We visited la Universidad de Costa Rica, a public university with an outstanding reputation. We had a lecture on free trade agreements where Maria-Paula, a professor who specializes in tourism, provided a critical analysis on free trade practices and the reality of them. While I appreciated her blunt delivery, it was difficult, in like so many other lectures I have attended around the globe, to take a professor seriously who does not provide a resolution or a contention for a positive change, rather provides a plethora of criticisms and negative facts, particularly towards the U.S. (which, yes, it is deserved in many cases). Not being a business major I have seen these negative impacts of U.S. free foreign trade agreements around the world, but being more explicitly an economist, I have noticed that business, like so many other practices, are about "the game". While free trade does manipulate cheap labor and lousy product handling, it is not solely the blame upon the United States. So take Costa Rica - yes, the pineapple and banana industries here are not the greatest when it comes to free trade, but should we blame it on those we trade with, or those who make the agreement from your own country more specifically aware of the malpractices?
Anyway, after visiting and touring the university (which is very beautiful), we went to the National Museum and National Theater and learned quite a bit about the history of Costa Rica, and got to see some of the more European-inspired architecture near the center of the capital city.
This isn't a very long post, but I will say that the lectures thus far given by the professors has given our class food-for-thought, particularly regarding the case of Costa Rica. For me it is nothing I haven't heard before, but the explicit and vivacious animosity typically portrayed by Costa Rica, and even some of the professors themselves, make me wonder how blissfully happy this country really portrays itself to be. Clearly it is an advertisement for tourism, I know that much, but even the Ticos will play into that image because most are aware of how tourism plays such a huge role in their economic livelihoods. Just something interesting to think about...
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