I was completely incredulous when I read the lead story in Costa Rica Pages’ June, 23 edition about Costa Rica’s intelligence service that, according to the article, reports only to President Arias.

The question at the end of the article asking whether those of us who love Costa Rica, but are not Costa Ricans, should be concerned about Costa Rican politics, from my perspective, revealed just how naive, and I’m being kind with that adjective, many Americans are who believe, because they have money, they can colonize a country and not have to pay any attention to the domestic politics within that country.

When I think of the amounts of American money I’ve seen flood Costa Rica in the decade since I first began spending significant chunks of time there each year, I am thunderstruck by how many people investing all this money have no clue about the political history of not just Costa Rica, but the entire region.

Costa Rica acquired its current reputation as an island of stability in the turbulent seas of Central American politics because it, during the 1980’s, escaped much of the violence and turmoil that engulfed other countries in the region.

Given the situation today, there is absolutely no guarantee that Costa Rica will be so fortunate a second time if the region, as seems increasingly likely, becomes polarized along socio-economic, political, and nationalistic lines.

Yet the gringos keep coming, convinced that their money can buy them their place in paradise.

As a gringo who’s more at home living among local Ticos than I am most American expats I know, I will never forget the words of a wise Costa Rican friend who’s in his seventies.

He had just chased a very upscale looking Californian real estate speculator out of his beach front general store.

The up scale surfer dude from Laguna had just offered my friend Manuel more than a million dollars for the property his family has owned for four generations. Manuel, impolitely and in no uncertain terms, told the Californian to “go to Hell”.

“Mike”, Manuel growled at me, “What is it with so many of you Americans? Why do you think because you have money, you are entitled to own the world?”

I smiled and said, “Manuel, you’re asking the wrong person. I came here to get away from that kind of American but, like bad pennies and wooden nickels, they just keep showing up.”

We laughed, he gave me a Pilsen on the house, and I joined an eclectic bunch of people, local Ticos, Bri Bri Indians, and assorted expat wash-a-shores who gather on the porch of Manuel’s landmark store every afternoon at sunset to celebrate the real Costa Rica we all know and love.

And we all hope and pray that somehow, if the good Lord’s willing, people like the Californian Manuel so unceremoniously threw out of his store, grow disenchanted with Costa Rica before it’s too late.

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Filed under: Reader Opinion & Stories on June 24th, 2008