The twins turned 10 yesterday (days that is), and are breathing normally, eating normally and are in stable condition. Hospital official have received assistance from Dr. Bradley Rogers, Chief Surgeon at the University of Virginia Children’s Hospital. They are waiting for a list of experts in this type birth defect and hope to continue studying the case with international assistance.

The twins will be released from the hospital when their mother is in stable condition and the social worker’s reports are complete.

The parents have opened an account at the Banco de Costa Rica #377-15600-0 for anyone who can assist.

Over 140 Hawsbill Turtles were released in Cahuita this week. The turtles were raised by a local association ANAI, which also raised green turtles and leatherbacks. Eggs are taken from the beach when they are laid and kept for over 2 months, protected from people and animals.

Hawksbill turtles are killed for their shells, and they lay eggs in very few places in the world, but Tortuguero near Limon is one of them.

Today Costa Rica celebrates Children’s day with activities in schools and outside of schools. Some experts recommend not buying gifts, but going on a family outing or just spending time with the kids. Merchants recommend gifts, however!

As Baxter Americas Services (BAS) inaugurated its center for financial services, the director of the Costa Rican Coalition for Development Initiatives, Emmanuel Hess, stated that different companies have announced that they will expand operations in Costa Rica. These companies focus on providing in house service to international offices or to customers in other countries, so speaking English is the primary requirement that their new employees must fill.

In the next 2 years, 5000 to 6000 jobs will be created from expansions by Sykes, IBM, Western Union, Maersk Americas, Procter and Gamble, Intel, Hewlett Packard, Alienware, Language Line and others. Currently there are 34 such operations here that generate 7000 jobs. Among them are call centers, corporate administrative processing centers, design and engineering centers, and software development centers.

The new Baxter center provides accounting services to Global Baxter International including general accounting, invoicing, payment processing, inventories, manufacturing operations and banking transactions.

The General Manager of Baxter Americas, Fernando Lujan, explained that four factors influenced the decision to locate the center in Costa Rica:
- Level of education along with the quality of professionals and technicians here
- Economic and social stability
- Competitive costs
- Geographic Location

The Presidente of Costa Rica, Abel Pacheco, spoke of the fact that Baxter chose Costa Rica over countries like India, Ireland, Mexico and Chile. “In this field, Costa Rica is actually 3rd in the world, only behind India and China in total jobs generated from outsourcing.” He emphasized that Costa Rica must increase its efforts even further, in the area of training and education, to ensure that companies continue to choose the country as a first option for these services.

Inspections by ARESEP (Regulatory Authority for Public Services) revealed that rural taxis only use their meters for decoration in many cases. Allowing them to charge users more than the official rates.

ARESEP began implementing surprise inspection because of numerous complaints by taxi takers. On September 2nd they inspected taxis in Acosta (south of San José) and found that 100% of the taxis didn’t use the meter. On August 24th, they inspected San Carlos, where 1 in 5 taxis didn’t bother with the meter. Earlier in August inspections were done in Guapiles, where only 10% of taxi drivers turned on the meter.

ARESEP reminded users to insist that drivers start the meter and not to fall for lies the drivers tell passengers. Some drivers say that the meter erases itself after 100,000 colones, so it “isn’t working” or they say that a particular route has a fixed rate.

The city government of Mora has rejected for a third time requests permission to build a landfill in Cordel. The company applying for permission will appeal. The landfill is projected as a benefit to Ciudad Colon, but neighbors have organized opposition. They claim that a seismic fault runs through the site proposed by the company and that the access to the land via the proposed routes is inadequate, so trash will end up passing through the town itself.

Local media are reporting that the President Abel Pacheco has given a green light to sending the ratification of the trade pact for consideration in the legislature, regardless of whether or not the congress approves the tax package that now appears to be in critical condition.

The President explained to business leaders during a meeting yesterday, that “once the commission of notables makes their report, he is willing to submit the plan for ratification”, according to Franco Pacheco, president of APRONAC (National Proactive Association).

At the same time the executive branch will push for some kind of vote on the tax package, looking for support from the leaders of the different legislative factions. They would like to see the plan either fail or approve, so that congress can get on with other work before the year end recess.