You probably don’t know this, but Costa Rica is on the verge of electing its next President. One of the candidates, Luis Fishman, who entered the race to replace Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier, who was convicted in a corruption scandal and is now under house arrest, has adopted a campaign slogan of “menos malo,” which basically means I am less bad than the others. Still bad, mind you, but less bad. That is kind of like when you hear someone say it’s the “god’s honest truth.” Well, what other kind is there? And all those other things you said, I guess they weren’t? I am not too keen on this Fishman guy, who is about as environmentally savvy as, say, Donald Trump. The prospect of a Fishman administration (which will never happen as his ridiculous campaign slogan has made him a virtual joke among the ticos), inspires visions of Costa Rica becoming a tropical parking lot, with a few trees left standing to give it that rain forest feeling. I am not going to pick sides (although I do have my favorite in the race) because not being tico, nor a resident, I actually am not supposed to. But I will use this absurd attempt to get elected to point out my disdain for politicians who run more for the power than for the people. The big news in the U.S. is the election of Scott Brown as the first Republican Senator from Massachusetts in a long time (I think like 40 years). Brown seems like a nice enough guy (and, hey, he does drive a truck). But what’s funny, no actually cynical, is the media’s reaction (primarily Fox News) to the whole thing. Boy the Democrats are in trouble now. Health care reform has been declared “dead on arrival” because after the Brown victory politicians will be deathly afraid to touch it and spoil any hopes of re-election. Well, that assumes that getting re-elected is more important than actually accomplishing something. It appears that Obama is taking the Brown victory with a grain of salt and nevertheless pushing forward with the idea of health care reform. Is he nuts? No, he is just determined that his administration will be more about doings things that matter, than it is about staying in power. Health care reform has never happened before because there was no one willing to take the heat from opposing forces. Forces that don’t care if the poorest have access to the finest health care system on the planet, but are more concerned about avoiding any pinch to their purse strings in order to fund a massive government program. Of course it would be massive, the country is massive and massive solutions are needed to cure massive problems. I hope that Obama continues the course and does not take the road of “menos malo.”
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