New gasoline contains ethanol, Federal budget submitted, Arrest ordered for ex-comptroller

Martes, 8/8/2016

Hola, Todos –

Pagina cultural –

Today’s agenda event –

Short films – A selection of nationally and internationally known short films from Azuay will be shown hoy, a las 20:00 in the CCE. Free.

Upcoming and ongoing agenda events –

Planes de Lakomuna (Plans of Lakomuna) – This is the last week of an “artistic action” planned by this cultural center. There was an exhibit at 11:00, a percussion class, and at 19:00, there will be a presentation of the “Wasi Masi” project for a community mural at “La Chacra” Independent Library at the “Residencia LaKomuna.”

Festival de cantautores (singer/songwriters) – “Festival de cantautores y propuestas folk” will be el jueves, viernes, y sábado a las 19:30 in the Sala “Alfonso Carrasco” at the CCE.

Articles about –

Community memories – A room next to the “Manuel Muñoz Cueva” Library in the CCE has become a space where every jueves, barrios can come to share their histories. The Federación de Barrios hopes to assemble the stories in a book “El libro de los barrios no tradicionales” (The book of non-traditional barrios).

Rural parish memories – The research project, “Memorias parroquiales rurales en la Red de Bibliotecas Municipales” (Rural Parish Memories in the Municipal Library Network), seeks to recover cultural memories held by people in rural parishes. The final result of the project will be a book of previously unpublished stories that capture the essence of the parishes.

Poemario – “Estaciones,” a book of poetry by Juan Fernando Auquilla was launched last night.

Día de la Cultura – Day of Culture will be celebrated with the official opening of the Sala Nacional de Etnografía at the Museo Pumapungo. The director and curator of the Museo Etnográfico de El Vaticano will be in attendance.

CCE – The CCE had a forum at 17:00 and the opening of the exhibit “Anecdotario Visual” by doctor/artist James Pilco.

Otras cosas –

Titular – Venden avión presidencial y bajan salarios (Presidential plane sold and salaries lowered) – Pres. Moreno submitted a budget for 2017-20 to the Asamblea ayer with expenditures of $36.818 billion. The Assembly has 30 days to respond. He announced the sale of one of the presidential planes and government owned luxury vehicles. <Oh, Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz.> He is also reducing salaries of upper level public servants by 10%. <Are these the folks at the level where they can make it up with money from businesses like Odebrecht? At least Moreno is starting the belt tightening at the top and not at the bottom.>

The deficit in 2017 is estimated to be $4.7 billion with a growth in GDP of 0.7%. This is based on oil prices at $41.69/barrel. The proposed budget assigns $5.199 billion to education, 2.779 to health, 1.770 to internal affairs, 1.683 to national defense, 1.156 to urban development and housing, 1.048 to social well-being, and 1.039 to communications which are the principal expenses. <Rather nice to see military expenses behind education and health.>

Projected income would be $14.760 billion in taxes, 1.609 in other taxes and contributions, 3.322 in transfers from public companies and the Central Bank, 3.421 from transfers and donations of capital and investments and 11.670 from public financing. <I don’t understand the sources of income and am translating literally where there are probably technically correct terms.>

New gasoline – Ecopaís is at most gas stations in Azuay, Cañar and Morona Santiago, and replaces Extra with no price change. The gas is 87 octane on average and contains 5% ethanol made from sugar cane. <I think it’s the cane waste after it’s crushed for sugar making. Although maybe it would be better to put the cane in the tank instead of around our waists.> Cars running on Ecopaís will be less polluting, but owners should change the gas filter and clean carburetors or fuel injectors more often.

Odebrecht – A National Court judge has issued a house arrest order for Carlos Polít, ex-Comptroller, who has been in the US since last mayo, and charged him with “concusión” (soliciting a bribe). He allegedly received $10.1 million for issuing favorable reports on 5 Odebrecht projects. <I imagine with $10 million he could stay on the beach in Miami for the rest of his life.>

And that´s all for today so Hasta Mañana –

Jeanne