San Jose

Ask me I and I think there are a couple of other pieces to this puzzle.

For one in an economy where tourism is a central driver, the real key to happiness for workers is the fact that they weld on an automatic 10% on all purchases at restaurants (while the country benefits from tourism exploitation by adding 13% for itself, which is smart too).  The tips are pooled among the wait staff which produces decent professional staff without people being subservient to the little bit extra from the tipped economy.  Furthermore from what my shaky Spanish could determine, wait and similar staff are still paid what passes for the minimum wage as well as the special “solidarity” pay which is an end of the year bonus that is part of the legal framework for workers.  If a country is going to allow tourism to be a huge economic driver, guaranteeing tips will produce big time happiness!

As usual in Kristof’s touting of the virtual unmitigated benefits of globalization he advertises for how wonderful it would be to have more English speaking ex-pat communities throughout Costa Rica who could benefit from the emphasis on the educational systems requirements for additional language training in schools.  Hmmm.  Might be worth paying some small attention to what the “happy” Costa Ricans are saying about this as well.  Nobel Prize winner and current Costa Rican President Oscar Arias was quoted recently about how Costa Ricans have “lost Tamarindo” the beautiful Pacific Beach area that has now been overrun by tourists and upscale second home developments.  Costa Ricans have been pushed out of the area by hotels, condos, and soaring prices outside the reach of the Ticos who have lived along these coasts as fishers and framers for generations.

The “green” piece of Costa Rica’s marketing is mainly just that along the intentions and rhetoric are good, and certainly good enough to make Kristof happy.  Seeing a sign on the ferry to the Nicoyan Peninsula that said “recycle now” along with a big arrow to the huge garbage can said a lot to me about the state of the current practice.  The national parks also seem to be pricing out Ticos and their own patrimony in many areas.  Talking to Costa Ricans there is a huge fight to not pave roads to places like Playa Manzilla and even the Monteverde area with its famous cloud forest in order to keep tourists out.

Kristof’s continued blind advocacy of “dollar diplomacy” is not a prescription for the future happiness of the Costa Rican people, though as usual he could probably find a way to be happy as a pig in stuff as long as he enjoys his drive and windshield survey of the world.uaran

G

Monteverde

A stop towards the top for a cup of coffee had given us a treat.  For a half-hour we were treated to a hummingbird assault.  There are 14 different kinds of hummingbirds in Costa Rica and 7 to 8 beautiful, fast moving varieties were buzzing from the ravine to the banana trees and then towards the feeders on the porch over and over again in a furious flurry of blue, green, purple, gray, brown, and red.

Standing under the shelter from the misty rain I had read the legend on the sign describing the 2000 plant species, 100 or more amphibians,  300+ birds, and others that made the cloud forest home and the biodiversity added to our world by this strange and beautiful ecosystem.  We had heard the same story days before from a volunteer who drank her Imperial while we ate and told us of the night shifts of Rainsong, where she was helping for six months, and its efforts to keep raccoons – and people – from disturbing the hatch of the leatherback turtles along the beach.  Sometimes tiretracks alone from ATV’s kept the fledglings from making it back to the Pacific.

We didn’t see the turtles like we have seen the parrots everywhere or the hummingbirds.  It has occurred to me what a difference it makes being able to name something and to know it, just as we find with people.  The anonymous mass of humanity means so little to most people.  A passing image on TV that quickly fades.  A set of people and problems so foreign that they have no reality at least in most lives.  The same is true for all of these birds, plants, and animals.  To truly value biodiversity it has to be personalized.  The tourist trade puts a premium on the experience that pushes the reality further away from most people.

Ironically, technology may be part of the bridge to biodiversity.  There is talk now from the Googles and others about “search” technology that can link to the phone camera and allow one to move a cursor around and allow the viewer to pop up the identity of what is being seen and a description as well.  OK, there are some huge privacy issues attendant to all of his for human bipeds who would also be able to be identified, linked to Facebook profiles, and god knows what databases, but for the cause of biodiversity there will be an opening that might come from such real-life and real-time search that all of us might be moved to stand in more solidarity with all of the various neighbors we have in our human and biological community because we can finally name and know them.

Radical change.

Central America

Passing through San Jose, it was interesting to hear and read about the “solidarity tax” or luxury tax on houses over a $172,000 USD valuation.  The tax is modest, about $500 per $200,000 let’s say, but the complexity of paying according to accounts gets the higher rolling, largely ex-pat owners in a penalty zone which can make the payments 10 times the original amount.  This is a new tax and the government of Costa Rica believes it will raise $17.5 million USD, which is dedicated to slum eradication and building low-income housing.  What a great idea!  People with homes that are too posh  pitch in a little bit to make sure that others have homes.  It was easy for me to see why the government called this a “solidarity tax.”  The chart published with the story in the Tico Times, which bills itself as Central America’s “leading English-Language Newspaper,” also  indicates that the tax is graduated costing just a little big more as the housing valuation moves from $172K up past $1 million USD, so that poor housing gets a bit more of a boost.

This may be an idea some of the “executive cities” in North America should consider, if you ask me.