Martes, 24/1/2017: Mining complaints, New gastronomic magazine, Voters don’t know and don’t care about referendum

Hola, Todos –

Pagina cultural –

Today’s agenda events –

Alianza Francesa – Tues’ Martes de Cine movie at the Alianza Francesa was “El tiempo de los amantes” (The time for lovers).

Articles about –

Concurso – José Castelví Queralt, the first director of the OSC, conceived of and funded a music composition competition.  The awards ceremony will be on jueves, 16 de febrero a las 20:00 in the teatro Pumapungo before a concert by the OSC which will play the winning pieces.

Concurso fotográfico – Azuayan Humberto Berrezueta Durán won a prize in Spain for his photo of an olive oil festival.

New gallery – A new gallery has opened on Calle Larga y Vargas Machuca.  César Calero, painter and owner, paints sea scapes, nature, and urban scenes.  Jorge Erazo is also exhibiting ceramic, painted sculptures.  The gallery does not have a name yet and is asking for the public’s help.  He is also looking for artists who are looking for exhibit space.

Libro – The Archdiocese of Cuenca has published a book, “Francisco en América – Mensajes pastorales” (Francis in America – Pastoral Messages), which compiles Pope Francis’ talks and homilies given during his visits to the Americas.

For you foodies (who can read Spanish, or who are happy to just look at the pictures) – A new gastronomic magazine, “Tasty Magazine” (You think the magazine is going to taste better than edible underwear?  If you can impregnate paper with a perfume sample, why not the taste of chocolate or French fries?) from Makma Estudio Creativo, will be launched in the 1st week of marzo.   There will be articles on gastronomy, desserts, liquor and cocktails, pairings, and fusion cooking.  There will be sections such as “De gastrónomos, para gastrónomos” (From goumets, for gourmets) and “Comida típica” (Typical food) which seeks to highlight Ecuador’s culinary patrimony (rice and potatoes and pasta and plantains on the same plate. And cuy – which I’d like better if it weren’t so much work to eat.)  The magazine will have recipes, “Rutas gastronómicas” (food trips), and “Café y barismo.”

Otras cosas – 

Titular – El SRI retiene vehículos del Consorcio CRC (The SRI retains vehicles from the CRC Consortium) – The SRI retained 13 vehicles that belong to the CCRC for not paying taxes amounting to $197,356.62 on income in sep, oct y nov.  (Maybe you didn’t notice, but those abbreviations were in Spanish.  Did you see capitol letters?)   CCRC has until 1/2 to justify why they have not completed the project which was supposed to be delivered on 29/12/2016.  The city will move to reclaim about $13-14 million for con-compliance on the contract.

Mining – Neighbors of Río Blanco who had originally supported “responsible mining” (quotation marks are El Mercurio’s) showed an “ojo de agua” (water eye) from which they have been blocked and is drying up.  The ojo de agua is located 50 m. below an explosives storage shed.  The Taguarpamba wetlands and ojo de agua is one of the two sources of water for Río Blanco and supplies more than 60 families.  Ángel Guamán said that the project was approved on the basis that no one lived within 8 km of the mine, but his house is 100 meters away and the village of Río Blanco is only 1 km. away.  Other complaints included promises to improve the community that weren’t kept and damage to the community and environment.  (The moral of the story is never believe a mining company.)

2016 Global Connectedness Index – Ecuador is in 107th place in this index which quantifies the depth and breadth of the integration of a country with the rest of the world according to its participation in the international flow of commerce, capital, information and people.  The placing is based on a depth score – the intensity of the international flows, and a breadth score – the spread or geographic distribution of the flows.  Ecuador scored 116 in depth and 64 in breadth.

Debate – The presidential debate in Guayaquil will be tomorrow at 21:00 and disseminated on TV, radio, digital platforms, social networks and the Cámara de Comercio de Guayaquil web site. It will be covered by 400 accredited journalists including CNN and Channel 8 in Miami.

Referendum – According to a recent poll, 82% of the people do not know what the anti-tax haven referendum is about (are you in the majority here?), and 86% don’t care.  Only 5% had a clear idea what it was about. (It’s an anti-corruption referendum that asks if politicians and public workers should be prohibited from holding assets in tax havens.  Those holding those assets would have to repatriate them.)  A sociologist explained the lack of interest is understandable given that a lot of people are too busy trying to make it day by day to care about high level corruption.

Celac (La Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños) – Celac, which is every country in the Americas except the US and Canada, will meet in Bávar, Dominican Republic on 24 & 25/1.  There is a great deal of uncertainty in Latin America since the US election.  It is waiting to see how campaign promises about reversing the policy of closer relations between Cuba and the US, and about building a wall pan out. Other worrisome issues are the protectionist tendencies and the plans to deport millions of undocumented.

Voto 2017 – 7 more candidates for the Assembly were interviewed.  This time the 3d on the slate.  (I think I figured it out – each district gets to elect so many assembly representatives, therefore the parties need to field at least that number of candidates.)

San Francisco Plaza – Representatives from the Guild of Otavalan Merchants met with two councilpeople and the municipal director of historic and patrimonial areas to complain about the prototype for the new spaces.  They said the spaces were too small to show their crafts.  They said they’d offered suggestions to the university to make a new prototype and were told that new discussions would be in 3 weeks.

Poll locator – The CNE has set up 37 information centers where you can find out where your voting place is.  In rural parishes, the info. table is in the parish center or city building.  Also look for them at major chains like TIA, Mall del Río, Coral Centro, Gran Aki, Mega Tienda del Sur, financial institutions, and the public and IESS hospitals.

Internacional –

Chile – Forest fires have consumed 221,060 hectares since el pasado 1 de julio.  Aid is coming from the US (which offered $100 million to replace equipment – but I bet you have to buy it from a company that has a lot of juice with its Senators and Reps.), Mexico, France and Argentina.  Chile is also in contact with California to activate an agreement between Conaf and Calfire.

And that´s all for today so Hasta Mañana –

Jeanne