The Costa Rica Series
Jamie H. Thompson, thompsonja@missouri.edu
By means of the World Wide
Web, we can purchase a part for our bicycle from a business 10,000 miles away.
E-mail takes a matter of minutes to reach Australia, Germany, China,
Brazil or Guam. The United States
has already become a part of the global market.
It is not a choice—it’s a fact!
And yes, it is something new, and yes, it takes a lot of time for us to
get use to it.
The United States is a modern
rich nation. It did not happen over night—we evolved over a period of
two hundred years to reach this point. As a nation such as ours
develops, it goes through three stages. The first stage is agriculture.
At one time in this country, farming was the primary occupation. In the
1800s we entered the second stage, industrial age, where manufacturing
predominated. In recent years, the shift has been towards services, the
third stage of development. Manufacturing is declining in importance and
farming now only involves slightly less than four percent of our adult
population.
In the United States, our
Plains states have an advantage in the production of grains and other
agricultural goods. The states to the north and east tend to specialize
in industrial production, such as automobiles. Not surprisingly, grains
are shipped from the Plains states to the northern states, and automobiles are
shipped in the reverse direction. If both the Plains states and the
northern states were politically defined as separate nations, we would call it
international trade. What in the United States, we call interstate
trade, in Latin America they call it international trade.
I spent the first two weeks
of March 2001 in Costa Rica as a member of the EGRET IV team. EGRET
stands for “Exploring Global Resources Extension Training”, a University of Missouri Extensionprofessional development experience for Specialists.
For me personally, the experience will be extremely helpful to me in working
with the globalization issues we face here in Missouri, more specifically here
in the central region. Secondly, the experience is my first step in
regaining my fluency in the Spanish language and improving my understanding of
the culture.
In 1502, Cristóbal Colon
(Christopher Columbus) landed near Limon on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.
Costa Rica gained its independence from Spain in 1821. After a very
brief civil war in 1948, a new constitution was initiated on November 7, 1949.
This constitution, still in effect today, included the prohibition of a
standing army. Costa Rica’s policy of active neutrality has twice
earned it the nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1987, this
prestigious award was presented to then-president, Dr. Oscar Arias.
Today, Costa Rica is referred to as the “Switzerland of the Americas.”
Located on the isthmus
between North and South America, Costa Rica is bordered to the north by
Nicaragua; to the south by Panama; to the west by the Pacific Ocean; to the
east by the Caribbean Sea. Costa Rica is one-third the size of Missouri;
288 miles maximum length; 161 miles maximum width along its northern border;
74 miles minimum width along its southern border. Over two hundred
volcanoes have bee identified; approximately 12 are classified as active.
After lying dormant for over 600 years, Mount Arenal erupted violently in
1968. Her constant lava flow can still be seen on clear nights.
Costa Rica is a fascinating
country. This country, a third the size of Missouri has 46 universities,
31 heritage and cultural museums, 14 theaters, numerous art galleries, three
symphony orchestras, and sixty movie theaters. Over the next few months,
I will be sharing with you my experiences in Costa Rica, their family life,
their focus on education and culture, their agricultural practices, and the
development of their communities.
Source:
www.cocori.com
June 2001