Brazil has a Minister of Ideas! Well, he's officially the minister for strategic affairs, but very cool none the less. His name is Roberto Mangabeira Unger and he started teaching at Harvard Law when he was 24. Here's a nytimes.com article on him ("'Minister of Ideas' tried to put Brazil's future in focus").
“I regard myself as a man without charm in a country of charmers,” he said from his office here in Brazil’s capital. “But I am very tenacious, and I have never given up.”
"Some of [Brazilian President Lula] Mr. da Silva’s top advisers view Mr. Unger as a political wild card, somewhat awkward and eccentric. He speaks Portuguese with a decidedly American accent. During a tour of Africa last summer with the president, Mr. Unger could often be seen engrossed in Milton’s “Paradise Lost.” Supporters say Mr. Unger’s intellect is an asset to Mr. da Silva. “He turns out ideas in a machine-like pace,” said Jorge Castañeda, a former foreign minister of Mexico and a close friend of Mr. Unger."
I learned this week that Bhutan has a Minister of Happiness!
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