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| A.M. Costa Rica Second newspage |
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 Despite chilly temperatures
there is no snow in sight! By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Teeth were chattering Wednesday night as the temperature in the Central Valley fell to 16 degrees C. Although that is better than 60 degrees F., the wind around 20 kph (12 mph) made the temperature seem lower than normal. This is the annual period of complaining about the cold weather. Costa Rican homes are less than perfectly insulated. And this year there is the encampments of earthquake victims in tents around San Miguel de Sarapiquí who have to endure the chill. By contrast, of course. much of the United States and Canada are experiencing temperatures below freezing. More is predicted for today. Temperatures in San José are expected to reach as high as 20 degrees C (68 F) and drop to 15 C (59 F) after sundown. Temperatures are predicted to be a degree colder in Cartago. In addition there is a chance of light rain this evening. Multiple quake commissions become topic of questions By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Why does the country need three commissions to handle the reconstruction after the Jan. 8 earthquake. That was a question put Wednesday to Rodrigo Arias Sánchez, the brother to the president and minister of the Presidencia. The government has set up two commissions, one of government ministers and the second of business leaders. There also is the official national emergency commission. President Óscar Arias Sánchez has empaneled a Comisión de Reconstrucción and a Comisión del Sector Privado. Among other things the reconstruction commission is supposed to keep track of the money donated to help earthquake victims. The question was put to Rodrigo Arias at the end of the Consejo de Gobierno Wednesday. Rodrigo Arias responded that the emergency commission is a first responder. When it comes to reconstruction, the government commission made up of the various ministries can handle the rebuilding more efficiently. After past emergencies the reconstruction of bridges and roads was coordinated by the national emergency commission working directly with the various ministries, like the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes. Meanwhile, Wednesday the Movimiento Libertario called for the central government to create a budget to show how it would apply donations that are coming in to help earthquake victims. More than $600,000 has come in already. that he would do anything Dear A.M. Costa Rica: Regarding your front page comments about President Obama's ability to deliver on his promise(s): "Obama also noted that many question the scale of his ambitions. That seemed to be an undercurrent among those watching the inaugural here. Some Costa Ricans who had followed U.S. politics wondered if Obama had promised much more than he could deliver." Our new President did not promise that HE would accomplish anything. His promises are that he will use his position to facilitate US, the United States of America, doing what we are fully capable of doing without being thwarted by greedy profiteers and power mongers. He has reminded us of President John F. Kennedy's, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." If the U.S. citizenry stops asking, "what more can I get from the government and the taxpayers? How can I take advantage of those in a weaker position socially or economically?" and starts asking and thinking about what they can do to make the U.S.A. and the world a better safer place for everyone, then WE CAN DO IT. President Obama alone can not deliver on his promise(s), but WE THE PEOPLE can. I am looking forward to a new and brighter future for all of us. Bess Herzog
Houston, Texas Rio Cuarto, Alajuela
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| A.M. Costa Rica third newspage |
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Goverment seeks to borrow up
to $1.5 billion for projects
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The nation is assuming nearly $1.5 billion in new debt under plans from the Arias administration. One loan is for $500 million to benefit the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad. The lender would be the Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo. The terms are for 20 years at 5 percent. The loan is supposed to keep the electrical generating plants functioning. Another loan is from the World Bank for $72.5 million to refurbish the city of Limón. The government will invest $7.5 million in this. Then there is the $850 million loan from the Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo to finance improvement in the nation's infrastructure, including the area affected by the Jan. 8 earthquake. |
Lawmakers approved Tuesday a $65
million loan from the Banco
Internacional de Reconstrucción y Fomento to pay for emergency
relief
from the earthquake. The other loads still are in the hopper at the
legislature, but the Arias administration is pushing for approval.
Óscar Arias Sánchez has little more than 15 months left
in office. One big goal is the Limón project. In addition to improvements in the city, the administration is hosting a meeting Tuesday of exporters and other international organizations. The plan is to discuss the impact of privatizing the docks in Limón and Moín. Workers there strongly oppose the measure, but the Caldera docks in the Pacific have been put out on concession, and the Arias administration is planning the same for the port on the Caribbean. The hope is that the firm that wins the concession will pay for major improvements in the handling of freight. |
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Woman becomes icon for tough
drunk driving law
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A woman with the last names of Acuña Aguilar has the distinction of being the first person to go to trial on a drunk driving charge under the new traffic law. The trial will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Juicio de Flagrancia in Goicoechea. Others have been brought to justice before here, but all |
have sought abbreviated processes
and not a full trial. The woman was detained Jan. 1, just hours after the new law went into effect, in Santa Ana. Fureza Pública officers detained her and called Tránsito officers to the scene to check on the sobrieity of the woman. She blew 2.24 grams of alcohol per liter of blood, officials said. Drunk is .75 grams per liter under the new law. |
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Civil unions continue to
outpace those conduced by clergy
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Catholicism may be the official religion of Costa Rica, but since 1995 more civil marriages have been registered than church marriages, according to the Registro civil. The trend continued in 2008 when some 25,302 were recorded. Only 5.318 were church weddings and less than 400 were marriages done outside the country but registered here. |
In 2007 there were 24,186
marriages, the Registro Civil said. The Registro is part of the
Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones In 2008 May with 3,690 unions was the month with the most weddings, not the traditional June. Some couples said that they prefer a civil union because the Roman Catholic Chruch requires that couples take a course before being married and that church weddings cost more. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
| A.M. Costa Rica fourth news page |
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Frogs endangered by being on
menu, new study reports
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By the University of Adelaide news service
The global trade in frog legs for human consumption is threatening their extinction, according to a new study by an international team including University of Adelaide researchers. The researchers say the global pattern of harvesting and decline of wild populations of frogs appears to be following the same path set by overexploitation of the seas and subsequent chain reaction of world fisheries collapses. The researchers have called for mandatory certification of frog harvests to improve monitoring and help the development of sustainable harvest strategies. Corey Bradshaw, University of Adelaide associate professor, says frogs legs are not just a French delicacy. "Frogs legs are on the menu at school cafeterias in Europe, market stalls and dinner tables across Asia to high end restaurants throughout the world," sasid Bradshaw. "Amphibians are already the most threatened animal group yet assessed because of disease, habitat loss and climate |
change — man's massive
appetite for their legs is not helping." The annual global trade in frogs for human consumption has increased over the past 20 years with at least 200 million and maybe over 1 billion frogs consumed every year. Only a fraction of the total trade is assessed in world trade figures. Indonesia is the largest exporter of frogs by far and its domestic market is two to seven times that. "The frogs' legs global market has shifted from seasonal harvest for local consumption to year-round international trade," said Bradshaw. "But harvesting seems to be following the same pattern for frogs as with marine fisheries — initial local collapses in Europe and North America followed by population declines in India and Bangladesh and now potentially in Indonesia. "Absence of essential data to monitor and manage the wild harvest is a large concern." A paper about the study is soon to be published online in the journal Conservation Biology. |
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México reports
production decline by state-run oil company
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Mexico's state-run oil company, Pemex, said its 2008 production of crude oil fell 9.2 percent from 2007. Pemex said Wednesday that daily production last year dropped to almost 2.8 million barrels compared to three million barrels the year before. The oil company blamed bad weather and operational |
factors
at its biggest oil field, Cantarell, for the production 2008 shortfall.
Exports were also down 16.8 percent last year. Mexican President Felipe Calderón has sought more private investment in Pemex to boost falling production. Opponents have said opening the struggling oil industry to private interests would threaten Mexico's sovereignty. Mexico is a major oil supplier to the United States. |
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reflect rights catastrophe By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The shooting deaths of a prominent attorney and an opposition journalist this week in Moscow add to a growing list of unsolved murders of Kremlin critics and human-rights advocates in Russia. Stanislav Markelov, a 34-year-old attorney, was gunned down Monday in broad daylight just a kilometer from the Kremlin. When opposition journalist, Anastasia Baburova, 25, tried to intervene, the masked killer shot her in the head with a silencer-equipped gun. Markelov fought the early release from prison of Russian Col. Yuri Budanov, who was serving a 10-year sentence for strangling a woman in 2000 during the war in Chechnya. Budanov claims she was a Chechen sniper, but the court rejected his defense. Some Russians consider Budanov to be a war hero. Ms. Baburoba worked for Novaya Gazeta, an opposition newspaper, where journalist Anna Politkovskaya investigated human-rights abuses in Chechnya before she, too, was gunned down in 2006. Four men are on trial for her killing, but the triggerman and mastermind remain at large. Novaya Gazeta journalist and spokesperson Nadezhda Prosenkova said the newspaper employees are exposed to excessive risk merely for exercising their right to say what they believe. Ms. Prosenkova says one of the reasons behind that risk is a feeling in Russia that the state does not serve the people, but people serve the state, and that Russian leaders spread fear to stay in power. Ms. Prosenkova says the problem is not so much lack of human decency, but fear of speech and action. She notes that people cannot articulate this fear, and wonder instead, "What if I do something that is not right, or if somebody does not like it?" She calls this a subconscious and diffuse fear, which is the most frightening thing about it. The journalist says Russians should not just speak up for their rights, but shout their demands out loud. But the few who dare are often silenced. In November, journalist Mikhail Beketov was beaten so severely in a Moscow suburb that skull fragments were driven into his brain and he remains in a coma. Beketov had reported about negligence of local officials. Similar crimes are reported across Russia, though some opposition activists merely get their tires slashed. Few perpetrators have been brought to justice. Pro-Kremlin Member of Parliament Sergei Markov acknowledges excessive criminalization of Russian political, social, and economic relations. Markov traces the problem to what he calls the monstrous catastrophe of the 1990s in Russia. It was a decade of widespread street killings among rival political and economic groups, but also a period of unprecedented media independence that has since been curtailed. |
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