www.CostaRicaTicas.com

how is the project coming along?

here is part of an article in the Tico Times saying the workers are 100% chinese and only make 52 dollars a month.

what is up with that? was that part of the deal, with China giving a free stadium only if all the workers are Chinese?



When day shift workers return to their quarters in the evenings, the atmosphere is somewhat subdued. After feasting on their traditional fare of rice, vegetables, meatballs and tofu, some workers watch Chinese news on a big screen television, others head to bed for the night and some use Internet or make phone calls to loved ones in China.

“Most of these men have families back home they won't see until the stadium is done,” said Rosi Wang, another translator and the only female living there. “So it's really important they have a way to keep in touch.”

The phone calls cost $10 for 180 minutes, which the workers said is reasonable considering their pay of between $800 and $900 a month. However, the bulk of that goes directly to China, and workers here receive ¢30,000 (about $52) a month while in Costa Rica. Room and board and medical care are paid for by the Chinese construction company. The allowance may seem a pittance, but according to Song it goes a long way “because no one goes out anyway.”

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Yes. As I recall the Prez was touting HOW MANY JOBS THE STADIUM WOULD CREATE!

Tico Times also reported on the ONE Tico working there. He is a welder.
At least he probably feels pretty good to be earning 10 X what the Chineese workers make!

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Women are like beers. I've never had one that I didn't like. Just some that I like more than others! --Western

Phuck the tico times...it's gringo times and a BS publication...como washington times

Not to worry.....When Ms Chinchilla gets elected President,she will force the Chinese Government to hire ONE TICA to balance things out. Tico/Tica logic prevails once again. (hopefully the new hire will be a former casino worker or Puta so the devastation she is going to cause will be less.

I'm not going to defend Chinese employment practices, but you guys are misreading that article a little bit. The article never said they "only make 52 dollars a month." In fact, it said "their pay of between $800 and $900 a month", which is pretty good in the developing world even by Tico standards. The article also said "workers here receive ¢30,000 (about $52) a month while in Costa Rica." and that "Room and board and medical care are paid for by the Chinese construction company." It was less clear whether those benefits were in addition to the $800-900/mo and they remit or will get the balance when they go back to China. More likely, those benefits come out of the total. Do the Chinese really charge their workers $748-848/mo for the cheap food and communal workers quarters they provide or is it something less and they get to remit a part of their pay back to their families in china or get a nice lump sum when they return home at the end of the job? Either way the other benefits must have some value, so they real amount they get paid must be more than how you're characterizing it.

BTW, the spurious benefits of a new stadium as pitched by the government is nothing unique to just Tico (or Tica) politicians. When stadiums get built in the US on the public tab, team owners and local pols love to promote it based on the so-called multiplier effects which are ALWAYS overstated. In this case, the ticos didn't even get the benefit of getting a piece of the construction jobs. But I'd bet the local pols will still tell you that CR will benefit from all the business, food sales and support services revolving around games played at the stadium, increased tourism , and anything else they think they can credit to the stadium. At least in the case of this stadium, none of the costs of building it is coming from the local pockets, so ANY benefits will be pure profit. The Chinese are picking up the tab and that entitles them to spend the money and manage the project any way they see fit. What I wonder about is exactly what the CR government promised China in exchange for this "gift". The Chinese government never do anything just to be nice.

How can you infer all that? I inferred that they get paid a salary of $800-900 a month which the Chinese government "taxes" at 94% leaving them $52 a month. Room/board is provided by the construction company and/or Chinese government, I don't think that figures into the salary equation. I doubt that the "while in Costa Rica" part means they will get the rest of their money when they get home. I don't know what the wages are in China, so it may be on par with what they make at home. Afterall, they wouldn't want to spoil them. They gotta make some money back on the stadium they paid for, right?

Taking 94% of their pay is straigh-up pimping.

i think the stadium is payoff for recognizing china and closing formal diplomatic relations with taiwan .

and, i think the 52 dollars a month is all the workers get. but i can't pull up the old article in the tico times anymore.

do a search on letters and articles on the stadium on the tico times site and you'll find all kinds of oposition ranging from traffic complaints to the general stinginess of the chinese in paying their workers.

i saw one claim the head architect of the olympic stadium in bejing was only paid 300 dollars a month.

that claim, if true, would make 52 dollars a month for labor, skilled and otherwise, plausible.

i do know that a chinese doctor from bejing that came to the united states, told me that there was not much difference between a doctors pay and a bus drivers. only better housing assignments and other perks.

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The difference between a Sea Story and a Fairy Tale is that a Fairy Tale starts out 'Once Upon a Time..' and a Sea Story starts out 'This is no Shit...'

(export version only, some restrictions may apply, some assembly required, not valid where the sun don't shine...

if you live in the states of Poverty, Darkness or anywhere outside of The Blessings of Civilization Trust, Inc...other rules may apply)

China's goal could be to get more control of some other CR industries....fishing, refineries, ports, etc. And I doubt it is a forgivable loan. CR could have done without China's money and even that new stadium. Yes, similar to US, there are better ways for governments to use funds.

PURA VIDA!

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Different people are always going to interpret things differently. If everyone read everything the same way many lawyers would be out of business.

However I think it is difficult to come up with any interpretation other than the one Prolijo has brought forth if the original posting is in fact an accurate recap of the Tico Times article.

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essential food groups:
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Alex Levine

i read there is only going to be parking for less than 500 cars since an underground parking facility was scrapped for being to expensive.


seating for 35k plus and parking for 500 or less.

fubar in the works.

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The difference between a Sea Story and a Fairy Tale is that a Fairy Tale starts out 'Once Upon a Time..' and a Sea Story starts out 'This is no Shit...'

(export version only, some restrictions may apply, some assembly required, not valid where the sun don't shine...

if you live in the states of Poverty, Darkness or anywhere outside of The Blessings of Civilization Trust, Inc...other rules may apply)

ok, i found the paragraph in question



The phone calls cost $10 for 180 minutes, which the workers said is reasonable considering their pay of between $800 and $900 a month.

However, the bulk of that goes directly to China,

and workers here receive ¢30,000 (about $52) a month while in Costa Rica. Room and board and medical care are paid for by the Chinese construction company. The allowance may seem a pittance, but according to Song it goes a long way “because no one goes out anyway.”


here is the link to the whole story

http://www.ticotimes.net/onlinefstory150509.htm


sounds like slave labor to me.

just wait until the mofo chinese find a way to cross the pacific in large numbers, it'll make all the people here crying now about all the illegals to pray to God every night to send then another million latino illegals.

it'll be a race to the bottom, a question of fortitude.

the last non asian left standing in the western hemisphere may be the proprietor of the CardBoard Inn, Inc, surrounded in the Pits of Jax.

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The difference between a Sea Story and a Fairy Tale is that a Fairy Tale starts out 'Once Upon a Time..' and a Sea Story starts out 'This is no Shit...'

(export version only, some restrictions may apply, some assembly required, not valid where the sun don't shine...

if you live in the states of Poverty, Darkness or anywhere outside of The Blessings of Civilization Trust, Inc...other rules may apply)

Maybe they mean the money went back to their families in China

PURA VIDA!

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Livin' & Lovin' in Key Largo....oh....And the one in The Keys, too!

I believe that is what the article meant when they said "However, the bulk of that goes directly to China,".

If that is the case and the family receives the entire amount it really is a good system. It means the workers do not have to carry the cash to a place to have it transferred to China. No risk of being robbed or having to pay fees, which in some cases are exorbitant, to a third party.

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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'm sorry but I'm still reading it the same way. The article says quite clearly that they pay "between $800 and $900 a month". I don't see too many different interpretations of that. It says the "bulk goes directly to China" but it isn't at all clear to me to WHO in China. The Chinese government as a 94% tax or as reimbursement for all the wonderful benefits that they provide their workers while they are in CR? Perhaps. But it could just as easily be, in whole or in part, remittances to their families back home (like ID and Captain C have already pointed out). The article also referred to the $52/mo as an "allowance". I don't know how many of you are familiar with the payment practices for migrant labor but I have some experience with this. Admittedly, this is with seasonal Mexican H1B workers in the US, but the way it works for Chinese construction project workers in CR is not necessarily that much different. The company that employs these migrants (in this case the Chinese construction company) provides food, housing, entertainment, telecommunications, medical care, etc. and CHARGES the workers for all of that, DEDUCTING it from the FULL wages they promised. Whether the rates they charge for housing and food are fair or not is another question (OTOH, $10 for 180 minutes all the way to China seems pretty reasonable to me compared to how much time phone cards will cost you in CR for calls to the US). Additionally, the companies that employ migrants often do not pay out the wages in cash directly to the workers while they're on the job. This is partially to keep them out of trouble but it is also because these workers live extremely simply and frugally while they're working and send the vast bulk of what they earn back to their families in China or Mexico or whereever. The other common form payment takes for migrant workers is an allowance while on the job followed by a lump sum at the end or termination of employment. There have been similar setups in domestic US labor history, for example in the mining industry where worker's families often rented their houses from the mining companies they worked for and bought all their food at the "company store". Again, I don't know how much this resembles how the Chinese do it but I saw nothing in the article to convince me it is done much differently.

In any event, the food and housing and other benefits that the chinese provide their workers must have SOME value so while they may not be making $800-900/month in REAL terms, they're still effectively making well more than just $52. How much does the typical tico making $400-500/month have to spend after paying rent and buying food and such?

BTW, 500 parking spaces for a stadium that seats 35K DOES seem a bit outrageous but that is not quite as outrageous as you make it sound. Most Ticos don't own cars and get around on public transportation, so a good portion of the potential audience probably wouldn't be getting to the stadium by car anyway. A more critical question would be: will the public transportation system (buses) be able to handle the crush? To get anywhere close to handling 35K people, will take an awful lot of buses making multiple trips. If they even have that many buses in SJ, it will mean diverting them from covering other routes on game days, creating a lot of havoc all over the city. Presumably they'll create some sort of staging area some distance away from the stadium, but not too far, where people can park and feeder buses can let off, and than provide shuttles to take everyone the rest of the way to the stadium. No matter how they try and do it, it looks like it is going to be one great big clusterfuck.

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Captain Cohiba,
What you wrote is exactly what I was implying and I agree with you completely. China isn't making this "gift" out of the kindness of its heart and I'm sure CR's signature on other contracts dealing with natural resources and such was the quid pro quo. There are a lot of things CR could use a helluva lot more than a new stadium, such as more funding for police, sewage treatment, road repair, etc. I'm sure CR is getting some of that stuff from the Chinese too, but bringing in a bunch of Chinese laborers to fix CR's roads, is not the visible and impressive reminder of Chinese largesse that a huge new stadium would be. More money for roads and law enforcement would have been a helluva lot more useful. It looks like CR was bought off really cheaply in terms of value for value.

Pro,

Thanks for reminding me. Yes, I remember now, China was giving CR something like 500 police cars to boot. Now, when I say giving I don't know if that means gratis, low sale prices, phenomenal(forgiving) terms, or what. I just remember reading about the police cars.


PURA VIDA!

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Livin' & Lovin' in Key Largo....oh....And the one in The Keys, too!