Jueves, 3/3/2016: Bus safety program, U.S. consulate warning, Movie, Exhibits, Play

Hola, Todos – 

Pagina cultural –

“Remediación” – an exhibit fusing art and technology opened Thurs in la Casa de las Posadas.

“Noche de letras.  Volumen Tres (Night of letters. Volume 3) – a poetry reading Thurs in the centro cultural (cultural center, your words for the day and easy enough to remember) República Sur (Pres. Córdova 5.55).

Noche de música en Sono (Musical evening in Sono) – was also Thurs at 19:00 in the Teatro Bolsillo del Sono (Pres. Borrero 6-83) with students who are finishing a cycle of classes at Sono.

Cine – “Requiem for a dream” will be shown this Sat. in the Café Cartola (av. Loja 3-68 y Remigio Tamariz frente (front, but in this case meaning across the street from) Quinta Guadalupe.)

Articles about –

Efraín Jara – a 90 year old Cuencanan poet launched a collection of his writings Thurs in the Salón del Pueblo de la Casa de la Cultura.  It includes “poemas de largo aliento” (which I would unkindly translate as long winded poems) written between 1971 & 1990.

“Soledad desordenada” – (Messy loneliness) – is staged Thurs and Fri at 20:00 in la sala “Alfonso Carrasco” at the Casa de la Cultura.  The one woman play by Emilia Acurio breaks the social stigma against single women.  It’s a drama with jokes (I’m guessing the kind of comedy you get when you have to laugh to keep from crying.).  (And you single women will all know what she’s talking about – Those conversations with the cabbie that start with “Are you here with your family?” and progress to “Oh, probrecita” or worse, an offer.)

An exhibition, “Figuras frescas” (Fresh Figures), by José Villacís opened Thurs at el Centro Cultural Municipal Quinta Bolívar.

Victor Hugo Quito, who wrote a book on how to encourage reading and on another on literary analysis.  (If his parents named him deliberately, do you think they got what they wanted?)

Otras cosas –

Titular – Contrapropuesta para comprar antiguo hospital (Counter offer to buy old hospital) from the City to IESS.  The city would like to buy it to create a Mall Social (Social Mall – hello?) which would offer outpatient care to seniors and addicts, nursing, first responders, nutrition, family medicine, a pharmacy, therapy and dentistry.  This is the big vacant building on Huayna Cápac.

Construction technology – is a major available in Azogues.  The 3 semester program that started in March, 2014 is graduating 12 students, half of them women.  (All right!)

Lactjubones – reopened its dairy processing plant after 2 months of inactivity due to the economic crisis of its main client, GAD del Azuay (GAD is autonomous local government at different levels.)

Illegal fishing – 26 Peruvians on 4 Ecuadorian and 2 Peruvian boats were arrested in the Santa Clara Island sector of El Oro by the Armada de Ecuador (the Ecuador Navy).  (Makes sense – since Ecuador isn’t in a shooting war, what else is a navy going to do but be the coast guard.)

A Minister of Defense – needs to be appointed after the last one left. There have been 7 in Correa’s years in office including 3 women, but a military expert says that the new one should have military and national security experience rather than political experience with a goal of stopping the tension between the Armed Forces and the Government.

The US Consulate – issued a warning about the “critica amenaza delictiva presente” (critical criminal threat (that is) present) in the country.  (The Spanish would have been translated from English and I wonder how close my retranslation to English got to the original warning?)  We gringos are supposed to be aware of our surroundings and personal security.  (And don’t be stupid – like walking home at 2am by the river with a snootful.)  This announcement follows the murders of two young Argentinean women in Montañita.

Your sliver of life article today – is a full page ad taken out by “ENLACE,” a national network of electrical workers who have taken offense at comments made, and are now calling out the Prefect of Azuay, Paúl Carrasco.

Tranvía – Neighbors at G. Colombia and T. Ordóñez are protesting and asking for more speed on the work.

Bus project – “Transporte Seguro” (Safe Transport) will put screens in buses where passengers can see how fast the bus is going and display the date, hour, plate number and speed.  It will also issue a voice warning.  If the driver doesn’t slow down, passengers can call 911 and just read the info off the screen.  In a prior phase of the program, security cameras, help buttons and GPS were installed.  (I wonder if they can just connect into the system that displays and announces bus stops.)

Internacional –

Mexico – There was an attempted assassination attempt on the mayor of Ahualulco de Mercado in Jalisco.

Bolivia – A senior official on the presidential staff is in jail for alleged corruption from the same case as the president’s ex.

And that´s all for today so Hasta Mañana –

Jeanne