Weak Democracy in Ecuador- Taking it to the Streets

First hand reports form Ecuador tell me that this was a non event in ecuador but itsn't the opposite equally true ? Isn't it the only game in town? Theatre of the absurd. Photographs from the demonstrations in Quito; the Ecuadorian capital that led to Ecuadorian President Lucio Gutierrez's inevitable ouster." Terry

Waging Peace-Building a model of Transparency one brick at a time

Be sure to click here and visit the Carter centre and see the video that shows just what a visionary Jimmy Carter actually is.

Most people in the world agree on what a great guy Jimmy Carter actually is. My uncle who is a lawyer in Canada actually got to meet Carter in the White House when Carter was President of the United States and he autographed an autobiograophy he had written with the following quote- "Don't complain don't explain just get even"-Jimmy Carter.

I suppose there is a story behind this I should tell. It is the story of one of the most wanted men in American at that time. Robert Vesco who perpretrated the largest fraud in US history and was running from the law. He had set up his corporation in the maritimes in the city of Saint John a sleepy economic backwater away from public scrutiny and used my uncles law firm to do it.

Carter supeonaed my uncle in the investigation to the White House. Vesco has since been apprehended. And my uncle says he has escrow over his accounts but he is owed money so if he ever moved a dime of the billions he defrauded from investors he would get first crack at it to pay his legal fees. That is one of the peculiarities of being a lawyer I guess some times you defend some pretty questionable people as long as they pay you that is.

My uncle said it was quite a defense he got to go to Geneva on the Concorde and at times Vesco would show up in Fredericton in a plane to meet him on the runway with the engines still running in case the Mounties showed up. My uncle said he was never sure where he would wind up when they met.

Jimmy Carters 2002 Nobel Peace Prize

President Gustavo Noboa invited The Carter Center to work with his government to combat corruption in Ecuador and to develop partnerships between the political and social sectors. Ecuador is ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in Latin America, according to Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index, and partisanship has slowed development.

The Center's Americas Program and Conflict Resolution Program began a project in spring 2000 to identify the issues dividing the country and bring national leaders together to discuss them. The issues were modernization of the state, fiscal decentralization via an autonomy law, and continuing corruption in the government and private sector. In late 2000, the Center worked with the political elites and experts to seek common ground on these issues.

Transparency International Secretariat

One thing about development in the third world that fascinated me in my years in Ecuador is how our mentality is tied to petroleum base culture. What do I mean by this you may be asking. Well Ecuador has been transforming itself as a result of the discovery and development of its oil and gas reserves.

To put this in perspective the entire proven and probable reserves of petroleum based products in Ecuador is equal to the daily consumption of the USA in one day. Thats right folks all the gas burnt in the US in one calendar day 24 hrs.

But when you go to the capital Quito. You can clearly see the section of the city that is shopping malls franchises like MacDonalds and cinemas playing Star Wars and inside the grocery store are consumption based goods things literally flown in from the USA at American prices. And it's all because of oil. A consumable highly distributable commodity.But changin the way we do things happens one person at a time.

Even we are mostly made of carbon and that carbon comes from billion year old dead stars. Supposedly petroleum comes from old fossils also millions if not billions of years old. They say there is about a thousand year supply left in the earth of fossil fuel but we may have to stop using it well before it runs out because of global warming. Sometimes I look at the ruins of Machu Pichu and think about the civilization that ran out of sacred time that was its very engine. Our civilization replaced those civilizations that sprang up independently with a monolithic one by destroying nature to buy back time. Might we meet a similar fate, might it be when we cease to rely on carbon based products?