Planet of the Slums written by Mike Davis paints a very pessimistic picture of the conditions that were presented in what he calls the “urban South”. By being pessimistic, Davis only see things in the worst aspects and thinks that it will continue to get worse from here on out. The term “urban South” is used by Mike Davis throughout the book, it refers to the third world countries that are all over the globe, hence the title of the book “Planet” of the Slums. When referring to the “urban South”, Davis is talking about the undeveloped cities in the continent of Asia, Africa and South America; he also mentioned cities such as Mumbai (Bombay), Dhaka, Cairo, Shanghai, Kolkata (Calcutta), and many more (4). Mike Davis was very straightforward when
…show more content…
Davis stated “...next year or two, a woman will give birth in the Lagos slum of Ajegunle, a young man will flee his village in west Java for the bright lights of Jakarta or a farmer will move his impoverished family into one of Lima’s innumerable pueblos jóvenes” (1). The quotation proves that people will be moving from rural areas to megacities without anyone telling them to do it. Megacities can be described as a larger geographic metropolitan area with a greater population. People were moving from rural villages to megacities because it was their choice to do so, they thought that their current situation was worse than that of the megacities. Figure 2 in Planet of the Slums shows the increase in population size in millions from 1950 to 2004 in the megacities of the Third World. The population of Mexico City went from 2.9 million to 22.1 million, Mumbai went from 2.9 million to 19.1 million, Dhaka was at 0.4 million in 1950 and by 2004, it was at 15.9 million (Davis 4). Based on the chart that can be found on page four …show more content…
Chapter three of Planet of the Slums is titled “Treason of the State”. In this chapter, Davis talks about how the governments of the urban South betrayed its citizens. Governments are created with the sole purpose of caring for and protecting those who made its existence possible. At the beginning of the chapter, Davis said that the government at first, tried their best to prevent people from moving to the cities because they wanted to control the lower income of the population and maintain an agrarian economy: “Urban migration was controlled by pass laws...” (Davis 51). European colonialism was present in the British colonial cities, eastern and southern of Africa: “Until 1954, for instance, Africans were considered temporary sojourners in racially zoned Nairobi and were unable to leasehold property” (Davis 51). Under European colonialism, Africans were considered to be non-permanent citizens because they had nothing that would suggest otherwise; they were not allowed to own or lease property. By keeping the peasants out, the building blocks for colonial racism was also formed: “...Lusaka - designed as “a highly ordered city segmented by race, class, and gender” (Davis 51). Peasants or people of low income were not treated properly by the government of their countries because the governments
Davis stated “...next year or two, a woman will give birth in the Lagos slum of Ajegunle, a young man will flee his village in west Java for the bright lights of Jakarta or a farmer will move his impoverished family into one of Lima’s innumerable pueblos jóvenes” (1). The quotation proves that people will be moving from rural areas to megacities without anyone telling them to do it. Megacities can be described as a larger geographic metropolitan area with a greater population. People were moving from rural villages to megacities because it was their choice to do so, they thought that their current situation was worse than that of the megacities. Figure 2 in Planet of the Slums shows the increase in population size in millions from 1950 to 2004 in the megacities of the Third World. The population of Mexico City went from 2.9 million to 22.1 million, Mumbai went from 2.9 million to 19.1 million, Dhaka was at 0.4 million in 1950 and by 2004, it was at 15.9 million (Davis 4). Based on the chart that can be found on page four …show more content…
Chapter three of Planet of the Slums is titled “Treason of the State”. In this chapter, Davis talks about how the governments of the urban South betrayed its citizens. Governments are created with the sole purpose of caring for and protecting those who made its existence possible. At the beginning of the chapter, Davis said that the government at first, tried their best to prevent people from moving to the cities because they wanted to control the lower income of the population and maintain an agrarian economy: “Urban migration was controlled by pass laws...” (Davis 51). European colonialism was present in the British colonial cities, eastern and southern of Africa: “Until 1954, for instance, Africans were considered temporary sojourners in racially zoned Nairobi and were unable to leasehold property” (Davis 51). Under European colonialism, Africans were considered to be non-permanent citizens because they had nothing that would suggest otherwise; they were not allowed to own or lease property. By keeping the peasants out, the building blocks for colonial racism was also formed: “...Lusaka - designed as “a highly ordered city segmented by race, class, and gender” (Davis 51). Peasants or people of low income were not treated properly by the government of their countries because the governments