An American Military Veteran in Ecuador: CNT: Now that we have gotten our internet situation corrected, I feel I can safely and calmly share the craziness with you folks.
As many of you may remember, there was an entire month (plus a few days) that we were without internet. It wasn't for lack of trying. Here is what happened. The neighbors had internet through a local company by the name of Corporación Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (or CNT for short). Since they had it through that company, we thought it would be easy to go with the same company. Thought.....
My caretaker took me to the local CNT office and we found out the different steps it would take for us to get the new service in my name (we do not have our permanent residency visa completed as of yet). To hear the first office we visited tell it, all we would need is my passport, the phone numbers of the neighbors, and a bank account locally to which CNT can charge the expenses. Sounds easy enough right?....http://gidj.blogspot.com/2013/11/cnt.html
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Ecuador Implements "World's First" Countrywide Facial- and Voice-Recognition System
...A decade ago, implementing a sophisticated countrywide speech and
face recognition system would have been a far-fetched prospect for all
but a few of the world’s richest nations. But Ecuador’s embrace of the
technology shows how the times have changed. According to Speech
Technology Center’s CEO, Mikhail Khitrov, “we’re seeing a growing demand
for these kinds of tailored voice and multi-modal biometric
solutions—not just in Latin America, but in the global marketplace.”
(Earlier this year the company’s U.S.-based president Alexey Khitrov told me that its biometric technology is used in more than 70 countries and that the Americas, Europe, and Asia are its key markets.)
In the hands of a crooked government, sophisticated speech and face
recognition tools would prove useful for tracking down political
dissidents and building biometric databases on activists or probing
investigative journalists. SpeechPro says, for that reason, it only
works with “trusted law enforcement agencies.” However, the company has
been accused
of selling to brutal authoritarian security agencies in countries like
Kazakhstan, Belarus, Thailand, and Uzbekistan. And it’s likely human
rights groups will be anxious to hear that Ecuador has now been added to
the list, given that the country’s authorities have a less than sparkling record when it comes to corruption, accountability, and abuse of powers....http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/12/12/surveillance_ecuador_implements_speech_technology_center_s_facial_and_voice.html
Someone dies on an EC road every two hours. Every ten minutes, someone is injured.
El Universo - Domingo, 3 de Noviembre, 2013
Perhaps not surprising given the way people drive here. Ecuador has the second highest traffic fatality rate in South America (behind Venezuela). Someone dies on an EC road every two hours. Every ten minutes, someone is injured.
The leading cause of traffic accidents in Ecuador is driver inexperience or recklessness (51%). Drunk driving is the second most common cause (9%). According to one study that looked at figures between 2008 and 2012, there have been an average of 4,872 deaths and more than 56,000 injuries each year.
http://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2013/11/03/nota/1669291/cada-2-horas-alguien-muere-vias-pais
Gratitude Strengthens the Heart, Mind, Body and Soul - 03/15/2013
Here is my reply to a recent question about moving to Ecuador in the future, on one of the many many Ecuador groups & forums:
Bienvenido = Welcome "John & Jane Doe" I was a 45 yr GA. Native, trying to squeak out another 45 yrs in EC.
mostly in Quito, but I got Friends and Family all over Ecuador's 3 Big
C's:
Bienvenido = Welcome "John & Jane Doe" I was a 45 yr GA. Native, trying to squeak out another 45 yrs in EC.
mostly in Quito, but I got Friends and Family all over Ecuador's 3 Big
C's:
Cotacachi - Cuenca - Coast that allow me to hang out with them fairly
regularly. I agree w/ the above big ft. post, "No it ain't easy, if it
was easy everybody would be doing it." It's a big step not to be taken
lightly.
Do your due diligence research - good - bad & ugly, read &
research any and everything you can get your hands on, absorb it like a
sponge, weigh it out & shake it out.
I have seen folks come down 2-3 times over a 2-3 yr period, and it
still not work out, and go back after a year or 2....and I've seen them
come in w/ the young'uns, dog and 15 check bags, never b4 been to a
Latin American country nor EC and assimilate and do just fine.
You gotta want it, and want it sooo much w/ all your heart - mind -
body & soul, if you can get into that frame of mind, then all the
lil pieces can usually fall into place for you.
Everybody
wants answers & responses that tells them exactly what you're going
to get & expect from Living in EC, but obviously that's not
possible, as the Auto Mfg's say: "your mileage may vary"
But,
I for one am a Very Thankful-
-JourJa Boy to be living in ECUADOR:
Dr. Cynthia Thaik
Gratitude reminds you of what truly matters in life. It is all too easy to get ...
...Gratitude is one of the most important foods for the soul, as it has
the ability to enhance and maintain happiness and well-being, and this
in turn nourishes the mind, body and spirit. Being thankful for the
things you have and appreciating both the good and the bad in your life
has the power to transform the way you actually live your life.
When you
are constantly reminding yourself of what you have to be happy for, you
will be happy. And when you're happy, you can live a longer and
healthier life. In fact, a study at the University College London revealed that elderly people who were happy with their lives lived up to 20-35 percent longer
than their not-so-happy counterparts. Now, that alone is something to
be thankful for. The following are some reasons why gratitude is so
important:
• Gratitude reminds you of what truly matters in life. It is all too easy to get caught up in day-to-day stresses and take for granted the things that are important to us. If you remind yourself each day of the things you are thankful for, you begin to focus more on the important and less on the superficial.....See More:
• Gratitude reminds you of what truly matters in life. It is all too easy to get caught up in day-to-day stresses and take for granted the things that are important to us. If you remind yourself each day of the things you are thankful for, you begin to focus more on the important and less on the superficial.....See More:
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Ecuador vs. Social Network Slander 16 OCT 2013
By on Wednesday, October 16, 2013
In Ecuador, if you slander or libel another person, including a government official, you’re guilty unless and until you prove yourself innocent.
President Rafael Correa won hundreds of thousands of dollars a few years back as a result of a lawsuit against Banco Pichincha. Last year, he also won against a Guayaquil newspaper, El Universo. ....
...Even those inside the country can post to social networks without ever being traced. They can set up a throwaway email address with false personal info at Gmail, Yahoo! Mail or Outlook.com, then create a false account at Facebook or Twitter based on that email address.Yes, it’s against the terms of service to do that. But Facebook has over one billion users; Twitter over 500 million. It’s unlikely that either one will ever notice a fake account until someone directs them to it. And then what? Track and hand over the IP addresses used to make the defamatory remarks? Not without a court order in the United States.
- As further protection, anyone intent on defamation will use a proxy service to hide his/her IP address when posting to social networks. That adds another round of court orders in a country where Ecuador has no jurisdiction.
If the video camera idea is a no-go, since they’ll only monitor a portion of the population, checking ISP logs is similarly impractical. The fact is that with so many methods available to hide one’s true identity, it is very difficult to catch and accuse anyone who doesn’t want to be caught.
So it will likely remain impossible, in Ecuador at least, to sue someone for slander on social networks hosted outside of the country.
What’s left? Censorship, à la China and even developed nations such as Australia.
The only way the Ecuadorian government will ever be able to control slander on Twitter and Facebook will be to censor Twitter and Facebook. Restricting access to social networks would invite accusations of repression of freedom of speech that the Correa government may not be able to gloss over, but other nations have shown that it can be done.
However, a far easier course of action would be to decriminalize defamation, and let the Ecuadorians, particularly their politicians, grow a thicker skin...http://panampost.com/jeff-johnston/2013/10/16/ecuador-vs-social-network-slander/
Friday, November 1, 2013
TAME Airlines direct flights from Guayaquil GYE to New York JFK - 22 NOV 2013
TAME Airlines announced it will begin direct
flights from Guayaquil to New York beginning November 22. There will be
six weekly flights between the two cities using Airbus A330 planes. On
December 13, a seventh flight will be added.
TAME Ecuador from 22NOV13 is resuming service to the United States, with 6 weekly Guayaquil – New York JFK operation on board Airbus A330 aircraft, in all-Economy Class configuration. From 13DEC13, the airline will add 7th weekly service on this route.
EQ550 GYE1415 – 2035JFK 330 x2
EQ551 JFK2255 – 0525+1GYE 330 x2
Service increases to daily from 13DEC13
http://airlineroute.net/2013/10/31/eq-jfk-nov13/
TAME Ecuador to Start Guayaquil – New York JFK Service from late-November 2013
TAME Ecuador from 22NOV13 is resuming service to the United States, with 6 weekly Guayaquil – New York JFK operation on board Airbus A330 aircraft, in all-Economy Class configuration. From 13DEC13, the airline will add 7th weekly service on this route.
EQ550 GYE1415 – 2035JFK 330 x2
EQ551 JFK2255 – 0525+1GYE 330 x2
Service increases to daily from 13DEC13
http://airlineroute.net/2013/10/31/eq-jfk-nov13/
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