Volkswagen is advertising a new factory in Dresden, with the theme of:
transparency
See: http://www.glaesernemanufaktur.de/
You will probably guess that this idea appeals to me, along with the location of the factory in Dresden (why couldn't they have built it in Newark NJ USA, or maybe even on the site of the former World Trade Center in NYC USA???).
I have no idea how far VW is going to carry this theme, but the very words contrast antipodally with the watchword of postmodern architecture (which, to the best of my knowledge, is one of America's contributions to the cultural world of the late 20th century):
the decorated shed
A decorated shed, in case you don't know what it refers to, is a glitzy veneer facade which covers up a banal lifeworld within.
Perhaps the heritage of Universalizing Culture in The West is not so dead in Europe, so that the future may not belong only to the Chinese after all. As a different NYT article recently suggested, the United States is becoming a source of cheap labor for Europe (I posted a little piece of my own experience here, working for Grolier Publisher after the French firm Hachett(sp?) bought the company and in no way provided working conditions similar to France here).
As Koffi Anan said about Saddam Husein's Iraq, we need more "transparency".
\brad mccormick
--
Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------------------------------------------------- Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/ _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
