what do you want people to remember you for when you're gone? after all the "60" hour weeks, what will really matter?
for me:
1) i want my 7 y/o daughter to remember me as her best friend and believe that i did the best job raising her into a wonderful person.
2) to have opened up more "middle american" minds to modern design and broken down the elitist stigma typcially associated with good modern design and our profession.
3) to help developed truely affordable housing that is well designed per region and help stop the "bigger is better" (architecture or otherwise) mentality americans keep over-extending themselves to buy into.
I too would like to help out the poor in the third world. I don't know exactly how/what atm but it'll have something to do with safe/affordable/sustainable housing.
I have a Subaru Legacy but don't know how to drive... that's got to count for something.
Pre-industrialized, developing, third world... all the same - when you've been there, being politically correct doesn't matter. Having seen people on less than a dollar a day the phrase 'third world' is uttered not with pity but absolute anger.
The only legacy anyone will ever have is to live their life with conviction and to keep focused on the small goals.
so this got me thinking about the third world and the develped west as the first world. so this begged the question : who the hell is the second world. luckily, wikipedia came to the rescue. for your enlightenment and reading pleasure:
"The term "third world" was coined by economist Alfred Sauvy in an article in the French magazine L'Observateur of August 14, 1952. It was a deliberate reference to the "Third Estate" of the French Revolution. Tiers monde means third world in French. The term gained widespread popularity during the Cold War when many poorer nations adopted the category to describe themselves as neither being aligned with NATO or the Warsaw Pact, but instead composing a non-aligned "third world" (in this context, the term "First World" was generally understood to mean the United States and its allies in the Cold War, which would have made the East bloc the "Second World" by default; however, the latter term was very seldom actually used)."
i agree with cameron's idea of legacy, and will combine it with ghandi's : "you must be the change you wish to see in the world." in abject honesty, most of us will be remembered by only our friends and family. do good works, and you will be remembered long after someone who is apathetic and unengaged.
must not have thoughts past this weekends kegger, duuude?
maybe not all of us live lives where they are accountable for family other than themselves...and it's great that you want to be memorable in the eyes of your family, but not everybody is in that situarion, and not everybody wants to be.
for some people the 60 hour work week does mean something, and though it might not be memorable to be in the office all the time, something may come out of that work that will be.
i have aspirations, but i do not care to live behind a legacy, i care to leave behind a better place.
"wow, 154 views and no one has a thought to what they want to be remembered for except these few."
some of us are still figuring ourselves out. Let me get to (at least!) my mid-twenties before I have to worry about things like my legacy. People view but don't post because they sense it's a somewhat serious topic and don't want to clutter it up if they/we don't have anything meaningful to say at this time.
yeah, i realiize more and more that this site has quite a few kids on it, rather than experienced professionals, who have even thought about what "being an architect" will mean after they are done with a 60 /week career.
not that there's anything wrong with that, they are still short-term thinkers at that age.
ok this has nothing to do with the pc or not pc view of the third world. we know you're talking about us [africa & latin america].
so be informed:
teaching a child to read in the third world is not helpful. teachers are underpaid, the only thing you would be doing is leaving another person out of a job. you need to attack the problem of why teachers are underpaid, which has to do with corruption, which stems from lack of funds, which comes from too many bad deals with the international monetary fund, and too much foreign debt contracted due to naiveness and overabuse from 'first world' nations. in a nutshell.
designing the magic sustainable cheap housing solution. maybe, but be aware that there are fewer homeless people here than in the first world. because it's easier to have an illegal property, and build an illegal shack or favela. it has more to do with organizing this illegality so that you can reconcile what will take place anyway with a better living standard. you can't do this unless you fully understand a place, its culture and inhabitants. er, there are architects here, trying to do just this. probably not enough, but it's hard to picture someone from outside trying to deal with landsharks and the desperation of the favela/invasion mentality.
so my suggestions, if you want to help the third world: be an informed consumer. chose a third world country as your next vacation destination. leave some dollars here. help underfed economies. push your congressman for more support of third world crises like darfur [humanitarian crises are much bigger and more complex in africa of course than in latin america]. try illegal immigrants with respect. if they could stay home they would, really.
but don't be so condescending as to think we need for you to teach us how to read. most third world country children are probably being taught more english than your kids are being taught any second language. because we need it to be competitive [you don't]
i know you're full of good intentions and i thank you for it. but you need to be more informed of the situation because really, it gets tiring.
to a large extent i agree with aml. it's amazing how many people here in the states will go out of their way to express concern over the poor in the third world yet are totally blind to the poor living right in their midst. i guarantee that just about anywhere in america you're never more than five miles from someone in need.
part of the problem is perspective. i think we tend to view the poor in the third world more as victims of circumstance and the poor in our own backyard as somehow responsible, at least in part, for their own failure.
You talk like you know a great deal. I grew up in India/Nepal and little of what you wrote is actually valid. I have seen countless houses being swept away to landslides and entire towns being burnt to ashes and know where the real problem lies.
"If you want to help the third world: be an informed consumer." - That is all you had to post. Please follow your own advice before you post in the future.
take it as you will. that is not all i wrote, and if you think someone might help houses swept away by natural disasters by designing a solution that can't/won't be designed in india, that's great.
so your point is, the real problem lies in natural disasters? that doesn't sound very informed either. i was talking specifically about latin america. reduce my comments to that if you will, but don't tell me i don't know what goes on in the continent i've lived most of my life.
i admitted i was venting and i'm sorry, but this hardly disqualifies some very real problems regarding debt and ill/unfair economic management that i hinted at.
the realization that your legacy is absolutely meaningless, living each day as it were the last, not worrying about other people remembering your legacy, just living to be happy. selfish, non-compromising blind happiness...
can anyone lend me $50,000. i probably won't be able to pay it back.
i want a boat.
Jun 15, 05 12:16 pm ·
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YOUR LEGACY?
what do you want people to remember you for when you're gone? after all the "60" hour weeks, what will really matter?
for me:
1) i want my 7 y/o daughter to remember me as her best friend and believe that i did the best job raising her into a wonderful person.
2) to have opened up more "middle american" minds to modern design and broken down the elitist stigma typcially associated with good modern design and our profession.
3) to help developed truely affordable housing that is well designed per region and help stop the "bigger is better" (architecture or otherwise) mentality americans keep over-extending themselves to buy into.
I would like to help a third world country by teaching children how to read.
I too would like to help out the poor in the third world. I don't know exactly how/what atm but it'll have something to do with safe/affordable/sustainable housing.
The term "third world" is not appropriate.
well, we all know that my legacy needs no introduction
accesskb-
me and all the "non-pc" people know what you mean.
i am ok if you use "3rd world" in my post.
rhys-
your legacy will be as a newbie pc police.
a legacy-less group?
wow, 154 views and no one has a thought to what they want to be remembered for except these few.
must not have thoughts past this weekends kegger, duuude?
I have a Subaru Legacy but don't know how to drive... that's got to count for something.
Pre-industrialized, developing, third world... all the same - when you've been there, being politically correct doesn't matter. Having seen people on less than a dollar a day the phrase 'third world' is uttered not with pity but absolute anger.
The only legacy anyone will ever have is to live their life with conviction and to keep focused on the small goals.
/rant over
be happy. be kind. do good.
so this got me thinking about the third world and the develped west as the first world. so this begged the question : who the hell is the second world. luckily, wikipedia came to the rescue. for your enlightenment and reading pleasure:
"The term "third world" was coined by economist Alfred Sauvy in an article in the French magazine L'Observateur of August 14, 1952. It was a deliberate reference to the "Third Estate" of the French Revolution. Tiers monde means third world in French. The term gained widespread popularity during the Cold War when many poorer nations adopted the category to describe themselves as neither being aligned with NATO or the Warsaw Pact, but instead composing a non-aligned "third world" (in this context, the term "First World" was generally understood to mean the United States and its allies in the Cold War, which would have made the East bloc the "Second World" by default; however, the latter term was very seldom actually used)."
i agree with cameron's idea of legacy, and will combine it with ghandi's : "you must be the change you wish to see in the world." in abject honesty, most of us will be remembered by only our friends and family. do good works, and you will be remembered long after someone who is apathetic and unengaged.
must not have thoughts past this weekends kegger, duuude?
maybe not all of us live lives where they are accountable for family other than themselves...and it's great that you want to be memorable in the eyes of your family, but not everybody is in that situarion, and not everybody wants to be.
for some people the 60 hour work week does mean something, and though it might not be memorable to be in the office all the time, something may come out of that work that will be.
i have aspirations, but i do not care to live behind a legacy, i care to leave behind a better place.
"wow, 154 views and no one has a thought to what they want to be remembered for except these few."
some of us are still figuring ourselves out. Let me get to (at least!) my mid-twenties before I have to worry about things like my legacy. People view but don't post because they sense it's a somewhat serious topic and don't want to clutter it up if they/we don't have anything meaningful to say at this time.
steph-
creating a better place can be your legacy. it's not about just kids. mine was to leave behind a better design awareness as well.
your "60 hours" alone will do nothing without some defined goal, whether you're here or not.
or you can be remembered as the "60 hours a week person"
rationlist-
yeah, i realiize more and more that this site has quite a few kids on it, rather than experienced professionals, who have even thought about what "being an architect" will mean after they are done with a 60 /week career.
not that there's anything wrong with that, they are still short-term thinkers at that age.
wait a second. Theres a kegger this weekend. Awesome!
after 60 hours a week i need to go to a kegger.
ok this has nothing to do with the pc or not pc view of the third world. we know you're talking about us [africa & latin america].
so be informed:
teaching a child to read in the third world is not helpful. teachers are underpaid, the only thing you would be doing is leaving another person out of a job. you need to attack the problem of why teachers are underpaid, which has to do with corruption, which stems from lack of funds, which comes from too many bad deals with the international monetary fund, and too much foreign debt contracted due to naiveness and overabuse from 'first world' nations. in a nutshell.
designing the magic sustainable cheap housing solution. maybe, but be aware that there are fewer homeless people here than in the first world. because it's easier to have an illegal property, and build an illegal shack or favela. it has more to do with organizing this illegality so that you can reconcile what will take place anyway with a better living standard. you can't do this unless you fully understand a place, its culture and inhabitants. er, there are architects here, trying to do just this. probably not enough, but it's hard to picture someone from outside trying to deal with landsharks and the desperation of the favela/invasion mentality.
so my suggestions, if you want to help the third world: be an informed consumer. chose a third world country as your next vacation destination. leave some dollars here. help underfed economies. push your congressman for more support of third world crises like darfur [humanitarian crises are much bigger and more complex in africa of course than in latin america]. try illegal immigrants with respect. if they could stay home they would, really.
but don't be so condescending as to think we need for you to teach us how to read. most third world country children are probably being taught more english than your kids are being taught any second language. because we need it to be competitive [you don't]
i know you're full of good intentions and i thank you for it. but you need to be more informed of the situation because really, it gets tiring.
ok, rant over. sorry about that. attack away.
<-- obviously having a bad day, by the way.
to a large extent i agree with aml. it's amazing how many people here in the states will go out of their way to express concern over the poor in the third world yet are totally blind to the poor living right in their midst. i guarantee that just about anywhere in america you're never more than five miles from someone in need.
part of the problem is perspective. i think we tend to view the poor in the third world more as victims of circumstance and the poor in our own backyard as somehow responsible, at least in part, for their own failure.
when someone offers help, take it..
when you help, don't make grandiose statements, promises and declarations. just do it, and walk away.
legacy?! cemeteries get rezoned and developed.
Bryan
I am from a third world country and that is the particular country I would like to help.
Margine - if you're serious, i know of some volunteer projects.
aml-
You talk like you know a great deal. I grew up in India/Nepal and little of what you wrote is actually valid. I have seen countless houses being swept away to landslides and entire towns being burnt to ashes and know where the real problem lies.
"If you want to help the third world: be an informed consumer." - That is all you had to post. Please follow your own advice before you post in the future.
take it as you will. that is not all i wrote, and if you think someone might help houses swept away by natural disasters by designing a solution that can't/won't be designed in india, that's great.
so your point is, the real problem lies in natural disasters? that doesn't sound very informed either. i was talking specifically about latin america. reduce my comments to that if you will, but don't tell me i don't know what goes on in the continent i've lived most of my life.
i admitted i was venting and i'm sorry, but this hardly disqualifies some very real problems regarding debt and ill/unfair economic management that i hinted at.
*yawn*
the realization that your legacy is absolutely meaningless, living each day as it were the last, not worrying about other people remembering your legacy, just living to be happy. selfish, non-compromising blind happiness...
can anyone lend me $50,000. i probably won't be able to pay it back.
i want a boat.
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