By Amanda Roberson Tico Times StaffCosta Rica has slipped seven spots during the past five years on the Human Development Index (HDI), a ranking that evaluates countries’ life expectancy, education and standards of living, explained U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) resident representative José Manuel Hermida during a press conference in San José yesterday.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that human development here has suffered, but it does mean that other countries are rising on the index and displacing Costa Rica, which has remained stagnant in terms of human development, Hermida explained. For example, Chile, Korea and Malta were all ranked below Costa Rica on the index in 1975 and have since then risen to rank above Costa Rica.

Poor distribution of potable water and water sanitation facilities is one of the main causes of inequality that makes for stagnant human development worldwide, according to a statement from UNDP.

In Costa Rica, only 82.8% of the population has potable water, and only 5% of wastewater is treated.

However, in terms of life expectancy, Costa Rica’s 78.3 years is in line with developing countries, Hermida explained. Costa Rica’s literacy rate (95% of adults) is also considered high.

In gender equality, Costa Rica ranks an impressive third in terms of the percentage of women in its legislature, but, on average, women earn significantly less than men, the statement said.

“For each dollar a man earns, a woman receives just $0.46, showing that the country should revise its gender equity policies to provide better opportunities for work and compensation,” said UNDP program coordinator Lara Blanco.

Another goal UNDP spelled out yesterday for Costa Rica is decreasing the number of people who live on $1 or less per day (currently 2.2% of the population).

The HDI results presented yesterday used statistics from 2004 from 175 U.N. member countries in addition to Hong Kong and the Occupied Palestine Territory. The results did not include Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia, where insufficient data is available, the statement said.

According to a study by PhishTank, 110 sites Costa Rican Internet sites are dedicated to commit frauds against web surfers.  The company made an analysis of 3,678 pages Web, in the past month of October, and determined that these 110 places try to rob money to from the people through deceit.

These pages, Costa Rican pages imitate or clone sites for payments, purchases or of banks. This technique is known as “phishing” in English.  Its aim is to obtain numbers of banking credit cards, accounts and the security codes. With this information, the delinquents enter the true sites and they rob the client.

Christopher Richarson, of the Direction of Networks and Systems of Racsa, explained that these sites send electronic mails asking to them the people who enter to update the data bases. “As they are cloned pages, people think that they are in the real one and give up personal information, accounts and security codes”, commented Richarson.

For this expert in Internet, the important thing is not to respond this type of email, since no banking organization in the country asks for an update of its data bases by electronic mail.

According to the CNE and the security Ministry, the panic caused by a fire, an earthquake or an explosion could turn the Zapote Fair into a mortal trap where thousands of people would die.

The warning stems from an investigation done in March by members of the commission, firefighters and police. The study analyzes exit and entrance routes in the area. Daniel Gallardo, director of the CNE, said yesterday that, in case of an emergency, ” the fair exit routes would be congested in 7 points, 4 of them near the festivities. For that reason, an evacuation is almost impossible, and the rescue units would take too time to arrive to the area and transfer the victims.”
These warnings were presented to the San José city council, however it voted in favor of holding the festival on Tuesday. The National Commission of Festivals assured the press that it knows the risks and that “starting today we have begun to work in all of these aspects. We are going to collaborate with all the organizations to present an evacuation plan”, said yesterday Alexander Zamora, president of the commission.

Locals are concerned by the news that a foreigner has bought the property owned by Fernando Chávez Altamarino.  The property holds the source of the water supply for the BriBri aqueduct and was bought for $7 million according to Chávez.   The treasurer of the water board confirmed the news to the Diario Extra.

“Essentialy, the Gringo bought the farm from Chávez,  I don’t know the amount.  He was offering to sell us 80 hectares for ¢50 million, so that the community would have water.  ” explained Jesús Porras Ovares.  He assured that the rural water association would continue to administer the system. He also related that Chávez had wanted to sell the farm for a long time to AyA, the city or another entity, but negotiations never came to pass.

According to a resident of the area, who preferred to remain anonymous, the foreigner intends to bottle the water and sell it.