Miércoles, 5/7/2016: Exports to EU up 20%, Danish film, Cold wave, San Francisco Plaza contract cancelled, Moreno, indigenous meet

Hola, Todos –

Pagina cultural –

Upcoming and ongoing agenda events –

Cine – The Club de Cine Catarsis will show the Danish film, “Dancer in the Dark” (Bailar en la Oscuridad) Thurs. at 19:00 in the Club in the Pumapungo complex (Calle Larga y av. Huayna Cápac).

Articles about –

Book launches – An anthology of poetry, “Perpetuum Mobile” by Efraín Jara was presented el sábado anterior (last Sat.) along with books by two North Americans living in Cuenca – “The Phoenix Spring” by Barbara Snow and “For the Curious” by Su Terry which is in Spanish and English. The guest of honor for this 2nd Edition of the Conferencia Internacional de Escritores de las Américas was Isabel Allende. <Accompanying photo includes Lynn K.>

CCE – Plans which were done by 9 students in the School of Architecture at the U. of Cuenca will be used to remodel the 10,692.46 sq. m. building at Luis Cordero y Pres. Córdova. <What an opportunity for a student. No wonder they’re ready to practice when they get their degrees.>

La Traviata – The opera by Verdi will be presented from hoy (Wed. – another word to memorize) to viernes <which you’re supposed to know by now> at 20:00 in the teatro Carlos Cueva Tamariz. Tickets are available at La Victoria in El Centro and near the Stadium. Cost: $15, 20, 25, & 35. <Add $100-400 for the same opera in SF or NY. Gotta love Cuenca.>

Stories and puppets – “Cuentos para adultos con orejas” (Stories for grown-ups with ears) <Yeah, I know I translated it differently yesterday – so what? English has only one word for every single thing?> This event will be Thurs. at 20:20 (?) in the Casa Recoveco, a new cultural center at Juan Montalvo 10-24. Nilde Silva from Venezuela will tell stories from India) and Rubén Darío Hincapié from Colombia will tell stories from oral traditions. Favian Durán will use shadow puppets to tell stories.

Otras cosas –

Titular – Presidente y Conaie dialogan (President and Conaie dialogue) – Pres. Moreno met with 50 leaders of the Confederación de Naionalidades Indígenas (Conaie) yesterday. This is the first time Conaie, which supported Correa in 2007, has been in the Palacio Carondelet since 2010 when relations between the Conaie and the government of Correa were broken after Ecuador opened up large scale mining.

At yesterday’s meeting attendees were surprised by announcements that two headquarters (Granados y Conocoto) were restored, bilingual intercultural education will be restored, and there will be a 6th pardon and “bonos” (a payment kind of like SSI) for helpless indigenous. The most contentious issue is that of large scale mining which is opposed by Conaie but which is needed to bring income to the country.

Pardon – Tomás Felipe Jimpikit Tseremp <Sort of looks like a Tibetan name>, president of the Centro Shuar in Bomboiza in Morona Santiago, was pardoned by Pres. Morena yesterday. Jimpikit was serving a one year sentence for “paralización de servicio público” (paralyzing a public service) <In his case it was probably blocking a road. This seems to be the way people without much political power protest and call attention to their cause. And not just in Ecuador nor in current times now that I think of it.>

Trade – Exports from Ecuador to the EU in the first 5 mo. of 2017 increased 20% over the same period of 2016, and imports increased 17%. <I wonder how much of global trade is driven by humanity’s need to have fruit, flowers and vegetables out of season?>

“Paraísos Fiscales” – The Justice Commission approved the report for the second debate on the tax haven law. There is a formal checks and balances system so those affected by the law are not the ones deciding how it will be applied.

Ola de frío en Cuenca (Cold wave in Cuenca) – The recent cold days were from air masses from the south of the continent which is in winter. <It appears the seasons don’t reverse because of a line on a map. They reverse to reflect weather conditions.> It should warm up this week with temperatures between 11 and 20. Get your weather forcast at www.servicio-meteorologico.gov.ec/pronostico/prediccion.htm. <I’m not sure if there should be a dash between servicio-meteorologico because the address was on two lines in the paper, too.>

Audits – Councilwoman for Cuenca, Dora Ordóñez proposed an audit of the approximately $400 million dollar annual budget for Cuenca and its 8 businesses. Iván Granda, also a councilmember for Cuenca, proposed creating a municipal office charged with oversight of contracts to guarantee transparency. This is after a familial relationship was found between an ex-city employee and a participant in the contracting consorcium as well as two similar contracts let by ETAPA. He also said contracts should be audited in the pre-contractual as well as contractual stages and throughout the term of the contract.

San Francisco Plaza – The City has decided to terminate the contract with the Consorcio Plazoleta Asociados for the remodeling of San Francisco Plaza. One of the participants in the consortium is the son of the ex-city employee who prepared the bid documents. This degree of familiarity would preclude the son from competing in the bid. The Consorcio has 10 days to respond and the city will be collecting its own technical, legal and economic information. The 10 month contract was signed on 12/4 for $1,372,596 with a deposit of $549,038. <Really? Or is that a typo?>

Trees – There are trees at risk of falling in areas such as av. Paseo Tres de Noviembre, Sagados Corazones High School, and av. Primero de Mayo near Tres Puentes. Once the trees have been identified, they will need authorization from the Ministerio del Ambiente (Environmental Ministry) to cut them down. <Sounds like northern Calif. where cities have Tree Departments that issue Tree Permits.> Private citizens can also complain about dangerous trees, but the landowner must approve.

Pagina Intercultural – The stories are about a traditional minga in Saraguru to build a house for a newlywed couple. A minga is “trabajo colectivo en bien de la comunidad” (collective work for the good of the community), and this tradition is pre-Colombian. <The article is worth reading.>

Internacional –

Venezuela – Luisa Ortega, the Attorney General of Venezuela, is on the brink of being removed from office. She has emerged as the principal figure in opposition to Pres. Madura and is the highest ranking official to oppose convening an Asamblea National Constituyente <Madura wants to create a new assembly, basically made up of his supporters.> The Supreme Court met to decide whether to “separar de su cargo a la titular del Ministerio Público” (fire – to be brief) her for a “serious fault” against her investiture. <Is that legalese for breaking an oath of office?>

Deportes –

Primer Trail Running en Cojitambo – There will be a 5.5 km mountain run el domingo 9/7 at 9 en punto (on the dot). <Notice that “on the dot” has to be specified and that it’s not assumed as it would be in the US. This looks like a cultural change in the making.> In Cuenca, register at Cicla (Federíco Proaño y Remigio Tamariz by 7/7. Cost: $10.00.

UPS 7K – the 9th Circuito Atlético Universitario UPS will be el domingo at 8:30. Register in the offices of the Carrera de Cultura Física (Phys. Ed.) at the UPS or online at (http://appwfp.ups.edu.ec/foc-webins/index.xhtml?prog=1) <Seriously?>.

Descuentos y compras <Thank you for noticing – my spell check is still set to English> –

Cardeca – Modern Collection furniture – 3-8/7 – M-F, 9-19:00 and Sat, 10-18:00 – Circunvalación Sur y Camino Subida a Turi next to Monte Bianco in the Edificio Cardeca Business Center.

And that´s all for today so Hasta Mañana –

Jeanne