Tag: Utopia

Trujillo, first neo-colonial charter city?
Political Geography

Honduras: Neo-Colonial “Free Market” Charter Cities, Democracy Not Included – By Annie Bird

Free marketeers and Libertarians advocate for the world’s first Charter City, with authoritarian governance, facilitated by a military coup, coordinated using political sway with business partners, using public funds from the IDB for infrastructure plans, and built on land “purchased” from indigenous communities, small farmers and the state of Honduras.

Metropolis, Fritz Lang, dystopia
Film

H. G. Wells on the Futurist Dystopia of Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis”

“Metropolis” hallucinates a futuristic city, a paradise of glass and steel, where underground workers toil endlessly at the giant machines that run the world above. Controlled by the autocratic industrialist, his spoilt son falls for the working class prophet who envisions some mediation between workers and managers. Noted science fiction author H. G. Wells reviews the controversial 1927 masterpiece.

sleepy town with a charter cities target on its lovely beaches
Humanity

Model Cities: Neo-Colonialists Seek Submissive Wild For Capitalist Utopia

Neo-colonialism in Honduras: Paul Romer’s Charter Cities movement advocated suspension of sovereignty and democracy in the service of unfettered capitalism. Unfortunately, the enabling legislation was deemed by the Honduran Supreme Court as unconstitutional. While the coup-backed government of Honduras presses the issue forward, resistance members and indigenous and labor organizations continue to fight this libertarian dream on the Coast of Trujillo.

Astana, Kazakhstan
International Issues, Urban Land

Planned Petrodollar Utopia for Kazakhstan?

Called Astana, it is the world’s latest example of a rare but persistent type, the capital built from zero. It is in a line that includes St Petersburg, Washington DC, Canberra, Ankara and Brasilia and like them it provokes a question: can a city, in all its teeming complexity, really be planned? Or does the attempt lead only to a synthetic simulacrum, a kind-of city that is not quite the real thing?