IT'S OFFICIAL!Today's the day, and Ecuador hits the voting booths ostensibly to decide whether it wants that new constitution cooked up by a roomful of people earlier this year. Ostensibly, because if you believe everything you read you'll also be voting
- for your own President, who says he'll resign if 'Yes' doesn't win through
- against the Ecuadorian oligarchy, who will somehow disappear without a trace over the next 24 hours.
- for a piece of paper that encapsulates the indigenous people's concept of 'Good Living' in harmony with nature and all that jazz. How this reconciles with the 500,000 barrels of crude oil that Ecuador pumps every day has not been explained so well.
- for a constitution that will allow gays and lesbians to kill babies and be rewarded with gov't handouts (errr....I think that was how the local Catholic church pitched their argument, but might need to check again).
- to allow Hugo Chávez to literally...LITERALLY* buy Ecuador for one dollar and then sell it to the Chinese as a source of slave labour.
One thing to note. In the 48 hours before any national vote in Ecuador campaign broadcasts are prohibited (quite right too). But Correa came up with a subtle doozy yesterday just to remind Ecuador he's the big boss, the foreign Johnnies don't push Ecuador around while he's in charge .. respect.... pride... yada yada... in the world stage. Newswire EFE reports that Odebrecht (the company Correa just kicked out for doing crappy hydroelectric dam construction and ripping the country off to the tune of U$200m) has come crawling back to him via a letter that says the company "accepts all the demands made by the gov't (of Ecuador)". Correa went on to say that he received this letter unilaterally and is now studying the proposal.
This is a cracking piece of news to broadcast on yesterday's radio show. Ecuador now goes to the polls en masse with the "Correa loves us like children and is looking after us and he's so sexy too and...and...and...". Could Lula have 'suggested' to Odebrecht that a friendly e-mail to Studmuffin wouldn't be a bad idea, all things considered? Naaaaaah...surely not.....
Whatever. Correa wins today, but let's see by how much. IncaKola is in da house, on top of the story and in the game. Check back here tonight for news as it happens in Studmuffinland.
*Sinead
This is a cracking piece of news to broadcast on yesterday's radio show. Ecuador now goes to the polls en masse with the "Correa loves us like children and is looking after us and he's so sexy too and...and...and...". Could Lula have 'suggested' to Odebrecht that a friendly e-mail to Studmuffin wouldn't be a bad idea, all things considered? Naaaaaah...surely not.....
Whatever. Correa wins today, but let's see by how much. IncaKola is in da house, on top of the story and in the game. Check back here tonight for news as it happens in Studmuffinland.
*Sinead