NEWS - ARCHIVEPlease find here the weeky news of the last months. Latest News - Archive 2007 - Archive 2006 2006: January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - October - November - December
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As in the United States and some European countries as for example
Spain and Italy, the 28 percentages of Ecuadorians that are used
to smoking will soon have to change their smoking habits: Since
the beginning of 2006, clearly apparent warnings have to be printed
on the cigarette packages. Now the congress has introduced further
projects to reform the law against drug abuse. According to these
bills, smoking in public will be prohibited, i.e. cinemas, elevators,
theatres, lecture rooms, schools, high schools and offices will
be declared smoke-free areas. Smokers will have to abandon their
cigarette also in airports, holding areas of public transport facilities
and in restaurants. Unlike in other smoke-free countries the law
will also prohibit the often used alternatives of creating special
smoking rooms. On the one hand side, these restrictions are meant
to control the high consummation of tobacco in Ecuador, on the other
hand they are meant to protect from second-hand smoking.
In the next few days, Quito will begin with its realization of a
new law. It concerns the displacement of turnstiles at the urban
bus stops and also in supermarkets. For many disabled people, but
also for elderly persons, pregnant women and mothers with children,
the turnstiles are a big barrier in supermarkets and in public buses.
They have to walk detours because in most cases all accessible ramps
are situated close to other separate entrances. Up to now, people
in wheelchairs can use the entrances of the Ecovia and Trole (buses
with their own lane), but all other hindered persons have to use
the turnstiles, and with them, they have always great difficulties.
63 Ecuadorian tourism service providers from all different regions
of the country introduced themselves last week from 19 to 21 April
at the seventh edition of the „Bolsa Internacional de Turismo
del Ecuador“ (BITE) in Cuenca. Also present at the fair where
72 international operators who sell Ecuadorian tourism products
– particularly companies from Europe and North America. The
purpose of the event is to enhance the whole spectrum of the Ecuadorian
tourism sector – hotels, travel agencies and non-profit tourism
organizations are as present as providers for trekking tours or
extreme sports. The exhibitors seek to foster the contact to their
international business partners, and also want to advance the cooperation
between them. A new feature this year is an internet-platform (www.bitecuador.org),
which allows the participants as well as the buyers to get in contact
and fix arrangement already in the run-up of the event. According
to Leonardo Durán, president of the BITE, the main objective
of the fair was “negotiating and selling”. And here
the good results from the previous year speak for themselves: 50
% of all international participants last year were able to sell
their product straight after the event.
Last week the conference for signing the “San Francisco”
declaration took place in Quito, where more than 20 South American
and Arabic countries made agreements about economic issues. The
meeting of the economic ministers is the continuation of the arab-south
american cooperation which was initiated the year before with a
summit in Brasil. The aim of this get-together is to identify common
fields of economic interests and to determine respective strategies
for implementation. At the conference in Quito the question of how
to finance these projects is being discussed. The majority of these
investments will be done in the energy sector, whereas the petroleum
industry constitutes the most important area. “At the moment
we are evaluating possible strengths and resources of each participating
country. Then we will go over to search for convergences in certain
areas and try to arrange bilateral treaties” explains Nancy
Bakeer, secretary for economic issues of the Arab League.
Ecuador´s president Alfredo Palacio took also part in the
big Latin American-EU summit from 11 to 13 May in Vienna. He already
had explained in the run-up of the event that the ongoing political
instability in Ecuador only can be overcome by creating more social
equity and doing investments in education and health. In this context
he justified once again the policy of concluding free trade treaties
with the USA and the EU in order to achieve economic growth. This
neo-liberal strategy, which is also pursued by Colombia and Peru,
already led to the secession of Venezuela from the Andean pact –
the profound political differences between the countries were also
apparent during the EULAC summit in Vienna. The leader of the Ecuadorian
indigenous movement “CONAIE”, Blanca Chancoso, sharply
criticized the policy of her government in a speech at the contra-summit
“Enlanzado Alternativas 2” which was being held at the
same time in Vienna: The free trade treaties were a “crime
against the economic development of Ecuador” where parties
of unequal strengths would be negotiating. The government intentionally
had contributed to the collapse of the Andean pact as the conclusion
of free trade treaties with third parties infringe upon its rules.
After the recent nationalisation of the oil production in Bolivia
the Ecuadorian oil industry is also being afflicted by disturbances.
The Californian oil extraction company Occidental, which extracts
around one fifth of the Ecuadorian oil production, sold 40 % of
its contingent to the Canadian enterprise Encana in 2000 and therefore
violated the conditions of the contract. After six years of disputes
about the contract and rising protests of the indigene people in
the areas of Sucumbíos and Orellana (Amazonia) which hold
a rich supply of oil resources, Ecuador declared the contract with
Oxy as invalid, annihilated the rights to deliver oil and confiscated
the plant locations. Washington reacted with the abort of the talks
about the fiercely discussed free trade agreement, for the action
of Ecuador is being considered as dispossession of US-national property.
Meanwhile, the enterprise has claimed for damages amounting to 1
Million USD in front of an arbitral court in New York against Ecuador.
However, Ecuador affirms the legitimacy of its action and seeks
the collaboration with other South American oil extraction companies.
That means that unlike in the neighbouring state Bolivia, no nationalisation
of the oil extraction is being planned, even though the state-run
companion Petroecuador has temporarily taken the complete oil extraction.
On The magazine “New Scientist” reports in its newest
issue about a unique phenomenon which was discovered on the Galápagos
Islands: Iguanas vary the body size during their lifetime, depending
on food supply. Martin Wikelski from Princeton University first
thought of a measurement error. However, as the animals lost around
20 % of their body size over a longer observation period, a mistake
could be excluded. Wikelski presumes that this is to be due to the
fact that for iguanas big body size is of advantage in pairing seasons
but of disadvantage in periods of food shortages – therefore
nature has equipped these animals with the special function of varying
their body size according to the current environment. Physically
the shrinking of the vertebrates can be lead back to degradation
of bone. Medicals and astro-scientists became interested in this
phenomenon as astronauts suffer from bone degradation while they
are staying in orbit. Also osteoporosis researchers are fascinated
of the iguanas that can arbitrarily change the volume of their bone
substance. 
Today
starts the 20th congregation of the council of the Andean Community.
‘Si
se puede!’ (Yes, it’s possible!) – This traditional
slogan of the Ecuadorian football fans was changed instantly to
‘Si se pudo!’ (Yes it was possible!) on last Thursday
after the victory against Costa Rica. Ecuador has achieved its designated
aim for this world championship and classified for the first time
in its football history for the round of sixteen. With regard to
the countrywide celebrations after the match, however, the Ecuadorians
did not seem at all to be beginners in this matter. The streets
of the Ecuadorian cities thoroughly appeared in yellow after the
final whistle. With chorus of car horns, the Ecuadorians showed
off their enthusiasm dancing and swinging the national flags on
the loading areas of their pick-ups. On the Avenida de los Shyris
in Quito, where the match was broadcasted on a huge screen, the
traffic could not flow for several hours. Remains to be seen how
the temper in the country is going to develop if the ‘Tri’
is able to carry forward its impeccable performance into the round
of sixteen. For the match against Germany the high spirits are guaranteed
anyway, as none of the teams has anything to lose.
At the great age of 176 years, the giant Galápagos tortoise
Harriet died in a zoo in Sydney of heart failure. For sure, her
fellow “Lonesome George”, who is the last living one
of his specimen, has received much more publicity: Living in the
Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz – Galápagos,
he consistently refuses mating with any other female tortoise. However,
the 150 Kilo weighing Harriet has gained celebrity in another way:
Now the last creature that has known to the famous scientist Charles
Darwin has died. In 1835 Darwin visited the Galápagos Islands
as a student. The Archipel inspired him to his later developed theory
of evolution that he published in 1859. He took Harriet and two
of her conspecifics to Great Britain, from where she was taken to
Australia in 1841 by Darwins first officer John Clements Wickham.
There she lived in different zoos until last Thursday. A funny detail
about the relationship between Harriot and Darwin is the fact that
although Harriet contributed a great part to his theory, he never
noticed that she was a girl. This was only found out in 1952 when
she was being moved to the Fleay's Fauna Sanctuary. Then the former
Harry was being relabelled Harriet. 
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