CITIES Why in Crisis?

Unfulfilled Dreams

In modern times, cities continue to offer many of the same advantages.  Little wonder, then, that they continue to attract millions-especially in lands where life in the rurals  has become unbearably difficult.   However, for many people who migrate to cities, the dreams of a better life go unfulfilled.  (Note:  No, the greener on the other side)  The book Vital Signs 1998 says:   "According  to a recent study by the Population Council, the quality of life in many urban  centers of the developing world is poorer today than in rural areas."  Why is this so?

Henry G. Cisneros writes in The Human Face of the Urban Environment:  "When poor people become concentrated in precisely defined geographic areas, their problems grow exponentially. . . . The increasing concentration of poor, mostly minority people has been accompanied by soaring unemployment, increased  and prolonged welfare dependency, profuse public health problems, and, most startling, rising crime."  The book Mega-city Growth and the Future similarly observes;  "The massive inflow of people often leads to high levels of unemployment and underemployment because the market for labor may be unable to absorb the expanding number of job seekers."

The growing number of street children is heartrending evidence o the deep poverty that exists in the cities of the developing world.  According to some estimates, there are as many  as 30 million street children worldwide!  Says the book Mega-city Growth and the Future;  "Poverty and other problems have eroded   family ties so that the street children have been forced to fend for themselves."  Such children often eke out a miserable existence by scavenging, begging, or doing menial work at local markets.

Next time:  CITIES Why in Crisis?/Other Grim Realities

From the Awake! magazine