“I belong to a small country that was not afraid to abolish its army in order to increase its strength. In my homeland, you will not find a single tank, a single artillery piece, a single warship, or a single military helicopter. Today we threaten no one, neither our own people nor our neighbors. Such threats are absent not because we lack tanks but because there are few of us who are hungry, illiterate, or unemployed.”
-Ex Costa Rican President Oscar Aria, 1987 Noble Peace Prize winner.
Promod Puri.com 
Amazing! I had the opportunity to visit Costa Rica three times between 1990 and 1993. Then I was posted as Second Secretary in our Embassy in Panama with Costa Rica and Nicaragua as concurrent accreditations. With about 800 miles of coastline, it has more than 5% of the world’s biodiversity. There are about 120 volcanic formations there. Some of them are very active. Arenal is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. Costa Rica is the hummingbird capital. Life expectancy is almost one of the highest. The Inter-American Institute for Agricultural Science is in San Jose. At that time one Indian scientist Dr. Sharma was working there. Near San Jose, the Capital city, there is a very big center of Hare Krishna. I had a fourth and personal visit with family by car and stayed with Dr. Sharma at the University Campus. What a pleasant surprise, Dr. Sharma and his wife met me at DDA Golf Course, Saket in 2013. Unfortunately, Costa Rica is an earthquake-prone country. During that period it witnessed a massive earthquake.
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Thanks for sharing your interesting experiences in Costa Rica. It seems to be a very peaceful country with no tensions from any of its neighbors. Without armed forces, it is indeed a unique experiment to keep the integrity of its nationhood. Look how much it is saving. The big-budget item in most countries is the expenses on defense. Sometimes, it is more than half of the total budget. The contemporary world community needs No Enemies, No Armies.
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