Lunes, 13/2/2017: Tame passengers complain of four-hour delay, Valentine’s week events, Prisoners will vote, Mexican protests

Hola, Todos –

Pagina cultural –

Upcoming and ongoing agenda events –

Cine Francés – Tomorrow’s Martes de Cine Francés (14/2) at 19:00 in the Alianza Francesa will be Pater.  The Alianza has a schedule of its activities from 13-19/2.
 
Articles about –

Workshops – The Centros Culturales del Municipio just finished a cycle of workshops for children since last week was their between terms break.  This week’s workshops are for adults and include knitting, embroidery on ribbons, crocheted shoes, gastronomía and dance.  Go to the center closest to your house to find out what workshops are available.  (And you’re thinking “Easier said than done” since lots of us don’t even know the name of the barrio or parish we live in with the exception of Gringolandians.  I’ve even heard Cuencanos making a joke of other Cuencanos who live in Gringolandia.)

CCE – The CCE is having a series of events starting martes, 14/2 in their “Semana del amor y otras artes” (Week of Love and Other Arts).  On Tuesday, a las 20:00 there will be a concert in the Cinema Café (on the mezzanine of the Teatro Casa de la Cultura), miércoles will have a play, “Historias para reconciliar” (Stories for reconciling), jueves will be a contemporary dance performance at 20:00 in the sala Alfonso Carrasco in the CCE, and viernes will be another concert with 3 funk fusion bands at 20:00 in the Sala Alfonso Carrasco.

Títeres – The CCE presented a puppet show in Chordeleg yesterday.  (Not exactly life changing news.)

Programa – 4 students at the Universidad Católica de Cuenca created a program called “Cuando El Profe No Está XD” (When the prof isn’t XD – whatever the heck XD means.)  They have 8 videos on their YouTube account.

Otras cosas – 

Titular – El Cuenca gana con un autogol del rival.  (El Cuenca wins with a rival’s own goal)  (A while ago (like maybe a few decades?), there was a Colombian fútbol player who was shot and killed in Medellín for making that mistake in a World Cup game.)

Carnaval – The Comadre Carnaval 2017 was selected Monday at PRAC in San Blas.  She is Mariana de Jesús Domínguez who represents the Cristo del Consuelo barrio.  The Compadre is singer Fausto Miño and the “Jueves de Compadres y Comadres” (Godfather and Godmother Thursday) event will kick off Carnaval on 23/2 at 19:00 in the parque Calderón.

Vaccines – The deadline for ranchers to vaccinate their cows against “fiebre aftosa” (hoof and mouth disease) has been extended to 17/2.  Ecuador is free of the disease, but cows still need vaccinations.  Owners who do not vaccinate can be fined 50% of the basic salary per head.

TAME – Passengers on a flight from Cuenca to Quito that left at 14:00 after a 4-hour delay are complaining.  Their luggage did not arrive with the flight.  (Why even bother keeping this airline open?  It doesn’t seem to be doing anyone any good.)

Garbage collection fees – Fees for garbage collection have been collected by the Empresa Eléctrica through an agreement that is now expiring by law.  Annually, $17 million is collected and Empresa Eléctrica charges about a 1$ million fee.  EMAC now has to put in place a new collection system that does not have the advantage of terminating service for non-payment.  If a customer did not pay the garbage portion of the electric bill, the electric company could shut off electricity.  (Uncollected garbage is a larger public health issue.)

Elections – 10,230 prisoners who have not been sentenced will vote tomorrow.  The CNE (Consejo Electoral Nacional) is publicizing project LGBTI so that voters can opt to stand in the mens’ or women’s line to vote depending on how the voter identifies. 271 people have changed their genders on their cedulas even though the Registro Civil hasn’t enabled the possibility of gender changes in all the provinces.  (This inclusionary public policy wasn’t what I expected when I moved to a Catholic country.)

Internacional –

México – Tens of thousands of Mexicans hit the streets in 17 cities to protest Trump and his anti-Mexico policies.  The goal of the protest was to send a message that “de que estamos enojados, que nos ha insultado, que es un abusivo, que no respeta” (That we are angry, that he has insulted us, that he is abusive, that he does not respect).  (I wonder if there were more Mexicans protesting yesterday than people who went to the inaugural?)  At the Angel of Independence in México, D.F., a group of people symbolically tore down a wall made of cardboard boxes labelled racism, homophobia, discrimination, fear, intolerance and exclusion.  (You know, we might not need to suffer an extraterrestrial invasion to unite the world.  Trump seems to be doing just that or the part of the world that is not the US, anyway.  I’m looking hard for silver linings, folks.)

Discuentos y compras –

Fybeca – Up to 35% discounts on products for a healthy heart. (Fybeca sells produce?)

And that´s all for today so Hasta Mañana –

Jeanne