World cities analyzed
(Continued from page 1)
(Continued from page 1) world's cities lies within that creator of prosperity and poverty that rules us all—economics. It is money that attracts the African, the Japanese, the seasonal worker, and the Appalachia migrant to the city. It is money that keeps him there. And it is money that prevents local and federal governments from providing social services and planning that the cities so desperately need.
Blight and poverty are as old as the city itself. For centuries, the rural migrant to escape this has fled to the city, invariably finding them there also. Once in the city, he rarely has the chance to return home.
Masses contribute
It is the question of sheer numbers that contributes most to urban woes. No city can support the masses of lower class citizens without breaking into the more affluent neighborhoods and business districts.
As a result, the slum dweller must settle for whatever he can get: rat-invested tenements, hillside shacks stapled together with driftwood and human excrement. For some there is not even that much. In Calcutta over 300,-000 people live in the streets.
This enormous mass of humanity means inadequate sanitary facilities, filth, and the inevitable spread of plagues and disease that even the best social medicine programs find impossible to stop.
This human jungle provides ample cover where the criminal can hide for years without being noticed. Crime is often the only way to survive, and the only way to escape the boredom of the unemployed or school dropout.
The fittest prevail
Jn.10 1969 KANSAN 3
The blight breeds more than physical suffering. An atmosphere of hopelessness descends, often wiping out social norms and proud cultural traditions, replacing them with the law of survival of the fittest. Drug addiction and prostitution can run as high as five or six times above the rates in the rural areas. Revolutions find ample breeding grounds and laboratories for their causes. They are the sources of power for ambitious men.
Just what causes this molding mass to develop is still open for debate. The accepted theory is a rural-urban migration of the poor. The theory has strong support from urbanologists and sociologists who have made extensive studies in industrialized and underdeveloped nations throughout the world.
Population boom blamed
But there are some who disagree, most notably, Kingsley Davis, a renowned American sociologist, who said:
"It is this population boom that is overwhelmingly responsible for the rapid inflation of city populations in underdeveloped and developed nations. Contrary to popular opinion both inside and outside those countries, the main factor is not rural-urban migration. It seems plain that the only way to stop urban problems besetting both the developed and underdeveloped nations is to reduce the overall rate of population growth."
Whether or not the birth boom is the chief cause of population increase in the cities, rural-urban migration certainly cannot be discounted.
Strain causes migration The migration is, in almost all cases, caused by rural strains—
economic, political, and, in some countries (Latin America and South Africa), lack of space.
The rural migrant can be predominately male or female, depending on the culture and the conditions of the times.
In such countries as South Africa, Japan, India, and the Southeast Asia group, the male commutes to the city every four or five months to seek employment. He will, at intervals, either mail a portion of his earnings to his family in the country, or return after awhile with enough money to keep them alive until he is forced back to the city.
In other parts of the world the situation is reversed. The female will leave the family in the care of her husband or parents. She will find a job more easily than most men and often will be paid higher wages as a domestic or a prostitute. This is especially the case in Latin America, the West Indies, and former African colonies.
Money problems arise
The rural-urban trek causes headaches for local governments not only because of the increasing population, but also because of the urban-rural money migration that persists.
Circulating money is essential for developing economies and its flow from the economic centers to the rural areas discourages private investment.
The influx of the rural poor into the cities of more developed states can cause an exodus of the wealthy and upper-middle class to the suburbs, taking with them an enormous amount of capital and potential tax revenue.
The effect urban life has upon the rural migrant and the generations that he fosters, and vice versa, provides another juicy target for the thesis-hungry reseachers.
A lessening of the stricter moral and religious standards of the country has been noticed after the migrant has been in town for several months or years, depending on the migrant's age.
Westernization is another common trend, even in the communist nations in Asia. The process is evident in clothes, fads, films, and distaste for the older (Continued to page 5)
This Sat., June 14th "THE HAPPY MEDIUM"
Don't Miss The Biggest Show Ever This Season!
Coming:"THE KINGSMEN"
Plus Many More Top Groups.
The Red Dog 642 Mass.
WELCOME SUMMER STUDENTS!
- PICK-UP AND DELIVERY SERVICE
- 10% DISCOUNT ON LAUNDRY
- Dry cleaning when you bring it in
- Pick up at any of our three convenient locations
ACME Laundry and Dry Cleaners
Three Convenient Locations:
DOWNTOWN
1111 Mass.
VI 3-5155
MALLS
23rd and La.
VI 3-0895
HILLCREST
9th and Iowa
VI 3-0928