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Reflection Paper
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Inclusive urban design and planning entails one of the most important elements of cities globally. Given the increasing population of urban dwellers, many cities in the world are currently engaged in policies to ensure safer, greener, and dignified living. In the future, a majority of people will be making their living in cities. The politics of inclusiveness to urban design and planning are meant to consider a wider variety of activities and different classes of people in the development process. Strategic urban planning, such as what Eko Atlantic City intends to achieve, purposes on setting high-level objectives and goals. It also intends to determine desired locations for growth and expansion of metropolitan areas and cities. In these ideal projects, inclusiveness means that all people are valued and considered in the planning and development processes, including a consideration of needs and different contributions are made with these goals in mind. However, inclusiveness and the politics therein, do not always consider all people and their needs in the urban design and planning. As a result, there are numerous mega projects within cities that aim to uplift the image of a metropolitan area with an emphasis only on the working and upper classes of the society. For example, Nigeria’s Makoko area is a shanty town that is an embarrassment to every other efforts that the City of Lagos has done as part of its development agenda. According to France 24 English (2013), the slum city lacks running water and electricity, a clear indication of the contrast between the intentions of the planning process compared to the EKO Atlantic City project. The difference in politics with other cities in Brazil’s Curitiba, in Medellin Colombia, and in Bogota is evidenced by Nigeria’s lack of inclusiveness. The consequence is that different cities emerge, some being inclusiveness of every urban dweller and others only looking out to the interests of certain groups.
Packer’s (2006) article about the city of Lagos shed a lot of light on the city, and how imbalanced it is on the basis of its design and planning, with a section of it showcasing the best that Nigeria has to offer, and another side showing the worst of humanity and living. Since then, a lot has changed. A lot of misused and underutilized spaces in the city has now been converted into useful projects, with the intention of transforming the city’s architecture into something resembling an image of a modern metropolitan. With new developments such as what the Eko Atlantic City intends to achieve, Nigeria’s economic hub, Lagos, has transformed tremendously. Even with the presence of Makoko and the problems brought about by slums and shanty towns, Lagos has grown in terms of its population and a notable effort to restore some order in terms of designs. The city has managed to reclaim a lot of idle land and even moved in to restore lost beaches due to erosion.
As Lagos develops, one of the most important lessons that need to be learned from other cities such as Curitiba, Medellin, and Bogota is that real estate development targeting rich members of a society is not the only way to develop. Curitiba, for example, has attained notable growth and development by using green and inclusive political motives. Pollution is one of the most notable impediments to growth in an up and coming megacity. Therefore, by addressing issues of pollution, waste management, and a green strategy to run a city, half of the problems that Lagos is currently facing would be eliminated. Another major issue is a focus on inclusive development policies. In Bogota, building a sustainable city has helped to transform one of the most violent and crime-laden cities in the world to achieve order and civic-minded urban planning. Lagos must begin to focus on a more strategic and sustainable plan away from real estate development to include better public transportation, greenways, introduction of urban settlements that cater to the less privileged and other tailor-made approaches to address the problems unique to Lagos. In short, Lagos city must begin to look inwards in terms of the politics of inclusiveness and how better consideration of the populations in the city must be factored in within the city’s design and planning.
A focus on increasing the input from stakeholders and citizen-scientists would make a huge difference. Policies made at the political level are biased and may focus on only addressing issues affecting only one or a few groups of city dwellers. However, including output from other stakeholders such as citizen-scientists would help city planners and designers to look at issues from a different perspective, and to customize solutions in a way that addresses the problem. In Medellin, input from major stakeholders has helped to transform the city by almost completely eliminating slums and the problems within informal communities. A major advantage of using input from stakeholders and citizen-scientists is that there will be more involvement in the implementation of the expected changes. Sustainable urban life in Curitiba was achieved through involvement from different stakeholder groups, especially those that are directly affected by the changes proposed and implemented. Therefore, Lagos stands to benefit more by increasing the input from stakeholders and citizen-scientists.
Megacities of the Global South can stop from becoming many Makokos by adopting inclusive and sustainable policies in the urban planning and design. An inclusive urban plan and design would mean that the interests of every group in the population is considered, including settlement, public transport, access to safe drinking water, and rules and regulations relating to how and where to create settlements. Makoko lacks a formal plan and design regarding its future. The lawlessness and failure to observe any formal plans by the local authorities have led to more problems and increased wastage of space. The area is completely overlooked and any efforts to restore some order do not involve the local communities and fishermen making a livelihood there. As a consequence, the area remains to be a shanty development, one that portrays a poor picture of the Megacity of Lagos. The Global South must continue with the sustainability agenda, watching the effect of policies to the environment, implementing inclusive ideas, and transforming the livelihood of all city dwellers through taking input from all stakeholders.
References
Packer, G. (Nov 5, 2006). The Megacity: Decoding the chaos of Lagos. The New Yorker. Available at https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/11/13/the-megacityFrance 24 English. (Sep 2, 2013). Nigeria: Makoko, the shanty town on the lagoon. YouTube. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfjXgUqux_IGreen Growth. (Sep 20, 2013). Bogota, Building a Sustainable City | PBS Design e2. YouTube. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZE3ClCA1m4rtaylorsmith. (Feb 26, 2014). Sustainable Development in Brazil? YouTube. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4sumpEqnlYJourneyman Pictures. (Sep 9, 2016). The World’s Greenest City (2014). YouTube. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV8Fcta4bNEQuartz. (Sep 25, 2018). Future of Cities: Medellin, Colombia solves city slums. YouTube. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqsMuC7X2kEBeing Nigerian. (Oct 22, 2018). Eko Atlantic City | Dubai of Africa | Visit Nigeria | Being Nigerian. YouTube. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJr3WI5cF7U
Reflection Paper
Reflection Paper: The Ghost Map
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Steven Johnson main objective for writing this book was to explore how cholera was the first “modern” disease. The book is being assigned for a public health course because it is an interesting book that can easily be used to teach principles of epidemiology (Johnson, 2006). I felt curious and excited reading this book, as well as sad when I realized how many people have died from cholera in the past. The information I found most interesting was the list of questions one should ask when investigating an epidemic, like who are those who have been affected and what geographical areas? Information that has been least interesting to me so far is things about cholera’s history through time in different parts of the world.
The main emotions I felt personally about what I read from this book was burning curiosity, intense sadness and anger, and then a bit of love. Curiosity is the main emotion I felt because I was always wondering what happened to these people who didn’t live long enough to write their stories. Sadness is also an emotion that came up many times during this book because in the beginning of the story we learn about how people would die from this disease, but then we see some cases where it isn’t true and that it can hit anybody no matter who they are. In addition to these emotions there were two other emotions that appeared during this book: anger and love. When reading this book, I feel overwhelmed by the number of people who died from cholera, and by the thought that it is so easily transmitted. The most surprising thing to me is how one person can make such a big impact on science, especially one person who is not a scientist but an engineer.
I find it easy to relate this book to what I usually read, but if I want to relate it to a movie, I can easily do that since the movie “contagion” is a story about epidemic. I rate this book 4 out of 5 because it is an interesting and very informative book, but I think the author should have included a glossary at the end of the book so that he would not repeat words or phrases so often. This book relates to other books I have read both in content and style. A book called The Hot Zone also deals with epidemics, though it is much more frightening because it explores Ebola and Marburg virus. This book relates to movies in that there has been a movie called Contagion which also deals with epidemics (though the spread of disease in the movie is caused by a virus) (Contagion n.d). The other book that relates to this one is called “The coming plague”, which I read last semester. It was also a science book, though more of a medical textbook than a historical one. In my opinion it was not as engaging to read as the ghost map, but I did learn from it some important epidemiological knowledge.
The piece of information I learnt and find most interesting was how the simple map encouraged people to reconsider their attitudes towards disease. The Ghost Map is a well-known story as it was a popular novel in 2008 written by Erik Larson. The book chronicles the short history of London’s map of smallpox and how it led to the modern understanding of infectious diseases. What is interesting about this piece of information? For starters, you can consider that after reading this piece, I may have changed my attitude towards learning about infectious diseases. This is an example that reflects my new found knowledge and perceptions on life after reading the book.
On the other hand, the piece of information that I found least interesting was the discovery that physicians contaminated one of their patients. The discovery of the map facilitated the process of disputing the medical theories about contagion and disease at that time. This was a controversial piece of information as well, but I found it less interesting because I did not learn much about it in the book.
But another interesting piece of information has to do with an idea that they had when they used color coded maps to keep track of smallpox cases during one epidemic in London between 1721 and 1730. There were many other cities throughout Europe that used a similar system to keep track of their epidemics. These maps are considered innovative and remarkable ways to track epidemics because they helped people understand where people had contracted contagious diseases.
There are some things I want to do when reading this book that would be useful for me and for the class: Notice how the author writes about different kinds of people (scientists, politicians, businessmen). Notice what are the differences and similarities between different chapters of this book. Some chapters can be read on their own and others seem connected with each other. Try to find a pattern in the book, what is it that connects the different chapters. Do you have theories, opinions or ideas on how this book can be used/for? How it can develop/improve our systems for diseases and health care?
Ghost Map is the true story of London’s most terrifying epidemic of bubonic plague (Black Death): an exquisite corpse ghoul that walked through the streets at night dragging a lantern along behind him with his tail. In 1854, an outbreak of “Black Jack” swept through London’s poor and crowded slums, spreading fear and death like wildfire.
This book has been assigned for this public health course because it can help us understand the past and how things were organized over 150 years ago. It is important for us to understand history so that we make progress in the future so we don’t repeat history.
There are many examples in this book where new inventions were made that helped with the spread of disease, such as Pasteur’s theory on germs being spread by bacteria. We could make comparisons between then and now, what research has been done over the past 50-100 years that could have helped Londoners prevent the Black plague of 1854?
What we can learn from history is ‘what not to do’ when it comes to diseases and health care. We can look at the mistakes that people made, or we can look at the good parts of history and see what they did right. Queens Square in London was a place that people went to when they got sick. The rich and poor were treated there. It was one of the places where you could get medicine or food if you couldn’t afford anything else. New York City had a similar thing called Bellevue Hospital, but this hospital was for the rich and poor; however, there were no free hospitals for the poor in New York. They had to go to their families if they were too ill or go to Bellevue if their families didn’t want them anymore.
The book unfolds like a detective story, where the author seeks out reasons for why this disease has spread throughout London at that specific time. One thing that surprised me is how the main cause of cholera outbreak was so well-known, but it still spread due to human behavior. It was hard to understand the difference between what causes the disease and what causes its symptoms.
References
Johnson, S. (2006). The ghost map: The story of London’s most terrifying epidemic–and how it changed science, cities, and the modern world. Penguin.
Before you continue to Google Search. (2022). Retrieved 4 May 2022, from https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tLP1TdISc8rLy8yYPTiTM7PK0lMz8zPAwBaiwfv&q=contagion&oq=Contagion&aqs=chrome.1.0i355i512j46i512j0i512l8.3178j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Reflection on Over-tourism
Reflection on Over-tourism
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Reflection on Over-tourism
According to the film, over-tourism is the growth of tourists in destinations more than the estimated number of tourists (Francis, 2018). This has resulted in several adverse effects compared to the expected positive effects from the tourism industry. There are just so many tourists in destinations all over the world that people feel as if it has become toxic. The tourists also end up that the places having lost their authenticity as the residents feel that they are being deprived of their homes. The residents have hence become angry and are having demonstrations (Francis, 2018). The economy has increased because tourists are charged more, and residents are forced to move to places with more affordable lifestyles.
There are several countries currently affected by over-tourism. These countries include Venice and Barcelona. In Venice, residents are complaining that tourists have stolen their identities, so the things that make their city stand out have been stolen from them (Francis, 2018). The towns have become overpopulated and overcrowded. In Barcelona, the residents have had their city stolen from them too. Their markets have more products that focus on the needs of the tourists rather than the residents. The tourists also go to markets to take pictures of the place rather than buy products (Francis, 2018). Residents have also been forced out of their residential apartments, turning them into rentals for tourists since they pay more.
Some factors contribute to over-tourism. One of these factors is the low cost of plane tickets across traveling airlines (Francis, 2018). Cheap flights encourage people to travel more compared to when they were costly. Another factor is travel writing, where travel destinations pay journalists to write about them. This makes some destinations more visited by tourists than others. The destinations end up over-visited (Francis, 2018). The same problem is caused by honey-pot sites, which many people visit at specific times of the year. There is also the emergence of cruise liners which cause environmental damage. Lastly, people are being pushed out of their rentals to create room for holiday apartments. This makes residents feel unwanted in places where they have lived since birth and increases inflation (Francis, 2018).
I have several takeaways from the film about over-tourism. One of them is that the growing population in the world, with over a million people being born per day, is a factor of over-tourism. The problem will worsen before it improves (Francis, 2018). The people involved in the tourism market do not know the adverse effects caused by over-tourism. In case they do, they are not willing to change. Nobody is in charge of the tourism industry, and therefore nobody is to blame for the over-tourism (Francis, 2018). Most people are not willing to live in tourist destinations. In the future, they are planning to move to more straightforward, comfortable lives.
Reference
Francis, J. (Presenter). (2018). Crowded Out: The Story of Over-tourism. Responsible Travel.