National University Cultural Festival
Marimba UNA, Panama Folklore Dance Group, Luis Barbosa (singer), noon; Classes Welcome Concert in Honor of Cinchona Victims, 4 p.m. at the Campus. Feb. 22, various activities, 2 p.m., Heredia Central Park.

Bilingual job fair
Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday 10 a.m.-4 p.m., CENAC.

Mayito Rivera and Chocolate in concert
Salsa, 7 p.m., Parque Morazán. Info: 2257-2919.

Los Pericos in concert
Reggae, noon, Paseo de los Turistas, Puntarenas.

Guaria Morada Festival
Orchid show, Feb. 21-22, Botanical Garden, La Garita, Alajuela. Info: 2487-8095, 8990-9283, info@orchidgardencr.com, www.orchidgardencr.com.

‘2 Minutes for the Change'
Activity to support the planet ecology, including vegetarian food, talks to stop global warming, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Plaza de la Cultura. Info: chop.celestial@gmail.com.

Free concert by the National Symphony Orchestra
7 p.m., at Parroquia de San Bartolomé, Barva, Heredia.

Sculpture biennial
Sculptors working 8 a.m.-noon, 1-5 p.m., downtown, Barva, Heredia.

Costa Rica's public universities were outraged to learn the government plans to cut higher education spending by ¢7.5 billion ($13.4 million).

The Finance Ministry said Thursday the decision was made after the Central Bank's gloomier than expected forecast of economic activity.

“You can't make a decision about reducing the budget unilaterally,” said Olman Segura, president of National University (UNA), in Heredia, north of San José. Segura said his institution is set to lose ¢1.6 billion (almost $3 million) of originally agreed upon funding from the Special Higher Education Fund (FEES).

The FEES funnels money to four public universities, including UNA, the University of Costa Rica, State University at a Distance, and Costa Rica Institute of Technology.

Finance Minister Guillermo Zúñiga, however, said the government initially agreed to spend 1.03 percent of gross domestic production on state universities, which according to initial forecasts amounted to ¢204.1 billion (more than $365 million). Amid expectations of a shrinking economy, the Ministry has been obliged to slash this amount by 3.5 percent, Zúñiga said, according to the daily La Nación.

“The ministry cannot pay anything that isn't authorized in the (national) budget,” Zúñiga said. “I think what (the public universities) will have to do is start to look at where they're going to cut back.”

Meanwhile, university and high school students are preparing “the fight to defend the state university budgets,” according to Seminario Universidad, a weekly newspaper published by the University of Costa Rica. The paper reported the Federation of University Students of Costa Rica is organizing a protest set for March 14.

News on the job front isn't all sour.

Some 27 firms looking to hire 3,500 bilingual people will man booths at a free job fair Friday through Sunday in the National Center of Culture (CENAC) in downtown San José.

The fair, hosted by the Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency (CINDE), will feature call centers, medical device companies and firms that specialize in Web design, marketing, publicity and software development.

Companies from Amazon.com to Procter & Gamble will send recruiters looking for engineers, accountants, programmers, multimedia and graphic designers, translators and people with finance backgrounds. All applicants should speak two or more languages.

Firms will not accept printed resumes, but applicants can apply online at a computer cluster at the fair. They can also bring their resumes on a flash drive or disk.

More than five forest fires have broken out since Sunday, burning hundreds of hectares of forests and grasslands. According to the National Fire Management Program of the Environment, Energy and Telecommunications Ministry (MINAET), each was sparked intentionally.

Early Wednesday evening, an individual set fire to Cerro Las Vueltas Biological Reserve in the hills of Cerro de la Muerte, south of San José, burning three hectares before firefighters extinguished the flames. Authorities expected to identify the perpetrator by late yesterday, according to Luis Diego Román, coordinator of the firefighting program.

That followed a major human-made fire that burned approximately 370 hectares in Bajos de Olan, nearby indigenous communities in the Southern Zone region of Buenos Aires de Puntarenas.

Separate blazes were also started in nature reserves of El Rodeo, near University for Peace in Villa Colón, and Las Tablas, near the border with Panama, affecting a still-undetermined number of hectares.

Earlier in the week, at least 65 hectares were affected by flames in Barra Honda National Park, in the northwestern province of Guanacaste.

Though investigations are ongoing, Román speculated that these fires and others fought through the week were sparked by angry hunters or farmers, taking revenge against the authorities for land protection regulations, or to clear land for other uses.