The Tico Times Online Daily Page

Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, February 10, 2004

BACK to school: From left, Andi Gabriel López, Eliberto Girron and Elder Pérez, students at Cesi elementary school in Puerto Viejo, on the southern Caribbean coast, help move desks into their classroom on the first day of school yesterday.
Tico Times/Jeffrey Arguedas

Cab Drivers Protest
Against 'Pirate Cabbies'
Hundreds of cab drivers, many from outside the Central Valley, drove through the capital yesterday to demand the government crack down on unregistered "pirate" cab drivers.
(Click for more)

Poultry Farmers: Country
At Low Risk for Avian Flu
As avian flu claimed the life of a 27-year-old Vietnamese man yesterday, Alejandro Hernández, director of the Costa Rican Organization of Poultry Farmers, told The Tico Times the country faces little risk of infection from the deadly virus.
(Click for more)

February 10

Peace Prize Winners Speak
Four Nobel Peace Prize winners speak about Culture of Peace: Guatemalan author Rigoberta Menchú, former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, Argentinean sculptor Adolfo Pérez and Antonio Jarquín, vice-president of Doctors for Peace International. Free conference begins at 7 p.m. in the Clodomiro Picado T. Auditorium at the Universidad Nacional in Heredia. Info: 237-5929.

Amor Extrańo Amor
Play about love, based on original "Torch Trilogy Song," 8 p.m., Chaplin Theater, 125 m. east of Banco de Costa Rica, Paseo de los Estudiantes in San José. Info: 223-2919.

Trova Night
Costa Rican singers Maria Pretiz and Bernardo Quesada perform original and Hispanic-American songs, 9:30 p.m., at the Jazz Café in San Pedro. Info: 253-8933.

Benefit Concert
Villa Belén hosts a benefit concert for the Rohrmoser Rotary Club project, a new home for the elderly. Hogar San Antonio de Padua will provide healthy food, spiritual guidance, basic medical attention, love and protection to approximately 100 elderly people from very low-income families. Tickets ˘8,000, include two glasses of wine or a beer and bocas. Info: Glenda 239-2040, 239-4678 or 395-7455 or Laurie 239-2585 or 837-5368.

Return To Top Of Page

Cab Drivers Protest
Against 'Pirate Cabbies'
By Fabián Borges
fborges@ticotimes.net

Hundreds of cab drivers, many from outside the Central Valley, drove through the capital yesterday to demand the government crack down on unregistered "pirate" cab drivers.

Under Costa Rican laws, only cab drivers using special license plates are allowed to provide cab services. However, the number of taxi license plates is limited and new plates are hard to obtain. These difficulties have prompted thousands of Ticos to begin to offer illegal cab services, to the dismay of registered cab drivers.

"Muggings, robberies! We can't continue to allow delinquents disguised as cab drivers to tarnish the country or our reputation," a representative of the National Cab Drivers' Union yelled over a megaphone as he guided cabs past the Legislative Assembly in San José toward Casa Presidencial in Zapote, southeast of San José.

"We must not and cannot allow pirates to continue to be on the streets," he said. " We are asking the government to listen to us."

Legal cabbies say it is unfair that pirates are allowed to "roam the streets stealing customers" without being required to pay taxes or Social Security System workers' dues.

In recent years, the government has attempted to crack down on pirates by setting up random checkpoints throughout San José. However, the number of pirates continues to increase, according to the Cab Drivers' Union.

Return To Top Of Page

Poultry Farmers: Country
At Low Risk for Avian Flu
By Steven J. Barry
sbarry@ticotimes.net

As avian flu claimed the life of a 27-year-old Vietnamese man yesterday, Alejandro Hernández, director of the Costa Rican Organization of Poultry Farmers, told The Tico Times the country faces little risk of infection from the deadly virus.

"Obviously we have defense mechanisms," Hernández said.

In the event of any type of infection, Hernández said all chickens within a 5-kilometer radius of the outbreak would be culled, and the government would continue to closely monitor populations as far as 10 kilometers away from an outbreak.

He said such measures have not been necessary since they were established 10 years ago. But, he said, working to prevent an outbreak is a "permanent task," and the country will always practice the utmost caution.

For example, non-certified poultry seized at border stations is immediately sent to an incinerator, he explained.

"We can't say that the risk is zero percent," Hernández said.

Health officials around the world have warned that if the strain of the virus that is spreading across Asia (H5N1) merges with a human influenza strain, the result would be a flu pandemic of unprecedented proportions.

The most devastating flu pandemic in recent history was that of the Spanish flu of 1918-19, which killed between 40 million and 50 million people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

Don't miss Friday's TT print edition for full story.

Return To Top Of Page

Connectivity Agreement
Will Put Schools Online

Schools throughout the country will soon have access to the Internet, thanks to a "connectivity agreement" signed yesterday by President Abel Pacheco and officials from the Ministry of Public Education and Costa Rican Electricity Institute.

New computer labs are also planned for 60 high schools, mainly in rural areas, thanks to a $1.6-million program financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (TT, Jan. 23).

The connectivity agreement was signed at a back-to-school ceremony inaugurating the first computer lab at Liceo de Este in the Central Valley town of San Miguel de Santo Domingo de Heredia.

"This is the first of a series of agreements, decisions and concrete work plans to incorporate, little by little, the entire State and society into the advancement of education," President Abel Pacheco told students at the event.

He went on to declare 2004 the year of national education.

In recent years and again this month, teachers and school administrators have complained of a lack of funding for desks, food, salaries, teacher training materials and improvements to crumbling infrastructures.

Return To Top Of Page

Wednesday October 26, 2005