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Feb 09Pura Vida and No Fun!
The newly applied regulation that tightens the grip of law upon those caught while DUI has perhaps caused more grief in the population than any international financial crisis. Surely, nobody had seen it coming and it can be understood that under the overly-indulging character of the Costarican state, the possibility of making the one activity that appeared to bond the people tighter than their love for football could ever become “so harshly” punished.
The coming of such needed turn in the road safety premises was more than timely, the carelessness shown by both drivers –reckless and pious alike- as well as by those police officers so accustomed to bypassing the oath of their duties has finally been put to the test by the state. The rigorousness now applied to the code makes it financially unbearable for the average citizen to contest the punishment; for in the text of the new regulation the contemplation of immediate vehicle removal and incarceration are given immediate course.
Perhaps the fun factor for those of us who live by the law is, the contemplation of the laughable spectacle shown by those few silly felons, during the midday newscast: bus drivers caught drinking while in duty and denying the charges when accused by the passengers and the television crews that infuriate them with their expected meddlesomeness, barely legal men and women crying over the sight of their newly purchased cars while being pulled away by the authorities that once before had preferred a petty “buy-in”, the possibilities are endless.
Few have been the experiences in the plethora of Costa Rica’s social development that bring about so much satisfaction, and in reality, exemplified by recent polls, the acceptance rate for the new measures proves the point it struggled to get across. Ticos are thus beginning to comprehend –some may say by means of rough parenting- the meaning of responsible citizenship. Caution may perchance, gain a place in the previously absurd chart of Costarican principles, next to heavy alcohol drinking that is!