Transcript Food in an Unequal World

Nov
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th
13
Hand in interview summary and discuss
Response Paper #5
Lecture 8: Global Inequality & population:
The Growth of Slums
Homework:
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Read Planet Slums Chp 6
Lecture Eight
Global Inequality, Population, and
Urbanization
Review
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According to World Systems Analysis how can we
understand global inequality?
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Historical relationships
Integration into the global economy
Whose rules?
Why do the most economically developed nations in
the global systems have an interest in maintaining
global inequality?
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The development of the global slums are one of the
consequences of policies and choices of the last 50
years…
Adding More People to the Planet
The world have 6.4 billion inhabitants today
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Only 1.5 billion people a century ago
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Expected to add 3 billion more in the next 50 years
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Highest population densities in:
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India, population 1.1 billion,
China, population 1.3 billion,
Indonesia, population 220 million,
and central Europe, population 630 million.
Growth Rates
Population Density
Urbanization
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Historically urbanization coincided with
industrialization, by encouraging the movement of
people from the countryside the city
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Experts predict that by 2030, over 60 percent of the
population will be urban
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Today urbanization is growing fastest in poor and
developing countries where the demand for clean water,
sewage systems, and electricity already outstrips supplies.
Mexico City, Mumbai, Delhi, Jakarta
Growing Urban Population
Growing Megacities
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Megacities: cities linked to the global economy and
with huge urban populations
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Higher population growth in these cities
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Higher birth rates
Internal Migration due the economic globalization
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Farmers forced of the land – like Jamaica
More pressure on natural resources
Growth of the “Slums”
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The number of people living in slums will double to
two billion by 2030
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More than 1 billion people live in slums today
Sub-Saharan Africa is hardest hit: 72-100% urban dwellers
in slums
What make a slum?
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Lack of durable housing
Insufficient living area
Lack of access to clean water
Inadequate sanitation
Insecure tenure
Where are the Slums?
30 biggest Mega-Slums
The circles' size and color indicate the number of inhabitants in
millions
Slum in Mumbai, India
Living in the Slums
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Slum dwellers make up 1/3 of the worlds
urban population
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Slum characteristics vary from place to place,
but in general:
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Higher poverty and unemployment
Social problems such as drugs and crime
Informal economy
Poor health
Slum Ecology: Human Waste
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2.6 billion people have no access to a toilet
whatsoever, and that includes a latrine, a bucket or
a box.
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“Every day, around the world, illnesses related to
water supply, waste disposal, and garbage kill thirty
thousand people and constitute 75 percent of the
illnesses that afflict humanity.”
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UNICEF estimates that up to 80 percent of deaths
from preventable diseases (apart from HIV/AIDS)
arise from poor sanitation
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Diarrhea is the second killer of children
Waste in Luanda, Angola
Ineqaulity in Angola
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Angola is currently
see a significant
income from oil
revenue
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1.4 million barrels of
crude pumped every
day
The economy grew
by 18 percent last
year with a budget
surplus of more
than $2 billion
Children are at the greatest risk
What forces play a role in the
development of urban slums?
Nation-State Building
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From 1945 to 1981 over 105 NEW Nation-states
became members of the UN
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UN declared citizens’ rights to the social contract:
Everyone “is entitled to realization through national
effort, and international co-operation…to the
economic, social, and cultural rights indispensable
for his dignity and free development of his
personality.”
Development Project
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Global political institutions emerged after WWII
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World Bank & IMF & GATT
Led by US and European States
Western as a model: economic & political
Goals:
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Expand imports of Global North Tech & exports of Global
South Products
Shift the rural population into urban areas to create
producers and consumers
Reform the slums thru “self-help” loans (pg 70)
Third World Debt
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During the 1970’s countries took on a large amount
of debt for development programs, including urban
housing development
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1980’s called the “Lost Decade” for developing
countries as the sunk into debt
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The world's poorest countries pay over $100 million
every day to the richest countries, private banks,
and the IMF/WB
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The poorest 152 countries owe over $ 2.5 trillion.
Structural Adjustment Programs
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SAPs: economic policies which countries must
follow in order to qualify for new World Bank and
IMF loans
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Reduce public spending
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Health care, education, food subsidies
Decrease wages and focus on “cheap labor”
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Specialization
Breakdown global trade barriers
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Export and import
SAPing Health
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In Mexico: a 1986 SAP reduced the percentage of births
attended by medical personnel to 45 percent in 1988
from 94 percent in 1983, while maternal mortality soared
from 82 per 100,000 in 1980 to 150 in 1988.
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In Ghana, “adjustment” led to an 80 percent decrease in
spending on health and education between 1975 and
1983
 exodus of half of the nation’s doctors
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One economist blamed an outbreak of bubonic plague in
Surat in 1994 upon “a worsening urban sanitation and
public health infrastructure: resulting from a 1991
IMF/World Bank-sponsored SAP.
The Debt Crisis: Human Crisis
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"I encourage … total debt cancellation for
poor countries because, frankly, it is a
scandal that we are forced to choose
between basic health and education for
our people and repaying historical debt."
-- President Mkapa of Tanzania, 2005
Globalization Project
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Extra-state regulation: international political
institutions regulate the global economy
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IMF and WB – new roles
World Trade Organization
“Participation in the global economy”
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Growth based on comparative advantage and
specialization
Organized by corporations
Power Elite
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Power Elite: individuals who occupy
positions of power in leading social
institutions and make decisions that have the
greatest impact on people nationally
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Business interests come first
Are we seeing the emergence of a global
power elite?
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Representatives from countries occupy positions
power in leading global institutions
A Global Power Elite?
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Transnational Political Organizations: politics w/out
borders
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Transnational Corporations: business w/out borders
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World Trade Organization (WTO)
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank
Of the 100 largest economies in the world, 51 are
corporations; only 49 are countries
International business interests take priority in
shaping the policy of the IMF, WB, and WTO
Global Politics and Development
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“Sovereign” nation-states are now being
regulated by extra-state political
organizations such as the IMF, World Bank,
and WTO
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Deterioration of foundation of democracy in
nation-states – the state-citizen relationship
Bechtel, Bolivia, & Water
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As part of a SAP, the WB and IMF forced Bolivia to
sell publicly owned companies to corporations
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Significant price increases for water caused
protests, riots, and fatalities
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Boliva sold its water system to Bechtel Corporation
Bechtel was forced to leave
Bechtel sued Bolivia for $25 million through the WB
in closed-door proceedings
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Dropped case in 2006