charliedoggett.net
The first wife of a 3-time president of Costa Rica, José Figueres Ferrer, Henrietta Boggs, died this week of the dreaded Coronavirus in Alabama at the age of 102. She had a bigger Costa Rica Adventure than me, becoming the First Lady of Costa Rica and a primary leader to get voting privileges for both women and blacks in Costa Rica. Read about this remarkable woman in this New York Times Article. And thanks to Larry for sharing it with me!
¡Pura Vida!
Today I finished reading the Kindle electronic version of How the South Won the Civil War by Heather Cox Richardson. Below is my Goodreads book review in case you are not one of my friends on Goodreads who will get it there.
This excellent, professionally written history book is so accurate and thorough that about 10% of the pages are footnoted references to other history books and sources. Every American should read this as it clearly shows how the government philosophy of pre-civil war slaveholders eventually became the “movement conservatives” and the Republican philosophy of governing by oligarchy.
In plain English that translates to how they still want a few elite, rich, white men (plantation owners) to control and govern everyone else. Thus from Andrew Johnson (yeah, it started with a Democrat) and the post civil war plantation owners through the “independent” cowboys of the West to Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, the Bushes and the now ultimate White Supremacist, Donald Trump, the Republican Party helped the South win the Civil War by demanding that their elitist white men run the country their way only and the rich continue to get richer while the poor continue to get poorer and the country continues to be a racist white supremacist nation.
It is a very truthful and sad commentary on the United States and why so many people continue to believe the lies of Republican leaders. The people who most need to read this book will not because of their prejudices and thirst for control and the future of “the greatest democracy” is at stake in this election. ~Charlie Doggett
¡Pura Vida!
Here’s the details in a TicoTimes.net article: Costa Rica to allow U.S. tourists starting in September.
Congratulations to you in the New England States (New York north) for ignoring Trump, maintaining shut-downs and requiring masks! Because you are considered “safer” now Costa Rica will allow you to visit as a tourist following strict guidelines including a health insurance policy, a negative test and wearing of a mask. Check online or with your airlines for the requirements, also in an earlier TicoTimes article I linked . Welcome to paradise New England residents! And thanks to Steve & Lucy in New Hampshire for alerting me! Hope to see you soon! 🙂
For the rest of you Americans to see what you are missing, check out my photo gallery called:
¡Pura Vida!
On a walk to town I regularly pass by this grouping of low-income apartments and the other day someone there was trying to sell what I think is today called “Junk Art” or his creations from pieces of scrap metal. Interesting but not especially good art in my opinion, except that the motorcycles are the most realistic. He was asking 25 mil colones (a little less than $50 U.S.) each and with so many without work now, he will have trouble finding eccentric rich people to pay that much for any of these creations. I wish him good luck!
Yes, desperate times call for desperate actions and this is just one example here in semi-rural Costa Rica where some small shops and restaurants have closed permanently. And we hear that it is worse in the big cities (San Jose, Alajuela, etc.) which most of us here try to avoid. Coronavirus is marking the year 2020 for an infamous history! But I’m still glad I’m here and not in the states where it is worse, at least for the number of cases and deaths. You guys up there should put your Republican governors, senators and president in jail for murder considering the way they’ve handled this pandemic! Sad oligarchy.
“That if desperate times call for desperate measures, then I’m free to act as desperately as I wish.”
― Catching Fire
¡Pura Vida!
In spite of hard times, we still have nature!
🙂
I envision Jesus weeping over Jerusalem in Matthew 23:37-39 and Luke 19:41-44, and wonder: Has He already given up on the United States? Or is He still crying and hoping? Or maybe rolling his eyes in hopelessness?
I grew up assuming I was in the greatest country in the world. I was told so repeatedly as a child and was proud of being born on the fourth of July! I enjoyed the patriotism of Boy Scouts, flags, school programs, marching bands and the holiness of church. That was while growing up. Then I became a cynical adult, progressively seeing more of the under-belly of that “don’t Tread on Me” snake, the self-centered hypocrisy of leaders, even in church, and was becoming disillusioned. Today, living in another country, it is embarrassing to admit that I’m an “American” – though the title rightfully belongs to more than just the states; to all of north, central and south Americans. (That’s another issue!) 🙂
I believe that the Racist & Fascist Republican Party and their immoral idiot president are destroying what is left of an already failing “great nation.” They promised to “Make America Great Again” and now . . .
MAGA is the . . .
1. GREATEST PLACE ON EARTH FOR RICH PEOPLE with the biggest inequities between rich and poor in the world and constantly getting more so as Republicans continue to give tax breaks to the rich that the poor and middle class must pay for and do everything they can to keep the poor and racial minorities from voting. Great? No, pitiful!
“An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.” –Plutarch
2. GREATEST RACISM in the world with a white supremacist president they fully endorse and mimic while calling KKK and killer cops “good people.” I’m not sure if racism is the country’s “original sin” as some say, but it is something real leadership would help the country to come face to face with and correct! It is a major factor in the downfall of the states, while Republicans show much more concern over the looting of millionaire businesses than the murder of an innocent, unarmed father. Not Great! Pitiful!
“At the heart of racism is the religious assertion that God made a creative mistake when He brought some people into being.” – Friedrich Otto Hertz
3. GREATEST AMOUNT OF VIOLENCE IN THE DEVELOPED WORLD with so-called “Christians” embracing the NRA, Tea Party, international warmongering, the military industry, and the political party that kills in every realm while supposedly championing “Right to Life” so they can control someone else’s body. Why is the hypocrisy not obvious to them? Why do they look the other way as gun violence in America increases almost daily along with police violence? Trump cheered the gun-toting demonstrators against life-saving pandemic closings but says to shoot those who demonstrate for justice. Why do they accept money from NRA and the war industries to continue promoting violence daily in America and war overseas? Greatness? No! It is selfish power and control like the fascists of Italy or Nazis of Germany. Great? God help us!
“We lose eight children and teenagers to gun violence every day. If a mysterious virus suddenly started killing eight of our children every day, America would mobilize teams of doctors and public health officials. We would move heaven and earth until we found a way to protect our children. But not with gun violence.”
―
4. GREATEST IMMORALITY IN THE WORLD! Republicans and evangelicals support an adulterous president who averages 15 documented lies a day, brags about sexually assaulting women, name-calls worse than any spoiled brat, encourages violence and hatred, demonstrates bigotry daily, has caused the death of thousands more because he would not accept the world pandemic and do something early, and well, the list has no end with so much immorality in the White House and the Republican Senate that it is nauseating. And to think that some of these hypocrites used to call themselves “The Moral Majority.” Ha, ha! Greatness? Not in my book!
“How can one be well…when one suffers morally?”
―
5. GREATEST FAILURE OF HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS IN THE DEVELOPED WORLD. Oh? You like it? Then you must be rich! Like almost everything else in the U.S. it is for only the rich and about money – with Republicans helping insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and for-profit hospitals get richer by the day and if you are rich, money can buy you almost everything, even good healthcare! While the poor, most middle class and the elderly without money suffer or do without. And they are still trying to destroy the one Affordable Healthcare Act the government has provided in years. The private healthcare system that rules in the USA is a disgrace to the country and just one more of the reasons I left.
“America’s health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.”
―
6. GREATEST ANTI-DEMOCRACY “DEMOCRACY” IN THE WORLD! The whole Republican philosophy of governing is for select rich people to rule and keep the poor and the minorities under their thumb. They’ve continued that in so many ways as they support the most autocratic and self-centered president in the nations’s history – a true fascist and racist. And in their unfair ways of making the judicial system political, and their systematic ways of suppressing the public vote they thumb their noses at the people. They believe the country should be run by the rich plantation owners and the poor people be damned! While in my opinion, so-called “leaders” like Trump, McConnell and Barr belong in jail.
“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.”
―
7. GREATEST ANTI-ENVIRONMENT COUNTRY IN THE WORLD! Totally ignoring global warming and the huge climate crisis that will destroy much of the world we know today is almost a requirement to be a Republican and especially a Trump supporter. You must support the destructive oil and energy companies but never the health of the earth! 10 to 20 years from now some of you will look back on this time and wish you had taken a different attitude. The climate crisis is real and destructive! Your children will pay for your sins.
“We are the first generation to feel the effect of climate change and the last generation who can do something about it.”
~Barack Obama
8. GREATEST ISOLATIONISTS OF MODERN HISTORY and maybe all history! We used to be the world leader and now the USA has become the selfish rich kid, building a wall around himself as we pull out of WHO, UN, NATO, the Paris Agreement, etc. ignoring our friends and becoming a more selfish or self-centered nation. And you wonder why the U.S. has little respect around the world? It used to be different, even with some Republicans . . .
The United States will not retreat from the world, and we will never surrender to evil. America rejects the false comfort of isolationism.
―
Yep! That’s MAGA! If you like that, then, by all means Vote Republican!
But if you want to save America from its selfish self before it is too late, vote Democrat at every level of government! This November election may be the most critical ever in our history! Please vote Democrat! Save the U.S.!
Costa Rica will begin easing some coronavirus measures starting May 1, President Carlos Alvarado and Health Minister Daniel Salas announced Monday afternoon.
Theaters, gyms and athletic centers — which have been closed since March 18 — will be permitted to reopen during the week. But some of the country’s most impactful restrictions, including a ban on arriving tourists, will continue.~Tico Times
Read these linked articles in English on the Tico Times website:
Costa Rica begins easing some coronavirus measures
Costa Rica likely to extend border restrictions; beaches remain closed
Coronavirus in Costa Rica: The country’s projections and long-term plan
How has Costa Rica contained the coronavirus? (The U.S. could learn something here and the long-term plan above, but your president is too proud to learn from anybody.)
¡Pura Vida!
We have just entered the most consequential decade in human history. The scientific assessment of climate change suggests this can either be our final hour, or our finest. The Future We Choose is an inspiring manifesto from Global Optimism Co-Founders, Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac. It explains what’s to come, how to face it and what we can do.
Practical, optimistic and empowering, this is a book for every generation that shows us how we can move beyond the climate crisis into a thriving future.
Christiana Figueres is a Costa Rican citizen and was the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change from 2010-2016. Ms. Figueres has been credited with forging a new brand of collaborative diplomacy.
One of the best things you do with your “down time” due to COVID19 is to read this book and participate in saving the earth before it is too late! Celebrate Earth Day 22 April 2020! FIND THE BOOK HERE or simply do a search in your favorite online book source or ask for it in your favorite physical bookstore.
My friends in the U.S. especially need to read this due to the “rollbacks” of policy or the backward movement on climate change the current president and Republican Party have brought the last few years. It is not too late, but if we don’t start doing something now it soon will be too late! And how you vote does make a difference!
One of the things that drives perfectionist Americans crazy about Costa Rica is the multitude of one-lane bridges all over the country even in the cities! Look no further than right outside the main gate to Roca Verde Housing Development! Our entrance gate is on Avenida 8, better known by the little bario (neighborhood) there as Calle Boquerón. Just outside our gate going towards central Atenas you cross the little rainy season stream that goes by the cow pasture in front of my house. And of course on a one-lane bridge! Don’t know why or who influenced it, but the city of Atenas is widening that little bridge.
The concrete tubing for water flow has already been extended and fill dirt and rocks added around it and as I photographed Monday they were pouring concrete for maybe a base to something or a wall? These two school kids out of school for Coronavirus will probably soon be joining the city construction team as they sit here and learn how easy it is to build a bridge over a concrete pipe. 🙂
“If Rome had been built in a day we would have used the same contractor.”
¡Pura Vida!
Like Costa Rica’s emblematic Sloth, the people here are always smiling and prepared for come what may – even Coronavirus! Feature photo is by the Sloth Rescue Ranch, not me, and from Tico Times. Read on to see how better prepared little Costa Rica is than the big ol’ USA and thus we will get over it quicker too! 🙂
Thursday’s Tico Times edition reminded us of how better prepared we are than a lot of bigger countries for the pandemic, like our great university is already making emergency respirators for when/if needed at only $140 each! (You think the U.S. would ever do that?) People are ready to sacrifice financially for the 25 days we are closed to all outside tourists (and it will be much longer before tourism is back to normal–like by next winter we hope). Here are the specific articles this week in Tico Times about the pandemic’s affects on Costa Rica:
Costa Rica now has 201 cases of COVID-19 (as of Thursday past)
UCR Develops Emergency Respirators for $140 each!
Zero Tourists allowed here for 25+ days!
Read why Christopher Howard is glad he lives in Costa Rica during this world-wide pandemic: The Best Place to be in the world before, during and after COVID-19 I agree with him! 🙂
“A problem is a chance for you to do your best.”
¡Pura Vida!
And for photos of why I like Costa Rica so much, see my gallery:
Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” include Costa Rica’s President Carlos Alvarado Quesada. Read about it in our Tico Times article. Or see the brief Time magazine video TIMES100NEXT for why he is a world leader (click video image for sound).
¡Pura Vida!