A Not-So-Peaceful Paradise

March 12, 2014

Costa Rica has a reputation that reaches beyond Central and Latin America for being closer to paradise than the world we usually live in. The biodiversity at the intersection of both American continents make it a popular tourist destination. Mountains that protect against the heat that typically accompanies a location so close to the equator and a population that is generally familiar with English mean that travelers from far and near are hardly a foreign entity on this isthmus. The death penalty was abolished in 1880 and more than half of a century has passed since Costa Rica last had an army. No wonder Costa Rica frequents happiest-country-on-earth lists! While the plants and animals of this country will inspire awe all semester long, the apparently pacific character of an a-militant nation has proven too good to be true.

A daily walk through any neighborhood in the greater metropolitan area where I live will show that Costa Rica is replete with violence. Nothing is more savage in this country than the traffic. This relatively small city makes urban monstrosities like New York or Atlanta look like orderly models of traffic flow. The audacity of Costa Rican drivers goes beyond impoliteness to make this one of the world’s traffic fatality leaders. Pedestrians are no exception to the audacity of drivers, as the violence is also visible on the sidewalks.

On practically every street corner stands a heavily armed security guard. One cannot help but wonder why the pharmacy or snack shop needs such intense round-the-clock protection. This week alone I have seen private guards flaunting their shotguns, needed to guard a secondhand hardware store and a gas station, respectively. In four weeks, I have walked past only one property that is not completely sealed with high fences, walls, and barbed wire. There is no notion of suburbia, but even in seemingly tranquil middle-class neighborhoods every window and door has bars protecting it, even on the second story. At my university, I must open every compartment of my bag and show the contents to the security guard upon leaving a library. With such widespread collective distrust, how could this country rank among the world’s happiest?

Another strong reputation of Costa Rica is its political spending emphasis on education. We of the $600 billion-eclipsing annual military budget fantasize about a reality like Costa Rica's where there is no military to vacuum the funds that ought to bolster the social well-being of the population. Nevertheless, behind the everyday suspicion of physical violence lurks a vast array of structural violence. The undereducated, women, and homosexuals comprise the typically vulnerable populations. Despite the heavy investment in education, 60 percent of the Costa Rican workforce did not complete high school. This figure has remained steady over the course of a quarter century despite the high political priority given to education. Poverty and inequality are worse in the rest of Central America, but Costa Rican structural violence has more than just socioeconomic victims.

Having spent extensive time in both Chile and Costa Rican neighbor Panama, never have I seen, heard, and felt the tension of such strong misogyny. There is no public shame in endorsing antiquated gender roles. Even in my host family, which lacks any detectable tension, the mother cannot drive. Only in our generation are women beginning to drive and go to university at the same rates as men. Citizens often complain that outgoing female President Laura Chinchilla (a Georgetown Public Policy Institute alumna) herself furthers the weakness of her gender. When called upon to form a summit on an issue of national importance, all seven of the experts she relied on were men. The fact that Catholicism remains the state-established religion victimizes followers of other faiths and homosexuals, who carry a strong stigma in the society.

To be fair, my expectations for Costa Rica were too high and my knowledge of the society too thin. But even where I felt the most certain, Costa Rica has let me down. When it comes to respect of the environment, Costa Rica is a world leader. Yet recycling seems as collectively ignored as it does in a Georgetown dorm; trash clutters against every curb, and the inner-city rivers reek from a fair distance. The only place that lacks profound violence against the environment is in the, albeit plentiful, protected zones. As remarkable as it is that a quarter of the national territory is composed of environmental preserves, it is heartbreaking that the only way Costa Rica treats nature non-violently is by abstaining from engagement with it.

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