Observations & Commentary on all issues affecting Architecture, Urban Planning & Design. Welcome to my Shanty World. ShantyWorld.com: The Antidote to a World of McMansions, Starter Castles and other Crimes against the Built Environment.
Or, what You Can Learn About [Some] Americans By Looking in their Homes for 156+ Consecutive Weeks.
Funny how the timing in the cosmos converges on a topic...
Just yesterday I was chatting on Twitter about my abject horror that a Retail Store exists to sell FAKE BOOKS. I mean, how does one come up with the idea, "Gee I want to sell fake books & faux Libraries so people can appear to be literate. They can pretend to own a lot of books." The appearance of education without all the hassle and expense. Terrific. No wonder non-western nations think westerners are stupid.
Don't bother acknowledging the fact that these books do not look real -- to anyone whose vision is better than 20/70. If you walk up to the books in an attempt to pull one off the fake shelf, you'll stub your fingers mashing them into the wall.
Then along comes a story on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric (9 Jan 2009) reporting that ILLITERACY in the USA is UP !! The US is 15th-- BEHIND other industrialized nations, in literacy rates for its people. Umm, what happened to "No Child Left Behind" ?
So, in addition to botching the response to 9/11, creating a War of choice and torpedoing the US Economy, we are also falling farther behind other nations in Education-- specifically as it relates to teaching Americans how to read. Reading: a basic skill other countries apparently find necessary for a secure, safe, growing culture and economy.