From philippa_abbott at hotmail.com Fri Aug 1 18:12:47 2008 From: philippa_abbott at hotmail.com (Philippa Abbott) Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 12:42:47 +0000 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Goa ; Research into issues and concerns impacting the region Message-ID: Hello, My name is Philippa Abbott and I am a Systems Design student at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, Gujurat. Currently I am working on an innovative project that looks into a region of India at a base level of peoples experience, ways of living and how this transfers into macro issues. This phase is contacting people who know more through their experience rather than qualifications. This is in view of creating a structure that possible design opportunities may become apparent at a human level. This initiative is using design as a tool for environmental and social sustainability. The region I am working on is Goa, and the theme (or you could say starting point) is food. We are looking to come up with a model that is informed from all sides not just the economic view point (of tourism and ore export). I read an online post from Sebastan Rodrigez in regards to mining and the impacts within the region which has particular relevance to this project. So Sebastian and anyone else I believe you would have further insight that I could learn from into the region that would really help inform this process. A brief outline of anything you each may think is relevant to Goa, food security, environment, pharmeceuticals, fisheries and mining would be incredibly helpful; also any points in the right direction or toher contacts. Alternatively if anyone would be interested in being interviewed through skype or over the phone please do not hesitate to contact me. A few relevant questions are: -To what level does the mining corporation control government policy and protection standards (for the environment and for people)? - Has mining encroached on conservation zones? - What are the specific ecological impacts of mining in the area? - Has there been any examples you can think of, of resettlement and encroachment on agricultural land? - Are there elements of stand over tactics within this? ie – how are people being treated? - Is there evidence of people’s food supply being polluted/taken away? - Any stories you may have of local people’s experience or ways life is changing due to environmental concerns and transitions in industry, government or culture. These questions are more geared to the mining industry however any info about Goa would be really appreciated. Please contact me if you have further questions? Unfortunately this is a rapid design process and I do not have much time for this stage of the process however would like to inform the process as much as possible from a ground level with depth. That is why I have contacted you. The cut-off date for this research is Sunday night so if anyone could help me that would be great. Thank you! Philippa Abbott Philippa_abbott at hotmail.com with mobile Hotmail SMS alerts Win a Nokia E51 _________________________________________________________________ Win a Nokia E51 with mobile Hotmail SMS alerts  http://www.livelife.ninemsn.com.au/compIntro.aspx?compId=4589 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080801/97bc028f/attachment.html From fred at bytesforall.org Sat Aug 2 03:00:37 2008 From: fred at bytesforall.org (=?UTF-8?Q?Frederick_Noronha?= =?UTF-8?Q?_[=E0=A5=9E=E0=A4=B0?= =?UTF-8?Q?=E0=A5=87=E0=A4=A6=E0=A4=B0=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=95?= =?UTF-8?Q?_=E0=A4=A8=E0=A5=8B=E0=A4=B0?= =?UTF-8?Q?=E0=A5=8B=E0=A4=A8=E0=A4=AF=E0=A4=BE]?=) Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 03:00:37 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Goa ; Research into issues and concerns impacting the region In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <8ea78e010808011430s34f48476q5d94809270a3283d@mail.gmail.com> Hi Philippa, There's a lot of background material available here that might give you an insight into the issues. Because of the smallness of its size, much of the Goa-related content tends to be published locally, though. That is, you would find it in libraries and bookshops in Goa. One good background paper (though written way back in 1983) is Robert S Newman's *Goa: The Transformation of An Indian Region* (Pacific Affairs, 1983). You could get it in the Other India Bookstore (online too) www.*goa* com.com/*goan*ow/2000/janfeb/*books*.html Or try here: http://www.otherindiabookstore.com/index.jsp Check out the OIBS for this recent publication *Goa Sweet Land of Mine*. It's about mining in Goa. I doubt you'd be able to do justice to a topic like this by Sunday though :-) Goa is a rather complex place, though seemingly deceptively attractive to the tourist eye! FN 2008/8/1 Philippa Abbott > > Hello, > > My name is Philippa Abbott and I am a Systems Design student at the > National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, Gujurat. Currently I am working > on an innovative project that looks into a region of India at a base level > of peoples experience, ways of living and how this transfers into macro > issues. This phase is contacting people who know more through their > experience rather than qualifications. > > This is in view of creating a structure that possible design opportunities > may become apparent at a human level. This initiative is using design as a > tool for environmental and social sustainability. > > The region I am working on is Goa, and the theme (or you could say starting > point) is food. We are looking to come up with a model that is informed > from all sides not just the economic view point (of tourism and ore export). > > I read an online post from Sebastan Rodrigez in regards to mining and the > impacts within the region which has particular relevance to this project. > So Sebastian and anyone else I believe you would have further insight that I > could learn from into the region that would really help inform this > process. A brief outline of anything you each may think is relevant to Goa, > food security, environment, pharmeceuticals, fisheries and mining would be > incredibly helpful; also any points in the right direction or toher > contacts. Alternatively if anyone would be interested in being interviewed > through skype or over the phone please do not hesitate to contact me. > > A few relevant questions are: > > -To what level does the mining corporation control > government policy and protection standards (for the environment and for > people)? > > - Has mining encroached on conservation zones? > > - What are the specific ecological impacts of mining in > the area? > > - Has there been any examples you can think of, of > resettlement and encroachment on agricultural land? > > - Are there elements of stand over tactics within this? ie – how are > people being treated? > > - Is there evidence of people's food supply being polluted/taken away? > > - Any stories you may have of local people's experience or ways life is > changing due to environmental concerns and transitions in industry, > government or culture. > > These questions are more geared to the mining industry however any info > about Goa would be really appreciated. Please contact me if you have further > questions? > > > > Unfortunately this is a rapid design process and I do not have much time > for this stage of the process however would like to inform the process as > much as possible from a ground level with depth. That is why I have > contacted you. The cut-off date for this research is Sunday night so if > anyone could help me that would be great. > > Thank you! > > Philippa Abbott > > *Philippa_abbott at hotmail.com* > > -- FN * Independent Journalist http://fn.goa-india.org 784 Nr Convent, Saligao 403511 Goa India Ph +91-832-2409490 M: +91-9970157402 16,000+ photos from Goa: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080802/84974b27/attachment-0001.html From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Sat Aug 2 07:16:59 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant maringanti) Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 09:46:59 +0800 Subject: [Urbanstudy] regularization of unauthorised colonies Message-ID: <8d5106ed0808011846n1aacf31p7aad07f363aceaf3@mail.gmail.com> some home truths (story on regularization of unauthorised colonies in delhi) http://www.frontline.in/stories/20080815251603700.htm Does anyone know what exactly regularization implies in Delhi ? Updating land records to show change in landuse and granting titles to individual plot owners after collecting development fees and assess for property tax ? How does that benefit people most of whom may already have already secured the necessary infrastructure through political networks ? Except that now they will be integrated into the formal landmarkets of Delhi? Not being cynical but I am really curious to know if one of the motivations for this was to open up possibilities of redevelopment. anant From varanashi at gmail.com Sat Aug 2 10:17:05 2008 From: varanashi at gmail.com (varanashi) Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 10:17:05 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] CSE Event Message-ID: <4893e6e3.1b018e0a.7e4f.ffffd542@mx.google.com> Centre for Science and Environment Releases the 6th State of India's Environment Report on mining At Orchid Room, Hotel Royal Orchid Harsha, 11, Park Road, Shivajinagar, Bangalore At 4.30 pm On Monday August 4, 2008 In the presence of Shri Rameshwar Thakur, Governor of Karnataka Sunita Narain, Director, CSE Chandra Bhushan, Associate Director, CSE All are welcome rsvp: 09910864339, 09811808883 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080802/0cfb8b23/attachment-0001.html From bhargavi_srao at yahoo.com Mon Aug 4 16:29:07 2008 From: bhargavi_srao at yahoo.com (Bhargavi S.) Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2008 03:59:07 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Namma Raste Workshop Report and letter Message-ID: <520841.22557.qm@web32604.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Dear All, Please find enclosed a report of the Namma Raste Workshop held on 19th July 2008 and a letter/flyer to help take this initiative forward. Please do forward it to your friends and contacts to help create roads that can be used and celebrated as public spaces. Warm Regards, Bhargavi www.esgindia.org www.newsrack.in -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080804/1ad915a3/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Namma Raste Workshop_ report_190708.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 1557502 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080804/1ad915a3/attachment-0002.pdf -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Namma RAste Namma jaga namma ooru_ letter.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 502604 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080804/1ad915a3/attachment-0003.pdf From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Fri Aug 8 09:27:18 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant maringanti) Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 11:57:18 +0800 Subject: [Urbanstudy] digital money workshop + representations of global capital Message-ID: <8d5106ed0808072057j7f9d4ca8kdc358472156bf601@mail.gmail.com> a couple of webpages that may be useful: 1)conference on digital money - with apparently a strong India/south asia focus http://www.anthro.uci.edu/emoney/ It is distantly reminiscent of the "Doors of Perception" http://www.doorsofperception.com/ but I confess I dont know enough about either. 2) excellent archive of hundreds of corporate advertisements + insightful analysis on representations of capital at Landscapes of Capital Project home http://www.lclark.edu/%7egoldman/global/ From aashu.gupta20 at gmail.com Sun Aug 10 13:44:59 2008 From: aashu.gupta20 at gmail.com (Aashish Gupta) Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 13:44:59 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Shaastra 08: Golden Design Challenges: Sustainable Transportation Message-ID: Get UT Out of The Rut: Sustainable Transportation For Chennai Shaastra is the annual technical festival of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. The Golden Design Challenges are a set of five independent, socially relevant design problem statements catering to multiple disciplines of engineering, formulated in such a way that implementing the solutions would positively affect the Indian community at large. Get UT out of the Rut is an event which asks for solutions to the problem of Urban Transportation for the Urban Terrestrial. Participants have to envision a transportation system for the residents of Chennai which is sustainable, people friendly, and makes our streets livable. The constraints of the challenge are 1. No motorized vehicles within large tracts of residential/commercial areas. 2. Make Public Transport Preferable to Private Motorized Vehicles. So Bus Rapid Transit, Trams, Boats, Trains instead of Cars, Motorcycles and scooters. 3. Encourage Non Motorised Transport. Cycles, Pedestrians, and maybe Cycle-Rickshaws. Plan for a cyclist and walker-friendly city. Simplicity is the key, and you need not worry about the lack of knowledge on transport planning. We provide the transport guides and reference material. Also the relevant data on Chennai. You have to figure out what will work in Chennai, and what will not. Get cracking, and get cracking fast. A six figure cash prize is up for grabs, for those who can successfully provide accessibility and sustainability to the Urban Terrestrial. The detailed problem statement and description can be downloaded from http://www.shaastra.org/2008/Events/GoldenChallenges/ Any queries can be directed to gdc at shaastra.org Aashish Gupta Coordinator, Golden Design Challenges Golden Jubilee Shaastra 08 Indian Institute of Technology, Madras -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080810/71f71f96/attachment.html From elkamath at yahoo.com Sun Aug 10 20:58:58 2008 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 08:28:58 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fw: Land grab and Class Struggle in the new China Message-ID: <909799.44502.qm@web53601.mail.re2.yahoo.com> FYI -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Class Struggle in the New China By Christian Parenti This article appeared in the August 18, 2008 edition of The Nation. July 30, 2008 Research support was provided by the Puffin Foundation Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute. The countryside around Da Ba village in southwestern China's Chongqing province is steep and verdant but swathed in the bitter smog of many small, coal-fired factories and power plants. These mountains are rich with veins of lignite, and because the area is only a few hours from Chongqing--the eponymous provincial capital and mega-city you've likely never heard of (12 million and counting)--it is dotted with small power plants, mines, quarries and cement factories that feed the metropolis. Da Ba is in many ways a typical Chinese village. Its center has a few blocks of tightly packed two- and three-story projects of socialist-style housing nestled along a dirty creek and a cramped valley crossroads. On the edge of town, the walls of farmhouse compounds are painted with bold red characters exhorting obedience to the one-child policy. And as in many other places in China, the farmers of Da Ba are fighting to save their land from those who want to seize it in the name of progress and profit. Here in Da Ba, the trouble began in October 2005, when the village party secretary, Lu Cheng Cun, told more than 600 farmers they would have to sell their land to the privately owned Tian Hong Mine Ltd. so it could be excavated for coal. The farmers refused to sell. "We could not survive on the price they offered. We could not buy other land with it," says a woman named Chun. The protest leaders have asked that I use only their first names, and our meeting is held secretly after elaborate efforts to confuse and avoid the police. "They said this is an important energy project and that we were getting in the way," explains Chun. The farmers still refused. Then several leaders were jailed and beaten. The first was Yong Sam Lan, a 50-year-old woman, jailed and beaten twice. Police raided family homes, locking up and battering those they thought were ringleaders. "They beat my mother so badly she was in hospital for two months with a brain injury," says one of the protesting villagers, a woman in her mid-40s named Lin. In all, they say, eight of the farmers have been hospitalized from beatings by local goons, and many others have been roughed up. Perhaps just as bad, the villagers were also prevented from working their land and thus stripped of their livelihoods. Eventually about 200 people signed away their property, but most held out and filed a lawsuit against the local authorities. For three years, through arbitration and two trials, they have fought, all the while living under intimidation from local thugs and the police. This situation is not unique. Across China there is rising rural and urban protest--or, if you will, burgeoning class struggle. As the economy moves from Maoist socialism to a strange type of quasi-Maoist capitalism, farmers are fighting off land grabs, which, as in the case of Da Ba, are often linked to industry's voracious appetite for space and resources. Typically, the land grabs involve local government officials working with large, mostly state-owned but partly private businesses. The land struggles are just one part of a rural crisis that is also, by extension, an urban crisis. An estimated 200 million workers have left the countryside for cities in the past thirty years. Once in the cities, these displaced farmers cum urban workers often find themselves forced to battle against employers and local governments for basic rights and even unpaid wages. According to the Ministry of Public Security, the wave of protests--rural and urban--peaked in 2005 with roughly 87,000 "public order disturbances," a 7 percent rise over the previous year. After that, the government stopped reporting such numbers. Usually the protests are small, spontaneous and peaceful--like those staged by grieving parents after the Sichuan earthquake. But at times the conflicts involve thousands of people clashing with armed police, leaving casualties on both sides. Perhaps most interesting, many of the urban labor strikes are not spontaneous but are planned by an incipient underground trade union movement. When the Western press has covered these protests, it has generally cast the story as one of China being on the edge of chaos. But China's new class struggle may actually lead to broader prosperity and thus deeper stability. China still has a command economy, a form of Asian capitalism that retains a very large public sector and uses extensive state planning. If the central government responds to the protests fairly--using its might to rein in the corrupt local authorities, who are often in cahoots with business interests to repress workers' aspirations--the current wave of protest could usher in needed reforms, a more equitable distribution of wealth and greener forms of growth. So far the signals are not all bad. Two years ago the protest-spooked central government abolished the agricultural land tax and gave farmers greater legal protections. And it has just passed a new and, at least on paper, progressive labor law. Among other things, the law requires employers to give workers formal contracts that last for a set period; it also requires severance pay and mandates that workers can be fired only with cause. After two short-term contracts, employers must offer open-ended, tenure-style employment. Companies that don't comply face stiff penalties. (Business-friendly critics say the law introduces "European-style inflexibility.") The central government has also announced its desire to have the official state union federation--the All-China Federation of Trade Unions--organize 80 percent of private companies by the end of this year. These directives face resistance from local governments, which operate with a lot of legal and illegal autonomy. But even as the central government's reach is limited, it's significant that it has demonstrated a willingness to move in response to pressure from below. In the face of unrest, Wen Jiabao--China's down-to-earth prime minister and second-most-powerful politician, who famously spoke at Tiananmen Square in 1989 and survived with his health and career intact--has called for progressive reforms and issued stark, if cryptic, warnings like, "The speed of the fleet is not determined by the fastest vessel; rather, it is determined by the slowest one." If there is a traditional epicenter to rural protest and local corruption, it is Anhui province, about 300 miles inland from Shanghai on the Yangtze River. In 1978 the now-storied farmers of Anhui were the first to demand the right to cultivate individual plots rather than farm communally. By 1983 this "household responsibility system" became the national norm. Two years ago several rebellious Anhui villages stopped paying land taxes. It was in response to that protest that the central government abolished the levy. The local Anhui leadership epitomizes the problem of provincial and district-level corruption. In the northern Anhui city of Fuyang, a Chinese NGO has said it will show me around. But at the last minute it backs out because the staff is under "too much pressure." It's not Big Brother in Beijing they fear but Little Brother Gangster--the local government. Recently several judges were jailed for bribery and the former vice governor was executed. One local district blew a third of its public funds to build a replica of the US Capitol building, which they call the White House. This spring an anticorruption whistleblower named Li Guofu was arrested and then found dead in his Fuyang jail cell. Officials in Fuyang seem compelled to steal and lie even when they confess and apologize for their crimes. In 2007 Zhang Shaocang, a party chief and executive of a state-owned power company, went on trial for embezzlement. In court he read a four-page "letter of apology." Alas, the letter was plagiarized. He had lifted it from a similar trial in another province. Meanwhile, in the countryside the farmers suffer. The land around Fuyang is flat and the straight dirt roads are lined with poplars, whose round leaves make a soothing rustle in the breeze. Agriculture here is supplemented with garbage-sorting. The air smells of burning plastic. "They are recycling electronics," explains a local. "You can't eat the fish here anymore--the streams are all polluted." My local driver's wife has leukemia. He asks, "Is medicine for that very expensive in America?" A woman from the city jokes that "Fuyang is famous. We're known for pollution, corruption, disease, babies with enlarged heads and for being very flat and getting flooded by the Yangtze." On the edge of the city farmers have faced land seizures, as in Chongqing, but no one will talk about the protests. They are simply too frightened. They will talk about the poverty that is driving so many farmers to the cities in search of work. "Young people are abandoning the villages for the cities because farming pays so little," explains a constable. Most farmers here earn only $2,000-$3,000 a year--a tractor costs about $50,000. "We have villages of babies and grandparents only," says the constable. Remittances from the city appear on the landscape as a smattering of new construction and small stores. Almost all those who stay behind supplement farming with work in local crafts factories, the Township and Village Enterprises. In this county, there are thirty-one of these workshops, all of them public-private joint ventures. They make wicker furniture and baskets from the fast-growing poplars. The products, which look sort of Amish, are mostly exported to the United States and Germany. In Fuyang there are eight Special Economic Zones (SEZs), smaller imitations of the free-trade experiments on the coast, where businesses can set up shop and not pay taxes for five years. My guide, who sells Amway and works for the local government, has asked me not to tell anyone I am a journalist; she, like everyone here, lives in constant, gnawing fear of those in power. We meet with the deputy director of the zone, Lou Hui Hong; he seems to think I am some sort of industrial fixer and soon offers me a kickback. "If you get $20 million of investment in here, I can make sure you receive 1.3 percent of it." Most rural migrants, like the farmers leaving Fuyang and the rebellious and now landless farmers in Da Ba, make their way to places like Shenzhen, a sprawling city of 12 million just across the border from Hong Kong. In 1979 it was just a cluster of fishing villages, but then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping drew a circle around it on a map and created the country's first and now biggest SEZ. Here long hours of migrant toil fuel China's boom. China's SEZs are famous for drawing businesses from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan that subcontract for US companies like Wal-Mart and Apple. But it is abundant, cheap and disciplined labor that really drives the boom. In fact, most of the capital that has built up China's new economy is internally generated. According to some estimates, up to 90 percent of the capital accumulated during the reform era has been Chinese--either state money or reinvested profits from fast-growing Chinese businesses. Lenovo is the textbook case of how Chinese business is growing. In the 1980s it was a simple supplier of computer parts; twenty years later, after continual reinvestment and state protection, it was wealthy enough to buy IBM's PC division. But this fast growth based on cheap labor rests on the foundation of what can only be called China's culture of fear. At the center of that culture are several factors; crucial among them is the country's "household registration system," hukou. These laws essentially make internal migration illegal and connect all social services to one's official address of origin. An estimated 60 to 70 percent of industrial, service, mining and construction workers are ex-farmers, migrants from the countryside with no hukou--that is, with no political rights. The hukou system has slowly eased, but it still weighs on the minds of migrants, instilling caution and even shame. "I have no hukou, so I have to pay bribes for everything," says a cabdriver in Shenzhen. "The police take money from us every month." In Chongqing a freelance porter, called a pang-pang, shows me the back-alley, two-room hovel where he lives with his wife, an infant and four other migrants. "I would love to live in a high-rise, but with no hukou they demand more money and pay less at jobs. And I will have to pay to get the child hukou so he can go to school." The price for that will be roughly $2,400. All the pang-pang here are migrants, and they all pay petty bribes to the local police and security guards, who monitor the streets and malls where they work. Some pang-pang tried to organize against the bribes and get a lawyer, but it was too expensive and they were intimidated by threats that they would be deported back to the countryside. The current culture of fear also seems to be a legacy of Mao's cultlike rule and its culminating act, the Cultural Revolution. "People don't trust each other anymore," says a young lawyer. "It's the Cultural Revolution. Children denounced parents. No one trusts each other anymore." At the revolution's peak in the late 1960s, Chinese society began to collapse into an open-ended campaign of violent hysteria, with Salem-style denunciations and self-criticism mass meetings. Warring factions of the fanatical Red Guard (grassroots student formations) fought pitched gun battles against one another and at times against the army. Intellectuals were banished to the countryside; schoolchildren were drilled to revere Mao as a god. The official death toll was about 35,000. At least 750,000--some estimates range much higher--were charged with various offenses, jailed and beaten. In the end, the Cultural Revolution instilled a corrosive paranoia--anyone could be a snitch; obedience to authority was one's righteous duty. It's an attitude that Chinese capitalism has found very useful, because it makes peasant and worker mobilization difficult. There is also a growing system of photo surveillance and biometric IDs--even though such monitoring is notoriously unreliable at catching lawbreakers. The effect (especially when laid over the hukou system and Mao's legacy) is to instill more quiet self-policing. Yet despite all this, Chinese workers are mobilizing and demanding their rights. By one estimate a thousand people a day are engaged in industrial action in and around Shenzhen. At least that's what several labor rights organizations claim. These NGOs, based in Hong Kong, say the Chinese government secretly leaked the stats. Over Sichuan hot pot--assorted tripe, fish and tofu boiled in clove-spiced oil--I meet two grassroots leaders of one such wildcat labor struggle. Liang Sho Shen and Lu Wen Kang are migrant workers in the city of Guangxi, just north of the Vietnamese border. They worked for the Aluminum Corporation of China, a large state-owned firm. Liang is short with awkward features but has a strange charisma. Scars cover his left arm and neck, the legacy of molten aluminum that splashed him in an accident. He explains that migrant workers with no hukou were paid less than the legal minimum wage. "So, Lu and I started reading the labor law. We organized large meetings at the factory." Their only demand was equal pay for workers with and without hukou. "It is illegal not to pay the same rate. We were only following the law." He describes mass meetings that sound more like factory-floor rallies and work stoppages. The workers never gave their association a name; that would have been too much like creating an organization, which is illegal. And Liang insists that the workers were not "protesting" but just trying to communicate with their bosses. Protesting, of course, would also have been illegal. Apparently the bosses got the message--and decided to fire the organizers. As the beer flows, Liang dilates on workers' rights and unfolds the confused jumble of half-discarded ideas, taboos and impressions that act as tools for, and restraints upon, building a real trade union movement. "Ideology does not matter anymore. China is socialist, but we are capitalist now. We are not interested in politics. We just want rights for migrant workers. Like Mao during the revolution." Now that they have been fired, Liang, Lu and the other leaders are going to sue for wrongful termination. In a way, they're lucky they were only fired. On January 16 gangsters in Nanjing chopped off the hand of a migrant worker who demanded back wages. To help labor activists like Liang and Lu organize, there are about a dozen "worker centers" across Shenzhen. These are small NGOs that offer legal advice, worker education and a chance for laborers to network. All the centers have connections with foreign-funded NGOs in Hong Kong. Sometimes staff from the centers will visit factories and dormitories where independent organizing efforts are under way. These struggles typically revolve around immediate issues like unpaid wages. Rarely is the goal creation of a lasting, independent union. The most famous of these labor NGOs is the Dagongzhe Migrant Worker Center. Its leader is Huang Qingnan. In November 2007 Huang and others at the center were attacked by knife-wielding thugs. It was the second time the center had been trashed and the third time Huang had been assaulted. This time it was bad--the center was smashed up, several staff were injured and Huang was practically hacked to death, almost losing a leg. Reached by phone, Huang, just emerging from the last of his reconstructive surgeries, explained the situation as it now stands. "We think the local district government attacked us," he says. "They sent plainclothes members of the municipal enforcement department. They thought we would scare off investment. "In two or three months I probably won't be giving any interviews," says Huang. "We are starting to work with the official union, and they do not like interviews." Why would this underground labor hero work with the government? By any measure, the state-controlled All-China Federation of Trade Unions is not an independent workers' institution. At first glance it hardly seems able to leverage concessions from business. But in China it is the only legal way for workers to organize. Across the country, at least nineteen workers are in prison for attempting to organize independently, and a dozen others have just been released. Over the past two years the labor rights movement--the worker centers in Shenzhen and their NGO allies in Hong Kong--has come around to the idea of working with the ACFTU. And again, there are signs that elements of the central government are concerned about the rights of labor: from 2003 to 2007, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security helped migrant workers receive more than $6 billion in unpaid back wages. Most labor advocates think much more was actually owed, but it is an example of the central government siding with workers against local authorities and employers. Huang explains that the local branch of the ACFTU is "trying to open channels" to the district-level government that attacked him. He hopes this mediation will extend legitimacy and safety to the Dagongzhe Migrant Worker Center, which has moved its offices because of the November assault and more threats. Is this collaboration with the ACFTU capitulation or pragmatism? To understand better, I track down Han Dongfang. A legend in the Chinese labor scene with movie-star looks, Han was the main labor leader at Tiananmen Square in 1989. As a railway worker he had started an independent trade union, and it was he, more than anyone, who brought workers into the student protest. After the June 4 crackdown, when the army killed at least a few hundred people, Han was arrested and thrown in prison. Housed with tuberculosis patients, he contracted the disease and was eventually released to die at home. But the US labor movement took an interest in his case, and the Service Employees International Union managed to bring Han to New York, where he was treated and had one lung removed. In 1993, his health restored, Han tried to return to China but was denied re-entry. Since then he has worked from Hong Kong running a Western-funded NGO called the China Labour Bulletin. Han acts as an ally to China's underground trade union organizers, often filing lawsuits on their behalf in mainland courts. To my surprise, Han agrees with Huang Qingnan. "There is no possibility other than working within the ACFTU," says Han. "What we are urging the workers to do is to maintain their organization, to stay in the factories, but to bring in the state union." Is the goal to take over the ACFTU? Han, who speaks perfect English, says, "No, no. I think 'renovate' is a better word." There seems to be a growing consensus among labor activists both in China and Hong Kong: pragmatic cooperation with the ACFTU is the path forward. "We have to be realistic about the conditions, the repression, but also about the workers, how they think and view the world," says Han. "Most of them just want a little bit better life; they are busy with their families, working long hours." This strategy starts to make sense after a young law student urges me to consider the long view: "China has serious environmental problems. There is inequality and poverty. But on the other hand, China hasn't been this prosperous and stable and united in more than 100 years. People are poor, but there is no famine, there is no war. Wages and living standards are rising. In many ways these are very good times, and people know it." Copyright © 2008 The Nation ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2008 PUBLICATIONS+DRAFTS - UPDATE JULY Travel Report, 2008: 'Back in the (Ex-) USSR': http://zope2.netzwerkit.de/RusRepLatest.pdf E-compilation: 'Recovering Internationalism; Creating New Global Solidarity', http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/6439.html E-booklet: 'Prague 1968: "Workers of the World, Forgive Me!"', http://www.tni.org/archives/waterman/prague1968.pdf Chapter: 'A Union Internationalism for the 21stC', http://www.nottingham.ac. uk/shared/shared_scpolitics/documents/gwcprojectPapers/GLOBAL_WORKING_CLASS_FLYER.pdf Chapter. 'International Labour Studies in the UK', in "Work Organisation Labour and Globalisation", Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 180-200. http://www.analyticapublications.co.uk/ Chapter: 'Is the World Social Forum the Privileged Space for Reinventing Labour as a Global Social Movement?' in Blau+Karides (eds.) 'The World and US Social Forums...'. http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=210&pid=29086 _______________________________________________ Cross posted from DEBATE mailing list DEBATE at debate.kabissa.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080810/5ffec0fd/attachment-0001.html From divyarrs at gmail.com Wed Aug 13 16:10:55 2008 From: divyarrs at gmail.com (divya r) Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:10:55 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] A Lecture on "The Phantom of Globality and the Delirium of Excess" by Dr. Lata Mani on Monday the 25th of August 2008 at 5.30 pm. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <250ac9ab0808130340y27bdf3c8q4e38564df1f6f2a3@mail.gmail.com> Dear All, Environment Support Group Invites you to a lecture on "*The Phantom of Globality and the Delirium of Excess*" by Dr. Lata Mani on Monday the 25th of August 2008 at 5.30 pm. Abstract: This paper argues that neoliberal globalisation requires an ungrounded discourse of globality to mediate its disruptive effects. This discourse does not merely obscure the real relations between globalisation and the material realities it enters and remakes; it also offers a mode of affiliation to its chief beneficiaries who are required to feel global in cities like Bengaluru in conditions that are a far cry from what that term supposedly denotes. The paper offers an analysis of this discourse as also the contradictions and tensions that haunt it and threaten the will to power of a globalising agenda Please find enclosed the Invitation with contact details and route map to the ESG office. Looking forward to seeing you all, Warm Regards, Divya Ravindranath Environment Support Group -- "Only when the last tree has died And the last river has been poisoned And the last fish has been caught We will realize that we cant eat Money" http://captured-on-camera.blogspot.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080813/f32b2fd0/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Lata Mani talk_invite_130808.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 53059 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080813/f32b2fd0/attachment-0001.pdf From cugambetta at yahoo.com Tue Aug 19 22:12:34 2008 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:42:34 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fw: Lecture: 5th Annual PUKAR Lecture (9/5/08) Message-ID: <183350.98367.qm@web56805.mail.re3.yahoo.com> ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Wendy Plotkin To: H-URBAN at H-NET.MSU.EDU Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2008 12:23:22 AM Subject: Lecture: 5th Annual PUKAR Lecture (9/5/08) From: PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research) PUKAR Invites You To The 5th Annual PUKAR Lecture Public Interests: Class, Conflict and Collaboration In Greening Indian Cities Environment and Development concerns are at the heart of building and regulating roads in Indian cities today. As they try and reduce human and vehicular traffic, the ways in which many city planners and citizens' associations see and make new roads, produce particular kind of public space. How and why is the World-Class road made? The speakers at the Fifth Annual Pukar Lecture will present their work in Delhi and Chennai, as a way to think about and beyond the effects of these projects in several Indian cities today. Speakers - ------------ Amita Baviskar Associate Professor Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi, "Cows, Cars and Cycle-rickshaws Bougeois Environmentalism and the Battle for City Streets" ------ Karen Coelho Assistant Professor Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai "Walkers and Hawkers: Politics of Pavements in Chennai" ------ Moderator Nikhil Anand PUKAR Associate and PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology, Stanford University Friday, September 5, 2008 6:00-6:30 PM Tea, 6:30-8:30 PM Lecture Venue: Nehru Centre, Hall Of Culture,"Opposite Art Gallery", Dr. Annie Besant Road, Worli, Mumbai - 400 018 RSVP: By September 1, 2008 PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research) T: 91 22 6574 8152 E: pukar at pukar.org.in W: http://www.pukar.org.in - ------------------------- PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge, Action and Research) Website::www.pukar.org.in ( http://www.pukar.org.in ) PUKAR is an innovative and experimental initiative that aims to contribute to a global debate about urbanization and globalization. H-Urban: http://www.h-net.org/~urban/ (including logs & posting guidelines) Posting Address: h-urban at h-net.msu.edu / mailto:h-urban at h-net.msu.edu (Click) From cugambetta at yahoo.com Thu Aug 21 03:38:10 2008 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:08:10 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] hawking Fw: [HasiruUsiru] Jnnurm Message-ID: <39827.81674.qm@web56802.mail.re3.yahoo.com> of interest. -curt From: divyarrs To: hasiruusiru at yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 10:36:08 AM Subject: [HasiruUsiru] Jnnurm Dear All, Thought this might interest the group. Regards Divya Dear Madhu Kishwar, In Bangalore we are all very worried by the cooption of NGOs in the JNNURM schema. There are many complex reasons why many organisations and individual soppose this scheme, but amongst the most fundamental are the following: 1) that JNNURM undermines the objective of decentralisation as explicated in the Constitutional 73rd and 74th Amendment Acts, 2) bypasses elected bodies while empowering parastatal agencies essentially led by an unaccountable bureaucracy and 3) promotes a pattern of decentralised administration on the basis of participation by a legal citizenry, as opposed to inhabitants of an urban area. As you are well aware, hawkers are amongst the least "legal" in an urban setting governed largely by middle class aesthetics and perceptions and I really strain to see how, if ever, it can be possible for a sustained and legitimised role for such folks to play a role in shaping their lives, livelihoods and cities, within the JNNURM schema is led by middle class aspirations and guided by folks who posit administrative efficiency over parliamentary accountability systems. As I have experienced from years of campaigning against the Bangalore Mysore INfrastructure Corridor Project, agencies such as Janaagraha and Public Affairs Centre, who are spearheading the JNNURM process, aren't in the least interested in tackling bureaucratic nexus with corporate malafide interests against the public interest, even if this scam were right in their breath (in a sense). Instead they focus attention rather obtusely on citizen organisation for fiscal efficiency that essentially promotes the theory of administrative efficiency by targeting the "corrupt" politician (in general the bad guy on the scene). Not to suggest that this is not an important objective, but that if this kind of examination is within their capacity, it is but natural to have then asked the next logical question of why mega-scams in urban areas are allowed by bureaucracy? Bangalore has been quite messed up by such skewed views on urban governance (aptly aided by unaccountable institutions - that thankfully lost out - as the Bangalore Agenda Task Force) and as I scan the many initiatives such agencies have adopted, indeed there is the concern for the urban poor and perhaps hawkers, but within the framework of a legal citizen. My notion of our cities is that it essentially runs and lives with the hard labour of the illegal citizen to a larger proportion than is recognised by civic initiatives and JNNURM type schemes. I bring this deeper insight from our Bangalore experience to you to provide you with a sense of the type of rationale that founded the JNNURM process. We have rejected JNNURM, and wish more NGOs did so. And I hope you will take a stand against it, than to engage in a modification exercise. I believe we are much better off with schemes legitimised by local bodies than driven by a few in the Planning Commission, and operated upon by parastatal agencies who simply, without basis, believe private-public partnerships are more efficient. BMIC is one of many examples I could cite to negate this belief. More recently, when the National Hawkers Federation joined the hugely successful Peoples Forum Against ADB in Hyderabad in May, they cited many many cases where parastatal agencies had failed their interests repeatedly and uniformly across the country (more info on asianpeoplesforum. net ). They argued that legitimised participation should also involve the participation of migrant and non-tax paying "citizens" (perhaps including those who are not on electoral rolls), as only then can lives and livelihood issues form a basis for programmatic action. And they soundly rejected JNNURM as opposed to the framework of decentralised cooperation envisaged in the 74th Amendment. Sincerely Leo Saldanha PS: I am ccing this to some friends and associates who would be interested in this workshop. PPS: In so doing I have deleted your signature which came along, as it could be stolen and misused. Our new office address: -- Environment Support Group (R) 105, East End B Main Road Jayanagar 9th Block East Bangalore 560069. INDIA Telefax: 91-80-26341977/ 26531339/ 26534364 Email: esg at esgindia.org or esg at bgl.vsnl.net. in Web: www.esgindia. org Madhu Kishwar wrote: >/ />/ />/ Dear Friend, />/ We invite you to attend a Jansunwayi of street /vendors on 26th July 2006. In this Public Hearing 276 vendor unions from more than 60 cities and towns of India will present their experiences and grievances to a distinguished panel of government representatives and eminent citizens. Our purpose is to bring to the notice of policy makers at the highest levels, that there have been increased assaults on street traders due to the non-implementation of a liberalized licensing regime for street vendors as envisaged by the National Policy for Street Vendors. >/ />/ The Jansunwayi venue and schedule are as follows: />/ Date: July 26, 2006 />/ Time: 2:00 pm – 6:00 pm />/ Venue: Kamani Auditorium, Copernicus Marg, New /Delhi- 110 001 >/ />/ The Jansunwayi panel would be chaired by Shri Jaipal /Reddy, Hon'ble Minister, Urban Development Other panelists are: Mr. Ajay Maken, (Hon'ble Minister of State, Urban Development) , Kumari Selja (Hon'b;e Minister of State, Poverty Alleviation) , Mr. Farhad Suri, (Hon'ble Mayor of Delhi), Shri. Arjun Sengupta, (Chairman, Commission for Micro Enterprises) , Mr. Ramesh Chauhan, (Bisleri International) , Mr. Dilip Cherian, (Business consultant and columnist) Ms Swati Ramanathan, (Janaagraha, Bangalore), Smt. Renuka Vishwanathan, (Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development) , Prof. K.C. Sivaramakrishnan (Centre for Policy Research) Ms. Tavleen Singh, (writer and columnist), Mr. P.K. Malhotra, (Member Secretary, National Commission for Micro Enterprises) , Shri Praveen Khandelwal (President, Delhi Traders Association) , Mr.Rajeev Sethi, (Chairman, Asian Heritage Foundation) and Dr.Syeda Hameed, (Member, Planning Commission) >/ />/ Even though street vendors are an integral and /necessary part of urban economy, all over India hawkers are being deprived of their livelihoods through violent Clearance Operations in the name of beautification drives and modernization of our urban centers. In the last year at least three vendors in Patiala, Gwalior and Lukhnow have publicly immolated themselves to protest against the removal of entire clusters of vendors without providing them any alternative spaces to enable them to carry on with their trade. >/ />/ State governments are making space for big malls and /welcoming FDI and corporate sector investment in the retail sector. However, no comparable space is being created for hawker markets, which represent our swadeshi retail sector. If our policy makers and municipal bodies are not compelled to change their ways, we might witness an epidemic of suicides by distressed vendors, as is happening with debt-ridden farmers. >/ />/ Therefore, policy and law reforms for street vendors /needs to be undertaken with speed and determination. It needs to be made an integral part of the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission. >/ />/ We hope that you will consider this issue important /enough to attend the Jansunwayi and lend support to our efforts to bring security of livelihood and for the millions who depend on street vending as a source of survival for their families. >/ />/ For further information and RSVP please contact /Piyali Dasgupta, Perfect Relations, Telephone: 24374440 Mobile Number: 98100 91403 >/ />/ We look forward to your presence and support />/ />/ Sincerely, />/ />/ />/ Madhu Purnima Kiswhar />/ />/ Ps:For more information on this campaign we invite /you to visit our weDEFANGED.4> ----- Forwarded Message ----bsite: www.manushi- india.org __._,_.___ Messages in this topic () Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Recent ActivityVisit Your Group Y! Groups blog The place to go to stay informed on Groups news! Yahoo! Groups Familyographer Zone Join a group and share your pictures. All-Bran Day 10 Club on Yahoo! Groups Feel better with fiber. . __,_._,___ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080820/da66f120/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: divyarrs_vcf.DEFANGED-93 Type: application/defanged-93 Size: 313 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080820/da66f120/attachment-0001.bin From yanivbin at gmail.com Thu Aug 21 11:51:21 2008 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:51:21 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Right to Walk and Pollution in Hyd: Interesting read In-Reply-To: <48accddb.06876e0a.0946.4df7@mx.google.com> References: <0D171F890BA44BE981D03432C2AC1086@DFJLYL81> <48accddb.06876e0a.0946.4df7@mx.google.com> Message-ID: <86b8a7050808202321l6654b1bv3ca830e9040070c3@mail.gmail.com> http://www.epa.gov/ies/pdf/india/iesfinal_0405.pdf The study in the link given above is a well documented effort by a US agency and an Indian agency about the various facets of pollution control. Throughout the Study one of the major pollution reduction strategies suggested is Separation of Vulnerable Road Users (Provision of Footpath). I quote: "The intermixing of vehicles and pedestrian movements in the absence of footpaths results in reduced speeds and increase in number of accidents. The provision of footpaths and pedestrian crossings and can reduce these conflicts to a great extent and increase the average speed." The statistics given in support of the suggestion is interesting to check. In Hyderabad, the Right to Walk Foundation is trying to check with the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) as to whether any of these recommendations have been adopted? Needless to say that widened roads are replacing the existing footpaths because the authorities feel that widened roads are the solution for all traffic problems. We definitely need to take a few short term measures and a few long term strategies so that our city does not have the tag of the most polluted metro in the country. Kanthi Kannan The Right to Walk Foundation www.right2walk.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080821/2d3604ca/attachment.html From yanivbin at gmail.com Sun Aug 24 19:45:38 2008 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Sun, 24 Aug 2008 19:45:38 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Global Urban Competitiveness Report 2007-08 Message-ID: <86b8a7050808240715w41f4041atc572b7af1cbe1f0f@mail.gmail.com> www.gucp.org/admin/WebEdit/UploadFile/*Global*%20*Urban*%20*Competitiveness* %20*Report*.doc Global Urban Competitiveness Report (2007~2008) News Release Global Urban Competitiveness Report (2007~2008) was released on the Fifth International Forum on Urban Competitiveness on July 27th, 2008. The report was prepared by a team led by Dr. Ni Pengfei from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Prof. Peter Karl Kresl from Bucknell University of the United States, with input from a group of scholars from all around the world. Urban competitiveness is defined as a city's ability of creating more wealth in a faster and better manner than other cities in the world. The report measures the comprehensive competitiveness of 500 cities around the world in terms of 9 indexes, namely GDP, per capita GDP, per unit area GDP, labor productivity, number of multi-national enterprises settled in the city, number of patent applications, price advantage, economic growth rate and employment rate. The top 20 most competitive cities identified by the report are: *New York City**, **London**, **Tokyo**, **Paris**, **Washington D.C. **, **Los Angeles**, **Stockholm**, **Singapore**, **San Francisco**, **Chicago**, ** Toronto**, **Seoul**, **Boston**, **San Diego**, **Auckland (U.S.)**, ** Helsinki**, **Madrid**, **Vienna**, **Philadelphia**, **Houston**. *Hongkong, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing rank 26, 41, 64, and 66 respectively. Regions that perform best in terms of urban competitiveness and technological competitiveness are North America and Europe. Asian cities are becoming more and more competitive, especially those in China -- the top ten cities with the fastest economy growth are mainly from China. A further analysis of 9 indices show cities grow at different paces. This is true not only for cities in the world economic core areas, but also for those in the less developed areas. Some developed cities become even more competitive, but some lesser developed cities are catching up. The gap between the good performers and poor performers is widening. As a result, a city's global competitiveness is changing all the time -- everything is possible in the future. A city or a region has to keep working hard to avoid falling behind. The study finds that the urban competition in the world features a pattern of "oligarch monopolization". GDP of the 10 largest cities accounts for 27% of the total of all 500 cities. Global distribution of income is uneven, with Europe and North America being the highest while Africa the lowest; coastal areas being the highest and inland areas the lowest. *Table 1: Top 20 cities in terms of comprehensive competitiveness* Rank Nominal/ Real Exchange rate GDP GDP Per Capita GDP Per Square Kilometre Employment Rate Number of International Patents Labor Productivity Multinational Corporation Distribution Real Economic Growth Rate(for 5 years) Comprehensive Competitiveness 1 Yangon Tokyo Geneva New York Moscow Tokyo London New York Baotou New York 2 Harare Paris New York Geneva Tijuana Osaka New York London Hohhot London 3 Addis Ababa New York Oakland Victoria Baku Paris Detroit Hongkong Yantai Tokyo 4 Phnom Penh London Edinburgh Macao Acapulco London New Orleans Paris Dongguan Paris 5 Pyongyang Mexico City Washington Lyon Quanzhou New York Philadelphia Tokyo Baku Washington 6 Accra Los Angeles London San Francisco Oakland Seoul Boston Singapore Zhongshan Los Angeles 7 Kinshasa Hongkong Oslo Manchester Al Kuwayt Stuttgart Cleveland Beijing Huizhou Stockholm 8 Ho Chi Minh City Seoul Belfast San Juan Minsk San Diego Oslo Shanghai Weifang Singapore 9 Hanoi Sydney Basel Nottingham Shenzhen San Jose San Jose Moscow Wuhu San Francisco 10 Kampala Melbourne Zurich Kawasaki Huizhou Stockholm Baltimore Sydney Manaus Chicago 11 Conakry Chicago Helsinki Seoul Weihai Wilmington Stockholm Milan Weihai Toronto 12 Delhi Shanghai Paris London Dushanbe Houston Helsinki Madrid Hefei Seoul 13 Mumbai Yokohama Boston Milan Victoria Yokohama Oakland Frankfurt Doha Boston 14 Calcutta Singapore San Jose Nagoya Beijing Washington Buffalo Brussels Rizhao San Diego 15 Bangalore Berlin San Francisco Tokyo San Luis Potosi Palo Alto Houston Los Angeles Nanchang Oakland 16 Ahmedabad Toronto Stockholm Boston St. Petersburg Kawasaki Glasgow Toronto Veracruz Helsinki 17 Lucknow Madrid Nottingham Yokohama Dongguan San Francisco Chicago Taipei Omsk Madrid 18 Hyderabad Houston Bergen Wilmington Merida Chiba Nice Seoul Zibo Vienna 19 Jaipur Osaka Glasgow Bristol Morelia Berlin Atlanta Warsaw Shenzhen Philadelphia 20 Chennai Rome Copenhagen Honolulu Arlington Kyoto Marseille Washington Suzhou Houston The report indicates that there has been a change in economic centers in the world. Top 10 cities with the most multinational corporations are: *New York **, **London**, **Hong Kong**, Paris, **Tokyo**, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai. Moscow, Sydney, Milan, Madrid.* While cities in developed countries dominate, cities in emerging developing countries are also booming. Top 10 cities with the most patent applications are: *Tokyo**, Osaka, Paris, London, New York, Seoul, Stuttgart, San Diego, San Jose. Stockholm, Wilmington, Houston*.Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing rank at 33, 47, 56 respectively. The report looks at seven explanatory components of urban competitiveness, comprising 103 indexes in 150 cities. The components are categorized into: enterprise competitiveness, industrial structure, human resources, "hard" business environment, "soft" business environment, living environment, and global connection. The top 20 cities in each category are as follows: Enterprise competitiveness: *Seattle**, **Washington**, **Zurich**, **San Francisco**, **Berlin**, **Philadelphia**, **Dallas**, **The Hague**, **San Jose**, **Boston**, **Helsinki**, **Tokyo**, **Houston**, **Osaka**, ** Munich**, **Kyoto**, **San Diego**, **Minneapolis**, **Los Angeles**, ** Copenhagen**.* Industrial structure: *Tokyo**, **New York**, **London**, **Paris**, **Hong Kong**, **Chicago**, **Toronto**, **Taipei**, **Zurich**, **Singapore**, ** Atlanta**, **Madrid**, **Sydney**, **Washington**, **Bombay**, **Seoul**, ** Stockholm**, **Brussels**, **Dublin**, **Amsterdam**.* Competitiveness of human resources: *Paris**, **Tokyo**, **Sao Paulo**, ** Singapore**, **Prague**, **Bogota**, **Mexico City**, **Washington**, ** Seoul**, **The Hague**, **Moscow**, **Helsinki**, **Madrid**, **Liverpool**, **Stockholm**, **Beijing**, **San Jose**, **London**, **Rio Generaud**, ** Warsaw**.*** "Hard" business environment : *Tokyo**, **New York**, **Boston**, **San Francisco**, **Chicago**, **London**, **Washington**, **Philadelphia**, **San Jose**, **Seattle**, **Atlanta**, **Los Angeles**, **Houston**, **Yokohama**, **Kawasaki**, **St. Louis**, **Dallas**, **San Diego**, **Osaka**, **Kyoto** .* "Soft" business environment : *Singapore**, **Chicago**, **Hong Kong**, ** Boston**, **San Francisco**, **Los Angeles**, **Wellington**, **Geneva**, ** Seattle**, **Phoenix**, **Copenhagen**, **New York**, **Zurich**, **Las Vegas**, **San Jose**, **Auckland**, **Kawasaki**, **Stockholm**, **Sydney**, **Dublin**.*** Living environment: *Paris**, **Sydney**, **Lisbon**, **Melbourne**, ** Brisbane**, **Rome**, **Vienna**, **Milan**, **Athens**, **Auckland**, ** Barcelona**, **Geneva**, **Brussels**, **Wellington**, **Munich**, **Las Vegas**, **Madrid**, **Sacramento**, **Frankfurt**, **Budapest**.*** Global connection: *New York**, **London**, **Los Angeles**, **Paris**, ** Singapore**, **Amsterdam**, **Rotterdam**, **Tokyo**, **Chicago**, **Boston* *, **Dublin**, **Miami**, **Dubai**, **Shanghai**, **Hamburg**, ** Philadelphia**, **Hong Kong**, **Barcelona**, **Athens**, **Sydney.*** The analysis of the key elements that affect a city's competitiveness shows that for each of the seven components, the most essential elements are: For enterprise competitiveness - corporate management; for industrial structure -- industrial cluster; for human resources -- education; for hard business environment -- scientific and technological innovation; for soft business environment: strategic orientation; for living environment – quality of ecological environment; and for global connection – corporate connection. Case studies of 10 best performing cities --* London, Seoul, Singapore, Toronto, Vienna, Helsinki, Phoenix, Dubai, Shenzhen and Yangzhou *– are constructed to summarize best practice in innovation and sustainable development that can be refered by other cities . The report finds that good performers in the world are making the following efforts in order to compete with their global rivals: *1. **outlining development strategies and providing guidance in planning;* *2. **improving business environment to support small and medium-sized enterprises;* *3. **promoting industrial upgrade'; achieving the transformation of the city;* *4. **offering life-long education to citizens and encouraging the inflow of talents; * *5. **paying attention to the environment protection and pursuing sustainable development; * *6. **designing city brand and marketing the city; * *7. **building service-oriented government by implementing enterprise management model in city management;* *8. **fostering city's special characteristics and cultivating diversified cultures.* * * The report urges that with a growing urbanization, government should attach greater importance to the sustainable development of economy, society, environment and culture, promote urban competitiveness and build their cities into the nicest home for people. To achieve that goal, government officials have to deal with the following 10 issues: *1. **giving local government larger autonomy, and properly handling the relationship between central and local governments;* *2. **creating a better environment for businesses, and engaging market forces into government policy making;* *3. **maintaining local features while expanding communications with the world; providing life-long education to the public to facilitate industrial upgrade; promoting innovation and entrepreneurship;* *4. **balanced development of economic and social development; promoting integration of city and region;* *5. **developing multiple industries; * *6. **preserving and inheriting historical culture;* *7. **balanced development of business environment and residential environment. * * * -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/defanged-298 Size: 137710 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080824/eb644df9/attachment-0001.bin From elkamath at yahoo.com Sat Aug 30 10:26:59 2008 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:56:59 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Relocation without eviction in Joburg Message-ID: <886627.66683.qm@web53603.mail.re2.yahoo.com> The successful implementation of a Constitutional Court order on finding alternative housing for people about to be evicted from two "bad" inner city buildings shows what is possible when the rights of the poor are considered by the state, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (Cals) said on Wednesday. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_South%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20080827174307804C153163 'Bad building' relocated in Joburg August 27 2008 at 07:19PM The successful implementation of a Constitutional Court order on finding alternative housing for people about to be evicted from two "bad" inner city buildings shows what is possible when the rights of the poor are considered by the state, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (Cals) said on Wednesday. This follows the relocation, without eviction, of 450 people in terms of a court-ordered negotiation from San Jose in Johannesburg's Berea and 197 Main Street in the city, to new temporary accommodation. The City of Johannesburg had tried to evict them from the buildings on the grounds of health concerns after the owners apparently abandoned the building, but in March 2006, Johannesburg High Court judge Mahomed Jajbhay dismissed the city's eviction application because the residents had nowhere better to live. The matter went all the way to the Constitutional Court, which ordered the city and representatives of the residents to find a solution. Lawyers for the city worked with the residents and their legal representatives and two buildings - the MBV hospital in the central business district and the Old Perm building in Hillbrow - were identified, explained Cals' Stuart Wilson. The city provided extra fire extinguishers and other measures to address their health concerns, while preparations were made to adapt the buildings for their relocation. Needs and income assessments were undertaken, lease agreements were arranged and residents allocated units. The move was finally conducted between August 23 and 26, Wilson. The arrangement was endorsed by the Constitutional Court at the end of 2007. "This is a victory for the Bill of Rights and the rule of law. It is noteworthy that the residents of San Jose and 197 Main Street relocated freely and voluntarily," said Wilson. "Not one person was forcibly evicted from either of the properties. I hope that this spells the end of forced evictions in the name of inner city regeneration." Wilson explained that the deal was that they pay a deposit in instalments of R25, R50 and R75 for the first three months for occupation of the rooms with shared kitchen and ablution facilities, with rent kicking in in the fourth month for the residents, who are considered poor. Individuals with no familial connections will share rooms that will be partitioned for privacy. He said the contribution of the residents' committees was "invaluable" in taking into account the residents' needs before their move. The building will be managed by the City of Johannesburg, which will also arrange cleaning services, and a tenants committee will hold the building manager and residents to account. City of Johannesburg spokesperson Gabu Tugwana said the city was pleased with the end result, but stressed that their new accommodation was temporary and residents and the city of Johannesburg will negotiate permanent solutions which may include shelters, flats in other city-owned buildings, or rentals in the private sector. "I think it showed a good working relationship. It shows how conflict can be avoided and how communities can work together," he said. He said the court battles over the last three years often saw strong disagreements between the City of Johannesburg and the legal representatives of the property occupants. "Last weekend's move is therefore notable for its spirit of co-operation between the community and local government." He said considerable preparation went into it with everyone working closely throughout. "A lot of effort went into negotiating room allocations, lease agreements, house rules and the process of the move itself," he said. "But in the end it was worth it. We had a virtually trouble-free move." The city would assess whether the old buildings could be saved, or whether they should be demolished. - Sapa Cross posted from: DEBATE mailing list DEBATE at debate.kabissa.org http://lists.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/debate -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080829/510cf25a/attachment.html From elkamath at yahoo.com Sat Aug 30 16:43:41 2008 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 04:13:41 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Understanding the politics of credit rating Message-ID: <351877.20901.qm@web53612.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Municipal bonds and borrowing on the market depend heavily on good investment ratings. in turn these seem to depend on ability to raise revenues to certain 'target' levels. if 'targets' cannot be achieved, ratings fall. If this is really such a linear (and simplistic) process then credit rating companies could strongly influence many future decisions (capital investment, investment on O&M etc). When a Moody's downgrades a public utility's rating, for instance, where does the utility turn, as in the case of Escom in S Africa below? I have recently been fascinated by the notion, practice and politics of credit rating. All Indian cities, big and small, seem to want a rating these days in preparation for developing top class infrastructure. There are some processes in particular I'm not clear about: 1) How ratings are determined, monitored and revised especially given the difficulty of getting accounting, financial and other info from cities on an ongoing and current basis and then of actually understanding and interpreting how these systems work in practice. 2) The kind of influence ratings companies could have on service provision in cities and towns 3) To create ratings, what are the rationalizations, simplifications, and transformations that need to occur to create a language and systems that serve credit rating analysts? In this process of translation (linguistic and other), what gets left out? I'd appreciate any clarifications, ideas or sources of literature people can give me on understanding this better. cheers lalitha http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews/idUSLD59815420080813 S.Africa's Eskom to seek World Bank funds - paper Wed Aug 13, 2008 2:43am EDT JOHANNESBURG, Aug 13 (Reuters) - South Africa's Eskom [ESCJ.J] could seek to borrow up to $1 billion a year from the World Bank over five years after a ratings downgrade made it more difficult to borrow on financial markets, the Business Day newspaper reported. The newspaper said on Wednesday the power utility would turn to the World Bank due to tough global markets and after a Moody's downgrade, which will likely raise the cost of borrowing money it needs for a major upgrade. It quoted Eskom Finance Director Bongani Nqwababa as saying the state-owned company was "rechecking" its funding strategy and was likely to focus on borrowing locally from development agencies such as the World Bank and African Development Bank and from export credit agencies. Eskom officials could not immediately be reached for comment. A World Bank spokeswoman said the bank was in an "ongoing dialogue" with Eskom but declined further comment. Business Day did not provide a source for the $1 billion a year figure. Eskom is to spend billions of dollars to boost power capacity as demand outstrips supply in Africa's biggest economy. A wave of blackouts has cost South Africa billions of rand in lost productivity and unnerved foreign investors. Ratings agency Moody's said on Monday it had cut Eskom's local currency rating to Baa2 from A1 and cut the foreign currency rating to Baa2 from A2. The outlook for all ratings was negative. The agency blamed the four notch local currency downgrade on a deterioration of Eskom's stand-alone credit profile due to an aggressive capital investment programme and the fact Eskom was not able to raise tariffs as much as it had requested. The National Treasury has budgeted 60 billion rand ($7.72 billion) over the next three years to help Eskom pay for its 343 billion rand, 5-year expansion programme. (Writing by Rebecca Harrison; Editing by David Cowell) © Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved This article is cross-posted from Debate mailing list -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080830/ebdaa1ed/attachment.html