Talk:Costa Rica

Vandalism

I noticed a change in the elected president's name, from Laura Chinchilla to Raymundo Banano. How can we avoid these vandalic edits? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.202.189.178 (talk) 01:07, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

President's Name

Why isn't it written properly in the English version as Óscar Arias Sánchez or Óscar Arias? Why is the accent not there in English? 141.133.168.177 (talk) 01:20, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

I would like to remind that according to changes done by the Real Academia Española long ago, capital letters are not to have an accent. That includes not only Oscar, but last names that used to be accented, as Alvarez. (Marco) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.162.165.188 (talk) 18:04, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

You are mistaken. The RAE says, at http://www.rae.es/rae/gestores/gespub000018.nsf/(voAnexos)/arch8100821B76809110C12571B80038BA4A/$File/CuestionesparaelFAQdeconsultas.htm#ap22,

Las letras mayúsculas deben escribirse con tilde si les corresponde llevarla según las reglas de acentuación gráfica del español, tanto si se trata de palabras escritas en su totalidad con mayúsculas como si se trata únicamente de la mayúscula inicial (Capital letters must be written with an accent if they are called for under Spanish rules for written accentuation, whether in words written entirely in capital letters or in the case of a word with an initial capital):

Su hijo se llama Ángel.

ADMINISTRACIÓN

ATENCIÓN, POR FAVOR.

La Real Academia Española nunca ha establecido una norma en sentido contrario. (The Spanish Royal Academy has never established a standard to the contrary.)

La acentuación gráfica de las letras mayúsculas no es opcional, sino obligatoria, y afecta a cualquier tipo de texto. Las únicas mayúsculas que no se acentúan son las que forman parte de las siglas; así, CIA (sigla del inglés Central Intelligence Agency) no lleva tilde, aunque el hiato entre la vocal cerrada tónica y la vocal abierta átona exigiría, según las reglas de acentuación, tildar la i. (Placing accents on capital letters isn't optional, it's mandatory, regardless of the type of text. The only capital letters that aren't accented are the ones used in initialisms (acronyms); thus, CIA (initialism for the Central Intelligence Agency) doesn't take an accent, even though the hiatus between the closed, stressed vowel and the open unstressed vowel, under the rules for accentuation, would call for accenting the i.)

—Largo Plazo (talk) 18:27, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Pura Vida as the country motto? really?

This has gone way too far, costa ricans barely use pura vida, it was created in the 1970s by a mexican movie producer and then used by the tourism industry to attract visitors, but is not the country motto and out of the tourism industry, we barely use it. It's getting offensive. 'Viva siempre el trabajo y la paz' is the country's motto. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 181.28.119.224 (talk) 18:48, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

recent edit

Unless I am mistaken, the article on Costa Rica recently included the following text but no longer does:

"...Costa Rica is among the safest countries in Latin America and is currently the least impoverished Spanish speaking country in the world, with poverty percentages lower than that of Spain and other developed countries and levels of urbanization that nears those of countries such as Finland and Norway. In 2007 the government of Costa Rica said it wants to be the first developing country to become carbon neutral by 2021. "

Am I correct that it used to be there and if so, why was it removed? Was any/all of it not accurate? Not properly verified? Or what?

[Note: Although I use Wikipedia frequently, this is the first time I have gone to a 'discussion' page or done anything other than search, so I hope I will be forgiven for any improper protocal or anything else I may need to be excused for as a result of my inexperience in this regard.]

Esteve22 (talk) 00:08, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

Yes, there was something like that in the article. It was deleted on a few grounds. There wasn't reliable sourcing for "safest countries in Latin American", and the statistics used for "least improverished" were grossly misleading, because the standard for poverty in Costa Rica is different than used in other Spanish speaking countries.Kww (talk) 00:13, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

Wow, thanks for the immediate reply. What about the statement about Finland and Norway? [Also: Am I doing this right with regard to 'discussion' and asking these questions?] Esteve22 (talk) 00:23, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

Also: Is there some way I can find where or from whom that those statements came from? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Esteve22 (talk • contribs) 00:33, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

Urban Legend? Let´s talk Weather. I have not found the source for the Claim that "Atenas, Costa Rica has one of the Best Climates in the World" according to NASA or National Geographic. I did find plenty of ongoing weather research by NASA . <href=> http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2005/jun/HQ_05_159_Costa_Rica_Hurricanes.html></ref> Malerror (talk) 03:57, 15 September 2009 (UTC) malerror (talk) http://www.buycostarica.tk

San Juan River issue

Costa Rica also has had a lifelong battle with Nicaragua, it's neighboring country over the San Juan River (rio San Juan) which denotes the border between these two countries;although it geographically is within the borders of Nicaragua Costa Ricans like to claim it as their own.

I assume this is vandalism, it is just too evident: Costa Rica have never claimed ownership over the San Juan River. There is a dispute over the right of navigation of the Costa Rican patrols, that's all. The phrase "Costa Ricans like to claim it as their own" cannot be just a mistake, that is vandalism. 201.201.137.58 (talk) 08:41, 16 May 2008 (UTC) [[ Jordan is amazing at life & loves Jamesy!]] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.23.80.244 (talk) 01:29, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Can anyone correct the pronunciation of República de Costa Rica?

According to the current IPA symbols used for the Spanish language is typed, Template:IPAes. Notice the vowels "e" and "o" are mid-vowels /e̞/ and /o̞/. 84.120.160.88 (talk) 18:37, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Costa Rica Gini ranking

Regarding the correction of the Gini ranking for Costa Rica, actually the editor read incorrectly the list provided in the source. See that the left column corresponds to the HDI ranking, which is 48 for CRI, NOT the Gini ranking. Also notice that not all of the 177 countries have a Gini value. That's why the sample in the table was originally 126, and the Costa Rica's 100th place is among these 126. You can confirm this by following the wiki link in the table List of countries by income equality. This is to explain why I did reverse this apparent update. Also note that most Latin American countries have indeed high Gini indexes (too much inequality), worst than many poorer countries. --Mariordo (talk) 02:39, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cs.html#top

Costa Rica's GINI _is_ 48 acording to the source, at a ranking of 28 out of 136 countries. That means _inequality_ is _high_ GINI measures _only_ inequality, it doesn't measure whether people are poor or rich, just that they are "equal". i.e. Ethiopia has a _low_ GINI coefficient, there is high equality but most people are poor. One measure that attacks that issue is the welfare function developed by Amartya Sen in 1973.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Sen_social_welfare_function

It basically takes into account the GDP per cápita at PPP and the GINI coeficient. I think Mariordo did confuse the _ranking_ of countries by their GINI coeficient with the _inverse_ ranking by their GINI coeficient and their actual GINI coeficient.

Costa Rica's real GDP's growth is 83'rd in the world and it has the 98th GDP per cápita at PPP. These out of 228.--Crio de la Paz (talk) 00:57, 24 April 2011 (UTC)

Religion

Small Text I have spent time a lot of time in the Guanacaste province of Costa Rica and found that faith and religion make up an important part of the people and culture. I thought it must be worth mentioning that many chose to live a Rastafari lifestyle and praise Jah as their prophet. Rastafari can be found throughout the world now but with its roots in nearby Jamaica, it has spread and been embraced by many costa ricans. I do not have any statistics to support my opinion. ````angela. august 19th 2008. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.68.157.4 (talk) 07:40, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

The rastafari lifestyle is commonly seen in the Caribbean (Limón Province), as a lot of the population has Jamaican heritage. Also, Guanacaste is in many aspects different from the San José/Alajuela/Heredia/Cartago Metropolitan Area, where you find most of the population. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.197.159.208 (talk) 12:35, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Tourism section

Someone should add one.If it turns into an advertisement, then someone can delete it.Should i be the one to? cause i can, but if i do it might be advertistitic and have to be deleted.Ryuzaki0008 (talk) 18:13, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

I am not sure I understood your point, but the article already has a sub-section on Tourism, within the Economy section, and theres is also a complete article only on Tourism in Costa Rica. Now, if someone adds spam (advertisement) anywhere in the page, sure you or anyone can reverse it, just when doing the undo write in the log: rv spam.--Mariordo (talk) 19:37, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Government Section

At the beginning of the section it states: "Although there are claims that the country has had more than 115 years of uninterrupted democracy,[15]". This is taken from another source that is already mistaken. Costa Rica (or Arias's government) never claimed to have 115 years of UNINTERRUPTED democracy. What was celebrated in 1989 was the 100th anniversary of a popular manifestation that prevented Bernardo Soto Alfaro (then president) of rigging the elections. The moment that Soto Alfaro recognized the validity of the elections is considered as the moment in which democracy was born, therefore, Arias decided to commemorate that event as the birth of Costa Rican democracy, but nobody ever claimed that this democratic process has been without interruption. All Costa Ricans are very aware of the Tinoco episode (1917-1919), and nobody would argue otherwise. Please eliminate that quote, since it is nonsensical and incorrect. (Marco) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.162.165.188 (talk) 18:16, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Environmental tourism by preventing the tragedy of the commons.

The country of Costa Rica has successfully advanced the growth of its eco-tourism business by taking account of, and pricing for, the environmental business services consumed by pollution. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.101.142.35 (talk) 17:02, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Link to Calling Code

New to wikipedia, hope I am following the right process. Could someone with edit privileges link the 506 to +506 at the bottom of the Country info box. I have noticed this with other countries as well. Is this something that could be done automatically or does it need to be done to each country? Creategui (talk) 23:56, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Done.--Mariordo (talk) 22:31, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

Japan or Costa Rica first country constitutionally without army

I don't read Spanish, but believe your source is incorrect. Here's a link to the constitution of Japan, promulgated in 1946 and enacted in 1947, which abolishes any war-time force. http://history.hanover.edu/texts/1947con.html I can't find a source that compares the two directly, and am not that familiar with wikipedia mores to try an edit again. Can I entrust you with this one? I'll check back in in a couple weeks. Cheers. -Matthew —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.144.183.24 (talk) 07:23, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

• Thanks for droping by and clarifying. Indeed I will check the facts and make the correction if supported. My understanding is that Japan has a peace-time army for defensive purposes only, CR none, but sure I will check on that one, only give me some time since I am right now in the middle of something else.--Mariordo (talk) 11:35, 9 June 2009 (UTC)
  • Wiki has this issue well documented, see Japan Self-Defense Forces, List of countries without armed forces, and particularly read Defence policy of Japan for the interpretation of the Japanese constitution you brought as reference. I hope these articles clarify the issue.--Mariordo (talk) 16:51, 9 June 2009 (UTC)
    • Hi, thanks for looking into it. For further clarification, I think there's absolutely an argument to be made that Japan today has an army. More precisely, the Japan Self-Defense Forces page states that in 1950 the government created a National Police Reserve, which could reasonably be called an "armed force." But it also states that after 1945, Japan had zero military capability, and as you know this was constitutionally prescribed in 1946. What I'm pushing for is that even if Japan recreated its army in the 1950s, the statement "Costa Rica was the second country to constitutionally abolish its armed forces" holds true. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.144.183.24 (talk) 08:58, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
      • You made a good point, but it is kind of weird because Japan was without army for only for 9 years, CR still does not have one today. A good solution will be simply to state that CR constitutionally abolished its army in 1949, and delete the "first" part. However, I think we should move this discussion to the CR Talk page to give other editors the opportunity to comment and bring more facts. I will do so copying this entire section. Let's continue over there.--Mariordo (talk) 13:33, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
• The above discussion was copied from my Talk page to continue here, please comment below to decide whether "first" or "second" country reflects the facts, or if we better go without any ranking, and simply stating that "CR constitutionally abolish its army permanently in 1949" avoiding any controversy or misunderstanding. Here you can find CR constitution in Spanish, article 12 explicitly says that the army is forbidden permanently. The Japanese constitutions has a principle of peace, not an explicit abolition, that is why they have an army for defense purposes.--Mariordo (talk) 13:33, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
  • Thanks for moving this to the appropriate place, Mariordo. I think it would be best to go with what you suggested: "CR constitutionally abolish its army permanently in 1949." That nicely sidesteps the issue of timing, and makes it clear that there is still no army in CR. (for the record, if you look at article 9(2) of the Japanese constitution it states that "In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained." Before 1950 this was interpreted strictly, and after 1950 under American pressure the interpretation was changed to allow forces for the purpose of self defense. I would personally call this a "neat trick" - redefining an explicit abolition. But you may feel differently? In any case, the change in 1950 does make it very difficult to judge statements like "CR was the first/second country to constitutionally abolish its armed forces." 124.144.183.24 (talk) 23:14, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Online gambling in the economy?

It's my understanding that Costa Rica is home for several online poker websites, which are possibly illegal in other countries such as the USA.Ykral (talk) 23:01, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

I found some news, and a link indicating several gambling casinos in the country too:

• http://www.pokerlistings.com/us-costa-rica-reach-net-gambling-settlement-24400
• http://www.1costaricalink.com/eng/web/liveret-eng.htm
• http://www.archive.org/details/U.s.CostaRicaReachNetGamblingSettlement

Ykral (talk) 01:51, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Flag

Shouldn't the flag in the box be the national flag and not the civil ensign? Or am I missing something here?

Circumspect (talk) 22:29, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

Where is information on climate?

There should be a dedicated section on climate data (rainfall, humidity, tropical storms, temperature, etc.).

Agreed. I added a merge template from this article to here, and I've added a small temporary section that points there. Asymmetric (talk) 12:57, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Someone (76.27.211.0) just copy-n-pasted the Climate of Costa Rica article into the Climate section. Instead, i think there should be a summary of the full info. We can't just delete the Climate of Costa Rica article either, because it's part of the {{North America topic}} template. Asymmetric (talk) 19:09, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Sites of Costa Rica

Hello everyone, I add a external link to the Costa Rica's article called; "Sites of Costa Rica". The goal of this projects is to collect all the sites (useful, not necessary commercial sites) existing in Costa Rica.

I've been working very hard to collect, indexing and try out each link I've published on the site. The design concept is just to create a very simple site (just links).

I appreciate that you guys take a look of the site. http://www.sites.cr

I'll still adding more directories to the site.

regards, Andres —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.186.158.141 (talk) 17:09, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

• Though the site seems very useful, for that website to stay in the article, we have to make sure it is not spam. Is the site is from a non-profit? or its nature is commercial? (does the site owner receives $x for each link clicked like Google? clearly there is advertising!). Please provide more info to justify keeping the link. That is why I removed it.-Mariordo (talk) 17:40, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

• Yes, the site has ads, but they are clearly identified, no cheating to the visitors, I've been very careful about it. I placed some ads to bring some life to the site, also it has pictures related with CR instead ads, it's mixed. Each link posted doesn't receive $/per click. Already I'm working in universities, colleges, schools, institutes and academies directories. The site is very useful for the foreign people who needs info about CR quick and reliable. (15:35, 24 October 2009)

Regards, Andres —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.186.158.141 (talk) 19:36, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

See WP:SPAM to evaluate if your site classifies as spam. If you decide to include it again, please provide an explanation in the edit summary (and here) explaining why you are observing the policies established in the link above.-00:16, 25 October 2009 (UTC)

I have visited http://sites.cr, and it is true that the site is very informative. I believe it merits to be included here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lovecostarica (talk • contribs) 01:40, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

National motto

According to the Spanish version of this article, Costa Rica has a national motto (¡Vivan siempre el trabajo y la paz!). If someone can translate that, I think it should be added to the template in the article. Josh (talk) 12:43, 31 October 2009 (UTC)

long live work and peace, forever live work and peace. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.191.184.240 (talk) 02:12, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

This page needs work!

Several sentences in the 2nd paragraph are bizarre:

1) Costa Ricans refer to themselves as Ticos (males) or Ticas (females).

Comment: why does this start with "1)"?

Americans and Canadians are often called Gringos/ Gringas.

Comment: why is this important to mention in the 2nd paragraph on the whole country!?

Expenditure on the police corps is about US$17.99 per person.

Comment: what is this, a blue light special? and 17.99 for what, a year? a lifetime? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Eslip17 (talk • contribs) 18:59, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

• Thanks for the warning. Certainly those edits are not encyclopedic or do not belong to the leading paragraph. I remove them all.-Mariordo (talk) 03:15, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

last sentence in "climate" section.

I'm not authorised to edit wiki pages, but someone who is ought to have a look at the last sentence in the climate section ("then i went to a strip club and felt up a dancer and got seven different STDs")and remove it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.111.223.6 (talk) 16:18, 19 April 2010 (UTC)

delete the separate health article on costa rica and merge into country page??

--- Health --- As global health starts to focus on the importance of universal primary care and on the social determinants of health, I have noticed Costa Rica being cited in various journals as an example of a nation with excellent health demographics despite a relatively low GDP. There is a separate article on health in Costa Rica - just a stub at present, but I think this info probably belongs in the main country page. Would love the advice of more experienced editors on this. Ethel the aardvark (talk) 02:17, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

Did someone delete the "legal prostitution" section?

Seems to me this is a clear part of the economy. And since many countries do not allow it, it seems worthwhile to distinguish those that do such as Thailand and Costa Rica. 75.85.14.106 (talk) 23:11, 3 November 2010 (UTC)

In Costa Rica prostitution is not illegal, quite a different thing of being legal (ask your lawyer for the difference, the same as guilty and not guilty!). This issue about Costa Rica is dealt with already here and here, I do not think it is necessary to bring it to the main article, or do all country articles have a section regarding the status of prostitution, whether legal, illegal or not illegal? For purposes of NPOV, are you going to add that section or to the infobox of every country article? Leave it where it belongs.-Mariordo (talk) 02:16, 4 November 2010 (UTC)

cities?

I noticed sections available in the article on such topics as "ekonomik growath" but what about fundamental ideas related to a land or to a state, such as its cities? Rtdrury (talk) 02:51, 30 June 2011 (UTC)

Demographics

"Whites and mestizos make up 94% of the population, while 3% are Black, or Afro-Caribbean, 1% Native American, 1% Chinese, and 1% other. There are also over 60,000 Native American or indigenous inhabitants, representing 1.5% of the population."

So Native Americans make up 1% plus another 1.5% of the population, bringing the total to 101.5%. Something is obviously wrong here, but I don't know enough to fix it. Maproom (talk) 19:36, 6 July 2011 (UTC)

War of 48

In 1948 there was a war in Costa Rica caused by various incidents and situations but triggered by doubts regarding a presidential election which can't be established, nowdays, who won, since some ballots were burned and alegations of fraud ended in a war. It is impossible to resolve both sides alegations as to who won the election and both sides were quite numerous.

There are may sources that can support that it is not verifiable who won the election and even nowdays people with different political leanings would see history from a different perspective.

Both my grandparents were against the "calderonista" government and would support the thesis that the election was won by Otilio Ulate, but, if presured, would acknowledge they can't prove since there were irregularities, burned ballots, falsified documents, etc.

My godfather's dad and my father in law would both be sure that Calderón won but would have acknowledge they can't verify it either since there were irregularities.

Thus the irregularities in the elections are a fact, who won is a matter of speculation.

One of may sources:

http://www.elespiritudel48.org/4802.htm

"

EL FRAUDE ELECTORAL

El 8 de febrero de 1948 se realizaron las elecciones. Se enfrentan por la Presidencia de la República Rafael Angel Calderón Guardia, por el partido Republicano, con el apoyo de los comunistas, y Otilio Ulate Blanco, representante de la Oposición Nacional, que incluía partidarios de su propio grupo, el Partido Unión Nacional, del grupo figuerista, del "cortesista" y del Partido Social Demócrata. Según el cómputo de votos, el Partido de Ulate resultó triunfador en la elección presidencial (no así en la de diputados). El 28 de febrero el Tribunal Electoral declaró provisionalmente electo a Ulate como Presidente de la República (con el voto salvado de uno de sus miembros), pero el1º de marzo, ante una solicitud del Dr. Calderón, el Congreso (de mayoría calderonista) anuló el resultado de la votación, acusándola de fraudulenta. Entre los argumentos que se presentaron para defender la nulidad están las irregularidades cometidas con las cédulas de identidad, el hecho de que el padrón electoral estaba incompleto, y el incendio de algunas papeletas electorales"

So it is POV for articles of Wikipedia to claim to know who won an irregular election: what is clear is that the election was iregular and ended up in a war.

--Crio de la Paz (talk) 04:05, 28 September 2011 (UTC)

Anthems of Costa Rica

If anyone wants to check on the anthems of Costa Rica they can be downloaded at: http://valores.racsa.co.cr/materialsobrevalores/letras_himnos_cr.doc --Crio de la Paz (talk) 16:20, 8 November 2011 (UTC)