PUNCTUALITY PAYS.(The Talk of the Town)(Ecuador)

Publication: The New Yorker

Publication Date: 05-APR-04

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COPYRIGHT 2004 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.

At high noon last October 1st, the citizens of Ecuador did something they'd never dreamed possible: they synchronized their watches. In doing so, they embarked on a Campana Contra la Impuntualidad, a national crusade against lateness. A group called Participacion Ciudadana had orchestrated the initiative in order to combat Ecuadorans' notoriously cavalier attitude toward time. The group enlisted the country's only Olympic gold medallist, the race-walker Jefferson Perez, as a spokesman, plastered cities and villages with posters ("Inject yourself each morning with a dose of responsibility, respect, and discipline"), and persuaded companies to bar tardy workers from meetings. Even President Lucio Gutierrez, infamously unpunctual, vowed to participate. His spokesman, going on television to announce this vow, arrived at the studio, needless to say, several minutes late.

Such a campaign may seem farcical--no more critical to a country's national...

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