Demolition begins at San Francisco Plaza, Phone scam warning, Jungle genetic heritage, Día del Jubilado

Jueves, 20/7/2016

Hola, Todos –

Pagina cultural –

Upcoming agenda event –

Tattoo – José Luis Zhinín González, who represents a new generation of tattoo artists, was invited to participate in the 9th edition of the Panama City Ink Fest on 11, 12, & 13/8. <Not exactly next door, but close enough if this is your passion.>

Articles about –

Exposición – “Artefactos y Artilugios” (Artifacts and Gadgets) will open hoy a las 19:00 in the Museo de la Ciudad. The show was curated by Cristóbal Zapata who is the director of the fundación Bienal de Cuenca and showcases what he considers the best artists in Cuenca along with artists from other parts of Ecuador.

Día del Jubilado (Retiree Day) – A show of paintings done by retirees in workshops offered by Social Services to Seniors through the IESS opened yesterday morning at the Portal Regional Aresanal Cuenca (PRAC) (Bolívar y Huayna Cápac). <The photo shows a group of retirees who look very young compared to the typical gringo retiree.>

Cine de autor (Author film – when the screenwriter and director are the same person) – Cámara Lúcida will end mañana with two films a las 17:00 in the teatro Sucre.

Recital – La academia Cuenca Music School is preparing an end of term concert for 13 students in music and singing el próximo miércoles a las 19:30 in the teatro Sucre (Sucre y Luis Cordero). One of the students is Camila Samaniego, winner of the reality show, “Pequeños Gigantes” (Little Giants) which aired on Teleamazonas.

Proyecto cultural – Centro Cultural Kawsay Yachay, a new cultural space created by sociologist Gustavo Quesada, will open el sábado a las 10:00 in the heart of Tarqui Parish. The site contains a series of micro-projects, some related to agriculture and to plants known to the people in the area for their food and medicinal uses. Another project is to teach ancestral knowledge about ecological construction, baking and cooking. A museum is planned for another area. <There probably wasn’t enough room on the page to describe how to get there.>

Otras cosas –

Titular – Arrestado padre de exministro (Father of former minister arrested) – Antonio Mosquera, father of the ex-minister of electricity Alecksey Mosquera, and Santiago Játiva who administered the Ruta Viva project built by Odebrecht, are being investigated for alleged money laundering in the Odebrecht case.

New waste water treatment plant – ETAPA is planning to invest $73,567,000 in a new treatment plant in Guangarcucho. The final design was presented today. The plant is designed to process 1.200 liters per second and double that at maximum hourly flow and can process 40% of the waste water generated by Cuenca’s 590,000 inhabitants who use 220 liters per day per person and return 80% to the sewer system. <Relax – most of that 20% is probably growing tomatoes, keeping lawns watered and cars washed. There’s been a lot of sewer construction here.>

San Francisco Plaza – City workers and equipment started demolishing some masonry benches and a “casita” (little house) that has been abandoned for many years. <You know that house – it’s the outdoor urinal you can smell from the food carts. Welcome to Cuenca, warts and all.> Merchants, who were taken by surprise by the demolition, have a week to move into the temporary stalls. <I think it’s the city’s strategy to show the merchants it’s serious and they need to shut up and move. No excuses about having to get a new contractor to delay the move.>

Public announcement about road closures – In addition to Padre Aguirre between Jaramillo y Córdova, both Padre Aguirre and General Torres will be closed between Córdova and Sucre starting Wed. for the duration of the remodeling of San Francisco Plaza.

Calle Las Herrerías – There are 22 patrimonial houses in the El Vergel barrio that will be fixed up in a “minga institucional” involving the municipality, the U. of Cuenca, Gov’t of Azuay and the Army. A similar project was successfully done in San Roque. There will be a 15 day period to learn about the project and to introduce the city, U, etc. An analysis of the historic buildings is the second phase which will last until the end of diciembre or beginning of enero. The actual work will be done in mid-2018.

Economy – José Serrano, President of the Assembly, met with patricio Alarcón, Pres. of the Quito Chamber of Commerce to talk about strategies to reactivate the economy.

Genetic material – Except in the Andean region, genetic material from Ecuador is unprotected internationally. Tarsicio Granizo, the Environmental Minister hopes that the Assembly will ratify the Nagoya Protocol which seeks to make the distribution of earnings and benefits from genetic resources more equitable. More than 70% of the medicines in pharmacies are from biodiverse resources where the countries of origin and people whose ancestral knowledge was used, receive little recompense. Granizo pointed out the need for the protocol because of bio-piracy, robbery and looting of genetic resources.

Warning – ARCOTEL, the telecommunications regulatory agency is warning people about bogus international calls from the 00675 prefix (Papua, New Guinea). The goal is to get the person who receives the call to return the call and run up a phone bill.

Intercultural – Today’s articles are about marriage and ancestral rituals in Saraguru.

Internacional –

Uruguay – The 4 pharmacies in Montevideo which are registered to sell recreational marihuana ran out on the 1st day. <The accompanying photo is of a young woman with the happiest grin I’ve ever seen holding 2 packets.> To buy it, you need to sign up at the Post Office and the pharmacy will validate your fingerprint when you buy the marihuana. <Maybe you have to prove you live in Uruguay. Keep all those Argentineans out. Or for that matter, North American gringos.>

Chile – After a marathon session, the Chilean Senate voted to decriminalize abortions when the fetus is nonviable, there is a risk to the mother’s life, and pregnancy was due to rape. The last was the most controversial. <I bet the Senate is mostly men.>

Venezuela – The opposition has called for a “paro civico” (general strike) Fri. to pressure Pres. Maduro to suspend elections for a new Constituent Assembly scheduled for 30/7.

And that´s all for today so Hasta Mañana –

Jeanne