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Educashun

By aristus (Mon Jan 30, 2006 at 03:22:35 PM EST) (all tags)

Today the sun is a hungover showgirl, leaving pink and purple smears on her pillow-clouds. She washes with lazy rain, dripping on Mediterranean colonnades, quirky Arabian facades, memories of ancient Baghdad by way of Spain. It drizzles into your Calle Ocho cafe con leche. It puddles the driveways of a hundred thousand SUVs and a dozen kinds of palm; all of them, like you, recent imports.

The fascination of this place is the variety, how it embraces the international and mocks the cosmopolitan. In Miami the next block is another dimension. Little Haiti. Little Havana. Pockets of Argentina and Europe, trading, driving, praying, building, teeming in and out of one of the Grand Caravanserais of the New World.

It's not a technology city though it's hard to see why not. It birthed the IBM PC and a raft of small & scrappy companies. At first look Miami's got good ingredients: a sexy NAP, fiber up the wazoo, great gobs of cash begging to be invested. It's got every thing but one: the educational yeast doesn't bubble. No one is nurturing the geeks.

I wish I had an easy answer for it. Rather, I wish I had ten million dollars. Maybe I'd spread it around the right places: endow a chair, summer grant programs, and the like. The infrastructure is here. The public transport, the nightlife, the old funky neighbourhoods are here. I'd like to find and keep the bright ones who would otherwise go to Boston, where Paul Graham hangs out in the park giving copies of clisp to schoolchildren. Psst! Hey, kid! Wanna try some symbolic logic?

What is your hometown missing? Did you leave? Did you come back? How would you change it?

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Tropical Geeks | 7 comments (7 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

You from Miami? by calla (2.00 / 0) #1 Mon Jan 30, 2006 at 10:49:13 PM EST

I didn't think anyone was from there - people just move there.

About 1 in 20 people are natives by aristus (4.00 / 1) #2 Tue Jan 31, 2006 at 11:13:56 AM EST

I'm originally from West Texas; I moved here about 12 years ago, left, came back, left, etc. Miami has a strange gravitational pull.

The natives are almost all of a type, and they are still shocked/dismayed at how their sleepy town has been flooded with trash like myself. They are right, but they are vastly outnumbered.
_{__
"Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished." Isaiah 13:17
"Blessed the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." Matthew 5:9}
[ Parent ]

So the truth is out. by calla (2.00 / 0) #3 Tue Jan 31, 2006 at 01:56:19 PM EST

What about your home town?

Don't ask me about mine - I'm not sure what town to consider my home.

[ Parent ]

West Texas is a desert. by aristus (4.00 / 1) #4 Tue Jan 31, 2006 at 03:45:56 PM EST

Rich in history; poor in everything else, including education, perspective, tolerance, and opportunities. It's a depressing racist rathole where the worst crime is trying to better yourself.

Miami is such a step up from that dusty piece of shit town... that I really can't put it into words.
_{__
"Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished." Isaiah 13:17
"Blessed the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." Matthew 5:9}
[ Parent ]

This may be trite by calla (2.00 / 0) #5 Tue Jan 31, 2006 at 04:41:09 PM EST

but it's true - "Home is where the heart is".

Sounds like Miami has your heart.

[ Parent ]

You may be right by aristus (4.00 / 1) #6 Tue Jan 31, 2006 at 06:15:03 PM EST

and I see a lot of potential here. The Uni is good, even famous, for Entertainment, Medicine & Biology but when it comes to pure research, 'hard' sciences and literature... well. Maybe it's too early. Miami is young. But it's frustrating sometimes. Too few smart lunatics.
_{__
"Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished." Isaiah 13:17
"Blessed the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." Matthew 5:9}
[ Parent ]

: It has one more now. by calla (2.00 / 0) #7 Tue Jan 31, 2006 at 06:17:57 PM EST

Thanks to you.

[ Parent ]

Tropical Geeks | 7 comments (7 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback