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I am leaving Ecuador tomorrow after a rich but difficult experience with many up and downs … (one of the downs being is that we are leaving the country with still 2.5 months of salary due); though the summit was a success in terms of its own dynamic, we discovered that the president of the country didn’t even know of the existence of the FLOK, and that one of our funding ministers even blocked his officials from attending until one day before the summit .. 15 attempts to talk with our two funding ministers about a supposedly strategic effort went unheeded .. nevertheless, there are also good sides: one is that lower level officials, those that feel the need to remain faithful to the ideals of the civic revolution, are enthusiastic and are working on pilot projects; the other is a number of civic movements intent on continuing the effort such as our friends at Diabluma and the associated rural-urban coalition; amongst the most inspiring efforts is that of Mario Andino, the mayor of Sigchos, the third poorest district in Ecuador, who just bought a 2,200 ha. domain to experiment with open agriculture, and that is at least partially a direct result of our interventions, this will happen with or without the government … and then we leave a cultural and political legacy in terms of the ideas; here is a sample reaction that I received, and that makes me very happy:
