Mike Davis Planet of Slums - Book Report/Review Example

Book Review - Mike Davis's Planet of Slums - for Geography Urban Planning and Development Mike Davis is one of the renowned authors of the 21st century. Mike has written many books with the aim of educating society on some of the most ignored issues in the contemporary world. One of his most popular books is Planet of Slums. Many of the modern-day books that discuss issues regarding slums do so in a negative manner where they seek to show the poor sides of the issue. However, Mike in this particular does not focus on the issue giving a negative attitude, on the contrary, he offers insight on some challenges that people living in slums go through. Moreover, he explains why they live in such conditions. Mike states that increased urbanization is the major cause of the deteriorating state of slums in modern cities. One of the manners through which he seeks to show the prevalence of slums in the environment is by offering some statistics that show how much urbanization slums and general development influence. Mike states that in the year 1950, the world only had 86 cities with a population of just about a million people. He further states that by the year 2050, this number will have got to around 550 cities with a population exceeding the normal limit (Davis, 2012). 78% of the people living in urban areas reside in slums and it is vital to ensure that these statistics are understood to offer means through which to generally improve. This point clearly supports Mike’s thesis from the fact that every day, there are new people moving to urban areas in search of employment and related factors. This thus has it that population will always continue growing in slums. In order to show a cause of this increased number of people in the slums, Davis offers several analogy stories that seek to show how and why people move from rural to urban areas. One of the ways through which this is done is where he states that a young boy in Lagos moves from his home village and goes to seek the bright city lights looking for fun and prosperity. There is also the farmer who succeeds so much in his business that he moves from his village and takes his entire family to reside in the city (Davis, 2012). Mike offers these two analogies with the aim of offering one major insight and this is the fact that in a few years coming, the population of the urban areas first time ever will outgrow that of people living in rural areas. Mike explains that people move to urban areas without worrying of the circumstances that will face them if they do not succeed in the particular venture that had seen them move to the cities. Failure to live a satisfactory life or rather failing is what makes these people move to slums. They move to slums for they cannot afford decent housing and they are too ashamed to move back to rural areas. Having these concepts offers insight on one of the reasons why increase of population leads to an increase in people living in slums and consequently, their living conditions deteriorate due to squeezing of facilities. Davis also states that international organizations alongside the relevant government also have a role to play in the development of these slums (Davis, 2012). He states that contemporary slums are made of poor material such as straws, bricks, and even plastics that have been recycled. This is one factor that angers David as he states that it is the responsibility of these groups to ensure that they assist the people living in slums with at least affordable building materials. He states that the government posts advertisements in various media promising people jobs and when they land in these towns, they do not succeed in getting the jobs. The government has the responsibility of building decent houses for these shanties to accommodate these people as they continue searching for jobs. Failure to offer this basic commodity is what makes the lives of people in slums difficult. The types of houses that these people build are made of poor materials and these houses are squeezed so much together that it is difficult for a person to carry out their activities privately. The need for resources and appropriate commodities to live is the major reason as to why various issues such as crime take place in the slums. People will steal and even strangle each other just to get enough money to push through. The governments clearly know this and rather than carrying out appropriate deals with international organizations, they seek to offer advice to these individuals, advice which is useless unless these people see that actual action takes place. Lack of appropriate housing with the people that go to live in urban areas is a factor causes by neoliberal restructuring of developing nations’ economies. The people moving to urban areas solely depend on these international donor organizations through the government to assist them. However, this has not worked out to their favor as these institutions at times fail to offer funds citing various problems or rather poor relations with these governments. When they do indeed offer the funds, they offer very little funds and the rest is left to the government to assist the people in slums. These issues have the consequent effect of having a tussle between the government and the international organizations and all this time that these two groups are in talks, the people in the slums continue deteriorating and living in misery. Mike Davis is a character known to offer particular attention to contemporary issues. The positive thing about the character is the fact that rather than focusing on the issue itself, he seeks to show the reason why a particular issue is in existence. This is a very important aspect to bear as with the “why” question, the reader has the ability to understand the means through which to eliminate the particular issue. Focusing on the issue of slums, it is appropriate to conclude that the government ought not make promises to individuals with regard to jobs as this only has the consequent of more people occupying urban areas and the consequent is an increase in slum dwellers. Reference Davis, M. (2012). Planet of Slums. New York: Verso Read More