Word: utopias
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...that had for so long kept the Colorados in power: the welfare state. Conceived by Colorado Leader José Batlle y Ordóñez, twice Uruguay's President (1903-07; 1911-15), Gaucho socialism at first transformed cattle-and sheep-growing Uruguay into a Latin American Utopia, Uruguayans into devoted followers of the Colorados. They got pensions (usually starting at 50) and the eight-hour day 20 years before the U.S. did. They got a vast network of government industries: insurance, rum, cement, petroleum refining and distribution, electricity. They got paid leave for expectant working mothers, state-paid...
...college language teacher's idea of utopia would be when a student came out of secondary school knowing two languages and entered college either to start on a third or to perfect his writing in the second. But this utopia will be long in coming, for the colleges now are doing the work of the secondary schools in teaching students elementary languages. There are some schools which have no language program at all whereas others give their pupils only an antiquated start in French or Spanish and see them come to grief in the College Board Exams. Until the secondary...
...With roundabout humor, Young reminds his readers of the events, starting in the 1940s, that led to a blossoming Utopia. By mid-20th century, he assumes, Britain's best minds had realized that their country's economy could no longer compete with those of the U.S., Russia and China under a haphazard system that prevented some bright children of the poor from reaching responsible jobs rightfully theirs, and fortified doltish sons of the rich and well-born in positions of power. The answer: meritocracy, which is rule by the most talented, determined according to the formula...
...most part, meritocracy works; the upper class knows for the first time in history that it is superior in all ways to the lower; and the intellectual proletariat is encouraged to accept a "just inferiority" and develop a liking for sports. Modern wonders abound in Young's Utopia; the morning rocket leaves regularly for the moon, and England's southwestern counties have been covered with concrete for the convenience of motorists. But even as the author writes, the end is in sight. A general strike is called by a fusion party of disgruntled old men, trade unionists dimly...
...National Planning Committee of Independence opened its contest for the design of a national flag (first prize: $300), many Nigerians had grave reservations about what lay ahead. For all its jubilation, Nigeria's West African Pilot felt obliged to warn: "Independence without difficulties is a dream of Utopia...