What could possibly be bad about urbanization? Urbanization is creating cities that are the hubs of entertainment, art, industry, fashion and giving thousands of people jobs and places to live. Well, that is only true to say if the urbanization is taking place in an already developed country, and even then a respectable lifestyle is limited to a fortunate few. I feel like this article is a good start to this assignment because it does not focus just on a single location, but deals with the problem of urbanization as a whole. It states that “the world has reached a point of hyper-urbanization.” Half of the world population has left the countryside and migrated to the cities in hopes of living a subsistent lifestyle. The term mega-cities is now used to describe cities of 10 million people plus. This term 50 years ago could only be applied to 2 cities,
My main concern with urbanization is that we no longer rely on traditional means to survive. Because of factory farming and other industrialized means of manufacturing food, small farming families are being put out of business and reduced to a less than subsistent life. As well as our food has become unhealthy, as it is loaded with insecticides used to kill the so called “pests”. Many of the families find refuge in the city, some are lucky enough to find steady income, but the majority is not so lucky. While in the center of the city is, life is lavish and business is booming, the outskirts are littered with ghettos. This article points out that the reason people flock to cities, is to escape the hardships of rural life. But once they arrive, they have no job, many become homeless, and they are forced to live in disease ridden areas of the city.
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-plcretsinas0819.artaug19,0,7641629.story
1 comment:
Hunter, I definitely agree with what you're saying here. In Chapter 1, when Sernau discusses the modernization theory, he mentions that "traditional values -...patience, humility, communal cooperation, respect [for elders]...-must be replaced by new modern values." It's as if we'll all be better off if we lose our respect for one another and ability to work as a team, and instead gain an intense lust for "hard-fought competition."
When I think about how far we've come as a society, both in the U.S. and other more developed countries, and how much technology is constantly advancing, I feel like we're slowly but surely losing our independence. So many people believe that computers, huge industries, hugely populated cities, and constant inter-connectedness is going to save us, keep us alive.
But, like you mention, moving everyone without money from rural farms to small and overpopulated cities only creates a growing number of ghettos where people hope to find employment and raise families, but instead find the same unemployment in a different - sometimes worse - environment.
Great job on your post. Good food for thought.
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