Slums
In 2005, for the first time in the history of humanity more people lived in cities than in the country. Of the more than three billion people in the urban communities of the world, one third live in the worst conditions imaginable, with no hope of escape. The places they live in are called urban slums. The global war on poverty has been a resounding, abject failure. The sprawl of today’s unprecedented megaslums like Sadr City, the Cape Flats, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Mexico City and a legion of others too numerous to mention has created an urban populace disconnected in every way from industrialization and economic growth. Ruthless engines of urban renewal and “beautification” expel millions of poor city dwellers to the despair of the periurban shadowlands.
The vital frontier of the free or cheap land surrounding third world cities has ended and today’s squatters must wager their lives against inevitable disaster on precarious hillsides, in flood plains or next to toxic dumps.
Instead of cities of light, as futurists once imagined, much of the twenty first century urban world squats in squalor, surrounded by pollution, excrement and decay. Vast numbers of humanity are warehoused in shantytowns and exiled from the formal economy. Is the war on terrorism the beginning of new world war between the American Empire and the new slum poor?
Slums: Is this the future of our cities? Today more than one billion disenfranchised people live around the globe in the periphery of what we call life, hidden behind the detritus and cast-off garbage of the wealthy and powerful. In South America, Africa, Asia, North America and Europe there are unforgettable images of the new world that we have created with globalization and the uncontrolled population explosion.
Within 30 years the world population is expected to close in on ten billion, with the global megacities absorbing the majority of that increase. Today’s, slums will, unbelievably, have tripled in size. Will the waiting explosion of the poor against their abysmal conditions have happened?Will the conditions they are forced to live in have leaked into a permanent feature of day to day life around the world? Will the United Nations, the United States, the G8 have been able to alleviate the crushing degradation of human life?
This is the vast hidden under belly of our western way of life, what more than one billion people endure, while we, in our oblivious lifestyles, suck 90 per cent of the world’s resources into maw of progress. What is the solution? It begins with us.
March 30th, 2008 at 11:57 am
I would think the slums themselves as primitive as they are would be a much more greener way of life. Most of the buildings are constructed with recycled materials, and they dont have 50-inch widescreens. I would think if everyone was living in a similar matter we wouldnt be facing the same environmental crisis.
During earth hour when everyone shut out their lights for one hour I thought to myself what if we just left the lights off. How long would we last before we all died without the light bulb. I came to the conclusion that I don’t know of anyone that couldnt survive if they didnt have the conveince of flicking that light switch on the wall. Sure it would be more difficult for commerce oh no we probably couldnt wander around the gigantic Walmart in Dartmouth Crossing after hours… so what. Other then a sacrifice of convenience I cant see why it is so nessecary for us to illuminate every corner outside and inside all hours of the day.
I know the lights are just a small piece of the puzzle but just imagine if it was earth hour all the time. No light bulbs for anyone…. need some light get a candle. Sure there would be lots of fires and we wouldnt be able to do stuff like operations unless it was light outside but I dont know its just one thing that seems pretty simple to me. Dont worry about turning the lights off just dont turn them on in the first place do you really need every light in the house turned on all night just in case you need to pee during the night.
Humans can see in the dark….
April 21st, 2008 at 6:41 am
I think it is almost time for a a virus to wipe most of us out. Mother nature has a way of correcting overpopulation. It may even be a man-mait pathegen used as a terror weapon.