Mega-Towns of World - Explosion of Population
printMega-Towns of World - Explosion of Population
Towns are beautiful. They are unique and at the same time, they differ excellently.
From January 2007 to March 2007, I wrote 6 Short Stories that were published under Title: "State of Towns I to VI". Each story tried to work out the characteristics of each town mentioned now:
Hong Kong, Paris, Mumbai, Lisbon, London, Zurich, Singapore // San Francisco, Venice, Monte Carlo and Monaco, Berlin, Chicago, Ulan Bator // Munich, Geneva, Prague, Rome and Vatican, Madrid and Barcelona, Kathmandu // New York, Copenhagen, Jerusalem, Lagos // Hiroshima and Dresden, Lucerne, Honolulu and Hawaii // Salzburg, Beijing and Shanghai, Oslo and Stockholm and finally Carcassonne.
But then I was fed up. It does not make sense of writing stories about towns, without getting the slightest thanks or critics in return. And so I changed to other stories and apologize of towns not mentioned and not be honoured by a short story.
But yesterday, is saw the film "The Devil wears Prada" and all of a sudden I felt that I must take up the towns of the World - but fundamentally, not only by describing my memories and some concerns about past and future of individual towns on this Globe.
What is a Town?
Not the film as such, the comedy was for me reason for a terrific shock. Since at least 10 years, i get some sort of shock whenever the camera goes over these huge heaps of stone, concrete, glass, plastic, parks, streets full of cars, highways, factories. Already in my book "John Demaster" I tried to look on towns, as if I were coming from the unknown in the new world, the Planet Earth, and would see for the first time all lands, oceans, mountains, villages, all continents - and all towns.
I guess that 99 percent of people just think, when looking this film: "Oh, this is Manhatten, oh this is the inner circle of Paris, oh, this is the town I am living in, oh, this is the town I visited when I was young - how beautiful!"
My thinking goes completely different ways.
Past history
In the very old days, 3000 years ago, there were some minor towns like Babylon, or Rome, or the former Cairo or Athens, certainly some minor towns in China, India, Japan, not in America, except Mexico, not in Africa except Egypt.
All was land, some millions people world-wide tried to survive with archaic agriculture and the problem of delivering nourishment and water and other matters like fabrics etc. were no problem. Everything was open. It took Centuries to reach a figure of 100 Million folks on this Globe, and - always accelerating - to come very late in time to the first Billion - but now the Towns were growing and growing and towns become Mega-Towns, always greater in masses and in number.
And not one person sought, that this procedure would not be sane, not be normal, not be good for human mankind. Until today, Average Man or Average Woman says: "Oh, what a beautiful town, what nice products to be consumed, what nice theatres or operas to visit ----"
Development of World Population
Wikipedia gives some information:
8000 before Christ: 5 to 10 Million folks are assumed
Year zero - Birth of Christ: about 300 Million of folks, worldwide, UNO says
Year 1500: around 500 Millions - according to UNO
Year 1804: First Billion of folks worldwide are exceeding
Year 1927: Second Billion of folks are exceeded
Year 1960: Third Billion of folks are exceeded
Year 1974: Forth Billion of folks are exceeded
Year 1987: Fifth Billion of folks are exceeded
Year 1999: Sixth Billion of folks are exceeded
Year 2011: Seventh Billion of folks will be exceeded
Year 2025: Eighth Billion of folks will be exceeded
Nobody knows if 10 billion will ever be reached. I have written in my book "CHAOS" that this figure can never be reached due to poverty, decimation by economic downfalls, ecological collapses and wars and impossibility of the planet to nourish 10 billion and give them clean water and air.
Considering that most people in the future will have to live in mega-towns, does not resolve any problems- Just the contrary is true - this is one of the major catastrophes of human mankind---
Present State of Towns
So, something is queer about towns - and this was exactly the reason why I have written the short stories: To make recognize towns form another angle of intellect. What is typical about New York, Lagos, Beijing, Dresden, Lucerne, Carcassonne etc.? What do these towns all have in common and how do they differ. And what LIFE has these towns, in history, not considering that people as becoming always more alike each other. Towns are too, becoming Americanized more and more. In Beijing, Shanghai, Mumbai, former Bombay and many other Towns, they destroyed wilfully the Old Towns for all times and have no face and no soul any more.
But this is not the major problem: The major problem comes when I look films like "The Devil wears Prada" - How such heaps of stone can survive? Is it human to have such sky scrapers? Is it human to have such canyons or gullies of streets? Is it human to mass people by millions on the narrowest space ever? Can these Towns survive? How to secure nourishment, water, air, energy, and the fast diminishing resources of this planet for such Mega-Towns?
Is a Mega-Town with monster-buildings "beautiful" or just terrifying? What would an extraterrestrial say and feel if he would not know such scrap as TOWNS from his home-planet?
The richest part of humans, about 10 percent of world population, can today travel with planes to any place in the world, for consumerism or business, they can destroy some days of future mankind by flying in any big town of the World. But for the poor, there are many who have never seen the edge of his Mega-Town. And for going into the landscapes around, they would be forced to take holidays or going by trains some hours away without any chance of seeing one nice lake, river, rivulet or forest. What a world we are living in! The richest VIPs wear Prada and the wide over 50 percent of poor can see, what a future of nothing they are going to.
You start to think, Reader? Well, I guess you should leave it, because it is too late for such sort of deeper thoughts. Because, even if the masses would not go to heaven in future, the real time effect is already disastrous. How shall we overcome in future, how to survive the 21st Century under these conditions?
Easy? I told you that you will never grasp what Delavy is writing all the time. Either a person gets it, the clue, or he will die and leave his children a deadly mess.
Expectable Future of Towns and Mankind
Nobody really knows how human will tumble into its own future. All we know at present that we have a terrible World finance Crash, followed by a Clash of Civilisation with regard to "real economics". We don't know if Banks, Stock Exchanges, Nations will recover form a show produced by orthodox Americans at Wall Street with the Shock Doctrine coming from Friedman and Popper.
And we don't know what the fact that ecology lost its balance and climate with change and huge collapses of the weather will happen and have deadly effects on agriculture, water and air.
And what about our beautiful towns, especially our nicest Mega-Towns on all Continents on this Planet? How - under THESE conditions - should they be able to survive?
For this time, I leave the thinking, analysing and arguing to you. I am fed up of making the job all alone. You all are intelligent, n'est-ce pas? So do something, before it's too late. Do some thinking, force the Idiots you have brought to power by "Democrazy = Dictatorship of dull Majorities" to do the right things. The VIP are omni-present in all Murdoch-Media of this lost and rotten world with such huge Mega-Towns as just mentioned at the beginning of this article.
All I can say: If you don't wake up NOW, you better sleep right down to the end of the 21st Century. Your children may be thankful for your useless lives, full of "The Devil wears Prada".
Rene Delavy, Berlin and Bournemouth
Author of "State of Towns I to VI" / "Sexy World" / "Philosophies of 3000 years and never found solutions" / "10 Maxims for continuation of Life" etc.