Synapses

1 - Education
I have been more and more convinced that to tackle the low-quality-education challenge that haunts Brazil (and many other countries that have already achieved universal schooling) will have to go through the market or quasi-market forces.
And then I found this book describing that he founds that private schools are providing quality education for poor people in poor countries. Interesting. Aid Watch has a wonderful analysis of it here. My favorite part? "Most reasons that the parents gave for their choice had to do with what the World Bank calls the “short route” to accountability (as opposed to the “long route” which works through the political process)"

2 - China Investment in the World
A map of China non-asset investment in the World can be found here. The DR of Congo received US$7.9 billion form 2005 to 2009 (China is investing heavily in their copper mines and basic infrastructure as roads, railroads and hospitals). DR of Congo GDP? Find it here - but it's now US$ 10.8 bi. Yes, you can see exactly when China started investing in the country

Silences

A - Silent Nights

I lay in bed, looking at the ceiling. You’re lying next to me, half asleep. I’m crying – in silence. I open my mouth in vain: I cannot articulate any word. I want to tell you how confused and insecure I am.

You don’t notice the tears or the quiet struggle.

I insist on my useless attempts to speak - air is expelled from my mouth, but no sound is formed. I feel like there’s a rock on my chest – pushing me into the bed, making me short of breath and immobile. I can physically feel the rock – my chest hurts from its weight and pressure.

I stare at the ceiling, defeated. You’re still oblivious.

One night. Two nights. So many nights of this lonesome silent ballet.

I cry a little bit more in the dark, making sure I’ll not wake you from your drunken maze.

B - Silent eyes

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond

any experience, your eyes have their silence:

in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,

or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me

though i have closed myself as fingers,

you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens

(touching skillfully, mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and

my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly,

as when the heart of this flower imagines

the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals

the power of your intense fragility; whose texture

compels me with the color of its countries,

rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes

and opens; only something in me understands

the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)

nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

e.e. cummings

Oysters

“Such mechanisms are analogous to the involuntary grace by which an oyster, coping with an irritating grain of sand, creates a pearl,” he writes. “Humans, too, when confronted with irritants, engage in unconscious but often creative behavior.”

From this very good article on what makes us happy.

2009 surely gave me enough pearls to make a necklace.

Cats in my life

I had two very pleasant surprises today: one came by mail - it made me nostalgic - the other was waiting for me on my desk - it made me grateful for my life in Cambridge.

It also reminded me of how much cats have been a part of my life. I never had a cat so it's much more the simbology than the affection to one specific feline that have been a constant in my life.

In (kind of) chronological order:

1 - Aristocats: it was my favorite movie when I was a small kid. I just wonder how I watched it as we never had a VCR in my house...


2 - Os Saltimbancos: this is very much a Brazilian reference. But I grew up in a country with very limited access to foreign goods (Pringles were a MAJOR luxury product) and therefore have a lot of memories with Brazilian musics and products. The Saltimbancos was a very good story LP (with music and story telling) from Chico Buarque about 4 animals (a donkey, a cat, a dog and a hen) that wanted to escape the abuse of their mean and abusive human owners and discover that they are powerful if they stick together. Major political message - we were living in a military dictatorship but "together we are strong". Anyway, I loved the character of the lazy domesticated cat who got kicked out of the house because she couldn't resist the bohemian nights with the street cats. (The clip is from a classic movie they made after the LP)



3 - Egyptian cat at Louvre: when I was a kid, my father was married to a french woman that I adored - Iany. She took me many times to Louvre and great part of my love for art and cinema (see below) has to do with her. She guided me to become a super-curious-prematurely-exposed-to-a-LOT-of-adult-art kid. Unfortunately, they got a horrible separation which I could not entirely overcome up to this day. And I never got to thank her for all the positive influence she had on me.



4 - When the cat comes (Az prijde kocour): a Czech movie from the 60's about a cat who could see the true nature and emotions of people - and then people become "colored" accordingly: red for lovers, purple for liars, etc. Iany took me to see this movie and I loved it. She was also responsible for memorable movie theaters sessions: The Mahrabarata, Orson Welles, Almodóvar, etc, etc, etc - did I mention I was a kid when watched all of those movies??



5 - Confuse a cat- - I adore Monty Python. This is one of my favorite sketches. Sometimes I feel like my true calling is to be a cat confuser. And after the MPA/ID, we know that the best way to confuse a depressed cat is to have giraffes around...

It was a good Thursday

Thanks for dragging me to the concert. It turned a dull day into a Wagnerian experience.

The strange obsession of faith in life

Last Sunday I went to Milton Nascimento concert at Berklee. I have always liked Milton Nascimento but I would hardly consider myself a die-hard fan (as I am a Caetano or Chico Buarque fan).

However, to my complete surprise, I knew most lyrics of the songs and - even more surprising - seeing him performing live gave me goose bumps. His songs were a part of my early childhood: one of my first memories is my mom listening to his LP Ponta de Areia in our living room in the first house I have ever lived. My emotional memory is more linked to Milton Nascimento than I thought, all those images of my childhood flooded my mind thanks to the concert. It made me nostalgic and with saudades from my family.

Bonus soundtrack - Para Lennon e McCartney/Maria, Maria - probably two of his most famous songs, from where I took the quote. And it kind of fit me - I have a strange obsession of faith in life.

A tender moment in a chilly day

Bride and Groom Lie Hidden for Three Days
Ted Hughes

She gives him his eyes, she found them
Among some rubble, among some beetles

He gives her her skin
He just seemed to pull it down out of the air and lay it over her
She weeps with fearfulness and astonishment

She has found his hands for him, and fitted them freshly at the wrists
They are amazed at themselves, they go feeling all over her

He has assembled her spine, he cleaned each piece carefully
And sets them in perfect order
A superhuman puzzle but he is inspired
She leans back twisting this way and that, using it and laughing
Incredulous

Now she has brought his feet, she is connecting them
So that his whole body lights up

And he has fashioned her new hips
With all fittings complete and with newly wound coils, all shiningly oiled
He is polishing every part, he himself can hardly believe it

They keep taking each other to the sun, they find they can easily
To test each new thing at each new step

And now she smoothes over him the plates of his skull
So that the joints are invisible

And now he connects her throat, her breasts and the pit of her stomach
With a single wire

She gives him his teeth, tying the the roots to the centrepin of his body

He sets the little circlets on her fingertips

She stiches his body here and there with steely purple silk

He oils the delicate cogs of her mouth

She inlays with deep cut scrolls the nape of his neck

He sinks into place the inside of her thighs

So, gasping with joy, with cries of wonderment
Like two gods of mud
Sprawling in the dirt, but with infinite care
They bring each other to perfection.