A recent report from the government agency in charge of such matters outlined some of the possible effects of climate change or global warming on Nicaragua. For a start, rainfall in Pacific areas has fallen by 6% to 10% over the last 100 years, overall temperatures have climbed the mercury slightly, and sea levels may have risen an inch or two. In reality, no one really knows for sure since records of what was and what is are sketchy at best.

Yet even so, it is possible to predict that the best export gourmet coffee will have to be grown at higher altitudes and droughts will be more erratic and unpredictable than before. Prognoses for the upcoming hurricane season do not yet have any odds being placed on them by Jimmy the Greek. In all likelihood, the whims of the winds will prevail. We suggest buying an umbrella and fixing a hole in the roof where the rain comes in.

After the first months in office of re-elected President Daniel Ortega’s government, there has been positive evolution of investment, construction, export earnings, and other major economic indicators: “satisfactory” to use the in-vogue word of the International Monetary Fund. This has all happened in here in Nicaragua, a country with limitless potential, despite much nay-saying by many who view the return of the Sandinista Party to power as a throwback to ill-fated times past gone or new dark ages more unimaginable than any harbinger of doom that a Cassandra could predict.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, the new administration began working on keeping some campaign promises.

Orders came down from the Executive Branch to eliminate all charges for basic healthcare services at State-run facilities. Past administrations had chipped away at the concept of free healthcare by levying different fees, even charging for some rudimentary medicines. This will naturally result in increased use of the facilities by some of the poorest people who, before this measure, did not seek healthcare because they knew they could not afford it. Just how much more demand there will be has yet to be seen.

Likewise, charges at public schools had the kibosh put to them with the end to the scheme for “school autonomy.” That set up allowed the administration of a public school to charge parents a fee for each child attending. The money raised that way would be used to improve the school facilities and the schooling offered there. One result was that parents were keeping some of their children out of school because it was beyond the reach of their meager economic means.

Both measures mean that the government will have to look for resources in order to fill the financial breach created by not having such additional income coming into each individual facility.

A small portion of this extra spending may be offset with from savings in the budget generated by the move to cut the salaries of top officials in the Executive Branch. The nation had heard several outcries in recent years about the mega-salaries earned by some civil servants and advisors contracted for consultancy work, which contrast sharply with the reality of this country in which more than half the population gets by with less than $2 a day. The rest of the State apparatus (National Assembly deputies and the Judiciary), have yet to get on the bandwagon and prescribe similar pay cuts for themselves.

Other cost cutting measures have been announced in order to redirect funds within the limited national budget. The use of government-financed credit cards by officials is somewhat more restricted, fuel and cell phone allowances have been reduced, and ministers have been instructed not to have lunch meetings at expensive restaurants, even when “entertaining” foreign visitors. Patronage of popular eateries has been suggested, thereby allowing high-ups to “get in touch with the people.” Let them eat fritanga, appears to be the cry.

An element much criticized in the local press was the move to control and reduce spending by different government entities for advertising, which translates into less income for owners of newspapers, radios, and television stations. Many media interpreted this as an attack on press freedom.

Naturally, the question is begged of just how “free” the press is if it depends on government advertising. Past administrations were extraordinarily generous in purchasing full-page spreads in local dailies and  half-minute spots on TV channels extolling the virtues of one or another government agency project. It also begs the question of whether press freedom has a price.

Some further government revenues may come from playing an ongoing up-and-down game with the prices of fuel at the pump, even contrary to the fluctuation of world oil prices. Prices for cigarettes also took a recent jump and it is expected that the cost of imported liquors will follow suit, possibly local brands, too. More of this kind of “vice tax” is to be expected from an administration looking to pay for its promises, though no figures have been released about just how much more money is flowing into government coffers.

On the labor front, the Ortega administration has had to confront wage demands from workers in education and health. Teachers have received a part of what had been negotiated for them in past years and most healthcare personnel got a raise earlier this year. A good move considering the essential services they provide. Doctors, however, are claiming they were entitled to a higher increase and some protests have been staged around the issue.

Is this a sign of things to come? Sandinista health worker union leader Gustavo Porras has long been a champion of salary justice for his constituency, championing their cause for parity with the Central American counterparts, pushing against the winds and tides of the international financial institutions that “dictated” conditions to the administration of the day. Now, though, he has indicated that doctors and other public servants must perhaps condition their demands and take a look at what deal is negotiated with the International Monetary Fund for continued support to underpin the nation’s economy from that lending body.

There is ongoing discussion of an increase in the minimum wage, figures for which are rarely made public and which vary from sector to sector of the economy. At the May 1^st International Workers’ Day celebration in Managua, Ortega proclaimed there would be an increase of at least 15%, and possibly up to 25% if resources can be found. Before that announcement, talks between the government and representatives of labor and business centered around a 10% increase. In mid-May, low-paid workers were told that the increase will be 18%. Depending on what economic sector they labor in, the minimum will be somewhere between $65 and $85 a month.

Job creation is not exactly a strong point of this administration so far, except of course if you consider the usual post-election practice of the victor opening up a of a couple of thousand job vacancies in government ministries for campaign workers by dismissing civil servants hired by the past administration.

Noticeably absent from the national political scene this spring are the perennial university student protests around the issue of funding for higher education, established in the constitution as 6% of the national budget spending.