The decision to demilitarize started from a proposal to put more money into education and healthcare by the then Defense Minister Edgar Cardona, who passed it to the Interior minister Alvaro Ramos and then, taken to the constitutional assembly by the provisional President at the time, Jose Figueres Ferrer.
But even though Costa Rica has no Army, it has a special police force, officially called the Public Force of Costa Rica (Fuerza Pública). It was established in 1996 by the Ministry of Public Security to perform law enforcement, policing, and border patrol tasks. The force’s motto is “God, Fatherland, and Honor.”
The Effects of Costa Rica not having an Army
The budget previously dedicated to sustaining the Costa Rica Army is put into other aspects of the society like education and health care.
This, in turn, allows for improved political, economic, and social stability. New schools and hospitals lowered the country’s infant mortality and heightened the literacy rate.
Today, Costa Rica’s infant mortality rate is the second-lowest in the region, and the literacy rate is 98%. It also has a higher life expectancy, averaging 80 years old. So, overall, the standard of living has increased.
In fact, in 2012, based on the Happy Planet Index, it was the happiest country in the world!
Population of 5 million.
Stephen Fry literally saved my life by prompting me to get the proper diagnosis with what was going on with me psychologically:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Fry:_The_Secret_Life_of_the_Manic_Depressive
I believe it’s on YouTube these days, but I just happened to see his name (I already knew who he was) and download a torrent. My whole life suddenly made sense to me. I was in tears, but it got me to a psychiatrist and got me onto proper medication. I’m glad what I went through is not as severe as what he’s been through, but it definitely could have been the end of me one day…
I probably honestly might have killed myself a few years back if it weren’t for him.
Say what you will about the author of Harry Potter, but the audiobooks narrated by Stephen helped a metric fuckton.
Fry’s own books are super worth as well, but Mythos and Heroes are less personal narratives than HP and I had fond memories.
“This too, shall pass.”
The Fry Chronicles audiobook is also fantastic.
I’m not a Harry Potter fan, but he recently did an audiobook reading of Conan Doyle’s entire Holmes oeuvre, and I love Conan Doyle (not just his Holmes stories), so that should be fun whenever I get to it.
He was also the narrator for an animated show called Pocoyo which my daughter loved when she was young and is very charming.
Honestly, the only real criticism I can make of him is that he has been in some truly awful TV shows and movies. But a man’s got to eat…