A major event in a famous person's career

Oscar de la Renta



Oscar de la Renta was born on July 22nd, 1932, in the Dominican Republic. During his childhood, he had showed a lot of interest for the arts. He had been taking art classes since he was 10 years old. He had decided to leave the island to study painting in Madrid however, after a short time in Spain, he had been enticed by fashion and 2 years later, he had just decided to switch his focus. He had been working as a magazine illustrator for Balenciaga and quickly became one of the most famous designers. His style had inspired women all around the world, and several of them had been presidential first ladies.








In 1961, he had been hired for his first real fashion job at Lanvin-Castillo. He had moved to New York and joined the American design house of Elizabeth Arden. He had begun his own signature ready-to-wear label since 1965.




Despite Oscar de la Renta had suffered a great tragedy in the 1980s because his wife death (bone cancer in 1983) he did something exceptional; he adopted a son, whom he named Moises Oscar. He had found the boy in an orphanage (day care center named Casa de Niños that he had funded and where he had been working and giving support) in his native country. The center gave children who lived in poverty a place to go and parents a place to leave their children in safety. As soon as he saw the boy who became his son, de la Renta became extremely drawn to him and despite the fact that friends were against the adoption, the designer took the child home as his own.









De la Renta had been diagnosed with cancer during the first decade of the 2000s. He died of complications from the disease on October 20, 2014 at the age of 82 in Kent, Connecticut.

The situation of the elderly people in Costa Rica

Dear Editor

I am writing to express my concerns about the situation of the elderly people in Costa Rica

There is not a culture in favor of senior citizens in Costa Rica and there’s no longer any respect for them. We have been listening about how they are suffering abandonment, discrimination, abuse and neglect daily and because of these issues they have been sinking into depression. The National Advisory for Older Adults (CONAPAM) estimates that three of every 10 seniors are abused (physically, psychologically, or in some other way.) In 2008, more than 1,000 seniors reported being victims of abuse, with the most suffering from abandonment or neglect. The organization has been tracking reported cases of abuse since 2005, and it has noticed an increase in reported cases because more people have been seeking help.

 However there are more issues such as physical abuse, psychological abuse, patrimonial abuse and institutional abuse. We have been reading and watching news about how people leave their elderly parents alone without care, without food, without help using the bathroom and without social interaction. Some people have been looking for the way to leave them alone in the hospitals and sometimes these elderly people have been force to move to  nursing homes, however they come in normal and, little by little, they deteriorate until they become depressed. There are two negative mentalities toward nursing homes in Costa Rica. First: People are indisposed to bring their parents to these nursing homes because they think it means they are a bad son or daughter; however it can mean a better life for them. And second one, when those people think that nursing homes are places to leave them there alone to be care by others and this is the real problem, because they are abandoned and forgotten by their relatives.

The government has been investing money and today we have a hospital dedicated to treating older people. However, we have to work together to reduce and eliminate these issues because, all these will affect all of us, but it’s not only laws or a change in labor practices that will improve the situation, we need to create a culture of respect among families and society.

The construction of a new bridge has started in Desamparados City

                           

                                     

Have you visited Desamparados lately? If your answer has been affirmative you have noticed that Desamparados is growing more and more and there are a lot needs and problems. Some of these problems are related to the transportation and the traffic jams.  The drivers who are coming from San Antonio or Patarra to Desamparados and the drivers who come from San Sebastian or Paso Ancho to Cartago have to go across Desamparados downtown and it brings traffic congestion almost all the time but those problems increase during the peak hours.

The number of traffic jaws and car accidents in the canton of Desamparados, located south of Costa Rica’s capital, has doubled in the past year and they are getting worse, according to a report released Monday by The Consejo Nacional de Vialidad (Conavi) Director German Valverde. The report states that fifteen thousand cars accidents occurred in Desamparados from Jan. 1 to Nov. 18, a figure surpassed only by the Central San José canton, at six thousand. Last year, Desamparados ranked fourth among Costa Rican cities with more traffic jams. That means the canton currently is second across the nation in terms of traffic congestion, surpassing San Jose.

It has been a problem during the past 10 years. The City government has a long list of things to do, however, according to the Mayor Maureen Fallas, she has made a lot of progress in Desamparados during her two administrations. (She has been the Mayor since 2010).

The construction of the bridge started eight months ago, and it is placed near Los Dorados and San Antonio. This project has been pending for ten years. It will bring a solution to the traffic problems. This bridge will have 22.5 meters long with capacity for two lanes. The local government has invested 200 million of colones in this project and it will be ready until December 2015. The Consejo Nacional de Vialidad (Conavi) estimates that 20 thousands vehicles will use this bridge daily.