|
|
 |
| Barrio Reborn: Costa Rica's Foundation for Housing Promotion (FUPROVI) began a project this week to build infrastructure and spruce up houses in Finca San Juan, a shantytown in the western San José district of Pavas. Two boys look on as backhoe the main street, paving the way for other construction machinery. Read this Friday's print or digital edition for more on this story. |
| Harmony Reforma | Tico Times. |
 |
| Costa Rica's unemployment rate dips to 4.8% |
| Costa Rica has broken a long-held jobless rate streak that hovered around 6%, dropping to 4.8% last year, a United Nations agency reported. |
|
| Costa Rica to push back
the clock on U.S. trade accord |
| Costa Rica will miss the deadline for implementing a free-trade agreement with the United States, President Oscar Arias acknowledged yesterday. |
|
| ‘Sleepyhead' prostitutes scam unsuspecting johns |
| The Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) arrested three sex workers in Jacó who allegedly got wise and decided drugging their johns and robbing them was better than sleeping with them. |
|
| San José's La Sabana Park to lose non-native trees |
| Public and private interests are joining forces to overhaul La Sabana Park (on the west side of San José) and turn it into something resembling a nature reserve. |
|
|
 |
| January 30 |
 |
Storytelling Camp
Ages 5-11, organized by Club de Libros, kids bring favorite story book, 9 a.m.-6 p.m., San Joaquín de Flores, Heredia, clubdelibros@clubdelibros.com.
Ska and Reggae Concert
By Mentados, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro. www.jazzcafecostarica.com. |
|
Edited By Alex Leff
Tico Times Staff | aleff@ticotimes.net |
|
|
| Costa Rica's unemployment rate dips to 4.8% |
By Alex Leff
Tico Times Staff | aleff@ticotimes.net |
Costa Rica has broken a long-held jobless rate streak that hovered around 6%, dropping to 4.8% last year, a United Nations agency reported.
Released Monday, the International Labour Organization's (ILO) 150-page regional “Labor Panorama” report crowned Costa Rica with the lowest unemployment rate in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Costa Rica's (economic) performance stands out among Central American countries and the rest of Latin America,” said Leonardo Ferreira, employment specialist for ILO's San José-based Sub-Regional Office for Central America, Haiti, Panama and the Dominican Republic.
He went on to cite this country's recent success: 6.3% economic growth – above the Latin American average of 5.5%.
“This, of course, has had a positive effect on employment,” Ferreira said, calling Costa Rica's low joblessness number “an outstanding figure.”
Income among employed workers rose by 9.3% in 2007 and the majority – 73% – of posts held in 2007 were “quality” and “salary” jobs, he added, as opposed to freelance work or jobs with precarious conditions.
Perhaps more outstanding, this country's unemployment rate has dipped below Mexico's urban unemployment of 4.9%, which actually rose slightly from 4.6% in 2006.
Costa Rica's unemployment rate is also lower than that of the United States, 5% as of December, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The U.N. employment agency's index covers up to September.
|
|
|
Costa Rica to push back
the clock on U.S. trade accord |
By Gillian Gillers
Tico Times Staff | ggillers@ticotimes.net |
Costa Rica will miss the deadline for implementing a free-trade agreement with the United States, President Oscar Arias acknowledged yesterday.
In a speech Friday, Arias slammed the country's legislators for slowing down the process. “The Nobel Prize for slowness and filibustering should go to our Congress,” he told reporters.
Arias will ask other treaty members for more time to pass laws that would put Costa Rica in compliance with the Central American Free-Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which was negotiated by the United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.
The deadline for implementing the treaty is Feb. 29, two years after CAFTA went into effect for the second country, El Salvador. Lawmakers and business leaders here said the United States, as well as other CAFTA countries, will likely give Costa Rica more time.
Congress has passed just four of 11 bills required, in some form, to enter the treaty, which was ratified by referendum in October. On Monday, lawmakers approved the Budapest Treaty, which makes it easier to get international recognition for patents on inventions involving micro-organisms. The Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) will now study the bill to make sure it does not violate the Constitution.
The other seven bills include highly controversial proposals to open the state monopolies on telecommunications and insurance. Presidency Minister Rodrigo Arias said recently that lawmakers may need two or three months to pass the remaining bills. |
|
| ‘Sleepyhead' prostitutes scam unsuspecting johns |
By Nick Wilkinson
Tico Times Staff | nwilkinson@ticotimes.net |
The Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) arrested three sex workers in Jacó who allegedly got wise and decided drugging their johns and robbing them was better than sleeping with them.
The three women, with the last names Amador, Lezcano and Cortés, have been affectionately named “Las Dormilonas,” or the Sleepyheads, by law enforcement officials. They were arrested Monday after allegedly robbing more than ¢40 million (about $80,000) from at least 15 foreigners, mostly U.S. citizens, according to a police press release. Las Dormilonas have since been released but are scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 13.
OIJ spokeswoman Marguerita Morales said blood tests revealed the alleged victims had high levels of benzodiazepine, a sedative, in their blood. Benzodiazepine is what the anti-anxiety drug diazepam (more popularly known as Valium) is derived from, according to a search of online medical websites.
She also said the women offered a $500 discount price to attract three men at a time into their schemes. Their normal price was $200 per person, she said.
Jacó Police Chief Clever Paco said authorities were depending on one witness, a U.S. citizen, to come forward and testify against the women on Feb. 13. He said getting other victims to come forward has proven difficult because they were too embarrassed to publicly admit using prostitutes.
“They're embarrassed because some of them are engaged,” he said.
Morales said the only U.S. witness is named Borna Poustani and that he is developing a hotel in the Jacó area.
Paco said the prostitutes were not from Jacó and had been traced to San José.
“Most of the crime in Jacó is from elsewhere,” he said.
|
|
| San José's La Sabana Park to lose non-native trees |
By Peter Krupa
Tico Times Staff | pkrupa@ticotimes.net |
Public and private interests are joining forces to overhaul La Sabana Park (on the west side of San José) and turn it into something resembling a nature reserve.
The long-term plan would be to eliminate the non-native tree species that today make up about 70% of the forest and replace them with native fruit and flowering trees that would attract a vast variety of local wildlife.
At the same time, the footpaths and sports facilities will receive a facelift.
The plan comes at a time when four mixed-use high-rise condominium towers are under construction around the edge of the park, with more than a dozen others in the planning stages.
“The attractive thing about those projects is La Sabana Park,” said Osvaldo Pandolfo, the government's vice minister of health.
The overhaul will include financial support from Scotiabank, a Canadian bank that has been making a highly visible public relations offensive after completing the absorption of Banex late last year.
Scotiabank's headquarters are located near the northwest corner of the park.
“The purpose of this project is to restore the vegetation of the park and turn it into a forest with Costa Rica's own flora and fauna,” said Scotiabank Costa Rica CEO Luis Liberman. “We want Sabana to be a natural refuge.”
The technical side of the project would be carried out by the National Biodiversity Institute (INBio), a non-profit, non-governmental organization.
San José Mayor Johnny Araya was on hand at the press announcement yesterday to offer the Municipality's support as well.
So far, the project is still in the planning phase, and officials said it could take six to 10 years before any change becomes visible.
|
|
|
|
|
| 
| 
| Exchange Rates
