FEBRUARY 07, 2007

READING Material: These students at San Isidro de Heredia School, north of San José, were among those who received 53,000 schoolbooks yesterday through a donation organized by Casa Presidencial's Office of Social Aid. The publishing company Editorial Norma donated the books to children whose parents can't afford to by them.

VOICING Their Opinions: Timoteo Jackson Pita (left) and Benjamin Mayorga, members of the Bribrí community in the southern Caribbean Talamanca region, yesterday asked legislators why their indigenous communities haven't been consulted about the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA), as they claim the law requires. Legislators should have toured the country to get the indigenous' opinion on this controversial trade pact, they said.

A group of about 40 indigenous Costa Ricans traveled from their southern Caribbean communities to the Legislative Assembly in San José yesterday to demand that they be included in the debate over the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA).

More than 40 sacks of cocaine, each weighing 30 kilograms, were discovered floating in the Pacific Ocean near the Panamanian border Monday, according to a statement from the Public Security Ministry.

Environmentalists this week are celebrating the 10 th anniversary of a big day for Costa Rica: on Feb. 6, 1997, this nation sold $1 million worth of carbon bonds to Norway, kicking off a U.N. program through which developed countries compensate developing countries' reforestation efforts (TT, Feb. 14, 1997).

Indigenous Voice Opposition to CAFTA

By Blake Schmidt
Tico Times Staff | bschmidt@ticotimes.net

A group of about 40 indigenous Costa Ricans traveled from their southern Caribbean communities to the Legislative Assembly in San José yesterday to demand that they be included in the debate over the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA).

During a press conference the group held at the Legislative Assembly, legislators and journalists heard indigenous leaders decry their communities' exclusion from the debate.

“I feel abused. Stop mistreating indigenous people. Stop robbing them,” said Timoteo Jackson, leader of a group of organic banana producers in Bribrí, on the southern Caribbean coast.

The indigenous representatives asked legislators why their communities haven't been consulted in a tour around the country regarding CAFTA. By law, indigenous communities must be consulted about any proposed law that would affect them, they argued, and though there are differences of opinion in the assembly about whether the consultation law should apply to CAFTA, the assembly's technical services department recommended the consultation tour last year.

Drugs Found Floating in Pacific Waters

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

More than 40 sacks of cocaine, each weighing 30 kilograms, were discovered floating in the Pacific Ocean near the Panamanian border Monday, according to a statement from the Public Security Ministry.

A police boat patrolling these waters near Burica, Panama found the drugs, which weighed a total of 1,280 kilograms.

The sacks of cocaine were “just floating in the sea, not close to any boat, so it wasn't obvious who they belonged to,” said Public Security Ministry spokeswoman Marielos Punta Barboza. Police suspect the drugs could have been dropped from a boat or an airplane, she said.

The Costa Rican Coast Guard, together with Drug Control Police, recovered the cocaine and turned it over to the Prosecutor's Office in the southern port city of Golfito. Police are investigating the case, Barboza said.

Costa Rica Celebrates 10 Years of
Working to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Environmentalists this week are celebrating the 10 th anniversary of a big day for Costa Rica: on Feb. 6, 1997, this nation sold $1 million worth of carbon bonds to Norway, kicking off a U.N. program through which developed countries compensate developing countries' reforestation efforts (TT, Feb. 14, 1997).

The idea is that trees preserved in countries like Costa Rica consume carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, helping to mitigate the harmful effects of carbon dioxide emitted by industries in countries like Norway, explained Leo Guevarra, a researcher at the Central American Institute of Business Administration (INCAE).

The program has since been used as a “model” and included in the Kyoto Protocol, implemented in 2005, Guevara said. It has grown alongside the National Forest Financing Fund (FONAFIFO), a Costa Rican program through which landowners who protect forestlands can receive payments for environmental services.

In addition to paving the way for the sale of carbon bonds on the international market, Costa Rica also recently partnered with Papua New Guinea to lead the newly formed Coalition of Rainforest Countries, whose members include Kenya, Uganda, Bolivia, Ecuador, Fiji and Malaysia. This group met Jan. 29-30 at INCAE to prepare its strategy for the Climate Change Convention in Bali, Indonesia, in December, the statement said.

-Tico Times

Woman Arrested Accused of Human Trafficking

A woman was arrested near the Nicaraguan border yesterday for allegedly attempting to traffic six Chinese and Indian immigrants from Costa Rica to Nicaragua, according to a statement from the Public Security Ministry.

The woman, identified by the last name Flores, was arrested outside the northwestern Guanacaste city of Liberia. She was heading north on the Inter-American Highway toward Nicaragua along with a man identified by the last name Lara when the car was stopped by police.

Lara escaped from the police, while Flores was arrested and faces charges of human trafficking before the Prosecutor's Office in Liberia.

The immigrants inside the car were identified as four Chinese citizens with the last names Ching, 37, Zhu-Ben, 20, Lin-Chu, 32, and Wen-Xiu, 25, and two Indian citizens identified by the names Jali, 26, and Smagh, 20. Immigration authorities in Liberia are investigating their migratory status.

The coastal native Americans of the U.S. Pacific Northwest lived in a land of such plenty that they used to hold potlatches, ceremonial feasts for an event such as a wedding, in which the host distributed gifts according to each guest's rank or status. Between rival groups, the potlatch often involved extravagant or competitive giving and destruction of valued items as a display of superior wealth. The Bellevue-Redmond area of Seattle, Washington, where I stay when I am in the United States, is one of the places where native peoples lived and celebrated their prosperity. You may think that much has changed, but, in some ways, things are not so different after all.

This is one of the upscale neighborhoods in Seattle, the area where Bill Gates decided to establish Microsoft. As I stroll through this neighborhood and look around, I can't help but contrast it with Costa Rica.

As if string theory weren't enough, traveling from a remote mountain area of Costa Rica to this place in less than a day gets me to wondering about the true nature of reality.

This is the place where…

Everybody has a bread machine and a juicer, but nobody makes bread or juice.

You can buy five different kinds of salt.

Everyone sleeps under a duvet.

Wedding costs begin at $15,000.

Nobody throws garbage on the ground.

There is a special park just for dogs.

Nobody has to watch commercials any more.

Grocery shopping is available online – free delivery next day.

The hospital reception area features floor-to-ceiling aquariums and a classical pianist.

No one ever overcooks vegetables.

There are no stray dogs.

Everyone has an outdoor hot tub and speakers hidden in fake rocks.

Yards with dogs all have invisible fences.

No one knows, thank goodness, what a chayote is.

Bus drivers are always helpful.

All appliances (large or small) must match the decor of the kitchen.

Dog sitters charge $25 a night.

People leave blenders and toasters on the sidewalk for Goodwill pick up.

Everyone has at least one gas fireplace.

Black beans are a gourmet item.

During the Christmas season, stores feature a section for doggie stocking stuffers.

No one jaywalks.

Everyone eats organic.

You can get your money back on merchandise for any old reason.

UPS comes two or three times a week.

People stop their cars for pedestrians to cross the street.

For just $1 apiece, you can buy one kind of lemon (yellow, thick and pulpy).

Each child has his own DVD player for the car.

The roads are perfect.

Everyone recycles.

Little girls take ballet and little boys take karate.

Landscapers charge $900 to prune two apple trees.

A four-lane highway is a very small one.

Phone cable stays put.

All the traffic lights work.

CDs are passé.

Everyone has a redwood deck.

Sushi is a standard item in grocery stores.

So what is my conclusion? Is Bellevue, which means “pretty view” in French, better than where I live? Better than my view of the Costa Rican mountains from the windows of my funky cabin?

Mmm, I don't think so.