The Seven Myths of “Slums” By Adam W.
Parsons / December 10th, 2010 For anyone who takes an interest in the problem of slums, a few basic facts will soon become clear. Firstly, the locus of global poverty is moving from rural areas to the cities, and more than half the world population now lives in urban areas for the first time in human history. Secondly, most of the world’s urban population, most of its largest cities and most of its urban poverty is now located in Africa, Asia and Latin America – the so-called developing world.
Thirdly, the growth in slums since the 1980s is both formidable and unprecedented (even though urban slums have existed in Europe since the Industrial Revolution), and the number of slum-dwellers worldwide is expected to continually increase in the decades ahead. Beyond these facts, there seems to be little awareness about the reality of slums in the popular imagination. Myth 1: There are too many people Myth 2: The poor are to blame Myth 4: Slums are an inevitable stage of development. What Happened To Academia? What happened to academia?
In 2008, Terry Eagleton, formerly Professor of English Literature at Manchester University, wrote: “By and large, academic institutions have shifted from being the accusers of corporate capitalism to being its accomplices. They are intellectual Tescos, churning out a commodity known as graduates rather than greengroceries.”
He added: “The logic of the commodity has now penetrated into the sphere of human needs and nurture, breeding pathological symptoms there. We have long been fascinated by the silencing of academe. So our attention was naturally piqued when, on October 12, one of our readers sent us a link to an article on the website Journalism.co.uk that reported the findings of a new study of the media. We wrote to Piers Robinson on the same day. I understand all of this, and I am now getting annoyed with your tone…What I find most frustrating about this is that, as an academic, I have more work on than you could possibly imagine.
Hi Piers Best wishes. Welcome to the Collapse. The spinmeisters are playing the same record over and over, recovery, recovery, scratch, scratch, recovery’s in da house!
The Associated Press trumpeted, “After two years of recession, Christmas 2010 will go down as the moment when Americans rediscovered how much they like to shop.” On December 28th, Yahoo Finance reassured us at 9AM, “The recovery is on track,” but an hour later, it featured a new headline, “Consumer Confidence Unexpectedly Falls in December.” With its attendant social chaos, crime and despair, the country is sinking into an economic quicksand, yet Americans are injected daily with a massive dose of tranquilizing nonsense. Today’s top stories, “Elton John Becomes a Dad,” “Air Force Mascot Goes Missing at Game,” “10 Best Celebrity Hair Moments” and “Synchronized Walking Routine.” The cheeky and cheery are occasionally contradicted by grimmer admissions, however.
[VOA]: “How does it feel from the beginning of the Christmas season from your point of view? [Cashier]: “Yeah.”