Brainweariness

Hola Estados Unidos,

So the first official Costa Rica day has come and gone. I'm feeling tired, but purely from a mental standpoint. The day was spent listening to Spanish, translated Spanish, bad student Spanish and good student English.

I handed a bank teller $23 and got 11,470 colones. That's neat. My pocket is stuffed with thousand (denomination) bills, so I'm pretty much a movie star or something.

The individuals we've interviewed have had much to say on a variety of topics. The bulk of our interview questions follow the same basic format so they allow for comparing and constrasting between responses.

Politics is serious business down here. Everywhere around the city the phrase "NO TLC" is scrawled in spraypaint. No, it's not a manifesto against tender love and care. In fact, it's a protest against Costa Rica's acceptance of CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement. There is much national pride surrounding the public health care, the strong electrical and telecommunications infrastructures, etc. If CR accepted CAFTA, it would allow big multinational corporations to muscle in on the small local agricultural producers who make their living growing crops for in-country consumption. There is a distinct probability that local producers would be crowded out by larger concerns like Tyson, an economic malady that some claim has blighted Mexico and Canada in the wake of NAFTA.
Every interviewee brought up CAFTA, and it was serious business in every case. The people are passionate about it, and they truly identify with their politics. When people charge that the USA is politically apathetic, I'm seeing that they're correct.
There is also a relatively major problem in Costa Rica regarding sexual tourism and casino tourism. Alvaro Montero summed it up intelligently when he said, "Show me the country that has actually economically developed as a result of casinos." He argued that in places like Las Vegas and Atlantic City, these have not actually brought real development into the region. I assume he's seen the raw data. I wonder what Amsterdam would have to say.

So Google bought Blogger and Yahoo bought Flickr? Who knew! Give me a break, Web 2.0. Am I right or am I right?

Another curious point was about the rise of women in Costa Rica's history. Clotilde Obregon argued that it was the group of teachers who afforded their workers higher wages as a result of extensive professional training. As it was women who had attained these levels of training, it was the women who benefitted directly. Paradoxically, as the economic status of women rose there were more restrictions upon their rights from a social standpoint.

All the houses here are really bright colors. It's totally cute.

Clotilde Obregon brought up the fact that when garments are made by workers who are paid the absolute minimum wages, the same garments are sold in the United States for exorbinant sums of money. In her words, nobody benefits from this exchange but the company buying low and selling high. So why do we permit this? It's a good question. The corporations seem like such an easy foe to rise up against. When it's a lose-lose transaction, nobody is happy. So why don't people do it? Wooo fair trade!

Salsa dancing can stay where it is. No me gusta!

-TREVOR FILIPIAK