March 11, 2007
Planet of slums.
Review of a couple of Mike Davis's recent books. From the review: "There are more than 20 megacities in the developing world. Two of these – Mexico City and Seoul – were ‘hypercities’ (with 20 million inhabitants) at the time he published this book. Since then São Paulo and Mumbai must also have hit the 20 million mark, with Delhi fast approaching it...‘In many cases,’ Davis observes, ‘rural people no longer have to migrate to the city: it migrates to them.’" Here is an interview with Davis.
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As much as Mike Davis's work depresses me, he's a spectacular author. Ecology of Fear is one of my favorite histories (Chapter 6, "The Literary Destruction of Los Angeles" is worth the cover price alone), and I'm curently working my way through Under the Perfect Sun: The San Diego Tourists Never See. But, yeah. Did I say depressing? Yet brilliant, significant and very timely, even prescient. He's also not without his critics, although I'm not sure how much credence I give that particular article... the arguments at the end seem to be similar to "Why is the carnage in Iraq the only thing you talk about when we're, like, building schools there and stuff."
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Good link! Thanks, I never even knew about Davis. I will definitely persue this further.
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Quite depresing. But fascinating. This feller looks to be the Malthus of our time.
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NYT: Soon, half the world will be living in cities. The onrush of change will be particularly extraordinary in Africa and Asia, where between 2000 and 2030 “the accumulated urban growth of these two regions during the whole span of history will be duplicated in a single generation."
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A different Mike Davis: Mike Davis’ Supernatural Surrealism
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That's keeping it surreal.
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That funky dude with the weird mustache did it better.