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As you put it “Excessive consumerism” is the key. Consumerism is not bad as long as it is not excessive. It is done to excess when people define themselves by material objects, instead of their deeds.
I suggest that we develop and insist upon non-polluting transportation and that water heating is done in green manners that reduce the need for electricity. I belive that all new building be required to produce energy depending of the sq Meter.
I don’t think you need to eliminate washing machines but I do believe that people needs to replace objects because a new style has come-out, rather than because it no longer functions is a large part of the problem. We need to face our choices about what defines us and take responsibility for the planet by doing so. An example, a washing repairman said to me “You know we are always being called out to repair the new style washers, but this old sytle you have is a workhorse – don’t replace t, just repair it.”
As long as you define yourself by your material goods, and collect a lot of them to market your “attractiveness” than the cycle will not be broken. It all starts in the heart. Who you choose to be and what is important to you. One thing we could start with is the “repair not replace” mentality that has been lost for many generations in the US.
We all need to rethink this consumerism deal. When I go to the store and look at something I think I want, my rule is see it, do not buy it. Think about it and shop for it. If I still want it after a couple of weeks than I might buy it. It helps you determine between a material “want or need.” If we could develop a system of satisfaction that deals in non-material events feeding us – like the ones the Ticos have, then we can reduce the want for things. It is the want, not the need that hurts us.
So if you agree – than you are part of the problem if you do not take the responsibility to reduce your consumption. There is no “because they are not reducing, I am not reducing” mentality. You either reduce, and are part of the solution, or you continue to consume to fulfill your wants (not needs), and you are part of the problem.
Do you know if you recycle all the good you use, that there is very little actual waste and that you can reduce your trash to one can a month instead of 10 cans a month. What if we all reduced our un-needed consumption by 90%?
The answer to reduced consumption is strong families, community ties, and local grown food. We should all grow our food. The object really is to be as currency free as possible. That means electric current and paper money.
I am not saying be free of it completely, but you can reduce the need to use currency. If you produce your electricity, you reduce the need for currency, if you use solar to heat and pump you reduce your need for currency, if you grow your food, you reduce the need for currency, if you make your wine you reduce the need. If you have large family and network of friends to socialize with, you reduce your need for currency. Eventually you see that currency is a government trap. And that all the rules (laws) of man are made to support the use of currency. The less currency you use, the less consumption. And the more real wealth.
People in the US are starting to reconsider their habits. Its refreshing. Because of the past consunpation, unfortunately we all need to be reformed smokers and institute the same kind of social taboo against excessive consumption.
The Disneyland way of entertainment is killing us. We need to derive our relationships that feed our soul from real people not humanoids or other animated objects. Greeting and talking, sharing food that you have grown and taking time to educate those around you are the meat of living. All the fantasy life junk on TV is mind poison.
Alfread I agree with your assesement wholehartedly, That was as concise and clear as it gets.
I have coined a new phrase: Decycle.
It is now not enough to recycle. The cycle of consumerism needs to be broken – Decycled.
What we need to replace it is a production of commodities that do not fill trash pits. What that is I don’t know, but the consumerism model dooms our children to a poor quality life.
I hope the few of us that realize the shallow rewards of consumption can influence, no matter how little, the rate of depleting the worlds resources. I think Costa Rica was attracting that type, but IMO it seems that the green leadership has always come from the Gringos and the consumer examples and values have been a result of western influence.
So the West seems to be putting both feet forward here. I guess we can only do our best to influence one mind at a time, and maybe enough enlightend individual can help point CR in a direction of non-participation with rampant consumtion and help Tico to understand that what they have is a balanced lifestyle built on many things other than money. And that they should really value that.
The key is to influence those who influence many…
Igualmente regarding the manners thing. But you sure do jump to conclusuions regarding the land thing and my chances of citizenship. And since I am a person (the singular of people), well that kind of speaks for itself. Regarding who has more land, well you might, and then again you might not… Regardless I am happy to read that you can sing the CR natioanl athem all by yourself. That-a-boy!
“Costa Rica has always had a well-established middle class.” That’s just wrong. Costa Rica has never had a well-established middle class and arguably, does not have one today. Sure Ticos may be climbing in purchase power, but I bet you the percentage of Ticos that earn a living somewhere between what Costa Rica considers rich and poor is slim. Also the grocery baskets and cars will be financed with low down payments and high interest rates. Unfortunately the real owners will be the banks. No real wealth there. Most of those cars will be reposed and when the bank can’t make money on them, there will be no financing and say good bye (thank God) to the phony middle class based on a bogus value system. Maybe then they will revert back to what they already had. Real values supported by well-established families and agricultural work.
I say get used to those challenging the status quo and rethinking the world paradigm because those that continue to have the “that’s just the way it is” attitude are archaic dinosaurs tromping in a 0 to 60 in two minutes flat world of change. Accepting what you perceive as “social normality” is dooming the planet.
Hey, but do you care, you’re not going to live forever, right? And your kids, what about them? So what happens when India and China’s population all want cars and DVD’s. Well CRHB, our children (if you got them) are going to inherit a dirty planet, because of attitudes similar to yours. Change happens one mind at a time. Mine is open to a new world paradigm, yours obviously is not. Be sure to leave your kids a gas mask, as all our children will need them. Isn’t consumption glorious?
Wow, I really applaud Costa Rica’s move toward a consumer society. That’s another big progressive bunch of crap shoved down the throats of Ticos by the western marketing machines. More “go Arias” foolery so Ticos will now base their identity on “things” rather than community standing, humility, respectful attitude and the mundane yet important parts of daily life.
Let’s see how fast we can fill the dumps with cell phones and other toxic tech waste that will further pollute and harm the traditional Tico family that was once considered middle class, and not because they had purchase power (a definition of middleclass as defined by mostly North Americans).
“Oh face it 2BNCR, that just the way it is!” It ain’t that way for me. I think it’s a shame that north Americans define middle class strictly by DVD players and cars ($$$$). The reason people used to come here was to get away from that thinking. The brainwashed North Americans come here and perpetuate it, and then they cry foul when CR has been prostituted for money, when they are the pimps selling her out to rampant development that harms the overall environment at the expense of the less than “middle class” Ticos – who by the way I find to be the most genuine and honest. The New Middle Class Ticos – what a shame. That is really good news ain’t it. Maybe in the future they can be like the Chinese or the North Americans – the biggest polluters on earth!
Of course they do. I have seen it many times. I like a government that has earned my respect. That usually means local goverment.
Once they get big and there is a large pool of money sitting around the rats come in at night and gorge. Or, they dish it out to the people that pave the roads. They in return send a kick-back to the politician and they make-up the money they sent by diluting the asphalt used on the roads.
This is a real life example of what happened in Costa Rica. Guess what – you for your tax money get asphalt with half the life expectency. The guy who paves the road get to repave twice as frequently and the politician gets twice the bribe – and the tax payer gets 25% for his money and the headache of pot holes – not to mention the danger. So, do you think politician should be respected? Who is nieve here. It’s like thinking lawyers have your best interest in mind. And maybe , just maybe 10% do, but the rest are looking to take advantage of you by either not doing the work, or doing iy incorrectly, or cretaing work that you do not need so they can bill you more.
These things need to be clear with the populace so people are not nieve by giving respect to politicians and attorneys that are basically dishonest, maybe not by the letter of the law but certainialy ethically dishonest.
Now if that paving company was local to the area being paved, do you think they would have risked cheating their immeadiate neighbors, risked the humiliation and reprisals if caught and exposed?
Sprite, you may be a bit blind to the real workings of the world and it may be you who is imposing your bias (trusting goverment to act effectivly and fairly) on your wold view.
I am not encouraginbg anyone to break the law – period. I am simply trying to find out if people find this acceptable or unacceptable.
I think you have a vaild point regarding where does it end?/ I had never thought about it being easy to abuse. Do you think that its possible for police to actually gey 20 bribes a day? I would think that it might be more like 2 to 4 bribes.
Keep people informed about these types. What you need to do is preventitve investigation. Find attorneys or consultnats that have the means and knowledge to chek people out. Look, if you are going to hand over 20K to someone, at least have a credit check done and get some history on them, like thier pp# and current address. With a photocopy of thier passport you at least have their picture and some info that leads back to their home country. I can never understand why people are so quick to hand over large amounts of money but are to cheap to pay for an insurance policy (investigation).
I think Provost is a friend of Gary Morris of Pacifico Colonial fame and now of Lomas de Coronado. He swindled his best friend, a doctor from Santa Barbara, and used the money to buy property and never contacted him again. I know because his friend contacted my attorney and my attorney asked me about him since Morris walked out on many bills he owed in Quepos/Manuel Antonio and was investigated by the owner of Pacifico Colonial when the budget went fron 1.75 million to almost 4 million. Two peas in the same pod. Don’t trust either of them.
Sprite,
I am not talking blood transfusions and tatoos here. Will my skin deepen in color and will I develop a new memory? No. All I am saying is that to fit in you do as they do. Not as an outsider does. If you consider yourself an outsider, subconsciously you will always act like one. I was not born here, but it feels like home to me. People don’t treat me like a gringo for the most part, especially when I click of a few dichos and understand the humor. I’ve paid my dues, but I’ve recived much more than what i have paid for.
This place is a cultural bargain. So why screw it up by acting like a letter of the law card carring Gringo. That’s the anthisis of a Tico.
Now Arias is trying to make the Ticos obey the strict letter of the traffic laws! Wonder where he got that idea. What next. stopping at stop signs? Lets see what kind of effect the Ley de Trnasito has. This will be very telling. If they prosecute police for asking for chorizo, I hope they all quit!
Costa Rica Finca, Funny you say I will never be Tico… my citizenship testing date is not that far off. So, I guess I have a pretty decent shot at it- si dios quiere. And I have been here well before Figueres.
How about you my friend, what makes you such an authority about my chances of citizenship and Costa Rica? And are you Costarricense? Are you related to Don Pepe, do you know where Juan Santamaria was born? Can you recite the National Anthem? Do you own land here, or are you one of those that just frequents the fourms… If you are Costarricense, you sound a little ethnocentric.
Or maybe you don’t like Ticos??? Had some bad experiences??? Or just want to get in the conversation without really having anything to add, pero su dos pesos like other gringos often do. Lora vieja no aprende a hablar… Bueno.
Sprite, I for one want to become Tico. I do believe that there are many people that come to the US and want to be Americans. They understand that they may not reach 100% assimilation (whatever that means), but they take the time to learn the language (I agree with you Sprite – mandatory to at least try and be interested in learning). However, I do believe that they realize that their children will assimilate.
David you sound like a careful being. I think the first thing that first-generation immigrants should do is take the local social customs into consideration by not blindly following written rules that your adopted culture does not follow. I believe that the “well, we are guest here so we have to behave differently” does not hold water. It is a declaration of “we are different” which IMO is subconscious association with superior. I don’t believe that we gringos should come to Costa Rica and start changing their social mores because the attorneys and politicians want to create a larger financial base to enforce laws.
There was a great swordsman by the name of Myamoto Musashi. He said the highest degree of control is to be free of control. To seek to control others, is to lose your freedo; as your actions are now dictated to you by what is needed to institute control. You lose the freedom of choosing how to act.
When people can control themselves, this is the highest freedom and nothing more is needed.
IMO Ticos have always done an excellent job of controlling themselves. So us Gringos, which are mostly recovering control freaks (myself included) find Costa Rica refreshing as there are a bunch of people living together in an area with little law enforcement (hence everybody is controlling themselves).
So to upset it by enlarging the government so those outside the community can enforce control is really a step backwards.
Nevertheless, by our nature (as the world police) we resonate with control; our ability to control nature, to control the world economy, to control our neighbors. It’s a sickness.
I am not saying we have to become Costaricence, but we should not seek to change things because we feel that it is similar to how it is done in the US, and therefore superior.
The culture here is far better than the US. People here for the most part are much more well adjusted. If you start tinkering with the SOCIAL MORES by behaving contrary to them, then you are changing the essence of their culture.
First generations immigrants may never be able to assimilate fully, but we should walk through their culture and leave no trash behind, only our footprints. And blindly participating with the written laws that the Ticos ignore is doing so at the expense of their social mores. It’s leaving behind cultural litter.
Respecting their social mores is what IMO David calls a being a “welcome guest.”
David, I just reread your post and the “to put on the air of assimilation” part. IMO intent is primary. If you do your best to assimilate you are never pretending (putting on the air- as you put it). Because you do not have the wealth of daily experience, to me, sounds like justification for not putting your heart in it – along with your head. Again, it goes back to intent. With all due sincerity and respect, I think you need a gut check on that one. If you want to settle for being adopted and the “that’s not so bad,” that’s your prerogative. Me, I want to be full-blooded first generation Costaricense immigrant.
David, if you want it, you can have it. Not that you may ever become it, BUT as the Tico so often demonstrate that when you are in PROCESS (just like residency) you receive the benefits (and the benefit of the doubt), that is, you receive the recognition of assimilation even though you have not achieved it yet. And that is one of the beautiful and humane thing about Tico culture.
And yes Sprite, I would love to claim Costa Rica nationality and be buried in Costa Rica.
It is really not as much about residency as it is about assimilation. If we assimilate, it does not upset the status quo and we don’t have to deal with the kind of changes. And changes that are happening at breakneck speed considering we are talking about Costa Rica. I had high hopes for Arias, but he is so far off the mark (way too progressive), that I believe that Solis would have done much better – I don’t think he is so money hungry. Solis is a traditionalist and I hope he wins in 16 months. It’s almost the difference between Bush and Gore (but in a Tico manner).
At the risk of being repetitive the gist of it is that Costa Rica would be better off if its foreign residence acted like Ticos rather than Americans. To most Americans, there is only financial reasoning to do anything. Money is almost always the determining factor. And that is why we have such terrible representation of the Arts (music, movies etc). Nobody has anything to say. Its all work and little creativity with no time to think. So they come here to live cheaper, and totally disregard the culture and its practices. They just continue like drones with their antennas out feeling their way along the wall of rules. Ticos know have to navigate in an intuitive way. It’s not about how they feel about government, although I believe that most have contempt for it, its about the way they have elevated passivity to an art form. They simply do not participate with laws they find unjust. Passive aggression at its finest and I applaud them for it because it maintains the staus quo.
The idea is to assimilate by absorbing the culture and blending into the population. To do this means to act as the Ticos do, this requires understanding the established practices of Tico society as much as its written laws, and a shared understanding about approved behaviors and what behaviors will bring disapproval.
Instead, Americans transpose their behaviors, such as their understanding of the need to follow the letter of the law. Americans have suffered such financial inhumanities at the hands of their government that they quiver like an abused pet dog when they think about not submitting to the letter of the law.
This makes it even more difficult to share an understanding of Tico culture and social mores. The unintended consequences are difficulty establishing Tico friendships and not participating in important cultural events. And the Gringos become even more estranged and farther from assimilation.
There are so many factors that determine proftability. You would need some hard facts about it and that means looking at both sets of books. Figure occupancy rate (past performance)and competition (will there be more hotels being built in your area). Some of the highest occupancy rates come from remote areas. You also have to figure how many rooms you have. The bigger the more money you make, but also the harder to fill – therefore the more potential to lose money.
I know of a nice hotel that went from 15 room to 30 rooms and stayed full. But guess what? after they expanded it, the owners hated the lifestyle as it became too much work. Now you need the expense and headache of middle mangement. Best to stay small and distinctive. Try for the under $100 mark and always have a view and a pool. Good luck
16 rooms 65% occupancy rate:
10 rooms at $65 + $650 a night times 30 or about 20k a month
minus food, maintainece, 4 workes, water, electric, trash, taxes, insurance etc. I say you can clear 10K a month. Now do you have a loan to pay off??? If its new, you will also have to advertise…
Are you the charming type – that helps alot.
Maravilla makes a lot of valid points.
Perpetual Tourist are by no means even close to illegal aliens. Perpetual tourist are NOT illegal. The law clearly states that it is legal to leave the country and reenter after 72 hours. Nothing illegal about that. If you can qualify for residency and you use the 72-hour law to stay here “legally,” then it is not even an abuse of the law (read the law yourself – it is not mentioned so by default it is legal).
If you are a criminal who would not be granted residency, then using the 72-hour law to circumvent the requirements to stay here perpetually might be (might be) illegal. I think some on this board need to get off their high horse regarding the rules and their enforcement. It’s one thing to espouse following the law, it another to play big mother.
I think most people used to go to Costa Rica to get away from big mother, now it seems that those who have came here to try and duplicate their standard of living for less money have brought their big mother attitude with them. I think CR would be better off if its foreign residence acted like Ticos rather than Americans.
Isn’t the idea to assimilate: (definition) to make similar; to absorb into the culture or MORES of a population or group? That clearly mean to do as they do. Mores (definition) derive from THE ESTABLISHED PRACTICES OF A SOCIETY RATHER THAN ITS WRITTEN LAWS. They consist of SHARED UNDERSTANDINGS about the kinds of behavior likely to evoke approval, disapproval, toleration or sanction, within particular contexts.
Americans do not share these understanding of Tico culture. They bring their understanding of government participation with them, and they clash with Tico culture. Then it starts to rub off on Tico politicians and the government starts to get bigger. Which leads to more taxes and less freedom (witness the last several years in Costa Rica – new transit laws – luxury taxes, higher immigration financial requirement).
It all goes back to our big American egos – manifest destiny and we-know-best and all that archaic crap. All our nationalism has created a runaway consumer freight train powered by consumption and gobbling the earth’s resources. I liken the US immigration to Costa Rica as the western settlers imposing their “right-way” of doing things on the North American Indians. Look where that got us. Middle America wants nothing more than to come to CR and screw it up by playing by the exact letter of the law. It’s this kind of blind following that has gotten us in such trouble in the US.
Just because it may be considered illegal does not make something unethical. Likewise, just because something is legal, does not make it ethical. Legalities and ethics are separate. If someone comes and goes every 90 days and while they are here, they participate in society and spread their wealth, what is it that they have done that is unethical? What, they have not paid money to a government that like all governments is power hungry, ineffective and inefficient and returns little for the money that its supporters invest. The legal residents cry foul because they paid money, so they want other to also pay. Whaaaa…
Government is a necessary evil. Ticos seem to understand this much more than Americans, and perhaps this is why we Americans are saddled with the work-enslavement that supports a mammoth government.
I think Ticos have it right with their ideas of selective participation and funding the government as little as possible. The problem is that so many in the US are working for the government that to do anything else but playing along is biting the hand that feeds them – because it is their own hand! More and more Americans are becoming their government. The bailouts prove my point! Then these types come down here and screw it up for the Ticos. I see why they want to restrict immigration because other cultures come here and do not assimilate (see definition above to reinforce the point). Assimilation requires reading in-between the lines for the transparent fine print: the established practices and unwritten understandings…
It just like declaring the true value of your property when you transfer the deed. Ask the Tico attorneys who represent Ticos. The Ticos do not want to declare the actual price. They know that it means more money to the lawyers and politicians. They insist on maintaining the status quo (existing fiscal value in the registry). They don’t want Gringos to start a trend by doing it either. Nevertheless, I bet the majority of you property owners here did not maintain the existing fiscal value in the registry, as the Ticos do. Is it illegal not to change it. Yes, if you follow the letter of the law. Is it unethical? Not if you do not want a more powerful government and to make Tico attorneys inappropriately wealthy compared to other Ticos. To maintain the cultural mores clearly requires not changing the registered fiscal value.
There is a game here to play and Americans need to start understanding the real rules. But, they will never understand if they don’t leave their egos at the airport. There are a few who want to get rich at the expense of making it more difficult for the average Tico, and they cloak themselves in the law to demonstrate their righteousness (attorneys and politicians and anyone else who has become dependent on the government).
