{"id":6665,"date":"2024-11-14T12:41:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T17:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/expatsmags.com\/?p=6665"},"modified":"2025-01-13T12:48:50","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T17:48:50","slug":"citizen-journalism-the-ants-go-marching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/expatsmags.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/14\/citizen-journalism-the-ants-go-marching\/","title":{"rendered":"CITIZEN JOURNALISM &#8211; The Ants Go Marching \u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"6665\" class=\"elementor elementor-6665\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-9a74ead e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"9a74ead\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;content_width&quot;:&quot;boxed&quot;}\" data-core-v316-plus=\"true\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-286bbdf e-con-full e-flex e-con e-child\" data-id=\"286bbdf\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;content_width&quot;:&quot;full&quot;}\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-8353a86 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"8353a86\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.19.0 - 29-01-2024 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p>Photos Courtesy of EMAC<\/p><p>Have you ever wondered how the beautiful city of Cuenca stays so clean? How does almost all traces of all the trash and litter from big events, like New Year\u2019s Eve, for instance, disappear? You can thank the \u201cAnts,\u201d for this. No, not the little black or red tiny critters that invade our picnics or show up in our kitchens. I\u2019m talking about those people dressed in green that you see pushing trashcans on wheels, sweeping the streets or raking up leaves in the parks or gathering our garbage.<\/p><p>The workers are called <em>hormiguitas shua<\/em> (<em>shua<\/em> means \u201ccleaning\u201d in Quechua, so it translates to <em>Little Cleaning Ants<\/em>). It is a symbol that they believe strongly in. The workers are proud of this title because it describes them perfectly, hard-working, organized and punctual.<\/p><p>These wonderful people are members of the EMAC (Empresa Municipal de Aseo or Municipal Cleaning Company) and are made up of over 700 people. EMAC is an autonomous public company that does not rely on resources from the municipality. It is a government department, like ETAPA. It receives its funding from the citizens of Cuenca. For example, on the electricity bill (Centro Sur) is the charge for garbage collection which is 20% of the total bill.<\/p><p>EMAC is celebrating its 25<sup>th<\/sup> Anniversary and, in addition to keeping Cuenca clean, for the past 15 years it has also been in charge of 235 parks and 420 hectares of green areas, which is constantly growing. They have two main areas of concern: waste collection, which includes household, industrial and hospital and maintenance of benches, courts and gardens. They are also responsible for the maintenance of the trees and plants in and around Cuenca.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-e3d49e1 e-con-full e-flex e-con e-child\" data-id=\"e3d49e1\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;content_width&quot;:&quot;full&quot;}\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-80741a5 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"80741a5\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.19.0 - 29-01-2024 *\/\n.elementor-widget-image{text-align:center}.elementor-widget-image a{display:inline-block}.elementor-widget-image a img[src$=\".svg\"]{width:48px}.elementor-widget-image img{vertical-align:middle;display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"319\" height=\"289\" src=\"https:\/\/expatsmags.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/EMAC.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-6668\" alt=\"EMAC\" srcset=\"https:\/\/expatsmags.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/EMAC.jpg 319w, https:\/\/expatsmags.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/EMAC-300x272.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 319px) 100vw, 319px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-24dba9f elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"24dba9f\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>The workers have a definite work schedule, so it\u2019s not the same people working 24-hours, and are divided into three shifts with regular hours beginning at 6 a.m. If there is an event, such as a festival or parade that goes until say 1 a.m., then the first shift would commence at half past four in the morning. For other special dates, like in November, when there is an increase in tourists, they will have additional shifts in the early morning as well as during the days.<\/p><p>Some of the workers have been with EMAC for 25 years. Contrary to popular belief, EMAC is not a program geared towards low-income people. The laborers and workers must meet a profile that has been established by EMAC, such as passing interviews and tests or have necessary professional licenses. They earn eight hundred dollars a month and have free medical, dental and psychological consultation benefits. They decide, along with some regulations of the law, when they wish to retire. Promotions and moving into other areas are done internally and external hiring only happens when there are no qualified persons to fill the vacancy.<\/p><p>I, for one, tip my hat to these industrious, hard-working individuals who proudly keep Cuenca clean and each time I see them, <strong>I hear \u201cthe Ants go marching one by one, hurrah! Hurrah!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photos Courtesy of EMAC Have you ever wondered how the beautiful city of Cuenca stays so clean? How does almost all traces of all the trash and litter from big events, like New Year\u2019s Eve, for instance, disappear? You can thank the \u201cAnts,\u201d for this. No, not the little black or red tiny critters that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":6666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,54,483],"tags":[527,529,530,528],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/expatsmags.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6665"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/expatsmags.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/expatsmags.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expatsmags.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expatsmags.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6665"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/expatsmags.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6676,"href":"https:\/\/expatsmags.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6665\/revisions\/6676"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expatsmags.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/expatsmags.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expatsmags.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expatsmags.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}