Conversations: to be or not be (Ecuador) Quito (The following conversation took place about three years, while our TV broadcast a program called "The Best of Ecuador" in which, by votes taken via cell phone or web page was chosen to such an illustrious citizen. And as good Ecuadorians, the program was not an original idea but a repeat of something that the British had done before and which took its case to the winner Sir Winston Churchill and Princess Diana in third place.)
José Antonio: Actually, these programs do not ... I do not know, I seem a waste, everyone will be trying to demonstrate the sanctity of their candidate and will be more of a alharaquiento show a real attempt to delve into the identity or "indientidad" ours to find valuable things. Carlos Andrés: is that so are the Ecuadorians guess who is among the options? JA: Mmm ... "Jaime Roldós , I suppose? CA: already gone. You see, the problem is that you're not Ecuador. JA: ??
(To all this must be added that the party of Carlos Andrés was not born in Ecuador but has always lived here, have this nationality and it alone, and has nowhere to identify with another country. On another issue, according to a friend who travels a lot, cause fewer problems traveling with no documents to identify themselves as Ecuador).
JA: Eeehhh ... I do not understand. CA: is that if you say these things is that there are Ecuadorian. If you were Ecuadorian, would you have chosen a politician or an artist? JA: Ah! Ya, I know: Guayasamín. CA: Did not I tell? There are Ecuadorian. JA: right? But I ... CA: No, if you were Ecuadorian, if you thought as Ecuadorian, would you have chosen someone with artists recognized by the elites, as a painter ... or someone who pursues more popular, say music? JA: Do Miño Naranjo brothers? But they were two, and I do not know the names of any ... Or you chose the director of the symphony or something? CA: This is more difficult than I thought. You see, you try for a moment think like Ecuador. Would you have chosen a classical musician, baroque, cultured , or an aisle? JA: ... the Ecuadorian Paquita? CA: One who died to take a lot ... JA: ! "JJ ?
(Fondo musical: what's on the agenda of Polo Baquerizo when one participant wins something)
CA: Welcome to Ecuador! Julio Jaramillo, our nightingale of America, which spread their seed, but not always their surname for the whole Ecuadorian coast. JA: Well, at least chose not Gerardo Mejia, right?
(Epilogue: JJ did not reach the 10 finalists , plus it really did not die of cirrhosis. The winner was Eloy Alfaro, alias "the old fighter, now raised and socialized in the XXI century . Jefferson Perez was left with the silver medal and Guayasamín in tenth place).
should also be added that the conversation was slightly edited and tweaked based on what was left of it in my memory, but a companion faithful and I have enough confidence. Hopefully the other part of the dialogue does not contradict me if you read this.
Fest Day 3: in-ter-na-cio-nal victory And this year the organizers of QuitoFest took to make 3 days concert instead of the traditional 2. Very good initiative, which was partly frustrated by weather but went on: as the day before had not been able to provide half of the bands, he joined the entire international lineup that was missing. There was one exception, Zoe of Mexico, I was not lack of will but scheduling problems by the date change. So we had a 5 band 5.
Cienfue of Panama, has a sound very Latin, very passionate, mixed with rock and folk very well. One of the last songs they played was a guitar that reminded me to "The Prisoner" by Fruko and Tesos. This is one of the bands for letting me thank QF presented. They have a page PanamáRock and another in MySpace in MS can hear some of their songs.
The Etnnia, Bogota. Make hip hip y también hacen hop hop. Personalmente no me aportaron demasiado. 
Gondwana, de Santiago, con el que debe ser el cantante de reggae más blanquito que he visto. Casi tanto como sus impecables zapatos. Yo no había escuchado nada de ellos, ni siquiera rumores, pero alguna gente del público parecía ser bastante fanática de los regueros (¿se les dice así a quienes hacen reggae ?) chilenos.
Los Amigos Invisibles. Is one of those bands that you thought did not know, but plenty of issues he had heard on the radio proved to be his "love is to love", "in 4", "drive a * to" and some others in that wave. It was fun and danceable, yes sir.
Then came Plastilina Mosh! They were supposed to play next to last, but stayed to the end. In the photos and videos I've seen of PM is only two dudes with glasses and somehow expected and feared to see them on stage surrounded by synthesizers, made tasty crushed every time a button. But nothing to do: drums, video (VJ, they call it), and four moved between strings, keyboards, voices, shouts, jumps, gestures. A full band and unleashed. How to get to skip one too and forget about the photos.
This day does not rain (there was nothing after Flood the second) but it seems perfectly understandable if some of the looks Attendees note a slight feeling of distrust. Or at least some interest in seeing what will happen next.
From the third day, I prefer the first and the last two bands . And quite happy with the final results of the concert. That includes the occasional photo.
The 5th I do not think anyone has caused surprise election results last week. La campaña constante y omnipresente del Gobierno, el descontento de la gran mayoría con los políticos de la “oposición”, la polarización utilizada y promovida, algunas obras, algunas dádivas, alguna gente valiosa entre sus cuadros, la utilización y simplificación de iconos como Eloy Alfaro o el Ché y el chantaje de “si votan no o nulo les quitamos el bono y subimos el gas” finalmente dieron resultado y el SÍ obtuvo una cómoda victoria. Al menos por un par de semanas estaremos libres de campaña.
Yo creo que la victoria del SÍ tendrá, entre otras consecuencias, el darle más poder a gente que, quizás obnubilada its good intentions, is exercised improperly. People who had failed to respect the limits imposed by laws that allowed them to come to power, or they themselves defined in the laws that created once there. In the first case, excused themselves with the wonderful phrase "is not legal, but legitimate", which left almost in the subjectivity of who rules at that time to decide what can be done and what not. Why do we need laws then? In the second, it created a law for anyone to finance his own campaign and avoid those who have more money than the winners (which, lest we forget, they had in the first round), but contradicted blatant misuse by government propaganda (with money that belonged to everyone) that obviously benefited his party's candidates. Then again disrespecting their own rules by autoadjudicación Assembly powers and functions for which it was chosen, in an act of abuse of power beyond the installation of "pichicorte." Incidentally, it took away time at the assembly to draft the constitution, we were assured, was an essential step towards building a more just society. And it was not "right", but Alberto Acosta, the first to recognize that the quality of the text suffer the lack of time. He said to retire from the presidency of the Assembly.
And the story of recent years is full of politicians who would not respect the limits to his power. There are some who now call themselves opposition and shamelessly pretended to be champions of the law, trying to forget that they did the same in turn. The terrible thing is that as a result many people seem to believe that past abuses of power justify the current (classic example: the argument of "ah, but X did the same and nobody said anything , so now do not protest) , or calling attention to any irregularity is a sign unequivocally agree with the dishonesty of the previous rulers. Not, at all. But polarization, sponsored by the President since the first round, makes us believe that recognizing the mistakes and abuses of a regime makes us advocates of "above." For people who are now in power, it seems that it is possible for example to agree with the ideals of 'left' without accepting under the table meetings with investors and representatives of Congress cheats, or support government initiatives but require that respects the law. The "all or nothing" when they play them to earn more power, yes, but it is negative for society as a whole leaves us with one hand, the custom of "taking sides" and justify everything you do on behalf of an ideal (the "revolution" for example), and another with the impossibility of establishing dialogue between different banks of ideology.
Rafael Correa has said that the "'party" is afraid of elections. But it is not very clear what you mean by this. When your Minister Fernando Bustamante said the only condition that other parties have to be included is to win elections, it sounds very logical. However, this overlooks that, although we regret, many of the representatives of these parties had already won elections while the current and future President. Only at the time they are suspended regardless of the details if any livestock. On the other hand, when it comes to defending other governments with whom he apparently shared ideology, Rafael Correa has no qualms in saying that in democracy is not necessary to have elections every four years . Strange coming from someone who seeks to legitimize his power held every two.
And more immediately, is the party that has never ventured to nominate candidates for deputy, their assembly first took on this role without any right (and I stress this: leaving aside his primary responsibility was drafting the new constitution, which was adopted about 50% in two weeks and about 100 articles in one day.) And then they were unable to deliver the new constitution, which had been developed considering the common good, only the satisfaction of having met and become: put a condition that, if approved, would settle a temporary conference with Assembly in where the government has a majority. This has given the "miracle" that a President has a majority in Congress for a considerable period of time without having to go through the cumbersome process of nominating candidates. Who is afraid of elections?
The concern is that these acts (which not unique to this government) are causing more and more people are willing to accept that any skill is valid candidates struggle for power . So it is very possible that the next ruler used similar excuses to grab power over what is put forward. We'll see what they say then who justify these tricks today.
But that will have to wait between four and eight years, so you might already have forgotten.
