This time I shall muse on the intricacies
of state monopoly and the resulting inadequacies of infrastructure (I am
talking about the bloody slow internet connection…)
In Costa Rica, there is great tradition for
being independent dating back at least to the 1600’s where they refused to pay
taxes to the Spanish crown. The capitol of Central America in the colonial days
was Guatemala and the main purpose of the colonies was to funnel as much gold
and silver to Spain as possible. There was however not that much gold or silver
in Costa Rica, rather the population lived of growing the land. Another
difference from the rest of Central America is that the indigenous population
in Costa Rica was very small so it was impossible to use them as slaves and
thus the work had to be done by the Costa Ricans themselves. That is the reason
they didn’t pay the taxes, they didn’t have the resources and the ones they
had, they had bloody well worked hard to obtain and weren’t going to send them
to Spain.
This independence also resulted in Costa
Rica being the last of the countries in Central America to be free from Spain;
not that Spain wouldn’t release them, but because of the way thing were set up.
At the time where the Spanish state decided that they didn’t want the colonies anymore (for some or other reasons), they sent the message that the colonies were free to the capitol in Guatemala. A rider then went out to the different parts and told the provincial governments that they were free. There was much rejoicing, but not in Costa Rica. Here they decided to wait and get their own letter from Spain, since they didn’t much trust the Guatemalans, and which arrived some 3 months later.
Costa Rica has
since gone it’s own way in Central America as well as the world. It is the only
state (as far as I know) that doesn’t have an army, as it was abolished in
1949. One might think otherwise when you go through the streets of San Jose,
but that is another story for a later letter. It is also the only country in Central
America that didn’t sign the CAFTA agreement. This agreement is a free trade
agreement with USA and the rest of Central America. See the problem here is
that, amongst other things, it would essentially abolish the state monopolies
of the different countries and allow for foreign countries to bid on the
various services such as electricity, roads and (you’ve guessed it by now)
telephone connections.
In Costa Rica the government owns a large
firm called ICE and this firm is the controlling power behind electricity,
telephones and a lot of other things. They have their own systems and don’t
work together with anybody (to no surprise they have, like all other large
state owned monopolies who refuse to work with private firms, enormous
deficits) to the effect that in Costa Rica it is impossible to get a SIM card
for your mobile telephone as all the telephone have them integrated (change
phone, change number), it is impossible for non-Costa Ricans to obtain such a
telephone, it is hideously expensive to call to or from the country (oh, btw.
my number is 00 506 710 0091, you can call me, I sure as hell isn’t going to
pay:-), and last it is impossible to get an internet connection that works
faster than a 28K modem. And this is what they call ADSL… It feels like riding
an old Volkswagen with only one gear while the rest of the world is driving
Ferrari.
The modem in my computer is faster, I would
off course have to ring my operator in Denmark to use it and that costs 10
kroner per minute…forget it! Peace of the soul is really not worth that much:-)
There are hopes however, last week Costa
Rica signed the agreement, and it seems that things are starting to move very
fast indeed. ICE will release SIM cards in March already, and they are starting
to put in broadband connection in San Jose. So maybe, just maybe I will get to
feel the slight tingle of useless information breezing through my brain and
calming my spirits before I go home.
Aaaanyway, things are still well, the
temperature is a steady 27 and we still have a litre of whiskey left!!!
Jesper the information starved