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Vol. 3 • Edition 167 • Weekly • Dic 16 - Dic 22, 2008 Costa Rica, Central America • $1ºº
americas
global affairs
entertainment
sports
Playas del Coco, Guanacaste506.2670.2212 www.pacifico-costarica.com
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Cows — animals that have been an integral part of Guanacaste’s economy and culture — have overtaken the parks of Liberia and Filadelfia. But on this occa-sion, the grazing ruminants are a bit less aggressive and, well, of drastically different breeds.
A sampling of the popular “Cow Parade,” which in previous months filled with color and creativity the streets of San Jose, arrived in the cantons of Liberia and Carrillo, so that folks living in areas other than the Central Valley could enjoy this unique popular culture exhibit — where the starts are life-size, fiber-glass sculptures of bovines decorated in a variety of ways.
For example, at the Mario Cañas Park in Liberia, we could see a very flirty and daring cow showing her udderly intimate goods, but also a gas mask-wearing
ruminant that challenged us to become aware of the problem of pollution on the planet. Also part of the ex-hibit was “Vacanal,” a very colorful specimen sporting bunches of grapes and other signs of debauchery. And there was of course “Vaca Up,” inspired by the mod-ern world of computers and electronics. Hundreds of children, and others not so young, approached the pa-rade to have their photographs taken along with these all-of-a-sudden popular idols.
The Municipality of San Jose, which organized the Cow Parade in the capital city, accepted an invitation from the two Guanacaste cantons to loan them the show. Once the exhibit in San Jose was over, the local government decided to take the show on the road to 12 cantons outside of the Central Valley — a sampling of the Cow Parade known as “Tour de las Vacas.”
AFP
AFP
Hundreds of children, and others not so young, approached the parade to have their photographs taken along with these all-of-a-sudden popular idols. TGJ/InfoWebPress
AFP
Colorful cows grazein Guanacaste
Cow Parade arrives in the Pampa
P.22
P.21
P.23
P. 14
Global climate deal? Yes we can, Gore says
The way is “now clear” to sign a global climate agreement in 2009, helped greatly by the election of Barack Obama as U.S. president, Nobel-winning green activist Al Gore said.
Rice urges Latin America to back free trade despite crisis
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on Latin American countries to maintain support for free trade despite the world financial crisis, at a regional meeting in Panama.
Heavyweight movie stars took center stage last week as Holly-wood’s awards season got under-way with the unveiling of nomi-nees for next month’s Golden Globe Awards.
Yao, LeBron, Kobe among early All-Star vote leaders
Yao Ming, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant were among the leaders in the first balloting infor-mation for the 58th National Bas-ketball Association All-Star Game released last week.
P.20
Heavyweights dominate as Golden Globes nominees unveiled
2 Dic 16 - Dic 22, 2008
P.04 Lead StoryP.06 Business & EconomyP.10 SocietyP.14 CultureP.16 Week In Brief P.17 Science And Tech.
P.18 HealthP.19 EuropeP.20 Global AffairsP.21 AmericasP.22 Entertainment P.23 Sports
costa rica basicsArea: 51,000 km2Population: 4,075,261 (July 2006)Capital: San JoseLanguage: SpanishTime Zone: UTC/GMT-6 hours
costa rica tiDes cHart
convertion tab
UsefUl nUmbers
emergenciesEMERGENCY SERVICES 911Fire 2688-8918Medical Alert (Ambulance) 2670-0258OIJ (Police Special Branch) 2690-0128Red Cross 2666-0994Hospital Liberia 2666-0011Hospital Nicoya 2685-8400Hospital San José 2257-7922Clinic (Coco) 2670-0987Clinic (Liberia) 2666-1881Emergency Medical Service 8380 41 25 24 hrs.
transportCentral Line San José 2257-7214 2221-9115Central Line Liberia 2666-0085Interbus 2283-5573 Fax: 2283-7655Pulmitan Liberia 2666-0458 2666-3818Tica Bus 2666-0371
lost credit cardsAmerican Express 0 800 012 3211Mastercard 0 800 011 0184Visa 0 800 011 0030
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Call center 8380-4125 • 24hrsQuepos - Jaco - Cobano - Tamarindo
Huacas - Sardinal - Liberia
Vol3•Edition167 Dic16-Dic22,2008 CostaRica,CentralAmerica OUR TEAM Marta Araya, Marketing & Sales Manager
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Information for Pacific Coastalso insiDe
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bUsiness & economyExpected tourist visitation figures revised; numbers slightly down
Even though as of late November the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) had estimated that some 872,141 tourists would visit Costa Rica in the up-coming high season (November through March), such estimates have been revised as a result of the global economic crisis. (P.6)
society Highway between Liberia and Peñas Blancas to be expandedIn the past edition of The Guanacaste Journal, we informed about the
project to widen the section of the Pan American Highway North between Liberia and Cañas to four lanes. (P.10)
cUltUreColorful cows graze in Guanacaste
Cows — animals that have been an integral part of Guanacaste’s econo-my and culture — have overtaken the parks of Liberia and Filadelfia. But on this occasion, the grazing ruminants are a bit less aggressive and, well, of drastically different breeds. (P.14)
HealtHAutism, other disorders linked to post-natal factors
Autism and obsessive-compulsive disorders may be linked to factors oth-er than genetics, despite widely held beliefs otherwise, according to a study published last week in the American journal Neuron. (P. 18)
eUropeEU seal deals on economy, climate packages
EU leaders sealed an agreement last week for a 200 billion euro plan designed to dig Europe out of recession and a package to combat global warming on the final day of a crunch summit in Brussels. (P. 19)
global affairsJapan unveils giant package to beat financial ‘tsunami’
Japan unveiled a giant 255 billion-dollar stimulus package, vowing that Asia’s largest economy would be the first nation to beat a once-in-a-century financial “tsunami.” (P.20)
americasMexico vows to cut carbon pollution 50 percent by 2050
Mexico said it would slash its carbon pollution by 50 percent before 2050, joining Brazil among large developing economies to pledge large reductions in greenhouse gases. (P. 21)
entertainmentHeavyweights dominate as Golden Globes nominees unveiled Heavyweight movie stars took center stage last week as Hollywood’s
awards season got underway with the unveiling of nominees for next month’s Golden Globe Awards. (P. 22)
sportsOutgoing U.S. President not interested in bossing baseball
U.S. President George W. Bush has no interest in becoming the next com-missioner of Major League Baseball, telling the Washington Post he looks forward to escaping the global spotlight. (P.23)
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According to the new Transit Law, transporting children without a safety seat will be punished harshly.
(InfoWebPress – www.journalcr.com) — Last Dec. 8, the new Transit Law was finally approved by the Legislative Assembly, es-tablishing stiff fines on careless drivers. The new legislation could become effective this December if it’s published on time in the official government newspaper, La Gaceta. Other penalties would be applied within nine months, once the respective rulebooks are drafted.
Passing of the law came with the support of 45 legislators, with four opposing it. It punishes irresponsible drivers more harshly than any other similar piece of legislation en-acted before in the country.
For example, the new law created penal-ties of one to three years in jail for drivers who operate under the influence of alcohol
— that is, those whose blood-alcohol levels are 0.75 grams of alcohol per liter of blood or higher.
Jail sentences will also be imposed on those who drive at a speed of 150 kilometers (93 miles) or more per hour. Those drivers would also lose their license for two years.
Passing of the new fines came after the Ex-ecutive Power called on all political parties represented in Congress to give the Transit Law expeditious approval.
Other novelties in the law include penalties of six months to eight years of incarceration for the crime of homicidio culposo (wrong-ful death) resulting from a traffic accident. Additionally, those people driving without a license will have to pay 227,000 colones (around $410) in fines. A similar fine will be
imposed on reckless drivers and those driv-ing drunk, who will also lose their license automatically.
If you drive with children 12 years of age and under and they are not on a child safety seat, you can also be imposed the same stiff penalty of $410 and have your license taken away. The child seat measure was lobbied by the National Children’s Hospital as a way to reduce the severity of injuries suffered by minors involved in car accidents. It doesn’t apply to public transportation means such as
buses and taxis.
Drivers who disregard traffic signals such as red lights, stop signs or who turn incorrect-ly at an intersection will have to pay a fine of 165,000 colones ($300). The same fine will be assessed to drivers caught talking on their cell phones while operating a vehicle.
Even though the new legislation seeks to reduce the increasing number of fatal traffic accidents on Costa Rica’s roads, some groups have opposed the measure arguing it will dis-proportionately impact certain groups of the population and it might foment corruption.
Regarding drivers of public transportation vehicles, the new law will punish taxi drivers and bus drivers who inadequately treat pas-sengers.
New transit Law approved; tough penalties created
(InfoWebPress – www.journalcr.com) — In the midst of an unavoidable international recession, Costa Rica’s exporting sector is preparing to face the unfavorable market conditions that are approaching. One plan is to try to attract new companies to make di-rect investments in the country.
“Today, more than ever, wee need an strong exporting sector, prepared for this difficult international juncture and work-ing closely with the government to jointly solve the problems that will come around, as well as to seize the opportunities that will emerge,” Presidency Minister Rodrigo Arias told local producers and exporters who gath-ered to celebrate the National Exporters Day last week.
Meanwhile, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias warned of a period of “skinny cows” next year, particularly highlighting the chal-lenges facing the country’s tourism industry. He compared the current economic contrac-tion to the depression experienced in the United States in the 1930s.
At the meeting with exporters, Minister Arias announced several measures the gov-ernment will implement to deal with the complex international financial landscape, which right now has several of the world’s strongest economy in recession, including the United States — and which will decrease the consumption level of imported goods, including some of Costa Rica’s key agricul-
tural products.
“Such trends could deepen the impact of the crisis at the domestic level, but it would be irresponsible to change the strategy that has yielded so many good results up to now,” Rodrigo Arias explained. “On the contrary, our response to this crisis consists in dou-bling our efforts on the domestic front, so that we can improve the competitiveness of national production among the main currents of world commerce.”
The Minister and Acting President Fran-cisco Antonio Pacheco agreed that Costa Ri-ca’s strategy should be one of “getting out to the world and widening the doors to national goods and services.”
“We are a nation of four and a half mil-lion people, one of the smallest in the world, and thus we depend, completely, on our trade agreements with other countries to be not only a secure country, but a prosperous one,” said Pacheco, who is also the head of Congress. He pointed out to Costa Rica’s es-tablishment of a free trade agreement with the United States (CAFTA) and ongoing ne-gotiations to hammer out similar deals with the European Union, China and other Asian powerhouses such as Singapore.
As a matter of fact, free trade deals with Asian nations are being considered right now as a good alternative to empower the local exporting sector.
“For small nations such as ours, free ac-cess to international markets is not a luxu-ry, but a necessity,” Pacheco claimed. “It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the coun-tries that have reduced their poverty levels
the most in the past few years, are those that have opened their markets to foreign invest-ment. China, India, Ireland and Chile are all good examples. The success they have had is entirely too important not to imitate it.”
Efforts seek to strengthen country’s exporting sector
Foreign Trade Minister Marco Vinicio Ruiz hopes the country’s exports portfolio will be able to weather the severe slowdown suffered by international markets. TGJ/InfoWebPress
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(InfoWebPress – www.journalcr.com) — Even though as of late November the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) had estimated that some 872,141 tourists would visit Costa Rica in the upcoming high season (Novem-ber through March), such estimates have been revised as a result of the global eco-nomic crisis.
Even though the estimates represent an increase in number of visitors compared with the 2007-2008 high tourist season (dur-ing which 846,146 foreigners visited Costa Rica), new data released on Dec. 9 indicates that since August there has been a steady decrease in the number of tourists coming here.
The accumulated number of visitors in the past 12 months (ending in October) was 10,000 tourists less than in the 12-month pe-riod ending last August. In the specific case of Guanacaste, 11,500 tourists visited here in October — 3,500 less compared with the same month in 2007.
In response to these dwindling numbers, the country has been seeking alternatives to diversity its tourism promotion efforts. For example, a group of 16 Costa Rican com-panies participated in the International Tour-ism Fair of Latin America (FIT), which is considered the most important travel indus-try meeting point in the region, from Nov. 1-4 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Tour operators, hotels and rent-a-cars op-erating in Costa Rica set up their displays and networked at FIT 2008, which for the past 12 years has been gathering representa-tives of the tourism industry from all over Latin America and other parts of the world — thus becoming a key platform for maxi-mizing capacities of each of its attendees.
Considering the economic and financial recession in which the United States has de-scended, Costa Rican tourism business also saw in the recent 2008 Central American Travel Market (CATM) another option to reach out to the European market.
The United States continues to be the main source of tourists for Central America. But with the decline in visitation due to the cur-rent economic outlook, countries the region are looking for alternative markets by jointly promoting themselves at international fairs.
That’s all Central American countries pre-sented their offerings as a block at CATM 2008, which was held Oct. 10-12 at the Crowne Plaza Convention Center in Mana-gua, Nicaragua.
Costa Rica is also banking on the recent designation of its Tourism Minister, Car-los Ricardo Benavides, as president of the World Tourism Organization’s (UNWTO) executive council. The appointment is not only being seen as a special recognition for the country, but tourism industry representa-
tives also consider it a launching pad to con-solidate Costa Rica’s image and positioning on the international tourism map, according to
Costa Rica’s economy depends on tour-ism in a direct way, as this activity generates foreign revenue to the tune of $2 billion an-nually.
Expected tourist visitation figures revised; numbers slightly down
Tourism Minister Carlos Ricardo Benavides announced the new, lower estimates regarding tourist visitation to Costa Rica this high season. TGJ/InfoWebPress
MBA Fin. Jorge SegurAPreSident-dCL ProPerty [email protected]
Despite what you might believe, in this time of crisis not all sources of financing are closing their credit lines. It is true the bank-ing sector is in trouble all around the world, and will not reactivate aggressively their fi-nancing programs probably until the end of 2009. Today, most banks are too afraid to take the risks involved in financing develop-ment projects at the beginning of a recession, and in the middle of a banking crisis.
As a result of it, banks in the USA, and Costa Rica, have closed or reduced substan-tially their credit lines for real estate projects, or tourism related activities. The few who will continue lending to players in our indus-try have taken measures to reduce their risk by toughening requirements.
However, there are sources of financing willing to continue in the market. These are private investment funds that did not have their assets invested Wall Street, but in de-velopment projects all around the world. It is true; most of them stopped operations dur-ing the last two months in order to assess the impact of the mortgage crisis on their short term investments, and the portfolio of their investors. Nevertheless, after that analysis was done, they designed their investment strategies for next year. Now, we are starting to see some action.
For instance, in the case of the funds that my Firm represents, none of them will leave the Costa Rican market. They have been directed to continue penetrating our mar-ket, and prepare new investment packages for analysis during the first months of next year, and closing during the second quarter of 2009.
The fact that there are Funds still willing to invest in Costa Rica is good news for those who require equity and debt financing. Nev-ertheless, to obtain project financing from an international Fund you should be aware of the following: 1) Funds will be willing to finance your project, but you should be ready to dem-onstrate its market viability. 2) Your project’s credit and market risks are subjected to in-depth analysis. 3) Funds are aware that credit money will be scarce during the next year. Thus, most of them have the opportunity to pick and choose the countries and the proj-
ects that they finance. 4) Neither the Funds not the loan brokers are in the habit of court-ing borrowers; they would rather pass up a good project with a difficult owner than deal with a problem client. 5) There is currently an increase in the number of Funds willing to enter into Joint Venture agreements, as silent partners. 6) Funds prefer well organized proj-ects, with experienced development teams (in-house or under outsourcing contracts), over those projects with no organization, and weak development teams. 7) Funds will not finance projects which are just an idea, and have generated no value. The minimum they expect is a project with land, a solid concept, an organization, and at least ready to start the permits process. 8) The financing process is getting slower due to the overwhelming amount of requests, and the fact that Funds need to make an in-depth credit analysis on every request that is accepted. For instance, last year it took a month to get the interest of lenders, and two to three months to get the commitment and closing the deal. Nowa-days, is taking 30 to 45 days to obtain their interest, three to five months for the due dili-gence, the commitment, and closing the deal. Therefore, patience is key for a successful loan request. 9) Funds are requesting clean assets (at market prices) as loan guarantees. This means that properties may have annota-tions due to loans but not due to lawsuits. 10) You must be able to provide reliable finan-cial information, and projections prepared by professionals. 11) Do not expect the work and the money to come for free just because there are success fees involved in the deal, you must be prepared to invest in the effort. A serious loan brokerage operation invests between 400 to 1,000 hours of work in the promotion and the closing of a single deal, so they will not work for free. Additionally, most Funds charge up front fees that must be paid by the borrower, although they are re-covered if the loan is not granted. 12) Funds do not like to deal directly with borrowers because they lose their patience and objectiv-ity easily. Getting financing is as much a PR issue as it is a business issue.
Finally if you decide to opt for a private loan you should know that loan brokers and Funds are both professional organizations with one single goal, getting your loan ap-proved ASAP; otherwise everybody will lose time and money.
This article, previously published in Issue 165, is reprinted now by request of several readers.
A different ball game
8 Dic 16 - Dic 22, 2008 BUSiNESS
(InfoWebPress – www.journalcr.com) — Even though the Marina Papagayo, located on Culebra Bay in the Gulf of Papagayo, recently announced that it would begin op-erations on January 2009, the first phase of the project was actually inaugurated this Monday, Dec. 15, thanks to the fact that it received the respective authorization by the Marinas and Tourist Docks Inter-institutional Commission (CIMAT).
In this way, Marina Papagayo complied with what had been established in its con-tract with the Papagayo Tourism Develop-ment project — that is, begin operating in late 2008.
The marina includes 108 acres that will initially hold 180 wet slips and 200 dry slips. Size of the vessels that would be arriving to this harbor can range from 40 to 285 feet (12 to 87 meters).
Boats that harbor here will enjoy a series of amenities, including immigration servic-es, fuel dock, high-speed Internet, electricity, phone service, minor repair services for ves-sels, and wastewater disposal. Initial invest-ment in the project is $15 million, said Ro-berto Kopper, director of Marina Papagayo.
Papagayo is the second marina construct-ed in Costa Rica under the law in effect since 1998. Los Sueños, in Herradura Beach on the Central Pacific, has been open since 2001.
Construction of the 350-slip marina began in 2007. The docking facility is part of Penin-
sula Papagayo, a 2,300-acre resort develop-ment, which includes 15 miles of coastline, 14 miles of bluffs, and 31 separate beaches. Brandy Marine International has named to manage Marina Papagayo, taking care of the facility’s 24/7 concierge service for all tran-sient, seasonal, and annual customers.
Access to the marina will be public, via National Route 253, which begins at the in-tersection to the Gulf of Papagayo at Guardia. The road will be revamped to provide better access to the area’s new tourism amenity.
It is estimated that construction of the ma-
rina is generating some 470 direct jobs, and that during full operation the facility will provide employment to some 360 people.
The second phase of the project, scheduled for completion around 2010, will add some 200 more slips.
(InfoWebPress – www.journalcr.com) — This year, the National Insurance Institute (INS) is expecting to gather a total of 135 billion colones ($245.5 million) for the 2009 mandatory marchamo road circulation per-mit. Of this amount, the INS is entitled to manage 29.5 billion colones ($53.6 million) — the portion of the permit that goes toward the Mandatory Vehicle Insurance.
By the end of November, the government had collected 3.5 billion colones in mar-chamo fees. Of the vehicle owners who had paid up to that point, 21,372 did so over the Internet.
Beginning on Nov. 21, the INS began charging for next year’s marchamo permit, with a little over one million invoices going out to drivers.
The funds collected by this tax will be distributed among the various institutions whose fees are included in the invoice, with the Ministry of Treasury being the main ben-eficiary (60.3 percent of the total pot).
The deadline for paying without a late fee is Dec. 31, 2008. After that, vehicle owners can still obtain their windshield sticker and be legal, but will have to pay additional fines — plus if they drive with an expired permit, they will be exposed to losing their license plates during Transit Police compliance checks.
In addition to any INS offices, the marcha-mo can be paid at banks such Banco Naciona, Banco Popular, Banca Promerica, Banco de Costa Rica, Banco San Jose, HSBC, Scotia-bank, Citibank, Bancredito and Banco BCT.
INS’s request to increase the marchamo fee this year was turned down by the Public Services Regulatory Authority (ARESEP), which after reviewing the request found sig-nificant reasons to make the tax higher.
The marchamo charge includes several items, including the Mandatory Vehicle Insurance, Vehicle Ownership Tax, fiscal stamps, wildlife protection tax, charges for any traffic tickets, and other minor fees. The only portion of the total amount the INS uses
for its operations is the vehicle insurance; for the others, the state company also serves as collector, later distributing the fees to their respective beneficiaries.
According to guidelines in the Transit
Law, vehicle owners can only pay for and obtain circulation permits once their vehicles have passed a technical inspection — which is conducted at authorized RITEVE service stations. It’s not necessary to present any evidence of the inspection to INS or bank tellers when paying the marchamo, as they will be able to check online whether or not the vehicle has passed the inspection, just by entering the vehicle’s license plate number. According to RITEVE, its system will be updated every 30 minutes. The online actu-alization option, however, does not apply to vehicles registered for the first time. Owners of those vehicles must present written proof of the technical inspection when obtaining the permit.
Other requirements for obtaining the mar-chamo permit include showing the respective valid ID of the person making the payment and providing the license plate number.
Sanctions for those who don’t pay for the marchamo can go from withdrawal of license plates to impounding of the vehicle.
Officials expect to receive ¢135 billion for marchamo permits
This year, the cost of the marchamo vehicle circulation permit did not go up — but the National Insurance Institute (INS) will collect more money because there are more cars in circulation. TGJ/InfoWebPress
Marina Papagayo starts operations this month, earlier than announced
The first phase of the Marina Papagayo project was inaugurated last Dec. 15, with 180 slips. Users will have all amenities available to them, including immigration and government services and state-of-the-art technological tools to make their stay free of hassle. Photo Comunicacion Coporrativa
10 Dic 16 - Dic 22, 2008 society
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(InfoWebPress – www.journalcr.com) — In the past edition of The Guanacaste Journal, we informed about the project to widen the section of the Pan American Highway North between Liberia and Cañas to four lanes.
Now, the government has announced plans to expand other sections of the highway be-tween Barranca and Arizona de Abangares (Puntarenas province), Arizona-Cañas, and Liberia-Peñas Blancas (border with Nicara-gua).
The Pan American Highway North expan-sion works, which include the four projects mentioned above, will be financed through a loan provided by the Inter-American De-velopment Bank (IDB) for $850 million. The highway will go from the current two lanes to four. The works also include the construc-tion of bike paths, pedestrian bridges and bus bays.
Involved in the project are the Ministry of Transportation and Public Infrastructure (MOPT), the ministries of the Treasury and Planning, the Costa Rican Central Bank, and Guanacaste municipalities.
Construction of the Liberia-Cañas section will begin next year, entailing reconstruction and widening of 54 kilometers between the two Guanacaste cities. This project was cho-sen first because no land expropriation will
be needed to accommodate the additional lanes. Some 3,000-4,000 vehicles circulate daily on this road.
MOPT would publish bidding specifica-tions for this project this month, so t hat con-struction can begin in the second semester of 2009. It hasn’t been determined yet whether the road will be paved using asphalt or con-crete.
However, the highway initiative is already drawing complaints from environmental groups, which believe such expansion could impact valuable natural resources in the area. Freddy Pacheco, an environmentalist and National University (UNA) professor, pointed out that there are ongoing plans by the government to build a reservoir at La Cueva — which would require redesign of the highway.
Pacheco said that last July 25, in Nicoya, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias and the ministers of the Environment, Presidency and Agriculture, signed an executive decree that would give the La Cueva Reservoir the title of “Project of Public Interest and Na-tional Benefit.”
The reservoir project “would practically derail plans tied to the loan through which the highway between Liberia and Peñas Blancas on the northern border would be financed,”
Pacheco said.“We are, thus, before one of the many
negative consequences stemming from the La Cueva project, which also entails the de-struction by flooding of 380 wooded hectares of the Horizones Section of the Santa Rosa National Park, dozens of houses and 700 hectares of cattle ranches,” Pacheco added.
The environmentalist claimed that this res-ervoir “wouldn’t even have a positive impact on satisfying drinking water needs for the province’s tourism development.”
Despite these concerns, the project is slated to begin next year once a contractor is chosen.
Highway between Liberia and Peñas Blancas to be expanded
The expansion to four lanes of the Pan American Highway North will begin at Barranca and end on the border with Nicaragua, at Peñas Blancas. TGJ/InfoWebPress
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14 Dic 16 - Dic 22, 2008 CULtURE
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(InfoWebPress – www.journalcr.com) — Several organizations are collecting food and toys this December with the goal of giving out presents to Guanacaste low-income fami-lies during the holidays.
For example, the Chorotega Regional Campus of the National University (UNA) is organizing a social-outreach project called “UNAvidad: Delivering Illusions.”
“From some time now, this activity has been taken place and has become a tradition, through which we have been able to awaken many smiles among the children of Guana-caste,” a statement issued by UNA said. “We have managed to accomplish many dreams and meet the needs of many low-income families in the region.”
UNAvidad’s goal this year is to collect 1,000 presents as well as food baskets that will be delivered to communities with fami-lies in needs.
Another effort is the Bazar Navideño, which began in early December to benefit Guanacaste public schools. It’s promoted by Amigos de la Educacion (Friends of Educa-tion), with support from Tamarindo Heights and Tamarindo Preserve. Several activities for children were organized and there was also a mailbox for Santa Claus letters.
Also in Tamarindo, on Dec. 14 several individuals and associations got together to collect clothing and toys for the Santa Cruz Orphanage.
Meanwhile, on Dec. 10, a group of chil-dren from the Parish at Zapote de Carrillo, in Nicoya, received presents from the Office of the Costa Rican President’s Social Support Bureau.
“Christmas time is here again, and with it, the Social Support Bureau seeks to fill the
hearts of thousands of children around the country with joy,” said Mariangela Oritz, director of this division of the President’s Office, referring to the “Navidad Solidaria” initiative, whose goal is to provide presents for low-income children.
According to Ortiz, the initiative this year donated more than 7,000 presents, thanks to the sponsorship of the Chinese Embassy, Banco de Costa Rica, Toys and Cemaco — among other entities that answered the call to contribute to this charity drive.
Presents were also delivered to commu-nity groups from all around the country, in-cluding the Jabillos de Pavones de Turrialba Community Association, community devel-opment associations of Pueblo Nuevo de Parrita and the Zapaton Indigenous Territory, among others.
Through these and many other activities, the spirit of Christmas is alive again in the act of making sure that children living in support and other adverse conditions feel the support of their communities.
Groups work to make Christmas brighter for Guanacaste children
(InfoWebPress – www.journalcr.com) — Cows — animals that have been an integral part of Guanacaste’s economy and culture — have overtaken the parks of Liberia and Filadelfia. But on this occasion, the grazing ruminants are a bit less aggressive and, well, of drastically different breeds.
A sampling of the popular “Cow Parade,” which in previous months filled with color and creativity the streets of San Jose, arrived in the cantons of Liberia and Carrillo, so that folks living in areas other than the Central Valley could enjoy this unique popular cul-ture exhibit — where the starts are life-size, fiberglass sculptures of bovines decorated in a variety of ways.
For example, at the Mario Cañas Park in Liberia, we could see a very flirty and daring cow showing her udderly intimate goods, but also a gas mask-wearing ruminant that chal-lenged us to become aware of the problem of pollution on the planet. Also part of the exhibit was “Vacanal,” a very colorful speci-men sporting bunches of grapes and other signs of debauchery. And there was of course “Vaca Up,” inspired by the modern world of computers and electronics. Hundreds of chil-dren, and others not so young, approached the
parade to have their photographs taken along with these all-of-a-sudden popular idols.
The Municipality of San Jose, which or-ganized the Cow Parade in the capital city, accepted an invitation from the two Guana-caste cantons to loan them the show. Once the exhibit in San Jose was over, the local government decided to take the show on the road to 12 cantons outside of the Central Val-ley — a sampling of the Cow Parade known as “Tour de las Vacas.”
The cows arrived in Guanacaste last Thursday and were expected to remain here for a week, leaving after that to San Isidro de El General on the Southern Zone — where their tour will end.
Even though some of the bovine artistic creations had already been sold on auction in San Jose, the tour was also an opportunity for companies in the region interested in obtain-ing one of these pieces of art to do so. That way, they could buy them without the need to attend the auctions in San Jose and, above all, to help charity — as 70 percent of the price of each cow goes to nonprofit organizations, including the National Children’s Hospital Foundation, Hogares CREA (drug rehabilita-
tion), Fundacion Vida and Obras del Espiritu Santo. The remaining 30 percent goes to the artist who gave life to the cow.
So far, 56 of the show’s 120 cows have been sold, for a total of $173,400. Each char-ity benefiting from the sale has already re-ceived an advance of $6,500.
The Mayor of Liberia thanked the Munici-pality of San Jose for allowing Guanacaste-cans to enjoy this unprecedented show.
Meanwhile, San Jose Mayor Johnny Ara-ya said that it was a pleasure to take the show to Guanacaste, a province so familiar with livestock activities, and highlighted the im-portance of cultural activities on the quality of life of communities.
“I’m very pleased with the Municipality of Liberia for having accepted this sampling of popular art, which shows that culture must be a part of the work municipalities do, because a country without culture is a country with-out a soul,” Araya said.
A popular culture initiative, the Cow Pa-rade began in Zurich, Switzerland — a coun-try whose economy has historically been ties to dairy production. A group of business owners there came up with the idea of cre-ating life-size fiberglass cows, later inviting artists to decorate them. The show was so well received that it was taken to other cities, including London, Paris and Madrid.
San Jose was the fourth Latin America city to host such a show.
Colorful cows graze in GuanacasteCow Parade arrives in the Pampa
Jose Miguel, a boy only one and a half years old, found the “Vaca Up” — a Windows-themed cow — very tame, reason for which he got very close to the fake ruminant and may have even thought about adopting it as his pet. TGJ/InfoWebPress
A group of children from Zapote de Carrillo, in Nicoya, received Christmas gifts as part of the activities conducted by nonprofit groups to deliver joy during the holidays. Photo Casa Presidencial
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(InfoWebPress – www.journalcr.com) — Almacenes del Pacifico HA (ALPHA) S.A. unveiled this Dec. 15 the new location of its customs depot, near Liberia’s Daniel Oduber International Airport.
The warehouse is located off the national road leading to the Daniel Oduber Airport, 200 meters west from the entrance to EARTH University. With 3,500 square meters of cov-ered storage space and 7,000 square meters of space for movement of containers — the depot will handle air, land and sea cargo.
Almacenes del Pacifico HA (ALPHA) S.A. is ISO 9002: 2000-certified and has been properly authorized by the National Customs Office to operate as a customs agency and a declarations office for national and interna-tional transit and customs carriers.
The new location will service import and export activity taking place at the La Anex-ion and Peñas Blancas customs offices.
(InfoWebPress – www.journalcr.com) — The strong rains and flooding caused by Tropical Storm Hanna earlier this year also led to the contamination of water wells, mostly in Guanacaste. As a way to respond in the future to catastrophes such as this, the Costa Rican Red Cross and the Pan Ameri-can Disaster Response Unit (PADRU) of-fered the first Water, Sanitation and Health and Hygiene Promotion Workshop in an effort to train emergency personnel in post-disaster recovery.
During a week, more than 20 Red Cross personnel from various parts of the country gathered in Liberia to receive both theoreti-cal and hands-on training. The workshop was led by Peter Finley, volunteer instructor with the International Red Cross and Red Cres-cent Federation. The emergency personnel were trained in maintenance and operation of water-well rehabilitation equipment.
In response to a request by the Costa Rican Red Cross, PADRU secured the approval of a Disaster Relieve Emergency Fund (DREF) in the amount of 20,000 euros, which were invested in providing the training and ac-quiring emergency equipment such as sub-mersible pumps, turbidimeters and portable water lab equipment to assist in post-disaster work.
Ronny Campos, coordinator of this ini-tiative, explained that during the rainy sea-
son or due to the effects of extreme weather phenomena, the odds that drinking water reserves experience some kind of contami-nation increase substantially. That’s why the Red Cross wants to work with affected communities that have a hard time accessing drinking water during emergencies.
“A team for well cleanup has been trained, thus strengthening the work done by the Red Cross, and we are also carrying out water-well maintenance and cleaning tasks to help some communities recover normal access to water,” Campos explained.
The new capabilities will allow the Red Cross to not only assist families during emergencies, but also help them rehabilitate following natural disasters — contributing to improve the lives of people living in vulner-able conditions.
This past rainy season left its mark in Guanacaste in particular, causing entire com-munities to be cut off from access and basic supplies, destroying bridges, and sending thousands of people to temporary shelters.
Several sheltes had to be established along the province, including some in La Cruz, Fi-ladelfia and Bagaces.
Some of the worst damages from the storms and flooding occurred in La Cruz can-ton, where the Tempisque River originates — causing flooding in Filadelfia and leaving
communities such as La Guinea completely isolated. The heavy rains also affected the Canal Sur (a key irrigation pipeline), whose operation was only reestablished in late No-vember.
international agency trains emergency personnel in post-disaster water well
rehabilitation in Guanacaste
Costa Rican Red Cross volunteers have taken on the task of cleaning up wells to guarantee the quality of drinking water. Photo CRC
The new customs warehouse in Liberia will serve the needs of cargo entering and leaving through the Daniel Oduber International Airport. Photo Grupo H.A.
Customs depot inaugurated in
Liberia
PolITICsPresident Arias calls for prayer
heading into 2009(Inside Costa Rica) — Costa Rican Presi-
dent Oscar Arias warned that 2009 will be a “very difficult year” and that poverty and unemployment will increase. “For a prosper-ous new year, we have to pray a lot,” said Arias while attending an official function at the Herradura Hotel in San Jose. Arias added that with the rise in unemployment, there could be a rise in crime. “I cannot paint for the Ticos a rosy picture, when it is grey,” the leader added. Arias blames the bleak future to the world financial crisis, and asked legisla-tors for quick approval of the Capitalization Bill for State Banks, which would provide an infusion of $117 million for small to medium sized manufacturers.
Quick approval of bank capitalization bill in jeopardy(Inside Costa Rica) — Delays by legisla-
tors in ratifying nomination of the SUTEL board members is affecting the legislative session agenda and putting in danger the speedy passage of the government’s plan to inject $117.5 million into the Costa Rican economy. Legislators last week boycotted the legislative session, forcing its cancella-tion and affecting approval of the extraordi-nary budget for 2008. The Arias government has included in the budget a injection of $50 million each for Banco Nacional (BN) and Banco de Costa Rica (BCR), and $17.5 mil-lion for Bancredito, so they can provide loans for small- and medium-sized manufacturers.
BusIness & eConomy
ticos aware of international crisis, domestic impact
(Al Dia) — Costa Ricans are aware of the international economic crisis and the fact that it’s beginning to affect their country, and that it will continue to do so in 2009, according to a poll conducted by the University of Costa Rica’s (UCR) Center for Political Studies and Research. Of the 1,118 people polled, 95.3 percent said the crisis is being felt in their lives already, while 4.7 percent said they still don’t feel the effects of the global recession. Over 80 percent of the respondents said the crisis will strongly affect the country during next year. And 62.5 percent of participants indicated that the upcoming administration of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama will be better for Costa Rica than the government of George W. Bush.
JetBlue joins Costa Rican air market; flying to Orlando now
cheaper(Al Dia) — U.S. discount airline JetBlue
announced that it will begin daily nonstop flights between Orlando and San Jose’s Juan Santamaria International Airport on March 26. The New York-based company also said it would begin daily nonstop service from Or-lando to Bogota, Colombia — its first South American destination — on Jan. 29, and to Nassau, Bahamas, on Feb. 1. For the San Jose service, JetBlue’s first in Central Amer-ica, the airline will operate 100-seat Embraer E190 jets. The service is dependent on ap-proval from Costa Rican authorities. JetBlue said it has begun selling one-way tickets to Costa Rica starting at $99 through Dec. 23 on its website (www.jetblue.com), with fares otherwise starting at $139 each way. “It’s im-portant that precisely at this time, when the world lives a widespread crisis, such a presti-gious and well-known carrier from the Unit-ed States, which is our main tourism market, has decided to fly to Central America for the first time, picking our country,” said Tour-ism Minister Carlos Ricardo Benavides. It is estimated that between 25,000 and 30,000 tourists will arrive in Costa Rica annually via JetBlue.
Most hotels say reservations have fallen for first quarter of 2009(La Prensa Libre) — A recent poll con-
ducted by the National Chamber of Tourism (CANATUR) found that for the first quarter of 2009, hotel reservations have decreased by 24.5 percent compared with the same pe-riod in 2008 at 57 percent of the country’s hotels. Meanwhile, 9 percent of those hotel surveyed said they have actually seen their bookings rise by 26.5 percent. Despite these numbers, 47 percent of the respondents ex-pect tourist activity in 2009 will grow by about 24 percent.
Constructions lacking permits on the decline in Costa Rica
(La Prensa Libre) — Construction proj-ects without the respective permits have decreased in Costa Rica by 5 percent this year, compared to 2007, according to a study conducted by the Engineers and Architects Federated Association (CFIA). Last year, 27 percent of constructions were done without a permit. These numbers are based on inspec-tions done among 1,336 projects during the first quarter of 2008 in 35 of the country’s 81 cantons. Regions showing the highest im-provement in this category include the Ca-ribbean, North Pacific and Central Pacific. However, along the Pacific Coast — where
the construction boom continues — the num-ber of non-compliant construction projects is still high.
Costa Rica well-positioned for global slowdown: iMf official(Inside Costa Rica) — In a visit to Costa
Rica last week, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Mon-etary Fund (IMF) said that Costa Rica is in relatively good shape to weather the global economic slowdown. Strauss-Kahn, how-ever, said the country’s Central Bank should remain ready to act. Strauss-Kahn met with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, Treasury Minister Guillermo Zuñiga, and the presi-dent of the Central Bank, Francisco de Paula Gutierrez. The IMF official indicated there was general agreement that a combination of domestic policy adjustment and external financing are needed to help the Costa Rican economy and people deal with the slowdown. “In this regard, the country can confront the challenging global environment from a posi-tion of relative strength,” he said in a state-ment. “The prudent fiscal stance of recent years provides the authorities with some room for maneuver.” Strauss-Kahn added that the IMF stands ready to help Costa Rica with as much credit as it needs to face the global financial crisis.
soCIeTytransit Police increases
surveillance for the holidays(Al Dia) — The country’s Transit Police
announced that during the Christmas and New Year celebrations it will carry out 840 surveillance operations throughout the coun-try, with the goal of “safeguarding the physi-cal integrity of drivers and pedestrians.” Some 800 officers will focus on controlling the speed of drivers on the highways, keep-ing drunk drivers off the wheel and prevent-ing dangerous passing. Urban centers will be closely watched between Dec. 1-24, while more emphasis will be placed on routes lead-ing to the beaches between Christmas Day and Jan. 4. So far this year, traffic accidents have caused more than one fatality per day on average.
illegal to deny credit to older people: Constitutional Court(La Nacion) — The Constitutional Court
has ruled that financial institutions shall not deny credit to individuals based on their age. The court responded to a complaint filed by a woman over 60 years of age who was de-nied a loan by a savings and loan cooperative because of her age. In some cases, financial institutions limit the length of time for cred-its given to the elderly.
iCE lowers internet access rates
(La Nacion) — The Costa Rican Electric-ity Institute (ICE) announced it will slash Internet service rates beginning in January between 24 percent and 28 percent. Low-speed service (256 kbps) will go from to $19 to $13 a month. Meanwhile, medium-speed (512 kbps) will cost $19 per month instead of $25. Higher-speed connections (1 mbps and 2 mbps) will be reduced even further, going from $38 to $25 and $62 to $38, respec-tively. The price reductions are expected to encourage users to upgrade to higher speeds — since most broadband users here are now accessing the Internet at speeds between 128 kbps and 250 kbps.
Legislators reminded of their ‘duty to protect fundamental
values’(Inside Costa Rica) — The Catholic Ac-
tion Archdiocesan Forum in Costa Rica has reminded the country’s lawmakers of their “duty to protect the fundamental values of life and marriage” when passing laws. Ac-cording to the Fides news agency, the CAAF sent a letter to lawmakers reminding them that Costa Rica was founded on Christian values and therefore it is their duty to promulgate laws based on this perspective, “especially with respect to the laws that right now are on the agenda in relation to the family and life.” The letter also stressed the importance of marriage between one man and one woman as “the foundation of Costa Rican society,” insisting that laws to the contrary should not be passed.
60,000 more GSM cell phone lines available this week
(Inside Costa Rica) — For those looking for a cellular line, the Costa Rican Electric-ity Institute (ICE) is making available an additional 60,000 GSM lines beginning this week. These lines are not new, but those lost by customers who didn’t pay their bills or given up voluntarily. However, since demand is much greater than supply, the lines are be-ing given first to some of the 150,000 people on ICE’s waiting list. The state telecom has promised 300.000 lines by the end of this year and beginning of the next, but there is no official word on when the other 240.000 lines will be made available.
New law to combat rising crime ready for January
(Inside Costa Rica) — The Special Legis-lative Commission on Citizen Security said it has completed the motions stage on the new Law for Protection of Victims and Witnesses and that bill is ready to be presented to the full legislature for voting come January. The proposed law will give the Judicial Investiga-tive Police (OIJ) extended powers to protect victims and witnesses to crimes and send to prison petty criminals when the theft of loss to the victim is less than “one base salary,” as well as establish a process of speedy trials for criminals caught “red handed.” The proposal includes harsher penalties for recurring and professional criminals, like sending a suspect to preventive detention (jail while awaiting trial) if the individual already has two open cases. This bill is complementary to the Law for Combating Organized Crime, which is still in the motions process in Congress.
GooglePhone may be available in Costa Rica next year
(Inside Costa Rica) — The G1 or Google-Phone may be sold in Costa Rica starting next year, according to Adolfo Arias, a Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) official, who confirmed that the state telecom is negotiat-ing with Google to have the phones in service in 2009. Arias cautioned that the negotiations are in their initial stages, while Alberto Are-balos, Google communications director for Latin America, said that the arrival of the G1 is all dependent on ICE. Arebalos added that Google does not determine where and when the phone will be sold in Costa Rica and that Google does not sell the phones directly; ICE must negotiate with the manufacturer, in this case, Motorola. The G1 is the competition to Apple’s iPhone. It incudes a touch screen, GPS, WiFi and bluetooth capabilities among its features; it sells in the United States for about $200.
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GENEVA (AFP) – The top EU trade of-ficial said the WTO must engage with U.S. president-elect Barack Obama to try to clinch a global trade pact after negotiations at the end of this year failed.
“We should continue the work and engage with the new U.S. administration in January to see how quickly a ministerial meeting can be called in 2009,” EU trade commissioner Catherine Ashton said in a statement.
World Trade Organization Director-Gen-eral Pascal Lamy said earlier he would not be summoning ministers to Geneva next week as he had initially hoped, because of an “unacceptably high” risk of failure and wide gaps between states.
But Ashton, who took up her post in Oc-tober after her predecessor Peter Mandelson rejoined the British government as business minister, urged the WTO’s 153 member states to keep striving for a deal.
“We have come tantalisingly close to the finish line ... having come this far, we must not give up,” she said.
“Europe will continue to take a leading role. In the meantime, we hope WTO mem-bers will resist protectionist measures,” Ash-ton added.
BRUSSELS (AFP) – EU leaders sealed an agreement last week for a 200 billion euro plan designed to dig Europe out of recession and a package to combat global warming on the final day of a crunch summit in Brussels.
After persuading Ireland to submit a stalled EU reform treaty to a second referen-dum next year, the 27 leaders agreed to club together to fund an economic stimulus pack-age and make major cuts in greenhouse gas emmissions.
“We are starting to change the way we do things in Europe – talking less and doing more,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who chaired the gathering, told a post-sum-mit press conference.
With much of Europe in recession, there had been expectations the climate package could unravel as member states baulk at the extra costs involved.
But Sarkozy said that there had been unan-imous agreement on the need for an “histor-ic” climate package he said should inspire the rest of the world.
“No continent has given itself such bind-ing rules that we have adopted with unanim-ity,” he said.
The EU’s climate-energy package, the “20-20-20” deal, seeks to decrease green-house gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020, make 20 percent energy savings and bring renewable energy sources up to 20 percent of total energy use.
Sarkozy denied the targets had been wa-tered down amid calls by several states for amendments to the initial package at a time of recession.
“The objectives remain the same,” he said. “No way can the (economic) crisis be used as an excuse not to move on the environment.”
But environmental groups, including Greenpeace and WWF, slammed the deal, saying too many concessions had been made to industry and poorer eastern European na-tions with their highly-polluting coal-fired power generators.
“European heads of state and government have reneged on their promises and turned their backs on global efforts to fight climate change,” they said in a joint statement.
Unveiling the package in January, Europe-an Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso put the cost of meeting the targets by 2020 as at least 100 billion euros – the equivalent of around three euros a week for every Eu-ropean.
Czech President Vaclav Klaus, whose country takes over the EU presidency from France in January, criticiZed the package as a “silly luxury”.
“We should have been able to discuss it during our presidency, to force it now is not very good,” said Klaus, whose prime minis-ter agreed to the package.
Although the climate change deal was only nailed down after protracted negotiations, leaders said there had been an overwhelming consensus on the need for a joint assault on the economic slowdown.
“Everybody was on the same line about the need for a recovery plan,” said Sarkozy. “Exceptional situations need exceptional measures.”
An eve of summit interview by German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck, who ridi-culed the idea of “tossing around billions” to fend off recession, had indicated that the rescue package would prove a major bone of contention.
But British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose “breathtaking” 20-billion-pound (30 billion dollars) stimulus package was singled out by Steinbrueck, said the agreement was a riposte to those who say “do nothing”.
“We will continue to reject the do-nothing approach and we will not stand by and let the
recession take its course,” Brown told report-ers.
Under the stimulus plan, member countries would pump on average the equivalent of 1.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) into their economies in order to temper the impact of a global recession.
Leaders also adopted a deal to pave the way for Ireland to stage a second referendum on a stalled package of key reforms, the Lis-bon Treaty which was rejected by Irish vot-ers in June.
Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen said he was prepared to call a new referendum as long as promised guarantees are delivered.
“I have said that I would be prepared to return to the public with a new package and seek their approval of it,” he told reporters.
“Today we have the clear evidence the European Union is ready to respond” to the concerns displayed by the Irish people in the June plebiscite.
Under the deal, Ireland would try to hold a new referendum by November 2009 in ex-change for guarantees on key issues includ-ing an assurance that it does not lose its EU commissioner.
EU seal deals on economy, climate packages
BELGIUM, Brussels : European Union leaders reached a unanimous agreement on an ambitious climate change package at the end of a two-day summit in Brussels, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said. AFP / ERIC FEFERBERG
EU says wtO must work with Obama to try for
deal in 2009 WASHINGTON (AFP) – Autism and ob-
sessive-compulsive disorders may be linked to factors other than genetics, despite widely held beliefs otherwise, according to a study published last week in the American journal Neuron.
When researchers removed the protein FKBP12, found in both humans and mice, from studied mice, the animals demonstrated major neurological and behavioral changes.
FKBP12 is known to regulate the activity of mTOR, an enzyme that affects the ability to change behavior and regulates connections between neurons, thus playing a key role in learning and memorization.
The findings of the study, led by research-ers at New York University’s Center for Neu-ral Science and the Baylor College of Medi-cine, may enhance scientific and medical understanding of disorders such as autism, which affects about one in 150 children in the United States, according to the U.S. Cen-ters for Disease Control and Prevention.
Results showed an increase of mTOR signaling after removing the protein from the brains of mice late in development. The mice also demonstrated an enhanced ability to change connections between neurons, es-
pecially in those parts of the brain used for memory.
Removing FKBP12 reduced the mice’s ca-pacity to analyze, respond and adapt to new situations, according to the study.
Once the mice learned a task, such as nav-igating a maze, they had difficulty learning how to travel through a different version of the maze. This type of enhanced persevera-tion, or pathological repetition, is often ob-served in individuals suffering from autism or other neurological disorders.
“Our results suggest that FKPB12 regulates neuron signaling that curbs the manifestation of traits observed in several neurological dis-orders including autism, obsessive-compul-sive disorder and schizophrenia,” said NYU neuroscientist Eric Klann, the study’s lead researcher.
These disorders are widely believed to be “determined in utero by genetic hormonal and environmental factors,” he adds.
But “because our study indicates that post-natal release of mTOR activity can result in certain perseverative behaviors, it challenges the idea that some aspects of these conditions are developmentally predetermined.”
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Nearly 40 per-cent of adults and 12 percent of children in the United States use complementary and al-ternative medicine (CAM), according to an annual, nationwide government survey.
The 2007 National Health Interview Sur-vey (NHIS) for the first time included chil-dren aged 17 and under who used non-con-ventional medical treatment including herbal supplements, meditation, chiropractic and acupuncture.
The survey questioned more than 23,000 adults and 9,400 parents on behalf a child about their health and the therapeutic treat-ment they were receiving.
The questionnaire included 36 types of commonly used CAM therapies in the United States: 10 types of provider-based therapies,
such as acupuncture and chiropractic, and 26 other therapies that do not require a provider, such as herbal supplements and meditation.
A comparison of the 2007 CAM survey to the first one conducted in 2002 suggests that overall use of alternative medicine among U.S. adults has remained relatively steady – 36 percent in 2002 and 38 percent in 2007.
The latest survey, however, found “sig-nificant increases” in some types of CAM including deep breathing exercises, medita-tion, massage thearapy and yoga.
Among adults in 2007, 17.7 percent used natural products including fish oil/omega 3/DHA, glucosamine, echinacea, flaxseed oil or pills, and ginseng.
The next most popular therapies included deep breathing exercises (12.7 percent),
meditation (9.4 percent), chiropractic or os-teopathic manipulation (8.6 percent), mas-sage (8.3 percent) and yoga (6.1 percent).
Among the 12 percent of children who re-sorted to CAM, the most prevalent therapies were natural products – fish oil/omega 3/DHA and flaxseed oil – (3.9 percent), chiro-practic or osteopathic manipulation (2.8 per-cent) deep breathing exercises (2.2 percent) and yoga (2.1 percent).
Also consistent with the 2002 data, the 2007 survey showed CAM use among adults was greater among women than men (42.8 to 33.5 percent), among older people than younger (30-39 years: 39.6 percent, 40-49 years: 40.1 percent, 50-59 years: 44.1 per-cent), and among people with higher levels of education (55.4 percent).
“These statistics confirm that CAM prac-tices are a frequently used component of Americans’ health care regimens, and re-inforce the need for rigorous research to study the safety and effectiveness of these therapies,” said Josephine Briggs, director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, which developed the survey.
“The data also point out the need for pa-tients and health care providers to openly discuss CAM use to ensure safe and coordi-nated care,” Briggs said.
Autism, other disorders linked to post-natal factors
Autism and obsessive-compulsive disorders may be linked to factors other than genetics, despite widely held beliefs otherwise. Photo: www.sxc.hu
Nearly 40 percent in United Sates use
alternative medicine
Meditation is one of the non-cpnventional medical treatment Americans use. Photo www.sxc.hu
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BRASILIA (AFP) – Brazil announced a package of fiscal measures last week costing more than 13 billion dollars that it hopes will mitigate the effects of the worsening global economic crisis.
Tax cuts, credit infusions and spending boosts for consumers in Latin America’s big-gest economy are among the series of gov-ernment initiatives.
Central bank chief Henrique Meirelles said his institution would use up to 10 billion dollars of its 200 billion dollars in foreign re-serves to finance Brazilian companies strug-gling to access credit abroad.
Consumers would be encouraged to sup-port the badly listing domestic auto sector through the three-month suspension of a sev-en percent tax on popular small-cylinder cars and the halving of another tax on cars with bigger engines, Industry Minister Miguel Jorge said.
The auto industry, in return, would commit
to maintaining employment levels, he said.Most of the world’s biggest car-makers,
including Ford, General Motors and Volk-swagen, have factories in Brazil.
The sector employs 130,000 people, an estimated 30 percent of whom are on manda-tory vacation to because of a sudden 26 per-cent slump in car sales last month.
The government also approved a reduction in income tax by creating new tax brackets that will come into effect next month and fa-vor low-income earners.
Taxes on financial transactions by individ-uals would also be halved to 1.5 percent.
The exonerations together will cost the government an estimated 3.5 billion dollars.
But Finance Minister Guido Mantega said the measures were needed “to encourage growth of the Brazilian economy.”
He told a media conference more measures
would be adopted later “to avoid a sharp de-celeration of the Brazilian economy and to boost economic growth in 2009.”
Last week, Mantega admitted Brazil was already in the grips of a deceleration, but he ruled out the possibility of a recession.
The crisis package was announced after a four-hour meeting between President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and 30 bosses of the biggest companies in the country.
He and his ministers insist that Brazil, with its deep reserves, reduced debt and di-versified economy, is better placed to weath-er the global downturn that any other major economy.
The government forecasts growth of four percent next year. Economists, though, see that as optimistic and project growth of 2.5 percent.
Twelve-month growth is currently put at 6.3 percent, but that is expected to slow to
around 5.4 percent by the end of 2008.Lula’s administration has promised “to
do everything possible, from a fiscal point of view” to cope with the crisis, one of the business chiefs, Benjamin Steinbruch of the steelmaker Compania Sigerurgica Nacional, said after the meeting.
“There is a very firm engagement (by the government) to act in coordination with the private sector to minimize the effects of the crisis and the economic deceleration,” said the head of the National Industry Confedera-tion, Armando Monterio Neto.
Analyst Ricardo Ribeiro of the MCM con-sulting firm told AFP the package “shows the government is not standing around with its arms crossed -- it’s working so the economy isn’t left to cool down.”
But another expert, Roberto Troster, said the measures were “scattershot” and the gov-ernment needed to make further efforts.
POZNAN (AFP) – Mexico said it would slash its carbon pollution by 50 percent be-fore 2050, joining Brazil among large devel-oping economies to pledge large reductions in greenhouse gases.
Mexico will reach this goal through vol-untary and non-binding commitments to im-prove energy efficiency in heavy industry, notably in the cement and oil sectors, Envi-ronment Minister Juan Rafael Elvira told a press conference.
He unveiled key elements of the plan at the UN Framework Conference on Climate Change in Poznan, Poland, where 192 na-tions are striving to forge a global climate pact before 2010.
More details would be unveiled in Febru-
ary by Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Elvira said.
The target, he said, was to reach a level of half the 650 million tonnes of greenhouse gases that was emitted in 2002, the year Mexico will use as a baseline to measure change.
The oil and cement sectors both had “a great potential for reduction”, but Mexico will need help in attaining its goals, said the junior environment minister, Fernando Tude-la, also in Poznan.
“We need to have secure financing, we can’t rely only on funds coming from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM),” he said. The CDM allows advanced economies to
invest in carbon-reducing projects in the de-
veloping world as a means of fulfilling their binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gases.
Tudela recognized that Mexico still faces a fight against poverty in the midst of an eco-nomic slowdown, but said “the fact of be-ing a developing country was not a reason for waiting to see results (on climate) before acting”.
Days ago, the Brazilian government un-veiled a plan to cut the deforestation of the Amazon by 70 percent over the next decade.
It was the first time Brazil, home to the largest area of tropical woodland on the plan-et, has set a target for reducing the damage wrought by illegal loggers and ranchers.
PANAMA CITY (AFP) – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on Latin American countries to maintain support for free trade despite the world financial crisis, at a regional meeting in Panama.
“In this period of financial turbulence, in this period of uncertainty, of great concern, we must sustain our commitments to the principles and practices that permitted us to reduce poverty and expand social justice,” Rice said in an address to ministers from the region.
“Markets are not perfect... but they are engines of opportunity to achieve social jus-tice,” Rice said during what was likely to be her last visit to the region before the new ad-ministration takes over on January 20.
“Free trade and open markets remain the surest way to economic growth.”
Foreign and commerce ministers from Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guate-mala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama and Peru met in Panama City for the first time under
the “Pathways to Prosperity” initiative. Bra-zil, Nicaragua and Uruguay took part as ob-servers.
“We’re all asking to keep working to pro-mote business and mechanisms which better guarantee commercial exchange between our countries,” said Samuel Lewis Navarro, Panama’s vice president and foreign minis-ter, after the meeting.
They would next meet in El Salvador at the start of 2009, Navarro said.
The initiative was launched in September in New York city by US President George W. Bush and 11 Latin American leaders whose countries have signed free trade agreements with Washington.
“It’s about identifying mechanisms to
make sure that the undoubtable benefits of free trade reach all levels of society,” Pana-manian President Martin Torrijos said.
Bush has strongly promoted free trade in the region, as well as efforts to combat drug-trafficking, during his eight years in office.
“By coming together... we are sending a powerful signal that we are not going to re-peat the mistakes of the Great Depression, when nations deepened into that recession further... by adopting protectionist policies,” Rice said.
Representatives of the Organization of American States, the Inter-American Devel-opment Bank, Andean Development Corpo-ration and the Central American Free Trade Agreement also took part in last week’s meeting.
Mexico vows to cut carbon pollution 50 percent by 2050
Mexico said it would slash its carbon pollution by 50 percent before 2050.
Brazil announces 13-billion-dollar economic crisis package
Rice urges Latin America to back free trade despite crisis
POZNAN (AFP) – The way is “now clear” to sign a global climate agreement in 2009, helped greatly by the election of Barack Obama as U.S. president, Nobel-winning green activist Al Gore said.
“I would like to relay a message that I heard from the people of the United States of America this year that I think is very relevant to the task the world is facing over this next year: ‘Yes we can.’,” Gore said to a standing ovation on the final day of UN climate talks in Poznan, Poland.
Gore said that before coming to Poznan he had held a meeting with Obama in Chicago at which the president-elect had assured him that climate change would be a “top priority of his administration.”
Obama “emphasised that once he is presi-dent the United States will once again engage in these negotiations and help lead toward a successful conclusion,” Gore said.
He read out several public statements on climate change from Obama and said: “Do not discount these words.”
Delegates in Poznan are hoping that
Obama, who takes office on January 20, will be a breath of fresh air when it comes to in-ternational climate talks after eight years of the outgoing president George W. Bush.
Obama has said he wants the United States to commit to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, and by 80 percent in 2050, mainly through a 150-billion dollar, 10-year programme to develop renewable forms of energy.
Some 11,000 participants from more than 190 countries have gathered in Poznan to lay the groundwork for a treaty agreement to sharply reduce the emission of greenhouse gases that drive global warming.
The deal is to be signed and sealed in Co-penhagen by the end of 2009, but progress has been excruciatingly slow, in part because the United States under Bush turned it back on the Kyoto Protocol.
“I think the road to Copenhagen is now clear,” Gore said.
The former U.S. vice president said that reaching an accord was a matter of survival for the planet.
“Our home, Earth, is in danger. What is at risk of being destroyed is of course not the planet itself, but the conditions that have made it hospitable for human beings,” he said.
Halting global warming was not just a po-litical imperative, he added, but a moral is-sue, and world leaders must step up over the coming year and play a more active role.
“It is time, between now and the gather-ing in Copenhagen, for heads of state to be-come personally involved in meeting several times,” he said.
Last week, United Nations Secretary Gen-eral Ban Ki-moon said in Poznan that he was considering convening a summit on climate change during the next UN General Assem-bly session that begins in September 2009.
Negotiations among the 192-member UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are mid-way through a two-year “roadmap” set down on the Indonesian is-land of Bali last year.
The envisioned Copenhagen treaty will amount to an action plan for curbing green-house gases and channelling help for vulner-able countries beyond 2012, when current provisions expire under the Kyoto Protocol.
TOKYO (AFP) – Japan unveiled a giant 255 billion-dollar stimulus package, vowing that Asia’s largest economy would be the first nation to beat a once-in-a-century financial “tsunami.”
Prime Minister Taro Aso, under fire for his handling of the crisis, unveiled a flurry of measures hours after another sharp selloff on Tokyo’s stock market after the collapse of a US bailout for automakers.
“This is a great global recession which comes once in 100 years. Japan alone can-not stay out of this tsunami,” Aso told a news conference.
“But by taking appropriate measures with-out any delay, we can minimise the impact,” he said.
“We will try to be the first to get out of the recession, at least among industrialised nations.”
Aso said that the new package – which still need approval by the divided parliament – would total 23 trillion yen (255 billion dol-lars).
It includes 10 trillion yen for measures that include loans for the growing number of workers losing temporary jobs and in tax cuts for homeowners.
Another 13 trillion yen would consist of financial support such as possible bailouts of cash-strapped banks, in line with a new law passed earlier in the day.
The package comes on top of a 26.9 tril-lion yen (300 billion dollars) stimulus which Aso unveiled in October.
Since then, Japan has seen an unending stream of dreary economic data. Figures out Tuesday showed that the world’s second largest economy fell into a worse recession than thought in the third quarter.
A recent survey showed that more than one-third of Japanese companies have laid off workers or taken other steps to reduce la-bour costs over the past three months to cope with the economic crisis.
Bearing the brunt of the crisis have been workers without regular contracts. Electron-ics maker Sharp Corp. Said it was cutting the jobs of 380 dispatch workers.
Under the new package, the government would offer loans to temporary workers so they can keep renting homes if they lose their jobs.
Aso appealed to the main opposition Democratic Party to support the new funding measures but refused their calls to call a snap election.
Aso’s approval rating has dropped sharply after he made a series of offensive remarks, including blaming the elderly for rising
health costs.“I welcome talks with the Democratic Par-
ty on policies, but I have no plan to discuss dissolution,” Aso said.
Yukio Hatoyama, the Democrats’ secre-tary general, said the opposition wanted a thorough debate on the new package.
“People in their minds will definitely drift from the ruling coalition, which just tries to save its face and its pride,” Hatoyama told reporters.
Market watchers questioned Aso’s clout, predicting further trouble on the stock mar-ket this week.
Aso “is already a lame duck,” said Hideaki Higashi, a strategist at SMBC Friend Secu-rities. “We do not know how seriously we should believe the reported measures would be implemented.”
Aso said that future budgets would fund the new package, but he did not lay out where the money would come from other than to in-sist Japan would not issue new debt-covering bonds.
Japan is already is wallowing in the high-est public debt of any rich nation.
Earlier in the day Japan’s parliament ap-proved a law to let the government pump funds into banks to protect them from the financial crisis.
The United States and European coun-tries have already pumped billions of dollars into financial institutions. Japanese banks are seen as less affected by the global credit crunch, although they have also seen sliding profits.
Global climate deal? Yes we can, Gore says
POLAND, Poznan : Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore speaks during the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Poznan on December 12, 2008. Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his relentless efforts to combat climate change and starred in an Oscar-winning documentary called “An Inconvenient Truth.” AFP / JANEK SKARZYNSKI
Japan unveils giant package to beat financial ‘tsunami’
22 Dic 16 - Dic 22, 2008 Dic 16 - Dic 22, 2008 23ENtERtAiNMENt SPORtS
Each column, row and box must contain each number from 1 to 9. There is only one solution, wich is shown here.
MONACO (AFP) – The world of Formula One agreed on a series of cost-cutting mea-sures following a meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Monaco.
The sport’s governing body is clamping down on costs as Formula One struggles to survive amid the global credit crisis - but the meeting decided not to go ahead with a much-trailed plan to introduce a standard en-gine for all teams.
Last Thursday, British world champion Lewis Hamilton had indicated he opposed the idea as it would make racing “less excit-ing”.
Nonetheless, the Council said a decision had been reached with unanimous support from the teams on how to slim down spend-ing for the 2009, which starts on March 29 in Melbourne, Australia.
The move came two days after teams and the FIA agreed in principle on the need to re-duce costs radically given the present global economic situation.
Max Mosley, president of FIA, had most notably proposed a single engine for all teams, made by Cosworth, and a standardised gearbox - but several stables are opposed.
The raft of measures are designed to cut spending by at least 30 percent and as much as 50 percent.
They include, where engines are con-cerned, that the same engine must be in place for three straight races minimum while being
capped at 18,000 revs per minute to increase life span and that drivers may not use more than eight propulsor blocs per season.
Independent teams will use engines sup-plied by an independent supplier replete with a continuity guarantee from 2010.
Each team will be allowed a maximum of 20 engines per season and in addition in-sea-son testing will be scrapped from from next season save for race weekends and scheduled practice.
Teams will further share information on fuel and tyres.
There will furthermore be research into a possible reduction of race distances.
The FIA and the teams also wants stan-dardised transmission from 2010 and inves-tigate introducing by 2013 a new engine and transmission system with increased energy efficiency
For 2010, the FIA wants standardised ra-dio and telemetry systems and a ban on refu-elling on race weekends.
“The teams have played a major role in these developments. The FIA is very grate-ful to Fota (the teams’ association) and to its president Luca Di Montezemolo for their in-cisive contribution,” an FIA statement read.
The measures come in the wake of Hon-da’s shock decision last week to withdraw from Formula One.
WASHINGTON (AFP) – U.S. President George W. Bush has no interest in becom-ing the next commissioner of Major League Baseball, telling the Washington Post he looks forward to escaping the global spot-light.
Bush, a former owner of the Texas Rang-ers baseball club once linked to the top spot in the American pastime, spoke Wednesday about sports topics with the newspaper as he prepares to leave office next month for in-coming Barack Obama.
“I’m looking forward to getting off the stage,” Bush told the Post. “I have done my duty to my country. I have given it my all. It’s now President-elect Obama’s time. I have had enough of the spotlight.”
Bush, 62, listed attending the Beijing Olympics last August and this month’s edi-tion of the annual Army-Navy collegiate American football game as two of the great-est joys of his presidency.
One of the most emotional moments of his eight years in office came when he threw out the first pitch at a World Series game in Yankee Stadium in November of 2001 - less
than two months after the September 11 ter-rorist attacks.
“The emotion of the crowd and the unity of the moment reminded me, upon reflection, that sports can cause people to momentarily forget their problems and join together to cheer for their favorite team,” Bush told the Post. “It helps you face difficulties.”
In his 2004 State of the Union address, Bush called upon professional sports players and leagues to stop steroids.
Since then, athletics star Marion Jones and Tour de France winner Floyd Landis have been among the star athletes stung by steroid scandals. Bush said he thought more could have been done to end steroids in sports.
“I’m sure so. But it’s easy to second-guess,” Bush said. “The question is - is more being done now? It seems like they are mak-ing great strides. Are they going to invent de-tection devices to take care of the next round of exotics?”
Bush says he enjoys cycling to keep fit, calling the group of people he rides with “Pelaton One”.
NEW YORK (AFP) – Yao Ming, LeB-ron James and Kobe Bryant were among the leaders in the first balloting information for the 58th National Basketball Association All-Star Game released last week.
But it was Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard, the reigning NBA Slam Dunk Con-test champion, who garnered the most votes of any player in the first hint at ballots favor-ites for starting roles in the February 15 game at Phoenix.
Howard had 775,933 votes to lead his nearest Eastern Conference rival, Samuel Dalembert of Philadelphia, by more than 659,000 votes.
Chinese star Yao of the Houston Rock-ets leads Western Conference centers with 529,290 votes to 227,273 for Phoenix’s Sha-quille O’Neal.
Cleveland forward James, this year’s All-Star Game Most Valuable Player, ranks sec-ond in the Eastern Conference overall with 643,786 votes, the most among forward.
Kevin Garnett, who sparked Boston to last season’s NBA title and this year’s best record in the NBA, was next in the East on 495,514 with China’s Yi Jianlian of the New Jersey Nets next at 356,556.
NBA scoring leader Dwyane Wade of Mi-ami, averaging 29.5 points a game, led East guards at 623,311 with Detroit’s Allen Iver-son next at 492,093.
Bryant, seeking an 11th NBA All-Star Game appearance, led the Western Confer-ence with 719,252 votes. The Los Angeles Lakers guard was the only player in the West to out-pull Yao in voting.
New Orleans playmaker Chris Paul was next for West guards on 406,220 with Hous-
ton’s Tracy McGrady on 332,222 followed by San Antonio’s Manu Ginobili of Ar-gentina at 166,981, Dallas’ Jason Kidd on 162,286, France’s Tony Parker of San Anto-nio at 161,638 and Canada’s Steve Nash of Phoenix at 142,410.
San Antonio’s Tim Duncan led West for-wards with 442,403 with Phoenix’s Amare Stoudamire next on 370,470 followed by Denver’s Carmelo Anthony on 327,233, Ger-man star Dirk Nowitzki of Dallas on 327,233 and Spanish star Pau Gasol of the Lakers on 260,374.
fiA meeting agrees cost-cutting measures
MONACO, Monaco : British Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton poses during the 2008 FIA Prize Giving gala, in Monaco. AFP / VALERY HACHE
Yao, LeBron, Kobe among early All-Star vote leaders
Outgoing U.S. President not interested in bossing baseball
BEVERLY HILLS (AFP) – Heavyweight movie stars took center stage last week as Hollywood’s awards season got underway with the unveiling of nominees for next month’s Golden Globe Awards.
A slew of A-list talent were among the nominees named at an early morning cer-emony in Beverly Hills, with Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep and Angelina Jolie all picking up nods.
The nominations set the stage for a star-studded extravaganza at the January 11 red carpet event, in stark contrast to last year’s show that was reduced to a celebrity-free press conference by the Hollywood writers’ strike.
The Golden Globes are seen as an im-portant staging post ahead of the Academy Awards, offering clues to which films will be successful at the Oscars ceremony approxi-mately six weeks later on February 22.
No one film emerged as the overwhelming favorite in last Thursday’s nominations, with love story “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” political thriller “Frost/Nixon” and “Doubt” sharing five nominations each.
Both “Benjamin Button” and “Frost/Nixon” cemented their status as Oscars con-tenders however with nominations in the key categories of best drama, best director and best actor.
“Benjamin Button,” an adaptation of an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, stars heart-throb Pitt as a man who ages in reverse.
The film faces competition in the best picture race from “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Frost/Nixon,” “The Reader” and “Revolu-tionary Road.”
Pitt’s rivals in the best actor drama race in-clude DiCaprio, who plays a frustrated 1950s suburbanite in “Revolutionary Road,” Sean Penn, a trailblazing gay politician in “Milk,” Frank Langella, disgraced U.S. President Richard Nixon in “Frost/Nixon” and Mickey Rourke, a washed up brawler in “The Wres-tler.”
In the best actress drama race Pitt saw partner Jolie nominated for her performance as a mother searching for her son in Clint Eastwood’s period film “Changeling.”
Other nominees included Anne Hathaway for “Rachel Getting Married,” Streep for her performance as a tyrannical nun in “Doubt,” Kristin Scott Thomas in “I’ve Loved You So Long” and British actress Kate Winslet for her role opposite DiCaprio in “Revolution-ary Road.”
Winslet, who has yet to win a Globe de-spite five previous nominations, also received a nod in the best supporting actress category for her role as a former concentration guard in “The Reader.”
Awards season pundits and film critic Pete Hammond said the galaxy of stars reflected last year’s disastrous strike-hit Globes.
“Let’s face it – they wanted the big stars to show up at this show this year,” Hammond said on the Los Angeles Times’ theenvelope.com website.
“Last year they were shut out of the show completely. We didn’t have a Golden Globes. Now we have Tom Cruise, we have Brad Pitt, we have Angelina Jolie, we have Leonardo DiCaprio.
“This is going to be star-studded and they are aware of that.”
Meanwhile Australian actor Heath Ledger received a posthumous nomination in the best supporting actor category for his ac-claimed performance in Batman blockbuster “The Dark Knight.”
However Ledger, who tragically died of a prescription drugs overdose in January, faces stiff competition from Tom Cruise, Ralph Fi-ennes, Philip Seymour-Hoffman and Robert Downey Jr.
Unlike the Oscars, the Golden Globes,
which are decided by around 80 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, have separate best picture awards for dramas and musicals.
In the past four years the Globes have failed to accurately predict the best picture winner at the Academy Awards but overall, some 67 percent of Oscars best picture win-ners had first received a Golden Globe.
Heavyweights dominate as Golden Globes nominees unveiled
UNITED STATES, Beverly Hills : Actresses Brooke Shields and Elizabeth Banks (R) pose after the 66th Annual Golden Globes nomination announcements held at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California. The 66th Annual Golden Globes will take place January 11, 2009 in Beverly Hills. AFP / GABRIEL BOUYS
Cleveland forward LeBron James, this year’s All-Star Game Most Valuable Player, ranks second in the Eastern Conference overall with 643,786 votes, the most among forward. AFP
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