Costa Rica’s Vargas Sisters and Their Road to the Olympics

Vehicle Restrictions For Costa Rica During September

With September upon us, vehicle restrictions will change. The measures allow for greater economic openness and less vehicle restrictions. Regardless of canton, each license plate will be restricted one week day and one weekend.

Cantons on yellow alert will continue the process of reopening establishments. The opening is controlled and in many situations limited to 50% occupancy. Some high risk places, like bars, parks, amusement parks, and casinos are still ordered closed. Event rooms for business and academic events can have up to 75 people whereas those for weddings or baby showers can have a maximum of 30 people.

Cantons on orange alert are in a transition stage where, in general, businesses are still closed but there are some exceptions. Supermarkets, hotels, free zones, home delivery, vehicle repair, beauty salons (by appointment), and restaurants are among the businesses allowed to open. Beaches are open everyday until 2:30 pm.

Additionally, individual sports are authorized, both indoors and outdoors, without an audience. Contact sports are only allowed for highly competitive teams and professionals, also without an audience.

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An Adequate Response to Climate Change

The half moon is blood red tonight. Wildfires have consumed a million and a half acres in California. Under the smoky skies, ominousness pervades the atmosphere day and night.

No scientist has any idea how much carbon the atmosphere can absorb, or how much human filth the oceans can take before nature reaches a tipping point, and there is ecological collapse.

The fault lies not just with right wing troglodytes living in an alternate universe where the maleficent Trump is seen as “the bodyguard of Western civilization.” Denial rules with New Agers as well. I recently received an email from Vermont lefties that pushes wishful thinking over the line into delusion. It was entitled: “So Many Things are Haaaaaaapppeennning!”

As the Sixth Extinction proceeds apace, in the United Kingdom educated people are at least trying to come to grips with reality.  A group called the Climate Change Alliance (CPA) links climate change with depth psychology.

In their mission statement, CPA correctly says, “Climate change is not a scientific problem waiting for a technical solution. It’s an urgent, frightening, systemic problem involving environment, culture and politics. It engenders fear, denial and despair amongst individuals, evasion, indifference and duplicity amongst the powerful.”

CPA’s Chair, Chris Robertson, goes further, writing, “Climate change is not about ‘solving a problem,’ but creating a new world. It can be recognized as our species toughest, but greatest, opportunity.”

Disappointingly, the Climate Psychology Alliance then proceeds to ask the wrong question: “With the growing awareness that we face a climate crisis that threatens ecological and social collapse, how as a species can adapt to the new world of the Anthropocene?”

To be blunt, if there is no choice but to “adapt to the new world of the Anthropocene,” our age is doomed. As the saying goes, and psychologists know, “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

Indeed, it may well be that the reason more people aren’t responding to the ecological crisis (“climate change” is too narrow a term for the man-made environmental climacteric) is that most people are adapting quite well to it.

Of course, there are “climate change’s ‘canaries,’” as CPA puts it, “activists and scientists having to face at times unmanageable feelings of despair, anger and grief.”

So which is it, adapting to the Anthropocene, or creating a new world? Perhaps climate change psychologists are still sorting that out, but they, along with the rest of us who still care about the earth and the human capacity to live harmoniously and equitably on it, urgently need to find out.

Essentially, climate change reflects and intensifies the crisis of human consciousness. Meeting it requires radically changing from self-ignorant, tribal humans into self-knowing, holistic human beings.

Otherwise, CPA’s commendable goal of “providing support and deepening our understanding of how climate anxiety plays out both in our individual lives and in our culture” will be like scattering seeds onto pavement.

The Anthropocene Age is defined as “the current geological age, during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.” Needless to say, it’s a philosophically fraught term, in which the attempt at neutrality and objectivity are strained, like humankind’s relationship to nature, to the breaking point.

We cannot be objective, much less objectify man’s rapaciousness of the earth. Humankind’s domination actually means increasing fragmentation of seamless ecological systems that have evolved over millions if not billions of years.

The Anthropocene Age is not another geological epoch, like the Eocene or the Holocene. It is the wholesale destruction of the planet on which we, a sentient and purportedly sapient species, evolved.

Besides, it is not the “new world of the Anthropocene,” but the old world of man, a world that has become very old indeed.

As individuals, we only need to adapt to the Anthropocene Age if our age is doomed. Is it? If so, will be like living in the United States during the Covid-19 pandemic, where it’s every man and woman, with their children if they’ve been foolish enough to have them, for themselves.

There are three levels of social death beyond the individual: the death of one’s people (which occurred in America over a generation ago); the death of one’s age, which is in question now; and the death of one’s species as a potentially intelligent species.

Most people experience the death of their people as the death of humanity. It isn’t, though the future of humanity is certainly in question. It weighs heavily on all of us, whether we’ve temporarily adapted to this sick global society or not.

Martin LeFevre

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After Latest Earthquake, Is Another One on the Horizon in Costa Rica?

Most of us felt a tremor that originated in Jaco, Costa Rica, on August 24, being that it resonated throughout the country. This was the second earthquake of a magnitude of at least 6 in the seismogenic zone since the RSN was formed in 1973. The other was in 2017, with a magnitude of 6.2, approximately 18km southeast of the one that happened this week.

The 6.2 magnitude quake this week was followed by aftershocks up to a magnitude of 3.6. There were dozens of microseisms of under 2 magnitude as well as 19 aftershocks, including six over a magnitude of 3. The National Seismological Network (RSN) received about 1,000 reports.

Based on data from studies of earthquakes in the central Pacific over many years, experts report that there is a high probability of this earthquake being followed by a similar one quite soon. This is known as seismic pairs.

The National Seismological Network agrees and states that there is a 31% probability that an earthquake of at least a 5 magnitude will occur in the following week. There is a 4% chance that the pair will be equal to or greater than the original 6.2 one.

A seismic duo happened in January, in Dominical de Osa and was felt in the Central Valley.

The famous Cóbano earthquake, in 1990, with a magnitude of 7, generated a seismic swarm months later.

The post After Latest Earthquake, Is Another One on the Horizon in Costa Rica? first appeared on The Costa Rican Times.

Coronavirus Projections in Costa Rica

Back in July, experts shared some scary numbers regarding the number of covid cases we could expect to see in the coming months. They assumed a 60-65% compliance with social distancing.

They frightened us by saying we might have 35,000 patients by September 5. Even more horrifying is the fact that we have already passed this number of patients and it’s only August 26.

As of the 25th of August, there have been 35,035 confirmed cases. The Center for Research in Pure and Applied Mathematics (CIMPA) of the School of Mathematics of the University of Costa Rica (UCR) estimated 30,400 infections by this date.

Thousands of additional people and their families have been affected by a positive result. This shows that we are not adequately caring for ourselves and others. The compliance with safety measures has not been great enough.

Taking into account the opening and closing phases, CIMPA estimated 40,000 cases on September 30. Now we worry there will be many more.

The medical manager of the CCSS pointed out that if someone must go to work, they should do so while protecting themselves, because going to work is necessary, but no one should go to parties or events, as these generate no economic value and many unnecessary covid cases.

The CCSS has made extraordinary efforts to generate beds, especially ICU beds. When covid entered the country, on March 6, there were 24 ICU beds. This has been increasing and will be 1,000% more, at a 287 maximum capacity. Currently, 55% of all ICU beds are occupied by a covid patient.

Projections give us hope that from around mid-September on, we should start to see a drop in the number of hospitalizations.

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Transmutation, or The Sum of All Dark Ages?

Scientists have pinpointed a few of the differences in the 1% of DNA we do not share with our closest primate cousins—chimpanzees and bonobos. They appear to be “accelerated evolutionary changes” in genes associated with speech, hearing and brain development.

For example, there is evidence that hearing in humans was “specially tuned by natural selection to make possible the elaborate spoken language capability unique to humanity.”

In terms of aggression and war however, humans and some species of chimps (bonobos have pacific and loving natures) may not be very different at all. So it’s doubtful that teasing out tiny genetic differences will ever give us a better understanding of ourselves.

Primatologists have observed certain species of chimpanzees engaging in planned hunting of other primates–smaller and not as smart rhesus monkeys. Jane Goodall has also observed, to her horror, the systematic extermination of one group of chimps by a rival group.

So what exactly makes humans different from other animals? Indulging in a tautology, I’m tempted to say that what separates us from chimps is separating ourselves from chimps, and everything else. But that just begs the question, what makes us so destructive as a species?

We’re able to consciously manipulate our environment by removing ‘things’ from the ecological mesh, but like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, we cannot stop, and so are fragmenting the Earth all to hell. We’re able to study things scientifically by standing apart from them, but we’re unable to wisely, justly and sustainably apply our exponentially increasing body of knowledge.

Is it because we are only able to know ourselves when we end the ancient habit of separation? Whenever one says, ‘I think,’ or ‘I feel,’ with emphasis on I, there is separation.

There is something inherently anthropocentric in seeking to find “the essence that makes us human.” The phrase contains the idea embedded within it that the power humans wield over other animals somehow makes us special. Given what we’re doing to the planet, it could mean just the opposite.

The cheesy series of “Planet of the Apes” movies did have one interesting idea. The basic premise was that if other apes were as smart as us, they would be just as ruthless and speciesist as humans are. If Goodall’s observations, which were made after “Planet of the Apes” came out, are any indication, that idea has legs.

This raises another question: Given the right conditions and enough time, does nature inexorably produce consciously thinking species that proceed to foul and denude their planets as they accrue science and technology? Or are humans just an especially incorrigible thought-bearing species?

As a person who has had so-called mystical experiences since I was 17, I see another dimension to this debate. When the brain is completely quiet in unforced, unwilled attention, there is awareness of what can only be called sacredness.

It isn’t God-as-deity, but an unknowable essence that permeates the universe. Time and space, matter and energy are seen and felt as an undivided movement in wholeness, with compassion intrinsic to the universe.

I feel no need to convince anyone of the existence of this sacredness, even if there was a way I could say anything more about it, which there isn’t. But it’s a great curiosity to me that the human brain, which is tearing everything apart, is also capable of being consciously aware of an essence beyond thought and knowledge.

Perhaps that defines the “riddle of man,” which each of us must resolve in our own hearts. Perhaps a brain capable of conscious thought, whose basic principles are separation and manipulation, is a prerequisite for awakened consciousness. The very big bump in the road to realizing our potential as a species, however, is the tendency of creatures possessing the powerful gift of ‘higher thought’ to totally fragment its planet and itself.

There are other, deeply implicit questions: Is the pressure on us for transmutation, as individuals and a species, growing in direct proportion to our plundering of the planet? Is this global pandemic a real-time driver of transmutation?

In other words, are “accelerated evolutionary changes” happening, or are we entering the sum of all dark ages?

Martin LeFevre lefevremartin77 at gmail.com

The post Transmutation, or The Sum of All Dark Ages? first appeared on The Costa Rican Times.

Stairwell Shadow Man

Confidential Case.  City:  Lodi, CA.  Occupants: Mr. Z & Ms. Z.  Case # Y91Z6L4M30U02F40.  HPI Paranormal Investigators Present:  Deanna Jaxine Stinson – Psychic Medium; Paul Dale Roberts – HPI Co-Owner:  Shawna Young and Hannah; Heather Colburn.  Activity:  The entity centers it’s activity mostly on Ms. Z.  Ms. Z may have an attachment.  The entity called Ms. Z a whore and the covers were pulled off their young son.  Mr. Z briefed us and even had handouts for us to read. The handouts has information such as:  1. Residents do not engage in occult practices such as divination, playing with a Ouija Board, pagan spiritualism.  2. Paranormal activity started March 2020.  Security cameras pick up on shadows, strange moving orbs, blankets being pulled off 5 year old child.  3.  Walking around upstairs heard, child like voices saying “mommy”, some electrical items shut down. rattling noises heard.

THE INVESTIGATIONWe did 2 sets of investigations covering the 2nd floor and 1st floor, garage, backyard.  Used night vision goggles, FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared), digital recorders, cameras.  Heather obtained some strange heat signatures on the kitchen table.  Heather felt someone stroking her hair.  Shawna and Hannah picked up on some bad energy in some of the rooms. We obtained about 6 EVPs, but only two were CLASS A.  One EVP was a man’s voice saying “whore”, “whore”, two times.  Ms. Z said that is the same voice that said “whore” before.  I told Mr. Z, since he used to work at a State prison, and that he brought home a few items from the prison, I believe the entity or entities followed him home.  Mr. Z goes on to tell me that he once owned a home made Christmas card made by Richard Ramirez aka The Night Stalker.  After a while he got rid of the card, because he felt it carried back energy.  Deanna picked up on a 14 year old male spirit, a spirit that loved motorcycles, but was involved in a murder.  Deanna picked up on a shadowy figure on top of the stairwell and after 8 EVP attempts, the 9th EVP was a male’s voice saying “whore”, “whore”.

THE CLEANSING:Deanna conducted a metaphysical cleansing of the home, I conducted a Roman Catholic house blessing with Mr. Z. I gave Ms. Z a full submersion baptism in her bathtub, because she may have an attachment. After the baptism, she was very emotional and crying.  I hope and pray that the attachment is gone for good.  Special Note:  I gave Shawna & Hannah a special “hedge of protection” prayer, they requested this prayer.  At the end of the night, everyone hugged everyone, it was a night of endurance and stamina as we pushed forward to collect evidence.

EVP OF MALE SAYING “WHORE”, “WHORE”:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf9Be1YPkd4&feature=youtu.be

VIDEOS FROM SACRAMENTO PARANORMAL HELP:

www.facebook.com/HaloParanormalInvestigations/videos/994204734350342/

www.facebook.com/HaloParanormalInvestigations/videos/1121160581613660/

www.facebook.com/HaloParanormalInvestigations/videos/945794452565643/

Before this investigation took place, I got a strange call on the paranormal hotline, here is that call below…………………….

FROM THE PARANORMAL HOTLINE
Date: 8/15/2020 Time of Call: 9:20am. Called: Danny Rochelli – Lead Ghosthunter of P.P.P. (Philadelphia Phantom Pursuers). Danny tells me that they investigated a very haunted home in Philadelphia that is over 100 years old. They captured many EVPs and odd looking orbs in their photos, but the two things that really freaked them out was 1. When entering the home, (Special Note: the occupants stayed at a motel, while their home was being investigated), the front door when unlocked, felt like someone was inside pushing the door closed. They continued pushing the front door and it was being pushed back over and over again, finally the door opened with a loud thud as the door hit the wall. This happened again at one of the bedroom doors, they believe an entity was trying to keep the door closed and was pushing the door to close it, as they were trying to open the door. The second thing that freaked them out is when they talked into the occupant’s Alexis, it said the following: a) leave the house now; b) you will get hurt if you stay; and c) go now! Two of the investigators started feeling nauseated and one of the investigators vomited. They plan to go back and asked me how to conduct a Roman Catholic house blessing. I gave them the information and the investigators will be going back to conduct a cleansing. They will keep me informed on the outcome

By Paul Dale Roberts, HPI’s Esoteric Detective
Halo Paranormal Investigations
www.cryptic916.com/
Sacramento Paranormal Help
www.facebook.com/HaloParanormalInvestigations/

The post Stairwell Shadow Man first appeared on The Costa Rican Times.

Costa Rica Tourism Industry – No VAT For Another Year

The President has signed a law that will leave the tourism sector free of tax for another year.
While some are grateful for this, others have warned that this shouldn’t be done without creating some other source of income for the State.

Still others point out that this won’t alleviate the problems faced by the tourism industry in a country with near closed borders. Hotels are months behind on rent, mortgages, electricity, and staff costs.

One hotelier has been given an extension to pay his debts in December. He already owes three months. By December, he will have to pay over ₡20 million. He is unlikely to get many visitors in these months so what he saves by not paying value added tax will do little to help him stay in business.

The tourism sector is one of the hardest hit by covid. The VAT will be collected again as of July 1, 2021, with a rate of 4%. In 2022, the rate will rise to 8%. Then in July 2023, the regular VAT rate will apply.

Organized Crime in Las Crucitas Costa Rica

The list of crimes common in Crucitas is ever growing. Gold and silver looting, money laundering, corruption, tax evasion, human trafficking, and illegal arms and mercury deals are among them.

Organized criminal groups are dedicated to bringing in workers, chemicals, and weapons, then bribing officials to turn a blind eye and exporting the stolen gold and silver. They leave behind terribly polluted rivers, dead animals, and cut down forests.

The OIJ has been investigating and reporting on the situation as well as taking measures to disperse the people involved and seal off the mines they have created. In February, the Ministry of Public Security evicted eight barracks of miners and sealed off five tunnels in which they operated.

Still, day by day, more and more gold and silver is exported illegally one way or another. Additionally, more and more people, including a significant number of women and children, are forced into exploited labor.

In a single transport, 2.4 tons of cyanide and 1.4 kilograms of mercury were seized. This was coming from Nicaragua. The groups also get it from inside the country from companies who normally distribute it legally.

Questioning Together Ignites Insight Together

During the pandemic I’ve been participating in three online dialogue groups, two based in the US and one in the UK, all loosely based on the Dialogue Proposal of the late physicist/philosopher David Bohm. The intent is to hold a space, think together, and listen for insight, but personal perspective carries the day on both sides of the pond.

The two groups in the USA emanate from New Jersey and Vermont, while the one in the United Kingdom is out of Scotland. The New Jersey group has a “facilitator” and master manipulator sitting at the controls. It started out a few years ago as a book club, and has descended into metaphysical interpretation and ideology.

The convener-controller does not brook dissent, labeling questioning of his unexamined premises and conclusions “disruptive fragmentation.” I endured one session, asked to be removed from the near daily notices and excerpts from Krishnamurti’s teachings, and returned briefly on the request of four long-time participants before leaving for good.

The New Jersey moderator does not distinguish between past emotion and present feeling, declaring, Spock-like, that feeling is nothing but sentimentality. I became persona non grata when I replied: If we don’t feel, we’re dead.

Imagine a very smart AI machine in the near future, which has been fed all the talks and writings of one of the world’s greatest religious philosophers. Utter any word or phrase, and this AI program will immediately give a relevant quote, or worse, a cunning interpretation. That’s how the New Jersey dialogue guru strikes the attentive listener, though of course he has many followers and sycophants.

The Vermont group is boilerplate New Age, with much talk about love and consciousness-raising set in the context of TED talks or their equivalent level of superficial inspiration. The hosts put on a good show, but are just blowing bubbles. Unlike heavy Bernie bubbles however, which fall to the ground and burst in silent splats, their bubbles float ephemerally into the sky.

The Edinburgh online group, perhaps because it’s Scottish-based and traced, has some real heft. Two women organized and convene the monthly, 3-hour dialogue, and both are philosophers. It’s still rare to find one female philosopher in this or any land.

Unlike the New Jersey group, newcomers are welcome, there is no established group dynamic, and the conveners eschew the role of facilitator and moderator. Even more remarkably, people actually listen to each other. There are frequent pauses, with relaxed silences, allowing reflection by all and permitting less verbal participants the chance to speak.

There is one disturbing similarity, if not sameness, between the US and UK dialogues. It’s the unexamined assumption that we are separate individuals, each with valid ‘personal perspectives.’ Or, as one of the Edinburgh philosophers put it in a letter to me, “Our experience of reality is perspectival – i.e. it is through our perspective that the world is disclosed to us.”

“As a perspective, it is always limited and imperfect…[therefore] learning other perspectives is a way to view reality from multiple angles and get a better picture,” she added, with the confidence of a consensus view reality and unassailable logic.

One hears this view so often that it has become hackneyed. Having dialogued with David Bohm, it was not his worldview, nor did he advocate “learning other perspectives as a way to view reality from multiple angles to get a better picture.”

Bohm didn’t deny or try to quash personal perspective; he simply felt that the underlying assumption of the autonomous individual was false. Giving primacy to personal perspective denies dialogue as he proposed it. Listening to each other’s perspectives has its place, but to question and think together, ‘my perspective’ has to be held in abeyance.

The parts don’t make a whole. Diversity flows from wholeness, not from particularity. No mater how many perspectives one learns, it will not give one an insight into what is, and the truth and actuality beyond what is.

Can people question and think together? Can we see the same thing at the same time at the same level during dialogue? We have the capacity for direct perception and insight into what is, both alone and together.

Meditative dialogue is the social equivalent of solitary meditation, which is the art of quieting and emptying the mind in undirected attention to the movement of thought and emotion, aided by the mirror of nature.

Solitary meditation is ongoingly foundational, essential to radically change oneself, while questioning and igniting insight together is essential to change the disastrous course of humankind. The individual is microcosm and humanity is macrocosm.

Martin LeFevre

What Are the Most Recent Driving Restrictions in Costa Rica?

Here we provide reliable information regarding the newest vehicular restrictions from the Deputy Director of Traffic, the National Emergency Commission, and the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation.

One main change is that, from Monday to Friday, on a day when you can drive in a canton with an orange alert, you can’t drive in a canton with a yellow alert. This is meant to more or less keep people in the canton where they live and prevent displacement from cantons with more covid-19 transmissions to those with fewer transmissions.

Circulation hours will be from 5 am to 9 pm from Monday to Friday and 5 am to 7 pm on weekends, in all cantons. On weekends, those with odd number plates can circulate on Saturdays and those with even number plates on Sundays, in all cantons.

There are some main routes exempt from the vehicular restrictions. There are also additional exemptions. Those with proof of reservations at hotels or Airbnbs, freelance workers, farmers traveling to buy feed, those going to a vehicle technical review, and those transferring minors to a babysitter will be exempt from the vehicle restriction but must have written proof.

Mother’s Day Sales in Costa Rica Were Terrible

Merchants can only describe Mother’s Day sales as “terrible.” The closures due to covid-19 hit many sectors hard, but the commerce sector, including restaurants and department stores, the hardest.

This weekend, businesses in orange alerts, generated zero sales, because of the closures that are a preventive measure against covid-19 transmissions. The rest of the month alternated between bad and very bad sales results.

Restaurants average 50% to 75% income losses over the same month last year. Clothing, footwear, and personal care stores faced losses of 25% to 50% over August of last year. The government extended hours of operation but this had little effect on sales except in some sports and appliance stores.

Even though the commercial sector urged clients to purchase from digital platforms, the total Mother’s Day sales are estimated at ₡22,000 million. Last year, they were ₡38,000 million. This ₡16,000 million drop is attributed to the vehicle restriction and lack of mobility as well as high unemployment and low consumer confidence.

The Ghost of Hoodoo Brown

On Facebook, I have befriended many ghost hunting groups.  One of those groups, now defunct is N.M.L.S.C.  (New Mexico Longhorn Spectre Chasers).  Toothless Tom, (Special Note: Toothless Tom received this nickname, because he is missing 3 top teeth) the leader of this group has been in contact with me for almost 10 years.  His group has investigated Billy the Kid’s Grave (Special Note:  I also have investigated Billy the Kid’s Grave and I did not obtain any paranormal evidence that Billy is still around); Roswell and the following places:

The Lodge Resort & Spa:  A ghost named Rebecca, a strikingly beautiful chambermaid with red hair, was murdered when her jealous-stricken lumberjack suitor found her in the arms of another man. Today, The Lodge’s friendly mischievous ghost has been said to wander the halls.  She is known to move furniture, flicking the lights off and on and spontaneously igniting fires in fireplaces. Some believe Rebecca is searching for a new lover or friend who would appreciate her playful nature.

Dawson Cemetery: In 1913, an explosion at the mine killed more than 250 men, making it one of the worst coal mining disasters in American history. Another disaster took the lives of 123 miners in 1923, and now all that remains of the town is a cemetery. It’s got a reputation as one of the most haunted places in New Mexico, and for good reason. Visitors who are brave enough to explore the cemetery at night have reported back with strange findings. Some have seen lights, reminiscent of those on the front of mining helmets, and some have even seen ghostly apparitions wandering among the headstones.

Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas, New Mexico and the whole town of Las Vegas:  The Plaza Hotel, built in 1882, has an illustrious history with a dash of the paranormal. It’s said to be haunted by the ghost of its past owner named Byron T. Wells. The hotel’s restaurant and bar is even named after him. If you’re feeling especially brave, stay in Room 310. It was Byron’s office, and to this day, hotel guests sometimes claim to feel his presence.

Toothless Tom tells me when his group was going strong, they had a powerful psychic on the team named Julie.  Julie had 3 reoccurring dreams in which she saw a cowboy on a horse being chased down by a group of yelling and screaming cowboys.  Julie channeled the cowboy that was run out of town by the rowdy cowboys and his name was Frank M. Canton.  Channeling into Frank, she discovers that he was paid a sum of money to hunt down Hoodoo Brown aka Hyman G. Neil of Las Vegas, New Mexico.  The rowdy cowboys that ran Frank out of town was no other than the Dodge City Gang whose leader was Hoodoo Brown.  Julie did some researching and discovered that Frank M. Canton was once a sheriff for Johnson County, Wyoming and he was paid to go after Hoodoo Brown to collect a large gambling debt for his client.  More research indicated that the Dodge City Gang was active in Las Vegas, New Mexico from 1879 to 1880. 

Julie discovered why she was having those reoccurring dreams, because when she channeled Frank M. Canton she discovers that Frank is tormented by his encounter of the Dodge City Gang and that he eluded the gang, only for the gang to come upon another cowboy and thinking it was Frank, they tortured him and lynched him.  Frank was able to observe the deadly encounter from his hideaway spot.  Frank never told this story to anyone while he was alive and now that he is in the spiritual realm, it still haunts him and he cannot find peace.  An innocent man died in his behalf. 

Toothless Tom and his team of ghost hunters went to the town of Las Vegas, New Mexico and investigated the Plaza Hotel first and then went through the whole town to see what paranormal activity was still active in this town.   Some of the EVPs that New Mexico Longhorn Spectre Chasers picked up on were “go fetch!”;  “pretty gal” and a deep male voice laughing and saying “Hoodoo Voodoo”.  Other EVPs were unintelligible.  They captured a lot of orb activity in their photos and 2 of their investigators claim that late at night they saw 2 ghostly cowboys riding on their ghostly horses. The ghostly cowboys were looking around and finally vanished in front of their eyes.

By Paul Dale Roberts, HPI’s Esoteric Detective
Halo Paranormal Investigations
www.cryptic916.com/
Sacramento Paranormal Help
www.facebook.com/HaloParanormalInvestigations/

Airlines With Flights From the USA to Costa Rica Have Requested to Resume Service

Although terminals have been open to receive foreign flights since August 1, this applies to flights from certain countries only: the European Union, Great Britain, and Canada, for now. Six U.S. airlines have requested permission to fly into Costa Rica starting in the next quarter.

American Airlines, United Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines, and Volaris Airlines are managing permit procedures to resume commercial flights to Costa Rica as soon as possible.

They seek permission to arrive at both the Juan Santamaria International Airport and the Daniel Oduber Quiros Airport. For the time being, the United States is excluded from entering Costa Rica to avoid covid-19 infections.

There are currently just five commercial flights coming into the country weekly, three from Madrid and two from Frankfurt. In September, Air Canada will offer a weekly flight from Toronto and a weekly flight back to Toronto.

Although the U.S. Government advised citizens not to travel to 20 Latin American and Caribbean nations, including Costa Rica, airlines in the U.S. are making plans for when this changes.

Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development Welcomes Costa Rica

Experts have a lot to say about monopolies and oligopolies in Costa Rica. On August 13, they will share their thoughts in a virtual forum, at 5:30 pm, via teams.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development welcomed Costa Rica as a member nation but pointed out that there are high prices in the country due to lack of competition. It also stated that the profit margins in the country, in certain sectors, are higher than in most other member countries.

On Thursday, we can hear the following presentations: “Why does competition matter?” “Market power and regulation,” The powers of Coprocom,” “Implications of little competition in the market for the lives of consumers,” and “Legal changes to join the OECD were done without touching the monopolistic structures of the markets.”

The OECD makes recommendations to improve competition, and thus prices, in Costa Rica. The changes will only come about if we start to acknowledge and talk about the problem as these experts will do tomorrow.

Nature, Silence and the Sacred

There’s a great oak next to the park road at the upper end, with seven huge branches reaching down to the grass on one side. It was as magnificent as ever when I stopped on the way into my meditation place. Months without rain however, have made the Central Valley dry, dusty and dirty.

The old oak anchors three miles of parkland that follow the creek through town. It must be very old, a mature tree perhaps when Native Americans lived here, before Europeans came and drove them out in the mid-19^th century. They may even have gathered its acorns as their staple food. 

It will be at least three more months before the rainy season begins. The foothills are bone dry. The truly dangerous fire season now begins.

But it’s green and well shaded beside the stream. Kids shout and play at ‘the beach,’ a narrow strip of sand and hip deep water 100 meters upstream from where I often take my meditations.

Across the stream, the bass from hell, exuding from some house, reverberates over the music of the rippling current. Just as the mind-as-thought yields to inclusive, undirected attention, it stops.

A strange indifference comes over one. When the ‘I’ and thought end, the world recedes into insignificance, psychological time ceases, and problems seem like petty things.

As one of America’s greatest religious philosophers, John Muir, said: “Presently you lose consciousness of your own separate existence: you blend with the landscape, and become part and parcel of nature.”

When thought and time end, one sees and feels the ever-present actuality of death, without a trace of morbidity or fear. Death is in every breath, in the expiration of the cells within the body. It’s an inextricable part of nature. In fact, death is the ground not only of nature’s continuous renewal, but the wellspring of the ongoing creation of the universe.

Thought, by its very nature, divides life from death, and fears it. But when thought spontaneously falls silent in undirected attention to its movement in the mirror of nature, a reverence for life and death arise within one. A benediction comes…sacredness completely beyond words, emotions and the intellect.

That’s the only thing worthy of veneration. Never adore another person, or put them on a pedestal, however illumined they may be. Reverence is reserved for life, death and the immeasurable beauty of nature and the universe, and the unknowable creative source within and behind the cosmos.

The human brain is the only brain on this planet with the capacity for conscious awareness, communion and participation in the sacredness that imbues the universe. So why is it so rare to “bring the benediction?”

Is it because few people have relationship with nature? Is it because we have no feeling for what is actually sacred? 

Hebrew University religious philosopher Moshe Halbertal writes, “When you lose the realm of the sacred, that realm of the common good outside of politics, that is when societies collapse.”

If he had left it at, “When you lose the realm of the sacred, that is when societies collapse,” it would have given pregnant pause. But by adding, “that realm of the common good outside of politics,” he erroneously defines and delimits the sacred, and remains in the political dimension.

The sacred is beyond of the world, without being separate from it. And it has nothing to do with the “common good.”

If I had any doubt about what Halbertal means by the sacred, he dispels it when he asks, who are the leaders many of us still respect and yearn for — even when we disagree with them?

Halbertal answers his rhetorical question thus: “They are the leaders who believe that there is a realm of the sacred — of the common good — that is outside of politics and who make big decisions based on their best judgment of the common good — not their naked power interests.’’

“The common good” is not sacred. It is, rightly, at the core of the political dimension. And as recently as a few decades ago, the common good could be defined in national terms, without being nationalistic.

That is no longer possible however. The common good now refers to the global commons—the common good of humanity.

Even so, that is still in the realm of political philosophy, not religious philosophy. To my mind, awakening one’s inherent capacity to perceive and receive the sacred is why are alive on this beautiful planet, which man is destroying apace.

We cannot define what is sacred, for if we could, it wouldn’t be sacred; it would be another plaything of thought and the intellect.

The human brain has the capacity to be in communion with the sacred, but the mind-as-thought must fall completely, spontaneously silent for a deep reverence for life and death to be, and for the benediction to come. Martin LeFevre

The End of Man and the Beginning of Humanity

This past week the world commemorated one of the grimmest anniversaries in human history—the atomic bombs that leveled Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing over 200,000 people. Today is the 75th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki.

Despite the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons,’ which was formally adopted at the United Nations three years ago (though unsurprisingly all nine nuclear powers, as well as Japan and Canada astoundingly, aren’t signatories), we are on the cusp of another, much more dangerous nuclear arms race. Will humanity ever rid itself of these ultimate evil weapons of war?

Man as a whole is the context, and nationalism was the sub-context of the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities. Japan started the war with the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. America finished it with the unnecessary nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Whenever I hear the terrorist criminality of 9.11 being compared to Pearl Harbor, I wince, as do all people of conscience, American or otherwise. Pearl Harbor, while a dastardly attack, was a military target by one nation-state against another. America calls the flattening of the Twin Towers “ground zero,” but it cannot be compared atomic flattening of the twin cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

With hindsight, we can have discernment while eschewing judgment, much less blame. If he had lived would FDR have used the bombs? We’ll never know, but Truman, a small man (though not nearly as small as Donald Trump), was in the wrong job at the wrong moment.

It is remarkable that those who were directly affected and suffered enormously from the loss of family and radiation sickness, the hibakusha, have been very forgiving of the Americans who used the bomb on them.

For example, as has been reported, Setsuko Thurlow, who was 13 in Hiroshima when her school was flattened, questioned the God worshiped by so many Americans. But at a school founded by Kiyoshi Tanimoto, a Methodist pastor profiled by the journalist John Hersey in “Hiroshima, she was surrounded by Christian adults who supported her emotionally.

“Because of them, I was able to deal with that crisis and came out of that trauma,” said Thurlow, who married an American, earned a degree in sociology, and moved to Toronto.

The sharpest criticism of Thurlow comes from Japan: “Somehow you have to universalize your message,” said Yuki Tanaka, a retired research professor at the Hiroshima Peace Institute, “not just talk about your own sadness and pain.”

The least we Americans can do, after decades of lies and rationalization, is display some pangs of conscience, as the pilot of the weather plane, Claude Eatherly, who gave the go-ahead for bombing Hiroshima, did until the end of his life.

I knew a Marine that was sent to Nagasaki after it was bombed, and spent a few weeks there. They had no protection, since the long-lasting effects of radiation were unknown at the time. His daughter believes, nearly 40 years after his death from cancer, that those weeks in Nagasaki killed him.

So Americans have suffered too, though morally more than physically, from the bombings. The decades of rationalization that followed the unnecessary use of nuclear weapons slowly accumulated in the body politic, contributing to emotional arteriosclerosis the America people.

The Marine I knew was a decent and well-liked man. Near the end of his life, he talked for the first time about his involvement in the battle for Tarawa, the aftermath in Nagasaki, and seeing women jump off the cliffs of Saipan clutching their children, because of the terror for American soldiers that had been instilled in them by the Japanese military. But he was still cut off from his emotions, and relayed the details with a clinical detachment that made the events all the more horrifying.

Urakami Cathedral (Roman Catholic), stands in the ruins and destruction after the atomic bomb fell on Nagasaki. (Photo By Bernard Hoffman/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images)

It is fitting and proper that the bombings are prompting a deeper reflection during the pandemic.

The twin viruses of Covid and Trumpism have revealed the underside of America, the truths that can no longer be denied.

Japan was beaten; the bombs were dropped to show Stalin’s Russia the power we possessed. The American soul rot, which, as always, flows first and most from lies, began after the atomic bombings, have culminated in a president who can do nothing but lie.

Forty-six years later, the straw that broke the Spirit’s back in America came with the fabricated Persian Gulf War, after Hussein was tacitly green-lighted to annex Kuwait for what he believed was repayment for being America’s boy in the 80’s during the Iran-Iraq war.

The Good Gulf War killed a quarter million Iraqis to less than 200 Americans so we could test out the latest generation of Stealth Bombers and laser-guided bombs. Detonations are yet to come, not just for America but for humanity as the USA implodes from a tiny virus malevolently mismanaged by a small man.

It’s not a question of if but when nuclear weapons will be used again. Then will humankind finally make the turn away from war, and abolish weapons of mass destruction altogether? Only if a sufficient minority of people in the world are inwardly prepared.

Martin LeFevre

Two Women Arrested For Human Trafficking in Costa Rica

Two women were arrested in San Carlos on suspicion of aggravated pimping and human trafficking. They allegedly used social networks and phone calls to sell sexual services with young people. It is believed they also sold photos of the victims with the clients from a business in Ciudad Quesada that was used as a front..

The arrests were made possible by a joint effort between the Judicial Investigation Organization and the Specialized Section on Gender Violence, Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants.

The suspects are thought to have been working independently at this time but it is believed they used to work together on this crime. They set prices between ₡25,000 and ₡50,000 and took 10%.

Raids were carried out simultaneously at the womens’ homes to seize evidence to strengthen the case.

Copa Airlines Resuming Flights to the USA

Copa Airlines is resuming flights from its hub at Tocumen International Airport to the U.S., Brazil, Chile, and Mexico this month. These 15 flights will allow for connections to 11 cities in eight countries.

The airline has been stopped since March 22 because of covid-19. Customers affected by the suspension will be able to use their credits for another flight before December 31, 2021.

Panama is allowing the company to operate again although it is only allowing citizens and residents passed the airport. Tourists can make connections to their final destinations in the airport terminal.

The flights will go to Miami, New York, Washington, Mexico City, San José, Santo Domingo, Quito, Guayaquil, São Paulo, and Santiago. These fights will connect Costa Rica with four countries.

The United States Department of State put Costa Rica on a list of 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that it recommends its citizens not travel to.

Beale German Camp Haunting Investigation

Today is Sunday, September 2, 2007, Labor Day weekend. But, before we move forward to the Beale AFB investigation, I get a call from new HPI Paranormal Investigator Debbie Butler on Saturday. Debbie actually joined HPI, after learning I was in HPI and hasn’t been on any investigations yet. But, she is ready! Debbie tells me she has a very interesting story that may just peak my curiosity. We meet at Tower Cafe and with big sparkling eyes, she tells me a long story of paranormal experiences that have plagued her life. At the age of 7, she saw her stepbrother’s deceased mom. She learns that she is an intuitive, at times she sees ‘dead people’. All through her life, she feels presences. During her early years, late at night, she witnesses a shooting star. After the shooting star disintegrates into nothingness, spirits start whispering into her ear. They tell her soon there will be a crisis in her family. The prediction comes true. Debbie’s deceased grandfather blows into her ear. When he was living, blowing into a family member’s ear, was something he was fond of doing. Debbie’s deceased grandfather would also make his presence known to Debbie’s grandmother. He would also walk around the house, waking Debbie. Debbie has seen full body apparitions, she has had ghost dreams. In one dream she says ‘boo’ to the spirit and the spirit jumps out at her. There has been times when spirits gathered around her bed and held her down with her own blanket. She discovers that at her mom’s house, a young child died of some sort of illness and she feels the presence of that child. As an intuitive, she walks up to a K Jeweler clerk and has an urge to tell her something important, because the clerk’s deceased husband is now standing next to Debbie. The deceased husband who has died 3 months ago tells his ex-wife through Debbie that she has something very important to do, it had to do with his son wanting to get his share of money from the house and he was trying to stop his son, he wanted the house left as is, with his wife. He proved he was standing next to Debbie, when he told Debbie to tell his wife what his favorite song was. The clerk does what her deceased husband suggests and stops the son from taking his share of the house.

Besides ghosts, Debbie had the strangest paranormal experience in 1994, when the lights of the house she was living in would flicker on and off. Then all of a sudden 2 ‘gray’ aliens appeared in front of her grandmother, hands outstretched. There was light emitting from the palm of their hands and eyes. The aliens glided to the left and disappeared. Her grandmother was not aware of the presence of the aliens and Debbie does not know why they appeared. This is Debbie’s story and what a story it was.

Now, let’s move up to Sunday. 7pm, I arrive to the Countess’ home. Yep, I’m talking about Countess Shannon McCabe. Rolling in was Tim Hawkins in his VW Golf he calls the ‘Blue Orb’. I look at Tim, I look at Shannon and tell them both, we are not rolling in Shannon’s Ectoplasma Mobile and we”re not rolling in Tim’s Blue Orb, we’re rolling in the Ghost Tracer, my car. Shannon looks around for another team member. Jennifer Baca was missing. I told Shannon that Jennifer has fallen ill and won’t make this investigation. She is disappointed that she got sick, but I promised I would keep her appraised of our investigation. Tim and Shannon with their cases filled with equipment pile in my car and we head up I-5 North towards Marysville/Yuba City to meet up with Randy McCuddy, who is in the Air Force and his wife Alexis McCuddy. They brief us about the haunting activity at the former Camp Beale POW Camp that held German and Japanese prisoners of war. At one time this camp held 1000 prisoners. The POWs would provide agriculture labor to the nearby farmers. For recreation the POWs played soccer. There was tragedy at these POW camps. There were suicides and there was retribution by other POWs, In 1944, the POWs did other side jobs like mending clothing. In 1946 the camp closed. The POW cemetery was moved from Beale AFB to a site in San Bruno. Randy in his Mustang Cobra leads us to the base, Beale AFB. We check in with the guards, they take our identification and they take my registration to my vehicle and my insurance information. I guess they were checking that we weren’t Al Queda. The security guards were looking me over and looking over my documentation real carefully. Since, I can pass as an Italian, as a Mexican or someone from the Middle East, due to my olive dark complexion, I started feeling nervous. I started hearing the theme song to Midnight Express and at any time I would have machine guns pointed to my head, as my arms are being raised over my head. Finally with a sigh of relief, they gave me my passes to enter the base. The Midnight Express song started to fade away as I re-entered my vehicle and got the go-ahead to move on.

We arrived at the Camp Beale German POW Camp. As we took video footage of the POW camp, checked for EVPs and took digital photos, Randy started getting a burning sensation on his arm. We looked at his arm and a scratch mark was forming. How he obtained this scratch mark is anyone’s guess. He said, he didn’t bump into anything that would have caused the scratch mark. The scratch mark on his arm is inconclusive on how it was caused. Tim and Shannon used the dowsing rods to try and communicate with any spirits that may be lingering at this POW camp. Tim and Shannon would think of questions and have me relate the questions in German. I used to speak fluent German, since I spent 3 years in Germany, while in the Army. I am still versed in German, but I’m not as good as I used to be in speaking it, but I was able to translate most of Shannon and Tim’s questions. If we get any German language EVPs, I will be shocked! While Tim was using his dowsing rods, they indicated that we were speaking to a Japanese soldier captured at Iwo Jima in 1942. This is obviously incorrect as the battle of Iwo Jima was not fought until 1945.

Alexis who speaks Japanese helped Tim translate his questions. After checking some of my photographs, I did notice I captured some unusual orb activity. Of course, orbs really don’t have any foundation, except for the fact I can’t capture any orb activity at my own home, even after I have taken over a thousand photos in the darkness of my house

We didn’t see any paranormal activity with our own eyes, but we did manage to see a ton of black birds hanging around one particular tree, some bats flying in and out of the POW camp and of course some rabbits. We ended the investigatin at the POW camp and stopped over by some reconnaissance aircraft and took some pictures by the aircraft. Randy lead us out towards Marysville and Yuba City. He took us to places that may be haunted, or the local people say that these places are haunted. We arrived at the abandoned Marysville Hotel, built in 1872 and took some pictures. We checked out the abandoned State Theatre and took more photos. There were not findings at either location. Our final stop was the Yuba City cemetery. We captured some orb activity at the cemetery and one orb was a bright red in color. It seems like I get a lot of red orb shots at cemeteries for some reason or another. After this long night, we took off and headed back to Sacramento. Shannon needed something to perk her up, so she started playing ‘Chase Me – Confunkshun, Bodytalk – The Deele, Make That Move – Shalimar, Good Times – Chic, I’m Every Woman – Chaka Khan, Theme from Shaft – Isaac Hayes, Superfly and Pusherman by Curtis Mayfield, Double Dutch Bus by Frankie Smith.’ Before I knew it Shannon was rocking out in my car. Then Shan looks at me and said…’Paul, I don’t believe you were ever a dancer!’ I have told Shannon I used to be a professional dancer with Jeff Kutache’s Dancing Machine in Lake Tahoe and that at one time we were the first number for Cher in 1979, when she went solo. Shannon scoffed. I told Shannon that I was the 3rd and 5th Disco King of Sacramento and won dance contests that were judged by Wolfman Jack and Monterock III (who played the DJ in the movie Saturday Night Fever with John Travolta). More scoffing. I then got so irritated that she was debunking my claims of dancing, I pulled the car over and turned the bright lights on myself and Shan threw on Meeting in the Ladie’s Room. I did some freelance dancing on the side of the road, while Shan video taped it and said that this made her whole night. Tim clapped enthusiastically. Yep, I still know my dance moves, don’t ever call me out Shan! You’re talking to the former disco king of Sacramento! This ended our evening and our investigation of Beale AFB.

Findings:
No EVPs recorded. While we had some interesting responses during the dowsing sessions, we were able to debunk some of the information given.

Conclusions:
This place certainly is an interesting part of history. Whether it is haunted or not is inconclusive just based on what we gathered on this evening. Our host was scratched or burned by something that we can not explain, and some of us felt some strange energies around the cellblock. The dowsing sessions repeatedly identified energies in a particular area, but when it came to answering questions, the rods moved slowly at times, and we were able to debunk some of the information given. It would seem that with such conditions and tragedy surrounding an area, that there would be some haunting activity. While we didn’t gather conclusive evidence on this particular night, this would certainly be an interesting place to re-visit.

By Paul Dale Roberts aka the Demon Warrior
Halo Paranormal Investigations
www.cryptic916.com/
Sacramento Paranormal Help
www.facebook.com/HaloParanormalInvestigations/

You Can Now Wear Your Hair As you Wish at Costa Rica Schools

When schools open again, students of all genders will be allowed to attend classes with the hairstyles of their choice. A circular about the issue was sent out on July 6. It states that all references to hair length, hair styles, and allowed haircuts be removed from regulations. 

The MEP has given schools one month to comply with this mandate. When face-to-face classes start up again, there will be no more letters sent home about inappropriate hair cuts, lengths, or styles. 

This decision is to protect students’ rights to gender identity, self-determination of image, and free development of personality. The Childhood and Adolescence Code established that education must be oriented to the full development of potential. 

Gone are the days of disputes about hair between teachers and students and their families. There have been two well known disputes, both of which the students and their families won. In one case, a boy was allowed to wear dreads, at the request of his mother, as this is a sign of identity of the Afro-Costa Rican population. In another situation, a boy was allowed to have long hair because he recovered it after undergoing treatment for leukemia. 

Travel Insurance & COVID Tests for a Costa Rica Vacation

It is no wonder that making tourists buy insurance that costs nearly $1,000 for a two-week stay would be a huge deterrent to people looking to travel. They will go elsewhere. The National Chamber of Tourism and The Costa Rican Chamber of Hoteliers warned that this would be a disincentive to visit Costa Rica.

I refer to the policy by the National Insurance Institute that would cover at least $20,000 in medical expenses and $4,000 for accommodation in the case of being affected by covid-19. Such a policy is a requirement to enter the country.

While this policy is the only one offered in Costa Rica, the Government, by a new executive decree, will now allow the use of international policies as well, so long as they meet certain requirements. One such plan, by grupo Futuropa, costs between $15 and $182, for a stay of up to eight weeks in the country. The allowance of international plans came after a request last week by the business sector.

The Costa Rican Tourism Institute and the Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Commerce were charged by the President to ensure that the insurance requirement did not bottleneck the reopening of the country’s air borders. They worked together to seek a solution.

In addition to insurance, foreign tourists must present proof of a negative covid-19 test carried out 48 hours in advance. This has a cost of $150-$200.

Localism and the Non-Locality of the Universe

At the quantum level, there’s a principle called non-locality. It refers not only to “the profound interconnectedness of the universe,” but to something called “entanglement,” a phenomenon whereby electrons even far apart instantly affect each other.  How does non-locality pertain to human consciousness as it is, and as it could be?

In everyday language, what does non-locality mean? As a 2015 article in Scientific American, “How Einstein Revealed the Universe’s Strange Non-Locality” pithily explains it:

“Physics experiments can bind the fate of two particles together so that they behave like a pair of magic coins. If you flip them, each will land on heads or tails—but always on the same side as its partner.”

“They act in a coordinated way even though no force passes through the space between them. Those particles might zip off to opposite sides of the universe, and still they act in unison. The particles violate locality—they transcend space.”

“Multiple branches of physics now suggest that, at a deep level, there may be no such thing as place and no such thing as distance.”

Mystics not only understand the principle of non-locality and the misnomer of “entanglement” (really disentanglement) intuitively. They have direct experiencing of it because they regularly stand nowhere, with no center or fixed point of reference, going beyond the surface layer of self and locality. Which is to say, there is direct experiencing of nature as a whole the universe as it actually is.

Of course such experiencing is opposed to our everyday experience of locality, of being a separate self, belonging to a separate group in a particular place. However that is our conditioned cultural experience of reality.

Contrast the actuality of seamless wholeness with the near dogma progressives now hold for localism, the idea that we all rightly belong to a distinct place. From that premise they believe the solution to rapacious globalization is devolving people and power down to the smallest possible units of community and municipality.

The utopianism of localism is neatly expressed by one of its leading proponents, Eric Utne, who declaims:

“We need a hyper-local Green New Deal. We need to come together in diverse, intimate, place-based communities. And we need to segue now from the techno-industrial market economy to its sequel — much smaller-scale, less energy-intensive, more localized communities that prize food growing, knowledge sharing, inclusiveness and convivial neighborliness.”

That sounds wonderful until you realize that it precludes living first in the true arena, where humankind is confronted by the extreme challenges every locality in sum has wrought, be they ecological, epidemiological or economic—the global commons.

That sound desirable until you realize it plays into the hands of the Earth’s fragmenters—the transnational corporations, who would like nothing more than for the best and brightest in the world to divert and divest themselves from global responsibility. They know the vast majority of the world’s eight billion people haven’t the interest, the energy or the means to a redux of the hippie back-to-the-land movement.

Localism flies in the face of the way the nature actually works, which isn’t by smallest possible units combining to make a whole, but by the whole of nature giving rise to the tremendous diversity of life on Earth, which man is fast extinguishing through fragmentation.

Finally, localism denies the interconnectedness of human beings and human consciousness. If it isn’t essentially tribal, it feeds into tribalism. And tribalism lies at the very root of man’s pathology, which is tearing the world apart.

That isn’t to say that we should ignore our neighbors and communities in favor of some grand and grandiose conception of human wholeness. Nor is it to oppose growing one’s own food and using small-scale solar and other available means to harness energy.

It’s simply to point out that localism breeds the kind of mentality, on the right and the left, that says, “That woman with a starving child in war-torn Yemen has nothing to do with me.”

Obviously there has to be ecological sustainability. But the idea that localism will ever get us there is dangerously erroneous wishful thinking.

Science has shown that every action we take affects, to some degree, everyone on Earth. Consciousness also reflects, to the extent we creatively participate in its non-locality, the emergence of intelligent life in the universe on this planet. Humankind is still moving in the opposite direction.

Contrast this vision for humanity with the flip side of localism, Elon Musk’s creepy vision. He said after the recent splashdown of his commercial capsule in the Gulf of Mexico, “Humans need to be a multi-planet species.”

Yes, destroying one planet is not enough for those who bow to what D.H. Lawrence aptly described as “the Mammon of mechanized greed.” Thinking and feeling human beings understand that retreating localism or rapacious globalization is a false choice.

Martin LeFevre

Link:

How Einstein Revealed the Universe’s Strange “Nonlocality”

China Donates COVID Masks to Costa Rica

China has donated masks to Costa Rica, specifically to political parties to distribute as they see fit. While the donation is no doubt appreciated, there is a question as to why do it via political parties.

Four of the parties, PNR, PRN, PRSC, and PUSC, accepted the donations, despite the fact that there is a legal ban on foreigners donating to political parties or carrying out operations that could benefit political groups. Because of this, PAC rejected the offer. PLN denied receiving an offer. Liberal deputy David Gourzong accepted the donation personally. He and all the parties that accepted the masks are planning to give them to the most needy in the country.

The masks have already started being delivered. They are going to vulnerable towns, like Alajuelita, day centers for the elderly, and low-income areas, in Pérez Zeledón and Upala, and to nursing homes, children’s villages, and directly to families in need in Limón.

Those who accepted the donations and passed them on to those in need point out that this is not campaigning. The donation wasn’t for a specific political party, rather a humanitarian effort in an international pandemic.

Costa Rican Shares Her Personal Experience of the Beirut Explosion

A Costa Rican living in Beirut, Andrea Aguilar, shared about her experience in the terrible explosion that shook the city and left so much destruction behind. She’s a journalist and was working from a cafe around 6pm on Tuesday.

The floors began to bounce and then, five seconds later, the windows and doors exploded. Being from Costa Rica, she first thought it was a tremor and got under a table. She quickly realized this was no earthquake. She remembers telling the girls next to her, “I am from Costa Rica. I know that an earthquake is not like this.”

2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate detonated from a yet unknown cause. The warehouse that exploded was three kilometers from her location, yet she thought it was on the same street as her because of how strong they felt the detonation.

She decided to get out and run home. She saw a red cloud spreading through the city. People were shocked and confused rather than screaming and crying.

This event is being referred to as “a great national disaster.” People are urged to stay in their homes and away from windows, as the toxicity levels in the air are still unknown.

Because of covid-19, there are only three days people can be out at shops and banks each week and the explosion happened on one of these days when the city, smaller than San José, was crowded. The death and injury figure is still rising.

As she processes what happened, Aguilar sees photos that look like a war happened and hears news of a possible military presence in coming weeks because of the catastrophe.

The Colliding Congruencies of America and China

Who said the following, one of President Trump’s lackeys, or a mouthpiece for China’s new confidence and assertiveness? “The survival of the state comes first, and constitutional law must serve this fundamental objective.” I’ll bet you can’t tell.

Conventional thinking has it that America and China have two fundamentally opposing systems that are on a collision course. However the ossification Chinese communist authoritarianism coincides and complements the emergence of American capitalistic authoritarianism.

Are both systems in their death throes? And is it a matter of systems at all, or of something both systems take as a given—unexamined attributes of supposedly immutable human nature?  

The underlying similarities between the dying American model and the purportedly rising Chinese model are evident to anyone who looks below the surface layer of the news and propaganda churn.  

Chinese staffers adjust U.S. and Chinese flags before the opening session of trade negotiations between U.S. and Chinese trade representatives at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

The fact that the news is nearly all propaganda in China, and now three-quarters propaganda in the United States (nearly all on the right, half so on the left) is the first underlying similarity.

It isn’t that the two systems are equivalent in their inception, or in their previous iteration with respect to the American model.

Rather, that they have shared unexamined premises about human nature at their core. In the digital world, with its steel and silk trade routes, these premises have led to a convergence, in a colliding sense of the word, of the two present political systems.

Both the American and Chinese systems extend and encompass the oxymoron of “benign empire;” of Christian consumerism and Confucian materialism; and of individualistic and nationalistic conceptions of self.

Tian Feilong, 37, is a scholar and former proponent of such “Western” ideas as universal human rights, separation of powers, and the rule of law. He now proudly promotes the authoritarian worldview ascendant under Xi Jinping, the Communist Party leader, and sings from the current Chinese hymnal:

“Back when I was weak, I had to totally play by your rules. Now I’m strong and have confidence, so why can’t I lay down my own rules and values and ideas?”

The ‘I’ here is not the American, hyper-individualized self, the autonomous and homogenous self, talking about ‘diversity’ while embracing stultifying sameness. It is the Chinese self, the ‘me’ that sees itself as the selfsame thing as the Chinese nation. In the end, it’s a distinction without a difference.

Beyond these congruencies, things get very murky. The Chinese Communist Party abandoned Marxism when it cloned capitalistic organs and musculature onto the sturdy, if ugly and ungainly skeleton of the CCP. Now, “traditional Marxism is rarely cited; the Chinese are proponents of order, not revolution.”

Demonstrating that the East is no longer East, and the West is no longer West, but ever the twain shall meet, Chinese intellectuals mimic Carl Schmitt, “the German legal theorist who supplied rightist leaders in the 1930s and the emerging Nazi regime with arguments for extreme executive power in times of crisis.”

As Fu Hualing, a professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, said of China’s new authoritarian scholars,  “In a way, it’s the Carl Schmitt moment here.” That is a truly disturbing development.

Of course, Americans, having a long tradition of being overtly or covertly anti-intellectual, don’t need s superstructure of scholarship to rationalize their evildoing. Whatever works will do. And when it doesn’t, as it horribly hasn’t during the pandemic, it will undo.

In China, as many have noted, since Mr. Xi took power in 2012, he “began a drive to discredit ideas like universal human rights, separation of powers and other liberal concepts.”

Hong Kong held out, but the PRC used the pandemic as a pretext to snuff out the last roadblock to “the great rejuvenation [and desirable globalization] of the Chinese nation.”

As masterfully explained in the same NYT piece I’m citing here, Chinese see the United States, as a “dangerous, overreaching shambles, especially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.”

“The global financial crisis of 2007, and the United States’ floundering response to the coronavirus pandemic, have reinforced Chinese views that liberal democracies are decaying, while China has prospered, defying predictions of the collapse of one-party rule.”

In a revealing admission, Professor Tian said, “China is actually also following a path that the United States took, seizing opportunities, developing outward, creating a new world.” God save humanity if that works.

That is the question—will it work? Or are we seeing the last gasp of the grasping American model not only in America, but as its been grafted onto a rigid Communist framework in China?

The next presidential election in the USA will tell whether America can even partially recover its soul and restore its ideals under President Biden. But his election is far from a done deal, and a lot can and will happen in the next three months.

There’s tremendous urgency for insight. Wondering whether Trump represents “ignorant malevolence or malevolent ignorance” is like debating how many devils can dance on the head of a pin.

As fragmented as it is, human consciousness is irreversibly interconnected. Whether we’re in America, China, or Timbuktu, let humanity’s true revolutionaries ignite insight, alone and with others.   

Martin LeFevre

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/02/world/asia/china-hong-kong-national-security-law.html

1st Commercial Flight Arrives After COVID Closure in Costa Rica

After 137 days of airports being closed to foreigners, the first commercial flight came to Costa Rica, bringing hope with it. It reunited loved ones and paved the way for tourism related workers to get out of the economic crisis they’ve been in.

The Iberia flight came from Madrid, Spain. It landed at the Juan Santamaria Airport on Monday. 210 passengers arrived, many of them were waiting to see relatives they had been separated from due to covid-19. One woman recounted that she hadn’t been able to be with her husband and daughter for six months, something unimaginable for any mother. The global pandemic separated them by force. She recalls having a “very bad time” and stated, “We will never be apart again.”

The aircraft brought a sense of relief for those who’ve been for months with little to no income. Many of those who lost jobs were heads of households with no other working members, such as a single mother with three teenage children studying. Many of them went through any savings they had and still were not approved for financial aid. Some companies were able to provide food to their workers. A select few, such as Aeris, were able to provide financial help in the time of struggle as well. 

Foreigners are required to submit test results from within the last 48 hours to prove they are not carrying covid-19. Those who didn’t have this proof were required to be tested in the airport and quarantined in their hotel rooms for 24 hours while waiting for the results. 

While this flight is just 1% of the pre-pandemic air traffic, an industry that contributed 10% of the GDP, it is a start and a ray of hope. The airport is prepared for a successful reopen and committed to being safe for staff and visitors by having alcohol gel dispensers as well as signs to remind passengers to keep a distance of 1.8 meters between each other or each social bubble.

Trial For Costa Rica Murder of Mexican Tourist Begins

On Monday, the trial against Sancho Rodríguez started. She is accused of murdering a Mexican tourist, María Trinidad Mathus Tenorio, on August 5, 2018, at Carmen beach, in Santa Teresa de Cóbano.

Two years ago, the victim and a friend were walking on the coast between 2:30 am and 4 am. They were intercepted by a pair of subjects who tried to rob them of their belongings. 

The victim was approached with a knife and forced into the sea. The friend managed to flee and get help but the victim was pushed out to about 400 meters, stripped of some of her clothes and drowned. The accused allegedly then fled the scene with the victim’s cell phone. 

The victim was a 25-year-old singer and songwriter. Known as Mermaid, she had released two singles. This was the first trip she took without family or friends. She made friends in La Fortuna and they went on to Cóbano.