I don’t have much of a sense of Guanacaste, but a very little investigation into Puntarenas persuaded me that it’s in about the same pickle as Limón, although the economic mix is different. I believe the main industries in Puntarenas are tourism, fishing, and manufacturing, none of which provide many opportunities for educated Ticos. Thus those with or who want educations move elsewhere, although the most common solution suggested for Puntarenas is improved education.

I was perhaps unclear in my earlier posts by not saying that by “political correctness” I mean the belief that education is the solution. I’m pretty sure that education is NOT the solution for depressed regions, and to believe it is has the causal chain backwards. Economic development of the type that requires good educations goes hand in hand with or actually precedes education. Although at lower rates than the Central Valley, some people from Limón and Puntarenas do get good educations. The problem is that those who do move to the Central Valley not only to go to school but also to work afterwards. The result is a “brain drain” from the poorer regions that helps keep them poor.

I lack the prerequisite minority credentials to opine about racism (unless being a gringo counts) but my sense is that racial discrimination against people from Limón is not now their main obstacle. I drink in a Central Valley Tico bar, which is managed by an enormously competent university student from Limón and I was just last night watching the ballgame with a customer who grew up in Limón. There doesn’t seem to be the same degree of prejudice against these people that there is against Nicas, who I notice never patronize the bar and only work there in the kitchen.

The pattern though seems to be that the ambitious and competent people from Limón move to the Central Valley. This doesn’t mean that there are no ambitious and competent people left in Limón (or that everyone in the Central Valley is ambitious and competent) but there is I think a pattern. My inference is that the pattern is mostly explained by the different economic opportunities available in the different regions.

As for education, even public schools are far from free and are probably not affordable for families of meager means, especially if they have many children. Of course, the big universities in the central valley are a very long bus commute from Limon province but convenient to the majority of the population in the country. I know many people in the central valley who take university courses because it is so convenient to do so, but I am unaware of any public universities in Limon. Perhaps Costa Rica should consider something like a system of community colleges for such remote areas if there is no such program.

I’d be interested in seeing how other remote areas, such as Guanacaste and the Southern zone, compare to the central valley on these same points.

Heck, maybe the banana plantations ought to be expanded too.

Mostly, I’m confused by our apparent disagreement. I’m not sure who coined the term “political correctness” and would guess it was a conservative, but I thought conservatives generally favored economic development. What am I missing here?

(Although, if you don’t believe that conservatives favor political correctness too, try calling an evangelical a fundamentalist.)

Yes, many Ticos are very prejudiced against black people here, and Nicaraguans, and Panamanians, … It wasn’t until after the revolution in ’48 that residents of Limón were even allowed to travel further than Turrialba!

So, take your “political correctness” slam elsewhere. A term, by they way, invented by a conservative. Oh, and of course “most” development funding is going to happen in the Valle Central which holds half the country’s population, so that’s a big stinky red herring too.

There is anti-black prejudice in CR, but the main explanation for the poorer relative success rates for blacks is regional. Limón, where CR blacks disproportionately live, is an economic backwater, with the ports, banana plantations, and tourism the main industries. Meanwhile, the government keeps giving economic development handouts to the mostly white Central Valley.

The result is that in order to have better economic opportunities, most residents of Limón have to move. Some of course do, but those who can’t or don’t want to get left behind.

And it’s silly to suggest that improved public education is the solution. When there are no jobs commensurate with a good education, people sensibly lack to motivation to stay in school. Trying to improve education without developing an economy in which education pays has the linkage exactly backwards.

To cry racism and propose education as the cure may make people feel all sanctimonious, but it doesn’t accurately diagnose the problem or provide a solution.

Of course, it may be that racism lurks behind the government’s abandonment of economic development in Limón, even as poorer blacks fuel racist attitudes by seeming to confirm them. Nobody knows what the causal sequence is exactly. However, it’s irrelevant to the solution, which has to be economic development in Limón.