Planet of Slums

Book Description

Celebrated urban theorist lifts the lid on the effects of a global explosion of disenfranchised slum-dwellers.

According to the United Nations, more than one billion people now live in the slums of the cities of the South. In this brilliant and ambitious book, Mike Davis explores the future of a radically unequal and explosively unstable urban world.

From the sprawling barricadas of Lima to the garbage hills of Manila, urbanization has been disconnected from industrialization, even economic growth. Davis portrays a vast humanity warehoused in shantytowns and exiled from the formal world economy. He argues that the rise of this informal urban proletariat is a wholly original development unforeseen by either classical Marxism or neoliberal theory.

Are the great slums, as a terrified Victorian middle class once imagined, volcanoes waiting to erupt? Davis provides the first global overview of the diverse religious, ethnic, and political movements competing for the souls of the new urban poor. He surveys Hindu fundamentalism in Bombay, the Islamist resistance in Casablanca and Cairo, street gangs in Cape Town and San Salvador, Pentecostalism in Kinshasa and Rio de Janeiro, and revolutionary populism in Caracas and La Paz.Planet of Slums ends with a provocative meditation on the "war on terrorism" as an incipient world war between the American empire and the slum poor.

Customer Reviews:

Depressing but true.......2007-06-26

If one just looked at the figures over the last twenty or so years there has been a lot of economic growth in Asia and Latin America. Africa is still troubled with a lot of the sub Sahara countries having negative growth. On balance though one would expect the lot of people in poor countries to be improving. Not so according to this book. What has been happening is incredible increases in urbanisation. However this urbanisation is in the form of slums.

Slums in poorer countries are portrayed as hell holes. People live in grossly overcrowded housing with no access to fresh water. In the slum cities of the third world there is no provision for removal of sewerage so that it runs into the fresh water supply (Sao Paulo) or simply is deposited on the ground. The failure to treat sewerage results in large numbers of deaths mainly to children through dysentery and cholera.

The vast majority of those who live in the slums have the most marginal of jobs. Sitting beside a road selling a few vegetables, cleaning shoes a few times a day. Driving taxis for a few dollars a day. (Apparently one in 7 cars in Lima is a taxi.) One of the tragedies of the slums is that the desperation of families leads to children below 14 being the bread winners of families. Working in Indian textile or carpet factories for minuscule wages for 12 hours a day, losing their childhood and any access to education.

The book is a sustained attack on the Peruvian economist De Soto who posited a theory that the way to overcome the problem of slums is to give title to the slum dwellers of the land they squat on and to make available small loans for "business enterprises". What the book suggests is that in the last twenty or so years since the development of free market ideologies have led to the enforced retreat of the state in poorer countries from economic life there has only been disaster. Potentially the state could do something about water provision, housing or sewerage removal but the poorer countries are at the mercy of international institutions which prevent such anti market activity by tying conditions to loans. The life of slum dwellers is so marginalised that title to slum land will achieve nothing.

The book rather resembles Engels' book on the condition of the English working class in 1844. It is full of rather depressing facts and figures with anecdotes to bring home the nature of the misery and the total degradation of life that exists in the slums. Not a pleasant read but something which is a sober reminder that growth rates alone do not translate automatically into the reduction of poverty or human misery.

A Devastating Deconstruction of Neo-Liberal Economics.......2007-05-29

Mike Davis' main contribution to the scholarship of urban poverty in the Third World is his point-by-point deconstruction of the failure of neo-liberal economic policies, and that when mixed with corruption, racism, and incompetence, make these massive slums the serious and festering sores that they are.

Planet of Slums is a scholarly work replete with charts, tables and footnotes, but is nevertheless very easy to read. Which probably accounts for Davis' popularity as an author. It does not have the boring ponderous qualities found in most academic writing.

I recommend it.

A Wake Up Call that will be Ignored.......2007-05-28

Davis has put together a thorough and damning indictment of the indifference of the human race to the plight of those who are victims of its very mixed economic success. By using mostly official and well credentialed sources, he builds up a picture of the third of humanity that must eke out its existence under conditions that those who are reading this review are unlikely to be able to even imagine. This situation, though Davis does not point the finger that sharply, is the result of both the success of modern medicine in reducing mortality (and hence increasing successful fertility) and an economic system that favors those who have already succeeded - those with education and contacts, however limited, against those without, many of whom have been kept there by the very governments purporting to be in the business of helping them. It is a terrible and tragic story, one likely to have consequences far more difficult to manage than even the daily miseries of the new urban migrants to the great slums of the third world cities. I can only hope that the world will wake up and begin to do something serious about the abuse of people that goes on daily in our midst, but after a lifetime of close personal contact with the situation in India, I am afraid that the very human tendency to look away will prevail, to our ultimate cost.

A warning about the world's future.......2007-04-23

I guess most people never were able to read the 2004 report of the UN's Commission on Human Settlements. Slums around the world are growing ... not declining. Davis's book builds on research showing what a global horror story the current world order is creating. The book suffers from rather dull prose and could have been better organized. However, there's a chance this book might wake people up about what's really happening in the world.

The crisis of global capitalism.......2007-03-28

Mike Davis is always someone to seize an opportunity to decry the horrible situation somewhere, but in this case, it is an exposé that cannot be made often enough. "Planet of Slums" is a catalogue of the institutional failures, the despicable destruction, the filth and pollution, the poverty, misery and want, the disease and cynicism, in short the Verelendung of the worldwide poor that is the inevitable and eternal result of the capitalist mode of production. Within three decades, a stunning two billion people will live in the slums of megacities in the Third World, where all public services are absent, there are no toilets or drinking water, and where even the poor exploit the poor.

Mike Davis, as usual, pulls no punches and takes no prisoners in his description of the effects of the Washington Consensus on these undeveloped nations. Refuting the ideological mythologies of self-help such as De Sotoism and microlending, he demonstrates that the situation in the Third World is bleak and will get bleaker still. The longer the current order of neoliberalism and Structural Adjustment Programmes, led by such philanthropical heros as World Bank director Paul Wolfowitz, goes on, the more the absolute poverty, immiseration and loss of dignity of the world's poor will continue, and the greater inequality will become. Already one-third of the world's workforce is unemployed or underemployed, and worldwide average income has decreased the past decades. The megacities of the global south will become centers of hyper-alienation, and the inevitable result can only be the destruction of the current order, or the destruction of the world. The world's five billion poor are at our door - hear them knock!

Asking the right questions about slums.(Planet of Slums)(Book review): An article from: UN Chronicle

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Asking the right questions about slums.(Planet of Slums)(Book review): An article from: UN Chronicle
David Satterthwaite
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from UN Chronicle, published by Thomson Gale on September 1, 2006. The length of the article is 1613 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Asking the right questions about slums.(Planet of Slums)(Book review)
Author: David Satterthwaite
Publication: UN Chronicle (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 43 Issue: 3 Page: 27(2)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Mike Davis: Planet of Slums.(Book review): An article from: Capital & Class

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Mike Davis: Planet of Slums.(Book review): An article from: Capital & Class
Richard Leitch
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000W6LTD4
Release Date: 2007-09-18

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Capital & Class, published by Thomson Gale on March 22, 2007. The length of the article is 1499 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Mike Davis: Planet of Slums.(Book review)
Author: Richard Leitch
Publication: Capital & Class (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Issue: 91 Page: 146(4)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Managing the Workplace Survivors: Organizational Downsizing and the Commitment Gap is written for managers and other staff professionals who are charged with the responsibility of realigning the corporate culture and revitalizing survivor employees. The book helps managers and other organizational leaders understand the critical role they play in today's organization, and identifies specific strategies for increasing quality, productivity, and bottonm-line profitability among survivor employees. Organization leaders are challenged to construct dynamic strategies to empower, retain, and create incentive for the survivor employees, and to facilitate effective strategies to assure the entire organization's survival. The book is divided into two major parts: "Gaining a Perspective" and "Developing a Survivor Strategy." "Gaining a Perspective" places more emphasis on who the survivors are, where they come from, and what is happening to them. It introduces the Survivor Management Model, which outlines an approach used successfully by the authors to help companies recommit and realign their survivors. "Developing a Survivor Strategy" shifts more emphasis to recommendations about what to do with them. The Appendices are a "Manager's Toolkit" that contain several instruments and exercises that have proved effective in implementing the Survivor Management Model.

Book Description

The Vatican Observatory: In the Service of Nine Popes records the history of the Vatican Observatory (Specola Vaticana). It was originally published in 1991 on the occasion of the one-hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the observatory by Pope Leo XIII. This revised edition brings together many facts hidden in archival material, correspondence, previous publications on the observatory's history, as well as fresh material derived from interviews. Of particular interest is new research on the difficult period in the observatory's history as it moved from an institute struggling to establish research programs to a true astronomical observatory. The volume presents the most complete written history of the Vatican Observatory.

In the Service of Nine Popes 100 Years of the Vatican Observatory

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In the Service of Nine Popes 100 Years of the Vatican Observatory
Sabino Maffeo
Manufacturer: Univ of Notre Dame Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OQOBE6

Book Description

Small Creatures and Ordinary Places reveals to us the beauty and value of hornets, bats, katydids, mice, cicadas, and other tiny dwellers in our own backyards. Young, a renowned expert on butterflies and cicadas of the American tropics, records in these charming essays his keen observations of the natural world as he walks through an urban woods near the Lake Michigan shore, or sits on his deck facing his backyard, or gazes at a field of corn stubble in autumn. He invites us to venture into our own yards, neighborhood parks, fields, and forests and pause there . . . to look and to listen.

Small creatures have unique and interesting stories to tell us, Young points out. Their brief life cycles illustrate the intricate workings of a bigger clock driving the seasons, and they dominate the larger web of life in which humans are but a strand. Far too often they are ignored, taken for granted, reviled, or misunderstood. Even now, Young writes, as we move into a new millennium as a species and the technological pace of our existence further quickens, we can gain much from appreciating nature close at hand, despite how steadily it is being pushed aside.

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful meander through nature.......2001-12-28

Allen Young writes beautifully and knows his subject. He takes a complex subject and reduces it to an understandable story. Truley unusual ability to make moonlight on a lake fascinating. I think part of the charm and it is a charming book is that some of his thoughts parallel the thoughts everyone has had at certain unique moments when viewing nature. His descriptions are vivid and leave you with the feeling that he has taken you on one tour after another. This is a book form anyone and I found it totally enjoyable and very relaxing.

Small Creatures and Ordinary Places: Essays on Nature

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Small Creatures and Ordinary Places: Essays on Nature
Allen M Young
Manufacturer: University of Wisconsin Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ORJ83Y

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Make A Wish On A Skating Star

A BEAUTIFUL MOVING STORY

Interesting in an unexpected way

The Ultimate Romantic True Story

My Sergei

My Sergei: A Love Story
Ekaterina Gordeeva , and E. M. Swift
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0446605336

Customer Reviews:

Make A Wish On A Skating Star.......2007-10-13

If there ever had been a symbiotic melting together of two human beings in coalescence it happened betwen Sergei Grinkov and Ekaterina Gordeeva on ice.

A BEAUTIFUL MOVING STORY.......2007-02-20

I read this book lastyear in the Hardcover edition and I cried. It is such a moving, loving, tragic, and heartwarming story full of love that a young widow had for her husband and skating partner and the child Daria that they had together. It told of their skating years, marriage, how they met, and came to america along with the tragic death of her young husband Sergei. I couldn't put this book down. A great story that you will love. Well written.

Interesting in an unexpected way.......2007-01-02

First of all, this is a great book. The story is written beautifully, and pictures were added in all the right places. I don't tear up easily, so the book didn't make me cry, but it was touching nonetheless. However, I was surprised to find that this book was also useful in that it gave me some great insights into Russian culture, specifically how it differs from life here in America. This is a great book for a plethora of reasons; I'd definitely recommend it!

The Ultimate Romantic True Story.......2006-11-01

Beautifully written and if you love to read romantic tales then this is your book. I especially adore this book because it is also an autobiography, which is my favorite genre. The love/life story of Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov is a magical and romantic story that totally transcends cultural and language differences as well as place in time differences. If you love ice skating, then their lives as professional skaters is an added bonus for you, but I can assure you that you do not need to know a thing about figure skating nor do you even need to enjoy the sport. This is a classic love story from start to finish and will leave you feeling envious of their deep bond, deep love, and profound friendship. I love this book and have read it many times. You'll cry, you'll blush, and you'll want the same type of love in your life and if you're lucky enough to have it, then you will appreciate your love just a little more after reading their beautiful story.

My Sergei .......2005-10-05

Performing in their flawless, elegant, and unique style, Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov were the most celebrated pairs skaters of all time. Tragically, Their fairy-tale perfect story came to an end on November 20, 1995 when Sergei died of a heart attack at the age of twenty-eight. This book was appealing for its skating theme and tragic love story. Ice skating has always been a beautiful, elegant sport to all who watch, but we rarely know the full story behind the athletes we see. To learn about this couple who were initially partners on the ice and then partners in life seemed very interesting. They were two soul mates who were partners on and off the ice.

Ekaterina Gordeeva was a tiny, serious and very shy girl of eleven who was always obedient. Sergei Grinkov was a fun-loving, outgoing boy of fifteen. Both were talented and dedicated. They were mismatched kids paired together as chance. Ekaterina, or Katia as people call her, recalls this as the start of their relationship, although she knew none of it at the time.

Gordeeva and Grinkov (G & G as they were known) they won four World Championships and two Olympic gold medals. At their first Olympics, Katia did not think they really deserved a gold medal. They were with a strict coach who had them do plain non-original programs. There was no expressive movements or technical merit. Socially, Katia's experience was negative because she was only sixteen. She did not fit in with all the older kids, and often felt lonely. They would go to bars and leave her out. After the Olympics, Katia and Sergei felt it was time to switch coaches. They wanted better choreography and increased difficulty in their routines. One of their old coaches came back to them. Marina Zueva was an amazing creative choreographer and coach. She also had the best musical taste. She taught them new elements and facial moods to express when they skated. This was important to Katia because they were able to make their skating unique and interesting to watch.
Between training and competing, the couple fell madly in love. They managed to express their deep emotions for each other in a passionate skating style. They married and had a child a year later. Their daughter was born on September 11, 1992, and was named Daria. Their skating became even more inspired by the birth of Daria. Katia felt very fortunate and happy to have such a wonderful family. Sergei was her protector and would never do anything to harm her. It was almost like a fantasy. In their second Olympics, they did a program to the Moonlight Sonata and won gold. It was what they had been wishing for so long. "This one we won for each other." (page 226) Katia felt her goal had been finally reached.

On November 20, 1995, Katia and Sergei were doing a routine practice session with Marina. They were skating through their early movements of their developing program. They were supposed to do crossovers before a lift. "The full orchestra was just coming in, one of those high waves of music Marina liked so much. Sergei was gliding on the ice, but he didn't do the crossovers. His hand didn't go around my waist for the lift." (page 255) Sergei glided into the boards, then bent his knees and lay down on the ice carefully. Marina came over to him, and she knew it was a heart attack and started CPR on him. When he was brought to the hospital, the doctor gave him electric shocks and a shot of Adrenalin in the heart. However, they had lost Sergei. The next few weeks were a blur. There were many arrangements to be done and decisions to be made. Katia was very devastated and felt as if her life had ended also.
A celebration of Sergei's life was planned. Fellow skaters came together to put on a show, and Katia prepared a solo program. She was so emotional throughout the celebration. When she went out to skate her solo, it felt as if someone was holding her hand and guiding her. This was important to Katia because she wanted to be able to say goodbye to Sergei by doing the thing they had worked so hard on throughout their lives, skating.

While Katia was in the dreamy romance with her husband, she became very oblivious to the world around her. She was always dependent on Sergei to protect and guide her. Katia was afraid to trust people or say things that might hurt them. Also, she was afraid of what people might say about her. "Time I have learned, is a doctor. Skating has been the best medicine for me." (page 289) She felt that God was sending her a message, to open her eyes to the world and experience what it was like not to be so blessed. She is now learning the disappointments of life. Katia has a job of building a new life for Daria and herself. Katia is now reaching out to friends and being more interested in their lives. She is getting to know her parents again, and make up for all the time she was traveling away from home. Finally, she is learning that there are new things in life to discover. As for skating, she has yet to summon the courage to skate alone with only Sergei's spirit to guide her.

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My Sergei - A Love Story
Ekaterina Gordeeva , and E.M. Swift
Manufacturer: Warner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GQNKP0

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My Sergei: A Love Story
Ekaterina Gordeeva , and E.M. Swift
Manufacturer: Warner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000I28F52

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My Sergei : A Love Story
Ekaterina Gordeeva , and E.M. Swift
Manufacturer: Warner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NV3X28

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My Sergei: A Love Story
Ekaterina Gordeeva , and E.M. Swift
Manufacturer: Warner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NXX8CQ

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My Sergei: A Love Story
Ekaterina Gordeeva , and E.M. Swift
Manufacturer: Warner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NY670K

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My Sergei: A Love Story
Ekaterina Gordeeva , and E.M. Swift
Manufacturer: Warner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O5Z3IK

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My Sergei: a true love story

Manufacturer: G. K. Hall & Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000EOS3MO

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My Sergei: A Love Story
Ekaterina Gordeeva , and E.M. Swift
Manufacturer: Warner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000PRZFGW

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Great variety of Vocabulary

SAT words

Umm...this is pretty good but...

Best Method for Learning Words

I still remember words from sixth grade!

500 Key Words for the SAT, and How to Remember Them Forever!
Charles Gulotta
Manufacturer: Mostly Bright Ideas
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0965326330

Book Description

This book was originally published in 1992 as "500 SAT Words, and How To Remember Them Forever!" This current edition is the eighth printing, and we will soon sell our 50,000th copy.

"500 Key Words for the SAT" uses pictures and stories to help you remember the meanings of five hundred of the words that appear most frequently on the SAT. Learning is fast, fun, and forever!

New to this edition: each word is used in a sentence. And a special section in the back provides tips for the verbal part of the SAT.

Customer Reviews:

Great variety of Vocabulary.......2007-10-13

This book has many vocabulary words, with funny sentences and pictures that goes with each vocabulary. The only thing negative thing, there isn't a picture for EVERY word, just some words.

SAT words.......2007-06-15

This book was invaluable, couldn't believe how many of these words were on the actual test.

Umm...this is pretty good but..........2007-05-23

This is a pretty good vorcabulary learning book but not every word has a picture to go along with it and it's sometimes confusing to follow along with the picture. You also need to be dedcated to learning these vorcabulary because not every word can be remebered through pictures.

Best Method for Learning Words.......2007-05-22

The author's technique really works. We tried other books in our homeschool but none of them worked as effectively as this one. The visual imagery, stories, and funny pronounciations help make each word very memorable.

I still remember words from sixth grade!.......2007-01-09

When I was in sixth grade, my English teacher used this book to teach us vocabulary. It had fun cartoons and a really great tone, but most importantly, it worked. Each word was turned into what it sounded like. For example, the word "volatile" became "volley tile." The cartoon would have a drawing of people playing a game of a new sport called volley tile, which was like volleyball, except instead of a ball, there was a tile that could blow up at any time, demonstrating the definition of the word. This was in sixth grade, people. I don't even remember my teacher's name in the sixth grade, but I do remember the definition of volatile, embellishment, penchant, and the list goes on. This book's devices are incredible and really fun, and they truly make learning vocabulary painless, I promise.

Customer Reviews:

It's Okay.......2000-06-02

This book is okay . I liked it the first time I read it, but the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th,6th,7th,8th, 9th and 10th times were boring. All in all, it was a great book

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