Saving For a Space Ship Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 (edited) Interesting series .. for the sake of comparison The next 15 megacities 1 - Baghdad https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/jan/07/baghdad-at-10-million-fragile-dreams-of-normality-as-megacity-status-beckons The next 15 megacities 2 - Dar es Salaam https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/jan/08/how-an-emerging-african-megacity-cut-commutes-by-two-hours-a-day-dar-es-salaam 15 megacities #3 - Tehran https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/jan/09/like-la-with-minarets-how-concrete-and-cars-came-to-rule-tehran Edited January 9, 2019 by Saving For a Space Ship Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honkydonkey Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 Interesting read. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayward Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 Paris is shown as an existing megacity and London is shown as a 'megacity by 2035'...really? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 What makes a megacity?.....a place where people feel safe and secure, a place of tolerance and acceptance of the differences of others.....a place where people want to come and can afford to stay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happyguy Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 36 minutes ago, winkie said: What makes a megacity?.....a place where people feel safe and secure, a place of tolerance and acceptance of the differences of others.....a place where people want to come and can afford to stay hence 3 muslim cities so well known for their diversity and tolerance of others Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Orange Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 Looks more like a worrying trend of things building up/contributing to the 21st century's version of the Bronze Age Collapse... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saving For a Space Ship Posted February 3, 2019 Author Share Posted February 3, 2019 On 09/01/2019 at 15:26, Big Orange said: Looks more like a worrying trend of things building up/contributing to the 21st century's version of the Bronze Age Collapse... cheers , interesting Many more MegaCities listed in the series .. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/series/next-15-megacities Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeanutButter Posted February 3, 2019 Share Posted February 3, 2019 More people disconnected from nature. More children growing up without seeing where their food comes from first hand. Screens aren’t enough. Humans aren’t meant to live our lives in hard grey boxes. We evolved in nature, a part of it, and the further we “rise” away from it the less likely we are to honour and respect it. Megacities just sound like depression vortexes to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saving For a Space Ship Posted February 3, 2019 Author Share Posted February 3, 2019 2 hours ago, PeanutButter said: More people disconnected from nature. More children growing up without seeing where their food comes from first hand. Screens aren’t enough. Humans aren’t meant to live our lives in hard grey boxes. We evolved in nature, a part of it, and the further we “rise” away from it the less likely we are to honour and respect it. Megacities just sound like depression vortexes to me. Pollution alone, is enough to put me off a large city Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurt Barlow Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 On 09/01/2019 at 14:25, happyguy said: hence 3 muslim cities so well known for their diversity and tolerance of others To be fair Tehran does have over 600 Churches and a few Synagogues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeanutButter Posted February 5, 2019 Share Posted February 5, 2019 YouGov survey shows 18% of young people in UK do not think life is worth living Modern life doesn’t make people happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted February 5, 2019 Share Posted February 5, 2019 19 minutes ago, PeanutButter said: YouGov survey shows 18% of young people in UK do not think life is worth living Modern life doesn’t make people happy. I think it is harder for the young men in our society, they are expected to achieve so much......get good qualifications, move to the city for well paid work, find a partner, buy a home, support a family......this is no longer happening because it is realistically unachievable.....all it can therefore do is create extra stress and unhappiness.......times they are changing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuckmojo Posted February 5, 2019 Share Posted February 5, 2019 Terrifying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riedquat Posted February 5, 2019 Share Posted February 5, 2019 On 03/02/2019 at 11:15, PeanutButter said: More people disconnected from nature. More children growing up without seeing where their food comes from first hand. Screens aren’t enough. Humans aren’t meant to live our lives in hard grey boxes. We evolved in nature, a part of it, and the further we “rise” away from it the less likely we are to honour and respect it. Megacities just sound like depression vortexes to me. Well, that's progress for you. As some brainless idiots keep telling me (current one leaving me thinking this isn't someone on here before you wonder) we shouldn't keep ourselves in the past with sentimental attachments to anything old when nice efficient grey boxes are functionally better, people are happy with them because they mean they don't have to do much and nothing else matters. Unfortunately that attitude is fairly widespread, particularly amongst the semi-psychopaths (an utter inability to appreciate anything other than measurable material concerns) who pull all the strings and have built wonderful Modern Britain (and the rest of the developed world isn't any better). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riedquat Posted February 5, 2019 Share Posted February 5, 2019 1 hour ago, PeanutButter said: YouGov survey shows 18% of young people in UK do not think life is worth living Modern life doesn’t make people happy. Yes, the collapse in mental health is something that the promoters of the sort of "progress" we've got just don't seem to grasp. I firmly believe a lot of it is due to the sheer blandness of most peoples' surroundings, and the declining amount of human contact as part of day to day life. Unfortunately (and pretty much repeating my previous post) we're dominated by the functional, and a tendency to sneer at anyone who looks back at what we've lost as wearing rose-tinted specs when the reality is that we've thrown out the baby with the bathwater. It's good that a lot of crap has been relegated to history but for quite a while now trying to move away from that has done more harm than good, and I question whether it was necessary to do so much damage getting rid of the crap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeanutButter Posted February 5, 2019 Share Posted February 5, 2019 46 minutes ago, winkie said: I think it is harder for the young men in our society, they are expected to achieve so much......get good qualifications, move to the city for well paid work, find a partner, buy a home, support a family......this is no longer happening because it is realistically unachievable.....all it can therefore do is create extra stress and unhappiness.......times they are changing. Don’t forget young women have to do all that while looking like a Kardashian. I have a lot of sympathy for young people in general. Their defining paradigm seems to be “worthless but will have to deal with a wrecked planet” once we’re gone. 25, 50 years ago a young person could move up in the world through education and hard work. The old story of the chap who starts in the post room and becomes CEO. It was true! I know I’m alone in this but I believe the more there is of something the less people value it. And here we are in a world with almost 8 billion people, where upward mobility is stunted and no one is considered special anymore. We’re all replaceable in a disposable world. No wonder mental health is so poor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted February 5, 2019 Share Posted February 5, 2019 Mental health comes with low self esteem, far to worried about what others think, having little control of future, few choices or freedom .........too many pressures including financial, addictive and social.......city life is fast, comes with it high expectations, constantly on the move, forever catching up........there is a lot to be said about living in a close knit community, surrounded by nature, views, fresh air, no judgement......some societies have very little in material wealth but have lots in the way of what humans thrive on.....love and peace. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riedquat Posted February 5, 2019 Share Posted February 5, 2019 4 minutes ago, PeanutButter said: I know I’m alone in this but I believe the more there is of something the less people value it. Not alone at all in that. To take a fairly simple example if treats become the norm they stop being anything special. A bar of chocolate was a wonderful treat when I was small and couldn't get more than one a week. Give a kid enough money and a snack machine though and it's nothing special (and they get fat). Another example - someone once said it would be great if teleporters existed, you could pop over to Tokyo for a night out for example, wouldn't that be wonderful? The problem is that after the novelty wore off that night out in Tokyo would become no more special than a night out in the nearest town. And I find it easy to believe that people probably did once enjoy their weekend in Brighton as much as they might enjoy their trip to Australia these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riedquat Posted February 5, 2019 Share Posted February 5, 2019 Just now, winkie said: Mental health comes with low self esteem, far to worried about what others think, having little control of future, few choices or freedom .........too many pressures including financial, addictive and social.......city life is fast, comes with it high expectations, constantly on the move, forever catching up........there is a lot to be said about living in a close knit community, surrounded by nature, views, fresh air, no judgement......some societies have very little in material wealth but have lots in the way of what humans thrive on.....love and peace. Good mental health requires people and surroundings that inspire curiosity and contentment. What's over the hill, what's around that corner? What goes on in that building you pass every day? A lot of my dislike of the modern world is that virtually all the new bits are so bland that that curiosity is lost, and there's nothing there to attach to either. People have become pretty much the same. Enough material wealth to not worry about food and shelter and illness is good - poverty is grim wherever you are, but its importance drops drastically when you get beyond not having to worry about the essentials. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted February 5, 2019 Share Posted February 5, 2019 10 minutes ago, Riedquat said: Good mental health requires people and surroundings that inspire curiosity and contentment. What's over the hill, what's around that corner? What goes on in that building you pass every day? A lot of my dislike of the modern world is that virtually all the new bits are so bland that that curiosity is lost, and there's nothing there to attach to either. People have become pretty much the same. Enough material wealth to not worry about food and shelter and illness is good - poverty is grim wherever you are, but its importance drops drastically when you get beyond not having to worry about the essentials. Curiosity did not kill the cat.....they say it takes a village to bring up a child.....collective support sees talents, skills and resources are shared, a trouble shared is a troubled halved..........sometimes in large cities, people do not know their neighbours......they do not have the time, they intentionally avoid them, they are not there long enough to get to know them..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted February 5, 2019 Share Posted February 5, 2019 32 minutes ago, PeanutButter said: Don’t forget young women have to do all that while looking like a Kardashian. I have a lot of sympathy for young people in general. Their defining paradigm seems to be “worthless but will have to deal with a wrecked planet” once we’re gone. 25, 50 years ago a young person could move up in the world through education and hard work. The old story of the chap who starts in the post room and becomes CEO. It was true! I know I’m alone in this but I believe the more there is of something the less people value it. And here we are in a world with almost 8 billion people, where upward mobility is stunted and no one is considered special anymore. We’re all replaceable in a disposable world. No wonder mental health is so poor. Agree, we have got our priorities wrong.....but the salespeople do not sell us that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riedquat Posted February 5, 2019 Share Posted February 5, 2019 21 minutes ago, winkie said: Curiosity did not kill the cat.....they say it takes a village to bring up a child.....collective support sees talents, skills and resources are shared, a trouble shared is a troubled halved..........sometimes in large cities, people do not know their neighbours......they do not have the time, they intentionally avoid them, they are not there long enough to get to know them..... I'm ambivalent about growing up in a village (or villages I should say). It was great for my childhood but I think it rather heavily influenced the type of world and surroundings I like (despite living in a modern house), which runs completely contrary to modern life and thus all the changes and views and attitudes that dominate leave me incredibly depressed and angry. Better to grow up in ignorance than to spend the rest of your life seeing arseholes gleefully pissing over everything you care about that makes life worth living. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted February 5, 2019 Share Posted February 5, 2019 1 hour ago, Riedquat said: I'm ambivalent about growing up in a village (or villages I should say). It was great for my childhood but I think it rather heavily influenced the type of world and surroundings I like (despite living in a modern house), which runs completely contrary to modern life and thus all the changes and views and attitudes that dominate leave me incredibly depressed and angry. Better to grow up in ignorance than to spend the rest of your life seeing arseholes gleefully pissing over everything you care about that makes life worth living. .... a village can mean within a town or city......I was born and brought up in London, but I lived in a village within London......a bus ride one way to the city, a bus ride the other into the countryside..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeanutButter Posted February 5, 2019 Share Posted February 5, 2019 On 03/02/2019 at 13:46, Saving For a Space Ship said: Pollution alone, is enough to put me off a large city Quite right. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/05/uk-parents-worryingly-unaware-of-damage-air-pollution-is-doing-children Quote Child health experts have said families and parents are worryingly unaware of the severe damage air pollution is doing to young people in the UK. In a survey of leading health professionals, nine in 10 said air pollution was harming children in their areas, and a similar proportion (92%) said the public needed to be better informed about the issue . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riedquat Posted February 5, 2019 Share Posted February 5, 2019 Air pollution seems to be one of those things that people have started banging on about now that it's nowhere near as bad as it once was. Try pre-1950s smog if you want unhealthy city air pollution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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