Domingo, 29/1/2017: Election simulation, Ant-mining resolution, Immigration protests

Hola, Todos –

Pagina cultural –

Upcoming and ongoing agenda events –

Taller por San Valentín – A childrens’ (8+ years) workshop for Valentine’s Day crafts will from from 6-10 de febrero from 15-17:00 in the Centro Cultural Los Eucaliptos.

Articles about –

Bicentenario de la Independencia de Cuenca (Bicentennial of the Independence of Cuenca) – Cuenca’s Chronicler, Juan Cordero Iñiguez reviewed the celebration of the centennial, and said that people should start thinking about this bicentennial which will be on 3/11/2020.  In 1917, a large committee was formed, but it didn’t do much for the first two years.  In 1919 it got federal funding and went to town.  (And bought a bridge?)  The Centenario Bridge was built in honor of the Centennial.   Cordero also said that another centennial event was Elia Liut’s arrival which was the first plane flight into Cuenca.  He also hoped that there would be a solution to Cuenca’s biggest problem – the airport.  (I wonder if this article has been sitting around since last year or if he’s remembering something about a 2 year life for the work that was recently done to allow flights to land in wet weather.)

Literature prize – Ecuadorian writers were among the winners of the 58th Casa de las Américas Literary Prize.

Review – The Viernes Cultural Salesiano was a success.  The students from the María Auxiliadora school performed afroecuadorian music and dances from Esmeraldas.  The audience loved them and joined in the singing and dancing. (Now that’s a good show.  I wish I’d gone instead of just thinking about it.)

Ads –

José Ordóñez brings his new show, “En Pareja 2 – recardado” (Hitched 2 – reloaded or recharged) to Cuenca on jueves, 2/2 at 20:00 in the Teatro Carlos Cueva Tamariz. Get tickets at the Almacenes la Victoria.

Don Bosco/ El Musical (Don Bosco, the Musical) – This musical will be on 30 & 31/1 at 19:30 in the Teatro Universitario Carlos Crespi.  (I think they reprinted a poster which has a fellow in a clerical collar who looks hella lot like John Wayne in a reflective moment.  I think it’s a Hollywoodized version of Don Bosco.)

Otras cosas –

Titular – Trump pone en vilo al mundo (Trump puts the world on fire) – Trump’s temporary denial of entry to citizens of 7 mostly Muslim countries, has provoked chaos and the indignation of half the world.  The “pretexto” (pretext – is that the definition of an alternate truth?  It might as well be your word for the day.  I expect to see it more often.) for the act was to keep terrorists out.  Travellers were first affected.  Passengers from places like Egypt, Turkey and Holland (Holland?  Dutch terrorists?  A racial profile would be over 6′, blond and clumping around in wooden shoes holding tulips.) were not allowed onto planes, and others blocked on arrival. Legal residents of the US were not allowed to return, even if they had lived there for decades.  Whether they will be allowed into the US will be a case by case decision. According to web site ProPublica, there are around 500,000 citizens from the 7 contries who have become permanent residents of the US in the past 10 years.  (That’s a lot of families separated, and that’s a loss you can never recuperate.)

“Abrazos No Muros” (Hugs, Not Walls) – Thousands of families were reunited for 5 minutes (Wow! 5 whole minutes!) when the border between México and the US was opened in Ciudad Juárez.

Consular plan – (See today’s article in CHL for more info.)  The canciller (Secy of State) Guillaume Long announced a plan to protect the rights of Ecuadorians in the US by extending consulate hours, a 1-800 line, legal advice, mobile consultant, and announcements of rights and services.

Elections – 10,500 volunteers on a national level participated in a simulation of the fast count system.  The speed depends on the flow of data transmission and the speed at the counting tables. The data goes into a call center where 240 people will enter the results into the software.  A spokeswoman said that election results should be known within a 1% margin of error about 3 hours after the polls close at 17:00.

Today’s political cartoon – The image is 4 profiles of Trump, each 90 degrees to the next.  That front projection of hair has been exaggerated so the whole image is a swastika.  (Is that a strong enough image to project the cartoonist’s opinion of the newly elected president?)

Venta solidaria (Solidarity sale) – Prisoners at the Centro de Rehabilitación Social Sierra Centro Sur Turi (jail) had an exhibit yesterday at PRAC through the Fundación Nuevo Propósito (New Purpose Foundation).  The foundation will use the earnings to strengthen the rehabilitation system by improving the dressmaking and cake making workshops (Your next wedding – get your dress and cake from the jail), and it hopes to start a bread baking workshop.

Antimining resolution – People from the Tarqui and Victoria del Portete parishes who are supplied by the Yacu Wasi Water Project ratified Cuenca’s anti-mining resolution yesterday.  A study the city contracted to the U’s of Cuenca and Azuay in 2016 to assess the impacts of mining on local water sources is not complete yet.

Articles about –

Manuel Merchán – The 94 year old was the winner of the first national cycling competition for which he got a certificate which disappeared years ago.  (At 94, he looks about as old as the average 65 year old gringo.)

Diego Illescas – Musician, cultural manager, journalist and teacher.

Political page – Carmen Aristequi, an internationally recognized Mexican journalist, was interviewed.  She called the border wall an affront to all Latin America and that “El resto de América Latina está tan amenazada como México, porque es poco probable que Trump haya tomado clases de geografía, como para diferenciar a los países de la región.” (The rest of Latin America is as threatened as Mexico, because it is unlikely that Trump has taken geography classes to differentiate the countries in the region.)  (So if Ecuador pisses him off and he sends in bombers, he’ll be sending them to Africa or Asia?)

Intercultural page – Part one of an article about the Cañaris.

Sports and Health page – Planning sports training.

Internacional – I could put news from the US in this section since from where I sit, the US is internacional, but I’ll leave those articles where ever El Mercurio puts them.

And that´s all for today so Hasta Mañana –

Jeanne