The best universities in the world

“Today, Brazil has the best universities in the world!”

Domenico de Masi

Ricardo Prado, Alex Pinheiro and I were somewhat astonished by Domenico De Masi’s statement.

We had the pleasure of lunching with the distinguished Italian sociologist during his latest visit to Rio de Janeiro. Having attended one of his highly sought-after (and expensive) lectures and read many of his books, I thought I knew his opinions well. But his remark about Brazilian universities caught me off guard: How could our underfunded educational institutions be the best in the world? I don’t have an ‘inferiority complex’—that feeling that everything from ‘abroad’ (meaning the USA and Europe) is better—no, but I live the reality of the university every day and could not agree with this.

“Of course, you Brazilians don’t see it because you look at the ‘rankings.’ In the rankings, Stanford, Harvard, Berkeley… are the best. But it’s the ‘Stanfords, Harvards, Berkeleys’ that MAKE the rankings. And of course, by their ‘criteria’, they will be the best.”

Domenico de Masi

It made perfect sense.

“The Brazilian university has joy, sensuality, beauty. These are the most important characteristics for success in post-industrial society. To have creativity and to innovate.”

Domenico de Masi

And he added:

“If the number of sexual encounters that occur in one day were the criterion to determine the best university, UFRJ would be number 1 in the world!”

Domenico de Masi

We all laughed. I remembered Bhutan and its GNH, the ‘Gross National Happiness’ index. Domenico said he spends at least 4 days a year in the small country nestled in the Himalayas, which caught the world’s attention by changing the parameter for assessing the quality of life of its population from GDP to GNH.

“Bhutan is a wonderful place. Even companies now adopt well-being criteria to evaluate their productivity.”

Domenico de Masi

I had thought about Bhutan and GNH before, but not seriously. I like the idea of rebelling against the criteria established by the dominating classes (or countries) to evaluate quality, but that was as far as I went. On the other hand, I have written here how it is very hard for a people without social problems, like the Norwegians, to innovate. But I hadn’t connected the two ideas.

“But Bhutan is very small. Only Brazil is in a position to change the world: it’s large, rich in natural resources, a democracy, polytheistic and has no conflicts, either internally or with its neighbors. What other country in the world has that?”

Domenico de Masi

I remembered my college class. We went to all the Interbios (the Biology universities’ olympiad), ENEBs, and EREBs (national and regional biology student meetings), congresses, seminars, meetings. We organized beach volleyball competitions in Barra, talent shows, truco championships. We spent Festa Junina, Rio’s and Salvador’s Carnivals, Christmas and New Year’s together. The beauty (as you can see), fun and sensuality (measured by huge amounts of kissing and sexual relations that were established) were always the driving forces behind all these events. And EVERY person in this photo, a diverse and representative sample of the class of 89/1, is today among the most creative and successful professionals I know.

Yeah, thinking about it, Domenico is right: I studied at the best university in the world!

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Originally published in 2012 at ‘Você que é biólogo…’ in Portuguese, after I meet for the 1st time with Domenico de Masi in Rio de Janeiro.