The Tico Times Online

MOVE IT OR LOSE IT: Costa Rican government has one last chance to reclaim land lost to Nicaragua due to misplaced border markers before separatist movement is reborn.
Don't miss story in Friday's TT print edition.

TT/ photo Julio Laínez

Costa Rica Christian Women’s Club October Brunch
Sharon Pierrot will display various crafts and teach how to make painted silk scarves. Kim Beck will speak on "Rivers of Living Water," with special music. At 9:30 a.m., at Club Cariari. Brunch: ¢2,000. Info: Lorena (253-1202) or Maripaz (376-3368).

Searching For Uncle Rabbit in the Small City
The Ministry of Public Works and Transport and Parque de Diversiones invite all children to learn how to cross streets, interpret street lights and signs in the "Small City called Searching for Uncle Rabbit" where a group of actors and actresses teach how to behave on the streets. Parque de Diversiones is 2 km. west of Hospital Mexico in La Uruca. Info: 253-5518.

Images of the Professors
It’s the new photo exhibit at Universidad Veritas, where the photography teachers show their abilities with documentary and artistic photos, black and white and color. The display will be open through Oct. 25 at the University, in Zapote, 283-4747, www.uveritas.ac.cr

Government Unveils Plan to Eradicate Child Labor
President Abel Pacheco's Cabinet yesterday voted unanimously to support the Labor Ministry's ambitious and comprehensive plan to eradicate all forms of child labor.

The first step of the plan is to identify all minors who have to work to support their families. To do so, the government is opening a telephone line (233-5003) to receive reports of working children.

Labor Minister Ovidio Pacheco explained that the phone line is not to receive complaints about people exploiting child labor, but to identify families in need of state aid.

Once the families in need are identified, the Mixed Institute for Social Aid will provide the children with subsidies and scholarships to return to the classroom. The National Learning Center will work with parents to offer job training; and the Ministry of Housing will provide housing bonds for families who need them.

The Labor Ministry claims it has tested the program on the coast of Nicoya, where it was able to get 400 kids working in the fishing industry back in school.
Acting President Lineth Saborío, who is filling Pacheco's shoes while he is in Taiwan, stressed the importance of the plan, and urged lawmakers from all parties to approve government funding for the initiative.

"For years now, we have been talking about the problem of child labor and trying to solve it with laws and decrees. But in reality, we have never confronted the problem properly," Pacheco said. "Now we are going to confront it as never before."

Under Costa Rican law, it is illegal for children under 15 to work. However, the government estimates that some 72,000 children between the ages of five and 16 work illegally. Factoring in adolescents 16-18, the number of working minors jumps to 147,000, according to a Casa Presidencial press release.

German Bank Loan to Repair Roads

In a spirit of cooperation and development between Germany and Costa Rica, German Credit Bank KfW today will give the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT) a favorable-term loan of 18.7 million euros ($18.3 million) for repair and maintenance of Costa Rica's roads.

The loan, which will be signed this afternoon in San José's Hotel Radisson, will be earmarked for much-needed repairs to 1,400 kilometers of rural roads in 21 cantones of the country, according to a Ministry release. The roads slated for repair represent 5 % of the national roadway.

The money will help the Costa Rican government continue its contract with the German Technical Company GTZ, which has worked to develop roadways in the Southern Zone of Pérez Zeledón and the Atlantic-slope city of Turrialba.

In the last 10 years, GTZ has helped repair more than 1,000 kilometers of road in Pérez Zeledón and Turrialba for a fraction of the price it would cost the Costa Rica government to the job, according to the press release.

ICE Leader in Profits, Sales
The state-owned Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) led all Central American businesses in profits for 2001, according to a recent ranking in the magazine "Estrategia y Negocios."

ICE reportedly earned $184.7 million in profits last year, followed by Honduran Telecommunications Company Hondutel, $131.1 million, and the Panama Canal Authority, which earned $118.2 million.

In sales volume, Costa Rican-based computer chip giant Intel led the region last year with $935 million in sales.

Intel was followed by Costa Rican-based supermarket chain Corporación de Supermercados Unidos, which finished up 2001 with $771.7 million in sales.

ICE was third on the list, generating $732.6 million in sales last year.
-AFP