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Tony,
The Tico school year starts in January, so your kid will start late. While some exclusive schools do demand that you apply for enrollment early, like Lincoln High School, you’ll be looking for a nursery school or kindergarten. These are MUCH more plentiful, and are less likely to turn away new kids even though classes already started. You should have no problem placing your kids somewhere when you get there. If you’re going down there, for your own peace of mind you might simply call or drop in on one of them and ask.
I scanned over the new immigration law, and it does state that you can enter and remain in CR as long as your application is pending. For more info go to http://www.migracion.go.cr.
It’s crap Scott. Bush was absolutely clueless in regard to foreign affairs when he first got elected. He purposefully stepped back from the Middle East, and in my opinion had no foreign policy strategy whatsoever. 9/11 gave the man his “vision”. Terrorists and their supported were dancing in the streets afterwards, and aside from the death and human misery it created, the attack was a significant blow to the U.S. economy.
Clearly the Gulf of Tonkin attack was orchestrated by the US government to justify sending troops to Vietnam. No one died in that “attack” though. Conspiracy theories about Pearl Harbor abound, but I don’t buy it. Yes there were some warnings, but it seems to me that if we decided to let it happen to provide us with justification for going to war with Japan, we wouldn’t have left ALL of our ships in the harbor. Justification would have been sufficient with just some of the most expendable ships left there. Remember, Japan had more naval resources in the Pacific after Pearl Harbor than we did, and Midway could have gone either way. Nimitz could definitely have used more ships.
Allowing the 9/11 attack to occur, or worse yet orchestrating it, is so far out there it defies credibility. IMHO it also attributes far more strategic thought than Bush was capable of (and bad strategy at that).
No, the Islamic terrorists have it out for us (and the country you fought for Scott), as well as for all western interests around the world. To beat them requires good detective work, garnering international support, and maintaining the moral high ground. Putting a cop on EVERY corner, turning “1984” into a work of non-fiction, and almost unilaterally deciding that we need to remake the Arab world into a western style democracy through military means (the stated strategy imposed without public debate after we failed to discover WMDs in Iraq) is not the option I would have chosen.
We can debate the reasons why they hate us, our immorality, the abuses we committed during the Cold War (the USSR and China too), whatever. Their actions are so much more perverse, it takes an incredibly incompetent administration to make us look like the bad guys around the world.
Come on, these are the guys that thought we’d be received in Bagdad with parades and flowers! The same guys who thought we could forcibly install a functioning, western style democracy through military occupation in a country that’s 80% Shia (or something like that). The same guys who forgot that Suni-run Iraq was the only thing that kept Shia-run Iran from dominance (oops!). The same guys who thought that the phrase “You’re either with us or against us” would be a good marketing slogan.
Don’t mistake cunning with sheer stupidity. Really, what’s more likely…
Welcome back Jenny, I was wondering where you went to.
I’m afraid Margaret Thatcher and Indira Ghandi proved both you and Maravilla wrong long ago. Just ask any Argentinean or Pakistani.
You’re right about fantasizing about leaving the problems in the US behind by moving the Costa Rica – in the end you just trade one set of problems for another. The grass is always greener…
As a pensionado or rentista I can understand how you feel about not interfering in the politics of your host country. For us residents by virtue of marriage (our kids are TicoGringos), I do feel like we have the right to try to better our adopted country.
I guess this means the rest of you should not opine (lol).
Sprite,
Yes, Costa Rica is extremely Catholic, but very tolerant to other religions as well. The other Christian sects are growing quickly, particularly the Evangelicals and Baptists. There is also a significant Jewish community, one conservative dating back to WWII and relatively closed (they still give dowries), and another, more reformed community of newcomers.
They are also very tolerant of other races, nationalities and gays & lesbians. In general, and in spite of their relative homogeneity, they are an extremely tolerant society.
One of the most interesting religious activities is Semana Santa (Easter) when the entire country closes down for a weak, and there’s a procession to the Basilica of Cartago where a black version of the Virgin Mary was “seen”. People walk there from as far away as Nicaragua, many dressed as Romans, Jesus, or other characters from the time. The most penitent crawl up the isle when they get there.
I’m not a religious person either, but I also held my tongue. If you mock their faith, say their soccer games are a bore, or won’t dance merengue, you’re persona non grata (lol).
Seriously though, they’re also very indirect in their communication. Direct criticism of any kind is an insult, as is asking personal questions. Much of the time verbal exchanges are rote cordiality, and false compliments. All very genteel, but not at all indicative of what their thinking. That’s why many gringos come off as rude. We’re much more direct, and more open regarding personal matters. Also, our sarcasm is totally misunderstood.
When in Rome…
Isn’t it part of the intrinsic nature on any religion to convince their flock that their’s is the one and only true religion?
David,
That flies in the face of what the regs say (if that’s what they say, I haven’t found them yet). If you leave for 72 hours avery 3 months, you should be fully compliant with them. Now this guy says that’s not right? What gives?
Has anyone found the source language for this rule? I’ll keep looking.
“holding sperm donors accountable for the children they produce” is definitely a feminist idea. Don’t get defensive on me, it’s not like I called you a liberal or anything (lol). I never said it wasn’t the right thing to do, I merely pointed out that keeping people from traveling abroad because they have bad credit would be political suicide as compared to withholding passports of people who aren’t paying child support. (How dare you compare me with Diego. Such a insult is a right winger’s approach to a civil exchange of ideas, and is beneath you. Now say you’re sorry and we can play nice again…)
Seriously Maravilla, if you go back to that thread you’ll see that I said most Ticos believe that feminism is anti-family. I didn’t say I thought it was. Like everything else in life, it has its good points and bad points. I believe in equality and I grew up in a feminist household, but as much as I hate to admit it I think the feminist movement does have something to do with the deterioration of the family unit in the U.S.
I believe, as I’m sure you do too, that the health of the family unit in Costa Rica is one of the many wonderful things about the country. While in some ways women are still treated more as second class citizens there as compared to the US, they have made many significant gains without the loud public protests, bra burnings and man-hater conventions, nor without depreciating the importance of family.
Getting back to the original point, I don’t think it will happen. The political stink it would create would squash the idea. Look what’s happening to Bush and the right wing of the Republican party – their right of mainstream actions are already (finally) putting the kibosh on the movement. The challenge for the Democrats is fielding a more credible and centrist candidate. Sounds easy, but they’ll probably screw that up as well.
Edited on Oct 15, 2006 05:54
The 72 hour requirement is not part of the Ley General de Migración y Extranjería. It is a regulation created by the Consejo de Migración which is tasked with implementing the law. In other words, it’s not a law, but an administrative requirement.
It’s like the IRS. They’re tasked with collecting taxes according to federal law, but they decide, many times on a daily basis, what is permissible and what isn’t.
You can cheat on your taxes and get away with it unless an audit catches it. Same thing here. In this case, I would tend to agree with others on this site that if your goal is to gain residency, anticipate an “audit”. I can only imagine that if they look at your passport and see that the exit and entrance stamp has the same date, it will cause problems.
Clodius,
Don’t put too much faith in what you hear, read or view on video. All sources are biased, and most have hidden agendas. There are some large kernels of truth in what you have said (which is how the most powerful myths are perpetuated), but I think you have been influenced just a bit too much by a few such biased sources.
The Federal Reserve Bank has two tools to control the US economy. The first is deciding how much new money is printed. While this used to have a large impact of regulating things, since the US dollar is now the most widely used international currency, this tool is no longer very effective (like the US trying to ban internet gambling).
The other is fixing the interest rate at which money is lent to private financial institution overnight. This tool is all they have now to keep our economy from slowing down too much, or overheating. You may debate which is the more important factor in making these decisions, inflation or unemployment, but the fact is that this entity is not nearly as powerful as you seem to think.
Aside from this, the Federal Reserve does not set economic policy. It’s the executive and legislative branch that has created our huge national debt. As a matter of fact, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, (who is appointed by the President, which does make is quasi-governmental) chides the President and Congress at every opportunity about how they spend our money. If it were actually a department of the federal government (i.e. much more influenced by politics, like the way our government uses the Social Security fund to pay our debts), then we’d really be screwed (as opposed to partially screwed).
I totally agree that business concerns have inordinate power over policy, both local and international. I also agree that, given the globalized state of the economy, the US federal government has limited control. But there is one party out there that trumps what you call the “international banking cartel”, and that’s China. If China decided to pull their investments out of the US, we’d be toast.
Regarding the one world government you fear, it already exists. The only problem is that there’s no representation by the people. It is controlled by the executive branches of governments, democratic or otherwise, who are for the most part bought and paid for by business concerns.
I think you need to get information from many more sources. Again, they’re ALL biased (some more than others), but only then can you discern an approximation of the truth. Along the way you’ll have to confront the definition of “truth”. It’s a long journey (sounds like you’re on your way), and you’re right that most people are too wrapped up in all the various opiates of the masses, like ball games and pop stars.
Keep searching! I guarantee you that every time you find one extreme view point, you’ll find a convincing counterpoint elsewhere.
Maravilla,
Regarding the US gov’t denying passports to people who owe child support (I didn’t know that – but if you have a passport already, I bet they don’t restrict your travel, do they?), I would call that a result of the feminist movement. In Costa Rica, this movement was quite a bit less powerful, but the country places such importance on human rights in general that they took this action one step further. If you have a Tico passport, you can’t leave unless you have permission from the Patronato Nacional de la Infancia. They give this permission after they’ve checked that you don’t owe for child support, AND you’ve placed enough funds for such support to cover the time you’ll be out of the country.
On the other hand, restricting travel because you’re behind on other bills or taxes, or based on credit, is not, IMHO very likely. In essence, that would be the same as saying only the rich have a right to travel abroad. Ain’t gonna happen. The political pendulum will swing to the left well before. I didn’t believe in the domino theory in Vietnam, and I don’t believe it in the case of restricting civil liberties.
1. People on the fringe have the loudest voices.
2. The American electorate falls for their 5 second sound bytes.
3. Non-mainstream candidates get elected.
4. They do stupid things.
5. The pendulum swings the other direction.
This is the circle of American political life.
I think that worrying about the US government banning overseas travel is a bit paranoid. My rush to move back to CR is based more on bettering my mental and physical health by removing myself once again from the rat race.
The world moves in pendulum swings. Insanity eventually leads to normalcy. Witness Vietnam, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Cold War, etc. Hey, we’re still here today after millennia of warring.
Scott B,
So you think that we would still be in this same situation it we had minimized our reliance on foreign oil 20 years ago (a decade after our oil crisis, which should have been long enough to achieve that)?
