don charles

On Costa Rica - #33

Hello Maiyah (and friends)!

How are my peeps, y’all chillin? Ikr, same here fam, huzzahhh…
Forget that. I don’t know what I just wrote. Let’s get into the essay that I tried to make in only 1360 words. Succinct. Brevity.
_Before we do that — _FORMAT ALERT: I’m taking out the Poem section of this newsletter. None of you ever click the poem link, so why force feed something you guys aren’t into. I’m dropping it. Now it’ll just be renamed “News&Video”.

On Costa Rica

1,368 words | 05min 04sec reading time

I understand there’s a lot going on in this country since I’ve last wrote to you guys. There’s the killing of George Floyd, there’s Trump saying stupid things, there’s the complete dismantling of public health in favor of the economy bouncing back. I get it, there’s a lot. Which is why I am going to take a sharp left turn and talk about Costa Rica.

My blood country! As some of you know, I’m half Costa Rican! “What, you’re a person of color Don?” You thought I was some corny white guy who wore flannel all the time? Haha - yes. I am. And I’m hispanic - who speaks Spanish! La tortuga. See? That means “jackhammer” in English. Now before you scroll down to the News&Video section, I’m not here to talk about my disposition for construction equipment humor. I’m here to talk about how the society of Costa Rica functions and what makes it a great country.

Because it is a great country. Costa Rica stands for “Rich Coast”, a name that fits with the country’s mantra “Pura Vida”, a saying that is symbolic to the way people live there: “Pure Life”. They’ll say it a with a hello, with a farewell; it’s a usual answer to the typical “How are you doing”. What then would a country do to foster this “pura vida”? I’m about to go all Michael Moore’s “Where to Invade Next” from here on, so bear with me. Yes there’s problems, but I’m here to pick the roses. And I’ll use simple names for people to keep it short. Below, the view from my cousin’s loft.

Blessed is the Costa Rican mother who knows her son at birth will never be a soldier.
- Ryōichi Sasakawa: a Japanese businessman, philanthropist, and politician during one of his visits to the country

In the early 20th century, Costa Rica was a crazy dictatorship. 1910s came and went, with a dictator overthrown and the supreme military getting kicked in the balls. 1948 rolled around and it was time to elect a new president. The sitting president, Calderon, had a buddy named Picado who he wanted to succeed him to keep power; his election opponent was a dude named Ulate, a journalist turned politician. For Calderon, think “communist military-bent dictator who middle-to-upper class people hate”. Oh, and he imprisoned German-descent Costa Ricans during WWII and seized their businesses. People voted and Ulate won the pop vote at 55%! Calderon said “RIGGED!”, petitioned Congress for a do-over election, and got his buddy Picado elected. Everyone hated Calderon. But a certain MIT-grad-turned-farmer (you read that right) named Figueres said, “Fuck that,” came back to his home country, trained 700 troops, and commanded a 44-day Civil War armed uprising on the government until Picado stepped down. Death toll: 2,000. Figueres became the president and abolished the military. That, and these other things (ripped from Wikipedia):

They loved abolishing it so much, they made it a national holiday. Army Abolition Day is December 1st.

“Hold up, if there’s no military, how the heck does the country protect itself from gangs? Drug lords? Dictator neighbors?” A huge police force. My cousin and uncle are both police officers. A 7,500 person police force for a population of 5 million. For comparison, Los Angeles has 3.99 million people and a police force of 9,000.

So he did all that, plus some measures that have been kicking around in the Executive branch’s closet. These were called “Social Guarantees” (ripped from Wikipedia):

In the Labor Code, for example, workers have rights “such as: the right to work and free choice of the latter, to strike, not to be discriminated against with respect to wages, to special protection for women (maternity leave), and protection for the unemployed (severance pay), among others.” And they found that because of these rights, which in many instances are better than the United States, they have a strong middle class.

Example: In Costa Rica, there’s the “Aguinaldo”. It’s this imaginary 13th month that companies, by law, have to pay their workers every December. An extra, full month’s salary that is paid to every employee, including illegal immigrants.

Nature is extremely important to the citizens. They’re a civilized, educated bunch; they believe in climate change and are on the forefront of green energy and ecosystem preservation. In 2019, 98.84% of their energy was renewable (not including gas and cars). “How did they achieve that?” Through their government-run electric and water company called ICE. Unlike utilities in the US, there’s not a profit motive for ICE. It’s a public option for your electric and water – imagine that. By 2021, Costa Rica pledges to be “carbon-neutral”.

They’re shutting down all their zoos and made trophy hunting illegal. With 25% of their territory designated as parks and protected reserves, they hold 5% of all species on the planet. Because of this, it’s a hotspot for ecotourism with people around the world wanting to feel what untouched jungle is like.

It’s also a great place for medical tourism. It’s a lot cheaper down there than it is here. Video link of ABC News covering Costa Rica’s medical tourism. I’ll cut to the chase with examples. My mother, a native, needed a endoscopy. Here in the States, it was going to be $8000 (eight thousand). So she went to Costa Rica and did the operation for $75. As a kid, I was on the beach during one of our vacations. I lost hearing in my left ear after rolling in the waves, so my family took me to a rural doctor. The doctor helped me clear a ton of sand stuck in my ear and we left. Not a dime put down. Zero. Emergency care is provided free of charge to all residents.

In 2018, Costa Rica boasts a 97% literacy rate. Compare that to the two biggest GDP bros in our nation: California is 76.9%; Texas is 81%. The University of Costa Rica (UCR) has over 35,000 students, the overwhelming majority on state scholarships. My cousin, studying to be a dentist, won a state scholarship and is attending UCR for free. If you can’t get a scholarship, the tuition is only about 200 USD per semester. (source)

In May 2020, it became the first country in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage. Unlike the United States where courts and twists n’ turns are employed to get any social progress done (like how our same-sex marriage national law got passed), Costa Rica’s Constitution mandates a model of social inclusion through rule of law. No 2-party bickering – it’s human rights, it’s law, period.

A 2014 poll revealed that only 28.2 percent of the population approved of gay marriage. […] When a model of democracy prioritizing social inclusion by way of the law is allowed to take its course, and is reaffirmed by majorities, minorities often win.
– https://nyti.ms/3dBT86C

They’re known to be the happiest people in the world and have one of the highest life expectancies. In the Nicoya Peninsula region, residents are twice as likely than Americans to reach the age of 90 and still lead highly physical lives.

They got iguanas, I could keep going. I love when people piss on it thinking it’s a little place in the jungle. It’s not – you’ll have internet and can breathe oxygen unlike California.

I could go on, but if you’re interested in it, go take a trip. It’s pretty cheap.

Maybe this whole essay is a criticism of the United States. I didn’t intend for it to come out like this, yet here we are. Admittedly, I listen to my Costa Rican family talk about the US. How they spoke about it reminded me of the same sentiments that this Icelandic bank CEO said about the US in Michael Moore’s documentary (vid length 01:35). I feel like this is a good way to cap this off.

News&Video

  1. What Did Bach Sound Like to Bach? - his EP went triple platinum baby. tl;dr - “While the project is still under way, early findings suggest that the sound quality of Bach’s Thomaskirche was indeed clearer than in the pre-Reformation or contemporary versions, though perhaps not by as wide a margin as Bagenal might have predicted. Researchers also found that the acoustic models of the church had an immediate effect on the performers recreating Bach’s cantata. In recordings where musicians could hear the simulated historic reverberations in real time through earphones, the performers gradually slowed their tempo to accommodate the echolike feedback.”

  2. Where to Invade Next — Italy: Vacations, Lunches, Unions [12:39]

Silly Sh*t

Still searching for a roommate, though I may have a friend moving in, but he’s still thinking about it.

Unemployment offices in California suck so much I wrote them a strongly worded letter. Never got my stimulus check. I spruced up my LinkedIn, so that’s fun.

I’m on Sopranos, halfway through Season 2. Reading Coen Brothers scripts then watching their movies. Very enlightening.

Grabbed a manicure. Gained some weight. Got hair that’s thinning for unknown reasons. I blame the Biotin gummies.

I plan on coming back to LA on the 22nd or somewhere around there. I will visit Austin on the weekend of the 20th, most likely that Sunday or Monday. By the time this newsletter rolls around again on the 24th, I’ll be in LA (most likely).

Best,

Don

As always, anybody can reach me at [dnrtldg@outlook.com](mailto: dnrtldg@outlook.com)
And for my friends… you all got my number.