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Lawmakers passed on first reading Wednesday a measure that increases the penalties for prank calls to the 911 service. To advance for a presidential signature, the measure needs one more positive vote in the Asamblea Legislativa.
8 out of every 10 calls to the 911 service are not emergencies and many are pranks. The bill will set up a sliding scale of penalties depending on the number of unnecessary calls that were attributed to one phone line. The fine would be paid by the owner of the phone line.
It’s bizarre that there is no law in Costa Rica to prosecute the pranksters. It would’ve been really easy to find them as most are using their own cell or home phones to make the prank calls.
Gonzalo Vargas, president of the Cámara Nacional de Turismo, explained to the government the severity of the economic crisis facing the tourism industry. Almost 30% of tourism operators were forced to fire employees in the first half of this year, according to a tourism organization official.
His organization supports an effort with the tourism institute to offer special incentives to would-be visitors. Among these are extra nights lodging and other discounts outlined on the tourism institute’s Web page.
The official web page (VisitCostaRica.com) is now ranked 63,953 in the United States and 96,316 in Canada (Alexa stats www.alexa.com). That’s after the $500,000 spent on the advertising campaign. It’s ranked 631 in Costa Rica, with about 50% being the visitors from US, 20% from Costa Rica, 4% from Germany, 2.8% from Canada, and 2.6% from Spain.
1500s The San Juan River served as an i mportant travel and trade route used by explorers, pirates, merchants and missionaries.
1820s The river became an important commercial asset as an export route to the Caribbean for gold and, later, coffee.
1858 The Cañas-Jeréz treaty was signed, defining Nicaragua’s ownership and Costa Rica’s navigation rights. The treaty was not only central to the conflict between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, but also to United States and England, which stood at either end of the dispute. Costa Rica (which sided with England ) was pressured by the U.S. to hand the river over to Nicaragua. At the same time, a clause was added granting Costa Rica the freedom to navigate the river for trade and fiscal purposes. Read more »
The number of births to single mothers is on the decrease, as singles between the ages of 15 and 49, are having less children today than six years ago.
The numbers were revealed in a study by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos (INEC), that shows that there were 22% less births to single mothers in 2008 comparing to year 2003 numbers.
The INEC study shows this decrease despite the fact that number of unmarried women who are able to have children grew by 16% over the same period.
The INEC report based on the Encuesta de Hogares de Propósitos Múltiples (EHPM) – Survey of Multi-Purpose Household – between 2003 and 2008. Among other things, survey indicated increase in the number of “common law” households – in 2008 35% of all families.
With the rejection of appeals, the ICE (Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad) has a green light to proceed with the formalities to launch IPTV service.
If no additional problems arise, ICE estimate to provide TV over Internet by the end of this year.
Initial hold on was caused by appeals of ZTE Corporation and Desca SYS Central America against Procurement Board’s decision to grant 19.7 million dollar contract to ITS Services Infocomunicación.
In a press release, ICE official said that he “hopes to market the service to ICE customers later this year.” IPTV service will be using broadband connections over the Internet, allowing users to receive television programs in real time and rent movies and video games with one press of a button. I order to use this service customers will require to purchase a decoder box (set-top box).
The variety of papaya known as “Perfect” or “World’s Best” (the Costa Rican hybrid Pococi) is now being enjoyed by Canadians, and national agricultural officials hope it will soon find its way to Europe.
In order to promote this unique Costa Rican papaya, a group of local businesses took part in a week-long mission in Toronto, Canada. The mission was supported by the Trade Promotion Office of the Costa Rican Foreign Corporation (Procomer). The activity yielded some 99 business meetings with well-known supermarket chains such as Sobeys, Loblaws and Metro.
Costa Rica has the ideal conditions to grow the “perfect” papayas, which are mainly grown in the Caribbean region (Guacimo and Pococi), the Northern Zone (La Fortuna), and the Central Pacific (Orotina and Parrita). The Ministry of Agriculture (MAG) is promoting the cultivation of papayas using best harvesting practices that would guarantee the shelf life of the fruits up to the moment they are sold in their final market destinations.
As some might know, recycling is not what Costa Rica is famous for. Fortunately that might change in the near future.
Several cities in Costa Rica started deployment of yellow recycling containers with the goal to capture plastic bottles, newspapers and aluminum cans. Up to date Costa Rica has 10 municipal recycling programs being implemented country wide. Collection of domestic recyclable material jumped from 169 tons in 2002 to over 725 tons in 2008.
Costa Rica’s waste management plans are expected to improve dramatically over the next year, providing new opportunities for waste management businesses and the environment. This is attracting new business ventures to more closely examine the waste management industry in Costa Rica. Waste management has proven to be big business in other parts of Latin America, and Costa Rica will also be reaping the rewards of this emerging industry as well.
The environmental watchdog, The Tribunal Ambiental Administrativo, ordered Del Monte to close its pineapple production facilities in Siquirres Monday, May 18th, because of high levels of chemicals in the local water sources.
The tribunal said that laboratory tests confirm a high presence of bromacil and other agrochemicals (such as the fungicides triadimephon, clorotalonil and difenoconazol) in waste water that flowed into the Río Destierro. The level of bromacil exceeds eight times the amount permitted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Read more »
One of the hardest things that expats have to get used to here is throwing away all of their garbage without sorting it into recyclables and plain garbage. It just doesn’t feel right knowing that at least half of the garbage that could have been recycled ends up in numerous landfills, spoiling the beauty of Costa Rica. The worst part is that many of those plastic products will not disintegrate for decades.
This year Costa Rican cities are starting to see yellow recycling containers! The lucky inhabitants of the covered areas can recycle plastic bottles, newspapers, aluminium cans and paper cartons. So far there are only 10 municipal recycling plans being implemented in all of the country.
Waste management has proven to be a viable business in other parts of Latin America, and Costa Rica should also be reaping the rewards of this emerging industry. Recycling will attract new business to venture into the waste management industry in Costa Rica.
Costa Rica’s waste management plans are expected to improve dramatically over the next several years.
The Costa Rican Partido Acción Ciudadana (Party of Citizen Action), is seeking to introduce a new law designed to eliminate (or severely reduce) the use of tobacco in Costa Rica.
The proposal is stricter than the laws proposed in the past. It will prohibit smoking in public places such as bars, restaurants, soccer stadiums and in the workplace.
It will also limit cigarette advertising during premium programs and forbid sponsoring of sporting and other events.
The measure will require larger health warnings on cigarette packs as well.
The legislature has already passed the World Health Organization Convention on tobacco. The new law seeks to make Costa Rica comply with the treaty against tobacco.
As of today, Costa Rica has only nine confirmed cases. but the health ministry says that five more cases are probable. Three of those cases are persons who had been in contact with the Boston Canta Mundi choir.
So far out of the suspected 873 cases, 735 have been discarded in Costa Rica.
In spite of all the scare, the World Health Organization believes that this particular pandemic has nothing to do with the severity of the disease, but rather with its geographic spread, and so far, it has been relatively mild.
Source: World Health Organization
Biofuels investments in Central America are on the rise. With OPEC pushing for oil prices to rise to $70 a barrel this year, there is more and more interest in Biofuel investing.
Jatropha plant is the number one choice in the world for Biofuel crops. Jatropha is not a food crop. The best part is that it grows on marginal lands, it is hardy and robust and has an incredible oil content of 35 – 42%. So, it is easy to grow and is local to Central America.
United Biofuels of America (UBA) announced over 200,000 hectares to be planted here in Costa Rica. If successful, it will make Costa Rica the Central American leader in Jatropha plantations.
If you’ve never heard about the Jatropha miracle plant, you can read about it in Wikipedia.
Guayabo Ceremonial Center, Costa Rica was built between 300 B.C. and 1400 A.D.. It is considered the main pre-Columbian archaeological site in Costa Rica. It is believed to reflect a bridge between the Mayans and the Incas.
The Guayabo historic site is situated in the province of Cartago.
The location was nominated by the Costa Rican Engineer and Architects College for its fascinating and still functional aqueducts and cobblestone roads.
This is only the second pre-Columbian site in the Americas to receive such a designation. The first one is Machu Picchu in Peru.
Source: asce.org (American Society of Civil Engineers)
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July 23, 2009 8:21 am
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