Brazil: Minister of Ideas

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."

what's with the utopic communities?: Bicycle City

landscape models for bicycle city (howardmodels.com)

An ad in my gmail popped up the other day for Bicycle City, USA. What?

"City Highlights include a strong community; active and healthy lifestyle; vibrant economy with good jobs; top education and health centers; diversity of people and ideas; social justice; clean technologies; eco-friendly, sustainable development; eclectic urban designs and architecture; organic agriculture; alternative energies; and a celebration of the arts." (BicycleCity.com)

How can you include "social justice" in your city highlights? I know that 'New Town' is actually legitimate because it's a capitalistic enterprise and someone (Whittaker, namely) is benefiting. But, the Bicycle City website says that it has raised funds and is looking for the perfect place in America to create its utopia.

Didn't this type of thing happen a lot around the turn of the century? A huge trend of utopic community upstarts? Bits and pieces of my history classes are running through my head. The Oneida community in upstate New York?

(Side note: here's a really funny wikipedia sentence, "The branches were closed in 1854, except for the Wallingford branch, which operated until devastated by a tornado in 1878. The Oneida Community dissolved in 1881, and eventually became the giant silverware company Oneida Limited." - what? our utopic commune failed? well, let's just make silverware)

Bicycle City says they gain a lot of their inspiration from the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright and John Naisbitt (look up that guy - interesting)

"John Naisbitt in 'Megatrends' wrote about a 'high tech / high touch' future in that as we are inundated with more and more technology we will embrace the 'high touch' aspects of life to create a balance. For Bicycle City this means embracing the AND - the best, clean, safe and sustainable technologies AND the softer side of life: organic farming, sense of community, holistic, family, beauty, music, art, etc."

"There is a niche of people in the world who want to live somewhere better. Somewhere that isn't an asphalt jungle. Somewhere their kids are safe and won't get hit by a car. Somewhere with clean air, beauty and a good job. They want less stress. They want a new design for a city - a place that is designed and built now for this century not endless patchwork on top of designs from 100-200 years ago."

It just sounds like the rich people fleeing the city. More on that later with stuff about St. Louis' history. Thoughts?

parenting_ish

I'm not pregnant. I thought I would get that out of the way before I write a parenting blog post. Also, I think more about parenting than I do about dating. I major in putting the cart before the horse.

There's something that I want to work on doing now, as a favor to any future kids I might give birth to or raise. And this thing does not rank high on the list of things you can do to screw up your kid.

I want to work on having an open mind toward ideas that I think are dumb, dangerous, or have never heard of before.

I have hung out with high schoolers before who feel so misunderstood by their parents. It's painful to watch. The kid is trying to figure out their identity by trying out different things and the parent (it seems to me) is kind of flabbergasted and resigns to saying "whatever, let me know when you've grown up."

Letting people I love change for (what seems to me as) the worse is one of my serious weaknesses. I can't handle it, I freak out. In the end, the whole thing is not worth the emotional energy I spend on it, because God loves them more than I do anyway and me freaking out about it doesn't help anything.

I don't know how I can go about trying to grow in this area, but I am seriously looking into it.

Department of Good Ideas

Team Aquaduct wins Innovate or Die Competition