Hola Mi Sola Lector!
-Una cosa muy interesante acerca de que Ecuador todavía no he escrito acerca de la nueva constitución ... El cerebro del niño de R. Correa =) Aquí en Ecuador es obligatorio para votar! Todo el mundo tiene que! si usted no se le niega una tarjeta de identificación, sin la cual es prácticamente imposible hacer nada! Increíble ¿no?-
One very interesting thing about Ecuador that I have not yet written about is the new constitution... The brain child of R. Correa =) Here in Ecuador it is mandatory to vote! Everyone has to! if you dont you are denied an identification card, without which it is practically impossible to do anything! Incredible no?
The nueva constitition was voted into law shortly before I arrived, and it was a HUGE deal! The brain child of the current president, Correa, there are many very liberal tendencies in the new constitution; just as with most things in politics, there are some good things, some bad things and some neutral things in the new constituion. Interestingly, the approval rating among Ecuatorians for the current president is just about 70% pro, and 30% against.
One of the changes this new consitution has brought about is the institution of free public schools. While overall, this is a very good thing, it has made admission into public schools much more competitive. Medical School is slightly different here as well, compared to medical school in the states. Here medical students take entrance exams for medical schools right after college, it is very competitive, the public schools (Central) which cost much less, are much more competitive than the private schools (San Francisco)... many of the students in the private schools come from upper class families and unfortunately sometimes have a tendency to look down on the students in the public schools... clinical
rotations are shared and pubilc and private school students rotate though all the hospitals together.
Another things the new constituion tries to address is higher standards for medication control. Here anyone can buy antibiotics without a perscription (in addition to many other medications which require a perscription in the states, like sleeping medications), with the insitution of the new constitution this will supposedly be changing as well...
For those of you who are so inclined and are able to read a bit of spanish, here is a link to the contents of the new constitution:
http://www.presidencia.gov.ec/modulos.asp?id=109Here is a good link to news stories about all of Latin America (in english)
http://ipsnews.net/latin.asp-Hay muchos problemas que la nueva Constitución trata de la dirección, muchos de estos son causados por la muy alta tasa de pobreza en el Ecuador ... Un punto que me esta semana, fue que en los EE.UU., entre 2 / 3 y 3 / 4 de la población tiene sobrepeso, en el Ecuador, aproximadamente el mismo por ciento de la población vive por debajo del umbral de la pobreza, que, en el Ecuador, es inferior a un salario vital.-
There are many problems that the new constitution tries to address, many of these are caused by the very high rate of poverty in Ecuador... One point that struck me this week, was that in the US, between 2/3 and 3/4 of the population are overweight, in Ecuador, approximately the same percent of the population live below the poverty line, which, in Ecuador, is lower than a living wage.
It really depends on who you ask, but I believe there are many good things in the new constitution... I suppose we will just have to wait and see... time will tell =)
Eso es todo por hoy! Hasta Pronto!
~Alida
T
raducción:
http://translate.google.com/translate_t#
Another interesting fact about the hospitals in Ecuador - Only public hospitals keep statistics on patients!! Can you imagine... the private hospitals and many of the employee hospitals, do not have any statistics on their patients or patient outcomes! que cosa! no?
