The dysfunctional megacity: why Dhaka is bursting at the sewers | Cities After decades cleaning the sewers of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s crowded capital, Sujon Lal Routh has seen plenty of misery. But the tragedy of 2008 was the worst. After a day of heavy rainfall left the streets flooded – as usual – seven workers were assigned to clear a blocked manhole in Rampura, in the centre of the city. Bystanders smashed the road open with hammers and shovels. During Bangladesh’s relentless monsoon season, Dhaka is submerged several times a month. On the sides of the roads, in the blinding rain, the ragtag army of sewer cleaners goes to work. According to UN Habitat, Dhaka is the world’s most crowded city. Too many people, too few resources Overpopulation is usually defined as the state of having more people in one place that can live there comfortably, or more than the resources available can cater for. Cities can be densely populated without being overpopulated. Overpopulation happens when a city grows faster than it can be managed. ‘I’m forced to do this job’
South Asia | Mumbai's slum solution? Mukesh Mehta wears a crisp shirt and tie as he picks his way past makeshift shacks and stinking open gutters in Dharavi, Asia's largest slum. Dharavi is a dense labyrinth of dirt roads in the centre of India's biggest and most economically important city, Mumbai (Bombay). Estimates of its population size vary but it is likely that up to a million people live in these crowded lanes. But now the slum faces complete demolition under an audacious plan designed by Mr Mehta. As a wealthy architect turned property tycoon, Mr Mehta makes an unlikely development visionary. His scheme is unique because it uses India's surging private sector to develop slums, instead of relying on government funds or international aid. But will it offer a fair deal to the urban poor? Win-win solution "I'm not ashamed or embarrassed that I'm going to make money out of it," Mr Mehta told me late last year. He explained that the urge to turn a profit is what drives the scheme forward. Theoretically at least, everyone wins.
How Rwanda’s Capital Became an African Tech Leader – Member Feature Stories “There are a few fundamentals you have to understand. Firstly, our country is the same size as the U.S. state of Maryland, but our population is around 12 million people. Secondly, we have no natural resources — no oil or gold or anything else that countries benefit from,” explains Claudette Irere, director general at Rwanda’s Ministry of Youth and Information and Communication Technology. “This means the only way for us to move forward and to build our future is to empower people and make good use of technology. Rwanda is beginning to leapfrog developed countries in fundamental areas such as smart city infrastructure, vocational training, and strategic foreign investment. When President Kagame emerged as Rwanda’s de facto leader, he set out his ambition to transform the country from one of Africa’s poorest nations into a leading knowledge economy by 2020. “Urbanization is becoming more of a challenge for things like traffic and public transportation.
BrooksbankGeographyYr13 - Case Study - Effects of Counterurbanisation Counter- urbanisation is the migration of people from major urban areas to smaller urban settlements and rual areas.It first took place as a reaction to iner city deprivation and overcrowding with people moving from from towns and cities to new towns, estates or commuter towns and villages.New towns and estates were mainly built due to government schemes trying to rehome people from deprived inner cities, maily for the working class that had moved into the area looking for work.However, the commuter towns and villages are mainly aimed at middle class or socially mobile people because they can easily access nearby towns and cities by car, bus or maybe train. CAUSES:One of the main causes of counter - urbanisation is that people want a better quality of life, they want to be able to live in a clean and quiet area without air and noise pollution, busy traffic, dirt and the crime of urban environments.
Trump will personally save up to $15m under tax bill, analysis finds Donald Trump and six members of his inner circle will be big winners of the Republicans’ vast tax overhaul, with the president personally benefiting from a tax cut of up to $15m a year, research shows. The US president chalked up his first big legislative win on Wednesday with the $1.5tn bill, the most sweeping revamp of the tax code in three decades, slashing taxes for corporations and the wealthy and dealing the heaviest blow yet to Obamacare. But analysis by a leading Washington thinktank, the Center for American Progress (CAP), finds that changes to business rules will save Trump roughly $11m to $15m per year, while an amendment to the estate tax – the tax on the transfer of an estate of a deceased person – would potentially save his heirs $4.5m. Under current law, the first $11.2m of a couple’s estate’s value is excluded from taxation, and any amount above this is taxed at a 40% rate. In addition, the biggest element of the tax bill benefitting the wealthy is the corporate tax cut.
High Street suffers as more people favour out-of-town locations Online sales of non-food products rose 11.7pc last month, boosted by the number of people surfing for post-Christmas bargains. Shoes were the most popular items bought online. Over £1 in every £3 of footwear purchases was spent online. Shoes are the most popular items bought online One in ten shops are empty in Britain’s town centres, a figure that has remained steady for the last couple of years. However, Diane Wehrle, Retail Insights Director at Springboard, said the number could soon rise. “The number of retail leases that are due to expire over this year suggests that this could rise further over the coming months - particularly as consumers are now demanding discounts, which squeeze margins and adversely impact profitability and long term business sustainability.’’ The BRC added that while many local councils are working hard on initiatives to inspire high streets, there is much more to be done.
Capitalism 101 - The NIB click 2x Imperialism, suffering, and violence are a feature, not a flaw. by Satwik Gade and Manasi Karthik Posted Yesterday Rise and Shine. The World is Doomed. The Nib, delivered to your inbox every AM. Is the minimum wage worth less now than 50 years ago? Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., took to Twitter recently to tout her support for a $15 minimum wage. In the tweet, Smith wrote that "one of the proudest things I did" as lieutenant governor serving under Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton was helping to raise Minnesota’s state minimum wage to $9.50 an hour. "Now, I’m proud to back a bill to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2024," she wrote, referring to a measure introduced by Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Patty Murray, D-Wash. Currently, the federal minimum wage is $7.25, though states can set higher levels if they wish — and a majority do, from a small amount more than the federal level to $11.50 in Washington state. In a threaded tweet, Smith gave some historical perspective on the minimum wage: "The federal minimum wage hasn’t been raised in a nearly a decade. The federal minimum wage hasn’t been raised in a nearly a decade. We wondered if Smith was correct, so we looked at the data. Back in 1968, the minimum wage was set at $1.60. U.S.
Environmental Catastrophe is Coming. The Rich Will Be Just Fine. They’ve got private protection from ever-more-frequent natural disasters. But who will pay the price? by Maria Stoian The trouble with charitable billionaires | News In February 2017, Facebook’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was in the headlines for his charitable activities. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, founded by the tech billionaire and his wife, Priscilla Chan, handed out over $3m in grants to aid the housing crisis in the Silicon Valley area. David Plouffe, the Initiative’s president of policy and advocacy, stated that the grants were intended to “support those working to help families in immediate crisis while supporting research into new ideas to find a long-term solution – a two-step strategy that will guide much of our policy and advocacy work moving forward”. This is but one small part of Zuckerberg’s charity empire. The housing intervention is of course much closer to home, dealing with issues literally at the door of Facebook’s Menlo Park head office. More generally, San Francisco is a city with massive income inequality, and the reputation of having the most expensive housing in the US.
How to Reform Welfare and Taxes to Provide Every American Citizen with a Basic Income Some of the most common questions ever asked in regards to the idea of a universal basic income (UBI) are in regards to the details. “How much income? Who gets it? Who pays for it? First, how much are we talking about? Taking into consideration that we are talking about US citizens only (which would also incentivize legal immigration) who comprise an estimated 92.8% of the population, this particular basic income design requires finding about $3.4 trillion in total (not net) revenue. Welfare state reform First, there are welfare programs we can eliminate entirely once basic income is enacted into law. Basic income revenue pool: $125 billion | Remaining need: $3.27 trillion Invisible welfare state reform Second, there are welfare programs in existence that we don’t tend to see as welfare because they are targeted mostly toward those at the top of the income and wealth spectrum. Basic income revenue pool: $1.02 trillion | Remaining need: $2.38 trillion Social Security reform Overall savings
I'm a millionaire who creates zero jobs. Why do I pay less tax than you? | Morris Pearl In 2013, just a few years after the 2008 financial crisis, I was part of BlackRock’s Financial Markets Advisory Group working for the Greek Central Bank, assessing the capital requirements of the bailouts of the Greek banks. I was on the top floor of a bank building in Athens with about 20 bank executives taking a lunch break, when I glanced out the window and saw a huge crowd of people on the street. For a moment I thought it was a parade, and then I realized it was something between a protest and a riot. As I looked out the window to the heated crowd below, and looked behind me to the well–fed bankers at the table, I wondered if I was actually helping anyone beyond the people having lunch with me. A few months later, I left a 30-year career on Wall Street to work full time as chair of the board of the Patriotic Millionaires. I haven’t looked back since. There’s a Greek proverb that goes: “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in.”