Martes, 4/4/2017: Too many pigeons, World Health Day walk, Bus fare study considers vulnerable groups, Election observers

Hola, Todos –

Pagina cultural –

Today’s (Tues.) agenda events –

Martes de Cine – Tuesday’s movie at the Alianza Francesa was “El gran hombre” (The great man).

Children’s stories – The book “Las alas del tiempo” (Wings of time) was presented today at 10:00 in the Museo de la Ciudad (Gran Colombia y Benigno Malo).

Upcoming and ongoing agenda events –

Puppet show – “El increíble George” (The incredible George) will be performed tomorrow at 16:30 in the Alianza Francesa (Tadeo Torres y Solano).  The show features rare animals and music.

Articles about –

Legal records – The Corte de Justicia de Cuenca (The Court of Justice of Cuenca) has an archive of legal records that includes papers with the seal of King Carlos III. The court itself was the first in Ecuador and was founded by general Antonio José de Sucre on 20/3/1822.  The legal language used at that time is the same as or very similar to legal language used today with legal activities little changed from 200 years ago.

There are documents from the “República de Colombia” (I think the same as Gran Colombia which was formed in 1819(?) and included present day Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela. Ecuador withdrew from Gran Colombia in 1830, but used the seal of Gran Colombia until 1839.  <That was your history lesson for the day.>

Feria de Libro – (Book Fair – This is for you lectores (readers – your word for the day) Germán  Gacio Baquiola, the organizer is getting ready for the fair which will be in octubre.  Participants will include 15 well known writers, 5 Latin American publishing houses, and about 50 Ecuadorian writers whose names have not yet been finalized.      A library at the República Sur (Pres. Córdova 5-55) will be reopened on 12/4 after renovations in a larger space.

Museum culture – Carmen Lucía Cordero, from the Museo de las Culturas Aborígenes, was selected by the Instituto Mundial de Museos (World Museum Institute) to to do training in educational strategies geared towards museums called “Mi museo su museo” (My museum, your museum).  She says it is necessary to encourage the “museum culture” in children which also will promote culture.

Teatro – Pancho Aguirre and Pilar Tordera will present their own play based on tests by Eduardo Galeano from Uruguay (“Canción de nosotros” (Song of us) and Tennessee Williams from the US (“Háblame como la lliuvia y déjame escuchar” (Talk to me like the rain and let me listen) on 4, 5, & 6 de mayo in the sala “Alfonso Carrasco” at the  Casa de la Cultura de Ecuador, Núcleo del Azuay (CCE).

Otras cosas – 

Titular – L. Moreno es felicitado;  Lasso denuncia fraude (L. Moreno is congratulated; Lasso complains (about) fraud) – With 99.46% of the votes counted, Moreno received 51.17 and Lasso 48.83%.  Various heads of state congratulated Moreno and the country for a democratic election.  The current president of Unasur (Unión de Naciones Suramericanas) invited the opposition to respect the elections. National and international observers including the OAS were recognized for their work in strengthening democracy in the region.

Pollsters – CEDATOS is willing to have their poll results, which gave Lasso a 52.0% win, audited.  Lasso claimed victory when the voting ended at 17:00 based on those poll results.  Moreno used Perfiles de Opinión which gave him a win with 52.2% to make his claim to victory.  Jimmy Jairala, Prefect of Guayas, petitioned CNE to audit the Cedatos, Market, and Informe Confidencial exit polls to show how they arrived at their results. Previously, he had said that when 2 exit polls show such opposite and different results, those results should not be released.

Organización de Estados Americanos (OAS) – The election observation mission said that allegations of fraud by the opposition should be transmitted through institutional channels to be responded to by the competent authorities.  It also lamented the political use of the exit polls, and the large disparity between the predictions which created uncertainty in the populace and caused both candidates to declare victory before CNE announced the official results.  The OAS fielded 77 observers in 19 of the 24 provinces who visited 480 polling places and found no discrepancies between the data they collected and what was announced by the CNE. There were also observers from both parties in polling places.  <Can you spell sore loser?>

More crime – The body of Cristina Palacio who was killed and thrown into a river was found in the Guachapala canton.  The body of a 79 year old man with burns was found in a ditch in San Joaquín.

Tarifas de bus (bus fares) – The study on bus fares is in its final stage.  10 groups were considered for information meetings about the study.  Secondary school students and the parish juntas were the first groups to be followed by seniors, the disabled, the directors of the Federation of University Students, the transportistas, the directors of the urban parishes and a Multisectorial Commission.  Users want an improvement in the quality of service.

Pigeons – The Environmental Management Commission is planning to reduce the number of pigeons.  <Will we be seeing a lot of squab on menus?  I know – about as appetizing as a cuy to some of you.>  The commission is currently researching the environmental impact of importing peregrine falcons from Peru to control the pigeons naturally.  This is already being done in Quito to control the bird population around the airport.

Diá Mundial de la Salud (World Health Day) – The day will be observed with a walk and a fair.  The event will be sábado starting at 8:30 with a walk from the coliseo Jefferson Pérez along av. 12 de Abril to the parque De La Madre where the fair will be opened at 10:00.  On domingo there will be talks on depression and free services such as blood pressure tests, blood glucose, and control of body mass index.

Road work –
Vehicle traffic will be interrupted today and tomorrow for a about 12 hours at the intersection of Gaspar Sangurima with Tomás Ordóñez and with Vargas Machuca due to Tranvía work
Today until domingo – Alfonso Andreade y Mariscal La Mar – laying underground cables.
Today until jueves – Mariscal La Mar y Miguel Morocho – undergrounding cables.  No vehicular access from Morocho to La Mar.
Sábado – 12 hour interruption for the north to south lane of av. De Las Americas, going to the redondel Simón Bolívar.  Detour onto Las Pencas and get to the redondel via Ordóñez Lasso.
Domingo – No access for vehicles from Gran Colombia to av. De Las Americas for about 12 hours due to work on the south to north lane of De Las Americas.  <Try not to get upset at your taxista – it’s not his fault the roads are torn up or blocked when they were open the day before.>

Sinincay – The Parish Government maintains about 200 km. of roads and wanted the capacity to make their own repairs.  They got a backhoe  <A big yellow Cat> and a dump truck with a grader and roller coming in julio or agosto.  The last item on the list is a tanker.

Police page – A man was shot while taking his usual path through the mountains to get to work.  Other users of the path called ECU-911 and paramedics took him to the hospital. Neighbors searched the area for the shooter but found a cedula and voter card for the woman who was found dead near the Amaru Zoo, a short distance from the area where the man was shot.  Neighbors are making a connection and think the attacker is lurking in the woods.

Internacional –

Venezuela – The OAS approved a declaration by a majority that there is a serious unconstitutional alteration of the democratic order.  The declaration was approved by 17 of the 21 nations present with abstentions from the other 4.

Brazil – The election Justice started hearings into alleged irregularities in the 2014 campaign of Dilma Rousseff-Michel Temer.  The 7 members of the Higher Electoral Court can decide to annul the victory.  If so, Brazil will lose another president.  <Now that would be an example of poetic justice.>  The court is analyzing complaints about “donations” received by the campaign that originated in the corruption scandals of Petrobras and Odebrecht.  The complaint was made by the PSDP Party whose candidate lost the 2014 election by 3 points.

And that´s all for today so Hasta Mañana –

Jeanne