Professor Troy Abel from Huxley College of the Environment and his students share their insights on ecological citizenship, political biogeography, and immersions in one of the most biologically intense places on the planet. Costa Rica is translated as rich coast, a name originating from Spanish conquistadors who mistakenly thought the land was filled with gold. Many now recognize that Costa Rica’s riches are more green than gold with more than 4 percent of the world’s estimated biodiversity. Costa Rica has universal health care, a longer life expectancy than the U.S., and no military. Only by expanding our attention to all of these facets can one begin to see “Ecotopia’s Prism,” or Costa Rica’s intersections of ecology, economy, and culture fostering and inhibiting sustainability.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Costa Rica Reflections

Poetry by undergraduate Andy Basabe....

She moves slowly, wearing a gown stitched of the sea and the breeze
Green cloth, verdant stretched taught over earthly curvature
Hummingbirds follow her glance, they drink nectar at her lips
Her dress won't taste so sweet, lying still on the bedroom floor.

Sugared heat, she tastes of the gods, slick from rain
If a bird can sing so pure, she can sing, she can howl
wet, succulent, abundant, dancing to thunder's peal
The most fallow earth wrapped in such clot attracts attention.

Julio Alegra's Alegoria del Cafe, 1932

Her proud innocence, soon laid bare by man and his telescope
man, eager to taste her fruit, caress her jewels, possess her limbs
He sells her secrets, opening sanctity to strangers
Simple pawn to the sin of beauty, her dress falls to her feet

Cheaply painted, the jewel of America sells coffee
Her dress in tatters, pride battered, eyes yet bright
She runs a hand over the scarlet feather in her hair
Wiping her eyes, she thinks of the bird that left it there.
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