News Miscellany

The Nationalist Chinese and the Communist Chinese have, for some time now, been engaged in political patrimony with all seven Central American Countries: Guatemala, El Salvador, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. Both Chinas have pursued what some have dubbed "checkbook diplomacy" to achieve bigger economic ties and open markets in this area. In recent years all seven countries diplomatically recognized Taiwan in deference to mainland China and received a number of infrastructure projects and other gifts in return.

All seven, that is, except Costa Rica. The Tico government decided to play both ends against the middle and initially accepted a gift from the Taiwanese Nationalists of a $27 million bridge (too bad they didn't built it where the recent one collapsed). The Tico government then did an about face and recognized Communist China as the legitimate China. In return they were gifted with an $87 million futbol stadium from the Chicoms(see picture above), which is well underway and expected to complete (read hoped for) in the first quarter of 2011.

I suspect the boys in Taipei are not happy about the boys in Peking winning out. I gotta believe that the boys in the other Centroamerican capitols are also not happy with being outmaneuvered.

As for me, I'm just hoping for real chop suey at the stadium instead of Tico chop suey. Sorry mis amigos, your chop suey is good but definitely not Chinese. And your chicken fried rice is a lot closer to arroz con pollo (without which, I fully understand, Costa Rico would cease to function on a daily basis) than the real McCoy (or is it the real McChang?). Desculpen me muchachos, pero es verdad.

Festivals Continue

Last month (Episode 19) we reported on the festivals in Quepos and Parrita. Festivals seem to break out all over Costa Rica at this time of year. Some of them are even going to the dogs. The annual festival of dogs was recently held in Curridabat, a suburb of San Jose. Visitors were encouraged to bring their animal companions to make it a social event not only for the animals but for the owners and those who would be owners. Those who brought a photo of their dog were eligible to win a professional photo shoot for the animal.

There were various contest categories open for the dogs, including best disguise and the dog that looks the most like its master (darn, I wish I could have been there for that one). There also were categories for the most talented and even a king and queen contest. In order to be royalty, dogs must have a current vaccination and be castrated. (It occurred to me that Europe might be better off today if this practice had been followed amongst their royalty) Wooof. 

And then, I understand, another festival took place in just one day on the Avenida Central, San Jose's biggest walking street. It was the annual Gallo Pinto cook off (see Episode 13 for the story behind this Costa Rican specialty, the Spanish for which is "Spotted Rooster"). I'm told 90,000 people were fed varied concoctions of this staple and it was all free. That's the best price for anything in my book. And I missed it - phooey. I've come to like this stuff with breakfast so much I find myself jonesing for it if I go without more than three days.

Our hero ended up in San Jose towards the middle of March and encountered yet another festival. (The trip was undertaken in the hope once more that gg would receive a cedula (residency document) but as it turned out I received a document that says I am going to get a cedula.

The festival in S.J. this time was the FIA (people say"fee-ah") or the Festival Internacional de las Artes, an extensive series of performing and non-performing arts and shows that runs from mid-March up to April 1. A friend and I took in the FIA at Parque La Sabana, the biggest park in San Jose and just west of the city center (where the new stadium is being built). The park was dotted with many white tents displaying all kinds of paintings and other works of art. There was also a performance stage that was scheduled to offer several different theatre performances from a variety of international troupes.

Eventually we had lunch in one of the food tents. Aroz con pollo of course, pura vida!

Earthquake Chart

But enough of this technobabble, a local daily newsletter published the chart above that wraps it all up in a table. They used a multiple of both ground movement and energy released in comparison to a relatively minor earthquake that hit a Costa Rican town (Sabanilla) recently. The Limon earthquake shown was some 30 years ago in that Costa Rican city on the Caribbean.

Of course there are other factors to be considered regarding the destructive power of an earthquake, namely how deep the epicenter was and how far away it was from the affected zone. In the Haiti thing, the epicenter was much closer to the surface than the one in Chile; it was also directly under a capitol city built with virtually no earthquake-resistant buildings. In Chile, by comparison, the epicenter was 115 km northeast of its second largest city (Conception) and 330 km southwest of the capitol Santiago. And, most importantly, Chile has some of the best earthquake-resistant building codes which contributed to the much better survival rate versus Haiti.

I have been in a few small and short-lived tremors in Costa Rica since moving here a year and a half ago. These shaky experiences were the first in my lifetime with this phenomenon. When the world around you starts undulating like your sitting on a very large square of Jello being shaken by the Jolly Green Giant, the feeling of helplessness is a bit overwhelming. I can imagine, but hope never to experience, what those people went through in Haiti and Chile.