By Sidney Shank

With a growing number of people relocating to Costa Rica and many waiting to do so, a number of forums have sprouted up on the Internet. A wide range of information is disseminate daily through these groups.

I have lived in Costa Rica many years and occasionally learn something new from the many on-line forums to which I subscribe. Good information about banking, immigration matters, the cost of living, finding good doctors and moving to Costa Rica may be obtained at times from these chat groups. Unfortunately, there are a lot of trivial conversations about meaningless subjects and misinformation discussed.. Consequently, it is imported to separate the wheat from the chaff.

I have witnessed on more than one occasion people talking about such meaningless topics as how to get rid of ants, complaining about the quality of butter in Costa Rica, the fact that there is no good Mexican food in Costa Rica, lack of American products, bashing and praising the Costa Ricans and people wanting Costa Rica to be a clone of the USA etc. What you basically have is people with different opinions on life, many of whom want everything to be perfect here.

More alarming is the fact that you have many amateurs doling out advice about investments, real estate and the economy. Most of these people have only lived in the country for a short time, are still struggling to adjust to the new culture, don’t even speak the language well enough to understand the country in depth and are not economists. I have noticed repeatedly that once these neophytes start to express erroneous information about the local real estate market and the economy they open a whole can of worms. The erroneous information often spreads to other chat groups, websites and the media like wildfire, thus becoming counter productive. Foreigners who live here and chat group members in the States then confuse distorted information with the reality of the situation. This often causes a lot of panic, anxiety, can even effect the stability of the market and above all creates confusion about living and investing here.

The obvious solution is to take a lot of what is written in these forums with a grain of salt and ONLY seek information from time-tested reliable sources and the real experts.

Many people are.

It was recently predicted in Newswire Today that approximately ten percent of the 76 million members of the baby boomer generation show a great interest in retiring outside of the United States . Most of them have their eyes set on time-tested retirement havens like Costa Rica.

As Costa Rica’s popularity has increased as both a tourist destination and retirement haven so has the amount of press the country has received. Scores of articles have appeared in magazines, guidebooks, newsgroups and websites about the country. The amount of chatter and material is mind boggling.

To see an example of this just enter th terms “Costa Rica retirement” or “Costa Rica real estate” in any search engine. Thousands of websites will come up in both categories. You’ll be hard pressed to know where to start. Most people will become more confused than when they started to do research, given the voluminous amounts of information available. To make matters worse people will also read a lot of self-serving rhetoric which will confuse them even more.

The solution to all of this is to contact professionals with a proven track record to get an idea of what’s really going on here. Don’t try to take shortcuts without doing this or you will wind up chasing your tail and wasting your valuable time, energy and money.

If you want to be successful here, take this advise.

Here is what Oscar Arias has accomplished recently with Regard to China

(1) The first Central American country to establish official relations with China

(2) First Central American president to visit the country

(3) China donated $48 million for disaster relief, to finish the highway Ciudad Quesada and rebuild the National Stadium.

(4) The possibility of Central America’s largest refinery to be built in Costa Rica

(5) The possibility of Chinese telecommunications companies

While surfing the web A couple of weeks ago I happened to come across an article about an American woman who was assaulted one evening in Rohrmoser. As I recall a couple of men attempted to pull her inside of an automobile. Fortunately she managed to fight them off and get away. She did very well the circumstances. The outcome could have been far worse. However, she could have probably avoided the confrontation if she had developed a sense of “Street Awareness.”

When I was a dedicated student of martial and self-defense I once attended a seminar on “How to Avoid Gettting Mugged.” The teacher was the World Lightweight Martial Arts Champion. He told us that about 99% of not being victimized had to do with awareness of ones surroundings. He said one should walk with authority and self-confidence. Muggers choose their victims by their body language. If you look weak there is a greater chance you will be attacked.

Another expert, Mark “The Animal Young”, suggested that for one month a person practice the following exercise.

When walking down the street think of every possible place from which you can be mugged or ambushed by a mugger – behind a parked car, from a doorway, from around a corner or from the bushes. By practicing this exercise a person can increase their awareness of their surroundings. He also suggests looking at stranger’s body language. For example, Are they standing suspiciously with their hands hidden to possibly conceal a knife or gun.

If all of the above measures happen to fail and you do find yourself in life threatening situation, the best thing to do is to run and scream. If you find yourself cornered, try using an object like a pen or your car keys to scratch and maim your attacker’s eyes and face. Always aim for targets along the center line of the body like the eyes, throat, solar plexus, and groin. The shins are another good target. Why do you think soccer players wear shin guards. A hard blow to one of these areas will render your attacker helpless for a few seconds. This should give you time to escape.

Forget mace! It takes time to pull it out and if the wind is blowing you can end up making yourself.

Another idea is to carry a six-inch wooden dowel in your pocket. A solid blow to the ribs, collar bone or solar plexus will even stop an N.F.L lineman right in his tracks.

If you have the time and energy you can enroll in a basic self-defense class or make a long-term commitment to study martial arts. The latter are often to theoretical and make take you years of training to become adept. On the other hand a good self-defense class can teach you to master some of the methods I describe in a relatively short time.

In addition to being an author Christopher Howard has been a student of karate, Northern Shaolin Kung Fu, Aikido, Combat Tai Chi, Contemporary Fighting Arts and Jeet Kune Do (Bruce Lee’s system for street fighting).

People often ask me, “Is it safe to invest in Costa Rica?” I don’t claim to be an expert in the field of international investments but lately have seen a growing number of big name U.S. companies and individuals investing in Costa Rica. They would never think of putting their capital here if the investment climate was not favorable.

Intel was the first major play to invest in Costa Rica in 1998. A significant amount of Intel’s major manufacturing and technology development has taken place at its award-winning site in Costa Rica. This site includes two manufacturing plants and one distribution center dedicated to the assembly, testing and distribution of the world’s fastest processors.

Let’s look at who else has invested recently in Costa Rica.

• General Electric purchased 50% of the Bank of San Jose, a private local bank. As a result the bank plans to expand to other areas of the country.
• Walmart just purchased stock in Supermercados Unidos, the largest supermarket chain in Central America.
• Steve Case, the founder of AOL and of Time Warner fame, just purchased 23 million dollars worth of beach property. He plans to build an upscale resort at Punta Cacique.
• Wendy’s Hamburger chain will open over 15 stores in Costa Rica starting in May of 2006. All 15 of the stores should be completed by 2010.