O groapa si o panorama

Pipălz Salveişăn Cătidrăl Faundeişăn

(click pe poza)

Si-o panorama!

(click aici pentru dimensiunea originala)

Portia de cultura din pantecele bestiei

Da este vorba de MNAC si expozitiile pictorilor Marilena Preda Sanc, Nicolae Comanescu, Muzeul Benzii Desenate (muzeul din muzeu) si "In between frames", artisti Adad Hannah, Anetta Mona Chisa si Lucia Tkacova, Bettina Hoffmann, Jason Arsenault, Jérôme Delapierre, Perry Bard, Rozalinda Borcila.

De ce le merge la unii bine

Motto: "Nu conteaza cat de lung e lemnul de cires, ci conteaza cum si unde-l faci furnir"

Acesta este un articol de umplutura despre Germania, care nu e in Romania, si nu ma astept sa ia cineva in serios ce scrie nenea Clyde Prestowitz in Foreign Policy despre economia lor. In fond ce stie el...

Peeling back the veneer on American decline

For many years it has been the conventional wisdom that the U.S. economy is the world's most dynamic with the world's most flexible work force, most entrepreneurial ethic, most new start-ups, and most innovative management and with the most benefits from globalization. Declinism was not only out of vogue. It had an air of illegitimacy about it. Now, suddenly, declinism is in fashion and it is the conventional wisdom that America is headed in the wrong direction on the wrong track.

A new conventional wisdom is evolving to explain the causes of the decline and how to address them. Among the key elements of this new orthodoxy are the notions that the U.S. is lagging badly in innovation and education. This diagnosis, of course, leads directly to prescriptions for greater spending on and government support of R&D and much greater emphasis on getting students not only into and out of college but into advanced and professional degrees.

Of course, it is true that U.S. spending on R&D as a percent of GDP has fallen and stagnated in comparison with the glory days of yesteryear and the recent reports on SAT scores certainly seem to confirm that there are problems with U.S. education. And yet, as I consider Germany, I wonder.

Germany has higher wages, higher taxes, higher welfare costs, a lower percentage of college and professional graduates, and lower spending as a percent of GDP on R&D than the United States. Yet, in contrast to America's chronically large trade deficit and high unemployment rate, Germany has a huge trade surplus and a low unemployment rate. What's going on?

One thing is a misperception about high tech, R&D, and innovation. Consider a recent conversation I had with a CEO of an American office furniture manufacturer. Just making small talk at a conference, I asked him how business was. " Pretty good," he said. "What's selling?" I asked. "We have a line of Cherry office furniture that's just flying out of the showroom," he replied. "Where do you make it," I asked. "Well," he said, "we cut the cherry trees in West Virginia. They have the best cherry trees in West Virginia. Then we ship the logs to Germany where they peel the veneer. Then we ship the veneer to China where it is glued to the frame and then they ship the finished furniture to us in Wisconsin where we market and sell it." Astonished, I asked in a tone of disbelief, "You ship the logs to Germany? Is there no one who can peel veneer in America?" "Yes," he admitted, but went on to emphasize that "the Germans do it far better than the Americans."

Veneer peeling never shows up on the lists of high-tech industries and is never discussed when there is talk of the need for more Silicon Valley style start-ups and innovation. Nor do veneer peelers need advanced college degrees. Yet veneer peeling in Germany is so high-tech and so innovative that furniture makers are shipping logs and veneer around the world to get something done in Germany that one would expect to be easily done in the United States. Innovation and high tech doesn't have to be Google or Silicon Valley. It may not necessarily take a lot of basic Research spending (although certainly some D spending) or advanced formal education.

What Germany has is a lot of family owned, medium sized businesses and a government and society that are committed to the long term and to keeping German-based production competitive in as many sectors as possible. It also has a system of training and maintaining skills that doesn't turn out PhDs, but does turn out supremely qualified workers. And, of course, to gain full advantage from those skills, it strives through cooperation between industry, government, and labor to keep producers competitive from a German production base.

Of course, I do not mean to oppose further support of education and R&D in the United States. The more the better. But perhaps we should also try to learn from the Germans.

SURSA

Pe Arges in jos, pe un mal captat

Motto: "Sa obtii energie captand paraurile de munte din Romania e ca si cum ai pune panouri solare in Norvegia" (®Rudy)

I: Ia zi domle, vrei sa-ti distrug raurile?
R: Daca trebuie...

Orizonturi false

Motto: "Mama lui Stefan cel Mare! Investitorii straini folosesc mijloace neconventionale de schimbat PUZ-ul!"

Liniste...e liniste si placut... si frumos,... e serenisim chiar...

Cand deodata...

Picatura care a umplut paharul cazu cu un pleoscait surd in pocalul burgmeisterului. 

Ecoul se propaga languros in incaperea principala a noii eforii din PVC si Alucobond trezind pe neasteptate intaiul cetatean al urbei, care morocanos varsa continutul pocalului intr-unul mai adanc. 

Scoase apoi din birou un teanc de harti ale orasului mazgalite cu carioca pe care le privi cu nesat si punandu-si pe cap calpacul Gucci iesi pe balcon sa priveasca soarele cum apune pe cerul din patratele de termopan.   

Eufemismul edilitar, acest concept revolutionar care a spart toate tiparele si a dat de pamant cu absolut toate cliseele arhitectonice ale epocii, tocmai ce a inceput sa fie aplicat in urbe.

Esenta sa rezida in insasi relatia indivizibila dintre cer si pamant, sacru si profan, lumina si intuneric.

Vazduhul confera siguranta, lumina, speranta. De ce sa nu ii acordam importanta cuvenita.

De acum incolo il vom incastra in patratele, dreptunghiuri si alte forme geometrice si il vom inalta, vom acoperi intreg orasul si chiliile sale art-nouveau, art-deco si alte bazaconii, cu binecuvantarea din otel si sticla.

Ingemanarea maiestriei mesterilor si viitorul inefabil, metafizic, aproape stralucitor este o simpla si banala sintagma ce nu poate descrie nici in cele 1000 de cuvinte ale unei fotografii idealul investitorilor, acesti magi de la apus ai frumosului nostru oras.

Este impardonabil modul cum liniile perverse si simetria absconsa, de-a dreptul opulenta pe alocuri a vechilor constructii, pe care multi le-au atrbuit cercurilor oculte care sfidau cu nerusinare bunul simt al clasei muncitoare, strabunica corporatistilor de astazi...

este impardonabil deci, modul cum au fost clasificate, fotografiate, cuantificate, elogiate de catre multi farisei, epigoni ai dezvoltarii, ai progresului urbanistic.

Asa ceva este inadmisibil intr-o tara civilizata care vrea orase ca-n vest.

Si tocmai aici este latura originala a tuturor nazuintelor care s-au propagat asemenea unui cutremur de 9 grade pe intreg cuprinsul urbei.

Aceasta asezare nu trebuie si nici nu doreste sa fie vestica...ea fiind in est, chiar Balcani. Niciunde in lume cerul nu este incastrat pentru eternitate in sticla si otel in atatea feluri si atatea moduri de exprimare artistica.

Niciunde in lume progresul nu a pastrat din compasiune urmele trecutului si niciunde nu a acceptat ca infrastructura, acest sistem sangvin urban, sa ramana martor al trecutului si exemplu (de evitat, dar de pastrat din ratiuni diverse) pentru generatiile viitoare.

Si cum altfel poti aminti nepotilor si urmasilor in general despre trecutul nu tocmai stralucitor al orasului daca nu prin a pastra relicve cladite cu mult timp in urma, ici si colo.

Aceste insulite de piatra cioplita, contrastand placut cu peretii strasnici de termopan sunt, atat cat vor mai fi, si imi e totusi greu sa o spun aici, rani ale trecutului, adevarate pietre de moara in pantofii de lac ai investitorilor.

Burgmeisterul isi privi inca o data ctitoria impreunandu-si mainile ca pentru o rugaciune si lepadand caftanul lasa razele solare reflectate sa-i mangaie trupul.
Apoi spuse:
"Poate ca am sa-l rog pe Florin Codre sa-mi faca si mie o statuie aidoma fraierului de Lahovary!"

EPIC!