Maria
Hernandez
Ms.
Jaeger
October
30, 2011
1st
(A-B)
A World Wide Issue
“They have open windows without
glass planes and their facades are marked by a water line. The polluted stream
sometimes overflows and floods them. While sewage from outside Kibera flows
into them slum, the sewage from inside never leaves.” This is why slums are
thick overpopulated, run down places inhabited by a big portion of people with
poor, harsh economic conditions. Therefore slums have a negative effect on
human population because the inhabitants of slums live in poor conditions,
experience high crime rates, and many times are forced to leave their homes
when slums are destroyed. It is due to this that many people never succeed in
becoming someone better in life, and live in harsh environments.
The poor conditions in the
inhabitants in a slum have negatively affected the human population. “The foul
river carries not just sewage, but also chemicals from farming estates outside
the slum. It’s littered with refuse, too: plastic bags, glass bottles. A
toddler stands barefoot at the water’s edge.” (Article 2) Based on the quote
provided by Sheri Fink; this demonstrates that that the river is contaminated
by sewage, plastic bags, glass bottles, and chemicals. It also shows the evidence
that they have a poor economy because they cannot even afford a pair of shoes.
“Squatters or slums lords put up shacks on land that no one else wants to
develop: flood pains, toxic waste dumps, and steep hillsides. The precarious
locations and poor quality construction make these settlements vulnerable to
disasters like earthquakes and landslides.”(Article 2) This evidence expresses
the fact that there are poor conditions in slums. They are more exposed their
health and their lives are at risk because they want to live their life the
“easy” way, but they are making it more complicated than what it really is. “Many
governments demolish slums under the banner of eradicating urban light and
crime.” This shows that there is people taking action to stop the crime from
spreading, yet the crime never decreases. Then again this is nothing compared
to the high crime rates taking place in the slums.
In slum boundaries there is an
existence of high crime rates affecting the people living there. This is
another of the many contributions to the affect on human population around the
world. “About 2 billion of them will live in slums, primarily in Africa and
Asia, lacking access to clean water and working toilets, surrounded by
desperation and crime.”(Article 4) This means that beside their lack accessing
to good clean water their problem is that there is crime rates increasing as
each day goes by. “The favelas of Rio de Janerio, the oldest of which date back
to 1897, are famously vibrant, replete with lively bars and low crime
rates—even if they happen to be “governed” by a local drug gangs.”(Article 4)
This shows that supposedly there is not crime and that is because the whole
place is governed by a gang. Therefore want you understand is that because the
gang is the one running the place no incidents will be reported even if they
occur. Then it is a fact that crime does
exist but it is just not reported. This is why the high crime rates have
affected the human population, but not only that; these people are sometimes
forced to leave their homes because the slum they are living in is about to be
destroyed, or had already been destroyed.
A human population can be affected
by people living in slums forced to leave their homes because the slum they are
living in is destroyed, or is going to be remodeled to become a working city. “But
often it’s just a pretense to squash centers of political opposition or to
clear land for developers. Almost always, the slum dwellers simply rebuild or
relocate.”(Article 2) Therefore this shows that the government has tried to
stop and destroy the slums from expanding more and becoming a bigger impact in
the human population development. Even though the government keeps trying they
never really find a way to get rid of them because every time the people that
were living in the slums get out and recreate a whole new slum. The only
difference is that every time they destroy a slum they always rebuild it in a
simple manner just much bigger than before; sometimes it can even be double it
in size. “However, some slums occupy land that is- or becomes- valuable. And
because most slums dwellers aren’t legal occupants of their homes, they risk
being evicted, sometimes brutally.”(Article 2) This shows that they are being
kicked out of their land no matter what; this is why many people just move from
place to place when they see that they are about to be kicked out. The people
being chased off their land have lead to a negative contribution on human
population.
In conclusion Fink uses Document two to express himself
on the felling he has toward slums. He argued, “They have open windows without
glass planes.” The poor conditions they are living in, being forced to leave
their without a shelter to attend to after theirs has been demolished, and the
high crime rates have affected the human population in a negatively way. The
reason why high crime rates have increased in severe levels is because many of
the times the owner of the slum is a gang member. This secures every crime
committed that they will not get arrested or caught. Poor conditions have also affected the human
population because many people are exposed to many deadly diseases because of
the all the sewage, chemicals, plastic bags, glass bottles, and the toxic
wastes dumped all around the slum. Then again people being forced to leave
their homes have a giant contribution to the depressing consequence human
development. This is because once they are kicked out of their homes they have
no place to go to. They either start once again from scratch or they stay on
the street to die. The termination is that for many years this has been
happening yet no one ever takes action to stop it. Therefore everyone should
step up and do something to help the slums from affecting the world human
population more than it already has.
Works
Cited:
Blythe Nils. “Mumbai’s
slum life poses world problems.” BBC News Outline. 29 Sept. 2011. <http://news.bb.co.uk/>
Eaves, Elisabeth. “Two Billion
Slum Dwellers.” 6 Nov. 2006. 29 Sept. 2011. <http://www.forbes.com/>
Fink, Sheri. “Cities of
the Poor I: Life in the slums( Kenya).” Public Radio International: The World. 29 Sept. 2011. <//http://www.theworld.org/>.
“Urbanization.” World Geography: Understanding a Changing World.
29 Sept. 2011. <http://worldgeography.abc-clio.com/>
