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Why didn't I think of this ?!?!?!?!? Hey Circus....You got a truck ?!?!?!?
From Inside Costa Rica

Unemployed Man Decides To Collect Tibás Garbage
The garbage that is piling up in Tibás is paying off for unemployed Juan José Castillo, who like many of the residents of Tibás are fed up city's inability to collect the garbage that is now in it's 22nd day.

Castillo decided to charge his neighbours ¢1.000 colones, not matter of many garbage bags they have, to haul it to the dump. The charge is per each day he provides the service.

The unemployed man is using his own truck to haul the garbage to the Río Azul dump and expects to make some ¢50.000 (us$100) a day in the process.

Castillo who lives in nearby Moravia told the Spanish language daily newspaper La Nación "I know the problem in Tibás and since I am unemployed I figured I could earn something while helping out the residents of the area".

Castillo said that in his first day of collections he hauled off some 8 tonnes and could only collect from two neighbourhoods, Bajo Los Rodríguez and El Vergel.

"I will be back to those on Monday while visiting other areas during the rest of this week.

Tibás is home to some 72.000 people and there is no garbage collection. The city says it does not have the money to repair the five garbage trucks. This is not the first time in the last several years that the residents of Tibás have been left with garbage on their front door.

Pablo Álvarez, of the Unión Nacional de Gobiernos Locales, said that Castillo can collect the garbage without interference from his group but he will need to obtain a license from the city.

Álvarez added that residents should pay Castillo for his service and then go to the municipality with the receipt to have the amount reduced on their property taxes.

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You ALWAYS have an option ....... "NEXT" !!!

This reminds me of the little town north of Cali, Colombia where my ex-wife is from.

Everytime they have an election the new mayor can choose who has a civil service job and who doesn't.

My ex-sister-in-law is a school teacher. She can lose her job at anytime.
There are so many teachers looking for work she only teaches the morning session.

A few years ago the teachers, police, firefighters and I don't know who else had to protest at the city hall since none of them had been paid in 3 months.

And we think we have it bad sometimes.

Exactly. And think about what it must smell like around town. After 22 days, with no garbage pick up....hot days, rainy days, dogs, cats, rats, etc.... It's gotta be a mess there. Anybody been around Tibás lately?
MG

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You ALWAYS have an option ....... "NEXT" !!!

Good example of how privatization of services works for most (not all) things. How many other ticos are going to be collecting garbage when the see they can make 50,000 colones a day?

Only the enterprising ones. Anybody got a truck for sale in CR????

Good to see that not much has changed since I lived in Tibas some 2 years ago. The story then was that they didn't have money to pay for the gas to pick up the garbage. Now, the trucks are broke down and they can't afford to pay to have them repaired. Glad I moved to Sabana where the city of SJ picks up.
LVSteve

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Just an old horney, fat gambler.

Sounds exactly like New Orleans to me. Piles of garbage and unpaid teachers.
Later, SB

New Orleans had Katrina

Tibas had.....................

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Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

I should have said, before Katrina.
Later, SB

It's already starting! Update in today's A.M. Costa Rica:

Garbage crisis spawns dengue, rats and fears
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

A chronic garbage problem is being blamed for a wave of dengue that is sweeping the municipality of Tibás.

At least 13 cases of the mosquito-born disease have been reported already, according to María Luisa Ávila, the minister of Salud. Officials anticipate a rapid rise in cases because the start of the rainy season is dumping water on the Central Valley. Mosquitoes need water to propagate.

The municipality of Tibás presented a request for intervention to the Comisión Nacional de Prevención de Riesgos y Atención de Emergencias Wednesday. This followed discussion about the situation at the Consejo de Gobierno at Casa Presidencial earlier in the day.

The consejo declared an immediate emergency relating to the garbage and allocated 21 million colons ($41,500) for immediate action for collection.

A study by the Ministerio de Salud blamed the dengue problem on uncollected garbage. Garbage has been uncollected in the canton for three years.

Tibás is just north of San José, and officials fear that such an early outbreak of dengue in the major population center can result in unprecedented numbers of cases. Some 10,000 or so persons contract the disease each year. Most of these live on one of the two coasts. Last year two persons died.

In addition to dengue, the so-called bone-breaker disease, officials in Casa
Presidencial said Wednesday that the municipality also was facing a parallel outbreak of rats. The rats could be carrying leptospirosis, another serious disease, they said.

Tibás has faced years of substandard garbage collection from what local officials there attributed to a lack of money. Officials hope that with the initial money from the central government and support from the emergency commission that the standing garbage can be collected over about six months. Some empty lots in the community are waist deep in garbage sacks.

The emergency commission will meet on the municipal request next week. In the meantime, workers paid by the central government will begin the collections at night so that traffic is not impeded.

One case of leptospirosis appeared this year in a worker at the Parque Boliver zoo. There was no evidence that he contracted the disease via rats at the zoo, but zoo administrators took steps to provide protective gloves and boots to other workers. The bacterial disease is spread by contact.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control symptoms of leptospirosis include high fever, severe headache, chills, muscle aches, and vomiting, and may include jaundice (yellow skin and eyes), red eyes, abdominal pain, diarrhea, or a rash. If the disease is not treated, the patient could develop kidney damage, meningitis (inflammation of the membrane around the brain and spinal cord), liver failure, and respiratory distress, the centers said on a Web site. In rare cases death occurs, the centers added.

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You ALWAYS have an option ....... "NEXT" !!!

YO MG:

Damn! What a gig. Problema.....my truck in CR is sitting on blocks after the tires and wheels were "borrowed." I do respect that hombre's creativity in making dinero even though it's a job not many people would not desire.

Hmmm, I wonder why the Mexican "immigrants" have not gone south for that job. OK, just a little rift here. Yea, even old Circus has fond memories of sleeping with Mexican maids.........come to think of it......I had a good night's sleep.....lol

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Damn if I'm going to repeat this shit again. I need a drink.
I've been drinking vodka every day for 45 years and I have certainly never found it to be habit forming.

Fellows:

It has been a long time since I posted in this section, but this notice of the Dengue so close to San Jose bugs me - pun intended. Since my occupation as a contract killer of offensive organisms gives me a bit of familiarity with their roles of vectors of disease (no not prostitutes) I’m getting off my duff.

If you are the type that never leaves the Del Rey you can probably ignore this, maybe. If you are like those of us that get around the Valley and the rest of CR – I would suggest using some precautions. The wet season has only begun and the mosquitoes and other pestilence are going to happen, I can guarantee this.

Dengue is not something you want to contract: It is spread by mosquitoes and unlike malaria – there is No prophylaxis at this time, other than preventing the ‘kiss’ of the female mosquito. I have a close acquaintance from Honduras that described it to me: You hurt Bad including but not limited to your fingernails. Don’t expose yourself.

Prevention is pretty easy (hmmm I wonder if it is one of the reasons Ticos don’t wear shorts). I spray the Deet® on my lamp shades and headboard around my bed and under – sorta a mosquito net. I try to not get the chemical on my skin so much…There are other products, look at the CDC website for recommendations.

Cuidado! Personally and professionally I would worry more about catching some bad shit from the ‘no-see-ums’, than I would from the hookers. Hotels are not immune: I had a grasshopper (only way I can think to describe the insect) in my bathroom sink on the 5th floor at Hotel Prez one time. Like here in the US you have a statistically better chance of suffering a traffic accident than getting West Nile disease – but IMHO this not a reason to ignore the threat. Quida te.


Reference: Mosquito – A Natural History of our most Persistent and Deadly Foe. Andrew Spielman, ScD and M D’Antonio ISBN 0-7868-6781-7. 2001; Hyperion.

I recall once when I was staying in Pavas when a neighbor threw a bag of garbage over the fence into the yard of the house I was staying in. I saw it and threw it back over the wall. The Tico who had thrown it in shrugged, picked it up and threw it into an empty lot. That is also the trip when I got sick right after returning from CR and when I got the most mosquito bites.

Well, there's finally a good ending to this story.
From Inside Costa Rica:

Tibás Garbage Finally Being Picked Up
With brooms, shovels and more important, six trucks, Municipalidad de Tibás workers were out in full force yesterday to rid the city of the estimated 1.200 tonnes of garbage that has been accumulating on the streets.

The garbage has been piling up in Tibás for about a month and raised health issues as mosquitoes and rats have had their feasts. Foul odors had taken over some areas of the city, while city officials complained of not having enough money to fix the garbage trucks.

According to Óscar Sánchez, chief of collections, the garbage situation in Tibás will be back to normal in 10 days.

"The trucks began to roll in the areas of Virginia, Invu, Jardines and Villa Franca", said Sánchez and will soon be concentrating in the centre of town.

"I can finally breathe easy and the crews are back on the job, like it should be, collecting garbage", said Jorge Salas, interim mayor of Tibás.

Salas had asked for help by the Comisión Nacional de Emergencias (CNE), who will deal with the collection problem for the next six months and will cover the ¢150 million colones needed to clear the problem, while the municipality finds ways to finance the garbage collection problems.

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You ALWAYS have an option ....... "NEXT" !!!