Jueves, 14/2/2019
Hola, Todos –
Actividades –
De la pagina cultural –
Hermano Miguel – The celebrations for the only male Ecuadorian saint <I guess women are just more holy since they are twice the number of men saints.> included the opening of the Museo Itinerante in the Curia building. The exhibits are in the auditorium and include a book of letters, other correspondence, the saint’s Bible, and the lasts for his shoes. <Whoo – this saint wore bespoke shoes.> Hermano Miguel was born and worked in Cuenca.
Clown – The Briza Teatro from Quito will stage 3 performances of the “TOP Secret” clown show from Wednesday hasta el sábado in the sala Alfonso Carrasco in the CCE. It’s about a clown to wants to see if he can leave his comfort zone to go adventuring and experience life at its fullest. The production incorporates music and voices and special lighting. Cost: $5.00.
A protest march supporting a referendum on the Lomo Larga mine.
Festival del Sombero – This festival will run to Friday, starting a las 9:00 in the Economuseo Municipal Casa del Sombrero, Rafael María Arizaga y Luis Cordero, and will include students in the municipal weaving workshops, members of the weavers associations in Cuenca and artisans from rural areas in Azuay.
Auditions – The Coro Polifónico of the U. of Cuenca and the Cultural Unit are looking for a soprano, mezzosoprano, tenor and a base baritone for a production of Verdi’s “Réquiem.” Auditions will be el sábado, 23/2 a las 9:00 in the auditorium of the Facultad de Artes (Yanuncay campus).
Otras cosas –
Titular – Un día dedicado al amor (A day dedicated to love) – There was a lot of activity in the Registro Civil which prepared rooms for the many civil weddings that are expected. The main article is about Lulú Torres who has organized the Pase del Niño de la Tía Lulú, and Guillermo Aguilar who have been married for 64 years.
Voto 2019 – Paúl Carrasco, ex-prefecto of Azuay, is the candidate for the national Juntos Podemos movement (Lista 33) and the Participa movement (Lista 62) of Azuay. His proposals are based on 4 strategic axes: Cuenca Llena de Vida, Cuenca Segura, Cuenca con Empleo, and Cuenca se Mueve (Cuenca Full of Life, Safe Cuenca, Cuenca with Jobs, and Cuenca Moves) <Catchy slogans?>. He has proposed 23 public policies, 71 programs in different areas, and 146 projects. He would:
Hold a referendum to prioritize strategic themes for the city and form a Consejo Ciudadano Anticorrupción (CSC – Citizen Anti-Corruption Council), with the participation of the academic sector.
Have a program for food security involving small producers, ally with the private sector for soup kitchens <So Bob H. can keep running the soup kitchen but the mayor will get the credit?> and a food bank, and increase the number of locations to bring milk to 30,000 children.
Use public spaces for bailoterapia, yoga, movies in the neighborhood, community and family gardens, and preventive health with the involvement of clinics and medical schools.
Regulate the fabrication and commercialization of plastics, control separation of garbage and declare 1,000 hectares as a green lung.
Organize the Guardia Ciudadana de Cuenca into 2 districts with 37 circuits <there’s a word for that in English that I’ve forgotten – give me a few more years and I’ll be monolingual again – only in Spanish. Is the word precincts or beats?>
Generate employment by reactivating construction, tourism, culture and industry with actions such as the regulation of land prices and simplification of procedures by decentralized and autonomous districts.
Identify strategic points that need pedestrian signal lights in areas such as Control Sur, Feria Libre, the road up to Racar, Parque Industrial, Terminal Terrestre, and the colegio Garaicoa.
Key issues for Cuenca –
Planes deportivos (Sports plans)- He would create an Empresa de Deporte, remodel the Alejandro Serrano stadium, promote soccer and mini básquet schools, and support competitive cycling and mountain sports.
Medidas de seguridad – He would reorganize the CSC to integrate with safety, first response, and justice institutions; create a security plan; and increase the number of Guardia Ciudadana troops to 600.
Fomento a la industria – He would create a permanent unit to control and monitor industrial development and an on-line platform to offer services, as well as freedom and support to develop industrial land for orderly growth.
Plan de movilidad – He proposes a plan for integrated transit to encourage use of the Tranvía, and a plan for traffic decongestion through urban/marginal and interparochial roads and parking.
Termina terrestre – He would build two land terminals – one in the north at the old Cayambe base and the other in the south at Narancay. He would build a Circunvalación Sur-Norte.
Obras de vialidad – He would ask MTOP for “la competencia” (the competition) for the vías Medi Ejido-Tamarindo and El Salado-Victoria del Portete to regulate traffic and “empalme de vías jerárquicas” (junction of hierarchical pathways). <He completely lost me somewhere on the vía from Spanish to English.>
Debate – There was a debate on eliminating violence against minors and women at the U. of Cuenca yesterday. 10 of the 13 candidates participated. <I wish there was advance notice of these debates as well as reporting after the fact.>
Mining referendum in Girón – A referendum on about the Loma Larga mine project in Quimsacocha will be held in Girón in the March elections since a judge in Quito denied the request by the Ministerio de Energía y Minas for precautionary measures to review the referendum. The referendum question asks, “Are you in favor of mining activities in the páramos and water sources for the Quimsacocha Water System?” The government argued that there are potential violations of Ecuadorians’ constitutional rights since the question was never qualified by the Constitutional Court, and therefore asked for precautionary measures. The request was denied Wednesday. There are 6 organizations that qualified to run compaigns for “sí” and 6 for “no.” There will be demonstrations by both sides el domingo, 10/2 in central Girón.
Schengen visas – German Pres. Frank-Walter Steinmeier met with Pres. Moreno to talk about a commercial agreement between the two countries. Moreno also pushed for extending the Schengen visa to Ecuadorians as part of the agreement with the EU since citizens of Perú and Colombia, which have also signed the same agreement, can get Schengen visas. Pres. Steinmeier promised support for Ecuador to get economic aid from the international community.
TAME – TAME will permanently abandon the Cuenca-Guayaquil route as unprofitable with few passengers. The only way it would take the route back is with a federal subsidy so it could operate without losses. TAME has also suspended its Quito-NY flights, and flights to LIma and Bogotá. It plans to concentrate on domestic routes <just not one that serves Cuenca>. The Dirección Nacional de Aviación Civil (DAC – National Directorate of Civil Aviation) presented an incentive plan for airports to revitalize domestic flights with lower operating costs to reduce fares. <You think those savings will really get passed on to passengers?>
And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –
Jeanne
