Jueves, 22/12/2016: Graffiti problem, City moves to end tram contract, Dummy sales, Cuenca symphony wants more $$

Hola, Todos –

Pagina cultural –

Upcoming agenda events –

CCE – The first film ever shown will be commemorated by the CCE which will launch a new magazine, GOD/ART, which specializes in film, on 28/12 at 20:00.

Federico Proaño – The school will have Christmas programs including performances by their choruses.  (Well, the little wavy red line didn’t show up so I guess choruses is an acceptable spelling.)

Graffiti – There is a proliferation of “mal llamado grafiti” (mistakenly called graffiti) in El Centro.  (This implies a recognition of grafiti as an art form as opposed to maliciously painting on people’s walls.)  Buildings are tagged without permission and a property owner asked that authorities intervene to stop this “ola de agresiones visuales” (wave of visual aggression – these are your words for the day and I think you can figure out how to match the words.)

Articles about –

OSC – In spite of all the debate about the Ley de Cultura (Culture Law), the symphony orchestra stands to benefit since it is currently underfunded compared to Quito’s National Symphony and that of Guayaqui.  Those two symphonies have a budget of $2,000,000 and 80 musicians.  Cuenca’s has a budget of $1,367,000 and only 57 musicians which limits the programs they can offer.  In 2016, the OSC had 54 concerts while the national symphony played 52.  (Some bragging rights – doing more with less.)

CCE – There was a general membership meeting of the CCE. Members asked for transparency in management.

Art in the CRS (the jail) – The Ministry of Culture and Patrimony has an educational and art program in the jail at Turi.  It has been running for 4 months with various artists and collectives donating their time.

Otras cosas –  

Titular – Odebrecht sobornó en Ecuador (Odebrecht bribed in Ecuador) – The US Justice Department revealed that the Brazilian construction company paid around $788 million in bribes in a dozen countries with over 100 projects, including Ecuador where it had road, hydroelectric and transfer (I think oil pipelines) projects. Odebrecht paid $35.5 million in bribes in Ecuador which generated over $116 million in profits.

Monigotes y pirotecnia – Authorized sales of dummies and fireworks start el proximo lunes and end 1/1/2017.  300 permitted vendors will be selling from 13 locations. (Ask the taxi driver – they drive by a lot of those locations.  And they tend to be at the same places year after year.)

Tranvía – The Municipality is moving ahead with the process to unilaterally terminate the contract with the CCRC.  Preliminary documents and studies give weight to the argument that the contractor did not rigorously comply with the contract.  CCRC has invoiced $42 million which is about 58% completion.

2 full page public announcements – The call for a referendum on tax havens was printed in Quichua and Spanish.

Internacional –

México – The death toll in the explosions at a fireworks market has risen to 32. There were 59 injured and 12 are missing.

And that´s all for today so Hasta Mañana –

Jeanne