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(506) 2223-1327              Published Friday, Aug. 13, 2010,  in Vol. 10, No. 159      E-mail us
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downtown building
Centro de  Investigación y Conservación del Patrimonio Cultural photo
The Steinvorth building just a half block off the downtown San José pedestrian mall is not much to look at today. It houses a number of small stores. Nevertheless the structure is historic and 103 years old. It will be restored as
part of a culture ministry program, including this, the interior patio that shows some of the elaborate art nouveau details.

The story is HERE!



Mother's day gift prices are all over the place
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

A new consumer sweep in anticipation of el Día de la Madre Sunday shows gigantic variations in prices of similar and identical home appliances. The study also revealed deficiencies in giving consumers correct credit information.

The study was by the Dirección de Apoyo al Consumidor of the Ministerio de Economía, Industría y Comercio.

The study surveyed 20 retail outlets and showed variations as much as 291 percent in prices of appliances like coffee makers. That was the difference between an Erickson coffee maker at Hogar Feliz in Alajuela and an Oster product in an outlet of the same chain in San José. In Alajuela the coffee maker was 9,850 colons. But in San José the Oster product was 38,500, the survey report said. Differences of 195 percent were found in electric irons. Rice cookers showed a difference of 182 percent between the highest-priced product and the lowest.

A Durabrand electric frying pan was 17,990 colons in Hipermás in Escazú but a similar Oster product was 47,500 in Hogar Feliz in San José. That is a difference of 164 percent, the study said.

Some may argue that similar products should not be compared, so the survey also studied identical appliances. A Proctor Silex coffee maker was 9,968 colons in El Gollo #4 in Alajuela but 21,300  colons in Hogar Feliz in San José. The consumer agency said this was a difference of 114 percent. The models were identical.

Identical Sony digital cameras were 76,500 colons in Importadora Monge in San Miguel de
Desamparados and 118,500 colons at Hogar Feliz in San José. That is a difference surveyors computed to be 55 percent.

In fact, Hogar Feliz at Avenida 4 between calles 4 and 6 in San José was listed 14 times as having the highest price of the articles in the survey. The next highest was Hogar Feliz in Alajuela with 12 notations of having the highest price. In third place was Hogar Feliz in Escazú with 11 mentions, said the survey report.

El Verdugo on Avenida 3 in downtown San José was cited as having the lowest price 50 times in the survey. El Gallo más Gallo in San Rafael de Alajuela was cited 43 times, as were branches of the same store in Heredia (42 times), and Alajuela (38 times).

In big ticket items, the survey found a difference of 120,000 colons between a flat screen Sony television in Gallo más Gallo in Alajuela where it sold for 369,900 colons and Hogar Feliz in San José where the price was 489,000 colons. That's about $237 at the current rate of exchange.

The survey also said that three companies were cited for not providing credit information that is required legally. They were El Gollo in Ciudad Colón, San Sebastián, Heredia and Alajuela, Casa Blanca in San José and Camarasa in Cartago. Some 26 stores got lesser warnings.

The main problems were that companies did not provide interest rates, required down payments or listed the cash price, the survey said.

The consumer agency routinely makes surveys before days of heavy gift giving. For example, it surveys toy prices just before Christmas.


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San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Aug. 13, 2010, Vol. 10, No. 159

Costa Rica Expertise
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French, German embassies
sponsor rapid painting event

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The modern preoccupation with speed has reached the art world. The French and German embassies in conjunction with the Ministerio de Cultura y Juventud is conducting a rapid painting contest.

The event will be Sept. 11 in the Centro para las Artes y la Tecnología La Aduana in San José. But contestants must register by Aug. 23.

Franz Späth, a German expert, will be in the country to offer workshops and to participate as a judge in the event. Artists will have 45 minutes to complete a painting on a given topic.


Our readers' opinions
Biofuel from oil palms
could protect the country


Dear A.M. Costa Rica:
 
Since Costa Rica has no national production of petroleum, it must import all the fuel it needs and is a consequent victim to the world price of oil.  Indeed, it may follow the best laid economic strategy for the benefit of it's citizens and without warning everything is economically turned upside down by a war or terrorist event on the other side of the world and it's citizens suffer because of it by paying for higher petroleum supplies.
 
A home-grown solution is biofuel crops.  Biofuel crops grown in the tropics yield almost five times as much energy as similar crops grown in northern more temperate zones.  By comparison, corn produces about 145 kilograms of oil per hectare per year, while sunflowers produce 800, and rapeseed 1,000 kilograms.  The tropical  jatropha (a non-human food plant) produces about 1,600 kilograms of oil per hectare per year but oil palms can produce a whopping 5,000 kilos per hectare per year!  Palm oil has one of the highest BTU ratings of all biofuels.
 
Costa Rica has almost an endless amount of land available to be developed into palm oil production.  It would produce thousands of jobs, make Costa Rica mostly petroleum import independent, and its use would reduce pollution.  It would also create another exportable product to the world markets.  If there are wars, blockades, cartels, shortages of petroleum in the world . . . . who cares?  We just grow another crop of palm fruit next year and produce what we want without being a victim of what goes on in the world.
 
Another minor side benefit would be that Costa Rica would no longer have to wait patiently for Presidente Chávez to come to it's socialist rescue with his promise of 'free' petroleum and the promise of building of petroleum refineries.

Phil Matingly
 
 
Raise the autopista tolls
to generate needed money

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

Since the Costa Rican government has a cash flow problem that leads to borrowing money, I have a suggestion that would immediately bring money into its coffers and is not a collection problem: increase the road tolls from the 75 colons to 200 colons.  Use the the cash flow to fund the police or whatever. That is their decision.
Ken Beedle
Cartago


Wanting to improve life
is not uniquely American


Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

In my professional life I have read thousands of letters to the editor.  Wednesday’s letter from Bob Stone was one of the most ill informed and unreasonable letters I have ever read.

Mr. Stone’s premise was “some Americans [want] to make Costa Rica a part of what they left behind in the U.S.” by demanding “crime commissions, neighborhood watches, fraternal and business organizations, [and] vast infrastructure improvements.”  His letter made it clear he was against these concepts.  He wants his isolated rural life to be maintained as it is.  That it understandable.

But the desire to be safe, to improve one's conditions and to reach out to help others are human needs and not uniquely American (Maslow).  Crime commissions, neighborhood watches, fraternal and business organizations have all been a part of the Costa Rican environment during the several decades for which I have personal knowledge.

Hundreds of people from the U.S., Canada, Australia, Asia and Europe, who have expertise in specific governmental and public services, have been asked by Costa Rican government officials to offer advice and counsel.

No one has a monopoly on good ideas.  Wise and prudent government officials inquire about alternative ideas.  I can assure Mr. Stone, while Costa Rica seeks input it does not mean they implement the advice and counsel they receive.  Costa Rica is a fiercely independent nation and exceptionally protective of its democracy.

Indeed it could also be argued that Mr. Stone’s desire to maintain Costa Rica as a nation without a response to increasing crime, without infrastructure improvements, without a better economy, and without the benefits of fraternal organizations such as the Lions Club, could be considered as promoting the image of the ugly American.

In other words, what are we to think of a person who wants to impose his will that Costa Rica remain a third world country and not become an emerging or developed nation?

Ted Hunt
Rancho Redondo


Xenophobia in Costa Rica
is something not discussed


Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

A few months ago, I was sitting in a restaurant in southern Ecuador with my buddy John. At the next table were a few Gringos engaged in conversation. It was impossible not to hear what they were saying. At one point, one of the gentlemen said " no, Costa Rica has had it, gotten expensive and the locals don't like Gringos. "  YIKES!!!!  Who let the cat out of the bag ???

It seems the crime problem here is pretty well known by now, the pathetic infrastructure is impossible to miss, the cost of living, the ridiculous judicial system (part of the crime problem), and all the other aspects of life here that we have come to love and to not love. But xenophobia in Costa Rica?  A subject that could start a pretty lively debate, and a sacred cow that no realtor or tourist business owner is going to want to expose. After all, the friendly people has been a great ally in the selling of paradise.

Personally, I think one encounters xenophobia in almost all places that have seen a large influx of foreigners, Costa Rica and the U.S. are not exceptions. Perhaps it is a bit understandable, the local population feels somewhat displaced, particularly if the immigrant population does not assimilate well, if they are advantaged in some way, or if they harm the already established people.  Until recently I had a clipping from La Nación in my office, an article written by a Costa Rican psychologist about prejudices against people in Costa Rica.

Someone decided I should not have the clipping, and threw it away, but I remember the message well. The writer was commenting on how the hate/discrimination toward blacks was now frowned upon in Costa Rica. However, the Ticos still had acceptable targets for their xenophobia, the Nicas and the Gringos.

Before someone starts getting ready to fire off an inanity about how not all Ticos hate Gringos, not their friends, etc., I am sure we can all agree there are a wide variety of attitudes toward Gringos here. Besides, I know expats who feel that anything American is bad, and everything Tico is good. As well I know expats who are pretty sure that the smile, the handshake, and the "pura vida" are just an aesthetic for when they bury the dagger between your ribs.

My opinion ?  Suffice to say, I live here, but that could change.
Herman VanDonselaar
Grecia

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San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Aug. 13, 2010, Vol. 10, No. 159

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Steinvorth today
Centro de  Investigación y Conservación del Patrimonio Cultural photo
What is left of the Steinvorth building houses small stores just north of the pedestrian mall in San José
103-year-old store front named winner of restoration contest
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The heritage section of the culture ministry has designated a run down store front in San José downtown as the winner of a money prize for restoration.

The building is the Antigua Almacén Steinvorth in Calle 1 between Avenida 1 and the Avenida Central pedestrian mall. This is the 14th annual winner of the contest, the Certamen Salvemos Nuestro Patrimonio Arquitectónico. The owners of the building will have 100 million colons, about $198,000 to carry out the first two stages of the three-stage project.

The brick and stone building is 103 years old and now houses a number of small stores. A close inspection shows the ravages of time.

An Italian architect, Francisco Tenca designed the structure in art nouveau. The structure has elaborate stone carving and elaborately detailed steel columns.

The winning entry was put together by architect Julián Mora Sáenz and his associates at Terrarum Arquitectos. Their concept was one of nine submitted this year. Two that did not win involved restoring rail stations in Cartago and Heredia. Many of the proposed projects will be carried out but without financing from Ministerio de Cultura y Juventud of which the Centro de Investigación y Conservación del Patrimonio Cultural, which runs the contest each year, is a part.

According to the submission:

Wihelm Steinvorth came to Costa Rica in 1872 as part of a wave of European immigration prompted by the economy here generated by the exportation of coffee.

He was joined by his brother, Otto, a few years later, and they both joined to construct what is now the Antigua Almacén Steinvorth. The structure is a contemporary of the Teatro National, built 10 years earlier.

The Steinvorth store offered wines, cloth, furniture hardware and construction materials. Photos of the time show a lot of clothing for sale. When Otto died, his son, Ricardo took over and ran the store until the beginning of World War II.  That is when the German community in Costa Rica was accused of supporting Adolph Hitler. Ricardo was expelled from the country and interned in the United States. The building was expropriated and the goods auctioned.

Ricardo Steinvorth was able to reclaim the building in the 1950s, but did not have the economic resources to enter into the same business. The structure was rented to other firms, including a furniture company. In the 1960s half of the building was sold to an owner who demolished it and
Steinvorht details
Terrarum Arquitectos photo
Detail of some of the structure's stonework

antiqu photo
via Terrarum Arquitectos
Early photo of the complete structure

constructed a modern, six-story structure.

The proposal is a three-stage process in which the building will be restored, including an interior patio. A new four-story building of offices and apartments will be constructed in the final stage behind the restored facade. The new structure will be financed privately. The money provided by the culture ministry will go to the two restoration stages, according to the proposal.

The full proposal is HERE!


There are special advantages for being a golden citizen
Senior citizens in Costa Rica include not only Costa Ricans over 65 but foreign born pensionados and other legal residents.  We all can get a card (ciudadano de oro) designating ourselves as such. We get a number of privileges and discounts in stores, museums and movies.  For awhile we were given tickets to present to bus drivers to ride the buses for free.   Now we just have to give our residence cards or carne to the bus driver and he inserts it into a machine to record it.  Sometimes these machines don’t work efficiently and it takes some doing by the bus driver to get the proper sound that registers the fare.  This can be annoying to a busy driver.

The other day I gave the driver my carnet, and he was having just that problem.  I sat in a seat near the front patiently waiting while he took the fares of other passengers and then returned to my reluctant carnet.  The machine finally beeped and, handing my card to me, the bus driver muttered in Spanish, “You foreigners are nothing but trouble.”  His comment stung me, and I was tempted to reply, “Yes, especially those of us who are legally here.” but I didn’t.  I have seen other foreigners on buses, and we can be annoying.  And there can be nothing more stressful than driving a bus in San José.

Nearby riders shook their heads and looked apologetically at me.  A gentleman across the aisle tipped his head back and poked his thumb towards his mouth, indicating that the driver had been drinking. That worried me.  However, it was one of the fastest and safest rides from San José to Guadalupe I‘ve had.

I still had two more buses to ride that day and on each, the passengers seemed to be trying to make up for the driver’s comment, although, of course, they had not been there.  One rushed to retrieve my carnet when it again was giving the machine trouble.  I began to think that I must look frail and helpless (a look I try very hard to avoid), for so much attention.  The climax came when the young woman in the window seat next to me on the bus coming back from Guadalupe asked if she could get off first at the Morazán stop.  I said, “Of course.”  figuring she was in a hurry and didn’t want to be stuck behind a doddering senior. 

I stood aside and let her pass, and when I got off the bus, there she was waiting to help me off the last long step.  I thanked her and told her she was very kind, which is often how Ticos thank you. 
Butterfly in the City
 
. . .  Musings from San José

By Jo Stuart
jostuart@amcostarica.com

Jo Stuart


I went on my way, still confused as to whether she was
being the typically kind Tico or if I am becoming a frail and doddering senior.

Ah well, doddering or not, the next day I was off to the Museo Nacional with my friend Alexis. The usual fee for entering the museum is 1,500 colons for residents, about $3, and $7 for foreign visitors. For ciudadanos de oro, it is another freebee!

We went purposely to see the fabric art in an exhibition called “Metamorphosis.  A New Cycle.” Alexis, who with the help of local women, makes beautiful jewelry from the pop tabs off cans and second hand materials, was interested in meeting a fellow artist working with recycled fabrics. 

All of the works of art were made by textile artist Silvia Piza-Tandlich with the help of the local women and children in her community whom she is teaching the creative things you can do with scraps of material, paint and paper.  Many of the pieces display the traditions and ancient arts of Costa Rica. Some are magical.  If Silvia is there when you visit, do ask her about her work, and especially about the butterfly curtains at the entry.  The exhibit is a lesson in the treasures that can be made from cast off materials.

This exhibition is in the basement of the museum where the former prisoners’ cells and the latrine were located.  The museum used to be the Bellavista Barracks. I heard someone say that President Pepe Figueres abolished the army after looking at the size of the cells and the general living conditions in this former fortress.

The fabric exhibition alone is worth the price of entry -- but you can also see the other displays of artifacts, markers  of the history and culture of Costa Rica in the rest of the museum on the same visit. 

And if you are a legal resident over 65, your day is free.


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San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Aug. 13, 2010, Vol. 10, No. 159

Escazú Christian Fellowship
xx
Guoadalupe Missionary Baptist Church


Legislature takes initial step to end contract driver dispute

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The legislature has taken the first step to end the conflict between licensed taxi drivers and the porteadores, the contract drivers.

The legislature on first reading Wednesday night passed a bill that would institute an agreement reached by the central government with representatives of the taxi industry and the contract drivers.

The agreement brings the porteadores under the supervision of the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes and restricts them to point-to-point passenger service. They will not be allowed to pick up passengers on the streets in the way that licensed taxis do.

The issue has been a hot one with large protests by both taxi drivers opposed to porteadores and road blockades by the contract drivers trying to defend their jobs.
This is one of those problems that grew from lax enforcement of the laws when the first contract drivers took to the streets.

Now contract drivers have to receive permission from the ministry, carry insurance and show that they are paying taxes and remaining current with the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social. They also have to be able to show contracts with customers.

The Porteadors will be able to use their current vehicles for three years and then they will become subject to rules covering taxi drivers that require new models. The new rules also will allow traffic policemen to crack down on illegal pirate taxi drivers because a gray area of the law will be eliminated.

The bill needs to be voted on one more time by the legislature, and then it goes to President Laura Chinchilla, who is prepared to sign it.



More police officers promised to patrol San José downtown

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The security ministry said Thursday that it would be putting more police officers on the streets in the center of San José in an effort to guarantee citizen security.

The effort will start Sept. 1 and involve at least 100 of the new Fuerza Pública officers who graduated last week.

The plan is put forth by José María Tijerino, the minister of Gobernación Policía y Seguridad Pública.

Basically there will be more police on the streets in the evening hours and in areas where they may not now be seen. The area involved is from Calle 2 on the west to Calle 23 on the east. Included are the districts of Merced, Catedral, Hospital and El Carmen.
The Municipalidad de San José also is involved. The municipality has its own police force.

Tijerino, a former chief prosecutor, has been urging the Fuerza Pública to make more of a public presence. He was thwarted on the first days in office when police officers did not follow his directive to go on the streets one Wednesday morning. The force also is plagued by absenteeism and sick leave.

Usually the number of police in the downtown are increased for the Christmas season.

President Laura Chinchilla has said she wants the present 10,000-member police force to triple in size. She has proposed a tax on corporations to generate the money to do this.



Coffee growers get a $130 million fund to replant bushes

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Coffee growers will be able to tap a $140 million fund to replant their land and replace worn out plants, under a program announced Thursday by the Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería. The useful life of a coffee plant is 20 years.

The interest rate for the first three years will be 3 percent
or less, officials said. That is far lower than commercially available agricultural credit.

Coffee brings in about $100 million to the country each year. There are nearly 100,000 hectares, some 247,000 acres planted in coffee now. 

Officials think that the fund will result in replanting 30,000 hectares or about 74,000 acres.


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San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Aug. 13, 2010, Vol. 10, No. 159

Medical vacations in Costa Rica

Bogotá bomb blast hurts
nine and threatened media


By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services

Police in the Colombian capital, Bogotá, are investigating a car bombing that injured at least nine people and damaged nearby buildings and vehicles.

Newly inaugurated President Juan Manuel Santos visited the scene after the blast early Thursday and was briefed by police. He called the bombing a terrorist act and vowed to continue fighting such attacks.

Police say the explosion occurred near a building that houses Radio Caracol in the northern part of the city.  They say the car was packed with at least 50 kilograms of explosives and shattered windows in vehicles in the street, and several stories up in nearby buildings.

Police cordoned off the street to protect bystanders from falling glass.

No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing.

A police spokesman said it is unclear what the target was, as a bank is on the same block as the radio station and the American Embassy is not far away.

One theory is that the 5:30 a.m. attack was meant for Caracol’s general director and morning program host Darío Arizmendi, who had been receiving threats. At the time of the explosion, which injured at least nine people, Arizmendi was at the station with reporters Gustavo Gómez and Erica Fontalvo, according to the Inter American Press Association, which investigated.

In addition to Caracol, the building houses headquarters of La W Radio and the Spanish news agency EFE, said the Inter American Press Association.


Quake in Haiti originated
in previously unknown fault


By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services

Scientists studying the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti earlier this year warn that it was caused by a previously unknown fault in the Earth's crust.

Purdue University Professor Eric Calais presented his team's findings this week at a conference of geophysicists in Brazil.  

He said the newly discovered fault could put Haiti at risk for more earthquakes, but that scientists will need to do more research to assess the danger.

Earthquakes happen along faults, areas where the massive slabs of rock that form the Earth's outer layer meet or overlap.  When the slabs slip or collide, the ground shakes.

Scientists originally blamed the Haiti quake on movement along the well-known Enriquillo fault.  But Calais' team found a previously unknown fault was responsible because of the way in which the ground moved.

They say the newly-discovered fault could be connected to a larger system of faults that have never been mapped.

Haiti is still struggling to recover from the Jan. 12 earthquake that killed an estimated 230,000 people, left 1.5 million homeless, and caused $7 billion in damage.
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San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Aug. 13, 2010, Vol. 10, No. 159


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University communities
to march over budgets

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Students, professors and unionized employees of the nation's public universities will march Tuesday in an effort to get bigger budgets from the central government.

Universidad Nacional students and workers marched Thursday in Heredia for the same reason.

The universities want 13 percent plus inflation every year for the next five. The government has offered 4.5 percent. The country now gives more than half a billion dollars each year to the four public universities.

Tuesday a group from the Universidad de Costa Rica will march from the San Pedro campus to the Fuente de Hispanidad at Mall San Pedro and then to Zapote where President Laura Chinchilla will be meeting with her cabinet.

Liberia robbery suspects
detained after raids at homes


By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Judicial agents raided homes in Barrio La Cruz in Liberia Thursday to detain three minors and a 22 year old as suspects in a string of robberies that climaxed with a murder Tuesday.

The victim was identified by the last name of Cerdas. He suffered major wounds from a knife in the stomach after he resisted robbers. He was 29. He was confronted on a public street. Agents said that the four were suspects in at least 12 street robberies in the center of Liberia.

The Liberia robbers rode in a grey car and confronted pedestrians with firearms, the Judicial Investigating Organization said.

Injured hiker airlifted

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

A group of 18 that included 17 British hikers have left the mountains in the vicinity of Santa María de Dota. An injured British girl and eight companions were airlifted by the Servicio de Vigilancia Aérea of the security ministry.

They were taken to Quepos by helicopter Thursday morning. The remaining hikers were guided out of the mountains by Cruz Roja experts, the agency said.

The woman suffered an injury Wednesday and could not continue with the hike. Some 40 Cruz Roja workers spent part of Wednesday and Thursday trying to get the group from the wilderness. They spent Wednesday night in the wilds.




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