Word: brasilia
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Crown of Thorns. No city in the world is quite like Brasilia, the seven-year-old vision of tomorrow carved out of the wilderness. Its unfinished cathedral is designed in the shape of a gigantic crown of concrete thorns. Its Congress building looks like a huge cup and saucer. Its population areas are laid out in Orwellian modules, with all the foreign-ministry officials living here, the bank employees there, the military officers over there. Artificially created to open up the frontier and shift the country's balance westward, Brasilia was long considered the "mad city" that Ku-bitschek...
Uncompleted, ambitious, yet troubled-as the already growing slums at its outskirts attest-Brasilia symbolizes all the hopes and visions of Brazil, and the distance yet to go. The tug of modernization is strong and compelling, but tradition and apathy are fighting hard rearguard actions. The economic indexes show that, broadly speaking, Brazil is falling behind many other advancing countries, including some of its neighbors in Latin America. But this is not the final judgment, for Brazil has reached a middle stage in its development at which the dynamics of modernization can work wonders if the country can only channel...
Such sobering facts require sobering words, and Arthur da Costa e Silva lost no time in applying them after he took office in the still unfinished and boldly modern capital of Brasilia last month. A lifetime professional soldier who headed Brazil's armed forces until he resigned to run for President, Costa is a pragmatic man whose army background has stiffened his spine and his resolve-and made him less dreamy than some of his predecessors. In a meeting with his Cabinet the day after his inauguration, he said: "Brazilian society is profoundly split. This cleavage is growing...
...22nd President. Governing is not only an art in modern Brazil but also a rather exclusive one: both Costa and his predecessor are former army generals whose power rests as much on military support as on constitutional provisions. Yet last week, as he was inaugurated in the capital of Brasilia, Costa showed by word and deed that he will be no carbon copy of outgoing President Humberto Castello Branco...
...heart a homebody who prefers to shun the limelight, Costa is an ebullient man about town who loves to put a few cruzeiros on his favorite horse, chat with attractive women and tell amusing stories on himself. Last week, as the two men marched up the aisle of Brasilia's Chamber of Deputies building for the swearing-in, a grim Castello Branco looked straight ahead; Costa, relaxed and enjoying himself, threw genial glances to friends and relatives. After the oath of office, Castello Branco stiffly shook hands with Costa's wife, lolanda; Costa, by contrast, warmly kissed...