A group of Costa Ricans took a Tico holiday tradition to new levels Friday by making a giant tamale to feed more than 2,000 people.

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By Peter Krupa
Tico Times Staff | pkrupa@ticotimes.net

Costa Rica appears to be on track to expand its petroleum refinery with the help of a Chinese oil company.

The broad goals are to triple the refinery's output and increase quality. Officials said the collaboration could also lead one day to oil drilling by the China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC).

That worries environmental groups, as it would mean an about-face from a nationwide moratorium on oil exploration and open-pit mining, enacted by former President Abel Pacheco (TT, June 7, 2002).

Top officials from the corporation visited Costa Rica last week to form an exploratory committee with their Costa Rican counterparts.

“The framework agreement we signed in October is now a reality,” said Costa Rica's National Oil Refinery (RECOPE) President José León, referring to an accord between China and Costa Rica signed by President Oscar Arias. He added, “This initiative has the green light.”

Environment and Energy Minister Roberto Dobles said the purpose of expanding the Moín refinery would be to “meet the national demand,” which he said is estimated to rise to about 60,000 barrels per day in the near future.

Currently, the refinery puts out about 18,000 barrels per day, Dobles said.

The other goal of the refinery upgrade is to increase the quality of the fuel refined in Costa Rica by, for example, decreasing the sulfur content.

Details of the project have yet to be determined, but the committee will meet again in February in China and March in Costa Rica. Robles said that, in the long term, the agreement leaves the door open to oil exploration by the Chinese corporation.

However, for environmental groups concerned about the government calling off the five-year old moratorium on drilling, the deal is a move in exactly the wrong direction.

About 100 protestors, armed with bicycles and drums, demonstrated Friday in San José, calling for government measures that would lessen, not increase, the country's dependence on fossil fuels.

“While most of the world is eager for concrete action to end, mitigate and dramatically reduce CO2 emissions, Costa Rica is backpedaling and choosing to ally itself with China to increase its dependence on fossil fuels,” said Alicia Casas, Mesoamerican Facilitator for the international network Oilwatch

By Gillian Gillers
Tico Times Staff | ggillers@ticotimes.net

It all started with a $27 gift.

When economist Muhammad Yunus distributed that money to more than 40 poor people in a Bangladeshi village three decades ago, they treated him like an angel.

“If you can make so many people so happy with such a small amount of money, isn't it time we do something more?” he asked.

The thought led him to create the Grameen Bank, which now gives tiny loans to 7.5 million borrowers worldwide, mostly women, to help them climb out of poverty. Yunus and the bank shared the Nobel Peace Prize last year.

Draped in a black gown and a yellow-tasseled cap, Yunus shared his story Friday at a graduation ceremony at EARTH University in the Caribbean Limón province. He encouraged 90 graduates from 21 countries to tackle poverty, malnutrition, health care, housing and drinking water quality.

Also in the audience were Ticas who have received Grameen loans. Nearly 3,000 women in Limón have borrowed money from the bank's Costa Rican branch, established in early 2006 with a three-year $1.3 million grant from the Whole Planet Foundation. The bank has lent $848,000 for such projects as fattening farm animals, making pastries, and selling clothes and crafts. Women pay back the loans in small weekly increments.

Arias said Friday he would try to find seed money to expand the program to other parts of Costa Rica.

While poverty is low and human development is high on a national level here, wealth is unevenly distributed. Some 20.2% of households in Limón are poor, compared with 13.7% in the Central Valley, according to the National Statistics and Census Institute (INEC).

In his speech Friday, Yunus imagined a world without poverty.

“We will create poverty museums,” he said. “Because there are no poor people in the world, our kids will want to know, ‘what are these poor people you talk about?'”

A group of Costa Ricans took a Tico holiday tradition to new levels Friday by making a giant tamale to feed more than 2,000 people.

Measuring more than two meters long and one and a half meters wide, the cornmeal-and-pork Christmas specialty was made by employees of the tamale factory Arley Navarro in Aserrí, south of San José.

They used 40 kilos of cornmeal, 60 kilos of pork, 25 kilos of bacon, 60 red peppers, three kilos of garlic, 30 kilos of carrot and 30 bundles of cilantro in addition to 30 kilos of potatoes, 25 kilos of rice, 21 kilos of beans, 21 kilos of chickpeas, 15 kilos of olives, 100 kilos of plantain leaves and 200 meters of string to hold it all together.

The giant tamale elaboration was sponsored by Wal-Mart Costa Rica, which owns Costa Rican grocery stores including Más x Menos and Hipermás.

About 20 people spent eight hours Friday preparing it, and it was ready to be served up yesterday afternoon at the Hipermás in San Sebastián, south of San José.