Welcome to Lagos

Best thing like this I've seen in a long, long time. Refreshing to see this take on poverty and the human spirit. No patronizing shots with sad dull music, it's not a lamentation that says "look at these poor people" it's a celebration of the people and a look at human civilization in the throws of change for better or for worse. And...it's all on youtube.

I picked up Ayn Rand and the World She Made. I can't wait to jump into it. There was a time when Rand for me was the end-all, and I absolutely adored her and her work. Later I distanced myself from her completely. My thoughts on her now are a bit more complicated. I realize how deeply flawed she was and also how brilliant she could be. The things that shape us as teens don't ever really leave us; we internalize them and even if we think much differently as adults, the essence of these things must still be there. I'm excited to read a book that is neither full of condemnation or unquestioning praise, and to get a feel for what someone who encountered Rand as an adult for the first time has to say.

From the Fountainhead:

"I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York's skyline. Particularly when one can't see the details. Just the shapes. The shapes and the thought that made them. The sky over New York and the will of man made visible. What other religion do we need? And then people tell me about pilgrimages to some dank pesthole in a jungle where they go to do homage to a crumbling temple, to a leering stone monster with a pot belly, created by some leprous savage. Is it beauty and genius they want to see? Do they seek a sense of the sublime? Let them come to New York, stand on the shore of the Hudson, look and kneel. When I see the city from my window - no, I don't feel how small I am - but I feel that if a war came to threaten this, I would throw myself into space, over the city, and protect these buildings with my body."