Tonnes of Garbage Left Behind by
Festival Goers
The Festival de la Luz Saturday
night brought a lot of happiness
and joy to thousands who lined
the streets of downtown San José
with spectacular displays,
marching bands and dancing.
However, the Festival also left
piles of garbage on streets.
As with every parade, a team of
garbage collectors follow the
parade end to pick up the
garbage left behind by the
spectators. The Municipality of
San José estimates that some
thirty tonnes of trash was left
strewn in the parade route, that
went from the La Sabana park,
along Paséo Colon, Avenida
Segunda and ended in la Plaza de
la Democracia.
Garbage trucks followed the last
parade float and by Sunday
morning there was no trace of
the Festival trash, as the
streets were again clean.
Perhaps, the hardest parade the
clean up crew have to content
with each each year is the
December 27 'Tope", when
literally thousands of horses
take over the same route and
leave a trail of, well, stuff
that smells even after being
washed down.
The clean up crew were not the
only persons working the parade.
Red Cross personnel and members
of the Fuerza Publica and
Municipal police were on hand to
attend to those needing medical
attention and to ensure public
safety.
The Red Cross reports have
attended to sixty five persons,
seventeen of who were taken to
hospital for closer medical
attention during the festival.
Police did not have any major
occurrences to report, saying
the parade was peaceful and
eventful from their part.
Pacheco's Popularity Rebounds
A report by the
Spanish language daily
newspaper, La Nación,
referes to the last poll by the
Unimer firm that
shows that 45% of Costa Ricans
think President Abel Pacheco is
doing a good job or better,
while 31% says he is doing a
so-so job. 22% say be his doing
bad or worse.
The results indicate a rise in
popularity for the president
over last year. The poll was
taken between 24 November and 4
December that included people
from all over the country and
has a 2.6% margin of error.
The Unimer poll results also
indicate that the majority of
those responding favour the
passage of both the Fiscal
Reform and the Free Trade
Agreement (Tratado Libre de
Comercio - TLC).
Experts say the rebound in
Pacheco's popularity is a direct
result of his "hard line"
approach to the recent
corruption scandals that have
invaded the country, a direct
result coincidental with the
hard action against the
politicians accused of
corruption.
The poll also shows that
overall, confidence in the
government and public
institutions was up.
Notwithstanding the recent
scandals, 41% of Ticos believe
corruption is down in public
institutions, compared to 37%
last year.
2006 Election Party Registration
Underway
The upcoming 2006 'presidential'
elections will be record for the
number of registered parties
according to the Tribunal
Supremo de Elecciones (TSE).
The TSE says it has so far 43
parties registered for the 2006
elections, two more than the
same time for the 2002
elections, and will see many
more that it believes are in the
process of being formed and will
be looking to be registered.
The deadline for registration of
a political party for the 2006
election is June 6, 2005, which
will include regional,
provincial and national parties.
For a party to be registered it
must complete the required forms
as set out by the Dirección
General del Registro Civil of
the TSE and among other things
must include 3.000 signatures in
the case of a national party
(only 50 for regional or
provincial parties) and must
have it's political constitution
well defined.
National parties are those that
will be presenting a candidate
for the position of President
and Vice President of the
country. All other parties that
don't present a candidate for
the top spots are considered
regional or provincial.
The national parties expected to
take part in the 2006 election
are the: Acción Ciudadana,
Alianza Nacional Cristiana,
Fuerza Democrática,
Independiente Obrero,
Integración Nacional, Liberación
Nacional, Movimiento Libertario,
Patriótico Nacional, Renovación
Costarricense, Rescate Nacional,
Unidad Social Cristiana, Unión
General and the Vanguardia
Popular.
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Nicaraguans Head Home for the
Holidays
Thinking of spending the holiday
season in Nicaragua? Well,
consider this. According to
Marco Badilla, director of the
Dirección General de Migración y
Extranjería, some 70.000
Nicaraguans are expected to
overload the immigration
resources at Peñas Blancas and
the Daniel Oduber airport in
Liberia during the next several
weeks.
The annual trek of Nicaraguans
heading home for the holidays
begins this week. The bus lines
have sold most just about every
seat to and from Nicaragua for
the period of 20 December to 5
January. As well, private bus
companies have set up special
tours to Nicaragua for the
holiday period.
The land border crossing at
Peñas Blancas will be hardest
affected, as most Nicaraguans
use the land crossing to get
home for the holidays and their
return, compared to the more
expensive way of flying. And, if
immigration officials are
correct, most Nicaraguans are
expected to bring along a friend
on their return.
The return bus rate at both Tica
Bus and Transnica is us$20 that
will take you from San José to
Managua, with stops in Rivas and
Granada. Nature Air that has
regular service between the
Liberia airport in Costa Rican
and the airport in Granada
charges us$130 return (us$240
for the San José-Granada route).
Foreign residents of Costa Rica
need to also pay the us$20
consular fee to leave and
re-enter Costa Rica. Tourists
and Costa Ricans are not
required to pay the consular
fee.
Who'll Be the Next Supreme Court
Justice? For Big Money, Bet on
Kozinski
When it comes to picking the
next U.S. Supreme Court justice,
the safe thing would be to put
$100 on 4th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals Judge J. Michael
Luttig. But if you really want
to make some money, go with the
long shot, the 9th Circuit's
Alex Kozinski.
Both men are among the
candidates listed at Betcom.com,
an online betting site based in
Costa Rica. The site,
which sports a model dressed in
an American flag-print bikini,
lets people wager on everything
from football scores to whether
Bill and Hillary Clinton will
get a divorce.
"We have people that monitor
what's happening in the world,
what's newsworthy, so to speak,"
says Betcom.com President Robert
Evans.
Last week, the site began taking
wagers on whom President Bush
would appoint to the high court.
So far, more than 2,000 bets
have been placed, according to
the site.
Besides Luttig and Kozinski, the
list includes a dozen other
candidates, complete with odds.
Kozinski's odds, for example,
are expressed as "+1,500," which
means a $100 bet would return
$1,500 if he's picked. The odds
are set by Betcom.com and won't
move with wagers.
Gamblers can make pretty good
money if state Supreme Court
Justice Janice Rogers Brown gets
the nod - her odds are +600, the
same as former Solicitor General
Theodore Olson - and even more
in the unlikely event it's Sen.
Orrin Hatch, who's at +1,200.
You can also bet on who will be
the next chief justice. Antonin
Scalia is the favorite; David
Souter, the long shot.
Betcom.com came up with the
candidates and odds by
canvassing Internet and media
sources, including Newsweek,
Time and television stations, as
well as injecting a little bit
of personal opinion.
There's also an ulterior motive
to the Supreme Court betting.
The U.S. Department of Justice
argues that Internet gambling,
which is unregulated, is
illegal, and it has moved to
block major media outlets from
accepting advertisements from
Betcom.com and its competitors.
The issue could eventually wind
up in the high court itself, so
Betcom.com thought they'd drum
up a little publicity by making
the court itself the subject of
wagers.
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