Costa Rica 101

If any day of my trip so far could epitomize the Costa Rican experience, today would be it.

This morning the other intern Jess, and I had a meeting with Allan, our intern coordinator. He had given us a reading early last week on the history of Costa Rica. We spoke a lot about Costa Rica's institutions, its history, and how it got to be the wealthiest country in Central America. It's pretty extraordinary that while other countries in the region struggled in civil wars for decades, Costa Rica had a fairly short civil war in 1948 which paved the way for a democratic transition to a peaceful country, known as the "Switzerland of Central America," for its constant state of neutrality. Interestingly, it's also one of the only countries I can think of that has no standing army- only a police force. Today the amount of poverty is anywhere from half to a third as much relative to its neighbors, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Their health care system is one of the best in Latin America and is completely public. Private clinics do exist, but they are very expensive and most Costa Ricans prefer to go through the public system rather than incur the cost of private treatment. Education is compulsory until the age of 12, but many students go on through high school and take Costa Rica's version of the SATs, which determines whether or not they can attend private or public university. If they do not pass those exams, students can retake them or opt to take a more informal route and attend technical schools.

Today education in Costa Rica faces some of the same issues as education in the US. Families who can afford to, send their children to private primary and secondary schools, which better prepares them for their exams and guarantees them placement in any university of their choosing. Unfortunately, as a result, almost 80% of public universities are students from private school backgrounds, creating a disparity between the lower and middle class and the upper class, which has lead to a shrinking middle class.

Costa Rica also has a huge immigration problem surpassed by only that of the US and Spain, and has sustained a huge influx of Nicaraguan immigration, which has flooded their public schools, their public health care system and has lead to an increase in crime. As a result there is a great deal of animosity between Costa Ricans and Nicaraguans and a certain amount of prejudice is evident.

Economically, though wealthy relative to neighboring countries, Costa Rica is still struggling to catch up with the developed world. In the 80s the government adopted the neoliberal policies of the IMF and the World Bank and made itself more appealing to foreign investment. Today, Costa Ricans lament over the parts of Costa Rica that are no longer their own, like the beaches of Guancaste which have been bought up by hotel chains and foreign investors, and the Intel factory which, though it makes its chips here, has not invested much in the country. In order to attract Intel, Costa Rica had to offer free electricity, water, and build a reservoir of fresh water solely for Intel's use. It's a trade-off for the jobs Intel provides, but the instability of foreign investment means without costly concessions, companies could easily set up shop elsewhere. Costa Rica's hands are tied also when they borrow money from the IMF and World Bank because the organizations' prescriptions are often geared more toward the market and less toward the social programs that have been the foundation, and a source of pride for Costa Ricans. As a result, education for example, is currently severely underfunded.

Anyway, I guess a bit of a rant, but just some of the things I find most interesting about a very unique country.

After volunteering, we took a field trip to a coffee plantation in Naranjo, which was very cool. Coffee is one their more important exports, and the coffee plantation we saw sold all of their coffee beans to Starbucks. Starbucks gives them a three year contract with a pre-set price, so no matter how much the coffee market fluctuates, they're still guaranteed the original price. Maybe I'm naive, but I think that's a pretty socially responsible business negotiation given the declining cost of coffee and the high prices Starbucks is able to charge regardless of the market.

I'm starting to think though, that our field trips are cursed. Last week it poured while we were at the Volcano and this week on the way back we got stuck behind a huge accident. In Costa Rica, as I may have griped about before, their infrastructure is fairly limited. Often there is only one road to get anywhere, so if there's an accident, you're pretty much stuck. Tonight we waited for 2 hours while they cleared up an accident between a truck and a car, though we did get an opportunity to see the beginning of the lunar eclipse while out in the middle of nowhere.

Tomorrow I'm headed back to AMURECI and on Friday I'll be volunteering at one of the local orphanages to get a different experience. I'm really looking forward to it, though I know it will be sobering.

Pictures to come soon, I promise! My Internet access is really slow and it takes a while to upload pictures. Oh well.... Pura Vida!