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Concerts in Monteverde
Reggae Vibes, Aug. 27, 8 p.m., Bromelias Music Garden, Monteverde. Info: 2645-6272.

Concert
Erling Soza and Rebeca Arias, guitar, piano, Aug. 27, 5:30 p.m., Concerts at José Figueres Ferrer Cultural Center.

2010 Limón Roots Awards
Concert by Roy Prescod Chorale, Kali Bamba N'diaye, Limón National Band, Caribbean Angelical Melodies, Manuel Obregón, Expresión Popular Caribeña, Aug. 27, 8 p.m., Melico Salazar Theater.

National Symphony
Performing Mozart's “The Marriage of Figaro,” Elgar's Cello Concerto, Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2, with conductor Chosei Komatsu, cellist Gabriel Cabezas, Aug. 27, 8 p.m.; Aug. 29, 10:30 a.m., National Theater.

Vida Fest
With singers Lily Goodman (Dominican Republic), Marcela Gandara and Abel Zavala (Mexico), and Costa Rican singers and bands, Aug. 28, 2-9 p.m., Rosabal Cordero Stadium, Heredia. Info: 2207-2025, www.mundoticket.com. 

Pet Adoption Fair
Organized by APFSA (Asociación Protectora de Animales San Francisco de Asís), Aug. 28, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Centro Comercial Paco, Escazú. Info: 8924-4164.

Costa Rica Adventure Race 2010
500 km through forests, teams of four, through Aug. 28. Info: 2766-5100, www.arcostarica.com.

2010 Limón Roots Black Culture Festival
Black culture music and dance night with Black Vibes, Kali Bamba N'diaye, Marfil, Aug. 28, 8 p.m., Peppers Club, Zapote.

Japanese Culture Festival
Including bonsai and photography exhibits, go workshops, fashion shows, Japanese food tasting, otaku and cosplay contests, karaoke, Aug. 28-29, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Juan Santamaría Museum.

4th National Band Competition
With about 30 bands, Aug. 29, 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; parade of bands, 6:30 p.m., Paraíso, Cartago. Info: 8342-7628.

Classical Marimba Concert
Aug. 29, 5 p.m., Café Britt Theater, Heredia, road to Barva. Info: 8703-5109, 8992-5015, 8703-5109.

“Julius”
Monologue by Rubén Pagura, through Aug. 29, Thurs.-Sun., 8 p.m., Teatro 1887, CENAC. Info: 2257-5524.

“Penelope Bloom”
Monologue based on last chapter of James Joyce's “Ulysses,” through Aug. 29, Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 5 p.m., Vargas Calvo Theater, behind National Theater. Info: 2257-1612.

Public university rectors and officials from the Education Ministry agreed Wednesday night on a 7 percent increase for the Special Fund for Higher Education (FEES) for 2011 and 2012, and on a 4.5 percent increase from 2013 through 2015, plus adjustments for inflation.

The government also agreed to provide ₡ 5.5 billion (nearly $10.9 million) for FEES for the remainder of 2010, in addition to the ₡ 226.2 billion (almost $448 million) it has already supplied this year.

Monies will be used to increase enrollment and expand campus infrastructure. Additionally, funds must be used for student scholarships and professor research grants, and for updating school technology and scientific equipment.

According to the agreement, these figures will boost FEES expenditures to 1.5 percent of Costa Rica's gross domestic product by 2015 and put the country en route toward its goal of spending 8 percent of the nation's GDP on public education.

The agreement comes less than a week before the government's Aug. 31 budget deadline. The eight days prior to the agreement included marches on Casa Presidencial by thousands of public university employees and students demanding an 11 percent increase for FEES from 2011 through 2015.

The Costa Rican government had originally been offering a 4.5 percent increase in FEES for each of the next five years.

The Constitutional Branch of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) threw a curveball at the Limón revitalization project this week, when it called for the reinstallation of the former leadership of the Atlantic Port Authority's union (Sintrajap).

President Laura Chinchilla said the decision was “one more bump in the road” and “a blow to democracy,” the daily La Nación reported. But, she said, she wouldn't let it affect the end goal.

“My government will not go backward in its quest of modernizing the ports of Limón,” Chinchilla said at a press conference on Thursday. “There are other ways and alternatives to continue with this modernization.”

The decision effectively restores to power the faction of Sintrajap that opposes privatization of the Caribbean-coast Limón and Moín ports. The privatization of the ports has been a key piece in the government's plan to attract investment to the ports and the city of Limón.

Sintrajap has long been blamed by the business community for the ports' inefficiency and delays in the transfer of goods through the country's principal port.

Since the former leadership of Sintrajap was ousted in January by the union's general assembly – a move deemed illegal by the Sala IV – a number of international workers' organizations have voiced their concern over the situation.

The International Transport Workers' Federation accused the government of “undermining the union” and pursuing “undemocratic and potentially illegal plans.”

The U.S.-based International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Trade and Labor Affairs alleging noncompliance with labor laws and illegal government interference with union elections.

“People from the United States believe Costa Rica is a paradise,” said Robert McEllrath, international president of the ILWU. “But Costa Rica has been transformed into a country in which the police break down windows and doors of areas in which workers are assembling in peace … and in which the social welfare of the workers and their families are relegated to second place behind the gains of transnational companies.”

Government officials, who offered to pay union workers $137 million to accept the concession, said the precise effect of the court's decision is still unclear. Sintrajap elections to choose a new leadership will be held in January.

The administration of President Laura Chinchilla this week took pointers from programs working to bring Latin America's marginalized young people into the fold with better opportunities.

At the Costa Rican Child Welfare Office's auditorium in San José early this week, the United Nations' Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) presented three programs that U.N. experts consider exemplary models for steering at-risk youths away from drugs and crime.

These problems are on the Chinchilla administration's radar as the country gets further cornered into a deadly drug-trafficking corridor and as the nation's prisons continue to overflow.

“We don't want our young people to stay in jail forever, nor do we want them to be in the drug network forever, so we're confident that with our proposals and the help that ECLAC is offering us we will be able to apply a successful program,” Chinchilla said at the presentation.

The Argentine Support System for Protected Adolescents provides scholarships and tutoring for juvenile offenders. Guatemala's Ceiba Group Association and Colombia's Fénix Program work to keep young people out of gangs, offering education, vocational training and other guidance toward leading a straight life.

U.N. experts and Costa Rican government officials agree that programs such as these mark a critical departure from traditional, iron-fist methods of dealing with marginalized young people – and they could even be more effective.

The “punish the bad kids” model has failed, said María Elisa Bernal, a social development expert at the Santiago, Chile-based ECLAC. “Nobody's saying there shouldn't be policing of citizens' behavior. But the use of repression, repression alone, with these youths is not going to get results, as has been thoroughly demonstrated in (the countries these projects come from),” Bernal told The Tico Times. “They break the law, get caught, break the law again, get caught again, but what's society offering for them to get ahead?”

After researching more than 30 social innovation projects across Latin America, Adolfo Rodríguez, Chinchilla's social welfare secretary, perceives holes in Costa Rican policies toward the young.

Rodríguez said Costa Rica has made strides in health, rights, laws and economic productivity; “however, our crucial weakness lies in our work with youth.”