Matie's Corner

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Tuesday, September 25, 2007

More about Sao Paulo (2/2)

Main events Sao Paulo Art Biennial The Sao Paulo Art Biennial is a cultural event hosted in town every two years. Almost 1 million people visited the 26th Biennial in 2004. Its theme was chosen to enable a wide range of artistic positions to feel comfortable. The concept of "Free Territory" involved... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Latin American Metropolises: Sao Paulo (1/2)

Sao Paulo overwhelms the senses with its sheer size. With over 10 million inhabitants, it is the world's third largest city and the largest in South America. Sao Paulo and its rival Brazilian city, Rio de Janeiro, have often been compared to New York and Los Angeles respectively. If Rio has gained... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

The Indiscreet Charm of Tyranny (part 5/5)

5 The terrifying thing about dictatorship is people’s willingness to believe in the divine aspirations of dictators. The hundreds of thousands of screaming, crying, praying, book-waving, flag-waving men and women in Beijing, Berlin, Moscow, or Pyongyang, worshiping their leaders, are not only doing... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

The myth of Eva Peron (part 3/3)

Evita's death and beyond In the book Eva Perón: The Myths of a Woman, cultural anthropologist Julie M. Taylor claims that Evita has remained important in Argentina due to the combination of three unique factors: "In the images examined, the three elements consistently linked —femininity, mystical or... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

The Indiscreet Charm of Tyranny (part 4/5)

Thoughts about the archetypal tyrant and the concept of War. 4 When asked about the lack of great leaders in our benighted world, Gore Vidal once remarked that great leaders make great wars. Shakespeare wrote well about such men: Coriolanus, for example, the mama’s boy inside a crust of shiny armor.... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, September 10, 2007

The myth of Eva Peron (part 2/3)

The Peron’s on the cover of Time Magazine on May 21, 1951 "Perón is the heart, the soul, the nerve, and the reality of the Argentine people. We all know that there is only one man in our movement with his own source of light. We all feed off of that light. And that man is Perón!" — 1951 speech by... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

The Indiscreet Charm of Tyranny (part 3/5) by Ian Buruma

From part two: " The violent break with history, the illusion of a tabula rasa, appeals to a certain kind of youthful idealism. There is beauty in destruction. Think of the relish with which thousands of Chinese students took hammers and axes to the priceless treasures of Buddhist or Confucian... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

The myth of Eva Peron (part 1/3)

-Eva Peron, depending on who you ask, was either a devil or a saint, either a power-hungry mediocre actress, demagogic wife of a dictator; or a generous, charismatic leader that championed the cause of the poor and the little men out there. -She is often referred to as simply Eva Perón, or by the... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Commenting on comments: a collage

“Pinochet's tenure definitely was a contradiction unto itself -- brutal, repressive, yet marked with economic growth. Historically speaking, September 11 doesn't seem to have been a very good day... “ saul_relative The problem is that this ‘economic growth’ argument can be used to justify those... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, September 1, 2007

The Indiscreet Charm of Tyranny (part 2/5)

By Ian Buruma, part 2/5 2 Jacques Verges, the radical French lawyer who once defended Klaus Barbie and now hopes to defend Saddam Hussein, put the case for great dictators in a nutshell. He admired Stalin and Mao because they had “grandeur,” unlike democratic politicians, who were by nature... Sign in to see full entry.

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