The unofficial web page of the greater Cuenca expat community

Nards Barley wrote:

mugtech wrote:

Not to knit pick, but could Nards, if elected, actually be sworn in and serve as president of Ecuador, being foreign born and not a citizen?  This might be the first step a campaign manager would take in considering such a run for office.

No, I will probably have to settle for being president of the Cuenca Expat community. I appreciate the suggestion nonetheless.

Quite the honor also, I would think you would run with little or no opposition.  An excellent resume enhancer.

Who is accepting campain (sic intentional) contributions?

mugtech wrote:

Not to knit pick, but could Nards, if elected, actually be sworn in and serve as president of Ecuador, being foreign born and not a citizen?

Yes, Nards will need to apply for EC citisenship.

But there's time.

While you're chewing on this, consider visiting the new Expat.com thread titled "Top Reasons to Elect Nards Barley Presidente in 2017."

cccmedia, Quito operative, Draft Nards Barley for Presidente in 2017

I have followed with some interest the lawsuit that Ecuador has pursued against Chevron, Not sure why since I don´t particularly have a dog in this fight. Maybe because this has been one of President Correa´s personal jihads and the fact there is a a lot of money at stake keeps me interested.

It also could be I am subconciously rooting for Chevron to win ever since ever since one of the editors of Cuenca Highlife called me an ideologue after I told him that I disapproved of his copying and pasting an article from Huntington Post that was clearly biased against Chevron. Of course, I handed the editor his ass when I emailed him back a portion of the biography of the author:

Previously she worked in the Clinton Administration for Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo, at the Democratic National Committee under the late DNC Chair Ron Brown and for former U.S. Congressman and Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy of Mississippi. She serves as the U.S. spokesperson for the Ecuadorians suing Chevron for oil contamination and closely follows issues impacting low-income communities in the U.S. and abroad.

To cut to the chase, I am pleased to provide an excerpt to the article titled "Chevron Takes Ecuador's Government to Court". While the columnist is a right wing ideologue, she does make some good points.

New York federal judge Lewis Kaplan ruled last week that Chevron may “conduct discovery” regarding a $6.4 million contract between the government of Ecuador and MCSquared, a Brooklyn, N.Y., public-relations firm. Score another victory for the oil company over plaintiffs seeking to blame it for environmental damage in the Ecuadorean jungle.

I went on a date recently with a real Ecuadorian woman who speaks no English.  I decided what I wanted to see and the time of the movie by reviewing the multicines website.  Apparently, the movies are in English with Spanish subtitles if the synopsis indicates "subtitulado". Otherwise the audio is in Spanish without subtitles of any kind.

I went early in the day to the Mall del Rio to buy the tickets which cost me $5 a piece. Two large cokes and a big thing of popcorn cost me $6.75. 

The movie I saw was called Interstellar starring Matthew McConaughey.  The movie was entirely in Spanish and I would say I understood about 50% of the dialog which I would say is piss-poor considering the amount of time I and money I have spent trying to learn Spanish

The movie ended around 11:45 p.m.  There were no taxis available at the mall so we walked home which was less than a mile. After I dropped my lady friend off at her house, three stray dogs accompanied me the 1/2 mile walk home.

P.S.
I can´t recommend that movie. It was too damn long and too slow. Maybe if I understood more of the dialog, it would have been better.

Was there damage in the Ecuadorian rain-forest?  Could we possibly know for sure? If there was, then Chevron is clearly to blame and should make every effort to cleanup the damage.

As I have seen so much of this kind of thing perpetrated by oil companies I am inclined to believe that Chevron created a problem. In my mind the onus is on them to convince the public that they are innocent.

Nards, do you know for a fact that they are innocent of any wrong doing?

MikeGB wrote:

As I have seen so much of this kind of thing perpetrated by oil companies I am inclined to believe that Chevron created a problem. In my mind the onus is on them to convince the public that they are innocent.

Guilty until proven innocent, not the USA way

MikeGB wrote:

I am inclined to believe that Chevron created a problem. In my mind the onus is on them to convince the public that they are innocent.

Nards, do you know for a fact that they are innocent of any wrong doing?

No, just as I don´t if the Ecuadorean state oil company who was Chevron´s partner is innocent.  Of course the villagers probably aren´t allowed to sue the state oil company. Chevron claims that "much of the damage was done after Texaco left in the early 1990s, actions for which it should not be held responsible." Has this been refuted by evidence?

Also undermining the credibility of the judgment against Chevron is the fact the  U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued an opinion on 4 March 2014, concluding that Donziger corrupted the Ecuadorian case by submitting fraudulent evidence, coercing the judge, paying off a supposedly impartial expert, paying a Colorado consulting firm to write the expert's report, falsely presenting the report as the expert's own work, bribing the judge to give a ruling against Chevron and then misleading the US courts in an attempt to prevent exposure of his wrongdoing.

While there are no assets to seize in Ecuador, and it is unlikely the U.S. will enforce the judgement, there are apparently lawsuits in Canada, Brazil and other places where Chevron has assets that could be seized.

mugtech wrote:

Guilty until proven innocent, not the USA way

Not the USA way?   When someone gets arraigned for a criminal act what do you think is happening?   The lawyer then has to prove them innocent; otherwise, you know what happens. Isn't this implying guilt from the get-go? They would not even be arraigned if they weren't perceived to be guilty.

Nards:  Based on what you have said there seems to be a reasonable doubt that Chevron may not be at fault (in this particular case). Or perhaps they are both at fault. Who knows?

I was just surprised that you would take such a defensive position for an oil company where there have been so many failures by these types of companies (Texas & the Juan Valdez for examples).

MikeGB wrote:

mugtech wrote:

Guilty until proven innocent, not the USA way

Not the USA way?   When someone gets arraigned for a criminal act what do you think is happening?   The lawyer then has to prove them innocent; otherwise, you know what happens. Isn't this implying guilt from the get-go? They would not even be arraigned if they weren't perceived to be guilty.

No, the DA has to prove them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
The verdict "not guilty" certainly does not mean "innocent"
In many cases it means the guilt cannot be proven.

MikeGB wrote:

I was just surprised that you would take such a defensive position for an oil company where there have been so many failures by these types of companies (Texas & the Juan Valdez for examples).

Yes, extracting minerals from the ground to fulfill the needs of our society can damaging to the environment and its inhabitants.

P.S.
I consider myself the counterbalance or watchdog of the Cuenca pundit class, although I usually don´t feel up to writing anything.

P.S.
I consider myself the counterbalance or watchdog of the Cuenca pundit class, although I usually don´t feel up to writing anything.

Write, Nards, it is always good to have other opinions.

Mike

An article from El Comerciotoday discussing the impact of the new labeling guidelines on comsumption prompted me to post the following photo I took a few week ago:



Some of my health nut friends have told me for some time that granola is basically junk food although I figure it has to be better than Captain Crunch or Fruit Loops.

One would think a producer of granola could make their product low in sugar and still be profitable. I will switch to the first producer of an oats-based granola low in sugar.

quito0819 wrote:

P.S.
I consider myself the counterbalance or watchdog of the Cuenca pundit class, although I usually don´t feel up to writing anything.

Write, Nards, it is always good to have other opinions.

Mike

The thing most surprising for me about the publicity campaign against Chevron, is Sean Penn didn´t appear in it.  They had Danny Glover, Cher, Sharon Stone and of course Mia Farrow (below).  The ads always shows them reaching down into the ground to scoop up oil and then showing their hand to the camera. I wonder if that will be possible in the Yasuni National Park after drilling finishes there?

Farrow was reportedly paid almost $200k for her part.

Which is probably more than the native people will ever see.

There seems to be no doubt that there was environmental damage, the questions revolve around who (Texaco or PetroEcuador) caused how much, what the cost of remediation really is, and how honest the trial was.

While cruising the internet in my continued role as the watchdog of Cuenca's pundit community (bloggers, ebook publishers, webmasters, etc) I stumbled across somewhat interesting:

I noticed I can read articles posted by Edd Stanton on International Living´s website using my Android based cellphone, but cannot using my Windows based PC.

If you have a cellphone or tablet that is not windows based try reading the following article and then click on his name to read other articles:

http://internationalliving.com/2014/11/ … n-ecuador/

This could be intended by international living or it could a loophole. In any case, I recommend you cancel your subscriptions for now and read the magazine exclusively on your cellphone or tablet if you can.

P.S.
Mugtech, feel free to resume your summaries of important IL articles if you wish on Ecuador, assuming you have a device capable of reading them.

Nards Barley wrote:

P.S.
Mugtech, feel free to resume your summaries of important IL articles if you wish on Ecuador, assuming you have a device capable of reading them.

Thank you, Nards, was waiting for your OK to proceed.

Nards Barley wrote:

I noticed I can read articles posted by Edd Stanton on International Living´s website using my Android based cellphone, but cannot using my Windows based PC.

What browser were you using and what version is the browser?

It works fine with Google Chrome, Firefox & Internet Explorer (on Windows 7).

mugtech wrote:

Not to knit pick, but could Nards, if elected, actually be sworn in and serve as president of Ecuador...?

The above-quoted post opens the door for the all-time "nit-pick."

This term -- which is a verb meaning to make minor criticism -- originally comes from the act of removing the tiny eggs of lice (nits) from a person's hair.

Hence, Mugtech has now been nit-picked for his "knit-pick."

(source: worldwidewords.org)

cccmedia wrote:

Hence, Mugtech has now been nit-picked for his "knit-pick."

(source: worldwidewords.org)

You have achieved a meta-nit-pick -- not easy to do.

I'm a big fan of worldwidewords -- I subscribe to their weekly newsletter. Much nerdish fun.

cccmedia wrote:

.

Hence, Mugtech has now been nit-picked for his "knit-pick."

(source: worldwidewords.org)

Yes I have, for my knit-pick has nothing to do with your nit-pick, as I do not have lice.
Knit-pick comes from the German tradition of knitting to while away the long winters in the Bavarian Alps.  The important thing was to keep knitting to keep one's hands warm and lose.  What you knitted was of little consequence because it was the act itself which was the main focus.  However, during the long cold winters people tended to get on each other's nerves, and it got to the ridiculous point when couples would argue about what they would knit, what colors they would use, etc.  Since none of this mattered, when people in the future brought up "who cares" points about subjects, in the Bavarian Alps they were called knit-pickers.  Here in Pennsylvania we have a lot of German traditions, Pennsylvania Dutch is really PA Deutsch, hence the knit-picking.

Do not underestimate my influence on the Cuenca Expat Community, my friends. The Cuenca pundit class does read me. I am confident in saying that after reading the following post on the website Gringo Tree Gold Mining Operationswas inspired by my recent trip to the movies:

atch Movies In English At Multicines
Posted on December 3, 2014 by GringoTree | Comments Off
MULTICINESMulticines is one of Ecuador's leading cinema chains, and has two easily accessible locations right here in Cuenca!

They currently have several movies that are playing in English throughout the week, including The Hunger Games: Mockingjay (Part 1), Horrible Bosses 2, and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.

With your Multicines card, you can earn points towards special prices, get 2×1 tickets on Wednesday, and enjoy discounts on items from the snack bar!

Multicines is located in the Millenium Plaza shopping center and in Mall del Río. To see what movies are playing, visit the Multicines website and selected Cuenca from the drop-down menu. Movies that have “Subtitulada” listed will be shown in their original language. Tickets can be purchased at the box office or online.

The part about the movies being "Subtitulada" confirmed it for me.

So Wednesday is movie night.

MikeGB wrote:

Nards Barley wrote:

I noticed I can read articles posted by Edd Stanton on International Living´s website using my Android based cellphone, but cannot using my Windows based PC.

What browser were you using and what version is the browser?

It works fine with Google Chrome, Firefox & Internet Explorer (on Windows 7).

I use Chrome on Windows 7. If I click on that link the article appears, but if I click on the author name and then try to read other articles, a pop-up box appears asking for a username and password.

Edd has not posted anything on his blog since July, is on extended USA visit, said he will be back next year.

Oh. I wonder if he is writng articles for IL from the U.S. There are articles by him on IL recently dated.

Nards Barley wrote:

I noticed I can read articles posted by Edd Stanton on International Living´s website using my Android based cellphone, but cannot using my Windows based PC.

If you have a cellphone or tablet that is not windows based try reading the following article and then click on his name to read other articles:

http://internationalliving.com/2014/11/ … n-ecuador/

This could be intended by international living or it could a loophole. In any case, I recommend you cancel your subscriptions for now and read the magazine exclusively on your cellphone or tablet if you can.

The article posted on 11/26/14 was his generic article, he could have written that one last year.
2 people living well on $2,000/month does sound updated.

mugtech wrote:

[
The article posted on 11/26/14 was his generic article, he could have written that one last year.
2 people living well on $2,000/month does sound updated.

That makes sense. If you update the information in an article, then the date should be updated as well.  IL should be able to use Said's articles for another 20 years, easy.

P.S.
I was hoping Said would reach out to me and offer to bring 2 pairs of Old Navy 31x30 jeans with him back.  I am hoping this pant size will be as low as I go. Of late I am eating more often at a local Ecuadorian restaurant that always gives you at least three sides that are carbohydrates.

Nards Barley wrote:

I use Chrome on Windows 7. If I click on that link the article appears, but if I click on the author name and then try to read other articles, a pop-up box appears asking for a username and password.

Click anywhere outside the login box and it will disappear allowing you to read the articles.

MikeGB wrote:

Nards Barley wrote:

I use Chrome on Windows 7. If I click on that link the article appears, but if I click on the author name and then try to read other articles, a pop-up box appears asking for a username and password.

Click anywhere outside the login box and it will disappear allowing you to read the articles.

I click on the outside and the login box disappears and I am left with only the "teaser" paragraph and white screen beneath it with the menus on the left side.

I guess if you share a cab ride they reset the meter once you drop off the first passenger. That sucks......................

Pretty common to see restaurants or stores being shut down in Cuenca for a week or so for not properly issuing invoices (facturas).

A little less expected is to see a web based business (gringotree.com) getting nailed, but apparently it was for not issuing an invoice immediately after someone placed an ad.

Apparently gringotree.com is hosted in Scottsdale Arizona so pulling down the webpage was done by management and not by the tax agents.  (That may be simply were the domain is registered?)

Nards Barley wrote:

Apparently gringotree.com is hosted in Scottsdale Arizona so pulling down the webpage was done by management and not by the tax agents.  (That may be simply were the domain is registered?)

GoDaddy provides both domain-registration and web-hosting services (and others). One of my nephews works for them, so I have some awareness of them beyond their well-known raunchy Super Bowl ads.

Nards Barley wrote:

MikeGB wrote:

Nards Barley wrote:

I use Chrome on Windows 7. If I click on that link the article appears, but if I click on the author name and then try to read other articles, a pop-up box appears asking for a username and password.

Click anywhere outside the login box and it will disappear allowing you to read the articles.

I click on the outside and the login box disappears and I am left with only the "teaser" paragraph and white screen beneath it with the menus on the left side.

I see what you are saying. They have designed the website to force you to create an account and login in order to read the full article. There are lots of sites that play these games. They want you to login so they get your email address. Some sites then sell your email address to advertisers to make money. Personally, I hate this kind of site and steer clear of them.

Incidentally, this site works exactly the same on my cellphone as it does on Win 7.

Hearts of Gold foundation had their Christmas gala recently and a friend of mine was telling me and an other gringo about the event. 

One thing she said that I immediately latched on to was the fact that she met somebody named xxxxxxx who was very nice and high up in the expat community (paraphrasing). I said how does one get high up in the expat community and the other gringo present said he wanted to know that as well.  She said she didn´t know and moved on to another topic.

That brief exchange between my friends demonstrated to me that indeed Cuenca expats are concerned about where they stand in the pecking order and are thinking about how they can elevate their standing within it.

The "Cuenca pecking order"  is not something official or published, but rather is your own subjective opinion about where you stand against other expats in terms of importance, based on knowledge of the country or the culture.

While you alone define where you stand against the rest of the Cuenca expat community, the following are examples of how an expat may decide about their positioning.

You live in Gringolandia? you suck
You don´t shop at Feria libre? you suck
You don´t use the public bus system? you suck
You aren´t studying Spanish? you suck
etc.....................

Speaking of sucking, while rendering peep services today, a Columbian woman told me my Spanish was awful. I basically agreed with her, but said do not fault me for a lack of effort.........

I also said there are plenty of expats of misrepresent their level of Spanish.

Nards Barley wrote:

That brief exchange between my friends demonstrated to me that indeed Cuenca expats are concerned about where they stand in the pecking order and are thinking about how they can elevate their standing within it.
.................

Why?  Sounds way too USA to me

I think it would be great if we could have a ranking of expats - like in the service academies.  Then I would know who the important expats are and not waste my time with lesser lights...