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A tale
of two countries we love
By Jay Brodell
Sometimes the little things are
the most obvious when moving from
one country to another.
When my wife and I returned to the
United States to retire after
nearly 20 years as newspaper
editors in Central America, I was
surprised immediately by cars
being driven with their headlights
on in the daytime. That was
something new to me but certainly
old hat and a safety measure for
those who have not been abroad.
Certainly, there were nice
discoveries, like eight-lane
highways north of Atlanta,
low-interest rates, the
forgiveness of school taxes and
good used cars.
Still, we miss the traffic signals
in Costa Rica that start blinking
to give early warning that they
are about to change. Certainly, we
also miss picking bananas in the
backyard, even though the birds
got most of them.
We thought we would not miss the
heavy rains. We underestimated
what Mother Nature could deliver
in our Georgia county.
We are in Georgia partly because
we could not return to our home
state of Colorado where prices
have skyrocketed after
recreational marijuana was made
legal. Pot always was a big cash
crop in western Colorado where we
lived. But now marketing is in
full force. I guess the same is
true of other states that have
legalized the weed.
Seeing commercial marijuana
outlets was a surprise because in
Costa Rica where any sort of drug
is illegal but freely available
one has to deal with shady
characters.
There are none in our well-groomed
subdivision, but many U.S. cities,
now are filled with the homeless
living on the street in tents and
tattered RVs. The indigent in
Costa Rica also mainly are the
mentally infirm, alcoholics and
drug abusers. Although they are
obvious on some city streets
during the day, they all seem to
have a place to go at night.
Spanish certainly has made inroads
in the United States. Another
surprise is that many of the store
signs and labels on food and other
products are in that language.
There are many more Middle
Easterners than I would have
guessed, but I suspect they are
making major efforts to learn
English.
When we first arrived in Costa
Rica, we quickly obtained Tico
driving licenses on the strength
of those we had in Colorado.
Not so in Georgia. We both had to
take both the written and road
test, although there was no
examiner with a hand out at the
end of the short trip.
When we sought our licenses here,
the clerk strongly encouraged us
to register to vote. So we were
surprised when Stacey Abrams, the
Democratic candidate for governor
in 2018 claimed she had been
cheated out of the office by voter
suppression. That was reminiscent
of Latin American politicians who
used to routinely allege fraud at
the polls when they lost. I
remember a Venezuelan newspaper
that had two front pages prepared
on election night there in 1968.
One announced the victory of its
candidate. The other alleged fraud
in big headlines. That idea seems
to have caught on.
Perhaps the biggest surprise in
our return to the States is the
deep political divide. We still
were in Costa Rica when Donald
Trump won the presidency. A.M.
Costa Rica did not endorse either
Trump or Hillary Clinton.
Since his election, many Democrats
have claimed officials of the
Russian Republic helped Trump to
victory. Still, nearly three years
from the election we have yet to
see any concrete evidence about
what entity actually hacked the
computers of the Democratic
National Committee to obtain
damaging emails from Mrs. Clinton.
The latest rumor is that Wikileaks
got its information from China. A
long-time intelligence
source blamed Clinton foes at the
National Security Agency. “Who
else reads and saves every email
on the planet,” he told me.
Immigration also is a divisive
topic. That's true even in Costa
Rica where some residents of
Grecia plan a vigil tonight to
protest U.S. detention camps for
illegal immigrants. The fruits of
widespread violations of U.S.
immigration laws are visible even
here in Georgia thousands of miles
from the border with México. The
construction trades are full of
obvious illegal immigrants as are
Georgia's many meat processing
plants.
Just like Costa Rica, the United
States is spending millions to
accommodate those who are here
illegally. Residents here make no
apology for hiring those without
documents for work around their
home despite the severe possible
legal consequences. There are
sections where illegals congregate
every morning looking for day
work, similar to the way tradesmen
in México wait with their tools at
the local plaza each day.
One result of illegal immigration
and immigration from the Middle
East is an effort by the
government and social media sites
to silence critics. Perhaps
officials fear the new arrivals
the same way Costa Rican
politicians fear insulting the
large number of illegal immigrants
from Nicaragua. Some U.S.
communities even are allowing
non-citizens to vote in local
elections.
Little of this makes the
newspapers. The U.S. media has
taken sides in the same way the
Colonial newspapers supported one
party over others. I am offended
by this because I am a newsman.
Still, even The Associated Press
adopted in 2008 what it calls
accountability journalism.
That's supposed to hold public
officials accountable for their
actions. In fact, it opens the
door to partisanship, misleading
headlines and sometimes totally
false reports. Trump calls this
fake news, but the truth seems
more of workers concerned about
the future of their jobs doing
what they suspect their bosses
want.
This change in the approach to
journalism has led to a growth of
right-wing news outlets and most
mainstream stations adopting an
anti-administration viewpoint.
Curiously, the most complete
journalism seems to come from RT,
the Russian supported television
news station.
Being old and decrepit has its
advantages today in the United
States. The #metoo movement is not
interested in old duffers unless
they run for office. Proponents of
the initiative against sexual
harassment have been delving deep
into the past to tar those they
believe are abusers. The Brett
Kavanaugh hearings for his U.S.
Supreme Court appointment was
another wedge dividing the
country. Today many persons fear
such allegations whether or not
justified. An Alabama candidate
for governor just refused to allow
a female reporter to shadow him
for a news story because he feared
what might be said if he were to
find himself alone with her.
Those coming to the States are
well-advised to avoid the Costa
Rican greeting custom of embracing
and air kissing.
Several times I have written about
the Costa Rican mindset where
emotion trumps the letter of the
law. We have seen big gender
differences in criminal sentences,
and we have seen international
treaties ignored to let children
stay with their mother.
The joke always has been that laws
are just suggestions in Costa
Rica. I fear that, too, is
becoming the case in the United
States, and this is perhaps one
reason why residents of Grecia are
having a vigil tonight. The U.S.
southern border of the United
States has been flooded with
illegal immigrants. Many are
seeking asylum from bad living
conditions.
U.S. border workers seem to be
trying to do their best in
complying with the law, but the
sheer numbers are overwhelming.
Human emotions are offended by the
idea of children being confined.
The question, though, is what
would happen if they were freed.
There are many wonderful aspects
of Costa Rica that we miss. There
are wonderful aspects of the
United States we would miss.
Perhaps that is the curse of being
binational. As they say, you can't
go home again.
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Mr. Brodell is founder and editor
emeritus of A.M. Costa Rica. He
can be reached at Jay@amcostarica.com
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