Sabado, 16/7/2016: UN report on Ecuador human rights, Jewelry workshop, Home burglary gang arrested

Sabado, 16/7/2016

Hola, Todos –

Pagina cultural –

Recommended books for the week –

Poesía (Edición bilingue) – Author: Michel Houllebecq – Publisher: Anagrama

La Noche de la Usina – Author: Eduardo Sacheri – Publisher: Alfaguara
Yo antes de ti – Author: Jojo Moyes – Publisher: Suma (As I’ve said before, no translations because if you’re going to read the book, you ought to be able to read the title.)

Agenda items –

Galería – Ceramics workshop at La Galería Estudio de Arte until Aug.  Call 099 440 6146 for more info.

Joyería – A jewelry making workshop for youth who want to learn the art.  Course lasts 1 month.  Go to CIDAP for more info.  Cost: $120.00

Esculturas – Terra cotta sculptures by Pablo Ortega are showing in the Galería Salón del Pueblo at CCE.  (I’m going to make you do a little work and bury the translations for the item headings in the context of the article.  No pain, no gain – right?))

Revista – “Sutano y Mengano”, a magazine dedicated to the literary creations of youth was presented in the library (Manuel Muñoz Cueva” in the CCE last night.

Arte – The 7th Street Art Festival will be in Cuenca from 27/7 to 3/8 in the plazas and other public spaces a well as in the parishes.

Jazz – A jazz season opens with a concert by German pianist Andreas Reuter this Wed. in the teatro Pumapungo.

Articles about –

Daniel Coka – The performance artist’s work, “Cain,” consisted of his kneeling behind a showroom window at the CCE in military camouflage, patent leather high heels and lipstick with his lips glued to the glass.  Reactions from his viewers included hostility and from one girl – a return kiss through the glass.  He stayed there for 5 hours. (Can you get cramps in your lips?)

Alena Cárpova – The artist from Belarús is exhibiting her paintings at República Sur. The show opened this past Thur. night.

“Traficombo” – The 37 minute film is a fictional documentary (isn’t that an oxymoron? I thought documentaries were non-fiction by definition.  Or has it become a style?) on the subject of migration.  It covered the areas of the journey and visas, money, family and culture.  The film was used at forums in 16 parishes since it is a subject that affects many people.  (Both leaving and coming to Ecuador although I think the forums focused on outbound migrants.)

Proyectos de Diseño en UDA – Starting this Mon., students in the School of Design at UDA will show their final projects in the Museo de la Ciudad (former Escuela Central).

Otras cosas – 

Titular – Cae posible banda de roba casas (Possible gang of house robbers falls) – A police raid netted 7 people who were part of an alleged gang that robbed houses in Cuenca and Azogues.  The police found home appliances, electronics, car accessories and 2 motorcycles reported as stolen.  The robberies, in which a gun was used, were in the areas of Machángara, Ricuarte, Hermano Miguel, Gil Ramírez Dávalos y Bella Vista, Cayambe, Yanuncay, El Batán, San Sebastián, Monay, y El Salado.  During the first few months of the year, there were between 75 and 80 house robberies a month, but currently, this has been reduced by 50%.

Public announcement – Street closure – The Media Vía (Middle way?  Maybe it’s self explanatory once you see it.) of Calle de Las Arepas at the intersection with Calle Los Alfeñiques in the Jesús del Gran Poder Sector in the Ciudadela Jaime Roldós will be closed temporarily from 16/7 to 17/7.  The closure is so ETAPA can do improvement work on some beams for a cover to a chamber housing a distribution valve (or something like that.) The No. 25 bus will also be affected.

Water cut-off – A large chunk of El Centro will be without water until 22:00 Sat. and with intermittent service from 22-24:00.  (I hope you read the public announcement yesterday and haven’t been calling your landlord or ETAPA every 5 minutes to complain.  And for those of you wondering if you remembered to pay the water bill, it’s not you.  It´s the Tranvía.)

Libertad de expresión – The Human Rights Committee of the UN has expressed its worries about various laws that have the effect of suffocating (hint) —-> freedom of expression. (I think you could find more on this in the English language press than I could translate for you.)

Semana del Jubilado (Retired Persons Week) – Part of the activities for the Week which starts tomorrow, is a round table on “Quejas y problemas de memoría asociadas al adulto mayor” (Complaints and memory problems associated with the elderly.)   (I could certainly speak to that.  My excuse is that filling my head with Spanish has left less room for remembering where I put the crescent wrench.)  The round table will be in the Dirección Provincial del IESS at 9:30.

Bakery inspections – the Agencia Nacional de Regulación, Control, y Vigilancia Sanitaria (ARCSA) (National Agency of Regulation, Control and Sanitary Inspection) is inspecting large scale bakeries for proper food handling and sanitation.  Bakeries can be fined up to 10 times the basic salary (over $3,500), but can avoid paying it by asking for a hearing and then promising to comply with ARCSA recommendations. (Sounds like the high fine is to make sure ARCSA gets the bakery’s attention and understanding that public health is a serious matter.)

Airport – The DGAC (Civil Aviation Agency) has approved the repairs to the runway. The 1,900 meter long runway will be milled and recapped for 15 m. of its width.  It is hoped that this will allow the restrictions on flights when the runway is wet to be lifted. Mayor Cabrera is hoping to arrive at a legal solution with the company that did the improvements this past Feb. to see if they can do this new work.  He has already met with the Attorney General’s and the Comptroller General’s offices for a legal opinion. According to the current plan, the work will start between 8/8 and 15/8, but the definite dates will be announced later this month.  (Go ahead and live dangerously.  Book your Thanksgiving or Christmas or Chanukah or Kwanzaa trip to the US flying out of Cuenca.)

Discuentos y compras –

GMO “heart” “eye” (I don’t know if the heart and eye symbols are part of the optometrist’s name which I’m assuming is GMO) – up to 50% off on frames and sunglasses – Borrero 718 y Sucre and Plaza las Américas, local 1, inside the Supermaxi.

SuperStock – 10, 20, & 25% off selected merchandise, 10% off coffee makers, rice cookers, spice grinders, juicers, toaster ovens and blenders – Av. Las Américas y Juan Larrea.

And that´s all for today so Hasta Lunes –

Jeanne