican attractions will have new road signs to help them find their destinations, thanks to a joint project by the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) and the Ministry of Public Works and Transport.

Trinidad Jiménez, Spanish Secretary of State for Latin America and Iberia, arrived yesterday to Costa Rica for a two-day visit during which she plans to meet with leaders to discuss her country possibly pardoning Costa Rica's debt, among other topics, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

Boat with 57 Migrants Found in Pacific

By Amanda Roberson
Tico Times Staff | aroberson@ticotimes.net

A U.S. ship yesterday rescued 57 Peruvians and Ecuadorians lost at sea 70 nautical miles from the Osa Peninsula, in the Southern Zone, according to Public Security Ministry spokesman Guillermo Solano.

The migrants, among them five people under age 18, were headed to the United States when their guide, or coyote, abandoned them. They were “practically shipwrecked” when a U.S. frigate navigating the waters spotted their boat, Solano said.

At press time, the Costa Rican Coast Guard was bringing the boat and its passengers to the Pacific port of Caldera. Solano said he was unsure where the 57 migrants would be taken from there.

This case resembles others that have occurred during the past several months, Solano said. In October 2006, 128 Peruvian and Chinese citizens were rescued by U.S. Coast Guard workers from a broken-down wooden boat off the coast of Costa Rica. Police believe they were the victims of a human trafficking operation who had accepted a free trip to the United States in exchange for working for 20 years and turning over most of their earnings.

New Signs to Direct Tourists

Tourists on their way to beaches, volcanoes, national parks and other popular Costa Rican attractions will have new road signs to help them find their destinations, thanks to a joint project by the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) and the Ministry of Public Works and Transport.

The ¢300 million ($582,524) project will put 1,300 new signs along national roads to point drivers to service stations, airports, ports, ferries, beaches, national parks and other frequently visited spots. Part of these funds will be used by ICT to buy materials for the signs, and MOPT will use the rest to design and install them.

The new signs indicating hotels, parks, surf breaks and other attractions will be brown to help distinguish them from the often-outdated green signs now decorating the countries highways. Others, in blue, will assist tourists in locating hospitals, airports, and ferry and bus terminals.

These signs will comply with Central American norms and will indicate the direction, route number and distance to each location indicated. MOPT will also work with ICT to take down signs that contradict the new signs, the statement said

During a press conference yesterday, Tourism Minister Carlos Benavides said the project is absolutely essential to a country so dependent on tourism.

“No longer can we have tourists getting lost on their way to our beaches and parks. People who visit this country must be able to get to their destinations safely, and on their own,” Benavides said.

The new signs will be posted throughout the northwestern Guanacaste province, along the Pacific coast, from San José to the Caribbean port city of Limón and around the Caribbean province, according to a statement from ICT and MOPT.

Spanish Secretary of State
Meets with Costa Rican Leaders

Trinidad Jiménez, Spanish Secretary of State for Latin America and Iberia, arrived yesterday to Costa Rica for a two-day visit during which she plans to meet with leaders to discuss her country possibly pardoning Costa Rica's debt, among other topics, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

Jiménez is scheduled to meet with President Oscar Arias, Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno, Legislative Assembly president Francisco Pacheco and head of the legislature's International Affairs Commission Janina Del Vecchio as well as Finance Minister Guillermo Zúñiga and Education Minister Leonardo Garnier.

Jiménez, who serves as Spain's Secretary of State to Portugal and Latin America, will talk with Arias about a topic broached by him and Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez in November during the Latin American-Iberian Summit in Uruguay: the possibility of Spain forgiving the $58 million Costa Rica owes it.

This would allow Costa Rica to instead invest in educational projects along its borders and in indigenous territories and in a program to make the subject of sustainable development part of school curriculum, in coordination with the National Biodiversity Institute (INBio), the statement said.

Angry Bees Attack Coffee Pickers

By Amanda Roberson
Tico Times Staff | aroberson@ticotimes.net

Recently I picked up a wonderful new attachment for my PDA, called Intelect-Inside, which, when pointed at a subject within 15 meters, is able to capture and display the unexpressed thoughts of that person. A few days ago I went to a quasi-government office. I arrived at opening time and while I waited, having nothing better to do, I pointed the thing at a young employee who was sitting at a nearby desk.

What follows here is the sequence of his thoughts, translated from pachuco Spanish to English:

Whoof! Made it just in time. Stupid new security service! Why do they have to check employees coming in and going out? Yesterday afternoon they almost found the staplers. I’ll have to stop doing that before I get caught.

Don’t these privatized people ever rest?

I know the kind of thing Security is trying to catch in the mornings. They stopped Elberth from the Filing Department from bringing in his bottles of guaro. That’s goodbye to his little business! He’s going to feel the drop in his income… I bet he won’t be able to afford Rosita any more…

Hey, maybe I’ll be able to pick up with Rosita myself. Nah! With the stapler, paper punch and scissors business going phut, I wouldn’t be able to afford her, either. Stupid new security service!

But I daren’t take up with Rosita anyway – Stupid Carmen would immediately tell my wife.

Where is Stupid Carmen, anyway? I know! She must be in the bathroom putting on her face. Uncanny, the way she arrives back at her desk exactly one minute before the jefe walks in.

Uh oh. There’s the messenger from Metropolitana. I mustn’t meet his eye! Maybe if I ignore him, Sánchez will attend to him. Boy, Sánchez is really trying for a promotion – he was actually working when I arrived. What’s he trying to do – show the rest of us up? Stupid Sánchez!

Mustn’t raise my eyes! Hmm, my shoes need waxing. They haven’t been cleaned since the new guards stopped the shoeshine lad from coming in. Now everyone has dirty shoes and we don’t have those racy magazines any more, to pass the while away. Stupid security service!

The new privatized cleaning service is good! They cleaned the dust from my outbox. I wonder if I should make two piles of the stuff in my inbox? The one pile is likely to topple over. Should I put the files in alphabetical order to expedite things when someone needs something? Nah! Too much trouble. Let ’em wait while I riffle through.

Ooh, there’s Rosita! Yoo hoo, Rosita! Wow, I love it when she stretches backward like that. Heck! I caught the eye of Metropolitana – but he just smiled and looked at Rosita.

I think that blouse is one she bought from the Nica. The Nica hasn’t come back since the new guard service started – they probably stop him from coming in. I saw him lurking outside yesterday – luckily he didn’t see me. I don’t like those shirts very much, anyway, so why should I pay for them? Maybe I should grow back my moustache. No, I can’t grow it back because then the lottery chap would recognize me, and I owe him more than I owe the Nica.

Hmm, that man’s here to see the jefe – I’d better pretend to be working. Boy, the dust between the files in my inbox is terrible. I think I’ll go to the infirmary later and pretend to have hay fever, and maybe they’ll give me some more of that allergy medicine I sell to my brother-in-law.

Here’s the file I told the guy from Cosmopolitas I had processed and sent to the Evaluations Department. Stupid Cosmopolitas guy, with his shrill voice and horrible haircut – I hope he got properly messed up! But I must be more compliant or he won’t repeat the nice Christmas present this year.

Ah, here comes Stupid Carmen – so the jefe will be arriving any moment. I’d better keep looking busy. But I mustn’t look up – Sánchez still hasn’t attended to Metropolitana.

We should turn the desks around so we don’t have to face the counter and “see” the people who are waiting. But if we turn the desks around, the people at the counter would see our computer monitors, and that’s no good! I wonder where I can get the new version of Free Cell?

Stupid Carmen hasn’t said “good morning” to me. In fact, she hasn’t even looked at me. Who does she think she is? Boy, I’d really like to nab her stapler, paper punch and scissors, and then see her squirm! But she locks them in her desk whenever she’s away from it. Stupid Carmen! What does she think I am, a thief? It’s not as if taking staplers, scissors and paper punches were really stealing – nobody around here cares about that sort of thing.

Where’s the jefe? I want his newspaper. I’m sure La Liga won, but I want to check the final score of last night’s game. Stupid ICE and its power cuts – it should be privatized! But if they privatize ICE we will follow right behind, and that would be really terrible – I don’t know what I would do! And all these other poor people. Except Sánchez – he would find a new job right away, curse him! I really should try to get into the hierarchy of the union and become one of the Untouchables.

There’s the guy from Profesionales. Maybe he knows how the game ended up. But I’d better not ask him – he may want me to do something for him, and now it’s now only 20 minutes before my first coffee break, so I can’t take on any more tasks.