Dear Tico Times:

Thank you for your article in the April 25 edition about the plans for the new National Stadium. 

I'm convinced that this present from the government of China has so many changes and strings attached that it is no present at all.

It won't be the size President Arias asked for. It won't have space for the facilities asked for and the Chinese don't intend on using Costa Rican workers to build it. (I guess Ticos are not competent enough to do the work.)

Except for the aforementioned details, which seem to be everything that was hoped for, this is a good deal for Costa Rica ? Who's kidding whom? It's more like another “carrot on the stick” ploy by someone who has the money, telling the other side, that they should be grateful for receiving that they don't want and then having to walk away less than satisfied. 

Do you think the Chinese government has a cash flow problem or could this be another example of the big guy telling the little guy what to do?

A more appropriate response would be to thank the Chinese for their offer while declining it for the reasons previously stated. That would send a clear message that Ticos make the decisions as to what goes and what doesn't, and money doesn't always determine policy. 

Jaime Rivera
San Antonio de Escazú

Dear Tico Times:

I have to weigh in about the cost of petty theft in Costa Rica because I would like people to realize that these costs are not just monetary, but affect the entire fabric of our culture.

I am the director of “Spanish English and Fun,” a private language school in the Atenas area, northwest of San José, that caters to visitors and locals from the U.S. and Europe who want professional assistance in order to master Spanish.

Recently, I have entered into a partnership with an ESL specialist from the U.S. named Jennifer Horshman, who is planning to move here with her family this summer to expand our program to offer the same professional quality language instruction to the many Ticos wanting to learn English.

Jennifer flew here all the way from North Carolina just to meet prospective English students at our booth in the Oxcart Festival, held recently. She brought with her 25 brand new Pearson Prentice Hall textbooks for English instruction with which we would develop our core curriculum, and which our Tico students would use in their studies.

Within hours after parking a short distance from our booth at the festival, a thief got the door open without even breaking the window, and stole all the textbooks! (We were told later that the Yaris she rented is easy to get into.)

I don't have to explain how this sets us back financially, but what really makes me sad is to think of all the Tico students who could have received so much benefit from these top-of-the line textbooks.

We will replace them one way or the other, but I would like to alert any of my colleagues at other schools offering English instruction to confiscate these books if any suspicious person comes in wanting to sell them. I can be reached at info@spanishandfun.com or by phone at 2446-0906.

Odilie Calvo
Atenas

Dear Tico Times:

President Arias is openly critical of the U.S. and European countries for their manufacture and sale of arms, but is strangely silent on the rampant arming of Chávez's Venezuela. Arias is also silent on China's outrages in Tibet, and Chávez's welcoming of Iranian Muslim fundamentalists to Venezuela.

Is Arias afraid of Chávez, at least of criticizing him, since his threat to close down the local aluminum industry? Why doesn't he take a note from Chávez's game book and nationalize the industry?

As to the rampant construction of luxury hotels and the rape of the beaches and of the landscape, it reminds me of a trip my wife and I took a few years back to Mexico. We visited Zihuatanejo one day and took a side trip to Ixtapa, where we found about 10 luxury hotels packed side by side on the beach, and across the street there was a huge mall. We were surprised to notice no activity around or near the hotels, and we were the ONLY ones in the mall except for the shopkeepers. Is this the future of the hotels in Guanacaste?

A thought to ponder: If Fidel happily dies and his brother, Raul, opens up Cuba, and the U.S. again allows free travel to the island, what will happen to tourism in Costa Rica ?

Why doesn't someone have the guts to shut that revolving door operated by the courts, that allows offenders to return immediately to the streets? Instead of making the old penal island of San Lucas (the “Devil's Island of the Pacific”) into another tourist attraction, why not rehabilitate it as a penal institution for juvenile offenders, as a combination reformatory and trade school, where they could be taught carpentry, plumbing and other trades much needed in Costa Rica ?

Tom Schmidt in his letter wants the president to keep Costa Rica pacifist and peaceful (TT, April 25). According to daily newspaper and news reports of murders, muggings, rapes, child and spousal abuse, drug-related crimes, etc., that era is long past. What century is Mr. Schmidt living in?

Lew Hayes
Puntarenas