Word: brasilia
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...early foreign admirers, Brasilia was "madness-but heroic madness." For most of its short history, the ultramodern inland capital has lived up to only the first part of that billing. When it was inaugurated in 1960, after four years of feverish effort and the expenditure of some $600 million, Brasilia's malls were pools of red mud, its streets were unpaved, and its new Senate did not even have seats. Only 20 of the country's 326 federal Deputies took up residence, and no sooner had the dedication ceremonies ended than virtually every official with the price...
...years later, the capital in the wilderness still needs a heroic effort to become a success. A respectable 60% of the federal Deputies now live in town, and Brasilia's population of 500,000 makes it Brazil's tenth-largest city. But many recalcitrant bureaucrats continue to ignore the lofty imperative of former President Juscelino Kubitschek, who conceived the idea of Brasilia: "We must march to the west, turn our backs to the sea, and stop staring at the ocean -as if thinking of departing...
Frontier Flavor. What Kubitschek could not achieve by evangelism, Brazil's military regime seems determined to accomplish by edict. In marking the tenth anniversary of the capital last month, President Emilio Garrastazu Medici decreed that Cabinet Ministers must henceforth conduct their business only in Brasilia. The Rio-based foreign diplomatic colony will have to follow suit by 1972. The move does offer one compensation to diplomats, though: Brasilia, with its limited escape routes, should discourage political kidnapings...
...great city is not necessarily beautiful or well-planned. Venice and Florence are delights to the eye; yet neither has been a great city since the Renaissance. Brasilia, one of the most elaborately designed of modern cities, is also one of the deadliest. An impressive physical setting is essential to a city's greatness, but by itself that is not enough. Take Pittsburgh: its natural setting, at the junction of two rivers, is magnificent. Man botched the job of doing anything with it. Grand avenues and impressive architecture, though necessary to a great city, do not satisfy the equation...
...there is little suspense connected with Mexico's forthcoming presidential elections, there was none at all as Brazil last week formally chose General Emilio Garrastazú Médici, 63, as its head of state. For the past month, government printers in Brasilia, the capital, have been engraving Médici's name on official documents. New ambassadors have been arriving with credentials already addressed to him. Three weeks ago, the Shah of Iran even cabled congratulations to him. Sitting as an electoral college, Congress last week finally made it official by voting him into office...