A few days ago I came across an ad in the American Airlines magazine that left me impressed. It was about one more sailing ships in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and Costa Rica. And at that moment it was as if the movie had quickly stopped, the music too, and in silence a voice jumped out and said: “What about Costa Rica?

Unbelievable! Our country brand is so powerful today that it equates us as attractive with the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. Is it possible? Is it true that to attract tourists and travelers to their sailboats, to mention Costa Rica is as attractive as the entire Caribbean and the entire Mediterranean? Or is it that the owner is a Tico pure life who loves his country?

What I do know, much to my regret, is that we are far from being able to meet such high expectations. The enormous nationalistic ego that characterizes us could deceive us. We could easily think, “Wow…. we are very famous…”, or even worse, “We are as cool as the whole Mediterranean together!”. However, it is enough to live our reality to recognize that Costa Rica is more brand than country.

Any gringo getting off the plane will be surprised by absurd dams, as an unmistakable sign of our underdevelopment. Not because dams do not occur in London or New York, but because ours are visibly the consequence of a ridiculously backward infrastructure. This is not to mention the pollution in San Jose in plain sight and patience of all, as well as the rotten rivers due to our, once again, poor ecological culture and lagging infrastructure, a reflection of many governments without vision or governance.

In Costa Rica not only we cannot fix the plate of an old bridge, but we have not seen a new one for decades, except for the one the Chinese gave us. Foreigners living in our cities have repeatedly confessed to me: “when you arrive in Costa Rica, you neither see nor feel what you hear outside the country”. Neither San José is consistent with the country brand, nor living in it provokes like the advertisements that make us famous.

In the midst of a reality that we have to change, and a condition that we can transform, I have good news. The power of branding is almost as great as that of a great vision. Having a country brand like the one Costa Rica enjoys, can be the force that pulls development, its prosperity and the consistency we require to sustain it over time. However, either we give the country a plan or the brand may not be enough.

Just as the announcement of the sailboats stopped me, I am confident that we will soon stop the ungovernability and the course of the country without a shared vision. We have the opportunity to turn Costa Rica into a legitimate destination as attractive as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean together, only and exclusively, if we manage to put together a country project of consensus and high vision for the future.

Let’s do it together. The idea has been strengthened by José María Figueres, and he is willing to lead the process, not only because he knows how to do it like no one else, but also because he has the convening power, the experience and the global vision. In the context of his reiterated declarations insisting on not having presidential aspirations, it could be so that the country’s project is executed by others.

Therefore, it would be logical to think of those who make things happen, as Johnny Araya, the Mayor of San José, currently ahead in all polls to be our next President, has proven. It is not, in my vision, about one or the other, but about adding all the parts, harmonizing the private and public sectors, getting our hopes up with a vision and then going for it.

In simple terms: we are held back by ungovernability, we have the brand and we have the leaders. We need the vision of the future and the country project. Then we just need to do it all.

Let’s do it.