Visit from almost president of costa rica

Boatswain’s Log September 18^th. Oh man. The things that happened today.

 

Well, it has been decided by me that today was a good day. First of all as you may recall I slept a whole lot. That was nice. Secondly, I got to do a bit of catch up on other people’s lives via the internet:

 

Paula Green’s soon-to-be-married life is very precious and if I were a girl there would have been lots of “awwww”s when I read her blog. I am super pleased that Jesus blessed her like He did.

 

JJ Kissinger’s new experience in Canada seems to be going well, which makes sense because I am of the belief that everyone who can get to know JJ should and that Canadians are really great people. Between those two things, I guess that JJ should be in Canada for the mutual benefit of him and their country. We miss him, but it also means that I can trick him into coming to Bellingham to hang out with me over Christmas… or maybe to buy cheaper food.

 

Ron Pai’s baby has its own blog…which is cute, but also sort of weird considering that it’s not born yet and all of it’s thoughts are really Ron talking…Does Ron Pai now have 2 blogs with one under the alias of his baby? Tee hee. No really though, it’s very cute. Way to go Ron. Baby time.

 

Other than that I didn’t get around to a whole lot. I thought you might like to know what I’m thinking about other things before I launch into the rest of my day.

 

Oh. Some friends and I are taking a day trip to volcan Irazu. It’s a volcano that doesn’t have any magma for viewing. That one is Volcan Arenal…we’re saving it for Man Weekend. Lots of folks are heading out to do trips, but I had made previous plans to hang out with Andres and other Costa Rican folks at some sort of youth gathering. Andres said it would be fun and I am inclined to believe him, but it occurs on Saturday night. Thus my travel options are somewhat restricted. Irazu is close and a bus leaves on Saturdays at 8AM. Not too shabby. Volcano here I come.

 

It seems like when we get done with class we end with a furiously large amount of information almost every time. It is as though we pass through an intense gauntlet, only to come out of the other side and realize that we have stumbled into an obstacle course. Really though. Test Tuesday, Paper due Thursday, meet with theologian Monday, maybe meet with President of the Archbishop’s council in Costa Rica next week too (Andres tells me to be cautious in the manner in which I ask questions. Apparently the catholic church is a big deal here.). That’s all I can remember, but seriously. I will be happy when I get to be done with school-work for a bit.

 

Another thing on my mind is that I talked to Javier (the head of my concentration) about service project opportunities. He mentioned a program called Casa del Sol which is an organic farm that teaches people how to use solar energy and stuff. I would learn a lot. Apparently, it’s in Guanacaste (which is supposed to be gorgeous), but the people there have a VERY skeptical view of Christian service. In the sense that if I went I would have to bust my ass to show them that I didn’t come to be a slacker. I am not scared. After working for the city of Bellingham for 10 hours a day outside mowing lawns…I am pretty sure I can handle it. The only thing is that I really enjoy working with kids too. I think that working with the chitlins would be great, especially because they’re really fun and I could play soccer with them. Although, I would be in their class teaching English or something like that. It just doesn’t sound that great apart from time with the kiddos. Sigh. Decisions.

 

OK. Time to bring it in. We had a presenter today. His name is Ottón Solís. He was the other candidate running for the presidency of Costa Rica in the last election. He lost by a very slim margin. The guy is incredible. He talked at great length about US-Latin American relations. He said that the primary relation is Economic. He also talked about Costa Rica in a way that showed how proud he was of his country. He talked about the US as having a democracy that in many ways had things to learn from the Costa Rican democracy, especially regarding the courts. He said that having a politician appoint judges here would be a scandal.

 

It was really fascinating. I asked him about the effects that the TLC (tratado de libre commercio or CAFTA or the Central American Free Trade Agreement) would have on Costa Rica after it becomes instituted. He said it would have lots of negative effects. Firstly, the Costa Rican GDP is 13% agricultural. The US GDP is 1% Agricultural. With the influx of cheap surplus agricultural products from the US the CR economy is going to get hurt. Especially the farmers. He put it this way, in Costa Rica there are 4 farms with over 100 cows. Everyone knows them. In the US there are farms with 80000 cows. That alone shows the sort of ball game that is happening. Also there’s the fact that we subsidize our farmers like crazy…and they’re big.

 

The next thing he talked about was Costa Rican health care. The WTO has an intellectual property waiver time of 20 years before people can use generic forms of medicines. Costa Rica uses these and gives all of the medicine and medical care to the poor people and the rest of the country for free. Everyone in CR has access to health care. He said that they have long lines, but at least everyone can get the care they need. Furthermore, with the changes in CAFTA, Costa Rica has to allocate a greatly increased budget to buy brand name medicines for longer because CAFTA pushes more and more time onto the end of the waiting period.

 

The last thing I remember him talking about in this regard is something Andres mentioned. The environment. Not only does CAFTA make it so the environment becomes something that can be owned, it makes a really silly thing happen. If Costa Rica adds a law that places additional environmental concerns on a particular area and a multinational corporation feels that this law hinders its “projected profits” then CR can be sued to pay that corporation “reparations”. The multinational corporations here already have an edge in terms of technology and big markets, but now they have a wonderful legal framework to operate within…one that gives countries like Costa Rica the shaft.

 

I remembered one more. Costa Rica has a state owned telecommunications and electricity monopoly. What this means is that the profits it makes from the rich people are used to provide electricity and phone lines to the poorer areas of the nation. This means that the poor people can buy a computer and with relatively little trouble have the internet. Sweet. Except that CAFTA is forcing CR to allow foreign telecomm. Competition. This means that the rich people will be gone after by the other companies and the prices will have to be raised by the state corporation in order to keep services going. Thus the poor here will get the shaft just like the environment.

 

Still more fascinating was the fact that he said that: “China is a communist state. They are some of the worst human rights violators in the world. They are a dictatorship. They have state run power, airlines, etc…The US wants their market and so allows China to sell it everything without having to privatize its national interests like Latin America has to.” That was interesting. It does seem a bit odd to me too. He talked about the way that the Democratic party was aware of this ugly trend of CAFTA and was supportive. He talked in a guardedly negative fashion about the Republicans. Otton said that Obama had said that he could redraft the agreement if he was elected and that himself, a Colombian, an Argentinian, and someone else were in the process of drawing up what that would look like for the moment that he gets elected. They are hopeful for that too.

 

The most powerful thing about it was when someone asked the question of “What should north American students be doing?” He said that we should be vocal. We should be getting our voices heard because we will be heard. The political folks listen to young people. He went on to say that America was founded on very impressive spiritual truths. The founding fathers had fantastic ideas when they wrote the declaration of Independence and the constitution. They were called naïve by Europe. But it endured nonetheless. He talked about Jimmy Carter and how when he was president he stopped selling arms to Guatemala because of the human rights abuses that were happening. He talked about Woodrow Wilson’s 13 points and the League of Nations that became the UN. Then, he mentioned the fact that what America had become today was more like the Roman empire, we go other places to extract wealth from them by force. Except now it is economic force. He mentioned the fact that Latin America gets uncomfortable when they see the US being okay with things like human rights violations and torture. In essence he called everyone of us in that room to step up and challenge America to be what it claims to be. He asked us what it would take for America to stop being an empire. Lots I think.

 

Gosh. I am realizing in the process of hearing so much about my country that is negative that I really want to help fix it. I won’t leave out of protest, I won’t give up on a worthwhile dream of a nation that might actually be able to back up its desire for justice, I refuse to be a critic who doesn’t do anything. I won’t hesitate to say what is wrong, but nor will I say that I hate the US. I like my country very much. I like the people there. I like the things we claim to stand for. I just don’t like the way we try to stand for them. Mr.Solís had a point. We’ve gotta step up. Especially Christians. If we are by our silence giving the world the okay to oppress the poor…how are we showing people Christ?

 

I was thinking a week ago that I would really like to be a high school teacher. Maybe I’d like to be a Senator too…