DR-CAFTA & Costa Rica

DR-CAFTA Countries

In 2005 what is now known as DR-CAFTA was ratified in the US by a narrow majority.  The Central American Free Trade Agreement would in 2006 include in El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala & the Dominican Republic.  Costa Rica was the only member to put this trade agreement to a public referendum, which narrowly passed in 2007, and was signed into law in 2009.

Free trade agreements from a liberal economic perspective create employment opportunities, improve efficiency and productivity, reduce costs and are generally good for everyone.  From a more radical or nationalistic perspective they negatively effect the domestic economy, give power, money and resources to foreign investors, create uneven development and contribute to under-development of countries as the power stays with the traditional centres.  As such the DR-CAFTA agreement was hotly debated and generated conflicting viewpoints.

Costa Rica

Costa Rica’s referendum is particularly interesting.  The "Yes" vote narrowly won on October 7th 2007.  51.6% of voters said they approved of the CAFTA agreement for their country.  The referendum was preceded by significant pressure from the US to ratify CAFTA.  Republican leaders had threatened to withdraw the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) that had eliminated tariffs on many of Costa Rica’s exports to the US if the terms of CAFTA were not agreed to.  Other US companies such as Sardimar also threatened to leave Costa Rica.  Even the US ambassador to Costa Rica, Mark Langdale, had warned of future economic difficulties for Costa Rica if CAFTA was not ratified.  The CBI already ensured low tariffs on Costa Rican goods so there was little to be gained for Costa Rican exporters as a result of CAFTA.  

Evidence seems to show that support for CAFTA was strongest in the more heavily populated, urban areas, where the industry and development is concentrated, and least strong in rural areas.  This matches with a critical theory view of free trade policies.  Small hold farmers and other small business owners stand to lose the most when economies are opened up to foreign investment.  Particularly when a free trade agreement such as CAFTA liberalizes trade between such mismatched countries as those in Central America with the biggest economy in the world.  Of particular worry for Costa Rican farmers is the experience of their Mexican counterparts following the ratification of NAFTA.  US growers are furnished with lavish subsidies from the government that means US farmers can sell their produce for lower prices.  This makes it impossible for suppliers from other countries to compete.  This forced many Mexicans out of work in the farms, and contributed to the flow of illegal immigration into the US from Mexico.  

Anti-CAFTA Protest

The fact that Costa Rica held a referendum pays tribute to the education system and a well-informed population.  The 95.9% literacy rate has been achieved by a succession of governments that have prioritised education above military service.  The army was abolished in 1949 and the money saved was spent on the education system.  Even before the approval for CAFTA the Costa Rican economy was strong, showing healthy growth for many years, in fact posting a 5.3% compound growth rate since 1991.  Indeed much of the opposition to CAFTA came from supporters of a bi-lateral agreement with the US, instead of being included with the other Central American nations (see Otton Solis).  A common criticism of neo-liberal economic policies is that they often focus on inappropriate and non-specific regulations instead of country specific regulations.

It is difficult to say what effects joining DR-CAFTA has had on Costa Rica’s economy as every economy suffered after the global crisis in 2007.  Costa Rica’s suffered along with everyone else but now looks to be climbing again. 

Sí o No?

The problem with using the growth of GDP as a measure of the economic health of a country is that it only tells part of the story.  When a developing country opens up markets to foreign firms a number of things happen.  If the country has unused raw materials the foreign companies are normally adept at getting the most efficient use out of them.  Costa Rica’s main exports for a long time were coffee, bananas and pineapples.  These are still a big part of the economy but arguably now the most important raw material are Costa Ricans themselves.  As mentioned earlier Costa Rica has an educated workforce that operates in the same time zone as much of the US and still comes cheap.  For a while I was teaching English to Costa Rican students who had their course fees paid for by a government scheme.  In order to make Costa Rica more attractive to outside investors the government made a promise to pay for huge numbers of Costa Ricans to get to an upper-intermediate standard in English, making them more useful to foreign firms.  This is great for many Ticos who now have the opportunity to work in firms who have the ability to train them and pay them more than local firms.  They get experience of working in more efficient business cultures at the same time as improving their own and their family’s lives.

  

All around Costa Rica there are numerous Zona Francas, these operate in much the same way as the special export processing zones in Asia.  Companies are encouraged to move parts of their operation to these zones by tax incentives. What often happens though as a result of the introduction of foreign firms into developing countries is that the opportunities for progression to the top are limited.  Real development for Costa Rica should show lots of Costa Rican business rising to compete with foreign firms.  When the market is controlled by 3 or 4 huge multinational companies this becomes very difficult.  Multinationals can utilise their economies of scale that are unavailable by any smaller, local firms.  The local firms can neither pay the same wages nor offer the same opportunities as the foreign companies.  Currently the top two private employers in CR are Wal-Mart and Hewlett-Packard, with HP expecting to add another 2000 jobs in the next year.  It is hard to describe this as bad news.  Many of my students and friends work for HP and they certainly believe that the investment in Costa Rica by foreign companies has been good for them.  Not least a decent wage, training, opportunities and the prestige that comes with working for an internationally recognised firm.  HP moved a small part of their operation here in 2003 initially with only 123 employees, this has now risen to 6500.  Costa Rica has to continue to encourage foreign companies to invest here to give its citizens more opportunities.  If HP were to find a better offer in another country, they would move there leaving 6500 Ticos looking for work.

As the referendum result shows many people are not pleased about CAFTA, a friend who works for the Costa Rican operation of a US investment and loan company told that she voted “no” in the CAFTA referendum as she was concerned about foreign companies gaining access to Costa Rica’s resources.  This highlights the contradictions of Free Trade Areas.  Once a market has been opened and barriers reduced to foreign firms, they move parts of their operation to take advantage of lower costs than in their home country.  Workers in developing countries are given opportunities to get better jobs and earn more money when working for foreign firms.  The best employees find their way to these companies, who can then use their size and power to control the economic environment.  My friend is herself a Costa Rican resource that has been appropriated by a US company, of course at the same time she benefits from this arrangement.  Another employee of the same company told me that he used to do a similar job for a smaller Costa Rican-owned firm but changed to the bigger US company as they could offer better benefits and wages.  The advantage of reduced tariffs to Costa Rican goods entering the US will not apply if there are no Costa Rican firms.

G8 leaders planning something

This neo-liberal model of development has always been used by the most powerful economies simply because they have the most to gain.  Free trade was encouraged by the British Empire over 200 years ago in order to reduce tariffs on their substantial exports.  The smaller countries often have little choice but to submit to the system.  The US has continued this tactic.  After the Marshall Plan helped to rebuild the economy and infrastructure of post-war Europe and Japan, the US recognised these as potentially huge new markets for the efficient factory production systems that had been developed in the US.  Prosperous capitalist economies were also believed to be a strong barrier against the infiltration of communism.  The more people had to gain from being a part of the global capitalist system the less likely they would be to succumb to the “Red Menace”.  Thus the US has fostered and persuaded other countries to join the capitalist system.  Certainly development does occur under the capitalist system, however the rush to industrialise and liberalise is environmentally unsustainable and ensures that the power remains with the large countries.  By agreeing to become a part of CAFTA, Costa Rica ensured better opportunities for many of its citizens while at the same time ensuring the under-development of Costa Rica for generations to come.

Aliens

I was going to write about how much I like baseball, and how I am looking forward to seeing a couple of Padres games when we visit the US next month.  Mainly I was going to write about pointless the Home Run Derby and All Star Game are...  But instead I am going to write about a man I met, and mainly by his far out ideas.
He is not from Costa Rica and has an interesting job but that is not the remarkable thing.  He told me about how he used to be a member of a group who had regular contact with aliens.  The aliens would only speak to a female member of the group and she would pass the information on, but the other members could ask questions about whatever they wanted.  Sometimes they would answer, sometimes they wouldn't.
The aliens normally communicated via voices in the woman's head, it began with a ringing sound in one ear and then the voices started.  She did meet the aliens on a number of times, the first time they took her on to their space ship via a large bubble that floated her up to it.
The aliens gave her lots of information such as the theory of evolution isn't true.  We are not descended from animals, rather 4 races of humans were transplanted onto earth from other planets.  They also were giving her information about geography and long numbers that she couldn't understand as she wasn't very well educated.  I don't know why they didn't begin to give the information to someone who could understand them.  I hope this information wasn't important.  Luckily the aliens agreed not to give her any more information that was difficult to understand.  This began in the 1980's and finished at the end of the 1990's, which was because the aliens stopped contact, something they do so as to prevent the humans developing a dependency on them.  There are apparently around 80 groups in the world these aliens are in touch with, although the groups are forbidden from contacting each other and from giving any details to the media.
The man I met had other experience with aliens, he witnessed a UFO sighting once.  I think this one, as his description was exactly the same.  He was also interested in crop circles.  He had returned to his home country in 2003 and there were 3 instances of crop circles near his house.  He had plotted their locations on a map and found that they made a triangle with his house at the centre and if you followed the direction the triangle pointed to, it led directly to the Sphinx in Egypt.  He believes that there are some underground installations deep under the Sphinx.  Also that there is a time capsule hidden in the neck of the structure, and one day an earthquake would cause the head to fall off and reveal the capsule which contains information to be used at that time.
He also told me what was going to happen in 2012, the end of the Mayan Calendar.  It is not going to be the end of the world thankfully, although the Earth is going to shift on its axis.  Currently the earth's axis is at a tilt of around 23.4 degreed, in 2012 the Earth will tilt to 90.0 degrees.  Minus 23.4 from 90.0 and what do you get?  66.6, the real meaning of this number apparently.  It will also be the number of the population on the planet at this time, 6.66 billion.  Many people will die, particularly those living in coastal regions, but many will also be evacuated by those helpful aliens.
In meeting with him he told me that he believes he was helped by aliens with a problem he had with his leg.  He had excruciating pain in his left femur, and awoke one day to find an oval-shaped bruise on his left thigh with a small puncture mark in the middle and no pain.  He still doesn't have a sore left femur.
He also gave me over 100 pages to read of what is supposedly an interview with a scientist who worked for a shadowy US government organisation.  This organisation's main job was to copy alien technology for use on Earth.  The scientist was translating alien documents (from Sumerian to English for some reason...) when he discovered he empathised with the aliens.  The scientist then defected and told his story to a reporter.  Two of the interviews appeared on the internet and then 6 months later were changed and the scientist and the reporter disappeared.
My friend told me that the original copy of the interviews didn't exist on the internet.  I think this is it here and here, it seems to match what he gave me.  If you can't be bothered reading it, and there is no reason why you should, basically the story is this:

There are many different alien races in touch with humans.
One is coming to get us.
They make hybrids from humans and robots.
A mysterious agency has been copying alien technology to defend us.
The US government knows about some of this but not all.
The US government has been in collusion with other races of alien for many years.
We may be in danger or we may be saved by this amazing technology if it can be developed in time.
It is all going to happen after 2011.
God is real and you should believe in him.
People can turn objects into other things.
Be nice to other people.
Listen to New Age music.

Just for the record I don't believe a word of this.
More news as this breaking story develops....

My life as an EFL teacher....

I am about 2 weeks away from the end of over 2.5 years of teaching English as a foreign language overseas.  After I finish this current job and make the next move it looks unlikely that I will be teaching English again, for a while at least.  Never say never but I feel like I am done for the time being.  

As such I thought it would be a good opportunity to write about some of my experiences of teaching in 3 different countries.  I have met some incredible people, other teachers and students.  Teaching English provided me with an opportunity to work in Japan and Costa Rica and see different cultures up close.  In Japan I taught a lot of private adult classes which provided a window into many peoples lives that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.  Often it did feel like counselling as some students used it as an opportunity to talk about problems when it seemed like there was no-one else to listen.  There are many rumours in the EFL world, one of them being that learning a language is prescribed by psychiatrists as a method of overcoming depression.  Depressed people can go and talk to someone they don’t know in another language and be someone else for an hour a week.  Add in the extra confidence and opportunities that having a second language can bring and I can see why this may be of use to those with depression.  A minority of my students matched this description though and I don’t feel I have had that experience at all in Costa Rica.

Teachers and students

There are many ways to become an EFL teacher overseas but this is how I did it.  I began by getting a CELTA in Chiang Mai at ECC.  This was a four-week intense course combining grammar, lesson planning and teaching practice.  I taught classes to Thai university students, they were getting the classes for free and were keen to learn and really fun.  Thailand was one of the cheapest places to get a CELTA qualification and the living costs are much less than other places.  On top of that you get to eat Thai food for every meal!  I really enjoyed this course, I learnt a lot and met some great people.  I would totally recommend getting a CELTA before beginning any kind of teaching job.  For sure it made me a better teacher than I would have been if I hadn’t done the course.

Me and a normal student

After Thailand I went to Japan.  I arrived in Japan with no job arranged but a place to stay.  After a few weeks of searching and a few interviews I took a job with Shane.  You can read good and bad things about every EFL company in Japan.  You can spend all your time reading about problems with schools and never do anything.  Shane were not perfect but neither were they as bad as has been made out elsewhere.  On the whole I enjoyed my time there.  They sponsored my work visa and I worked for one year, in 3 different locations in Tokyo.  I worked 4 days a week and found some private classes to teach on the other days.  I mostly taught adult classes but also had 4 regular children’s classes.  For adult classes Shane mostly use their own books, plus Headway and Clockwise for more advanced students and Market Leader for business students.  For children they used their own books almost exclusively.  I taught a mixture of general English and business English, and group classes and privates.  Shane teachers can only teach for 6 hours a day, and the school managers have to get their teachers to teach as close to that as possible.  In reality I mostly taught around 4 hours on weekdays, and between 5 and 6 on the weekends.  For the first few months I spent lots of time preparing for lessons and prepping classes but after maybe 4 months this was greatly reduced and the job became significantly easier.  

It was around this time that I had my first realisation about teaching English.  That was that many students didn’t really seem to show interest in getting any better.  Many people came to a class once a week and then did nothing during the week.  Almost like they want you to pour the knowledge into their heads.  Or in a parallel that can be found in many other aspects of life in modern capitalist states, we see what we want and buy it.  However learning anything requires some kind of personal commitment, this can’t just be bought.  This is how it is with learning a language, you have to commit to it.  Unless you live in the country where the language is spoken, it cannot just be absorbed, especially if you are only having 1 class a week and nothing else.

Spring in Japan

One of the main issues with Shane was that they require every teacher to work cover days, which they say you already receive the pay for in the terms of your contract so you have to do them.  This is to cover the company for any absences or holidays of other teachers.  As I was on a 4 day contract I did 15 cover days, which I managed to do in the first 8 months meaning that the final 4 months I didn’t have to do any.  There was also a stand-by system were different teachers had to be prepared to go into work if anyone rang in sick.  i was lucky enough to not have to go in when it was my turn on stand-by.

Aside from this living and working in Tokyo was a great experience, and I really miss being in Japan.  Not so much the hot, sweaty summers, drunk old people and the crowded trains but definitely the food, my students, the care and attention that is giving to everything, the chance of finding something new and different around every corner, and for sure the beautiful springs and autumns and the enigmatic winters.  I was sad to leave and hope to go back to visit one day.

Students in Costa Rica

After leaving Japan, I ended up in teaching in Costa Rica.  I have taught for 2 schools here, one large and one small.  Firstly I worked for around 9 months for a school in Santa Ana, about twenty minutes drive from San Jose.  At the beginning I was mostly teaching large groups of students who were getting their English lessons paid for by a government scheme.  This arrangement provided 6 months of language tuition in order to get as many people as possible to an upper-intermediate standard of English.  It was an intensive course that most people did alongside their regular job or study, meaning that the classes were in the morning from 7-9 or in the evening, 4 or 5 days a week.  I also taught some corporate classes in company offices, this required me to travel at my own expense and to teach often in environments that were not very conducive to learning.  This school exclusively use their own materials and their own teaching “method”.  As with most methods there was little difference from any other school.  In fact I believe they do not utilise their materials fully and could do a lot more.  In Costa Rica there is also an obsession with constant testing.  After every 5 units there would be a test, plus bigger tests at halfway through and the end of book.  This often breeds a situation of learning only to pass the test, and in some cases didn’t lead to any real fluency in English.  For many students it worked though and they were often able to progress quickly.  

The visa situation was interesting, but that story is for another day. 

I left this school when it became clear that the government contract was not going to be renewed any time soon and all that was left were the corporate classes.  For a couple of months I was only working 6 or 8 hours a week and travelling to different locations to do it.  Costa Rica is relatively advanced compared to other Central American countries but the public transport leaves a lot to be desired.  The buses are noisy, dirty and unreliable.  The bus stops are often on the side of main highways, and are open to the elements.  The elements in Costa Rica can be pretty wild, I would often get burnt and boiled from the sun in the mornings and drenched by rain in the afternoons while waiting for buses.

Not what working in Costa Rica is like

Many people come to teach in CR lured by the images of beautiful beaches and Pura Vida, in reality working in the Central Valley means long days of frustrating travel experiences and poor pay.  Plus teaching is not a job you can just turn up and do, it requires planning, preparation and organisation.  The turn-over of teachers was fairly high as people realised this and left. If you can deal with all this teaching in CR is great.  The students are fun and they need the language.

The second school I worked for was in the small town where we lived, meaning I could walk to work.  Travel problems didn’t enter the equation, there were other minor organisational problems but nothing serious.  The classes were smaller, occasionally only one student.  One of the most interesting students I met was at this school, I wrote about him here.

The students in both these schools were great.   Often very keen to learn and motivated.  There is a large exposure to English in CR due to tourism and the US.  Many students worked for North American companies, often in call centres and help desks.  Speaking English is a ticket to a better job and more money.  This is one of the reasons for the constant testing and certificates.  They need this to show potential employers that they can speak English and helps to get recruited.  Most students were out-going and the classes were livelier than in Japan.  Many of the students came from other Latin American countries such as Nicaragua, Venezuela and Colombia and speaking English is a great opportunity for them.  As opposed to Japan where many adults are learning for a hobby or because they think it is cool or simply for the opportunity to talk to a foreigner, here people genuinely need the language to improve their life chances.

Two different countries, two different cultures and two different experiences of teaching English.  In both situation there were frustrations and annoyances and problems with employers, but the majority of my co-workers and students were great people.  English teaching attracts its share of odd-balls.  People come to teach English overseas for a number of reasons.  The reasons I have seen were an interest in the country or language, a desire for an “experience”, a need to get away from home, actually wanting to be a teacher, a way to avoid returning home and being a misfit in their own country.  Many just do it for a year and move on, others do it for a lifetime.  It is certainly a job that doesn’t suit everyone and has the potential to send people a little weird if they do it for too long.  It is also a job that has rarely been boring and like most things, the more you put into it the more you get out.  The annoyances for me mostly came outside of the classroom but inside with the students is when the job was at its most rewarding.

Perros de la calle...

OK, this is a different topic but something that is very personal to me and something that I have wanted to write about for some time.  After a year in Central America we are leaving Costa Rica in one month so I wanted to do this before we left.

As most of you know, Steph and I adopted Rocky who turned up outside our house in January this year.  She was around 2 years old and didn't look like she had spent much time on the street and she had recently had a litter of puppies.  One of them was still with her, probably around 6 weeks old.  Rocky is coming with us to the US next month, she is a lucky dog!  Her pup was taken in by our neighbours but unfortunately she disappeared a few weeks later.



Rocky's story is not unusual here in Costa Rica, she was not born on the street, she probably had a home and an "owner" but for whatever reason (probably because she was pregnant) Rocky's owner decided they didn't want her anymore and so she was abandoned near our house, with her pups.  God knows what happened to the rest of her litter.

I am well aware that animal cruelty exists in every country and I am also fully aware that I may sound like a well-off Westerner lecturing people who have far worse problems to worry about than the welfare of animals.  The issue is not about money, particularly in the Central Valley area of Costa Rica, and particularly where we live.  In the San Jose/Escazú/Santa Ana/Ciudad Colón area most people live a relatively comfortable life.  Costa Rica ranks 54th in the UN Human Development Index, with a status of "High Human Development" above countries such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Brazil, China, South Africa.  For a developing country Costa Rica boasts an incredible adult literacy rate of 95.9%.  The government has long invested money in education here.  The military was abolished in 1949 and much of the money saved was spent on free education and health care.  Costa Rica is also one of the largest recipients of Foreign Direct Investment per capita in Latin America.  For sure there are areas of extreme poverty here but not where we live.  It is not about money, or education, or development but about attitudes.  I do not want to tar everyone with the same brush, there are many responsible dog owners here in Costa Rica, but the number of abandoned dogs near our house is heart-breaking.  Seriously last week there was a different dog every day in the street outside.

The photo on the left was taken about a 5 minute walk from our house (the sign says, "Don't be cruel, don't abandon your best friend").  The fact someone felt there was a need for this sign tells you something.







As well as abandoning animals, there is another problem here.  Many people think it is ok to have a dog and let it out of the gate in the morning and leave it to run around the neighbourhood unattended all day.  If the dog comes back at night, then good.  If it doesn't then you can get another cute little puppy from the shop and try again.  As this article (in Spanish) says many people think they are dog owners but really all they do is give their dog some food and a name and leave the dog to fend for itself.  Many of these dogs roaming free haven't been castrated or spayed, meaning the street dog problem continues.  The above article quotes the director of ANPA (Asociación Nacional Protectora de Animales) in Costa Rica as saying that many street dogs have owners but they let them run loose.  Animals need more than just some food scraps and somewhere to sleep.

As far as I know there is one animal refuge in this area, the Refugio de Animales in San Rafael de Heredia, who take in dogs and cats that have been abandoned and they also run outreach programs encouraging people to castrate or spay their animals.  Changing attitudes is a slow process.  They need all the help they can get.

Terremoto in Costa Rica

For some reason the two countries I have lived in since March 2008 have been pretty seismically active. Japan and Costa Rica.

Today we had a pretty big one. Rocky and I were walking in the coffee field, on top of this little hill that separates two plantations (where we saw monkeys a few weeks ago). It was pretty shaky and the trees threw all the residual rain on us. I think I was more scared than she was though.

I don't think earthquakes are something I will ever get used to.