Celebrating Easter Blindfolded in Costa Rica

Photo taken by Ronald Reyes from the Tico Times

During the celebration of Easter, people from all over come to tie ribbon on the sculpture of Jesus Christ. But why is Jesus blindfolded?? And furthermore, why are the people blindfolded also?

Photo taken by Ronald Reyes from the Tico Times

Believers in Jesus Christ will walk the street blindfolded to show their devotion during the Easter holiday.

Trafficking Minors into Costa Rica

China's state media, along with the Tico Times, reported that 300 Chinese minors were illegally brought into Costa Rica. The majority of these Chinese people were under the age of 18.

The Costa Rican Embassy in Beijing was the first to notice that there were an unusual amount of visas applications coming from minors. The minors used flawed documents and claimed that they were trying to meet up with their parents, of whom were supposedly living in Central America. After investigation, they came to find that the parents were still living in China.

Antonio Burgués, Costa Rican Ambassador to China said, “cooperation (between the two countries) has been excellent on the issue of immigration."

The two suspects that were mainly involved in this operation have confessed, although, no names have been released yet.

Joe and Jill Biden visit Costa Rica

Photo taken by Ronald Reyes from the Tico Times

U.S. Vice President, Joe Biden, along with his wife, Jill Biden, arrive in Costa Rica on March 29th. They took this trip to meet with Central American leaders and discuss issues such as immigration, drug trafficking, environmental issues and the progressing "Good Friend Policy" that is currently being put into play.

The "Good Friend Policy" is a play off of the "Good Neighbor Policy" that FDR piloted years ago.

While Biden was spending his time meeting with the Central American leaders, Jill Biden was spending her time in a 3rd grade classroom. Mrs. Biden has her doctorate in education and she has taught English as a second language. “She loves being in a classroom,” Courtney O'Donnell, Biden's communications director said.

“In this world, we are all in the same boat, and the captain of that boat is named Barack Obama, and, frankly, I hope that this captain guides us in the right path, because the entire world is expecting him to guide us,” Costa Rica President Oscar Arias said.

Vice President Biden asks for "Patience and Forbearance"

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U.S. Vice President, Joe Biden, recently visited Costa Rica to hold a meeting with Costa Rican President, Oscar Arias.

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During this meeting they discussed the struggling economy that Costa Rica is dealing with right now and along with that they discussed the U.S. economy. Biden asked for "patience and forbearance from Arias. Biden said that "it cannot work for Latin America unless our economy begins to grow." He was talking about funding. However, Biden increased funding for the nation by $45 million.

Costa Ricans head to Nicaragua for Holy Week?

Recently, Daniel Ortega, President of Nicaragua, eliminated the visa fee for Costa Ricans.

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There used to be a $25 visa fee for all Costa Ricans to enter Nicaragua. This was recently eliminated to overcome poverty in Nicaragua. "Responsible and dignified tourism" is what Rosario Murillo, Ortega's wife said. They hope that the elimination of the visa fee will bring more tourists to Nicaragua and therefore generate more income.

This action will be enforced prior to Holy Week with the hope to bring more tourists to Nicaragua for the holiday. According to Vianica.com, Holy Week beings April 2nd and continues throughout the whole week.

Costa Rica has a dry law during Holy Week. Nicaragua does not encompass this same dry law. Nicaraguan's hope this will bring more people to their country for the holiday, they especially think it will draw in the partygoers.

The following link is a video of what Holy Week is like in Costa Rica. This was Holy Week last year. Holy Week 2008 .

Did you say bailout?

Is planting trees really going to help boost the economy? Twenty-three year old Edwin Sequeira, president of the youth reforestation cooperative thinks so.

The Costa Rican government has recently issued a Labor Ministry program. This program is designed to aid the young entrepreneurs. According to the Tico Times, there are 1.5 million Costa Ricans between the ages of 18-35. Out of these 1.5 million people, 360,000 are not enrolled in college nor do they have a job. The government has a plan to decrease the unemployment rate by providing $100 million to these young Costa Ricans, however, there is a catch.

This is not a bailout! This money will not be sent to the Costa Ricans directly, they must work for it. This money is planned to help 150 of these Costa Ricans in starting their own businesses. The government believes this will boost the economy.

Sequeira will be setting up a tour office in Bijagua de Upaia and will be heading tours of the area. This job will bring youths together to help preserve the environment. He plans of planting 2,500 trees in the area.

“We're also going to incorporate the environmental aid factor into our tours,” said Sequeira. “We'll allow tourists to plant a tree themselves, as well as providing information about climate change in Costa Rica." (Robertson, Tico Times).

This got me thinking, how are these young people going to be able to run a business with only a high school diploma? The National Cooperative Council has already agreed to help the youth with their endeavours. They plan on assisting them with financial problems along with paperwork and any other knowledge they will need to begin their business.

President Oscar Arias believes that this will really work. “The crisis has affected everyone worldwide, countries big and small, rich and poor,” said Arias. “But it will be the countries who protect and support the ambitions of its citizens who will be the first to leave this crisis behind.”

Tourism

The Tico Times recently wrote an article on the lack of effort Costa Ricans are putting fourth towards tourism. This article was named Grim Tourism Outlook has Silver Lining and was written by Patrick Fitzgerald.

According to Fitzgerald, tourism accounts for more than 500,000 jobs in Costa Rica. With the economy the way it is and tourism being one of the key factors to enhancing economic growth, the Costa Rican Government should be focusing on this issue more.

Costa Rica has always had a reputation of being a relaxing, breathtaking, environmentally friendly escape from everyday life. However, Costa Rica is not keeping up with the environmentally friendly part of it. Fitzgerald mentions how Tamarindo has been having sanitation problems. They are also becoming overdeveloped.

“Some of the smarter countries are stepping up. If we stay back, we're going to lose out," Bary Roberts said. This is true, there are many other developing countries that have a lot of beauty to them and if they are smart about it Costa Rica could fall behind and these countries could become the new relaxing, breathtaking, environmentally friendly getaway.

What they really need to do is improve their e-commerce and start to market online more. It is reported that 58% of Costa Rican tourists purchase their travel packages online. This is more than half of the people that are traveling there. I am even thinking of traveling to Costa Rica this summer. I have been doing a lot of research about vacations in Costa but I have not found a huge amount of advertisments. As a college student I am unable to purchase an all-inclusive, 5 star hotel stay. I need something a little less expensive but still desirable. They need to advertise this!

U.S. and Costa Rica unemployment rates

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According to Gillian Gillers, Tico Times Staff, 25,000 people have lost their jobs between November and January. According to Wikipedia, Costa Rica has a current population of 4,016,173 persons.

According to the New York Times, in the last four months, 2 million jobs have been lost in the United States. According to the United States Government, the U.S. has a current population of 303,824,640 persons.

When you divide this up, the percentage of people that lost their jobs in Costa Rica is .62% and the percent of people that lost their jobs in the United States is .65%. The percentages are very close and this shows that both the United States and Costa Rica are feeling the recession equally in a sense.

The economy

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Costa Rica's economy has a huge dependence on tourism. In the region of Central America, Costa Rica is the most visited nation. Costa Rica had 1.9 million visitors in 2007 which brought in $1.9 billion in foreign exchange for them that year. This is more money than the export of coffee and bananas combined. Coffee and bananas are the other prime exports produced by Costa Rica.