Second topic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Second topic - Essay Example A shift in population away from rural areas and into city areas appears to be one of the most common human behaviors in this situation, and there are many reasons why this is so. The consequences are not always positive for the people who migrate, however, and there is also an impact on those already in the cities who then have to share their urban environment with increasing numbers of immigrants. This paper explains the factors which drive this migration to cities, and enumerates the potential hazards which can arise in urban environments. The especial vulnerabilities of the poor in this situation are highlighted, along with a number of strategies which can be followed to improve the standard of living of the urban poor. This paper contends that the best strategy to address urban poverty is to invest in environmental infrastructure such as waste disposal, clean water provision, transport systems and renewable energy sources but that the detail of such a strategy will be different f or each major city in the world. . Third world countries traditionally have large proportion of people who make their living by subsistence farming. This is a hard and unpredictable way of life which wears people out and makes them dissatisfied. One important factor is the tendency of families to have many children, which ensures the security of the older generation in the short term, but creates an ever greater pressure on basic resources in the countryside like food, fuel, and water. This is what creates the so called ‘population problem’ of the third world. (Anand and Morduch, 1998) Over time it becomes harder and harder to maintain the large families and so people drift to the cities to find ways of supporting themselves and their relatives. Weather catastrophes, wars and competition for scarce resources also drive people out of rural environments and these can occur suddenly, encouraging rapid and chaotic immigration to cities. Additionally there are factors which pull people towards cities, such as the possibility of new employment opportunities, a steady wage and broader horizons for personal development. The lure of products and services from the developed world is also very powerful, but often the aspirations of the migrants are not met by the reality of urban poverty. The economic effects of migration to cities can be very severe, as for example when the number of workers in an area rises, the level of wages is driven in a downwards direction, and the overall poverty in the area for long-term urban dwellers and new arrivals increases. These demographic effects have a different effect on women than on men, with women often suffering a hidden burden because of the demand to bear children, and pressure to produce sons causing lower survival rates in girls. (Anand and Morduch, 1998) It is the men who are able to migrate and take up new possibilities in the cities while women and girls are confined to domestic roles and are less able to benef it economically and culturally. Empirical studies on megacities, defined as cities which have a population of at least 10 million in 2000, have shown that the poor are at risk from many hazards. (Cohen, 1993) Size in itself is not necessarily an impoverishing factor, since civilizations who possess appropriate technologies sustain wealthy megacities such as Tokyo and New York. In Mexico city, however, the expansion has

Literature and Community Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Literature and Community - Essay Example Faulkner introduces Miss Emily Grierson as a woman who has been strictly contained within the boundaries of her father’s old Southern ideals. â€Å"None of the young men were quite good enough to Miss Emily and such. We had long thought of them as a tableau; Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door† (437). As a result of his behavior and her confinement, the Grierson family becomes the town’s idealized image of what the Old South should be. As a result, the town insists upon Emily maintaining this role even after her father dies and she is left all alone. Miss Emily attempts to break out of this mold by dating Homer Barron and adopting more Northern ideals. â€Å"Her hair was cut short, making her look like a girl, with a vague resemblance to those angels in colored church windows – sort of trag ic and serene† (438), but the town sees her as defying the old order of her class. Her cousins are quickly sent for (by the townspeople) to bring Miss Emily back into her ‘destined’ role. Franz Kafka’s story â€Å"Metamorphosis† centers on the character of Gregor Samsa who wakes up one morning to discover he’s been transformed into the shape of a large bug, possibly a cockroach, which reflects his position in society and the expectations they have for him. It can be argued that Gregor’s transformation is a literal indication of his feelings of separation from humanity, including the members of his own family. Despite waking up to find himself in the form of a bug, Gregor’s primary concern is to get to work so that he can still support his family as he’s been doing for five years. This is the expectation society has placed on him and he has adopted for himself. As he thinks about his condition, he realizes the level of disconnection that has already occurred between