Election bribery scandal, Do immigrants drive up crime rate? Can drag queens compete for Queen of Cuenca? Taxistas will get paid

Jul 18, 2019 | 3 comments

Jueves,18/7/2019

Hola, Todos –
Actividades –

De la pagina cultural –

Festival de Cine La Orquidea – This film festival will not take place in noviembre of this year, but has been postponed until 21 marzo, 2020 on the Día del Agua. <Isn’t that also Pawkar Raymi?> Due to delays caused by the dispute as to who had the rights to the festival, it was decided not to rush the planning. $250,000 has been budgeted for the festival.

Muestra de vitrales – Luciano López opened an exhibit of glass work in the Galería de Oficios that will run until 26/7. The stained glass pieces include lamps, sconces, and biombos (folding screens?). One piece that took a year to make is a model of the Catedral de la Inmaculada (New Cathedral). The artist did not use a scale but built it by eye. His works are available for sale. <For those of you who love glass and prefer to ignore the possibility of earthquakes.>

Will drag queens be allowed to compete to be Queen of Cuenca?

Orquesta Sinfónica – The Cuenca Symphony Orchestra will perform este viernes, 19/7 a las 20:00 in the Teatro Pumapungo and feature trumpeter Marco Pierobon. The program will include works by George Gershwin.

Taller – There will be a workshop el lunes, 22/7 a las 17:00 in the Coworking Minga del Portal Artesanal (Simón Bolívar y Huayna Cápac) to explain the Incubadora Cultural de Cuenca (Cultural Incubator of Cuenca) project.

Exposición – There will be a foto exhibit este viernes 19/7 a las 18:30 in Pumapungo. The photos are part of a book produced by two graphic design students as their final project. They photographed 6 tribus urbanas (urban tribes) of Cuenca including metaleros (metalists), hip hop, hippies, tautajes (tatoo) and otakus (?). Free.

Otras cosas –

Titular – Miles por cupo en universidad pública (Thousands for each seat in public university) – There are about 3,640 available slots in the only 2 public institutions of higher learning in Cuenca. The U. of Cuenca can take about 3,200 new students in septiembre in the 49 majors taught at the U. The Insituto Superior Tecnológico del Azuay has 140 spaces in its 4 technical majors. UNAE (Universidad Nacional de Educación) in Azogues has space for 800 students. Cuenca is a regional university city with students from El Oro, Guayas, Cañar, and Morona Santiago. The Ser Bachiller platform will publish the academic offerings of all the institutions at a national level, and the number of places available. Between el 22 y 23/7, students who took the Ser Bachiller exam can find out how they scored. On 1/8, candidates can apply for admission in up to 5 majors.

Impacts of immigration – Possible repercussions of immigration on current insecurity in Cuenca will be analyzed in the Asamblea Ciudadana por la Seguridad de Cuenca (all cognates, all yours) viernes a las 9:00 in the Salón de la Ciudad. You can register for the event or submit your proposals at www.cuenca.gob.ec. <So all of you gringos who know how to “fix” Cuenca’s security problems – here’s your chance to strut your stuff. But you better be ready to do it in Spanish.>

A neighborhood director in Gapal said that people have the idea that delinquency and indigence are due to the presence of foreigners which provokes the criminalization of poverty and discrimination which can lead to violence against foreigners. A member of the Consejo Cantonal was in agreement and said that there are about 40,000 inmates in prisons in the country of whom only 3,000 are foreigners of different nacionalities. That implies that foreigners are not the majority in committing crimes, but Ecuadorians are. He said one of the problems was a lack of resources from the government. A director of the Challuabamba sector disagreed saying that local criminal bands are learning new ways to operate from delinquents who arrive from other countries. One commonality among the participants is that the Gobierno Nacional should improve its policies and controls to avoid the entry of foreigners who are having problems with justice systems in their home countries.

Paying taxistas – After marches in several cities, the taxi unions have reached an agreement with the national government which had offered to compensate taxistas for the increases in gas prices. Drivers in Cuenca, Quevedo, Santo Domingo y Riobamba will receive their “credit” cards starting mañana (Friday <so is this the same mañana that might actually be mañana or might be next week or next month?> with the rest of the cities following in the next 2 weeks. Actually, drivers received cards last 7/3, but there wasn’t any money backing the cards. A taxista said “Fueron solo el plástico.” (It was just plastic.) Other issues for the marchers was not allowing Uber and Cabify type transport, the prohibition of pick-ups (transportes mixtos) in urban zones, and not allowing municipalities to grant more cab licenses or create more cooperatives. <Can you spell monopoly?> An official said that Uber type services should be regularized with the Agencia Nacional de Tránsito and include a technical study that justifies the demand for the service. The service providers would have to pay taxes or would not be allowed to operate. He also said the reforms to the Ley de Tránsito should include a paragraph allowing mixtos in urban areas <How else are carless urban dwellers going to move house?> and, as before, allow people to ride in the truck beds.

Elecciónes de Reina – The last time the requirements for the candidates for the Queen of Cuenca were changed was in 2009, and the current Queen, Cristina Ortega, and a commission of ex-queens has been working to change the statutes to eliminate anything discriminatory. Some of the changes include height and body size requirements and that the candidate be single.

The controversy started when the Fundación Reinas de Cuenca listed the requirements on social media. The first requirement was that the candidate “haber nacido mujer” (to be born a woman) which caused a reaction from the LGBTI community. The Fundación Reinas said it respects and is open to helping the LGBTI community, but <there’s always a but> there is also a Reina de Cuenca LGBTI contest which has its requirements as well. <Check out the movie “The Queen” (which has nothing to do with Freddy Mercury) from the late 60’s and tell me that an LGBTI contestant would have no chance of winning a conventional beauty contest.>

Meat – There was an operation to control the entry of cárnicos (meats) into the mercado El Arenal early yesterday morning that involved La Dirección de Mercados y Comercio Autónomo (The Directorate of Markets and Autonomous Commerce), uniformed officers from the Guardia Ciudadana de Cuenca and the Policía Nacional, officials from the Empresa Pública de Servicios de Rastro y Plazas de Ganado (Emurplag EP – Public Company of Trace and Livestock Services), and technicians from the Agencia de Regulacion y Control Fito y Zoosanitario (Agrocalidad – Phyto and Zoosanitary Regulation and Control Agency). They were checking deliveries and informing merchants that meats need to be transported in vehicles which maintain a refrigerated chain and are hygienically treated. In upcoming inspections, meats found in inadequate conditions will be seized for destruction. <Do they burn the meat and would that smell like the biggest BBQ in the world?>

Sobornos 2012-2016 (Bribes 2012-2026) – A third witness was called to testify in this case, formerly known as Arroz Verde. A TV announcer and person close to ex-Pres. Correa testified for about 2 hours about presumed illegal contributions by Odebrecht to the Alianza País presidential campaign.

Pagina intercultural – Today’s article is about the music that accompanies the Raymi celebrations (Pawkar, Inti, Koya, and Cápac Raymi), and the musicians and instruments.

And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne

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