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Dance Show
By Grupo Independiente Atropos, July 29, 8 p.m., Teatro de la Danza, CENAC, Av. 3/5, Ca. 11/15. Info: 2221-2154..

Free Films
“Se Prohíbe Bailar Suin” by Gabriela Hernández, "Café Fortuna", by Víctor Vega, and "Buropolis", animation by Flex Studio, July 29, 9:30 a.m., Sala Gómez Miralles, Centro Costarricense de Producción Cinematográfica, venid INS, Barrio Amón. Info: 2223-0610, ctrocine@racsa.co.cr.

Theater at Noon in Alajuela
Features singers Sofía Corrales and Eberney Hernández, July 29, noon, Juan Santamaría Museum, Alajuela.

“Cine y Fútbol La pelota en pantalla ”
Features “Football under Cover,” by Ayat Najafi and David Assmann, July 29, both at 6 p.m., Sala Gómez Miralles, Centro de Cine, Av. 9, Ca. 11, behind INS.

“Ergo Sum”
Dance show by Danza Universitaria, July 29-Aug. 1, 8 p.m., La Aduana Theater, Barrio La California. Info : 2257-8305.

Music at Dusk
Chopin recital, July 29, both at 5:10 p.m., foyer, National Theater, Av. 2, Ca. 3/5. Info: 2221-5341.

Canadian Ambassador Neil Reeder has concluded his tour in Costa Rica and will be returning to his home country in the next few days.

A native of the town of Melfort, in the province of Saskatchewan, Reeder's standard 3-year term focused on improving tourism and facilitating travel opportunities for Canadians, encouraging Canadian companies to invest in Costa Rica, and contributing to the Costa Rica Multilingüe language training program.

Reeder arrived in November 2007 with his wife Nancy and then-15-year-old son Ryan after serving in Morocco, Hong Kong, the United States and the southeast Asian country of Brunei (TT, Feb. 8, 2008).

During the last three years, he also served as Canadian ambassador to Nicaragua and Honduras.

At a farewell event hosted by the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry, Reeder spoke of his dream for the future relationship between the two countries.

He said, “We see a great potential for cooperation in the fight against crime, in labor issues, in science and technology, in the aerospace industry (and,) as a bilingual country … Canada has much experience to share with Costa Rica and with the government of President Laura Chinchilla in the Multilingüe program.”

In a column in the Costa Rican daily La República, consultant Carlos Denton praised Reeder for boosting economic, political and cultural links between the two countries.

“The bilateral free-trade agreement has allowed Costa Rican exporters to increase their sales in Canada, while the number of Canadian tourists visiting the country has increased to more than 120,000 a year. There have been important investments by Canadian businesses in the country, and they are growing each year,” he wrote. “Ambassador Reeder has fought tirelessly to open new opportunities for Costa Ricans and Canadians within the context of this friendship.”

Costa Rica's Ombudswoman's Office urged the Legislative Assembly to declare the country's water a part of the public domain, and grant it constitutional protection.

In recent weeks, the Legislative Assembly has been debating a reform to Article 121 of the Constitution to include access to clean drinking water as a basic human right and guarantee all citizens access to the resource.

“The Ombudswoman's Office considers it necessary to elevate the definition of water as a part of the public domain to a constitutional level … in order to effectively implement, manage and safeguard the right to water as fundamental to dignity, human life and public health,” the office said in a statement Wednesday.

Over the last seven days, legislators from the Citizen Action Party (PAC), the Libertarian Movement Party (ML), and the National Liberation Party (PLN) have announced their support of the declaration, but they have yet to agree on how to word the provision.

Some opponents to the constitutional reform claim that Costa Rica's existing legislation adequately protects the resource.

The Ombudswoman's request comes on the same day that the United Nations General Assembly in New York unanimously approved a Bolivian-proposed resolution to declare access to water a human right. This decision – which earned 122 yeas and no nays - is not legally binding, but the UN urged member nations to provide funding and resources to boost worldwide access to clean drinking water.

Reon Schutte was held captive in a notorious Zimbabwe prison for 12 years and eight months. When he was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer during his internment he started off asking, “Why me?” Then came a day when he began to ask, “What for?” The “What for?” has become Schutte's reason for living. He now spends his time exploring the world as a motivational speaker.

It's been six years since Schutte was freed from Chikurubi, essentially a death camp near Zimbabwe's capital of Harare, where only 10 percent of inmates survive their ordeal. It's been even longer since he received his fatal cancer diagnosis. Schutte calls wherever he's speaking his home. Now Schutte, 50, is on a speaking tour throughout Costa Rica.

He's told his story more than 800 times now. Schutte remains awed by the reactions the story always receives. “For some reason, my story just resonates everywhere I go,” Schutte said. “From billionaires and millionaires to gangs and prisoners.”

Mistakes in his own life led Schutte to Chikurubi. At age 12, he joined a gang in Cape Town. Four years later, he was in prison for killing a police officer. In prison, he was offered a chance to join the South African army, which he did.At age 32, he was on a cross-border mission for the South African Defense Force, when Zimbabwean forces caught him. Thus began his 26-year prison sentence.

For more on this story, see the July 30 print or digital edition of The Tico Times

Hear Rene Schutte speak
When: Saturday, 4:00 p.m.
Where: Vista de Oro Escazu - 400 m south of Country Day School, 1st right
Admission: 10,000 colones
For more information or to schedule an appearance by Rene Schutte contact Maggie Jacobus at maggie.jacobus@gmail.com or 8993-3296.