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Rock down Yankee empire: Spain's Ska-P – a play on words mixing the Spanish word escape and the reggae genre of ska – brings anti-“Yankee” antics Tuesday evening to Costa Rica's Ricardo Saprissa Stadium parking lot. The band is wildly popular in Latin America and Europe, and visits this country as part of its Lágrimas y Gozos (Tears and Joys) world tour. |
Ronald Reyes | Tico Times |
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No World Cup: Uruguayan Sebastián Abreu basks in his post-goal glow Wednesday at Uruguay's Centenario Stadium in a game against Costa Rica that ended in a 1-1 draw, spoiling this country's chances to go to South Africa for the World Cup. |
Iván Franco | EFE |
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| Costa Rica’s World Cup hopes come to a disappointing end |
| It's officially all over. After five weeks of living on the brink of qualification and elimination, the World Cup dreams of the Ticos ended in nightmarish fashion Wednesday night, as Costa Rica lost the two-game series to Uruguay by an aggregate score of 2-1. |
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| An end to banana wars in sight |
Costa Rica's Foreign Trade Minister Marco Vinicio Ruíz confirmed rumors Wednesday that the European Union and the Central American countries are approaching an agreement relating to banana tariffs, but he said negotiations aren't as close as has been reported. |
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| Political mudslinging underway in Costa Rica |
That the campaign season has hit Costa Rica with full force became apparent Wednesday, when President Oscar Arias' cabinet members used the better part of their weekly press conference to deflect criticism from the opposing party. |
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| Guatemala’s piracy problem costs Microsoft, government millions |
Guatemalans are big on bootlegging computer software. More than 80 percent of the country's programs are pirated copies, Juan Antonio Mazariegos, a lawyer with software giant Microsoft, told reporters Wednesday in Guatemala City. |
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Absolute Power
Corrupts Absolutely |
In my time as a newspaper reporter I often had to interview famous people, and I noticed that film stars, sports idols and in general those who had earned their reputation by entertaining us were invariably the easiest to be with, while heads of state and corpo rate CEOs who wielded enormous power over others often left me feeling in some way violated. Afterwards, in my hotel room, I would try to figure out why I, a combative Irishman with no respect for wealth or rank, would feel somehow soiled by the encounter. |
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Costa Rica’s World Cup hopes
come to a disappointing end |
By Adam Williams
Tico Times Staff | awilliams@ticotimes.net
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It's officially all over. After five weeks of living on the brink of qualification and elimination, the World Cup dreams of the Ticos ended in nightmarish fashion Wednesday night, as Costa Rica lost the two-game series to Uruguay by an aggregate score of 2-1.
Fittingly, the final game of the Ticos' World Cup qualifying run followed the up-and-down, hope lost-hope found formula that characterized the team throughout the 10-game CONCACAF qualifying round and the subsequent playoff with Uruguay.
Needing a win to qualify for the World Cup, Costa Rica fell behind in the 70th minute, when Uruguay substitute Sebastián Abreu headed in a cross from six meters out. Sensing victory, the crowd at Montevideo began to celebrate their eventual World Cup berth.
And then the Ticos answered.
In the 74th minute, Costa Rican Captain Walter Centeno collected a rebound at the top of the 18-yard box and drove a low shot into the corner of the net. Suddenly, the Ticos were alive again, needing only one more goal to qualify for the World Cup.
In the 84th minute, they got their chance.
After a ball was flicked on by Bryan Ruiz, forward Alvaro Saborio found himself one on one with Uruguay defender Diego Lugano. Saborio beat Lugano and carried the ball into the left side of the box with only keeper Nestor Muslera standing in his way. But, as soon as the opportunity presented itself, Saborio struck his left-footed shot wide of the near post, and like so many others that came before it, Costa Rica's final chance at World Cup qualification went untaken.
The 2009 World Cup qualifying campaign for Costa Rica will forever be remembered for squandered opportunities, capped by Saborio's miss in the 84th minute of Wednesday night's game.
The Ticos led the CONCACAF region through August, lost three games to fall to fourth place, leapt back into third place and, in the final minute of the final qualifying game, gave up a goal to the U.S. to cost themselves automatic qualification.
Costa Rica then had to play Uruguay for the final World Cup berth from the North and South American region. After losing at home Saturday 1-0, the Ticos had to win Wednesday night to advance. In similar fashion to the U.S. tie on Oct. 14, when Costa Rica needed a win to advance to the World Cup, they mustered only a disappointing tie, even while they had the opportunities to win.
Uruguay assumes the final spot in the 32-team 2010 World Cup that begins in June in South Africa.
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| An end to banana wars in sight |
By Chrissie Long
Tico Times Staff | clong@ticotimes.net
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Costa Rica's Foreign Trade Minister Marco Vinicio Ruíz confirmed rumors Wednesday that the European Union and the Central American countries are approaching an agreement relating to banana tariffs, but he said negotiations aren't as close as has been reported.
“I think (others) have been a little optimistic,” he said in a phone interview with The Tico Times. “Not only do banana tariffs have to be negotiated, but there are other issues that need to be discussed.”
Ruíz, who has played a central role in the negotiations as the trade minister for the third leading banana exporter in the world, said bananas aren't the only product being negotiated.
“Because we are negotiating this as a group of countries, we have to wait until other countries are in agreement,” he said. “There are some countries that want a better (tariff) … for (products) like rum … and flowers.”
On Wednesday, Europe's trade commissioner Catherine Ashton told Reuters news service that they are approaching “the closing stages of what could be the end of this long dispute” and that an agreement could be reached in the coming week.
Ruíz responded, “I don't want to sound negative,” adding, “The discussion has really advanced … But we haven't finished.”
An agreement over banana tariffs would mark the end of a 16-year dispute between Europe and exporters in Latin America, who pay higher taxes than their African counterparts, and would also open doors for an association agreement with the European Union.
Ruíz expects consensus to be reached before the end of the year.
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| Political mudslinging underway in Costa Rica |
By Chrissie Long
Tico Times Staff | clong@ticotimes.net
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That the campaign season has hit Costa Rica with full force became apparent Wednesday, when President Oscar Arias' cabinet members used the better part of their weekly press conference to deflect criticism from the opposing party.
Arias is not running for re-election, but rival group the Citizen Action Party (PAC) is using him as a primary target in its campaign; accusing him of failed social programs and a souring economy.
“Education has been abandoned (and) the Costa Rican Social Security System has collapsed,” said PAC presidential candidate Ottón Solís at the presentation of his government plan at the Holiday Inn this week, according to the financial weekly El Financiero.
Roberto Gallardo, planning minister, arrived Wednesday at Casa Presidencial armed with a laptop full of spreadsheets to defend the administration against Solís' shots.
Deflecting anticipated criticism for using time with the press for campaign issues, Minister of the Presidency Rodrigo Arias said, “The government has a right to defend itself. (PAC) said things that weren't true.”
Solís, who lost to Arias in the 2006 elections by a mere 2 percent of the vote, remains 30 points behind leading candidate Laura Chinchilla in the polls with less than three months to go on the campaign trail.
Many political analysts consider that a Chinchilla presidency, who served as vice president under Oscar Arias, will in many ways represent a continuation of Arias' government.
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Guatemala’s piracy problem costs
Microsoft, government millions |
Guatemalans are big on bootlegging computer software. More than 80 percent of the country's programs are pirated copies, Juan Antonio Mazariegos, a lawyer with software giant Microsoft, told reporters Wednesday in Guatemala City.
The authorities in that Central American nation have begun cracking down, including the recent arrest of five university students who made a living selling pirated software.
But there's a long, underground cyber road ahead. “We're fighting against a lucrative network of illicit activity,” the lawyer said.
Using pirated software may have saved some money for computer users, but the cost to the Guatemalan economy has been high, according to Microsoft. Mazariegos stressed that massive piracy stems the inflow of foreign investment, hurts innovation and steals away important tax money for the country.
The Guatemalan-American Chamber of Commerce says each year Guatemala loses approximately $23 million in sales taxes thanks to pirating. |
–EFE
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Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely |
In my time as a newspaper reporter I often had to interview famous people, and I noticed that film stars, sports idols and in general those who had earned their reputation by entertaining us were invariably the easiest to be with, while heads of state and corpo rate CEOs who wielded enormous power over others often left me feeling in some way violated. Afterwards, in my hotel room, I would try to figure out why I, a combative Irishman with no respect for wealth or rank, would feel somehow soiled by the encounter.
In seeking an answer to the riddle, first we have to acknowledge that large and complex organizations – such as a country or a major corporation – cannot be run by a committee, whatever the outward appearance may be, and even a committee must have a strong chairman. So we habitually appoint a heavyweight individual to direct proceedings, and we cede him considerable power for the purpose. Such jobs attract a particular type of person having particular characteristics.
We ordinary people occasionally have base impulses, but are restrained from imposing them on others by a comprehensive system of law and order and by the opinion of our fellows, but the power-seeker is not like that. From childhood he has come to believe that rules are for lesser folk, to be disregarded whenever convenient. So, not unlike the habitual criminal, the dedicated power-seeker is, to a greater or lesser extent, a sociopath.
But something more than just absence of conscience is needed to reach the heights. Power is not achieved by individual effort: the power-seeker needs accomplices who hope to profit from association with a leader and who are easily persuaded that questionable measures are justified. And beyond these is an army of fence-sitters, who have to be regularly convinced that what is happening, albeit distasteful, is for the greater good, and it is to this group that the power-seeker, or even the power-holder, must direct the full force of his personality.
When analyzing my reactions after interviewing the mighty, I at first thought the peculiar feeling of weakness, of desire to cooperate, was baggage I myself had brought to the meeting, influenced by the subject's reputation. But that didn't explain the sense of having been used, and against my will. Finally, I had to conclude that successful power-addicts are master hypnotists who can convince a roomful of doubters or even a whole legislature that black is white and wrong is right. How else explain the groveling respect paid to thugs such as Hitler and Mao, or a hundred others in our own day?
Lastly, I cannot omit mentioning that a high proportion of power-holders are almost ludicrously oversexed, justifying the conclusion that they originally sought power not for the dubious pleasure of exercising it, but for the opportunity it affords to influence a wide circle of attractive admirers, who, for sound biological reasons, are drawn as moth to flame by the indefinable aura of power.
So if the old story is true that a hypnotist cannot make you do something you don't want to do, then we may draw our own conclusions about the behavior of attractive moths.
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