On the waves: a new kind of surf in Rio de Janeiro

Surfmen are thus called young daredevils who climb to the roof of suburban trains in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and vie with each other in agility and prowess, some of them often falling on the railway tracks and being killed. The practice started as a need to hang on anything outside the crowded train and became a sport of sorts. Even though repressed by the railway authorities and punished by fines and imprisonment, the practice has been going on since the eighties and developed into a competition with rules, code of honour, grading of achievement. It became a means of improving self-esteem as well as securing leadership and social prestige by people who otherwise carry on lives devoid of any charm or ludic stimulus. A substitute behavior, it results from processes of cultural elaboration at work in the youth culture of our cities.     

On studying world order: A plea for systematic inquiry

Conclusion The creation of improved systems of world order requires great care. Alternative configurations may or may not prove more suitable, and each must be painstakingly examined on its own merits. For those of us who are actively concerned with studying about world order, this means the application of a far more rigorous conception of inquiry to our subject. So long as we cannot accept the Leibnizian claim that this is certainly the best of all possible worlds, our search for better ones must certainly be the best of all possible searches. This means that models of world order must be derived from appropriate hypotheses and subjected to the strictures of systematic analysis. World order studies must be treated in accordance with the strict canons of inquiry outlined in this essay. Only then can they begin to develop the highly generalized system of theory that characterizes any science.     

对《欢迎来北方》民族化电影风格的探讨

Dany Boon所执导和主演的《欢迎来北方》是法国电影史上最卖座的影片。这部2008年出品的电影离开占据法国电影中心地位的巴黎,远赴北方拍摄,在美学上为地区电影注入了新鲜血液。《欢迎来北方》成功地挖掘了法国的民族特色,呈现出一个和巴黎时尚相反的法国形象。但是影片的民族化风格却不一定能够受到中国观众的欢迎和理解。