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This is a kind of unusual situation, Scott.
I think I know that the company name is Hacapike, SA. At least that’s what comes up when you look at their account number at Banco Nacional.
[quote=”maravilla”]what’s a trust company? do you mean a sociedad anonima? [/quote]
A trust is a legal entity that is set up to hold the title to real estate (in our case) during the term of a bank mortgage. It’s an entirely different breed of cat from a [i]sociedad anonima[/i]. I can’t give you the details, but putting our real estate, which is held in a Costa Rican corporation, in a trust company’s hands makes foreclosure much easier should we default on our mortgage. Going this route was a condition of granting our mortgage.
Even though Marcia and I own the shares of the corporation and are its officers, we cannot do anything that would jeopardize the corporation, such as getting another mortgage or selling it, without the trust’s approval.
BTW, we paid our corporate taxes at BCR in Grecia yesterday morning. Everything went perfectly smoothly.
There are three critical questions: First, does the phone you’re considering operate on the CDMA system or the GSM system. [b]All cell services in Costa Rica operate on the GSM system[/b], so no CDMA phone will work here. Most systems in the U.S. operate on GSM, but Verizon is an important exception. It operates on CDMA and phones sourced from Verizon can never function in Costa Rica.
Second, is the GSM phone you’re looking at a [b]”quad-band”[/b] model? That is, does it operate on all four bands used worldwide in GSM systems? If yes, you’re good to go. Virtually all modern GSM cell phones are “quad-band”.
I think I know that all Costa Rica GSM systems operate on the 850mhz band but please [b]DO NOT RELY ON THAT![/b] Find out from a knowledgeable source like ICE or a cellphone store or be certain that yours is a quad-band phone.
Third, a phone must be “unlocked” to function on Costa Rica’s GSM systems. That is, it must not be electronically tied to one or another U.S. cellphone system. A phone that’s tied (“locked”) onto AT&T’s system GSM system in the States, for example, will not work here. If it’s not unlocked, it will look for AT&T’s GSM system and only function when it’s in contact with that system. AT&T isn’t represented here, so such a locked phone won’t be able to make a connection.
[b]Note of Caution:[/b] Amazon does not always get the technical specifications complete or quite right. The safe bet is to decide which GSM phone you think you want to buy from Amazon and then go to the manufacturer’s website to check the specs.
New Question: Friends have brought a Samsung smart phone to Costa Rica from Great Britain. As far as I know, it’s unlocked.
They’re having trouble downloading/installing Samsung’s Skype app so that she can talk to her Mum in England. Anyone have any idea why this would be an issue or how to resolve it?
Thanks in advance.
On the iMac, under OS X, you hold down the Option key and type the letter. A tilde appears. Then you release the Option key and type the letter again and the letter character appears under the tilde.
ñ
You can also type the upside down exclamation mark by holding down Option while pressing the numeral “1” key.
¡
And the upside down question mark is Shift-Option-?
¿
There’s got to be a similar approach under Windows.
I don’t know about the Samsung, but getting prepaid cellular service is easy and reasonable. There’s an ICE kiosk in the airport where they can set you up, or you can go to any one of the zillion or so cellphone stores. There’s no need to go prepaid in the name of a corporation.
While they have competitors now, I think it’s safe to say that ICE still has the broadest coverage although it can vary from place to place.
Victoria, you’re right that you and I can disobey the law and accept the consequences, but in very many instances we do not; we comply. See, for example, the lines at the Post Office next April 15th. Stand on any overpass and watch the seatbelt compliance as it passes by underneath. And find a restaurant with a Whites Only sign.
There are biker bars and gay bars all over where you or I might feel uncomfortable, but if they refused to serve us due to our race, they would pay a very steep price. The law says they must accommodate us and they do and will.
I, too, am skeptical of Mayor Bloomberg’s effort to make large soft drink servings contraband, but accessing things illegally by a few doesn’t prove that laws don’t affect behavior in the real world.
[quote=”VictoriaLST”]You can legislate seat belts as you wish – and people can accept fines for not wearing them.
As for legislating behavior, it was not overnight. Nor was it universal. Clubs still have ‘guidelines’ for membership and there are African-American groups (the Black Caucus in DC and a nationwide sorority that is racially restricted to blacks) that are restricted.
[/quote]But, in fact, people do [u]not[/u] “. . . accept fines for not wearing them [seatbelts, that is] . . .” The vast majority of the population complies with the law (which did change their behavior) and wear seat belts. And by complying, they do not “. . . accept fines . . .”.
As for private organizations (country clubs, fraternities and sororities, etc), those have never been subject to the civil rights legislations that Congress and the state legislatures have passed over the years. But hotels and restaurants, among others, are subject to those legally-mandated requirements and their behavior has changed. In the main, they comply with the law.
Or can you point to specific examples where there are still “Whites Only” waiting rooms, restrooms, seating areas in movie theaters, water fountains, etc? Do you know of a single restaurant where black Americans are required to come to the back door and eat in the alley? Can you point to a single public transportation system in which non-whites are required to sit in the back of the bus?
[quote=”maravilla”]to my knowledge they do NOT fluoridate the water here. for which we should all be eternally grateful. [/quote]
maravilla, I’ve been using fluoridated Crest toothpaste since it was introduced in the late 1950s. And since the late 1970s, I’ve also been using Gel-Kam fluoride gel after brushing. In all that time, I’ve suffered no adverse effect whatsoever.
This anecdotal evidence should convince you, beyond any point of discussion, that fluoridation is your friend. After all, anecdotal evidence is definitive, right?
[quote=”VictoriaLST”]Typical leftist thinking: “I know what’s best for you so I will make your decisions for you”. Bloomburg’s outlawing a large soda is absurd.
Legislating behavior does NOT work.[/quote]
You’re welcome to characterize Bloomberg’s and others’ thinking as you will, Victoria, but as the world becomes more and more technically complex, we, as individuals, are less and less prepared to make decisions about those very complex matters. We are ever more dependent upon experts. You and maravilla may research the effects of chlorind or fluoride in water and toothpaste to your hearts’ content, but you’ll be diverting time and attention from a thousand other matters of equal importance about which you ([u]and I[/u]) will continue to know essentially nothing.
For as long as the community (read: taxpayers) are liable for the health costs of the obese/diabetic/cardiac members of the community, we do have a legitimate interest in their behavior. It’s not a dissimilar situation from that which requires seat belts, air bags and other safety systems in cars, which requires that you not drill your water well in your septic drain field, and hundreds of other matters.
And, like it or not, you [u]can[/u] legislate behavior.
For proof, one need look no farther than the recent history of civil rights in the United States. As recently as the mid-1960s, hotel and restaurant owners commonly refused service to non-whites. Then the law changed. And so did their behavior — overnight.
One should not, however, confuse changing [u]behavior[/u] with changing [u]attitudes[/u] (read: prejudices).
[quote=”maravilla”]. . . you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it think.[/quote] which is precisely why it is better public policy in some instances to mandate certain behaviors on a relatively few individuals like (say) purveyors of salt than to try to change the behavior of an entire population.
This is not unlike Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City outlawing oversize sugar-laden soft drinks in an attempt to reduce excess caloric intake. It is much more effective to control the behavior of a relatively few individuals (7-Eleven, McD’s, Burger King, et al) than to change the habits of eight million citizens.
Victoria, I think the premise we’re working under here is that it’s easier, better, more certain to somehow influence the day-to-day behavior of (say) 4.25 million people by getting them to switch to iodine-rich foodstuffs than it is to impose a requirement on (maybe) two or three salt purveyors that they add a smidgen of iodine to their product (at almost no cost) which is almost universally used.
So yes, it’s better to supply Costa Ricans’ iodine needs with some combination of kelp and muled-in supplements (neither or which most of them have ever heard of much less have any access to) than to add the iodine to their salt.
In scientific terms, this is known as changing the universe to fit the equation.
sprite, it is not the case that I “must” read what you write. In fact, in the main I do not which I’m sure you can understand.
Today is a rare exception.
[quote=”maravilla”]i live in rural costa rica, V. where did you think i lived? i know exactly what most of the ticos eat, and gringos, too, and yes, i could see where they would have nutrient deficiencies far beyond just yodo and iron.[/quote]
Yes, but you are more fortunate than most of us in that you have ready access to the San Ramon kelp beds. Not everyone is so lucky.
