More international weeks, Tram deadline Sept. 30, 2018, San Francisco Plaza update, Azuay Province is top orchid competition winner, Public works

Miércoles, 6/12/2017

Hola, Todos –

Pagina cultural –

Today’s agenda event –

Magazine launch – The first issue of the Revista Casa Tomada was Wed. in the Pálier Café-Libro in the CCE. The magazine is the project of an Cuencanan group of writers.

Upcoming and ongoing agenda events –

Convocatoria – The CCE is asking for submissions for its 2018 publishing program to be in by 5/1 .

Teatro – “Nemo” was played Tues. y Wed. en la Sala “Alfonso Carrasco”. It’s about 2 women who were removed from power and “desterradas” (banished – your word for the day).

Articles about –

Semanas Internacionales – To date, 21 countries have been invited to the International Weeks which started in 2014. The year will close with Brasil. There were cooking and samba classes Wed., and the week will close on el sábado with danza, música, and gastronomia demonstrations from 10:00 in the plaza de Santo Domingo.

Next year’s challenge will be inviting African countries and Australia. Most of the connections are through the embassies and some of the International Weeks have led to further relations between the country and Cuenca. For example, Cuenca is working with South Korea on credit to build electrolineras (gasolineras for electric vehicles) towards the end of bringing electric buses to Cuenca. <Wouldn’t that be a boon – no diesel buses fouling the air right at nose level.>

From Latin America, Perú, Colombia, México, Chile, Argentina and now Brasil have participated. Still lacking from S. A. are Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia. <I guess Venezuela and the Guayanas weren’t even invited to the party.> Central American countries which haven’t participated include Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Pánama. Indonesia is one of the countries on next year’s list. <It was the featured country at CIDAP during the Independencia celebrations.>

CCE – The 2nd phase of the “Diálogo Social Nacional por la Cultura” (ACAY – All Cognates, All Yours) started today in Cuenca. <Cultural bureaucracy.>

Christmas music – There was a concert of Christmas music from all over Latin America Wed. in MMAM with 2 singers, percussion, piano, and accordion. <Remember last year’s Christmas word – villancicos? Google it if you forgot. Actually I think it was a word from 2015.>

González Suárez – This Jesuit priest, historian and archeologist, and author of “Historia General de la República del Ecuador” (ACAY) died on 1/12/1917 and and in honor of the 100 anniversary of his death, Casa Tomada arranged a conference this morning.

Otras cosas –

Titular – Corre plazo para la ruta del tranvía (Term for the tram route running) – The contract to finish the tram was signed Tues. The new projected completion date is 30/9/2018. <Think you’ll be riding the tram to do your holiday shopping next year? Too bad English doesn’t have a subjunctive tense.>

Public benefit works – The Cantonal Council approved collecting $5,600,000 for works benefitting the general public from the citizenry <property owners? Usually the easiest and fastest source of money.> in compliance with rules requiring recovery of costs for infrastructure, improvements and equipment benefitting the public. These projects include the Narancay platform, casas comunales, retaining walls, and road improvements. The council did not address another $5 million that EMAC EP invested in 19 parks.

Investments – KAC, the South Korean government business that currently operates 14 airports in the country is studying investing in 3 Ecuadorian airport terminals and other real estate. The Ministry of Foreign Trade took its “Invest Ecuador” show on the road. KAC has also offered Ecuador a space at the Gimpo International Airport in Seoul to promote its national products. <Drums of oil with tuna, shrimp, hats, flowers, chocolate and coffee sitting on top. Plus a few leaves of super foods like moringa.> Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power has also shown interest in possible investments. This company generates 40% of the electricity that S. Korea uses. President Jae-in Moon will visit Ecuador in julio, 2018 after the G20 summit which will be in Argentina.

Road work near plaza – As part of the remodeling of the plaza de San Francisco, calle General Torres is getting repaved between Sucre y Pres. Córdova. The plaza was named Plaza Gil Ramírez Dávalos in 1909 and the sales stalls, mostly of wood, were allowed the same year. The 10 de Agosto market was built in 1953, but the SF Plaza merchants didn’t want to move. Since the 50’s, the desired use for the plaza has been as a space for public events. <I wonder how long it will take for the merchants to start cobbling up a reproduction of what was demolished using their new movable kiosks as the base?>

Orquídeas – Ecuagenera won 38 of the 76 prizes at the 2nd World Orchid Conference in Guayaquil and also won 5 of the 7 first prizes. Ecuagenera forced over 1,000 species, 500 of them their own hybrids, to flower out of season for the show. The show was attended by over 30,000 scientists, professionals, students, business people and more from 47 countries. Other competitors included Singapore which came with 4 containers and Thailand which brought 21 people to assemble their exhibit. Other Azuayan growers also won medals so that 60% of the prizes went to Azuay. It’s estimated that Ecuador has over 6,000 species of orchids of which only 4,200 have been identified and published. This shows the necessity of more work and research to avoid their destruction.

Amenidades –

“Yo soy Guerrera” (I am a Warrior) – This program will receive hair donations el jueves desde las 9:00 hasta las 14:00 en el aula Magna de la Facultad de Jurisprudencia (Law) at the U. of Cuenca. There will be a fashion show el viernes a las 18:30 in the Mall del Río food court. A medical conference will be el sábado a las 10:30. At 8:30, also el sábado, recipients of wigs and make up and donations from beauty queens will be at the aula Magna.

And that´s all for today so Hasta Mañana –

Jeanne