by Rod Hughes

The price of a computer-savvy government is 13,000 tons of contaminants per year laid on the environment and the Environment Ministry has yet to put in place its plans to prevent the damage, according to a report in today’s daily La Nacion.

Contaminants include burned out monitors, scanners and photocopiers, toner, batteries and discarded cell phones, the report concludes. All contain heavy metals which can cause, according to Dr. William Bujan, hemotologist at Hospital Mexico, brain and liver damage, anemia, and bone marrow illnesses, especially if it seeps into ground water.

The toxic material includes cadmium from batteries, lead and lead acid. Eugenio Androvetto of the Ministry of Health, admits that no one has yet devise a plan of collection and disposal of these materials. And, Dr. Bujan adds, the slow accumulation of heavy metals makes illness caused by them difficult to diagnose.

Fortunately, two companies in the country do process this type of dangerous waste: Fortech, in Cartago, (Tel. 2573- 8634) processes 10 tons monthly. Servicios Ecologicos in Santa Ana also disposes of such materials. It may be contacted through Daniela Garcia (at the University Nacional at Heredia) by calling 2249-3052.

by Rod Hughes

The split in Costa Rica’s National Olympic Committee is holding up delivery of $50,000 destined to help the country’s athletes get to the Olympic Games this summer in Peking. Embattled committee chairman Jorge Nery Carvajal admitted that the funds from the PanAmerican Sports Organization are frozen until the committee’s civil war is resolved.

Late last year, a majority of the federations of different disciplines (swimming, athletics, etc.) mounted a movement to displace Carvajal and his hand-picked roster of officials. Right now two separate sets of top officials exist and attempts at an agreement at the last meeting were brought to an abrupt end when Carvajal summarily shut down the conference.

Carvajal said he would step down but not until after the Olympic Games in China. Almost all the federations want his resignation yesterday, if not before. The heads of at least 26 Olympic sports want him out in the rancorous dispute over Carvajal’s administration. The funds are “on hold,” according to Carvajal and athletes have been attending qualifying meets with funding from the government and private firms.

(Ironically, the perpetually warring city states of ancient Greece called a truce during the Olympic Games but the quaint custom does not appear to have survived.)

by Rod Hughes

The old National Stadium, which has had some explosive sports events and loud rock concerts, will be rocked by explosions of a different sort in a couple of weeks as demolition continues to make way for a China-financed $70 million 35,000-seat sports showplace. Crews will be using dynamite on the old prefabricated concrete east and west stands, after they found that the seats could not be recycled.

Although the stands were found to be deteriorated structurally, the natural turf is another matter. The grass is to be urooted carefully and replanted in the surrounding Sabana Park, a popular recreation place in downtown San Jose. Where the nation’s All Star soccer team once trod will be taken over by boys and overage, overweight men puffing along in pick-up matches, the latter risking injury and heart attacks.

President of the National Sports Council, Osvaldo Pandolfo, explained, “A structural engineer studied the stands and decided it would be extremely difficult to save them. Moreover, he determined that it would be a very serious risk to move them to a different site because they could cause an accident.”

Jose Alfredo Sanchez of the MECO construction company agreed that an order was issued to “demolish them because they suffer fissures and do not conform to the seismic code, therefore cannot be reinstalled in another place.” (This is a pity. Many other stadiums in the country are also substandard. A few years ago, wooden stands at Nicoya (Ganacaste) collapsed during a First Divsiion soccer game before the Guanacaste club moved its franchise to Escazu. Fortunately, no serious injuries occurred.)

Pandolfo said the stands had been promised to the Carmelita First Division club for a new stadium planned for Alajuela, but, due to the deterioration, it could not be done. But Carmleita club president Carlos Gonzalez said he had yet to be notified of the change and would wait until it is official before meeting with his directors to see what must be done. Obviously, constructing new stands from the ground up will add tremendously to the new stadium’s cost.

<strong>by Rod Hughes</strong>

An early beginning to the rainy season was predicted this year, but did not materialize and the northern zone of the country around Los Chiles is suffering crop losses. The water and sewer service, A y A, is trucking potable water to the area and the Ministry of Agriculture inspection by 23 technicians say that 177 cattle have died.

Rains began in mid-April, a month early, then stopped. A survey of 132 farms in the area turned up the deaths of 177 bulls, cows and calves and a shortage of milk for veal animals. But unofficial estimates put the cattle death toll at closer to 250.

Meanwhile, hundreds of residents around Los Chiles lack water. A light rain fell for about 10 minutes at Ciudad Quesada, far to the south of Los Chiles, yesterday but not a drop in the critical areas farther to the north. The precipitation that fell on the Central Valley Sunday was heavier but hardly the torrential downpour that often opens the rainy season.

by Rod Hughes

In a country where bus transport is the main form of travel, commuters are aware that they are at the mercy of companies that do not always live up to expectations. In an unusual move, the Ministry of Transport has yanked the licenses of two bus lines and temporarily turned the concessions over to other companies.

Deputy Transport Minister Viviana Martin said a surprise inspection turned up three buses of the San Jose-Quesada Duran line that had not been presented for technical inspection. The company withdrew the units and interrupted service. The firm Cesmag from San Pedro took over the route.

A San Jose-San Vicente bus line was bumped from its route two months ago for the mechanical condition of its buses and for having flunked a quality test last year, but the owners appealed. The owner admitted that four of her units were “a little bad” but that she intended to substitute new ones, adding that she felt the line flunked last year’s inspection because of testing errors.

By and large, public mass-transit buses have improved dramatically in the past two decades, thanks to government efforts such as these. Today, commuter bus service in Costa Rica is safer, cleaner and more comfortable than in most countries of Latin America offers more complete coverage of the metropolitan area than the U.S. can boast.

by Rod Hughes

Sunday was a full day of auto racing at Costa Rica’s La Guacima circuit with Toyota Supra showing a clear dominance to an enthusiast crowd that braved afternoon rainshowers. This was the second date in the national championships and winners were Javier Quiros (Supra) in Gran Touring-1, Mariano Ramirez (Porsche 911) in GT-2, the Quiros brothers (Toyota Altezza) in GT3A and Javier Lopez (Toyota MR-2) in GT-3B categories.

Quiros pranged his car in the first heat but managed to repair the front enough to win the second go-around. In GT-3, Sirhan Wabe proved he was no racing driver wannbe by winning the first heat but in the second lost it and his Honda Civic crunched up against the retaining wall at the beginning of the main straightaway. He had fallen victim to that twin nightmare of racing drivers everywhere, oil spills followed by a light rain.

The circuit at La Guacima is tight and twisty, even in dry conditions a challenge. But it is a joy for spectators.

by Rod Hughes

Perez Zeledon, playing in its homes stadium in San Isdidro de El General, tied Alajuela 0-0 Sunday, making it an uphill climb to get into the finals for the national championship. They meet Alajuela in its home, Morera Soto Stadium next Wednesday. But neither side cheated the spectators Sunday, not letting up a bit, giving spectators their money’s worth—and that’s the name of the game, right?

As La Nacion sportswriter Arnoldo Rivera observed in his report today, Tico teams have a tendency to let up in the second half, but that wasn’t the case yesterday. Case in point: Diego Pais’s goal attempt that rebounded from the left post, nearly giving Alajuela fans heart failure. Or Alajuela’s Pablo Nasser getting sent off for his intentional foul of PZ’s Juan Gabriel Guzman as the latter positioned himself for a clear shot at the goal. That sacrifice was not in vain but left Alajuela with 10 on the pitch.

Massacre: Saprissa 5, Brujas 0

Remember our suspicion that Saprissa might have trouble with Brujas of Escazu, due to Saprissa’s monumental losing streak of the past matches? Well, forget we said anything! The big purple “S” broke out of its slump with an explosion Sunday at ST Center in Aserri. And, in part, Brujas head coach Mauircio Wright’s short game pressure tactics in the second half are at fault.

The match appeared even until minute 43 when Alejandro Alpizar, who had appeared clueless in the CONCACAF championship matches against Mexico’s Pachuca, returned to his goal-making form of early this year, scoring on a pass from Ronald Gomez. In the second half, Alpizar repeated on a penalty shot. Then did it again on a pass from Ever Alfaro. Jairo Arrieta decided Alpizar was having all the fun and contributed his goal to the rout, followed by Michael Barrantes’s tremendous long shot.

Well, soccer is a sport of surprises and why it isn’t more popular in the United States is a mystery to us. Is Brujas totally under water? It would seem so, even though they play their rival in Tibas, Saprissa home pitch, Wednesday, where Saprissa was tough even in the midst of its losing streak. But don’t bet on it. Stranger things have happened in soccer than a club’s overcoming a five-goal deficit. Unlikely, but momentum is for U.S. primary elections, not for soccer.

May 18, 2008

Free advice, for what it’s worth. A swimming pool is not a house. A house is easy to build, it is not filled with water on both sides, with no interaction allowed. I think that’s the main mistake Carlos the builder made. In case someone who reads this decides to build a pool, here are a few things I have learned.
First, get your level and install the skimmer, returns with tubes, and drain with tubes. You don’t need the pump, but get all the tubes installed up to the pump. This will allow a better seal around the drain, skimmer, and returns, as they will be in the original pour, or parging. Lay the rebar in a criss cross pattern going the length and width of the pool, and include enough length to be able to bend the bars at the top of the wall, so as to include the sidewalk in the same pour. Leave the last row and a half of block empty, and fill that with the sidewalk pour. Attach mesh to the rebar for the sidewalk. That way if the soil sinks, the sidewalk won’t.
Parge the blocks inside and out with a fine concrete mixed with a waterproofing chemical. There will, at times, be water trying to get into the blocks from the ground, and of course, the water in the pool wants out. The fill you use around the pool, under the sidewalk will make a big difference too. Good gravel compacts well and encourages drainage away from the walls of the pool.
Finally, tile it! It may be cheaper to paint the first time, but you will have to paint again. When you paint, there is an extra fine coat of concrete on the floor and walls that you don’t need if you tile. Any extra coat has a tendency to come off. If the concrete isn’t kept wet enough while curing, if there isn’t enough cement in the concrete, or if the concrete wasn’t dry or clean enough when it was painted, it will need repainting sooner, rather than later. As soon as you repaint, you have used up the savings you got by not using ceramic tile. Maybe this is a little obvious, but remember, if you want warmer water, use darker tiles.
A couple of old sayings I use as guides in my life might help you to understand this entry.
A smart person doesn’t need advice, a stupid person won’t take it.
Never let a lack of knowledge interfere with having a strong opinion.
I missed the most exciting event in Cocorocas this year. I was out shopping and paying bills, when a column of army ants came through the back of Jose’s house. Jose and his brother, Martin, walked ahead of them and watched as they devoured and insects, and even a couple of birds they caught up with. They watched on of the big cockroaches climb a twig to get away, and it was followed by a swarm that did it in quickly, and carried on. It sounds like it was fantastic to watch, better than tv. They had never seen it before. Wish I had been here to see it too.

<strong>by Rod Hughes</strong>

A report by the police intelligence agency DIS to a special congressional investigating committee yesterday reveals damning evidence of frequent references to Costa Rican political figures in e-mail communications between leaders of the guerrilla/narco-terrorist group FARC, including glowing references to a minority lawmaker and an ex-president.

The report seems to back up former Public Security Minister Fernando Berrocal’s controversial speculation that FARC may have penetrated the political scene here. The e-mails were downloaded from laptop computers captured by the Colombian army in its raid on a FARC outpost in Ecuador March 1. The raid killed 20 FARC soldiers including Raul Reyes, the organization’s number two official.

By mid-March Berrocal found himself fired by Persident Oscar Arias who even went on TV to disavow his minister’s statements. Testifying before the lawmakers this month, Berrocal did not reveal names of those with FARC connections. Yet, the DIS report says that the captured computers show some 36 messages involving such political figures as former President Rodrigo Carazo (1978-82), current Legislative Assembly Deputy Jose Merino, and a leader of the Costa Rican Electrical Institute (ICE) union Jorge Arguedas.

The DIS report also named the University of Costa Rica (UCR) Federation of Students president in 2001, Maximiliano Moreira, and a Public Employees Union lawyer Saul Umana. The computer files covered the period between 2000 and last November. Most of the allegedly damning messages were not directed to Costa Ricans but were commentaries about them.

"…(I)t will be seen how it goes with Jose Merino and others that come from the party," ran a text message from Reyes to FARC "chancellor" Rodrigo Granda on Feb. 11, 2002, "So it would be good to seek them (with patience) this way because the position of Carazo has been good toward FARC." (Carazo is one of the founders of the Social Christian Unity party and Merino heads a small minor party called <em>Frente Amplio</em>. This may have been an error of Reyes.)

A 2001 message from FARC official Marcos Urbano to Reyes reported, "We went to the University…to obtain contact and good relations with a group called GenteU that is now in the leadership of the Federation, especially with Maximiliano."

Carazo told <em>La Nacion</em> that he could not remember much about the circumstances of the Reyes message "because it was many years ago." However, he added that he met with many people at his home who "come to talk about things that have to do with peace." (Carazo turned a blind eye in the late 1970s to Sandinista military activity on the northern border in the revolution that overthrew Nicaraguan dictator Anastacio Somoza and has taken a number of positions farther left of his Unity party’s platforms.)

Legislative Assembly Deputy Merino admitted to <em>La Nacion</em>, "As a deputy, I talked with them. But after that time, I’ve never had contact with anyone considered a FARC member." Both Carazo and Merino say they were attempting to promote peace in Colombia.

But ICE union leader Arguedas may have more trouble explaining away this snippet from a communication directed to Granda: "Yesterday we talked with Jorge Arguedas…He promise us economic aid, in part, for the publication of the magazine." (Arguedas was unavailable for comment yesterday.)

Just when it appeared that the lawmakers’ FARC investigation was at a dead end, the DIS report drops a bomb sure to reverberate long and loudly, especially through such leftist organizations as the Public Employees’ Union (ANEP) and ICE’s union. This reporter can remember during the cold war being surprised to find a huge photo of Che Guevara on the wall of ANEP’s inner sanctum. But it is a big difference between that time and now: FARC is not a leftist guerrilla outfit any more but a drug-running machine willing to use hired killers and kidnapping to further its aims. This is not about ideology but about power through terrorist means.

by Rod Hughes

Alajuela’s Catholic bishop, Angel San Casimiro, lauded the Spanish-language newspaper La Nacion for uncovering allegedly illegal financial maneuverings with the use of its bank accounts. (See previous newsblog) Bishop San Casimiro continues to insist that the Episcopal Conference of eight bishops was unaware of any irregularities in the use of its pastoral funds.

Wednesday, the financial watchdog agency Sugef formally presented accusations that the Episcopal Conference had illegally acted as a stock broker without authorization of any regulatory agency. If proven, this violation of the Central Bank Codes carries a penalty of 3-6 years in prison.

San Casimiro thanked the daily paper on his weekly homily aired by the radio station Radio Monumental. In his radio talk, the bishop said the members of the Conference were not privy to the way the pastoral accounts were administered and are awaiting a decision of the courts on whether it will proceed with prosecution based on the Sugef report. Apparently, the watchdog agency warned the Conference in 2004 that its funds were being ullegally collected and administered as if it were an investment house but the violation allegedly continued.