Back to the Beginning

I am closing this blog and moving back to my old 365 Reasons I Love Costa Rica wordpress blog.  Nothing against blogger, but over there feels more like home....

Pura Vida

Power Is As Power Does

Public sector union members in Wisconsin are loudly protesting to uphold their right to collectively bargain, or to unionize.  It seems absurd that the legislature of Wisconsin, the "Republican" legislature, believes it can take away such a fundamental right.  As much as I support the right, I will also add that collective bargaining "power" is subject to the same abuse as the power wielded by employers.  I have never been a great fan of unions because all too often their power is used at the expense of consumers...and in the case of teachers' unions, those would be the students, i.e., our children.  If a union uses its collective bargaining power to keep bad teachers in their jobs, then it is an abuse of power, pure and simple.   Just like if an auto union uses its collective bargaining power to make U.S. car manufacturers uncompetitive in a global market, then it is an abuse of that power and ultimately it is their own members who are hurt.  Yes I stand with the protesters in Wisconsin who are refusing to allow this Republican legislative power play to deny them a fundamental right.  A right whose purpose is to prevent the unbridled power of ownership in a capitalistic society to run rampant over those who do the hard work that creates value for all stakeholders in any public or private enterprise.  However, it would serve the greater good if unions, as well as employers and owners, would remember to use their power responsibly.

In Defense of Charlie Sheen

I will start out by saying, or typing, in between gulps of Toña (one of the truly great Nicaraguan beers) that Charlie is crazy....out of his mind!  But is that necessarily a bad thing?  Well, would Two and a Half Men be half as good if he weren't?  His recent rage against the machinery that brings us this hilarious show (my personal network favorite), while bringing down all manner of media judgment, probably does carry a spark of truth.  It is so easy to judge those who air publicly their personal foibles, while ours go unnoticed by the media and the masses.  I could only imagine how it would appear if a reporter from Entertainment Tonight ever got a shot of me exiting one of my favorite San Jose watering holes.  On a personal note to Charlie (we do both frequent La Mansion Inn, so I feel authorized to give Charlie a few pearls of wisdom), I too have had my own mid-life crisis meltdown.  I know how it feels (and sometimes it doesn't feel too bad, until the morning hangover hits).  I too was told that I was addicted to this and to that.  And I also rebelled.  Where did it get me?  Well I am here writing this in a so-called "third-world" country if that provides a clue.  I say leave Charlie the heck alone. Sure he has his vices, but he seems to manage them better than most.  Maybe one day Charlie and I will decide to grow up.....nah!  Sounds a bit too boring, at least for the next, say, couple decades.  See you in geriatric rehab Charlie my boy, or, if not, somewhere on the other side.

A Profile in Courage

Standing up for what's right, at all costs, is the hallmark of true courage and conviction.  Kimberly Blackwell had such courage...such conviction.  Blackwell was found brutally murdered on the patio of her remote home on the Osa peninsula, bordering Corcovado National  Park.  She had acquired a tract of land and planted cocoa trees and started a chocolate making business in order to hire locals and dissuade them from illegal hunting, or poaching.  She would confront poachers on her land, often shooting at them with a BB gun.  It is likely that her strong stand against illegal poaching is what led to her murder.  The case has yet to be solved and local police in the community of Puerto Jiminez had two suspects that they had to let go due to lack of evidence.  In a country where murders generally go unsolved, it is likely that as time passes so does any chance of finding the culprits of this brutal and senseless murder.  What will happen to the chocolate factory, known as Samaritan Xocolata?  I read that her family has vowed to keep it in operation.  Many might say the lady was eccentric and foolish to risk her life in order to defend the rights of animals in the jungle.  But that is what she believed in and she stood for her beliefs in the face of danger.  I wish I could have known this valiant warrior for sustainability in the heart of Costa Rica's most biodiverse area.

Am I Just Stupid, or What?

I have been reading an interesting book on the subject of "emotional intelligence."  The book is named just that, Emotional Intelligence, by author Daniel Goleman.  I have never been a big fan of books about intelligence.  I really didn't like The Bell Curve by Herrnstein and Murray that put forth the supposition that only those that go to Harvard have a right to rule the world.  Books like that have a way of making me feel very, well, stupid.  This book by Goleman is interesting.  Haven't you met people who seem to be deficient in the "EQ" category.  They tend to be ruled by their emotions.  If they are depressed, then the whole world takes on a depressed tone...they become simply unable to see anything anywhere that is not "depressing" or boring or sad or whatever their current ruling emotion may be.  But I am really not buying all this stuff about intelligence.  To me good old common sense (or, intelligence) is mainly the ability to see the big picture.  To put yourself in your appropriate place in the scheme of things, which is usually a much diminished position than we like to delude ourselves into originally thinking.  Higher levels of raw intelligence seem to come in the form of an ability to explain both why things are and how they might turn out.  Problem is most of us suffer from a marked degree of blindness when it comes to predicting the future.  Those who sometimes get it right do so perhaps with a small degree of what one might call "intelligence" and a larger degree of what I might call "luck."  One person is not smarter than the next just because he picked the winning lottery number, or invested in Google when it was trading in the pink sheets.  He was just intelligent enough to know there might be some potential there and lucky enough to have turned out to be right.  However, that person is vaulted above the rest of us as being of superior intelligence (emotional, or intellectual, or whatever).  I just flat out refuse to allow books about intelligence get me down any more.  I know I am stupid and I am damn proud of it.  I guess I should boast that I am reading Emotional Intelligence in Spanish, albeit very slowly...does that make me smart?

Messy Democracy

De-moc-cra-cy - a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.  We like "democracy" in the U.S., don't we?  I guess the current situation in Egypt and other parts of the Middle East, where people are just plain fed up with dictators, will be the proof in the pudding as to just how fond we are of it.  It seems that history shows that we are all for it within our own borders, but outside it really doesn't matter that much, as long as our interests are being served.  Is this another one of those instances?....we shall see.  Yes an unstable Middle East does pose a threat, as did an unstable Latin America.  But the issue at hand is not the price of gasoline or whether Al-Qaeda might find some new and friendly training ground.  The issue is freedom of ordinary Muslims of the Middle East, just like ordinary Christians of, say, Kansas.  And those ordinary folks have had enough with Hosni Mubarak, just like ordinary citizens of Nicaragua had enough of Somoza and ordinary citizens of Cuba had enough of Batista. Will the U.S. support freedom even when it comes as a potential threat to our economic or security interests? I hope so, but the tarnished history of our support for dictators in Latin America gives rise to a healthy degree of skepticism.  I heard a speech once by Obama that presumed that we would, but lately I have heard some insinuations to the contrary.  The truth is that freedom doesn't matter only within the borders of the U.S.A.  It matters everywhere.

A Shout Out for the Street Fighters of Cairo.....

Caught Up

Haven't been blogging much lately because I just don't seem to be able to find the passion to do it, or the creativity, or the time.  Well, that last one is just me lying to myself.  Because, of course, we have all the time there is, now don't we?  No, really lately I just seem to find myself "caught up" with the mundane things of life, like making a living, managing sometimes messy and unmanageable personal relationships, and taking out the trash.  With all that going on, who has time to be creative?  It is easier just to succumb to all the busy-ness of the business of life and just be, well, responsible.  After all, writers are in general the most irresponsible blokes among us, aren't they?  Of course, nowadays, you don't have to be a writer....you can just be a blogger and still be responsible.  Well maybe you can, but I seem to have a great deal of trouble managing these two conflicting courses of action.  It would be nice to find some degree of symmetry amongst the two.  However, one thing seems to be evident in being in the throes of "caught-up-ness."  That is, that a life without passion and creativity can be awfully, to use a forbidden word, boring!  Right now I do feel a bit bored, god forbid!  So here I am at the keyboard trying to bang out something that might be enlightening to myself or to some poor chap that might actually waste the time it takes to read my rantings.  Being creative, being passionate and at the same time, being responsible.  Anyone out there have a clue how to accomplish that feat?  If so please let me know what you know, because I don't.  But here's a promise, to me and to you....I pledge to keep on looking for the answer.  I pledge to keep on trying to avoid the horrid state of being "caught up."

People Said He Was Crazy

But he did write this.....

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

Imagine that....

Obama Snare

The State of the Union Speech proved once again that Obama is the coolest cat on the planet.  Far cooler than John Boehner.  I mean who in recent politics even comes close...Bill Clinton maybe.  Although his choice in women tends to damper down his coolness a bit, wouldn't you agree?  What did I really think of the speech?  Well, it was cordial and upbeat.  It was refreshing to see Republicans and Democrats holding hands and kum-ba-yahing at every applause point.  Obama did seem to have some specific ideas in mind to get the economy rolling again.  However, all of this talk about making "America" more competitive is a bit disconcerting.  I just don't buy into the idea that the only way for the U.S. to get out of its current economic slump is to figure out how to clobber other countries, from an economically competitive viewpoint, that is.  Why can't the idea be more along the lines of being cooperative, as opposed to competitive.  However, competition is ingrained in the U.S. psyche.  From a kid's first organized sports exposure, we are taught that competition is the way to excel, to achieve. We must win...which means someone else must lose.  It is ingrained in our politics as well.  Despite the show of cooperation, the competitive spirit immediately reigned supreme with not one, but two, speeches delivered in response and in direct opposition to Obama's.  Borders are a fictitious and often malicious construct of man and the idea that one nation has to win at the expense of all others outside its own borders is in my opinion destructive of the collective good.  And by collective good I mean of us all....everywhere, regardless of invisible borders that so often have us at each other's throats.  So, while I always enjoy an Obama speech and this years State of the Union was no exception, I would like to hear more words of global cooperation rather than just a shallow and hollow demonstration of it that probably won't last through the first opportunity for the Republicans to clobber Obama in his feeble and politically motivated attempt to appease them.  Obama care may ultimately become Obama's snare if he keeps that up.