We don't need nor do we want a McDonald's or any other
fast food franchises here in Cuenca. We
don't need nor do we want a pervasive invasion by American fast food
corporations here in Ecuador. We don't
need nor do we want more junk food on the market, when we are living in one of the
most, if not the most healthy food countries in the world. Ecuadorians don't need to fill their arteries
with faux fried and deep-fried foods filled with all kinds of chemicals and preservatives.
Ecuadorians are already growing heavier
from the changes in their diet. Just
walk into Supermaxi or Coral and in the last two years that I have lived here,
more aisle space is given over to candies, cookies, and especially chips and
snack foods of all kinds.
El Presidente and his congress placed high taxes on alcohol. President Correa reasoned that a high
consumption of alcohol by Ecuadorians was a serious health hazard, therefore, the high taxes were
justified. Here are some suggestions to
the government both of Ecuador and of the city of Cuenca; because fast foods,
processed foods, and junk foods are also a very serious hazard to Ecuadorian
and expat’s health as well.
First, keep
the foreign fast food franchises out of the country. Second, if the government won't do that, then
don't allow exemptions from the 35% import tax, even if these foreign
businesses are operating local franchises in Ecuador. Third, at a minimum,
limit all fast food foreign franchises to the malls. Do not allow them to grow into the neighborhoods. Fourth, another suggested alternative would
be to place high taxes on junk foods and fast foods, and in turn not exempt
them from the 12 ½% I.V.A. tax as well. Fifth, through education, instill within the Ecuadorian people a strong national pride of the natural resources of wealth for which they have been truly blessed and their need to protect these resources. Educate the people to just how serious to their health junk food is before it takes hold as a national cancer of ingrained habits. Fifth, too many young people in Ecuador smoke. Smoking has seen dramatic drops over the
years in the United States, because of the increased taxes that make smoking
very expensive. Why hasn’t the
Ecuadorian government increased the taxes on smoking, as they have on alcohol?
The fast food franchises also become a threat to the small Ecuadorian owners as well. Ecuador is one of the few countries that currently has a genuine free enterprise system, which certainly will not be found in today's United States. Economically speaking, the Ecuadorian individual family-owned
chicken restaurants and the locally owned chicken franchises, for example, of healthy
rotisseire chicken don't need the unfair competition of international
conglomerates like Kentucky Fried Chicken, with its deep fried, crud-laden chicken
that may be tasty, but screams body abuse with every bite. There are many good places in Cuenca where
excellent hamburgers can be purchased, the best hamburgers are not found in
fast food franchises, and the same holds true in the United States as
well.
Cuenca is changing too rapidly into another American
entity. Many of us gringos came here to
experience a different culture, a different mind-set, and different ways of
doing things, even if at times we find those differences to be challenging and
frustrating. If there are expats in Cuenca, who
can't wait to see Cuenca become another boring American clone, where across the
continent no matter where you visit the uniformity of life is stifling; if you
are missing the fast food franchises, the malls, and the endless strip malls,
then you need to go back permanently to the states to live, where you can enjoy
the conformity of life as you knew it. It won't matter if you live in Baltimore, Chicago, or San Francisco or any of their suburbs; it will all be the same and you will be contented.
If El Presidente and his national congress, and the city officials of Cuenca really
care about the health of Cuencanos, they would say NO to these franchise
invasions. With a little ingenuity and a
little less corruption by the money these corporations can use to buy into a
foreign market these franchises wouldn't see the light of day in Ecuador. An alternative way of providing for good
health alternatives, jobs, and more tax
revenue in Ecuador can be found. Why
should an alternative way be easy to find, because politicians never have a
problem finding ways to raise new revenues.
Some suggestions for consideration are listed above.
Hopefully, Ecuador
can be a developing country that learns from the egregious mistakes of
developed countries like the United States, and follow a saner path in the
operation of its economy and in the provision of the well-being of its
people. Lung cancer, emphysema, obesity,
adult on-set diabetes, coronary problems, and food-related allergy problems can also be prevented before they
become the major problems they are in the states, and reduced as well in
Ecuador from their current levels. Can
the government and the Ecuadorian people make the right choices, or will they
like sheeple mindlessly do whatever comes out of Western commercialism no
matter how detrimental to the well-being of the Ecuadorian people and therefore the
country as well?
Maybe there is too much
optimism in this clarion call. Maybe
people the world over are too conditioned by the onslaught of advertising to
hedonism and greed as they become increasingly affluent to make anything but bad choices. Ecuador is one of the few places left in the
world where their crown treasure of rich earth and uncontaminated food still reign. Where a
people who have not yet completely chosen to go down a road of crass materialism
and narcissistic values, and without the sacrifice of the best in their traditional values
and the best of who they are still have a chance to follow a better path. Ideally,
Ecuadorians can still create an Ecuadorian definition of the “good life”,
that synthesizes the best of traditional Ecuadorian values with those contemporary values which
don’t suck the life and identity out of the Ecuadorians, just to become another
clone of their Norte Americano neighbors. McDonald's is a symptom of sheeple making bad choices. What the United States and the American character have become is sad. For Ecuador to follow the same path is madness and insanity.
