Viernes, 23/12/2016: Parade begins at 10, Odebrecht scandal dominates the news, Law will protect indigenous seeds

Hola, Todos –

Pagina cultural –

Today’s agenda events and a past event –

Galería – The Arte Mashca Gallery is opened its spaces to independent artists to show and sell their work.  It is located at Luis Cordero 5-48 y Honorato Vásquez.

Teatro infantil – The students at the CEDEI School performed el martes y miércoles anterior (curve ball – anterior is another way of saying past or previous) in the Teatro Pumapungo.

Upcoming agenda events

Encuentro cultural (A cultural encounter) – Navidad en los Andes (Christmas in the Andes) is being held through Sat. the plazoleta of the Unión Nacional de Educatores.  There will be 25 exhibitors offering cultural, craft and food items as well as demonstrations of dance, music and crafts.  (This sounds muy turistico.  It’s also for those of you who leave Christmas shopping until the very last minute.)

CIDAP – CIDAP is finishing a proposal for a pilot project to create spaces for transmitting ancestral knowledge.  There will be an event this martes próximo at 11:00 in the Museo Artesanal of Gualaceo of CIDAP (av. Loja s/n y av. Parador Turístico) – so if you need to find out how to get there, you don’t belong there? S/N is sin numero – no street number)

Articles about –

An interview with Teodoro Jerves – the author has written “Mi Pueblo y la Tradición Andina” (My People and the Andean Tradition) which will be available in early 2017.

Robótica – The Año Viejo contest in at the UPS was won by Cazafantasmas (Ghostbusters).  The XII Años Viejos Burning Bots 5.0 Contest was organized by students in Electronic Engineering, Electronics and Automation, Mechatronics, and Computation (the Geek Sciences). For the first year, the contest was open to to other schools, and received entries from the Técnico Salesiano and Rosa de Jesús Cordero Schools.

Festival de Bandas de Pueblo (Festival of People’s Bands) – The band festival will be in the Plaza Cívica Nueve (9) de Octubre Sat. from 16:00-18:00.

Otras cosas – 

Titular – Coimas de Odebrecht causan revuelo (Odebrecht payola causes a stir – more like the financial and political equivalent of the April earthquake.  Political fallout is starting.) The government did not rule out corruption (How could it without looking really stupid?) and asked the US to reveal names.  (This looks like an opportunity for the US to meddle in Latin American politics just by selectively releasing names.)  Odebrecht was kicked out of Ecuador in 2008 by Pres. Correa for technical deficiencies its work on the San Francisco hydroelectric project which was contracted in 2000 by the Government of Gustavo Naboa  (Note that “the Government of” refers to whomever occupies the president’s office.  The Opposition are those who are opposed to the Government.)  The expulsion was done in spite of pressure by Brazil which finally recalled its ambassador. (I guess Odebrecht had enough juice to pressure the Brazilian Foreign Ministry into pressuring Ecuador, but not enough juice to make Ecuador do what it wanted.) The Brazilian pressure worked and Odebrecht was allowed to work again in Ecuador in 2010.

Obras de Beneficio General (General Benefit Projects) – This month, the Cantonal Council Urban approved that property owners will pay $5,005,214 in property taxes for General Benefit Projects such as paving and parks.  In julio, 2017, they could approve another package for $3 million.

Ley de Agrobiodiversidad, Semillas y Fomento Agroecológico (Law of Agrobiodiversity, Seeds and Agroecological Development) – The law will be approved early next year once the prelegislative national dialogue is complete. Various organizations of campesinos have asked for the free circulation of native seeds and regulations for imported seeds.  They want a test period before the imports can be commercialized to make sure imported seeds don’t put native seeds at risk.

The representative for the Plurinational and Intercultural Conference for Food Sovereignty proposed incorporating 5 points:  to recognize native seeds as a patrimony of the people and communities in the service of mankind; incentives for organic and ecological agriculture; protection of the paramos and health; promote the use of ancestral and countryside seeds to defend food sovereignty; and a guarantee of the free flow of native seeds.  This would not include the free flow of any illegal seeds. (Sorry, but this law won’t include any marijuana farmers.  You’ll still have to trade your seeds under the table.)  Franklin Colomba from Fenocin wants the law to include the consensus reached in 24 provinces.  He said other topics such as certification of seeds and sanctions against those bringing transgenics into the country are not clear.  4.300 people including social organizations, academics, students and seed specialists took part in the commission that reviewed the law. (Sounds like a lot of these provisions are a defense against the big agro-chemical companies.  Hopefully with TPP stopped, the country won’t get sued for loss of potential profits the gorilla could make by selling GMO seeds here.)

CNE (Consejo Nacional Electoral) – A test of the Transmission and Publication of (Election) Results System was conducted in Azuay, Pichincha, Guayas, Manabí, Los Ríos, Galápagos and Santa Elena.  (Think maybe there’s not enough internet signal in too much of the Oriente to use this system?)  Azuay transmitted from The Results Processing Center in Milchichig.  Another sort of test will be in Guayaquil el próximo 28/12.  The system will be used in the February 19 national election.

Parade assembly – From 16:00 Friday., the right lane (next to the river – but aren’t there two right lanes depending on which direction you’re driving?) will be closed at the Sagrados Corazones School.  The left lane will be dedicated for emergency vehicles only.  (So the whole street will be closed.) At 23:00, all the intersections of Simón Bolívar will be closed and the people who distribute bread and chicha and the security stations will be at their assigned locations at 5:30.  The parade starts Sat. at 10:00 and goes along av. Tres de Noviembre to Simón Bolívar and to Huayna Cápac.  (If you live in that area, plan your day carefully.  I wouldn’t want to be a tourist in an El Centro hotel, trying to get a cab to the airport about noon Saturday.  If you are a tourist with minimal luggage, it would probably be faster to walk to the airport.)

Business page – Renault and Easy Taxi are joining to promote the new Renault Twizy, a 100% electric car recently presented in Ecuador.  A lucky Easy Taxi user might be surprised to be picked up by a someone driving a Twizy.   (It’s a b&w foto, but if you painted that thing yellow it’d look like a lemon on wheels – with gullwing doors.)

Amenidades –

Movies – As usual, go to www.multicines.com.ec for show times and locations.  The following movies open this week.
2D Sing ¡Ven uy canta! – Esp.
2D Pasajeros – Esp. y Sub.
2D Permitidos – Esp.

The following movies are continuing.
2D & 3D Star wars rogue one – Esp.
2D Star wars rogue one – Sub.
2D Fiesta de Navidad en la Oficina – Esp. (Would that be UTube videos of young adults in their first jobs who have not yet learned that office parties are work and not for fun?)
2D Savva y el dragón de fuego – Esp.
2D Inframuno guerra de sangre – Esp.

Internacional –

Colombia – The leader of FARC issued a complaint that the Army had violated the cease fire.  9 soldiers encountered a group of guerrillas who were gathering to go to the location where they could turn in their weapons and demobilize.  The tense situation lasted over 2 hours, but the guerrillas abstained from opening fire. (Testosterone versus testosterone – but estrogen won?)

And that´s all for today so Hasta Domingo –

Jeanne