This and That in the News

A South American footballer playing in the English Premiership is spending his high salary not on fast cars and big houses, but on rebuilding an entire community where he grew up.

This is the subtitle to an article I read on BBC News' website. What an amazing example of someone 'well-known' doing something with his talents and abilities, rebuilding the city that he grew up in. Take a read.

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So we want gambling in Pittsburgh? There are problems elsewhere...that would be Russia, and their issues seem like a pretty good warning and example of what could become. I know it is not all these issues are not because of gambling, but the fact that gambling is one of the very main sources they are limiting and separating from the people at large, there must be some significance to this addiction.

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And this...this just makes me super angry. I would not want to work at a coffee shop that required me to be "beautiful" whatever that means. Obviously beauty in this world is defined by the amount of money you can provoke a customer to give you and lots of makeup, because a human being without the fake face is not worth anyone's time, or anyone's vanilla latte! Give me a break...

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I should read the news a lot more often, I get ecstatic about the rebuilding of community, scared at what the future holds for us, and absolutely ticked off at what we are living in.... It's a great time (yes, I'm being slightly sarcastic) !

New What?

New Urbanism. A friend of mine gave sent me this article the other week on New Urbanism. All throughout college I thought it was a well used and quite normal concept. Now that I have stepped out of Geneva and into another world I am recognizing that this type of Sociology is not as popular or well knowns as I had thought.

This article sparked a little light in me as I read it. It reminded me of Jane Jacobson "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" and her continual talk on sidewalks and the importance of. This article reminded me of the various communities I have studied and critiqued.

Is New Urbanism still a growing subject and actively being perused? I feel that in my investigation that all the attempts have ended up extremely political and money hoarding than beneficial to community living.

Where are their strong attempts/successes of New Urbanism?

Comments Below

I think the comment below NEEDS a discussion. Discussion about religion and the way "our" society thinks and acts upon others especially concerning religion...



Any thoughts??

Children

So I'm reading some children's books that Joel Daniel lent me. It is such a good escape from the consistent heaviness of thought that I place upon myself. Currently I am reading My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. It is a story about a boy who runs away from home and goes to live on his great grandfather's land. I wish I knew half that facts that this boy does as he survives in the wilderness and lives off of the land. Sometimes I feel we have lost our natural instincts and no longer see the possibility of being resourceful.

Apocalypto reminds me of these innate instincts as well. A people who have extended their hands too far and have managed to destroy their land and their own people. It is an intense movie that will give you some strange dreams, and I still don't know how I feel about it. But the natural instincts of survival are clearly present within this movie.


This all makes me want to run and play in the woods...go fishing or something.