Comments 3

非洲的城市挑战

Aug 1, 2013 Kennedy Odede

内罗毕—我的母亲、我的外祖母、我的曾外祖母……她们都出生在肯尼亚农村一个叫Rarieda的村庄，生而贫穷。我也出生在这个村子，并且一直生活在那里直到两岁时爆发严重饥荒。我母亲没有食物，没有钱，也没有机会，她和万千非洲村民一样，把我们迁往城市寻找更好的生活。但是，由于在内罗毕找不到工作和房子，我们只能住在Kibera，这是非洲最大的贫民窟之一。

Kibera距离内罗毕市中心不过几英里，这里污染严重，简易道路和铁皮瓦楞屋顶棚户构成了密密麻麻的定居所。肯尼亚政府不承认Kibera的存在，这里没有下水道，也没有正式的电网。这里的居民约有几十万到上百万，在官方记录中，他们根本不存在。

Kibera只是全世界如火如荼的快速城市化进程的一个后果。超过44%的发展中国家居民已经入住城市。人口资料局估计，到2050年，只有30%的全球人口仍将生活在农村地区。但很少有人会停下来想一想，如此变化会对类似我家的家庭产生什么影响。

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Chris Baulman Aug 5, 2013

When the ownership model takes hold (whether ownership be corporate or private) what happens to the "inefficient" farmers is that they are pushed off their land by industrialisation.

Given land ownership & the industrialising, corporatising and globalising of the food chain that follows, the cat is already out of the bag. It is time for the world to reconsider its responsibility to the people who this model displaces in terms of the housing security they loose.

In industrialised & industrialising nations, people who for generations past had enjoyed at least the basic security of a roof overhead and a patch of land for food must then win a place in the globalised market place. In the cities where employment is increasingly more competitive, they must rent from an owner. The communal model which had provided land security for them and for future generations is being replaced by an ownership model in the name of efficiency. No compensation can replace that security.

There are growing numbers are living in slums (right now 863 million people, a considerable increase compared to the 760 million in 2000)

Under the welfare provisions in some industrialised nations, welfare recipients are demonised & welfare is under threat from the competition (now global) which is intrinsic to the ownership model.

I think that at the very least, the advocates & beneficiaries of the ownership model have a duty to build an alternative to "welfare" or cold charity into their model.

My suggestion is for an urban public land provision in a model to create better urban environments for all. see http://bit.ly/S4EjvG

Chris Baulman
@landrights4all
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Anestis Ioannidis Aug 4, 2013

I was always thinking about Africa when emerging ideas about growth and development came into play among the works of great economists, statesmen and enterpreneurs. The idea am offering is to assign a political leader of Kenya the responsibility of assembling a group of national experts frm the fields of economics & statistics, banking, energy, civil infrastructure and help them develop a coherent and comprehensive plan for the country's development. This plan will entail a thorough study of the current state of the country's development in terms of education, economic sectors, and culture, so that it will be able to assess with metrics and specific measurements where the cuntry lies and where it is destined to be. Similarr undertakings like Dubai inclusive of the urbanisation of entire territories is possible for Kenya as well. It is easy to estimate how many families exist and how many houses are required, how many children are available to secure a decent education, how many agricultural, energy, mining, or services business are needed to secure the creation of new economy for Kenya and abandon slums forever. There are great institutions like World Bank, European Bank for Restructuring and Development, and countless other finance institutions who make undertake the funding of similar projects and invite experts from across the globe to deliver a state of the art economy for the whole of Kenya. It is market makers who decide who will develop and who will not and great leaders among them that undertake the responsibility for similar undertakings. Just take the initiative, put it all on paper and it will come to you. Start today working on it is not a bad idea for there will be noone else except you to embrace it and materialise it.
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m r Aug 4, 2013

One needs to be extremely politically incorrect to comment on this wonderful article, where the author himself is a shining example of goodness. His question/ challenge, "But for how long will a majority serve a minority? For how long will it accept a lack of water, sanitation, education, and dignity?"- has a simple answer- FOR EVER and ever more. Oozing out population as a "political tool" is always doomed- a society betters with efforts, humility and love- not turmoil, violence or apathy. We need more like this Article's author, in this world.
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非洲的城市挑战

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