Rapid Urbanization Increasing Armed Violence

In my first post, I focused on the impact of urbanization as a whole. The first article hit on many subjects, such as, over crowding, social displacement, poor health, increased violence, all of which has to do with urbanization in some form. Now I would like to start narrowing down the subject, and focusing on each problem. In an independent Korean newspaper, I found an article raising concerns about the armed violence created by urbanization. The article refers to the recent Small Arms Survey; an independent research project conducted by the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland.

Because of industrialization and modernization, people are flocking to the cities to find jobs because they no longer can survive by traditional means. The effect of this is seen dramatically in Africa, Latin America, and South East Asia (ironically, in areas that have been exposed to colonization and deemed “underdeveloped”). The article states that in Brazil, the annual murder rate is 45,000. This number is higher than that of some countries that are at war. Another interesting fact is that 875 million civilian, law enforcement, and military firearms exist in the world. Out of that 875 million, 650 million are owned by civilians. Why would civilians need firearms when we have a military to protect us? And to make things a little more interesting, the United States has the highest ratio of gun ownership, 90 out of every 100 people own guns. Arms trade is an industry that generates $4 billion per year, and guess who is at the top of the list for exports…the United States. It’s funny how the largest exporter of weapons also has a reputation for invading countries and prohibiting weapons.

Returning to the subject of violence caused by urbanization, it seems to me that urbanization is essentially destroying civilization. Mega-cities are being built to promote advancement and development. But not advancement in the sense that we are creating a better, easier way of life. By developing new technologies and becoming reliant on them, we are getting rid of the jobs that are giving people an income to buy the products (which they are producing) needed to survive (and sometimes only surviving). And the only reason we created these jobs, is because we moved away from a self-sustaining agrarian society. So now we have a mass of people that once were able to live off what they provided for themselves, moving into cities that offers little employment (because it is all done my machine, or a higher education is needed) and reduced to a life of survival by means of violence (from gang membership or independent thievery).

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200708/200708290045.html

http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/files/portal/issueareas/victims/victimcost.html