Planet of Slums
Sent to me by my brother Matt cos he didn't want to lend his own copy, too important as a reference work socialogically, this book is truly terrifying. A document as to how slums are taking over the planet apart from small heavily guarded enclaves. These enclaves range from the archetypal Sao Paulo luxury apartments' tennis courts overlooking favelas directly underneath their steep medieval castle like walls to whole continents (i.e. Europe) who prevent migration from poverty to relative luxury through technology and man power. The author pulls in loads of reference works and systematically goes through the slum situation across the globe, how they are growing exponentially, how they came to be there and what their future is. He goes through why the majority of peoples on the planet are being failed by their and other states being pushed into or further into poverty. He shows how the idea that people can work their way up and out of slums and poverty is an illusion at best and a corrupt lie to be more accurate. The ecological nightmare of living in slums is a focus and the root cause of the massive growth due to IMF and World Bank (read USA and Western Europe) monetary and political policies eroding, or avalanching, away the state in poverty stricken countries. A seeming surplus of humanity is discussed in that the rich want to consume more and more and keep the poor down at heel. Futures are analysed including the massive move to the informal economy in many places and how this affects poverty line humanity in the ability to be educated and break out of the vicious circle. Victorian British, Irish and Italian slums are referenced but not really analysed that much especially how they were eradicated. Whatever the reason things seem to be different today as there are no empires at hand for stricken countries or new continents to be conquered or markets to have goods forced upon them by imperialistic empires. Finally there is a chilling thought to end such a chilling book. It seems that the only government organisation globally to accept that we won't get rid of massive slums, or even stem the flow into slums and spread of them into agricultural land and communities, is the US military. They have accepted that for decades they will be fighting never ending wars against poor militants and have started investigating how they can fight insurgents in the slum environment when roads are either non existent and certainly not mapped and the population is so densely packed. We know their current tactic which is to simply bomb entire buildings or communities. They are refining this partly through their experiences in fighting civil disturbances in Los Angeles. The fact that LA is a blue print for slums is very telling. It shows that the west is not as far from being swamped by toxic waste and slums as we may think. And that the powers that be are content for it to slide into such a state. Essential reading for anyone socially or politically aware, humanitarians and ecologists alike. If our culture started with tales of past paradise such as the Garden of Eden we are on a fast track to finishing it in hell as envisioned in Dante's inferno. A nuclear holocaust would seemingly be a welcome quick euthanasia for the human race compared to the progression of slum lifestyles, or deathstyles, that are increasingly covering the globe that we are treating and it's inhabitants whether human or animal or agricultural so badly. Illuminating. Depressing.
