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Meta
Autor: Writer
~ 18/09/06
and the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Costa Rica is not a banana republic. It is an Apple republic, according to President Óscar Arias Sánchez, who spoke Sunday in Denver at a gathering of some 3,000 youngsters.
Arias said that pineapple is the third biggest export of Costa Rica. Bananas are second. But in first place, he said, are computer chips made here by Intel which find their way into Macintosh products, whose logo is the apple.
Arias used the apple metaphor to show that Costa Rica has made an investment in education and the modernization of its production. And, said the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, this has been possible because in 1948 Costa Rica eliminated the military.
Arias told the youngsters, who came from many countries for the event called Peace Jam, that the United States spends at least $1 trillion a year on military and that just a fraction of that would be enough to provide clean drinking water to the 1.6 million around the world who do not have it.
Other Nobel laureates, including the Dalai Lama were at the Denver, Colorado, event.
The word security has been kidnapped by a perception that arms guarantee the welfare of people, said Arias. “The biggest killer of human beings is not Saddam Hussein, the ex-dictator of Iraq, but heart attacks. Malaria and AIDS together kill more people than al Qaeda,” said Arias.
The president is off to New York today for the General Assembly of the United Nations where he will urge adoption of his proposal to approve a treaty that would keep track of the international sale of weapons.
Casa Presidencial said that Arias obtained support from various Nobel laureates to back his resolution.
President George Bush also is on the list of world leaders and government ministers gathering in New York this week for the annual U.N. General Assembly debate. This year’s event takes on added significance, with negotiations on the sidelines to determine who will be the world body’s next secretary-general.
For Latin American countries, there is the added question of what country will occupy one of the non-permanent seats on the Security Council. The U.S. backs Guatemala, but Venezuela also wants the seat.
The debate begins Tuesday, and over seven days, more than 80 heads of state and government will address the assembly. Bush will speak at the opening session, along with the leaders of France, Finland, Poland, South Africa, Pakistan and Brazil.
Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, is slated to speak late in the day, but he will not cross paths with Bush.
The Assembly debate has become an occasion for bilateral and group meetings among world leaders, as well as for forums and conferences. Bush’s schedule includes a one-on-one chat with Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and private meetings with several of his fellow heads of state.
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