Reblogged from lickypickystickyfree
A decade ago, Ecuador was a banana republic, an economic basket case. Today, it has much to teach the rest of the world.
By: Jayati Ghosh
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Ecuador must be one of the most exciting places on Earth right now, in terms of working towards a new development paradigm. It shows how much can be achieved with political will, even in uncertain economic times.
Just 10 years ago, Ecuador was more or less a basket case, a quintessential “banana republic” (it happens to be the world’s largest exporter of bananas), characterised by political instability, inequality, a poorly-performing economy, and the ever-looming impact of the US on its domestic politics.
In 2000, in response to hyperinflation and balance of payments problems, the government dollarised the economy, replacing the sucre with the US currency as legal tender. This subdued inflation, but it did nothing to address the core economic problems, and further constrained the domestic policy space.
A major turning point came with the election of the economist Rafael Correa as president. After taking over in January 2007, his government ushered in a series of changes, based on a new constitution (the country’s 20th, approved in 2008) that was itself mandated by a popular referendum. A hallmark of the changes that have occurred since then is that major policies have first been put through the referendum process. This has given the government the political ability to take on major vested interests and powerful lobbies.
The government is now the most stable in recent times and will soon become the longest serving in Ecuador’s tumultuous history. The president’s approval ratings are well over 70%. All this is due to the reorientation of the government’s approach, made possible by a constitution remarkable for its recognition of human rights and the rights of nature, and its acceptance of plurality and cultural diversity.
Consider just some economic changes brought about in the past four years, beginning with the renegotiation of oil contracts with multinational companies. Ecuador is an oil exporter, but had benefited relatively little from this because of the high shares of oil sales that went to foreign oil companies. A new law in July 2010 dramatically changed the terms, increasing the government’s share from 13% to 87% of gross oil revenues.
Seven of the 16 foreign oil companies decided to pull out, and their fields were taken over by state-run companies. But the others stayed on and, as a result, state revenues increased by $870m (£563m) in 2011.
Second, and possibly even more impressively, the government managed a dramatic increase in direct tax receipts. In fact, this has been even more important in revenue terms than oil receipts. Direct taxes (mainly corporation taxes) increased from around 35% of total taxes in 2006 to more than 40% in 2011. This was largely because of better enforcement, since the nexus between big business and the public tax administration was broken.
Third, these increased government revenues were put to good use in infrastructure investment and social spending. Ecuador now has the highest proportion of public investment to GDP (10%) in Latin America and the Caribbean. In addition, social spending has doubled since 2006. This has enabled real progress towards the constitutional goals of free education at all levels, and access to free healthcare for all citizens. Significant increases in public housing have followed the constitution’s affirmation of the right of all citizens to dignified housing with proper amenities.
There are numerous other measures: expanding direct public employment; increasing minimum wages and legally enforcing social security provision for all workers; diversifying the economy to reduce dependence on oil exports, and diversifying trading partners to reduce dependence on the US; enlarging public banking operations to reach more small and medium entrepreneurs; auditing external debt to reduce debt service payments; and abandoning unfair bilateral investment agreements. Other efforts include reform of the justice system.
One exciting recent initiative is the Yasuní-ITT biosphere reserve, perhaps the world’s first attempt to avoid greenhouse emissions by leaving oil underground. This not only protects the extraordinary biodiversity of the area but also the habitats of its indigenous peoples. The scheme proposes to use ecotourism to make human activity compatible with nature.
All this may sound too good to be true, and certainly the process of transformation has only just begun. There are bound to be conflicts with those whose profits and power are threatened, as well as other hurdles along the way. But for those who believe that we are not condemned to the gloomy status quo, and that societies can do things differently, what is happening in Ecuador provides inspiration and even guidance. The rest of the world has much to learn from this ongoing radical experiment.
Zach Wahls Speaks About Family
(Source: youtube.com)
(watch from 6:54)
Olivia: The thing is that sometimes you’re the girl and I’M the guy, that’s just how it is sometimes.
Craig: You’re the most awesome girl in the world! you shouldn’t feel bad about yourself at all, you’re AWESOME!
Olivia: Oh! I don’t, just at night, when i’m alone
xD
Bullfights are an essential part of the Fiestas de Quito which start at the end of November and last until the 6th of December in order to commemorate the founding of the city in 1534. There are nine days of bullfights held at the Plaza de Toros in Quito. However, this was the first year that the killing of the bull in the arena was made illegal. On May 7, 2011, Rafael Correa’s referendum was passed making it illegal to kill animals for entertainment.
I was interested to participate in this cultural tradition, but also had a good amount of fear of what I was going to witness. I am not a fan of animal cruelty or seeing anything suffer and I definitely don’t like to see blood or gut or anything of that nature.
After attending the bullfight and seeing it for myself I decided to do a little more research and really understand what I had seen. Now I am not trying to put forth an opinion just stating the information that I found and what I saw.
A bull fight consists of 3 parts each signaled by the playing of a bugle. The first part is when the bull is let out into the arena and taunted by the assistant matadors using pink and yellow capes (this I found interesting because I always thought they used red capes to anger the bull but it turns out that bulls are terribly colorblind). Then the horn sounds which signifies the second part where men on protected horses known as picadores enter the ring. Their purpose is to drive their lances into the bull’s back and neck muscles in order to cause severe blood loss for the animal and impair the animal’s ability to lift its head. Then come the banderilleros who dart around the bull and stick banderillas, sharp, barbed sticks into the bull’s back. These are meant to anger and weaken the bull even more. In the final stage the torero appears (matador in English terms) in order to kill the bull. He has a red cape and a skinny sword which he uses in the hopes of stabbing the bull to its death in one swift movement through the heart.
My opinion: Like I said before I am not a fan of animal cruelty and after doing some research and also editing through the pictures I had taken I realized how cruel and gruesome bullfighting is. I read through information that disclosed some of the torture methods they use on the bulls before they enter the ring which really saddened me to say the least. It is said that 250,000 bulls each year are killed because of bullfighting.
As part of my experience, there were parts that I could have lived without seeing and parts that excited and scared me at the same time. Being in the bull ring was an experience in itself and a great way to see the culture of Ecuador, its people, and this year long tradition. I had a hard time watching the bulls be tortured and stabbed to the point of pure exhaustion and confusion. I was happy to have them not kill the bull in front of us but towards the end it became boring and prolonged because the bull was clearly tired and beaten down from the fight but because they couldn’t kill it they continued to run it. The first bull that was let lose was filleted open by the picador, exposing over a foot of its insides along its spine. This was heartbreaking because the animal was alive and was unaware of what was going on. The following bulls went through the normal bull fighting procedure as listed above. A difference in the bullfight I saw was that there was a man on a horse who chased and poked the bull in two different occasions. This was terrifying because the bull would get so close to the horse that you were sure the horse was going to get hurt. There were 8 bulls at the fight I saw which apparently is more than normal. Even though the bulls cannot be killed in public they are killed afterwards which some argue causes even more suffering to the bull. This I am not really sure about, however, I can now say that I have been to a bullfight and whether you are for or against them it is part of the culture and something to experience. Will I go to another bullfight again? Probably not, one was enough and I don’t think I could handle seeing the torment of innocent animals again for the sake of peoples’ entertainment.
Deudocracia en Grecia y la solución de Ecuador
(Source: youtube.com)
How X-Men: First Class Should Have Ended (by HISHEdotcom)
