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Japan Week fans out: Saki Ito, 22, of Tokyo, performs a traditional dance at the National Culture Center in San José on Saturday during Japan Week, a program of ancestral events and pop culture performances sponsored by the Japanese Embassy that ran from Sept. 29th through yesterday. |
Lindy Drew | Tico Times |
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| Costa Rican court OKs stadium |
| A high court gave China a green light Friday to construct a new national stadium in La Sabana Park on San José's western edge. |
| See More... |
| Court whittles domestic violence law in Costa Rica |
| The Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) late last week rescinded two articles of Costa Rica's Law to Penalize Violence Against Women, ruling them unconstitutional, citing vagueness in the wording of both. |
| See More... |
| Car accident kills Nicaraguan mayor |
| MANAGUA, Nicaragua – The mayor of the northwestern Nicaraguan city of Posoltega has died in a traffic accident, the National Police and emergency officials said yesterday. |
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| Storm damage could cost Costa Rica up to $7 million |
| As residents began returning home from shelters this weekend, Costa Rica began to calculate the wreckage costs from last week's downpours and floods, with estimates reaching up to $7 million. |
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Pink Flags Waved
Among Neighbors |
Here's an ornamental that's a big hit in Costa Rica: pink flag (Mussaenda erythrophylla), which locals refer to as moño de señora, literally “lady's hair bun.” |
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| Costa Rican court OKs stadium |
By Gillian Gillers
Tico Times Staff | ggillers@ticotimes.net |
A high court gave China a green light Friday to construct a new national stadium in La Sabana Park on San José's western edge.
The Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) rejected arguments by former Culture Minister Guido Sáenz that the stadium would cause insufferable traffic jams and turn the park into a noisy, dirty and crime-ridden place.
The $73 million stadium, capacity 35,000 people, is a gift from the Chinese government, meant to be a symbol of friendship between the two nations, who established diplomatic relations in June 2007.
“It's marvelous,” President Oscar Arias said in a statement. “We can finally construct the stadium that all Costa Ricans, and especially our youth, deserve.”
The Sala IV stopped work on the stadium Oct. 6 while judges evaluated Sáenz's claims. The final ruling took just 11 days, far shorter than the average deliberation period of two months.
A Chinese company is expected to begin construction on the stadium in November or December and finish by May 2010, when Arias' term ends.
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| Court whittles domestic violence law in Costa Rica |
By Holly K. Sonneland
Tico Times Staff | hsonneland@ticotimes.net
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The Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) late last week rescinded two articles of Costa Rica's Law to Penalize Violence Against Women, ruling them unconstitutional, citing vagueness in the wording of both.
More than 100 men were released from prison late Thursday following the court's decision.
The much-contested articles 22 and 25 address criminalization of “maltreatment” and “emotional violence.”
Article 22 punishes perpetrators of physical violence against a woman by anyone “with whom she maintains a marital relationship, whether a declared union or not,” a crime punishable by six to 24 months in prison.
Article 25 criminalizes “anyone who repeatedly, publicly or privately, insults, devalues, ridicules, shames or terrorizes a woman with whom she maintains a marital relationship, whether a declared union or not,” and is also punishable by six to 24 months.
The law has been criticized for punishing male abusers differently from female ones, and conversely for protecting female victims differently than male ones.
The case was filed by public defender Marco Feoli Villalobos.
Just over 70 percent of men imprisoned under the law since it was passed in May 2007 have been convicted for crimes specified in those two articles, according to the National Institute for Women ( INAMU).
After eight years in the legislative process, the law passed, with 45 of the assembly's 46 members voting in favor. Several male lawmakers, however, stated after the vote that, despite perceived problems of unconstitutionality, they were afraid to vote against the bill for fear of being labeled machista, or male chauvinist.
INAMU called the court's ruling a “serious step backward,” and its president, Jeanette Carrillo, called on various government agencies “to fulfill their promise to safeguard the physical integrity of women in situations where there is a threat of violence from their partners.”
Many lawmakers, including former Vice President Laura Chinchilla, who lobbied for the law while a legislator, were mum on the court's ruling.
In 2004, a series of events highlighted the lack of adequate domestic violence prosecution laws, including one case in which a Costa Rican woman was granted asylum in the United States after demonstrating that she was unable to be sufficiently protected here against her partner, who allegedly violated a restraining order on him over a dozen times. |
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| Car accident kills Nicaraguan mayor |
MANAGUA, Nicaragua – The mayor of the northwestern Nicaraguan city of Posoltega has died in a traffic accident, the National Police and emergency officials said yesterday.
Carlos Alonso Tercero died Saturday night when the vehicle he was driving went off the road and into a ravine more than 15 meters deep, police in the town of Telica said.
Telica police investigator Marcos García told reporters that the mayor was driving west and, after crossing a bridge, he lost control of his vehicle.
The 54-year-old mayor was taken to León's Oscar Danilo Rosales Training Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, García said.
Tercero, of the ruling National Sandinista Liberation Front (FSLN) party, became Posoltega's mayor in January 2005.
He was driving from Telica to León, 90 kilometers northwest of Managua.
According to a fire department report on the crash, the mayor suffered severe head injuries.
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| Storm damage could cost Costa Rica up to $7 million |
By Alex Leff
Tico Times Staff | aleff@ticotimes.net |
As residents began returning home from shelters this weekend, Costa Rica began to calculate the wreckage costs from last week's downpours and floods, with estimates reaching up to $7 million.
The country will run a bill of more than $5.4 million in damage to infrastructure, according to a report Friday in the business daily La República.
The daily Al Día yesterday quoted Transport Minister Karla González saying the storm could cost Costa Rica between $5 million and $7 million in road damage.
However, Public Works and Transport Ministry (MOPT) spokesman Omar Segura yesterday told The Tico Times it is too soon to tell.
“We don't have a total assessment of the damage yet; those numbers are very, very preliminary,” Segura said. “There are parts of Costa Rica, like areas on the central Pacific, that are still underwater.”
Much of the country is seeing record rainfall. By September, some 2,100 millimeters of rain (1 mm of rain equals a liter per square meter) hit San José, making this the rainiest year since 1944, the National Meteorological Institute (IMN) reported.
If it keeps up, it could be the wettest year in over a century, IMN meteorologist Juan Diego Naranjo said.
The nearly unprecedented rain has taken a toll on roads including such major arteries as the Inter-American Highway, shut down repeatedly last week due to landslides.
One-lane traffic control continues at parts of the Inter-American North, on the way to the northwestern province of Guanacaste, and authorities continue to enforce nighttime closures – from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. – on the highway going south from San José, the MOPT spokesman said.
Meteorologists have forecast a return to normal October weather: clear to partly cloudy skies in the morning and downpours in the afternoon, according to Naranjo.
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Pink Flags Waved Among Neighbors |
Here's an ornamental that's a big hit in Costa Rica: pink flag (Mussaenda erythrophylla), which locals refer to as moño de señora, literally “lady's hair bun.”
It's interesting how plants are distributed through the country in a “grassroots” way. About 10 years ago, this plant was practically nonexistent in Costa Rica. How it arrived here is hard to say; perhaps nursery owners or even a home gardener introduced it. One thing is sure: Costa Ricans love it.
A member of the Rubiaceae family, mussaenda (pronounced mus-SEEN-da) is a native of Africa, but it has been a world-class ornamental in tropical zones around the world for a long time. Coffee, gardenia and ixora are related to the mussaenda. There are two major varieties, red and pink, and several related species. M. glabra is yellow, while M. philippica is white. These two are still sparse in Costa Rica.
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| Hot Pink Flag: Pink flag, known here as moño de señora, is a popular new ornamental in Costa Rica that's often propagated through stem-cutting gifts among neighbors. |
Ed Bernhardt | Tico Times |
All of these plants have unique leaf structures called sepals that surround inconspicuous little flowers. In other words, what appear to be flowers are actually multicolored leaves. Another plant with the same characteristic is the famous poinsettia.
The small flowers don't produce viable seeds, so the main method of propagation is by stem cuttings. These are planted in cups or pots of prepared potting soil and kept moist in the greenhouse or indoors until they root and sprout new foliage.
This brings us back to how these plants became widely dispersed as popular ornamentals. A strong tradition in Costa Rica is the sharing of plants among neighbors. When neighbors or friends visit, it's common to make a gift of seeds, cuttings or offshoots of plants from the garden. Here, they call these gifts hijos, or “children.”
I remember how my gardener became the first proud owner of a pink flag in our neighborhood. He told me he had acquired the cutting from relatives in San Vito, a mountain town in southern Costa Rica; perhaps the plant originated from the famous Wilson Botanical Garden there. At any rate, it wasn't too long before I and most of my neighbors had handsome pink flags in our gardens.
Of course, you'll find these plants in most nurseries across the country – but remember, you may be able to acquire a cutting from a neighbor. Exchanging plants is a great way to bridge cultural differences and keep a close connection with the neighbors. By the way, it's customary to bring a new plant to your neighbor, too.
Pink flag is a hardy bush with few pest or disease problems. It does well in a wide range of soils, provided it has good drainage. Applications of compost fertilizers and natural foliar sprays help keep them growing strong and blooming well, while occasional pruning keeps the bushes from becoming too tall and gangly.
If you're looking for an ornamental to liven up your garden with a touch of pink, mussaenda may be the answer.
For more on tropical home gardening, visit www.thenewdawncenter.info or e-mail Ed at thenewdawncenter@yahoo.com.
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