Slums

[Christopha]

The movie I mean. Thanks.

I can assure you that I am not trying to troll or stir up any kind of trouble and I apologise if the word slum caused offence. The reason I ask is because it concerns me a lot the way wealth is unevenly distributed in the world and how the majority of people are happy to go about their lives buying up big TVs, fast cars, and turn a blind eye to the many people who struggle just for life itself.

I am not a wealthy man by NZ standards but I am comfortable compared to people who have no sewrage system or running water and I don't want to be like the people who turn a blind eye.

[sparks]

Most big cities where the money is have slums. People from the country with no money move there. You can find plenty of articles including those that live in of near garbage dumps and salvage for a living. The question is what can the average person do about it. I'm not extravagant is all I can say

Since there are very few zoning laws in Mexico you'll find shacks next to mansions almost anywhere. There are squatters in the National Parks around Mexico City. Poor towns in the mountains with no electric or school where their only cash crop is growing marijuana.

[Christopha]

Thanks Sparks. Yes I had heard / seen footage of these dumps where the kids rummage through looking for items they might make money off. And what you say also confirms what I read elsewhere, that people unable to make a living off the land move to the cities in hope of a better life, ending up in the slums.

Are you aware of any aid agencies working in these areas?

[conklinwh]

Christopha, going back to your original comment on Mexico & slums. I wouldn't say that Mexico has a significant amount of slums in the category of the Philippines/Manila, India/Mumbai, Kenya/Nairobi but certainly an oligarchy with an uneven distribution of wealth. What impresses me is how positive and energetic the people are and their ability to make lemonade out of lemons in a lot of difficult situations. I also think that maybe for the 1st time ever, there is a growing middle class. I think the downturn really hurt Mexico in terms of remittances but a lot of people have returned that no longer want to settle for the status quo and at least in our little town that has caused a real positive burst of activity with a lot of new businesses and projects.

[canyankerocha]

As I understand it many people are leaving rural areas to find work in cities. Cities are growing faster than governments ability to build infrastructure. Families have occupied land surrounding cities with out permission and so have no services. It is a no mans land of shacks, dirt roads, borrowed electrical lines strung up like spaghetti and open sewers.

Still lives go on - many children live in these unofficial neighbourhoods. You asked about organizations: I volunteer for an organization called Cada Niño Una Sonrisa. This month we worked on a school in one of these areas of Veracruz - we built girls and boys bathrooms, repaired the roof, got a modem and two computers, did general landscaping. I had a team of boy scouts, The teachers and several parents worked their butts off and, yes, there were several teens outside the fence drugged and belligerent. It made me realize what the kids go through to come to school each day.

[sparks]

I saw a documentary on a dump near Mexico City but don't remember where - might look on YouTube

Here's a group in Vallarta
Families at the Dump - Families of Hope Road P.V. - Dear Couz...

Here's one

Living in a Mexico City Garbage Dump - The Road...

[DebMer]

Originally Posted by sparks

I saw a documentary on a dump near Mexico City but don't remember where - might look on YouTube

Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl, If I remember correctly.

[Christopha]

Thanks. I haven't forgotten about this.

[FHBOY]

Good that you haven't. I suppose if you went looking for slums you could find them anywhere. Unless you or I have a ghastly sense of the "interesting" it is not something to do. I lived my entire life in the USA and can show you slums, by USA definitions, then I could could show you [from two weeks of visiting in Japan], housing that made USA slums look palatial. So, I suppose that there are slums in Mexico, but like anything else, they are a matter of degree.

If you have chosen a place to line in Mexico, then your concern is valid and you should investigate further into how they will affect your life. If this is a sociological question only, and a legitimate one, then I suppose you will find masses of info on the web and the library.

Four Hundred years of industrialization and the evolution of cities and town have invariably created underclasses of those who can't afford "decent" housing, I cannot see that Mexico would be immune to this, after all London, Paris, Buenos Aires, Detroit, Saudi Arabia, Cairo - there are slums everywhere.

Just a thought.

[Christopha]

Thanks. I guess I just want to go to South America.
I was on a course yesterday 'Health Studies' where we have been looking at some WHO documents and the Ottawa Charter. We've learned that, sadly, the 'social gradient of health' is a fact - that those higher up the wealth scale and with higher positions at work live longer healthier lives. Each year 20% of people born low on the scale will move up and 20% will move down (perhaps a NZ statistic).
Our tutor said that governmental policies that help the lower classes will be detrimental to the higher classes. As the higher class has the power of the vote, policies that help the lower classes won't get voted in. But do initiatives that help those who are struggling the most really work against the most well off? Wouldn't an improvement in conditions for the poor have a positive spin off effect for the wealthy?
I guess there's only so much wealth in this world - so many resources. So if the poor within a country get a bigger slice it has to come from somewhere, or from outside the country. Unless there are resources that are yet untapped, then it's about being sustainable.
It's something I need to think more about.