Archive for the ‘ Life in Central America ’ Category

An American Police State in the Americas

Tomgram - Why Latin America Didn’t Join Washington’s Counterterrorism Posse

You may not be interested in this subject, and I hesitate to blog about it for that reason. But it important to me for two reasons (1) it is typical of an immoral (and militaristic) attitude common in the US, and (2) it affects those peoples nearest to us, our neighbors to the South – who we should feel responsible for.

That last statement is a tricky one, because lots of Americans are condescending towards their Latin brethren. And consider them inferior – and in need of strict discipline from above. Or to put it another way – Colonialism is still active. And Americans still consider Latin America as part of their turf. The latest trade agreements reflect this – the rich in America and Latin America have banded together to fleece everyone else.

America’s focus has shifted from Latin America to the Persian Gulf – a very important shift. And, as this article shows, some Latin American countries are now reacting to the American-backed repressive regimes they suffered from. But this new attitude is far from universal.

In many countries, such as Guatemala, crime has reached epic proportions and society demands a strong hand in dealing with it. This plays right into the formation of another police state – one controlled by the US.

The economic driver here is drugs – and America insists on keeping them illegal – which makes no sense at all, unless the implications of a police state are considered.

One thing this article does not mention is the influence of the Evangelicals in Latin America. They are everywhere down here – and their influence has made their converts less capable of understanding their problems.

2013
02/19
CATEGORY
Life in Central America
Morality
Religion
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Rilke on Sex

I have written Letters to a Young Poet, which was well-received. People like to hear nice things about poetry – even it they seldom read it themselves.

From page 46 of the book:

True, sex is difficult. But such difficulties have been imposed on us, almost everything serious is difficult, and everything is serious. If you can simply recognize this and succeed in establishing an entirely individual relationship with sex (one not influenced by convention and propriety) through your own disposition and nature, then you no longer fear losing yourself and becoming unworthy of your most valuable possession.

I wish I had been able to do this for myself! But old age  (and social isolation) has solved this problem for me. Now all I have is a similar problem with food (which he talks about too, in a similar way).

No one comes to Latin America for the food. It has one of the world’s least distinguished cuisines. But obesity is common – and in that way, I fit right in.

2013
02/09
CATEGORY
Life in Central America
Poetry
Sex
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Ríos Montt is Finally Being Tried

TicoTimes.net

NY Times

The Tico Times has ceased its paper publications and has gone online. This is a considerable advantage to me, because I can link to its articles. A top story this week was this:

A Guatemalan judge on Monday ordered former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt to stand trial on charges of genocide for the slaughter of more than 1,750 native Maya people during his 1982-83 regime.

I can remember meeting Americans in Guatemala who were ecstatic when Montt came to power – because, they said, he was a Christian. Which indeed, he was. He was a Evangelical preacher all his life.

His American supporters – who put him in power and kept him there, and a similar government in El Salvador – which used terrorism as a common tactic – and were perfectly willing to consider his genocidal actions as ethnic cleansings – ridding the world of its undesirable elements. Who happened to be some of the world’s finest remaining indigenous people.

To be fair, other Christian groups – such as Witness for Peace, tried to mitigate their horrors, and educate the American public about what was going on. But to this day, most Americans are totally ignorant about went on there – right in their back yard.

The Times article, which came out two days later, is much more thorough.

2013
02/02
CATEGORY
History
Life in Central America
Religion
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Sun, Sex, Sin, Divine Intervention, Death and Destruction

Poetry Magazine – The Gargantuan Muffin Beauty Contest 

Yesterday, after I finished my daily walk - determined to get back in shape after my bicycle accident – I met a man who is a walking medical museum. Both knees have been replaced, and both hips; both ankles have been fused. He and his wife are Canadians who come to Costa Rica during the winter. They had been living in Orosi, where the weather is mild all year around. But this year his wife insisted that they live part of the time on the beach, where it is hot.

The attractiveness of the beach baffles me. I know another woman who has to be there or she suffers horribly – from illnesses that can not be specified. I said she could be in the Caribbean beach, which is much cheaper, and where I lived for awhile. “No”, she replied, it had to be the Pacific beach – where it is much more expensive.

I didn’t argue with her – what could I say?

2013
01/23
CATEGORY
Life in Central America
Poetry
Psychology
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My Bicycle Accident

This wasn’t a bad one. I ended up covered with mud (and I mean covered), but only a few scrapes and bruises, and and some torn clothing.

As I was going down the road a truck approached from the other side. a car passed me on the left, going the same way. It knocked me in the ditch to the right of the road. The truck stopped, but the car did not. My bicycle ended up on the other side of the road, in front of the truck, that had stopped.

At first, was I dazed, and could not remember where I lived – or almost anything else. Gradually, it came back to me, and they called an ambulance. A nice man, who had been very helpful, took my bicycle to a sugar mill, which was close by.

The Ambulance took me to my local medical clinic, where they updated my file – and suggested I get a shower, before anything else.

My landlord Ray, who is a RN, gave me some Aloe Vera gel to put on my scrapes.

Now I have have to rent a taxi to go bring my bicycle back home.

Life doesn’t always work out as we planned.

2013
01/04
CATEGORY
Life in Central America
My Health
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The Stupider the Customer is, the More Money You Can Make off of Them

I just finished an amazing morning talking to all kinds of people about buying coffee farms. Everywhere I went. there was someone who wanted to sell or buy them – and there were far more sellers than buyers. The whole world (at least our little coffee-growing valley) must be going crazy about this.

The reasons are not hard to see. The coffee-picking season is upon us, and the coffee farmers have their calculators out – figuring how much money they made – or more likely, lost. Coffee prices are up from their disastrously low levels of a few years ago – but the costs of growing coffee (including diesel fuel) are also up.

I know something about this personally. Growing little replacement coffee bushes in plastic bags is a full-time business here. And one of the growers, who knew me personally, gave me one for free. I took it home and put it in a big plastic pot, the kind used to grow ornamental plants down here.

It got sick. Its leaves got yellow and died. I was told this always happened – since coffee is a monoculture here, and it attracts all kinds of parasites. More and more spraying is required. The agriculture store two blocks away sells the spray – but only in 50 lb. bags.

Another person who runs an organic coffee farm near here, gave me other advice – it needed a nutritional supplement! Also only available in 50 lb. bags. But you have to be careful with it and not use too much and burn the roots.

Other people told me to take the little bush and plant it in the ground. Which I did – but it died anyway.

Bottom line – growing coffee is difficult business, and definitely not for beginners.

I tried to explain all this to an idealistic young American couple who were are intent on buying land down here – and living on it – and growing all their own food organically (including coffee). They weren’t interested in anything I told them.

Too late, I realized my mistake. You never discourage a customer, no matter how stupid they are. Because the stupider they are, the more money you can make off of  them.

Honesty is definitely not the best policy – when you got a sucker on the line.

2012
12/19
CATEGORY
Business
Life in Central America
Morality
Philosophy
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In World of Big Stuff, the U.S. Still Rules

Wall Street Journal

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Peoria, Illinois – only a hop, skip, and and a jump from my home town in Illinois – is where Komatsu leads the world in the manufacture of heavy mining machinery! And Decatur, Illinois, just 80 miles south, is home to the second largest manufacturer - Caterpillar.

In the little town where I now live in Costa Rica, a local industry mines gravel from the river flowing through it – and has tons (literally) of heavy equipment – that make a big racket day and night. Their trucks (often Mack Trucks) are found for miles around, carrying sand and gravel for every kind of construction. Reinforced-concrete buildings are springing up like mushrooms, because the land is still cheap. A large concrete plant is just down the road, working full-time.

This is not to say employment is plentiful – this heavy machinery dwarfs the people operating it. And the birth rate keeps soaking up the all the jobs available. And the young are not inclined to work hard.

The work ethics is a extinct as the Dodo Bird.

2012
12/06
CATEGORY
Business
Economy
Life in Central America
Technology
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Wearing Damp Underwear

November is the rainiest month of the year in my little home town in rural Costa Rica. It just rains, and rains and rains. It drives Gringos crazy – but the locals rather like it – it is their own unique kind of weather.

I still do my daily bicycle ride – and get soaking wet – but I am naturally waterproof, and it makes no difference. It is even an advantage – it keeps those finicky gringos from living here, and driving up the prices.

The down side is, because all laundry is dried on the line (very few can afford a dryer) you end up wearing damp underwear.  This is not as bad as it sounds. The damp underwear quickly dries out as you wear it. The discomfort is only temporary, and no one can tell if your underwear is damp or not.

Except, perhaps, if you are very active sexually – in which case all that body heat quickly takes care of everything.

2012
11/26
CATEGORY
Life in Central America
1 comment

The Banking System in Costa Rica

Back early in the last century, Max Weber, one of the first sociologists, wrote The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. He did a survey of the Western Countries and noticed something for the first time – there were rich countries and poor countries – and what was more, the rich were Protestant and the poor were Catholic!

This even applied to Ireland, which was basically a Catholic country. But overlooked France, which was also Catholic – but relatively affluent. He came up with his own theory to explain this – which, now that I am living in Latin American, and forced to deal with the reality of the situation – seems inadequate.

My take is that the Northern (Protestant) countries developed entirely different concept of basics, such as time and space. Which, in turn led to the Industrial Revolution – which changed everything. To put this another way, they had a developed infrastructure – which the undeveloped countries did not have.

In the North, time is important – it is money, and must be used efficiently. In the South it is not important, as anyone standing in a line at any institution quickly realizes. I am not sure what is important in Latin America – but it is not time.

One can quickly determine if a country is developed or not by looking at two important institutions – the banking system and the post office. In Costa Rica, both just barely work – and Ticos cannot see why this annoys Gringos. They are used to this, and do not consider it a problem.

I have just finished a harrowing experience with the banking system. I have a joint account with my brother in the Wells Fargo Bank – where my Social Security payments are sent automatically. I have used my Wells Fargo debit card to get cash advances in Tico banks. But this has become more and more difficult – and as of yesterday became impossible. This is not a single bank in Costa Rica that can now communicate the American banking system!

Fortunately, there is another banking system – the ATM system, with uses different computers, and has no problem communicating with the American ATM system. Wells Fargo increased my daily limit to $2000 a day so I can grab all my cash for the month in at one time – since I get charged $15 each time I use a Tico ATM.

So far, so so good – except for another snag. I am a resident of Costa Rica, and to keep this residency I had to prove that I changed at least $600 dollars (now increased to $100) a month into Colones. Latinos are sticklers for regulations, and they insist I must obey the letter of the law. But this makes no sense to the banks, who tend to view anyone who deals in dollars as a criminal (which many are).

To make a long story short, I am being forced to open an account at the Banco National (the State bank) and have my social security payments deposited there. With my limited Spanish, this is going to be a problem. It is even a problem for people fluent in Spanish – because they keep changing their regulations without notice.

This morning, I went down to the local ATM, and got a thick bundle of 20,000 (40 dollar) Colone bills. This should last me all month – although local merchants do not like these big bills. Getting change is big problem down here (as it is in all undeveloped countries). They like the Gringo dollar, but they want it in small change.

2012
11/09
CATEGORY
Economy
Life in Central America
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Carmen Lyra

The new 20,000 ($40) Colone bank note in Costa Rica features this woman, the first prominent female Costa Rican writer. Whom, I am sure, most Ticos never heard of.

I learned of her from the El Residente magazine, written in English, published by the Association of Residents of Costa Rica (ARCR). What follows is from that source.
—
Maria Isabel Carvajal (who published under the pseudonym of Carmen Lyra) was born in 1888, and from a young age her sensitivity and social concerns led her to participate in various social and political activities. She was a notable educator, working first as a nurse, then as a journalist, co-founding the Centro Germinal for evening classes in 1910 and starting the first Montessori pre-school in Latin America in 1926.

She was politically active in the Communist Party of Costa Rica (she was credited with translating the Communist Manifesto into Spanish in 1920) and was one of the earliest writers to criticize the dominance of the fruit companies. With extraordinary courage, she mobilized students, women, and workers to fight against the fierce dictatorial state of the Brothers Tinaco. In 1926 she had a major role in organizing women schoolteachers to burn down the building that housed the official newspaper and to overthrow the Tinoco Brothers dicatorship.

She was given a scholarship to study at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France, where she furthered her studies of preschool education. On her return she founded and directed the kindergarten in the Edificio Metalico, the first educational center with this focus in Costa Rica, primarily serving children in need. She was also the first professor in the Department of children’s literature in the Normal School.

Her first novel En una silla de ruedas (in a Wheelchair) published in 1919, portrays national customs and manners through the eyes of a paralyzed boy who grows up to become an artist. A collection of folk tales Cuentos De Mi Tia Panchita (Tales of my Aunt Pachita) was published in1920 and has remained continuously in print.

Carmen Lyra’s relentless efforts were the breeding ground for what was to be her life on confrontation. As Costa Rica, under pressure from the United States, moved to the Right, she and other leftists were dismissed from the teaching posts in 1933. She went on to take a leading role in the banana workers strike of 1934…

She died in Mexico in 1949, where she had been exiled following the end of the Costa Rican civil ware in 1948.

2012
10/30
CATEGORY
History
Life in Central America
Literature
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