Sep 22, 2008

Reaching peace: Costa Rican residents practice yoga yesterday in El Templo de la Musica in downtown San José's Parque Morazan during the “Yoga for Everyone, For a Culture of Peace” festival to celebrate International Peace Day.

Ronald Reyes | Tico Times

Boy George, '80s musician and cultural icon, played at Club the City in Zapote in southeastern San José on Saturday, in his first concert ever in Costa Rica.

In flamboyant Boy George style, the 47-year-old artist wore a red hat and black jacket and pants set with jeweled appliqués of beetles, and, of course, swaths of turquoise eye shadow.

The band played a compact 10-song set, followed by a seven-song encore. They hit the Culture Club staples “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?” and “Karma Chameleon,” along with a few covers, including David Bowie's “Suffragette City.”

“Drag queens are our suffragettes,” Boy George said after the song, before dedicating the next ballad to them, half murmuring to himself, “We fall in love with boys with cheap tattoos and pretty eyes,” seemingly unaware of the audience's command of English.

But the modest but lively crowd impressed Boy George with their hearty sing-a-longs to a number of the tracks as the night went on.

The noticeably low turnout likely had to do with the concert's tickets costing up from 35,000 colones (over $60).

For his part, Boy George deftly played the audience with little moves such as pretending to reapply face powder, wiggling his backside or giving the microphone a coy lick.

The band also played the song Boy George has recorded for U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, entitled “Yes We Can,” which will be released on Oct. 12. “This song is for anyone who wants to see a black man in the White House,” said Boy George. “It would be good for anyone who's different, like me.”

Afterward, Juan Manuel protested, “He didn't play his best song!” referring to “The Crying Game,” George's Pet Shop Boys-produced song for the 1992 movie of the same name. Juan Manuel, 23, and his friend María José, 29, both from San José, conceded, however, that such a song might have been a little heavy for the otherwise upbeat night.

Stylistically, many of the songs had more of a reggae and others a country feel to them. But for most, the artistry wasn't the focus so much as the artist himself.

“I've loved him for 23 years,” said Wilbert Benedict, 34, of San José. “For me, the era doesn't matter: It's all about him.”

Other concert-goers, when relaying what they found compelling about the artist, cited everything from Boy George's originality, voice, nostalgia, style and the sense of liberty he represents to them all.

“These people have been waiting for 20 years to see him live,” said María José. “This was a dream come true for them.”

An Ortega supporter shoots mortars in the air Saturday in León to block a planned protest against the government.

Mario López | EFE

GRANADA, Nicaragua – Nicaragua's civil unrest took another dangerous turn over the weekend when hundreds of masked supporters of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), armed with machetes, sticks and mortars, closed off all entrances to the northern city of León to prevent an announced march against the government of President Daniel Ortega.

While police stood watching, the masked “Orteguistas” – pro-Ortega – squads stopped traffic to search vehicles for anti-government protesters, who were prevented from entering the city. The Orteguistas, most wearing FSLN hats and T-shirts and chanting revolutionary slogans, threw metal jacks under the tires of stopped vehicles suspected of carrying anti-government protestors. The jacks were meant to puncture the suspected protestors' tires if they didn't turn back toward Managua.

The tense situation grew inevitably violent when several left-wing political leaders from the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) – a group of Sandinista dissidents whom Ortega has labeled “traitors” and “sellouts” – approached the entrance to the city. Several of the MRS leaders had requested police protection in anticipation of violence.

Yet even the police presence wasn't enough to stop the Orteguistas from burning the vehicle of MRS president Enrique Sáenz, the previous candidate for mayor of Managua until the Sandinista-controlled Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) withdrew the MRS' legal status in July.

When anti-riot police were eventually called in, the Orteguistas – allegedly members of the controversial Councils of Citizen Power (CPCs), led by the Sandinistas' mayoral candidate for León – attacked the police line with sticks and rocks, requiring the police to respond with tear gas to disperse the rioters.

In all, five people were injured but no one was killed.

Left-wing opposition leaders such as historic guerrilla icon Doria María Téllez said the violence was another example of the fear the “dictatorial” Ortega government has of the opposition, and one that sets a “very dangerous” precedent.

“This was pure fascism because Ortega used everything he had,” Téllez told The Nica Times yesterday. “This is his strategy to crush the opposition, civil society and the other political parties and to instill fear in the people – all so he can stay in power.”

The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) strongly denounced the violence as a violation of Nicaraguans' rights to protest publicly. The rights group rested full blame on the FSLN and the CPCs, which were created and controlled by Ortega and First Lady Rosario Murillo.

The pro-government TV media outlet Multinoticias hailed Saturday's violence as a victory for León for defending their city against the “right-wing oligarchs” who were trying to “provoke” and “confuse” the people of León.

Human rights leaders say Saturday's violence sets a dangerous new precedent that extenuates the government's “exclusionary and authoritarian character.”

“Not only has the government closed electoral spaces, but also the constitutional right to protest” and free expression, CENIDH said in a statement.

The rights organization also called on the National Police to respect public security. The police – who have come under increased criticism in recent weeks – have promised a full investigation, although so far no one has been arrested.

The opposition, meanwhile, is scheduled to hold a press conference today to announce its next move.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has again sided with Venezuela's Hugo Chávez following the left-wing Venezuelan leader's expulsion of a Human Rights Watch researcher and its Americas director, José Miguel Vivanco, after they released a report criticizing Chávez's rights record.

Without giving names, Ortega said people are “conspiring” against Chávez.

“In conditions like these, what has (Venezuela's) Bolivarian government done? What it had to do. ‘Fellows, get out,' and they removed them from Venezuela,” Ortega said, news agency EFE reported.

At home, the Ortega administration has targeted rights groups in Nicaragua as well. Early this month, Nicaraguan First Lady Rosario Murillo launched an aggressive campaign called “Operation No More Lies,” calling non-government organizations (NGOs) “modern day Trojan Horses” that mask “an international campaign against the revolutionary government” of Ortega
(www.ticotimes.net/dailyarchive/2008_09/090908.htm#story3).

The Venezuela report by Human Rights Watch, a New York-based NGO, called Chávez's time in power a “lost decade” and said his government has weakened democratic institutions, according to Britain's Financial Times.

The government bit back, invoking fears similar to those expressed by Ortega's wife.

“We aren't going to tolerate any foreigner coming here to sully the dignity” of Venezuela's institutions, Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro told state television Thursday night, according to the Associated Press. Vivanco “has violated the constitution,” Maduro said.

The government expelled Vivanco, a Chilean, along with Human Rights Watch Deputy Director Daniel Wilkinson, from the United States, accusing them of acting on behalf of the U.S. government, AP reported.

For many human rights activists, the move only further proved their report.

“Chávez may have kicked out the messenger, but he has only reinforced the message – civil liberties in Venezuela are under attack,” Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch's executive director, told the Financial Times.

Costa Rica movie-goers are about to take a breather from Hollywood. The Sixth European Film Festival is ready to roll tomorrow and will run through Oct. 2 in San José's Variedades Theater and the new Arte Cine Lindora cinema in Santa Ana,  a southwest suburb outside the capital.

The program comprises 11 mostly award-winning pictures that portray tales of immigration, the theme of this year's festival, opening with the 2004 French film “Exils” tomorrow at 8 p.m. at the Lindora. The movie, directed by Tony Gatlif, tests the migrant waters between France and its former colony Algeria.

Another highlight will be German director Fatih Akin's film Gegen die wand – Against the Wall, normally billed in English as “Head-On” and, in Spanish, “Contra la pared” – which was the toast of festivals from Berlin to Seville when it premiered in 2004, giving a fresh look at the cultural assimilation dilemma faced by Germany's Turkish migrants. It's showing Friday (5 and 8 p.m. at Lindora, 4 and 7 p.m. at Variedades).

“Just as in earlier editions, our objective is to reflect and promote the culture of European countries, projecting films focusing on themes of intercultural exchange,” says a press release from the French Embassy.

Arte Cine Lindora is at Centro Comercial Lindora along the radial highway connecting the western towns of Santa Ana and San Antonio de Belén (2205-4130).

Variedades is on Calle 5, between Avenida Central and Avenida 1, in San José (2222-6108).

U.S. citizens who have not yet received a ballot from their home state can vote absentee at the Holiday Inn on Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in an event sponsored by Democrats Abroad.

For more information, contact the organization at www.votefromabroad.org or by calling 2282-5365.

A colorful parade of saints lined up along the aisle of the church in San Ramón during the last weekend of August as the city celebrated its patron saint's day with an old Spanish custom: la entrada de los santos, or the parade of the saints.

This year, 53 venerable statues of saints came from surrounding parishes and organizations in this western Central Valley coffee canton. The statues, some old and valuable, were borne on platforms decorated with flowers, carried on the shoulders of men and women from the parishes or groups. Each saint was accompanied by a band playing music, some traditional, some religious.

Saints Alive! The parade of the saints is an annual tradition at the San Ramón church.

Joan Bougie | Tico Times

This was a festival, nothing grim about it. There was St. John the Baptist carrying his long staff, the Virgin of El Carmen, the Virgin of Ujarrás and the Virgin of the Angels, a replica of the national shrine in the basilica in Cartago, east of the capital. St. Barbara, the patron saint of firefighters, was accompanied by a fire truck. The Holy Family came along with saints Gabriel and Raphael, the archangels. The images will remain in the church for nine days, or a novena, with daily Masses dedicated to the different parishes, explained Daniel Vargas, San Ramón's young and energetic pastor.

The principal saint of this event, of course, is San Ramón Nonato, and his statue, dressed in the red cloaks of a church official, had a special platform in front of the altar decorated with streamers in red and white.

San Ramón is the patron saint of pregnant women and newborn babies, Vargas said. He was born in the 1200s in Spain. His mother died giving birth to him, and he was delivered and adopted by a man named Ramón Cardona, who gave him the name Nonato, or “no birth.” At the age of 19, young Ramón joined the Fathers of Mercy, an order of priests dedicated to buying slaves to save them, and he went to Algeria, where slavery flourished. When funds ran out to buy more slaves, Ramón offered himself in place of a slave until more funds were available.

Pope Gregory IX wanted to honor the young priest by making him a cardinal, but with his health compromised during the episode of slavery, Ramón died on the way to Rome, at the age of 36.

The annual celebrations attract visitors from all over Costa Rica, because los ramonenses provide a week full of civic, religious and cultural activities. This year's included a zoo full of farm animals so that young city dwellers could get to know them. There were oxcart parades, folk dances, a sculpture contest, a band parade, theater and the reopening of the regional museum, displays of organic products and plants, and lots of traditional food under a thatch-roofed pavilion that spanned the entire street. A city that works together can produce a first class party.

“This is a family event to bring people together,” Vargas said. “With thousands of people filling the streets of San Ramón, no car thefts, assaults or vandalism were reported. And no alcohol was sold.”

San Ramón was first settled by the Maleku indigenous group. During the colonial years, the area was considered to be “the interior,” and prisoners and undesirables were sent here as punishment. In the early 1800s, expansion from Palmares, another western town, brought settlers into the area. Early residents Ramón Solís and Ramón Rodríguez placed the new town under the protection of San Ramón, and in August 1854 it officially became a city.

San Ramón became known as a literary and cultural center in the 19th century, after a priest of that era published an epic poem that scandalized citizens for not giving full support to the church, and which was read across the nation. This literary effort drew other poets and writers to San Ramón, giving it a reputation for arts and letters.

Leading statesman and founder of modern Costa Rica, José “Pepe” Figueres, was born in San Ramón in 1906. His home across from the church is now a cultural center. A branch of the University of Costa Rica is located here, and its professors and students add to the cultural life of the city.

And every year, during the last week of August, the whole community comes together to celebrate their patron saint's day, Aug. 31.