FEBRUARY 28, 2007

A SALUTE to Environmental Awareness: President Oscar Arias yesterday gave Angie Montoya, 9, a blue flag earned by Los Diamantes School in the Caribbean-slope town of Guápiles for achieving environmental standards. 251 of these flags were awarded to communities, beaches and schools during a ceremony yesterday.

SOUTHERN Views: Michael Rojas, 18, from the southern San José neighborhood of Hatillo, explains a photo on display at Calderón Guardia Museum as part of an exhibit called Southern Views, featuring photographs taken by 12 young people in low-income southern San José neighborhoods. The photo, entitled “ El Pajarito ” (“The Little Bird”) shows a single bird perched upon power lines near Rojas' home. The exhibit runs through March 17; call 255-1218 for more information.

Government Responds To Assault on Tourists

Nearly a week after a U.S. tourist killed an assailant in the Caribbean port of Limón – an incident that attracted international attention to the country's crime problems and had Carnival Cruise Lines threatening to eliminate Limón from its tours – the Costa Rican government announced plans to double police presence there.

Environmental Blue Flags Awarded

Symbolic blue flags were awarded yesterday to 251 beaches, communities and schools that uphold certain environmental standards. The annual ceremony was held by the Ecological Blue Flag Program in the lushly forested INBioparque amphitheater in Santo Domingo de Heredia, north of San José, and was attended by President Oscar Arias, Environment Minister Roberto Dobles, Tourism Minister Ricardo Benavides and the executive director of the National Water and Sewer Institute (AyA) Ricardo Sancho.

Arias Applauds Chávez's Decision To Suspend Aluminum Plant Closure

Venezuela President Hugo Chávez apparently changed his mind this week about closing the state-run aluminum plant CVG Aluminios Nacionales S.A. (ALUNASA) that employs 400 people in the Pacific-slope town of Esparza.

ICE to Invest $59.8 Million In Fiber-Optic Network

Government Responds To Assault on Tourists

By Katherine Stanley
Tico Times Staff | kstanley@ticotimes.net

Nearly a week after a U.S. tourist killed an assailant in the Caribbean port of Limón – an incident that attracted international attention to the country's crime problems and had Carnival Cruise Lines threatening to eliminate Limón from its tours – the Costa Rican government announced plans to double police presence there.

At a joint press conference held yesterday, Public Security Minister Fernando Berrocal and Tourism Minister Carlos Benavides said an expanded Limón police force will closely monitor cruise-ship passengers' movements through the city and pull tourism licenses from operators who insist on taking tourists into dangerous areas. Before the conference, the ministers met with cruise line representatives, tour operators, municipal leaders and others to discuss public security in the region.

“We're not going to allow a few thugs to dirty the name of Limón or Costa Rica,” Benavides said, adding that Carnival has announced it will continue to visit Limón despite previous statements that it might replace the stop with a visit to a Honduran port. The next Carnival visit to Limón will take place March 8 when the cruise ship Legend arrives, Benavides added.

Doubt over Limón's future as a cruise destination began Feb. 21 when three assailants, one carrying a handgun, approached 12 tourists in the Limón neighborhood of Cieneguita. One of the tourists, who'd arrived that morning on a Carnival ship, killed one of the assailants (TT, Feb. 23), a 20-year-old Limón man later identified as Walter Segura.

The incident caused a flurry of coverage by international and U.S. media such as The Miami Herald, which reported that the tourist who killed the assailant is a former U.S. marine in his 70s who eluded the press upon the ship's return to Florida.

Security Vice-Minister Rafael Gutiérrez said 75 additional police officers will be deployed to Limón in the coming months. According to Benavides, increased communication between police and tour operators will allow authorities to track cruise passengers throughout their stay in Limón.

So far this December-May tourism high season, 64 ships and 82,000 passengers have visited the Caribbean port, Berrocal said.

Environmental Blue Flags Awarded

By Leland Baxter-Neal
Tico Times Staff | lbaxter@ticotimes.net

Symbolic blue flags were awarded yesterday to 251 beaches, communities and schools that uphold certain environmental standards. The annual ceremony was held by the Ecological Blue Flag Program in the lushly forested INBioparque amphitheater in Santo Domingo de Heredia, north of San José, and was attended by President Oscar Arias, Environment Minister Roberto Dobles, Tourism Minister Ricardo Benavides and the executive director of the National Water and Sewer Institute (AyA) Ricardo Sancho.

Representatives from 58 beaches, 29 communities and 10 schools (symbolically representing the 164 educational centers nationwide that earned a blue flag for their environmental education programs) received their flags and shook hands and took photos with the officials.

The program's director Darner Mora announced during the ceremony that Costa Rica's Blue Flag Program may integrate with the European version, which has member organizations around the world. Representatives of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), which oversees this international Blue Flag program, are scheduled to be in Costa Rica April 9-10 to finalize the negotiations and sign an agreement to put it into effect.

Arias Applauds Chávez's Decision
To Suspend Aluminum Plant Closure

Venezuela President Hugo Chávez apparently changed his mind this week about closing the state-run aluminum plant CVG Aluminios Nacionales S.A. (ALUNASA) that employs 400 people in the Pacific-slope town of Esparza.

In his radio program Aló Presidente, the socialist President announced Monday that he will resume sending prime materials to this factory while he evaluates keeping it open, according to the daily La Nación.

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias yesterday applauded Chávez's change of tone, which he heard about through an international news broadcast, according to a statement from Casa Presidencial.

Calling Chávez's decision “marvelous,” Arias said shutting down the plant would hurt not only the 400 people employed there, but also the approximately 2,500 people supported by these workers.

Arias also remarked on plans discussed by Chávez and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega for Venezuela to build an aluminum plant in Nicaragua. “God willing” Chávez builds this plant “to help a country as poor as Nicaragua, but not to the detriment of a community that needs this investment and needs ALUNASA to stay in the region,” Arias said.

Chávez, who announced he had changed his mind about the plant's closure after meeting with a group of ALUNASA workers, said he will send a commission here to evaluate problems the plant is having, La Nación reported.

The Venezuelan President has denied rumors that his original decision to close the plant had anything to do with an ideological grudge with Arias, who earlier this month accused Chávez of “negating democracy” (TT, Feb. 23).

-Tico Times

ICE to Invest $59.8 Million In Fiber-Optic Network

The Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) yesterday announced it has begun installing a fiber-optic network “from sea to sea” to provide high-speed Internet technology, according to a statement posted on the institute's Web site.

The project, called “ Frontera a Frontera ” (“Border to Border”), consists of a fiber-optic network that transmits information through dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) and allows for rapid transmission of video, voice and data files.

“This network being built is of great importance to the country because it will increase optic connection through the main points of the national telecommunications network,” said ICE project director Gabriel Víquez, adding that the project aims to meet the growing technology needs of Costa Rica's business sector.

ICE expects the project to be complete during the first three months of next year; so far, workers have laid 40% of the fiber-optic network, which will expand from the northern border town of Peñas Blancas to Paso Canoas, in the Southern Zone, and from the Caribbean port of Limón to the central Pacific city of Quepos.

It includes five main “rings” in the north, north-central, San José, south- central and southern regions of the country through which users can access this technology.

The Israeli company ECI Telecom is carrying out the project, and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) is financing $32.5 million. ICE is providing the remaining $26.7 million for a total investment of $59 million.

-Tico Times

Bypass wasn't getting along too well with his wife of 40 years. He wouldn't tell me why, but I concluded it was a simple case of what in the trade we call OS, or Overfamiliarity Syndrome. Two people living together that long know exactly what each is going to say in any given situation, but the one with OS, on hearing the same dumb joke for the thousandth time, is liable to rush out of the house screaming, “I can't stand it any longer!”

Normal couples deal with the problem by preserving a companionable silence from breakfast to suppertime, but that option was not open to Bypass. While he himself was a man of few words, his wife was the original motormouth, whose maximum silent time was one minute.

So Bypass tried another option. Two doors down the street lived a comely divorcée by the name of Clara, who went on monthlong cruises twice a year, financed by a generous alimony. So at the next street party, Bypass, fortified by strong drink, drew her aside and said, “Clarer, will you take me on your next cruise?” Clara immediately responded, “Sure. Next week suit you?” Bypass, who had come prepared for an argument, was taken aback by this glib response, and promptly assumed she was a loose woman, but managed to stammer out, “F-fine, I'll give you a call.” Which, with some misgivings, he did, and after telling his wife he would be gone for a month on a business trip, he and Clara departed Miami in a first-class cabin bound for the Azores.

Novelty is an important component of any social relationship, so the couple had little problem getting along for the first eight hours. But from then on the escapade became, from one point of view, a total disaster. At dinner that night, Clara pronounced the Dover sole uneatable and the Chardonnay undrinkable, and sent back the baked Alaska three times before even tasting it. On returning to their luxurious cabin, she complained bitterly about the facilities and, worst of all, positively rejected any form of intimacy before Bypass even brought up the subject. And, it must be admitted, conversationally Bypass is a crashing bore.

From another point of view, however, the trip was a roaring success. Thoroughly fed up with each other, the couple abandoned the cruise after only a week and flew home separately. Bypass reported to his wife that he had cut short his business trip because he missed her, even going so far as to kiss her passionately that night. She, of course, being by no means stupid just because she talked too much, had readily guessed the truth, but responded in kind. Thereafter, Bypass learned simply to withdraw his attention while his wife was speaking, and the two lived together reasonably happily ever after.

The moral of this story is “Try a little harder before you try another.” Or how about “The grass is not necessarily greener two doors down the street”?