Volume 6, Issue 32
Costa Rica is exercising full authority in government policy through democracy. Since declaring independence from Spain in 1821, it has achieved a standard exemplary for the region. Costa Rica has the highest per capita income in Central America. Economic growth has averaged 3.8% over the past several years. Unemployment is approximately 8.1%, the lowest in the region.
Mexico, on the other hand, has a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of over $1 trillion per year. Geographically, it benefits in bordering the United States. However, its GDP per capita is less than Costa Rica. Most importantly, Mexico has lost control as a sovereign to govern. Drug lords now run the country. Some politicians actually suggest that all drugs should be legalized. This is, in fact, a capitulation that drug lords cannot be defeated and must be incorporated into society if organized crime is to be restricted.
Why is Costa Rica arguably in control of its own destiny while Mexico is not? The answer is not simple and presents a moral enigma.
It can be argued that Costa Rica is a beautiful peaceful enclave. Tropical mountainous terrain in the north provides cool temperatures in a rain forest utopia. The beaches are pristine. The Gulf waters are warm, tranquil, and aquamarine clear. Approximately 120,000 U.S. citizens reside in Costa Rica. More retire there every year providing a blending diversity in culture.
For one thing, Costa Rica dissolved its military in 1948. It is the only country in Central or South America without a professional Armed Forces. Citizens support and respect a national police force.
This alone does not answer the question of why Costa Rica has not been overrun by drug lords. Recently, while in San Jose, I interviewed several government officials. I asked the simple question: why do you believe Costa Rica has not succumbed to the drug trade? To my surprise, they did not have a unified or clear answer. It is something that they assume is a result of the integrity of the citizens. However, most commented that it was a very interesting question, one that they had not seriously contemplated.
My purpose in asking the question was to inventory any credible analysis that could be applied to other countries, including certain cities of the United States. Last weekend, Chicago experienced record violence: sixty-six people shot, 12 murdered. Two of the deaths were children aged 11 and 13. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel appealed to Chicagoans from a sense of desperation. He asked for help in identifying the gang members responsible for these inexcusable attacks on the peace and humanity of the city. “There are values,” he said. He actually was asking, where are our values?
The United States itself has experienced periods of organized crime and political corruption in big cities and states. Street gangs are not unique to the 20th and 21st centuries. In 19th century New York, ethnic gangs ruled certain neighborhoods. The difference for the U.S. up until now has been that neither gangs nor organized crime so infected society as to spread throughout the entire body politic. There were limits and restraints on evil against the state.
Why? Such statements and questions are the essence of a moral enigma.
Yet, in the mystery of the overriding question of sustainable democracies, societal character analysis is critical. Totalitarian states curb corruption by curbing freedom. The state itself is corrupt and maintains the exclusive franchise on corruption. Freedom, rendered through democracies, requires a commitment to societal standards that defends against the encroachment of criminals upon the system. The warning of “eternal vigilance” for the protection of freedom was never more appropriate.
The discordant political debate in America today exacerbates our divisions. Such invective discourse is a distraction from the real problems facing America: drugs, poverty, poor education, breakdown of the family, and lack of opportunity. Pursuing solutions that bind us in common principle is an approach to answering Mayor Emanuel’s question, where are our values?
There are answers to the moral enigma of alternative outcomes facing society today. Truth, recognized by the citizenry, with a commitment to defend truth’s honor, will always defeat evil. Even in the face of intimidation, citizens must come forth in Chicago, in common defense of values, to aid police in identifying criminals
It is this determination and defense of truth that will provide security for our children. Tolerating the decline of national values has no future for our country but to render us as hapless as Honduras.
America has always stood for righteousness. Tolerance of those who would threaten our right to self-determination has never even been a thought.
One answer to the moral enigma of why certain societies live free is found in the collective will of society’s citizens to stand against evil at all cost for righteousness.
My name is Marc Nuttle and this is what I believe.
What do you believe?