Galapagos review, Cajas permit violations, Mortgage loan ceiling raised, Jazz and blues, Bienal launch

Miércoles, 23/8/2017

Hola, Todos –

Pagina cultural –

Upcoming and ongoing agenda events –

Teatro – “La Boda de Dorimena” will be mañana y el viernes in La Guarida Centro Cultural (Mariscal La Mar y Luis Pauta). Cost: $5 for advance purchase, $7 at the door.

Música en vivo (live music) – A variety of artists will be playing blues, jazz, folk, acoustic rock and more Thurs. a las 19:00 at the Sonido Nocturno club in the GO Hostal (Borrero 5-47 y Honorato Vázquez). The club is a space for free expression for artists, musicians, poets, bohemians, and singers. <Be prepared for women in floaty peasant dresses, dreads, and tattoos; and skinny guys with artsy facial hair, stingy brim hats, and tattoos.>

Exposición – “Terapía Ecológica” (Ecological Therapy) by artist Faride Chedraui will be at the Mall del Río starting Thurs. A lot of the work is wood and cactus. <No need for “don’t touch” signs.>

Articles about –

14 Bienal – The official launch of the 14th Bienal de Cuenca will be Thurs. a las 9:00 in the Casa Bienal. The title of the 14th Bienal will be “Estructuras vivientes. Rituales sin mitos en el arte contemporaneo” (Living structures. Rituals without myths in contemporary art). With this launch, the call is also out for submissions from national artists. Interested artists can submit their portfolios or links to their work at comunicacion@bienaldecuenca.org with “XIV BIENAL” as the subject line. Proposals will be received until 30/11.

Museo Remigio Crespo – The museum is preparing another season of “Los niños desayunan en al museo” (The children have breakfast in the museum) program which started in 2014. The program is for kids from rural zones, peripheral zones, and vulnerable groups to see the museum. Today’s visit was from the Olimpiadas Especiales de Cuenca (Special Olympics of Cuenca).

Debut – The independent theater collective, “Peculiar show,” will debut “Los Durmientes” (The Sleepers) el domingo a las 12:00 in the Parque de El Paraíso. The collective is formed of students in the Arts and the U. of Cuenca.

Book launch – “Tres gaviotas en la piel,” a novella by Eliécer Cárdenas will be presented hoy at 19:00 in the Museo de la Ciudad. The story is about Aldo, Carolina and “the Dane,” the leader of a political party. There’s a love triangle, a spiral of violence with dramatic effects, and politics.

Otras cosas –

Titular – 11 días para vincular o no a Glas (11 days to link Glas or not) – see Wednesday’s CHL article for more info.

Workplace harrassment – The Asamblea Nacional unanimously approved a project to reform the Labor Codes and the Public Service Law to prevent “acoso laboral” (workplace harrassment). The Labor Code incorporates workplace harrassment as a cause for firing. The new reforms would make the harrassment a cause for immediate firing.

Biess (Banco del Instituto Ecuatoriano de Seguridad Social) – the bank has raised the ceiling for mortgage loans from $150,000 to $200,000. The bank has a budget of about $1.3 billion for apartment, house and land loans. Interest ranges from 8.5% to 11, 05% (sic) depending on the loan term. The maximum term is 25 years. It’s estimated 20,000 people could get a loan with the new amount. To date, Biess has written 167,000 loans with 11,282 this year. The banco has also put in place anti-corruption measures including audio visual taping and real time broadcasting of negotiations during the public contracting process of IESS. <You really think people are going to conduct deals of dubious character on camera? They’d find a hotel room somewhere.>

Galápagos – An international mission from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the largest environmental network in the world, will visit the Galápagos to review invasive species <like people?>, the development of tourism, and governance of the islands.  The Legislature also approved an agreement with the Charles Darwin Foundation about their scientific station. The agreement establishes the conditions, rights, obligations, procedures on rights of the nature, and the role of foreign NGOs.

Wholesale market – With the support of the Banco de Desarrollo (Development – you can figure out the rest of it yourself unless I’m seriously underestimating your intelligence) de América Latina (CAF), the Mayor will contract for architectural and engineering studies for a new wholesale market. Locations for a new wholesale market were analyzed last year although there is still no definite site. Currently, wholesalers are at the mercado El Arenal. At peak hours, between 17:00 and 5 or 6:00 am, the area is in chaos with pickups arriving to unload products from various sectors of the country including Ambato, Riobamba, Cañar, El Oro, Guayas and Morona Santiago as well as the north of Perú. Wholesalers are asking for more spaces, but there is no more room. On the market days of miércoles y sábado, there are about 15,000 vendors; 5,000 of those are wholesalers. <Did you think that your lady at the market went out at 4 am and picked pineapples, apples, cucumbers, squash, strawberries, mangos and peaches off her plants, then gathered eggs and brought them to market? The cherries that were at the market recently were from the US in case you thought that the produce was all home grown.>

Closures – Control Urbano “red tagged” two buildings in the Dos Chorreras sector of the Cajas. A structure that was permitted to be smaller and farther away from the falls was closed, and a stone windmill near the road was also closed for having no permits at all. Both are in a protected nature zone. The Penal Code has sanctions of 3-5 years in prison for contaminating, or altering bodies of water, slopes, springs, or ecological flows.

Phone service interruption notice – TVCable will temporarily suspend phone service on 31/8 from midnight to 6:00 am in Cuenca.

Education – Pres. Moreno aired his worry about the 170,000 young people who can’t get into the University and can’t find a job. He called it a “catástrofe familiar” (family catastrophy), describing a father coming home from work to find his kid sitting there – not working nor studying. He suggested creating a system of courses to prepare youth for careers and vocational counseling. The last “Ser Bachiller” test revealed weaknesses in public schools. 31% of the students got “insufficient,” 46% got “basic performance,” 21% satisfactory and only 4% excellent.

Internacional –

Chile – The Constitutional Tribunal supported the law that decriminalizes abortion in cases of rape, an unviable fetus or risk of death to the mother.

Venezuela – Pres. Maduro has asked the Pope to “impedir” (prevent/ impede) US Pres. Trump from invading the country. Maduro would also like to be protected from Presidents Macri (Argentina) and Temer (Brazil).

Descuentos y compras – Lots of car ads.

Hyundai – i10 from $13,990 including lVA y ICE – go to www.hyundai.com.ec.

Chery – Tiggo3 – from $18,990 – Cuencauto at España 8-31 y Barcelona.

Kia – Cerato Forte from $21,990 including IVA – credit with 25% down up to 60 mo. – www.kia.com.ec.

McDonalds – 3 new combos for $2.99 – extra meat or chicken. <A patty too thick to read a newspaper through?>

And that´s all for today so Hasta Mañana –

Jeanne