http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4561183.stm
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')nalysts fear that in developing countries the provision of houses and basic services will not be able to keep pace with the growing population. One billion people, one-sixth of the world's population, now live in shanty towns.
Developing countries and medium-sized cities are the main contributor to increasing global urbanisation, according to Ms Zlotnik.
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One billion people live in Shantytowns
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One billion people live in Shantytowns
by jaws » Tue 24 May 2005, 20:18:58
I'm not one to believe that mass starvation will cause a population crash. Cuba was a poor country that survived a drastic fall in energy supply by reorganising its agriculture and suffering a drop in caloric intake. The rest of the world can do the same. However, when I think about the giant shantypolises and the people that live in them, I can't help but think they don't stand a chance of surviving the change. These people already live at the edge of survival and have no access to land of their own. If the food surplus vanishes they'll be the first to face demand destruction. How they deal with that is anyone's guess, but it's more likely to be extremely violent than fair and peaceful.
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by Tyler_JC » Tue 24 May 2005, 21:13:03
Good post!
Those 1 billion people are not going to die quitely in their sleep when the food runs out. I predict civil war and mucho deatho in the third world. At least when these people were poor and rural, they could support themselves. What happens to the poor and urban? How many sharecroppers do we really need?
A similiar thing might happen to the suburban masses of the West. With no land or useful skills, might they sell themselves into neo-slavery in order to stay alive? Or will they react violently to poverty and damage what's left of our social systems?
The answers to these and many other questions will be discovered during sometime in the next 30 years. I hope my area is not one of the test cases...
Those 1 billion people are not going to die quitely in their sleep when the food runs out. I predict civil war and mucho deatho in the third world. At least when these people were poor and rural, they could support themselves. What happens to the poor and urban? How many sharecroppers do we really need?
A similiar thing might happen to the suburban masses of the West. With no land or useful skills, might they sell themselves into neo-slavery in order to stay alive? Or will they react violently to poverty and damage what's left of our social systems?
The answers to these and many other questions will be discovered during sometime in the next 30 years. I hope my area is not one of the test cases...
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by jimmydean » Tue 24 May 2005, 21:24:52
I think it's inevitable.
If we look at China we see mass migration from country to city. If we look at the western world we see increased migration away from agricultural communities due to uncertainty of competitive ability in global markets.
Things have never been so unbalanced. Globalization of economies has caused things to accelerate to a point that things happen suddenly rather than gradually.
Unfortunately perhaps the west has under-estimated the impactof westernizing the developing nations. In the short-term very attractive but in the long term we just created hungrier competitors for the finite resources and jobs.
If we look at China we see mass migration from country to city. If we look at the western world we see increased migration away from agricultural communities due to uncertainty of competitive ability in global markets.
Things have never been so unbalanced. Globalization of economies has caused things to accelerate to a point that things happen suddenly rather than gradually.
Unfortunately perhaps the west has under-estimated the impactof westernizing the developing nations. In the short-term very attractive but in the long term we just created hungrier competitors for the finite resources and jobs.
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by Raxozanne » Sat 28 May 2005, 08:45:27
Is the figure still at one billion?
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Police in Zimbabwe have begun destroying shack settlements in the capital, Harare, as part of a plan to clean up the city.
An opposition parliamentarian told the BBC that thousands of people had been left homeless.
Police say the demolitions are part of an ongoing operation to deal with illegal activities across the country.
They have arrested 17,000 people over the past two weeks, most of them street traders and minibus drivers.
Homes torn down
Shack demolitions began in Harare on Thursday afternoon.
On Friday morning, about 2,000 police were involved in the destruction of several poor settlements in the capital.
In the Hatfield Extension area in the north of Harare, police dismantled more than 500 dwellings, and some shack dwellers were forced to tear down their own homes.
Harare police commissioner Augustine Chihuri warned that any one resisting would be dealt with.
Police say people evicted will be taken to alternative accommodation.
But Trudy Stevenson, MP for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in the constituency that includes Hatfield Extension, said people had nowhere to go, and that thousands were homeless.
She said she had been phoned on Thursday night by residents who said truckloads of police had arrived under cover of darkness.
"They told me they were burning everything but I better not come as I might get shot in the darkness," Mrs Stevenson said.
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Police in Zimbabwe have begun destroying shack settlements in the capital, Harare, as part of a plan to clean up the city.
An opposition parliamentarian told the BBC that thousands of people had been left homeless.
Police say the demolitions are part of an ongoing operation to deal with illegal activities across the country.
They have arrested 17,000 people over the past two weeks, most of them street traders and minibus drivers.
Homes torn down
Shack demolitions began in Harare on Thursday afternoon.
On Friday morning, about 2,000 police were involved in the destruction of several poor settlements in the capital.
In the Hatfield Extension area in the north of Harare, police dismantled more than 500 dwellings, and some shack dwellers were forced to tear down their own homes.
Harare police commissioner Augustine Chihuri warned that any one resisting would be dealt with.
Police say people evicted will be taken to alternative accommodation.
But Trudy Stevenson, MP for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in the constituency that includes Hatfield Extension, said people had nowhere to go, and that thousands were homeless.
She said she had been phoned on Thursday night by residents who said truckloads of police had arrived under cover of darkness.
"They told me they were burning everything but I better not come as I might get shot in the darkness," Mrs Stevenson said.
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Re: One billion people live in Shantytowns
by EdF » Sat 28 May 2005, 12:51:52
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')I'm not one to believe that mass starvation will cause a population crash. Cuba was a poor country that survived a drastic fall in energy supply by reorganising its agriculture and suffering a drop in caloric intake. The rest of the world can do the same.
')I'm not one to believe that mass starvation will cause a population crash. Cuba was a poor country that survived a drastic fall in energy supply by reorganising its agriculture and suffering a drop in caloric intake. The rest of the world can do the same.
Cuba was "special" - it had the highest rate of literacy and college graduates in the western hemisphere at the time of its crash. And a very high proportion of those college degrees were in agriculture.
http://billtotten.blogspot.com/2005/04/cuba-diet.html
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Re: One billion people live in Shantytowns
by RG73 » Sat 28 May 2005, 13:52:00
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EdF', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')I'm not one to believe that mass starvation will cause a population crash. Cuba was a poor country that survived a drastic fall in energy supply by reorganising its agriculture and suffering a drop in caloric intake. The rest of the world can do the same.
')I'm not one to believe that mass starvation will cause a population crash. Cuba was a poor country that survived a drastic fall in energy supply by reorganising its agriculture and suffering a drop in caloric intake. The rest of the world can do the same.
Cuba was "special" - it had the highest rate of literacy and college graduates in the western hemisphere at the time of its crash. And a very high proportion of those college degrees were in agriculture.
http://billtotten.blogspot.com/2005/04/cuba-diet.html
Good points. Also Cuba was benefited in this case by having a strong totalitarian government and government control of the economy. The economy wasn't as subject to fluctuations from speculators, personal debt and the like. And Castro could pretty much get the greatest minds around together, form a plan and see to it that the plan was carried out regardless of individual or corporate opposition.
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