Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Great article, Scott. When I first saw the news item about HP moving many of its English-speaking jobs here to India, my first reaction was , uhh, oh….the exodus is starting. Goodbye call center jobs.
Too bad Costa Rica government officials can’t read English because by the time La Nacion gets around to reporting on the issue, it will be too late to do anything about it. Let’s face it, global competitiveness is not exactly top of mind, much less something to aspire to, in Ticolandia.
That’s unfortunate, because, for example, there are several families in our neighborhood whose 20-something kids have decent-paying call center jobs with a big US-based credit card issuer.
In fact, the local colegio tecnico up the street prides itself on its “call center English” program, and many parents send their kids there for that very reason; they’ll learn enough English to get a call center job when they graduate high school.
So basically what you have is a public education system training students for jobs that won’t exist here five years from now.
After all, how many countries can compete with India or China for low-wage English-speaking jobs?
The labor supply in those countries is just so huge. Yet, at the same time, many employers here, domestic as well as international, can’t find qualified Costa Ricans having the professional or technical skills required for the job.
Sad, because it won’t be long until the government and agricultural sectors will be the only major sources of jobs in this country.
This site should be renamed WeHateTheUSA.com
So many of the discussion forum topics are not about life in Costa Rica, but about how bad life, the economy, politics, society, u-name-it is in the USA. Even this site’s founder recently used it to rant about some piece of US legislation called the National Defense Authorization Act that has all the leftwing bloggers in a tizzy but doesn’t rate a mention on CNN.
I realize that many expats here are US citizens who’ve fled to Costa Rica because they’re fed up with some, if not all, aspects of life in the United States and this forum offers them the opportunity to vent and stay in touch with other like-minded folks. However, I wish this site would get back to its roots of being a useful tool for those of us non-Ticos living in Costa Rica, or contemplating it, to share experiences, information, ideas and so forth about living here, as there are precious few English-language sites actually devoted to Costa Rica living.
But, alas, I guess it’s just like Costa Rica living itself, you often have to step over or around a bunch of garbage or dog poop in navigating your way around.
First off, that Walmart or any multinational company would decide to invest $160 million in Costa Rica speaks volumes about Costa Rica — the quality of its workforce, its investment climate and the stability of its political system. Frankly, you don’t see this size or type of investment being made in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador nor are you likely to anytime soon.
Secondly, Walmart wouldn’t be adding 24 more stores here if the demand wasn’t there. We do the weekly shopping for our family of four at the Hipermas in Heredia (San Francisco) every Sunday. Weekend shopping at Hipermas is a family affair for the Ticos and the store is always super packed. And I am shocked at the quantity of the purchases the locals make.
Is this going to drive the small, neighborhood pulperias and ferreterias business? Of course not. To suggest otherwise is ludicrous, not to mention being ignorant of local culture and customs. No Tico (Tica more than likely) is going to hop in a car they don’t have or take a bus or taxi to the nearest Walmart to buy daily bread, milk, eggs, postres or little odds and ends. This isn’t the USA where everyone gets in his/her car and drives miles to a Walmart, Home Depot or supermarket to pick up a single item.
Moreover, Walmart acknowledges that to offer comparably low prices here in Costa Rica it must locally source A LOT of inventory, otherwise it pays heavy taxes on imported products, and those taxes, of course, are passed on to shoppers in the form of higher prices. Having 24 more Walmarts to stock in Costa Rica is great news for Tico producers of beans, coffee, rice, milk and dairy items and just about any other locally grown or manufactured product you can think of.
As far as the Walmart announcement goes, I can’t think of much negative for the Costa Rican economy from the perspective of someone needing work, a consumer or a producer.
Hi Jim,
Best wishes on your new restaurant. Be sure to let us know when you open. Having grown up in Kansas City and then lived many years in North Carolina, I have been missing good BBQ here in Costa Rica. My wife, who is Costa Rican, actually loves it, too. We live most of the year in Heredia, not all that far from Tres Rios. At least we won’t have to hop an international flight to get Southern BBQ anymore! Chuck
I can’t think of five concerns about living in Costa Rica. But I do have three.
I spend 9 months a year here and my No. 1 complaint is the high cost of living, at least in the urban area of Heredia where we live. Wages are low and prices are high. Just the opposite of what it should be, and certainly of what it is in the USA. On every return trip to Costa Rica, I bring a large suitcase filled with Wal-Mart items — from shampoo, toothpaste and sun screen to home electronics. You name it, whatever it is, unless it’s locally grown or made in Costa Rica, costs twice as much here than in Charlotte, NC, where I also maintain a home. Even at the Wal-Mart-owned stores, like Hipermas and Pali, the prices are much more than in US Wal-Marts.
Cell phones are another good example, my wife and step-daughter both needed upgraded phones this year. I bought new Nokia and Sony Ericson models off ebay and had them shipped to my house in the states, saving hundreds of dollars over what they would have cost here, even at Hipermas. (Just make sure you buy the “unlocked” versions that have the band used in Costa Rica. Easy to find.)
Second, the infrastructure is severely lacking. Suffice it to say there are no rocket scientists in Costa Rica. Even a good engineer is hard to find. Example, the Autopista del Sol, the so-called Caldera Highway that runs from San Jose to the Pacific Coast. All of 77 kilometers long, this road was 30 years in the making, just opened a few months ago, and is now closed in part due to rock and mudslides, which any Tico could have told you would happen during the rainy season, which lasts a long time. OK, a Spanish company built it, but you have the blame the Tico politicos for hiring them and not overseeing the engineering. Of course, not that Costa Rica has the engineering competency, talent pool or equipment to build or oversee something as simple as road construction.Telecommunications is another example. The only reason it’s as far along as it is now is because the government finally caved in a year or two ago and agreed to allow competition, which, actually, has yet to happen. The internet: Yes, you can get high speed internet in your home (gracias a Dios), but try keeping it on during a rain storm, which happens frequently. The internet service is our neighborhood, at least via the cable TV company, is totally unreliable in rainy weather, and all electric power goes out frequently.
If the idea of having to put your used toilet paper in a waste basket instead of flushing it down the toilet turns your stomach, you won’t be very comfortable in Costa Rica. Since the country has no modern sewage treatment plants, you have to live with rinky dink septic systems, often installed by complete incompetents, that would clog even faster if you were to put toilet paper in them. And get used to the idea of seeing the streets in your neighborhood flowing with soapy bath and washing machine water. That’s because, from most houses, non-toilet water drains directly into the streets, down a storm drain and into the nearest river or stream. Oh yes, and the manhole covers on these drains are often missing, leaving huge open caverns that will swallow your car.
Which brings me to my third complaint. Despite the country’s eco image, Costa Rica is one of the most littered places you’ll ever live or visit. Drive down any main thoroughfare through San Jose to the Pacific beaches and you’ll be horrified by the amount of trash on the roadsides. Even in Tico neighborhoods of $100,000+ homes, you’ll find trash in front of houses, along the curbs and in the streets. It’s really unbelievable. And where does all this trash end up, in the rivers and streams and along the shorelines, some of which are the most polluted in the world. It must be a cultural thing where people think nothing of littering and where anti-littering laws are either non-existent or never enforced and dogs run free.
