From rkamath.research at gmail.com Sun Feb 1 08:25:50 2009 From: rkamath.research at gmail.com (Ranjan Kamath) Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2009 08:25:50 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] 5C's _ Lok Sabha Candidate Petition _ For Good Governance In-Reply-To: References: <76b2b0f00901301832i149ee508yba405461103b3cd9@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <24b9c2a0901311855q45d13d65n93886eaf65de143f@mail.gmail.com> Dear Friends/ Citizens Recently we have experienced very traumatic times when our beloved country has been threatened both from beyond our borders and within. Troubling times are upon us with Indian fighting Indian on grounds of caste, creed, community, region, language and culture for political advantage of the few, putting at grave risk the many. Corporate India has lost its ethical moorings underwriting the mayhem created by the political class for the singular pursuit of profit. The sanctity of Parliament has been compromised by persons with criminal histories a mile long; unable to debate on issues of national importance, squandering crores of public money on un-conducted business in an unattended Lok Sabha. Thereafter, our representatives enjoy the highest levels of security afraid of the citizens they represent. Once again the Lok Sabha Elections are around the corner. >From 1.2 billion people we have to choose 542 persons with impeccable credentials to serve and provide leadership. While we have enjoyed a far from impressive track record doing so, till date, another opportunity is upon us to make the difference that we have been seeking for so very long. If we citizens have to bring the change then, we have to respect each other's political differences and arrive at a consensus seeking good governance from the political parties that represent us. Please consider this an appeal from one Indian citizen to another,setting aside religion, community, language caste etc. May I request you to read the contents of the petition below and then visit the link to sign it. In order that this petition may receive the widest possible circulation and signatures, may I request you to do the following: - Translate it into any and every Indian language. - If any individual, group or organisation wishes to replicate the petition in an Indian language and place an electronic version on the petition online website, please contact citizen.positive at gmail.com. This is only to ensure that there is no duplication of the petition in any one language. - For those with no limited or internet access, please take a print out of the petition and have the same signed, or thumb imprinted. - For those groups, organisations etc, obtaining signatures on a hard copy, please have a representative sign the petition, providing email address,valid registration number of organisation and number of signatures obtained. - For those groups of people with no internet access, the original hard copy may be sent to the, *Chief Election Commissioner*, *Election Commission of India*, with photcopies to each of the poltical parties marked *" 5C's Criteria For Lok Sabha Candidates"* in a language of your choice. - The electronic version of the petition will also be sent to the Election Commission of India, with copies to each of the poltical parties Let's make the difference... sincerely Ranjan Kamath ____________________________________________________________________________________________ * The petition title is: 5C's for Lok Sabha Candidates.* The petition URL is: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/5CLS09/petition.html The petition is directed to: Political Parties of India _ National, Regional, Local The start date is: .January 31st, 2009 The end date is: ..March 1, 2009 The petition statement says: To: The Political Parties of India (National, Regional and Local) *5C's for - Clean,Credible,Competent,**Corruption Free and Committed - Candidate* Dear Sirs/Madams, I am a citizen of India seeking good governance. By signing this petition I am committed to setting aside labels of caste, creed, community and ideological differences to unite with my fellow citizen in seeking good governance. Very soon candidates from your parties will be campaigning in my constituency, visit my village, my neighbourhood, my apartment block, and fold his/her hands at my doorstep, seeking from me my most valuable possession as a citizen – my vote. Please note that I wish to be treated with the respect deserved by a citizen of India - not a vote bank statistic. Therefore, my vote cannot be purchased with pouches of illicit liquor and Rs. 500 notes; it cannot be stolen at the polling booth and I will not squander it on false promises. I shall invest my vote in good governance alone. Before your candidates seek my vote, allow me to seek a commitment from all political parties to good governance for the greatest good of all. Also, expected from all Parties is a commitment to arrive at a consensus on all issues in the national interest – specifically national security - irrespective of ideology. The above commitments must reflect in the election manifesto of your parties. Party candidates representing your parties for the forthcoming Lok Sabha Parliamentary elections must comply with the following criteria: • Clean Image: free of any previous history or pending cases of criminal or economic nature in any court of law in this country. Declaration of assets and all sources of income. • Credibility: possessing the credentials to represent a constituency with either a record of service in the public domain and/or an expertise in a particular profession. • Competence: to represent the voice and concerns of his/her constituency on issues of local, national and international importance. Candidates selected in order to pander to vote banks on the basis of caste, creed, community or business interests shall be deemed unacceptable. • Corruption Free: with no history of corrupt practices or, the aiding and abettment of the same in his/her professional or public life. • Commitment to the principles of secularism enshrined in the Constitution of India In the event that the candidates nominated by your parties - for any constituency - fail to comply with the above criteria, citizens such as myself and fellow signatories of this petition shall enjoy the following choices: • To recommend a candidate from within your respective parties to represent your party for the constituency, complying with all of the above criteria. • To recommend to a political party the replacement of a standing representative who is in breach of the above criteria during his completed tenure as Member of Parliament. • Reserve the right to support an Independent candidate seeking election complying with the above criteria • Reserve the right to nominate an 'Aam Aadmi' candidate for each constituency, who will seek election as an independent enjoying the support of the signatories belonging to the same constituency. Rather than devaluing my vote by voting 'against' the candidates chosen by your political parties, I wish to cast my vote 'for' good governance. It is my endeavour to circulate this petition in every Indian language to every nook and corner of this country, by email and on paper, across the internet and on foot, to solicit thumbprint and signature. I beseech you not to ignore the pleas of this petition. I look forward to your co-operation and the opportunity to participate in bringing the change I wish to see in our great democracy. Signed ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- www.c-positive.in http://citizen-positive.blogspot.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090201/cbf1459a/attachment-0001.html From nithyas at gmail.com Thu Feb 5 13:32:47 2009 From: nithyas at gmail.com (Nithya Sambasivan) Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2009 00:02:47 -0800 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Urban studies references for Indian cities Message-ID: Hi all, Does anybody know of a body of literature on cities in India, their infrastructures, flows, power, boundaries, etc.? Or cities in general? I am new to urban studies, so any relevant literature would be great! Thanks! --Nithya -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090205/117393d9/attachment.html From samirfayaz at yahoo.com Thu Feb 5 15:17:40 2009 From: samirfayaz at yahoo.com (Samir Shaikh) Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2009 01:47:40 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Bangalore Parking Norms Message-ID: <566736.49167.qm@web32703.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Is anyone/ any organization looking into the new increased parking norms in Bangalore? Reduction in car parking requirements is imperative to discourage people from driving and in creating a sustainable and walkable urban environment. When the authorities should be looking at improving public transportation and alternative means of transportation, they have increased the parking requirements.   Does anyone have any details on this? Or is any organisation already on it?   Thanks.   Regards, Samir                   Add more friends to your messenger and enjoy! Go to http://messenger.yahoo.com/invite/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090205/ed573f9c/attachment.html From nithyas at gmail.com Fri Feb 6 00:55:43 2009 From: nithyas at gmail.com (Nithya Sambasivan) Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2009 11:25:43 -0800 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Urban studies references for Indian cities In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Thanks so much for all your responses. I realize that is horribly vague -- I am looking specifically for work on Bangalore slums or slums in general, for some field work that I am going to do. I'm more interested in the informational aspects of infrastructures, although I am eager to know about other aspects. Thanks so much. --Nithya 2009/2/5 Nithya Sambasivan > Hi all, > Does anybody know of a body of literature on cities in India, their > infrastructures, flows, power, boundaries, etc.? > Or cities in general? I am new to urban studies, so any relevant literature > would be great! > > > Thanks! > > --Nithya > -- PhD student Human Computer Interaction | Information and Computer Sciences University of California, Irvine http://www.ics.uci.edu/~nsambasi -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090205/cb0f1f80/attachment.html From Swetha.RaoDhananka at unil.ch Fri Feb 6 17:43:45 2009 From: Swetha.RaoDhananka at unil.ch (Swetha.RaoDhananka at unil.ch) Date: Fri, 06 Feb 2009 13:13:45 +0100 Subject: [Urbanstudy] request for information on mobilizing in Bangalore's slums Message-ID: <498c2979.369.4dd2.1195258008@unil.ch> Hello, I am Swetha, a PhD student from Switzerland, University of Lausanne. I would want to look at collective action/ mobilizing (autonomous and/or facilitated by NGO's)in Bangalore's slums under threat of forced eviction. So I would like to know specifically. - is forced eviction an issue at all in Bangalore? - Which other issue would be worth considering? - is there mobilization against forced eviction or another issue?, if yes, how? are the slum dwellers organzing themselves or do they have aid from third parties (as NGO's)? - In which slum is the mobilizing taking place? - what are the outcomes of the mobilizing? The idea would be to do a comparative study and examine the strategies of autonomous organizing and facilitated and compare the outcomes. To go about this I need to know more about the on the ground realities. Could you please help me, in getting these infos. Many thanks Swetha From leofsaldanha at gmail.com Fri Feb 6 19:37:18 2009 From: leofsaldanha at gmail.com (Leo Saldanha) Date: Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:37:18 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] request for information on mobilizing in Bangalore's slums In-Reply-To: <498c2979.369.4dd2.1195258008@unil.ch> References: <498c2979.369.4dd2.1195258008@unil.ch> Message-ID: <498C4416.5080705@gmail.com> Dear Swetha By and large no NGO or network working with issues of urban poor has specifically addressed the issue of dislocation due to forced eviction. The most major cause of such dislocation in Blore over the past several years is the BMIC issue, details of which are online at www.esgindia.org (not updated). The main mobilisation has been from project affected communities, especially Dalit Sangarsh Samithi. ESG has been involved in such actions over the period, and details could be accessed in our office. REgards Leo SAldanha Swetha.RaoDhananka at unil.ch wrote: > Hello, > > I am Swetha, a PhD student from Switzerland, University of > Lausanne. > > I would want to look at collective action/ mobilizing > (autonomous and/or facilitated by NGO's)in Bangalore's slums > under threat of forced eviction. > > So I would like to know specifically. > - is forced eviction an issue at all in Bangalore? > - Which other issue would be worth considering? > - is there mobilization against forced eviction or another > issue?, if yes, > how? are the slum dwellers organzing themselves or do they > have aid from third parties (as NGO's)? > - In which slum is the mobilizing taking place? > - what are the outcomes of the mobilizing? > > The idea would be to do a comparative study and examine the > strategies of autonomous organizing and facilitated and > compare the outcomes. > > To go about this I need to know more about the on the ground > realities. > Could you please help me, in getting these infos. > > Many thanks > Swetha > _______________________________________________ > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: leofsaldanha.vcf Type: text/x-vcard Size: 294 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090206/63153a1f/attachment.vcf From elkamath at yahoo.com Fri Feb 6 22:19:42 2009 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2009 08:49:42 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Driven down by debt, Dubai expats give new meaning to long-stay car park Message-ID: <953889.23118.qm@web53606.mail.re2.yahoo.com> February 5, 2009 Driven down by debt, Dubai expats give new meaning to long-stay car park Sonia Verma in Dubai For many expatriate workers in Dubai it was the ultimate symbol of their tax-free wealth: a luxurious car that few could have afforded on the money they earned at home. Now, faced with crippling debts as a result of their high living and Dubai's fading fortunes, many expatriates are abandoning their cars at the airport and fleeing home rather than risk jail for defaulting on loans. Police have found more than 3,000 cars outside Dubai's international airport in recent months. Most of the cars - four-wheel drives, saloons and "a few" Mercedes - had keys left in the ignition. Some had used-to-the-limit credit cards in the glove box. Others had notes of apology attached to the windscreen. "Every day we find more and more cars," said one senior airport security official, who did not want to be named. "Christmas was the worst - we found more than two dozen on a single day." When the market collapsed and the emirate's once-booming economy started to slow down, many expatriates were left owning several homes and unable to pay the mortgages without credit. "There were a lot of people living the high life, investing in real estate and a lifestyle they couldn't afford," one senior banker said. Under Sharia, which prevails in Dubai, the punishment for defaulting on a debt is severe. Bouncing a check, for example, is punishable with jail. Those who flee the emirate are known as skips. The abandoned cars underscore a worrying trend. Five years ago the Emir, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, embarked on an ambitious plan to transform Dubai into a hub for business and tourism. A building boom fuelled double-digit growth, with thousands of Westerners arriving every day, eager to cash in on the emirate's promise of easy living and wealth. Many Westerners invested in Dubai's skyrocketing real estate market, buying and reselling homes before building was even complete. But, as the recession took effect, property and financial companies made thousands of workers redundant and banks tightened lending. Construction companies have delayed or cancelled projects and tourism is slowing. There are increasing signs that the foreigners who once flocked to Dubai are leaving. "There is no way of tracking actual numbers, but the anecdotal evidence is overwhelming. Dubai is emptying out," said a Western diplomat. International schools are having to be flexible on fees as expatriate parents run out of cash. Louise, a single mother from Britain, said that her son's school had allowed her to pay a partial fee until she found a new job after her redundancy in December. "According to the headmaster, a lot of people had come into the school saying they had lost their jobs so the school was trying to be a bit more flexible," she said. Most of the emirate's banks are not affiliated with British financial institutions, so those who flee do not have to worry about creditors. Their abandoned cars are eventually sold off by the banks at weekly auctions. Those recently advertised include BMWs, Porsches and Mercedes. Simon Goldsmith, a spokesman for the British Embassy in Dubai, said that that there were approximately 100,000 Britons living in Dubai last year. However, the embassy has no way of tracking how many have fled back to the UK. "We've heard stories, but when somebody makes that kind of decision, they generally keep it to themselves," he said. Police have issued warrants against owners of the deserted cars. Those who return risk arrest at the airport. Heading home 3.62 million expatriates in Dubai 864,000 nationals 8% population decline predicted this year, as expatriates leave 1,500 visas cancelled every day in Dubai 62% of homes occupied by expatriates 60% fall in property values predicted 50% slump in the price of luxury apartments on Palm Jumeirah 25% reduction in luxury spending among UAE expatriates Sources: arabbusiness.com ; Times database Related Links . With no oil, desert economy is built on shifting sand . Dubai millionaires' beach becomes cesspool . Dubai lifts veil of secrecy to assuage fears Cross posted from Debate DEBATE at debate.kabissa.org ______________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090206/ffeb16b9/attachment-0001.html From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Sat Feb 7 06:48:30 2009 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant maringanti) Date: Sat, 7 Feb 2009 09:18:30 +0800 Subject: [Urbanstudy] question about global economic crisis and Indian cities Message-ID: <8d5106ed0902061718l64503812jd687f002875bf60a@mail.gmail.com> Dear all, It is perhaps too early to be asking these questions. But I will be grateful if anyone can give me pointers on where to look for answers. 1) What are the immediate consequences of the global economic crisis for new urban agendas in India ? 2) What are the anticipated long term consequences of the crisis for cities in India ? 3) Is anyone trying to answer such questions ? My first cut answers to the questions are as follows. 1) The collapse of the Satyam computers empire and consequently the Hyderabad Metro project is a fallout of the global crisis. It underscores the complexity and confounding nature of networks of finance capital, corporate governance, mega infrastructure projects, real estate politics and the problems of regulating these. The consequences are experienced right down to the household scale where Satyam employees are finding that banks are downscaling their credit card limits. Are there any other examples like this ? What has been the impact on JNNURM to date ? 2) In the long term, one of the areas that is going to be deeply influenced by the crisis is microfinance. Again as in big finance markets, things are murky and opaque, but I would guess that there will be a squeeze. In some cases this could lead to increased pressure on borrowers, in others there could be an adoption of microfinance models such as collective liability into credit agencies targeting the middle class. 3) I am aware of some debates among policy actors. But as on date I am not aware of any academic or activist initiatives. Any pointers here would be really helpful. Thanks anant From kalakamra at gmail.com Sun Feb 8 01:53:27 2009 From: kalakamra at gmail.com (shaina a) Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2009 01:53:27 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Announcement - Pad.ma Engagement In-Reply-To: <33eee40c0902071221u67de4bb4q65ddea2b3bc16a7d@mail.gmail.com> References: <33eee40c0902071221u67de4bb4q65ddea2b3bc16a7d@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <33eee40c0902071223n1287046dg515f84d68112ca13@mail.gmail.com> Dear all. > > We take great pleasure in inviting you to a day-long engagement with > Pad.ma. > > Day: > Monday, February, 16, 2009. > > Time: > 11:am to 7pm > > Location: > "Who Are We?" hall - inside the Discovery of India exhibition, > First Floor, > Nehru Centre, > Dr. Annie Besant Road, > Worli, Mumbai - 400018. > > Featuring: > Agaaz-Akanksha - Bombay > Ayisha Abraham - Bangalore > Desire Machine Collective - Guwahati/Shillong > GBGB Andolan (NAPM) - Bombay > Jan Gerber and Sebastian Lütgert - Berlin > Kaushik Bhaumik - Bombay > Lawrence Liang -Bangalore > Nida Ghouse - Bombay > Nilanjan Bhattarcharya - Calcutta > Priya Sen - Delhi > Ranu Ghosh - Calcutta > Sadanand Menon - Chennai > Sanjay Kak- Delhi > > > For the past year, we (Oil21 from Berlin, the Alternative Law Forum from > Bangalore, and three organisations from Bombay: Majlis, Point of View and > ChitraKarKhana/CAMP) have been working on various aspects of the online > archive, http://pad.ma. At the moment Pad.ma contains some 150 hours of > video and over 92,500 annotations (text entries). > > We see the Pad.ma archive as a way of opening up images, meanings and > effects that are present in video footage and its production process: > resources that conventions of editing and viewing have tended to suppress. > This in a way, is its traditional archiving function. > > At the same time, Pad.ma responds to the invitation and challenge of a > landscape beyond "the film" as the desired end-product of this medium, and > beyond youtube as its default online repository. Filmmakers and others are > already engaged in many forms of presentation, interpretation, and the > combination of images and ideas. Pad.ma suggests some specific new relations > between images and text, production and commentary, online and offline, > visibility and possibility. It proposes a few new ways to write about and > discuss documentary film practice, ways to base academic work on video > sources, and more generally, ways to still care for something that has > become "democratic". All of these claims, ofcourse, will be tested in > Pad.ma's new phase. > > In March this year, Pad.ma will be opened up to external contributions. As > a lead-up to this, we invited a number of "users": independent filmmakers, > artists, activists, researchers, students, scholars, and enthusiasts to > contribute their own material into pad.ma, or traverse the archive and > explore its ways. > > On the 16th of February, we are having a day-long series of presentations > and discussions with this group. We hope you will join us and take part, to > understand the activities over the past year, and to help us plan the road > ahead. > > Looking forwards. > with love, > pad.ma group > > > Who are we: > altlawforum.org > camputer.org > chitrakarkhana.net > majlisbombay.org > oil21.org > pointofview.org > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090208/969afd3f/attachment.html From yanivbin at gmail.com Sun Feb 8 11:55:50 2009 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2009 11:55:50 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Urban poverty in India not an overflow of rural poverty: India Urban Poverty report 2009 In-Reply-To: <86b8a7050902071050g38a5753cof69e15f6d6aa2b0d@mail.gmail.com> References: <86b8a7050902071050g38a5753cof69e15f6d6aa2b0d@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <86b8a7050902072225j199c1f1dt6755e858af0cb401@mail.gmail.com> http://www.banglalive.com/news/NonLeadNewsDetail83_2_2009.asp Urban poverty in India not an overflow of rural poverty: Report New Delhi, Feb 3 (UNI) The poverty in cities is not an overflow of the poverty in villages but has happened because of the faulty nature of urbanisation in India, says the country's first report on Urban Poverty released today. According to the study, an estimated 23.7 per cent of the urban population was living in slums amid squalor, crime, disease and tension, but not all slum dwellers exist below the poverty line. They have been marginalised because of the poor city planning and poorer urban land management and legislation. The urban poverty was not about only nutritional deficiency but deficiencies in the basic needs of housing water, sanitation, medical care, education, and opportunity for income generation. The 'India:Urban Poverty Report, 2009', which was released at a function by Union Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja, has been prepared with the support of the United Nations Development Programme(UNDP). ''It is not a report on the poor in urban areas but a report on the process of urbanisation in India keeping poverty at the centre of analysis,'' said renowned social scientists Amitabh Kundu, who has played a key role in bringing out the report. The report finds that urban workers were being increasingly pushed into informal sector, even as the space for informal economic activities was gradually shrinking. And within the informal sector, the profile of the work in urban areas has moved from casual employment(which is paid on regular basis) to self-employment, which carries its own uncertainties. So the urban poor was increasingly a street vendor, a rickshaw puller, a rag picker, a cleaner, a washerman, a load carrier or a domestic servant. The Report says while the these workers contributed to the growth of cities, there was growing trend to push the poor to the urban periphery, as they were increasingly seen as threat to civic existence. The study also focuses on a near absence of rights to land and livelihood, and the higher cost that the poor have to incur on transportation and travel to workplace. The Report deals in detail over the problem of small and medium cities. Quoting latest data from National Sample Survey(NSS), it says it would be dangerous to let the process of urbanisation and migration be centred on a few mega cities, ignoring smaller towns. The NSS data suggests that poverty in large cities, particularly in metros was rather low-at or below 10 per cent. Towns with less than 50,000 people, on the other hand, have much higher level of poverty and greater deprivation and the quality of their lives was almost similar to that in rural areas. This was happening because after globalisation, big cities were in a better position for resource mobilisation attracting funds from the global capital market and institutional sources. However, these avenues have not opened up for smaller towns. Introducing the report, the Minister admitted that the attempts made to tackle the problem of urban poverty and slums had not been very successful so far. Though the share of urban poor in urban population had fallen, because of the increasing pace of urbanisation and the changing face of urban employment, the absolute number of urban poor had risen. As many 81 million or 25.7 per cent people(2004-05) subsist in urban areas on incomes that are below the poverty line. Eighty per cent of their meagre income goes towards paying for food and energy, leaving very little for meeting the cost of living in an increasingly monetised society, she said. Boom marginalises India's urban poor [image: A woman sits outside a temple in the old quarters of Delhi] [image: Zoom] By Matthias Williams NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's booming economy has helped marginalise the growing number of impoverished city dwellers while lifting millions out of poverty, a government report said on Tuesday. The proportion of India's urban poor halved in the 30 years to 2005 but absolute numbers rose from 60 to 81 million during the period, said the report produced with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). "Would bringing out an urban poverty report put some shadow on the shining and glittering performance of India?" asked Professor Amitabh Kundu, the chief coordinator of the "India Urban Poverty Report 2009," which was released in New Delhi. "When you're watching the process of development, where you stand is very important -- whether you see the speed of the engine or you get overwhelmed by the smoke." The urban poor accounted for 25.7 percent of the country's total urban population in 2004-5 compared with 49.01 percent in 1973-74, said the report which defines urban poor as anyone living on less than 20 rupees (29 pence) a day. However, the rate of overall decline in poverty slowed from 0.82 percentage points per year from 1973-74 to 1983-84, to 0.61 percentage points from 1993-94 to 2004-05, the report said, revealing the flip-side of the country's economic success. India's economy grew at around 9 percent in each of the past three years. "Certain aspects of economic development and the changes associated strongly with the process of urbanisation in India have created a backwash effect for the poorer sections of the urban community," the report said. The "backwash" is also blamed on the decline or relocation of traditional industries such as textiles and steel. "The urban workers are increasingly being pushed into the informal sector," the report said. The report said such exclusion is pushing a large number of urban workers such as street vendors and rickshaw pullers further into poverty. Mass slum clearances have driven workers, such as those in domestic service, away from their place of work and pushed many into crime, the report said. "When the urban poor are pushed away from the place of his/her livelihood, the result is complete loss of livelihood. As a result, many of the poor are pushed into crime." (Editing by Krittivas Mukherjee and Sugita Katyal) ------------------------------ *URL of this story:* http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swissinfo.html?siteSect=105&sid=10282455&ty=ti -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090208/1e5aa166/attachment.html From yanivbin at gmail.com Mon Feb 9 09:53:40 2009 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2009 09:53:40 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fwd: Philippines President issues order encouraging people to walk, bike, etc Message-ID: <86b8a7050902082023r5cbc59cagfd7828f95b6aeba2@mail.gmail.com> fyi *President issues order encouraging people to walk, bike, and ride the train * By GENALYN KABILING http://www.mb.com.ph/MTNN20090209147669.html In an effort to reduce the country's carbon footprint and improve air quality, President Arroyo has ordered transport authorities to craft a national Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST) strategy for the country. In Administrative Order No. 254, the President said the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) must "reform" the transportation sector, particularly favoring non-motorized locomotion (walking and cycling) and mass transportation system in roads, to lessen consumption of fossil fuels. "The new paradigm in the movement of men and things must follow a simple principle: Those who have less in wheels must have more in road," the presidential order stated. Mrs. Arroyo directed the DoTC and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to convert roads using such principle to encourage more people to walk, bike, or catch the train rather than take their cars over short distances. The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) was designated to coordinate with local government units and guide them on the plan to transform transportation system to favor parties engaged in these environment-friendly transportation alternatives. The transportation department was recently designated head of a task group that would reduce the country's use of fossil fuels that contribute to global warming. In AO 254 signed last January 30, the President said the Task Group on Fossil Fuels headed by Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza must coordinate closely with government agencies, international organizations, and the private sector on the formulation of a national EST strategy. The President also ordered Malacanang and other cabinet offices to bring down by 50 percent the use of fossil fuels within two years. She empowered the task group on fossil fuels to review the conformity of current laws on provisions of EST, identify and prioritize programs on achieving EST, and establish institutional and technical infrastructure requirement to implement the program. Presidential Adviser on Climate Change Heherson Alvarez was also assigned to consult with consumer groups and conduct media campaigns to reduce consumption of fossil fuels. Environment Secretary Lito Atienza will sit as deputy head of the task group on fossil fuels with members, namely, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes, Public Works and Highways Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Alvarez, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr., Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno, Health Secretary Francisco Duque, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves, Trade Secretary Peter Favila, National Economic and Development Authority director general Ralph Recto. Other members are the chief executive officer and commissioner of the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board, chairman of the Metro Manila Development Authority, chairperson of the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, and representatives from academe and private sector. To support the operations of the Task Group, the President assigned DBM to set aside funds from the Special Vehicle Pollution Control Fund of the Motor Vehicle Users' Charges and other funding sources. The administrative order can be viewed at http://www.op.gov.ph/directives/AO254.pdf -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090209/98b76c3a/attachment-0001.html From carol.upadhya at gmail.com Tue Feb 10 12:54:05 2009 From: carol.upadhya at gmail.com (Carol Upadhya) Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 12:54:05 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fwd: Talk by Dr. Ashwin Sabapathy on 'Environmental Equity in Globalizing Cities of Developing countries' In-Reply-To: <3883d6930902092007i32947cf6pe9315aa9192e35f6@mail.gmail.com> References: <3883d6930902092007i32947cf6pe9315aa9192e35f6@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <4b84e4260902092324w6c775cc2o5cd07e9331407d7b@mail.gmail.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: NIAS-BANGALORE Date: Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 9:37 AM Subject: Talk by Dr. Ashwin Sabapathy on 'Environmental Equity in Globalizing Cities of Developing countries' To: hamsakalyani at yahoo.co.in, library at nias.iisc.ernet.in, narendar at nias.iisc.ernet.in, niasadmin at gmail.com, nramani at nias.iisc.ernet.in, pkshetty17 at gmail.com, rkasturi at nias.iisc.ernet.in, rnagappa at nias.iisc.ernet.in, sashikumar.n at gmail.com, sharada at nias.iisc.ernet.in, sharadasrinivasa at yahoo.com, sharasri at gmail.com, anibk , arvasavi , asinha , Balachandra Rao < balachandra_rao at rediffmail.com>, bvs , carol < carol at nias.iisc.ernet.in>, Carol Upadhya , dahuja < dahuja at nias.iisc.ernet.in>, "Dr. Perumal" , "EK Kutty, Head Admin NIAS" , Head - Administration < admin at nias.iisc.ernet.in>, kram , krangan < krangan at nias.iisc.ernet.in>, Lalitha Sundaresan < sundaresan.lalitha at gmail.com>, "Lt. Gen V J Sundaram" , Maithreyi R , "Malati Das Dr." < malatid at nias.iisc.ernet.in>, malavika kapur , manager , Meenakshisundaram SS < meenakshi54 at hotmail.com>, narasim , Narendar Pani , pgvaidya , phd scholar iisc , pks , pkshetty < pkshetty at nias.iisc.ernet.in>, Prof R Narasimha , "Prof. S. Ranganathan" , "Prof. Tim Poston" < tim at nias.iisc.ernet.in>, "Raghavan Srinath Prof." < srinath.raghavan at gmail.com>, Rajaram Nagappa , Sangeetha Menon , sarukkai , sarukkai1 , schandra , settar , shantham , sindhu , smenon , Sundaram Lt Gen V J * * Title : *Environmental Equity in Globalizing Cities of Developing countries**:* * An examination of work travel patterns and commuting exposures to air pollution in the 'New Economy' of Bangalore * * * Date: February 16, 2009 Time : 3.30 pm Place: Lecture Hall, National Institute of Advanced Studies Abstract: Since the liberalization of India's economy in 1991, the Information Technology (IT) sector has created Information-Age industrial landscapes in a global system of production around the metropolitan edges of Bangalore. Apart from the impact on urban form, there are indications that these developments are causing uneven growth patterns and socio-economic polarization. This study is a comparative cross sectional analysis of work travel patterns and exposures to carbon monoxide and particulate matter among and between employees of two firms representing a traditional manufacturing economy and the new service oriented IT economy of Bangalore city. The objectives of the study were to test several hypotheses developed within an environmental justice framework that commuting patterns are changing with income disparities brought on by globalizing economic activities and that this results in lower income groups of these firms experiencing disproportionate exposures to air pollutants in relation to their contributions to emissions of these pollutants. A questionnaire-based survey was administered among a sample of employees of these two firms to collect data on commuting. Exposures were measured among a sub-sample using personal samplers. A *hybrid* approach of exposure monitoring was adopted in this study. The analysis shows significant differences in travel patterns between employees of the two firms. Regression models show that there is a significant increase in travel cost for higher income employees of the multi-national IT firm, even though travel distance is not influenced by income. The reverse holds true for the traditional manufacturing firm - higher income significantly increases distance though income does not affect travel cost. Behavioural choice models also show that with increasing income IT employees are more likely to choose two-wheelers and cars for commuting while employees of the traditional manufacturing firm are more likely to choose walking and public buses over personalized modes. There is however, no evidence of lower income employees experiencing disproportionate commuting exposures in relation to per person commuting emissions compared to higher income employees. There is also no evidence of wider disparities among the IT firm compared to the traditional manufacturing firm. The findings do not support the environmental justice hypotheses that were laid out in the objectives -- N.I.A.S., I.I.Sc Campus Bangalore 560012 Ph: 2218 5000 Fax: 2218 5028 Email: niasoff at gmail.com -- Dr. Carol Upadhya Fellow, School of Social Sciences National Institute of Advanced Studies Indian Institute of Science Campus Bangalore 560012 India office: +91 80 2218 5000/ 5141 (ext) cell: +91(0) 97408 50141 carol at nias.iisc.ernet.in carol.upadhya at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090210/adcad7da/attachment.html From esg at esgindia.org Wed Feb 11 10:27:33 2009 From: esg at esgindia.org (ESGINDIA) Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:27:33 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Seeking applications from lawyers interested in Envrionmental Justice work Message-ID: <49925ABD.60103@esgindia.org> Dear All, Environment Support Group is a not for profit public interest research, training, advocacy and campaign inititiave focussing on environmental and social justice action. We are over a decade old and have worked with a variety of local communities in securing their fundamental rights and advancing deeply democratic forms of environmental decision making. More details about our work is at www.esgindia.org. A key component of our work is to advance Public Interest Litigation as part of our wider strategy of enhancing accountability of government and corporate organisations. Our approach to PIL is to ensure they are one of the many opportunities to secure justice and as a legal instrument is employed only tactically and sparingly. Much of our legal assistance is in helping communities utilise a range of non-litigative forums for resolution of their problems, and also in utilising administrative processes and procedures to advance the ends of environmental and social justice. As a part of this process, we are keen to employ lawyer/s who believe in public interest work. The skills demanded included excellent articulation and drafting of various letters, notices, briefs, petitions, affidavits, etc.. In addition a very good understanding of the procedures of the Court, good skills of legal research, capabilities of arguing and competence in addressing issues with inter-disciplinary inputs are required. _Excellent command over the English language is essential. A good grasp of Kannada is also essential and will be an added advantage._ Graduates in Law, with specialisation in Environmental Law at the Master's level will be preferred. Work experience, especially in litigation and alternative dispute resolution, will be an added advantage. We are typically looking for candidates in the age group of 23-28 to apply. The job will involve travelling to various courts in Karnataka, and other Southern states, and also occassional work in Delhi. Candidates must be willing to participate in ESG's training, campaign and research intiatives. If interested, please send your detailed CV to esg at esgindia.org. With best regards, Leo Saldanha Coordinator Environment Support Group, Bangalore www.esgindia.org -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: esg.vcf Type: text/x-vcard Size: 341 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090211/4a145bad/attachment.vcf From carol.upadhya at gmail.com Thu Feb 12 15:29:45 2009 From: carol.upadhya at gmail.com (Carol Upadhya) Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:29:45 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fwd: Review of Karnataka's VISION DOCUMENT 2020 In-Reply-To: <997853ce0902120153i518ba803h8d8a8db0785f1962@mail.gmail.com> References: <997853ce0902120153i518ba803h8d8a8db0785f1962@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <4b84e4260902120159p588e8264g252b4b4095fa8686@mail.gmail.com> Hello: I am forwarding this mail from Vasavi but without her attachment. You can write to her if you want to see her review. Carol +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++= Dear Friends, As many of you may know, the State Planning Board has put out the draft of the Karnataka Vision 2020 document on its website (karunadu.gov.in/spb). They have solicited reviews and I have just completed mine. There are many serious problems with the report. I request you to all send in your reviews to them and suggest that the State seriously reconsider what it is promoting as 'development'. Best wishes Vasavi -- Dr. Carol Upadhya Fellow, School of Social Sciences National Institute of Advanced Studies Indian Institute of Science Campus Bangalore 560012 India office: +91 80 2218 5000/ 5141 (ext) cell: +91(0) 97408 50141 carol at nias.iisc.ernet.in carol.upadhya at gmail.com From furrylogic at gmail.com Thu Feb 12 17:37:53 2009 From: furrylogic at gmail.com (ninad pandit) Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2009 07:07:53 -0500 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Swarna Andhra Pradesh Vision 2020 Message-ID: <9fdf03850902120407s47c57120rfd11ba9266523cd9@mail.gmail.com> Hello All, I am a Master's Student in Urban Planning currently writing my thesis on Bilateral Aid between UK and India. I was wondering if anyone would have a PDF of the Swarna Andhra Pradesh Vision 2020 document with them that they could share with me. This document, prepared by McKinsey in 1999, was available on www.andhrapradesh.com website during the Naidu government. However, with the change in government and the entire Clare Short saga in the House of Commons (The report was strongly criticized by Monbiot and others, but DfID and Clare Short denied any involvement in the project for a long time), the document is proving difficult to trace. The domain for the AP website I mentioned has since lapsed as well. I have one version of the report, but it has several missing sections, and is without an executive summary as well. If any reader has a copy that was acquired from the official website several years ago, or any idea where I can locate one, I would be grateful if they could share it with me. thanks, Ninad Pandit -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090212/d7d0823d/attachment-0001.html From stacey.hunter1 at googlemail.com Thu Feb 12 17:57:56 2009 From: stacey.hunter1 at googlemail.com (Stacey Hunter) Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:27:56 +0000 Subject: [Urbanstudy] =?utf-8?q?=28no_subject=29?= Message-ID: <1DA4FBF6-C5DB-4DD5-9489-4245A4F44966@sms.ed.ac.uk> Following pervious threads (2006!) regarding New Urbanism is the US, I wonder if anyone has articles or essays on the subject with regard to Bangalore or Mumbai? I am aware of the Platinum City - the development (by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ) who did Seaside and Celebration in Florida) of an urban neighborhood of 25,000 persons on approximately 90 acres in Koramangala, India. The Master Plan apparently builds on the objectives outlined in the Bangalore 1995 Comprehensive Development Plan. Context: I am interested in comparing the way that the architecture of new urbanism mimics vernacular architecture in a nostalgic aesthetic style from a trans -global perspective. Any information about new-urbanism in India would be welcomed as would any links to further sites of interest. bests stacey hunter MSc in The City Graduate School of Arts, Culture & Environment, The University of Edinburgh Alison House 12 Nicholson Square Edinburgh EH8 9DF United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)131 650 2305 Fax: +44 (0)131 651 4335 http://www.ace.ed.ac.uk/city -- The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090212/59be4ac4/attachment.html From jrajaya at yahoo.com Sat Feb 14 13:20:10 2009 From: jrajaya at yahoo.com (jayaraj s) Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2009 23:50:10 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Harvey at WSF In-Reply-To: <4b84e4260902120159p588e8264g252b4b4095fa8686@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <233707.48756.qm@web110809.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> Hi All   I am Jayaraj a PhD research student at London School of Economics and Political Science in Dept of Geography and Environment. I am a member of this yahoogroups for sometime now ; keenly following most interesting discussions and event notifications.    Further to Anant's previous email on financial crisis and the city- attached is David Harvey's talk at World Social Forum. Some of you might find it interesting. I agree that we should think the impact of financial crisis-and economic down turn on urban change  in India in a consistent way.   ps: Currently I am in Bangalore for a couple of months for my fieldwork, and would like to interact with others involved in urban studies-- on Bangalore or on other cities. Please reply and I would much appreciate it. My number is 09656168489.   best Jayaraj     Opening speech at the Urban Reform Tent, January 29, 2009, World Social Forum, Belem David Harvey I'm delighted to be here, but first of all I'd like to apologize for speaking English which is the language of international imperialism. I hope that what I have to say is sufficiently anti-imperialist that you people will forgive me. (applause) I am very grateful for this invitation because I learn a great deal from the social movements. I've come here to learn and to listen and therefore I am already finding this a great educational experience because as Karl Marx once put it there is always the big question of who will educate the educators. I have been working for some time on the idea of the Right to the City. I take it that Right to the City means the right of all of us to create cities that meet human needs, our needs. The right to the city is not the right to have – and I'll use an English expression – crumbs from the rich mans table. We should all have the same rights to further construct the different kinds of cities that we want to exist. The right to the city is not simply the right to what already exists in the city but the right to make the city into something radically different. When I look at history I see that cities have been managed by capital more than by people. So in this struggle for the right to the city there is going to be a struggle against capital. I want to talk a little bit now about the history of the relationship between capital and city building and ask the question: Why is it that capital manages to exercise so much rights over the city? And why is it that popular forces are relatively weak against that power? And I'd also like to talk about how, actually, the way capital works in cities is one of its weaknesses. So at this time I think the struggle for the right to the city is at the center of the struggle against capital. We have now - as you all know - a financial crisis of capitalism. If you look at recent history you will find that over the last 30 years there have been many financial crises. Somebody did a calculation and said that since 1970 there have been 378 financial crisis in the world. Between 1945 and 1970 there were only 56 financial crises. So capital has been producing many financial crises over the last 30 to 40 years. And what is interesting is that many of these financial crises have a basis in urbanization. At the end of the 1980s the Japanese economy crashed and it crashed around property and land speculation. In 1987 in the United States there was a huge crisis in which hundreds of banks went bankrupt and it was all about housing and property development speculation. In the 1970s there was a big, world-wide crises in property markets. And I could go on and on giving you examples of financial crises that are urban based. My guess is that half of the financial crises over the last 30 years are urban property based. The origins of this crisis in the United States came from something called the sub prime mortgage crises. I call this not a sub prime mortgage crisis but an urban crisis. This is what happened. In the 1990s there came about a problem of surplus money with nowhere to go. Capitalism is a system that always produces surpluses. You can think of it this way: the capitalist wakes up in the morning and he goes into the market with a certain amount of money and buys labor and means of production. He puts those elements to work and produces a commodity and sells it for more money than he began with. So at the end of the day the capitalist has more than he had at the beginning of the day. And the big question is what does he do with the more that he's picked up? Now if he were like you and me he would probably go out and have a good time and spend it. But capitalism is not like that. There are competitive forces that push him to reinvest part of his capital in new developments. In the history of capitalism there has been a 3% rate of growth since 1750. Now a 3% growth rate means that you have to find outlets for capital. So capitalism is always faced with what I call a capital surplus absorption problem. Where can I find a profitable outlet to apply my capital? Now back in 1750 the whole world was open for that question. And at that time the total value of the global economy was $135 billion in goods and services. By the time you get to 1950 there is $4 Trillion in circulation and you have to find outlets for 3% of $4 trillion. By the time you get to the year 2000 you have $42 trillion in circulation. Around now its probably $50 Trillion. In another 25 years at 3% rate of growth it will be $100 trillion. What this means is that there is an increasing difficulty in finding profitable outlets for the surplus capital. This situation can be presented in another way. When capitalism was essentially what was going on in Manchester and a few other places in the World, a 3% growth rate posed no problem. Now we have to put a 3% rate of growth on everything that is happening in China, East and Southeast Asia, Europe, much of Latin America and North America and there is a huge, huge problem. Now capitalists, when they have money, have a choice as to how they reinvest it. You can invest in new production. An argument for making the rich richer is that they will reinvest in production and that this will generate employment and a better standard of living for the people. But since 1970 they have invested less and less in new production. They have invested in buying assets, stock shares, property rights, intellectual property rights and of course property. So since 1970, more and more money has gone into financial assets and when the capitalist class starts buying assets the value of the assets increases. So they start to make money out of the increase in the value of their assets. So property prices go up and up and up. And this does not make for a better city it makes for a more expensive city. Furthermore, to the degree that they want to build condominiums and affluent housing they have to drive poor people off their land. They have to take away our right to the city. So that in New York City I find it very difficult to live in Manhattan, and I am a reasonably well paid professor. The mass of the population that actually works in the city cannot afford to live in the city because property prices have gone up and up and up and up. In other words the people's right to the city has been taken away. Sometimes it has been taken away through actions of the market, sometimes its been taken away by government action expelling people from where they live, sometimes it has been taken away by illegal means, violence, setting fire to a building. There was a period where one part of New York City had fire after fire after fire. So what this does is to create a situation where the rich can increasingly take over the whole domination of the city. And they have to do that because this is the only way they can use their surplus capital. And at some point however there is also the incentive for this process of city building to go down to the poorer people. The financial institutions lend to the property developers to get them to develop large areas of the city. You have the developers but then the problem is who do the developers sell their properties too? If working class incomes were increasing then maybe you could sell to the working class. But since the 1970s the policies of neoliberalism have been about wage repression. In the United States real wages haven't risen since 1970, so you have a situation where real wages are constant but property prices are going up. So where is the demand for the houses going to come from? The answer was you invite the working classes into the debt environment. And what we see is that household debt in the United States has gone from about $40,000 per household to over $120,000 per household in the last 20 years. The financial institutions knock on the doors of working class people and say, “we have a good deal for you. You borrow money from us and you can become a homeowner, and don't worry, if at some point you can't pay your debt the housing prices are going to go up so everything is fine”. So more and more low income people were bought into the debt environment. But then about two years ago property prices started to come down. The gap between what working class people could afford and what the debt was was too big. Suddenly you had a foreclosure wave going through many American cities. But as usually happens with something of this kind there is an uneven geographical development of that wave. The first wave hit very low income communities in many of the older cities in the United States. There is a wonderful map that you can see on the BBC website of the foreclosures in the city of Cleveland. And what you see is a dot map of the foreclosures that is highly concentrated in certain areas of he city. There is a map beside it which shows a distribution of the African American population, and the two maps correspond. What this means is that this was robbery of a low income African American population. This has been the biggest loss of assets for low income populations in the United States that there has ever been. 2 Million people have lost their homes. And at that very moment when that was happening the bonuses paid out on Wall street were coming to over $30 Billion - that is the extra money that is paid to the bankers for their work. So $30 billion ends up on Wall Street which has effectively been taken from low income neighborhoods. There is talk about this in the United States as a financial Katrina because as you remember Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans differentially and it was the low income black population that got left behind and many of them died. The rich protected their right to the city but the poor essentially lost theirs. In Florida, California and the American South West the pattern was different. It was very much out on the periphery of the cities. And there a lot of money was being lent to the building groups and the developers. They were building housing way out, 30 miles outside of Tuscon and Los Angeles and they couldn't find anybody to sell to so they actually went for a white population that did not like living near immigrants and blacks in the central cities. What this then led to was a situation that happened a year ago when the high gas prices made it very difficult for communities. Many of the people had difficulties paying their debt and so we find a foreclosure wave which is happening in the suburbs and is manly white in places like Florida, Arizona and California. Meanwhile what Wall Street had done is to take all of these risky mortgages and to package them in strange financial instruments. You take all of the mortgages from a particular place and put them into a pot and then sell shares of that pot to somebody else. The result is that the whole of the mortgage financial market has globalized. And you sell pieces of ownership to mortgages to people in Norway or Germany or the Gulf or whatever. Everybody was told that these mortgages and these financial instruments were as safe as houses. They turned out not to be safe and we then had the big crisis which keeps going and going and going. My argument is that if this crisis is basically a crisis of urbanization then the solution should be urbanization of a different sort and this is where the struggle for the right to the city becomes crucial because we have the opportunity to do something different. But I am often asked if this crisis is the end of neoliberalism.. My answer is “no” if you look at what is being proposed in Washington and London. One of the basic principles that was set up in the 1970s is that state power should protect financial institutions at all costs. And there is a conflict between the well being of financial institutions and the well being of people you chose the well being of the financial institutions. This is the principle that was worked out in New York City in the mid 1970s, and was first defined internationally in Mexico it threatened to go bankrupt in 1982. If Mexico had gone bankrupt it would have destroyed the New York investment banks. So the United States Treasury and the International Monetary Fund combined to help Mexico not go bankrupt. In other words they lent the money to Mexico to pay off the New York bankers. But in so doing they mandated austerity for the Mexican population. In other words they protected the banks and destroyed the people. This has been the standard practice in the International Monetary Fund ever since. Now if you look at the response to the crisis in the United States and Britain, what they have done in effect is to bail out the banks. $700 billion to the banks in the United States. They have done nothing whatsoever to protect the homeowners who have lost their houses. So it is the same principal that we are seeing at work – protect the financial institutions and fuck the people. What we should have done is to take the $700 billion and create an urban redevelopment bank to save all of those neighborhoods that were being destroyed and reconstruct cities more out of popular demand. Interestingly if we had done that then a lot of the crisis would have disappeared because there would be no foreclosed mortgages. Meanwhile we need to organize an anti-eviction movement and we have seen some of that going on in Boston and some other cities. But at this historical moment in the United States there is a sense that popular mobilization is restricted because the election of Obama was a priority. Many people hope that Obama will do something different, unfortunately his economic advisors are exactly those who organized this whole problem in the first place. I doubt that Obama will be as progressive as Lula. You will have to wait a little bit before I think social movements will begin to go in motion. We need a national movement of Urban Reform like you have here. We need to build a militancy in the way that you have done here. We need in fact to begin to exercise our right to the city. And at some point we'll have to reverse this whole way in which the financial institutions are given priority over us. We have to ask the question what is more important, the value of the banks or the value of humanity. The banking system should serve the people, not live off the people. And the only way in which at some point we are really going to be able to exert the right to the city is that we have to take command of the capitalist surplus absorption problem. We have to socialize the capital surplus. We have to use it to meet social needs . We have to get out of the problem of 3% accumulation forever. We are now at a point where 3% growth rate forever is going to exert such tremendous environmental costs, its going to exert tremendous pressure on social situations that we are going to go from one financial crisis to another. If we come out of this financial crisis in the way they want there will be another financial crisis 5 years from now. So its come to the point when its no longer a matter of accepting what Margaret Thatcher said, that “there is no alternative”, and we say that there has to be an alternative. There has to be an alternative to capitalism in general. And we can begin to approach that alternative by perceiving the right to the city as a popular and international demand and I hope that we can all join together in that mission. Thank you very much. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090213/9cf8fbcb/attachment-0001.html From yanivbin at gmail.com Tue Feb 17 13:05:17 2009 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:05:17 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Campaign launched to challenge the -Conspiracy of Silence- on Agrarian Crisis In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <86b8a7050902162335n2a0dd796u11fbd708bfad8951@mail.gmail.com> FYI ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: pankajmedha Date: Mon, Feb 16, 2009 at 11:07 AM Subject: [invites] Campaign launched to challenge the -Conspiracy of Silence- on Agrarian Crisis To: invites at yahoogroups.com India - smugly described to be the largest democracy on earth is witnessing increasing demise of villages and the hapless people who happen to be farmers. With villages getting desolate and farmers compelled to opt for noose to terminate life that has become an everyday disgrace, contemporary India presents a picture of orchestrated silences on the part of government and corporate governors. Today the only largesse farmers get are a death trap, debt, and utter callousness at the hands of our much-hyped democratic establishment. One must be alert to the fact that the destruction of farmer is an organized act. All through the six decades of independence our democratic dispensation has persistently kept silent on the fundamental questions determining the fate of the huge populace dependent on agriculture and allied activities. In its quest to oust agriculture from national economy, the establishment has continuously resorted to manufacture false definitions. Thus the category of 'common man' has been emptied of a farmer eventually leading to the exit of farming as a source and mode of livelihood. One would do well to look at how farming has fared in the over all national economy. In 1947,according to official statistics, agriculture and allied activities accounted for 67 percent in the gross domestic product, however down the years it has plummeted to as low as 17 percent in 2008. The phenomenon is that agricultural production during this period has become fourfold. Thus valuation of this fourfold produce has nose-dived to one-fourth in relative terms or one-sixteenth in absolute terms. How could one explain the anomaly that while the actual agricultural production has witnessed a four-fold increase, the price, to the contrary, has registered as much fall? The fall in prices of agricultural produces has to do with the definition that governments have thrust upon it. It could not have been otherwise unless the governments struck at the very root of it by fixing up Agriculture as an unskilled vocation. It is precisely this enlightened conspiracy that has forced agriculture into a strait jacket. Thus it is not surprising to see that a farmer can earn only 30-35 rupees a day while as per the sixth pay commission fourth class government employee gets away with as much as 400 rupees for a day's remuneration. And instead of any concern about this gross injustice, the vision document of UPA and NDA, projects with pride the share of agriculture and allied sectors at 6% in 2020. The share of `Top 10' in the country that stands at 60 % in 2008 and may easily move up to 70% in 2020. But now the farmers cannot take the drubbing anymore. No matter if political parties refuse to take cognizance of the plight of them. Farmers have woken up to the challenge: now they will interrogate leaders and send directives to political parties from Village Assemblies. This is the sentiment that has emerged from a two-day meeting of National Campaign for Eradication of Inequality. Deliberating various issues that might be included in a common programme of action, the participants focused on issues like 1. Why work in agriculture has been classified as unskilled? This is a direct attack on farmers' honour! 2. Why two principles for wage determination are in vogue simultaneously, one for the organized sector, that is one person should be able to earn for the family, the other for the unorganised where no such stipulation is honoured? This duality is a fraud on the people of India. 3. Why compound interest is levied on agricultural credit in total contravention of the spirit of the law in that regard? How were the doors of law courts slammed against farmers in 1984? 4. How is force and even provisions of civil jail used in recovery of credit that abrogates fundamental right of the victim? The meeting ended on a consensus on a three-point action plan that would comprise the following, to begin with, that may grow with experience of struggle in the field and people's response there to. Firstly, Village Assemblies in the country would issue directions to the Parliament and State Assemblies to amend the relevant laws. This may be the beginning of people-centric structural change that has been ignored and now totally dropped by the rulers. Secondly, the realization of dues based on levy of compound interest would be directly resisted. The banks shall be told that this blasphemy is not acceptable to the people. The 1984 amendment in Companies Act may be challenged in the Court of Law. Lastly, all political parties may be called upon to place before the people their formal stand on these four vital issues. The Campaign is of the view that the entry of members of those political parties who may fail to place their position, positive or negative, on these issues before the people may be politely requested not to enter the village as members of political parties. They are welcome as ordinary citizens minus their politics. This will be a modest beginning towards fulfilling the constitutional commitment and national resolve to establish an egalitarian social order. National Campaign for Eradication of Inequality has been initiated by a number of people's movement groups. The launch meeting organized at Sahyog Pustak Kutir, New Delhi was attended by some of these groups including Bharat Jan Andolan, Kisani Pratishtha Manch, Jan Adhikar Sanghtan, Jan Mukti Sangthan, Bagar Kisan Majdoor Sangthan, Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, Construction Workers Panchayat Sangam, Jagaran Jan Viaks Samiti, Parivartan etc. Meeting was presided by former Commissioner of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and convener of Bharat Jan Anlodan Dr. B D Sharma. Dr. B D Sharma Gian Singh Pankaj Pushkar (011-24353997) (09416358044) (09868984442) __._,_.___ __,_._,___ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090217/09fd6e86/attachment.html From yanivbin at gmail.com Wed Feb 18 09:55:53 2009 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:55:53 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Delhi Cabinet rejects Community Bill Message-ID: <86b8a7050902172025p651d2c31wf7b4357d878749a9@mail.gmail.com> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Delhi/Cabinet-rejects-Community-Bill/articleshow/4139055.cms Cabinet rejects Community Bill 17 Feb 2009, 0721 hrs IST, TNN NEW DELHI: The allocation under JNNURM may be increased but Delhi's chances of getting its share of the pie seems to be getting more bleak by the day. On Monday the cabinet rejected MCD's proposal to enact the Nagar Raj Bill Community Participation Law on the plea that the state government was already plagued by multiplicity of authorities and the Area Sabhas would only "add to the confusion''. Interestingly, the law is one of the mandatory reforms that all states have to undertake to access JNNURM funds. It makes provisions for people's participation in the decision making process through the constitution of Area Sabhas which will be one step below the ward committees. Chief minister Sheila Dikshit said: "We are already plagued by multiplicity of authorities. It was only recently that the number of municipal wards was increased to enhance public participation. It does not make sense to add one more tier in it. Moreover, MCD is not even a planning body. That is the DDA's mandate. Why does it want to make such a law?'' It was ahead of the 2007 municipal elections that the numbers of municipal wards in the city was increased from 134 to 272. A minister added that the government has sent back the proposal for the law with its own note clarifying its stand. Asked how the law could be bypassed when it was essential to get the JNNURM funds, Dikshit said: "We will write to the Union government and explain.'' The cabinet moreover reiterated the stand that instead of the MCD pushing for a public participation law, it is in the interest of governance that the home ministry should give up its control over MCD in favour of the Delhi government. "This would simplify matters,'' said a senior government official. While Pranab Mukherjee in his budget speech on Monday increased the JNNURM allocation for mass rapid transit systems (BRT) to 11,842 crore, Delhi though among the intended beneficiaries has never got any JNNURM funds because of its lax approach to the reforms. UD secretary M Ramachandran said: "It is difficult to comment offhand on whether the decision of the state cabinet on the community participation law would impact Delhi's chances of getting the funds, but it is certain that reform commitments will have to be met by all states as per the laid milestones.'' -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090218/7b3a42d6/attachment.html From cheryl.deutsch at gmail.com Thu Feb 19 16:00:26 2009 From: cheryl.deutsch at gmail.com (Cheryl Deutsch) Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:00:26 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] CFP: Women In and Beyond the Global Message-ID: <189301e00902190230o6efa3ec0neabd1ad998bb62d4@mail.gmail.com> Hey all, Please find CFP below (and attached) for this new and innovative online journal. This is a feminist activist-scholar network that I was involved in creating. For more about what we do, check out our blog here: http://www.womeninandbeyond.org/ Would be great to have some submissions and/or blog posts about women in Indian cities, if any of you are interested. Feel free to contact me with queries. Best, Cheryl CALL FOR PAPERS Women In and Beyond the Global Open Access Feminist Journal (WIBG) www.wibgjournal.org WIBG, an open access, peer reviewed, online feminist journal publishes and supports work from around the globe that analyzes and works to change the status and conditions of women in global households, prisons, and cities. We publish interdisciplinary analyses, creative expressions (including film and music), reports from the field, interviews, and artworks that are committed to feminist praxis, understood as analysis and action focusing on the empowerment of women. Our aim to break down barriers between academic and activist knowledge by fueling activist scholarship; encouraging collective reflection on feminist movement-building; and documenting and preserving these activities through digital media—a critical tool in the global struggles for women's equality and the promotion of democracy. Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following kinds of topics/questions: - Women in the global prison - Domestic work - Urbanization and women - Popular education and women - Feminization of poverty - Feminist movement building - Women and the global food crisis - Survival economies and women - Feminist analysis of global cities, prisons, and households - How globalization changes lives, including sexual lives, of women - Globalization's affective economies - Reproductive labor(s) WIBG accepts submissions on a rolling basis. We invite submissions by July 1 st for our inaugural issue. Send submissions to Dan Moshenberg, dmoshenberg at gmail.com or Cathy Eisenhower cathy.eisenhower at gmail.com. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090219/52cd2fc1/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: CALL FOR PAPERS WIBG journal.doc Type: application/msword Size: 44544 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090219/52cd2fc1/attachment-0001.doc From jjinisha at hotmail.com Mon Feb 16 15:26:31 2009 From: jjinisha at hotmail.com (jinisha jain) Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2009 09:56:31 +0000 Subject: [Urbanstudy] FW: Listen to 28 Global Speakers in Architecture & Design at 361 Degree : The Conferences in Mumbai from 20th-22nd March, 2009 In-Reply-To: <000c01c98e81$3d6081b0$1301a8c0@iab3> References: <000c01c98e81$3d6081b0$1301a8c0@iab3> Message-ID: FYI 361° : The Conferences is India's first and only comprehensive international architecture & design forum for Ideation, Inspiration and Interaction which will have 28 global speakers in design addressing the delegates on 5 inspiring & exciting tracks . Special Attraction is exhibition of projects of Fumihiko Maki , Maki & Associates, Japan Tracks at this year Conferences: Track- 1 : 361° : Icons Moderated by: B V Doshi The "ICONS" session is a showcase of those masters who are responsible for some of the world’s architectural benchmarks. Track- 2 : 361° : Focus- Earth MattersModerated by: Parul Zaveri & Nimish Patel Earth Matters brings you a face-to-face with individuals of global repute who have made a significant impact on the minds of professionals and consumers alike about environment. Track- 3 : 361° : Imagining Urban FuturesModerated by: Rahul Mehrotra Imagining Urban Futures is a singular platform that unites global thinkers to delve on emerging urban developments. Track- 4 : 361° : RebelsModerated by: Prem Chandavarkar Path-breakers who explored and experimented in their domain of expertise to be harbingers of change in the world of AEC Industry Track- 5 : 361° : FoundationsThe forerunners in architecture, cinema, theatre will come together to share their experiences and their journey. The session will be moderated by eminent personalities from the respective field. Speakers include : Track- 1: 361° : IconsFumihiko Maki, Principal Architect, Maki & Associates, JapanRicardo Legorreta, Principal Architect, Legorreta + Legorreta, Mexico Dr. Joachim Krausse , Scholar, Curator, Author, Filmmaker, on Buckminister Fuller 10B.V.Doshi, Principal Architect , Vastu Shilp Foundation, IndiaTrack- 2 : 361° : Focus- Earth Matters Bill Gething, Partner, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, UK Dr. John Francis, Director, The Planet Walker, USA Prof. Herbert Girardet, Director, World Future Council Initiative , Germany Dave Hampton, Carboncoach,UK Nimish Patel, Founder and Principal Architect ,Abhikram, IndiaParul Zaveri, Founder and Principal Architect ,Abhikram, IndiaAshok Lall, Ashok Lall Architects , India Dr. Ajanta Sen Pooviah, IDC, Indian Institute of Technology, India Track- 3 : 361° : Imagining Urban FuturesLawrence Barth, Senior Lecturer , Graduate School of Architectural Association , UKYves Cabannes, Latin American & Caribbean Expert , UN Urban Management Programme, DPU, UCL, UK Teddy Cruz, Estudio Teddy Cruz, USA Alfredo Brillembourg, Founder and Principal Architect , Urban Think Tank, UKRahul Mehrotra, Principal Architect , RMA, IndiaAromar Ravi, Founding Director, TARU, IndiaTrack- 4 : 361° : RebelsHani Rashid, Founder & Principal Architect, Asymptote Architecture, USA Till Nowak, Digital Artist, Framebox, GermanyAlejandro Zaera Polo, Co Founder & Principal Architect, Foreign Office Architects, UKLinnaea Tillett, Founder & Principal Architect, Tillett Lighting Design Inc, USA Paul Andreu, Principal Architect, Paul Andreu Architecte, FrancePrem Chandavarkar, Principal Architect, C&T, India Track- 5 : 361° : FoundationsTrack- Theatre : Panel Discussion by team of experts moderated by Atul Kumar , The Company Theatre Track- Cinema : Panel Discussion by team of experts moderated by Rajat Nagpal, Director Track- Architecture, To be announed soon . For more details you can log on to http://www.iabforum.com/361TheConferences.htmlOnline registration can be made at above link.We look forward to welcoming you as esteemed delegate . The detailed schedule and registration form is attached . Warm Regards Sunita LumbaIndian Architect & Builder(IA&B)Jasubhai Media Pvt Ltd.3rd Floor, Taj Building,210, Dr D.N. Road,Fort, Mumbai-400001.Tel- 91-22-42136412 / 11Fax- 91- 22- 42136401Email- sunita_lumba at jasubhai.comWebsite-www.iabforum.com, www.jasubhai.com, www.aecworldexpo.com _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live™: E-mail. Chat. Share. Get more ways to connect. http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t2_allup_explore_022009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090216/2cbeb882/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Registration Form.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 46665 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090216/2cbeb882/attachment-0001.pdf -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 361 Degree Conference.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 300799 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090216/2cbeb882/attachment-0001.jpg From developmentlinks at gmail.com Sat Feb 14 15:26:09 2009 From: developmentlinks at gmail.com (Development Links Foundation) Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2009 01:56:09 -0800 Subject: [Urbanstudy] FW: InfoDev- Newsletter by Development Links Foundation Introductory issue Message-ID: Dear Friends and Well Wishers We at Development Links Foundation are happy to send you a copy of introductory issue of our bi-weekly Newsletter "InfoDev". You can also download a copy of this newsletter from our website by clicking the following URL: http://developmentlinks.org.in/downloads/newsletters/InfoDev10th%20Feb%202009.pdf This newsletter is a small effort from our team to inform the readers about various socio-political, environmental and socio-economical developments in the world around them and their impacts. We hope you would enjoy reading the same. Thanking you Thanking you Arshad Rizvi & Development Links Team *Basement, 20 Masihgarh* *Sukhdev Vihar* *Delhi110025* *Telefax: +91-11-41320294* *M: 09868612627* *Email: arshadrizvi at developmentlinks.org.in* -- Sincerely Arshad Rizvi Vice President and Director Development Links Foundation -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090214/be76aa5e/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: InfoDev10th Feb 2009.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 90460 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090214/be76aa5e/attachment-0001.pdf From elkamath at yahoo.com Fri Feb 20 09:27:43 2009 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:57:43 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Conf on urban street vending: economic resistance, integration or marginalization Message-ID: <434276.19309.qm@web53610.mail.re2.yahoo.com> FYI Call for Papers Workshop for Junior Researchers and Ph.D. Candidates Transatlantic Graduate Research Program Berlin – New York Urban Street Vending: Economic Resistance, Integration or Marginalization? May 15 -16 , 2009, Technical University Berlin Urban street vending exists in various distributive forms and includes numerous products: From the mobile selling of food from bikes or trays, more stabile vending practices from carts, to street table vending, for instance, of books, CDs and apparel. The selling practices in public space vary tremendously depending on the particular country, city and neighborhood, affecting the sellers’ networks, labor conditions and daily routines. The vendors’ backgrounds are generally equally diverse. In Germany and the United States, the two focus countries of our workshop, the majority either have a migrant background and/or are people of color. In a public space that is on the one hand designed to promote effective traffic and on the other hand aimed at regulated consumption and leisure, street vendors are frequently faced with harassment and restrictions. In contrast, there are also policies that facilitate access to street entrepreneurialism for certain groups (such as war veterans) – whereby street vending can also be understood as a depository for those marginalized from the formal labor market. As an alternative source for neighborhood-specific goods or an economic entry that does not require extensive capital, urban street selling can also foster social mobility and local economies. In response to the so-far scarce research on street vending, this workshop – considering the underlying dimensions of race, class and gender – will focus on its economic conceptualizations, urban visions, cultural potentials and political challenges. In a comparative approach, focusing on the German and American metropolis – but also considering selling modes in other cities worldwide – we seek to problematize street vending as a practice that is at the same time tolerated, restricted and promoted by public policies. In particular, we would like to examine: ∗ The economic framing of street vending: Can we talk about an informal or illicit economy? Moreover, do notions like ethnic and niche economy apply to the urban selling practices? 1/3 ∗ Contemporary and past vending practices: What are the daily routines of economic survival, labor and entrepreneurship of different vendors in different cities? How have products, vendors and clients changed in certain vending locations over the past decades? ∗ The conflict between street vending as a practice of resistance, integration or marginalization: Does street vending furthers the democratization of public space as well as alternative economies, or does it lead to an exclusion and stigmatization of particular groups? ∗ The use of public space: What can be considered an appropriate use of public space for vending purposes, both from the entrepreneur’s and authorities’ perceptive? ∗ To what extent does street selling in American cities contributes to building alternative public spheres (for instance a black public sphere in Harlem)? ∗ The relations between vending locations, types of products, clients and vendors: To what extent can vending spaces and economies be considered as racialized? ∗ Representations of street economics: How do different kinds of media deal with the topic? What kind of images of the profession and its people are mediated? Keynotes The workshop offers internationally perspectives on street economics research, featuring keynote presentations by Mark Naison, Professor of History and African-American Studies at Fordham University, New York, USA Alfonso Morales, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, USA Kathrin Wildner, Professor of Economic Geography at Viadrina University, Frankfurt/Oder, Germany Peter Herrle, Professor of Architecture and Urban Development at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany (to be confirmed) Workshop format The workshop aims at facilitating intense dialogue and exchange among doctoral students and junior scholars interested in the research on street economics. This will be reflected in the amount of time in the program allocated to discussion in a constructive, supportive setting. Participants have the opportunity to give 15-minute presentations introducing their research with subsequent discussion or to participate as a discussant without giving a presentation. There will be a maximum of 20 participants. Workshop language is English. 2/3 3/3 Papers We invite papers presenting theoretical and/or empirical contributions from a variety of methodological and disciplinary perspectives on street economics, regarding one of the questions above. Submitted papers should ∗ be directly related to one of the major topics of the workshop ∗ present current research Papers should not exceed 2,500 words and include an abstract of no more than 300 words. It is expected that selected papers will be published in some form after the workshop. Application for presenters / discussants Presenters: Please submit a short CV and a less than 300 word proposal in English for your presentation. Discussants: Please submit a short description of your background and motivation to participate in the workshop. Please send in applications no later than 22nd February 2009 to the following address: streetvending at metropolitanstudies.de. Applicants will be notified via e-mail by mid-March 2009. The conference will take place at the Center for Metropolitan Studies, Technical University Berlin, Ernst-Reuter-Platz 7, 10587 Berlin, Germany. The conference language is English. The participation fee will be 15 €. Unfortunately, the Center for Metropolitan Studies cannot offer travel grants. Travel and accommodation expenses are responsibility of individual participants. However, we can support you with recommendations and information regarding your stay in Berlin. Organizers Noa Ha (Noa.Ha at Metropolitanstudies.de) and Kristina Graaff (Kristina.Graaff at Metropolitanstudies.de), Center for Metropolitan Studies, Berlin, Germany -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090219/ac8f1ff2/attachment.html From geetanjoy at isec.ac.in Sat Feb 21 09:35:00 2009 From: geetanjoy at isec.ac.in (geetanjoy at isec.ac.in) Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:35:00 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Karnataka HC sets up green Bench Message-ID: <16c5b6c7b36c2f678e2bd3ef22152bba.squirrel@www.isec.ac.in> Karnataka HC sets up green Bench 21 Feb 2009, Times of India BANGALORE: A green Bench: this could well be a first in the legal history of the country. Providing legal space for green concerns, the Karnataka, high court, in a notification on Thursday (February 19), announced the setting up of the Bench to exclusively deal with environmental issues. The high court which receives plenty of appeals on issues like mining, water, forest and lakes, can now speedily dispose of cases as they will directly come under the purview of this special bench headed by Chief Justice P D Dinakaran. The bench will hold its sitting in the principal bench at Bangalore. The cases pertaining to the environment pending in other circuit Benches of the HC will also be transferred to this Bench. The notification says that all the writ petitions having bearing with pollution control, will now be dealt by this Bench. (Just to clarify that this is not the only High Court which has set up a Green Bench as Times of India reports. There are four other High Courts where you have a designated Green Bench such as Tamil Nadu,West Bengal, Maharashtra and Gujarat. If anybody has information about other High Court's Green Bench, please pass the information). Thanks, Geetanjoy Sahu Postdoctoral Research Associate Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Environment and Development (CISED) ISEC Campus, Nagarbhavi Post Bangalore-560072 Phone no.: 9980300573 From anujbhuwania at gmail.com Sun Feb 22 13:01:23 2009 From: anujbhuwania at gmail.com (Anuj Bhuwania) Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2009 13:01:23 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] =?windows-1252?q?Taking_the_Slum_Out_of_=91Slumdog?= =?windows-1252?q?=92?= Message-ID: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/21/opinion/21srivastava.html?_r=2 Taking the Slum Out of 'Slumdog' By MATIAS ECHANOVE and RAHUL SRIVASTAVA Published: February 21, 2009 IT does not take much to galvanize protest against a movie in India, but few thought the word "slumdog" would cause so much anger — especially as hundreds of Bollywood titles translate into much worse slurs. We had to pay attention, though, when friends from Mumbai's sprawling Dharavi area joined hands with those demonstrating against the Oscar-nominated film "Slumdog Millionaire." The Indian media widely reported that the outrage was over the word "dog." But what we heard from Manju Keny, a college student living in Dharavi, was something else. She was upset at the word "slum." We could not agree more. In truth, the movie never claims to be a portrait of Dharavi, though some of the most spectacular scenes were shot there, including depictions of the anti-Muslim riots of 1992. The director, Danny Boyle, constructs a cinematic slum out of many pockets around Mumbai. The opening sequence has children playing near the airport, being chased by policemen and ending up — in a moment of pure Hollywood magic — a few miles away in Dharavi. The imagery represents what most middle-class residents of Mumbai (and now all over the world) imagine Dharavi to be. The urban legend of its squalor has taken root because few Mumbaikers have ever been there — just as most Manhattanites still avoid stepping anywhere near Bedford-Stuyvesant, that beautiful neighborhood in Brooklyn. Times may have changed since the mid-'70s, when the community worker Barry Stein described Bed-Stuy as the "largest ghetto in the country," but prejudices die hard, in New York and India. Its depiction as a slum does little justice to the reality of Dharavi. Well over a million "eyes on the street," to use Jane Jacobs's phrase, keep Dharavi perhaps safer than most American cities. Yet Dharavi's extreme population density doesn't translate into oppressiveness. The crowd is efficiently absorbed by the thousands of tiny streets branching off bustling commercial arteries. Also, you won't be chased by beggars or see hopeless people loitering — Dharavi is probably the most active and lively part of an incredibly industrious city. People have learned to respond in creative ways to the indifference of the state — including having set up a highly functional recycling industry that serves the whole city. Dharavi is all about such resourcefulness. Over 60 years ago, it started off as a small village in the marshlands and grew, with no government support, to become a million-dollar economic miracle providing food to Mumbai and exporting crafts and manufactured goods to places as far away as Sweden. No master plan, urban design, zoning ordinance, construction law or expert knowledge can claim any stake in the prosperity of Dharavi. It was built entirely by successive waves of immigrants fleeing rural poverty, political oppression and natural disasters. They have created a place that is far from perfect but has proved to be amazingly resilient and able to upgrade itself. In the words of Bhau Korde, a social worker who lives there, "Dharavi is an economic success story that the world must pay attention to during these times of global depression." Understanding such a place solely by the generic term "slum" ignores its complexity and dynamism. Dharavi's messy appearance is nothing but an expression of intense social and economic processes at work. Most homes double as work spaces: when morning comes, mattresses are folded, and tens of thousands of units form a decentralized production network rivaling the most ruthless of Chinese sweatshops in efficiency. Mixed-use habitats have often shaped urban histories. Look at large parts of Tokyo. Its low-rise, high-density mixed-use cityscape and intricate street network have emerged through a similar Dharaviesque logic. The only difference is that people's involvement in local development in Tokyo was seen as legitimate. Building on what exists, rather than clearing it for redevelopment, may preserve not only the character of a place but also its economic vibrancy. In Dharavi, it would allow all residents to leverage their most precious asset: a place to live and work. Slum-rehabilitation projects in Mumbai often end up creating new slums elsewhere as they increase real-estate value in the places they redevelop. In the movie, when the protagonists return to their childhood haunts, they find that multistoried apartments have replaced the old decrepit structures, giving the impression of urban mobility and transformation. What the camera doesn't reveal are the enormous shantytowns hidden behind those glistening towers, waiting to be redeveloped all over again. In many ways, Dharavi is the ultimate user-generated city. Each of its 80-plus neighborhoods has been incrementally developed by generations of residents updating their shelters and businesses according to needs and means. As Ramesh Misra, a lawyer and lifelong resident, puts it: "We have always improved Dharavi by ourselves. All we want is permission and support to keep doing it. Is that asking for too much?" Matias Echanove and Rahul Srivastava are affiliated with the research collective Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research. From colin.mcfarlane at durham.ac.uk Tue Feb 24 15:15:32 2009 From: colin.mcfarlane at durham.ac.uk (Colin McFarlane) Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 09:45:32 -0000 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Postdoctoral Research Associate: Mumbai In-Reply-To: AAAAAO1cOi2EYMFAlLOdmA3i6GgHAAMRc2J4iTZGl8ULOyZsu4oAAANgmlYAAAMRc2J4iTZGl8ULOyZsu4oAAANgzbQAAA== References: AAAAAO1cOi2EYMFAlLOdmA3i6GgHAAMRc2J4iTZGl8ULOyZsu4oAAANgmlYAAAMRc2J4iTZGl8ULOyZsu4oAAANgzbQAAA== Message-ID: <031173627889364697C50B3B266CBB8A03E5F34F@GEOGMAIL.geog.ad.dur.ac.uk> Dear All, Please find below information on a Postdoctoral Research Associate position in Geography at Durham University, UK, entitled 'Everyday Sanitation: A Comparative Study of Mumbai's Informal Settlements'. Details are available on this link - could I ask you to circulate this amongst anyone you think could be interested? http://www.jobs.ac.uk/jobs/YB908/Post_Doctoral_Research_Associate/. The 'Further Details' link provides both more information on the post and a link to applying online (deadline March 27th): The Department of Geography at the Durham University wishes to appoint a full-time post-doctoral Research Associate to work on a research project 'Everyday Sanitation: A Comparative Study of Mumbai's Informal Settlements' awarded by the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council). The 'Everyday Sanitation' project is awarded to Dr Colin McFarlane and Prof Steve Graham through the ESRC's standard research grants scheme. The research will involve ethnographic research within informal settlements in Mumbai examining people's experiences and perceptions of urban sanitation, and will produce both practical and theoretical outputs. 'Everyday Sanitation' will significantly advance social scientific knowledge of how people receive, cope with, and perceive different sanitation conditions, and will lead to potential applied outputs. A Research Steering Group based in Mumbai consisting of state officials, non-governmental organization staff, and academics will facilitate the Research Assistant's access to information and contacts, and will provide occasional additional advice. We are looking for a Research Assistant who is interested in the questions of urban informality, development, and poverty, broadly conceived, that this project addresses. The successful candidate will have a Masters in a related research area, and will preferably have been awarded (or recently submitted) a PhD on a related research area. Disciplinary areas of particular relevance may include (but are not limited to) geography, urban planning, development, anthropology and public health. The successful candidate will be based in the Department of Geography at Durham University which was founded in 1928 and remains among the strongest in the country. It was ranked joint first nationally in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise and the quality of our teaching has been rated 'excellent' by an external Quality Assessment Audit. Recognition extends to the most recent university guides, which consistently place the Department of Geography at Durham in the top flight. The successful candidate will also join the department's internationally-recognized Centre for the Study of Cities and Regions (CSCR) research group and the Social Well-Being and Spatial Justice (SWSJ) research cluster. The appointee will be responsible for: critical appraisal of academic and policy literatures; planning and conducting 9 months of ethnographic fieldwork within informal settlements in Mumbai, India, including semi-structured interviews, non-participant observations and focus group interviews; managing their individual research budget whilst in the field; dissemination of research findings, including drafting of co-authored publications with the Principal and Co-Investigator and presentation of conference papers. With thanks and best wishes Colin. Dr. Colin McFarlane Lecturer in Human Geography Department of Geography Durham University South Road Durham DH1 3LE Tel: +44 (0)191 334 1959 Fax: +44 (0)191 334 1801 Email: colin.mcfarlane at durham.ac.uk Web: www.dur.ac.uk/geography/research/researchclusters/?mode=staff&id=4570 CSCR: www.dur.ac.uk/cscr -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090224/14da6e4a/attachment-0001.html From elkamath at yahoo.com Tue Feb 24 18:23:47 2009 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 04:53:47 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] china fears tremors as jobs vanish Message-ID: <530263.48487.qm@web53604.mail.re2.yahoo.com> NY Times, February 23, 2009 China Fears Tremors as Jobs Vanish From Coast By ANDREW JACOBS TANJIA, China — Tan Tianying might not look like a troublemaker, but she and millions of other workers like her have government leaders fretting about the country’s stability. A shy, delicately built seamstress who makes aprons and coveralls in Guangzhou, Ms. Tan, 24, is part of an army of migrants, 130 million strong, who have flocked to cities for jobs, but whose prospects for continued employment are increasingly dim. As the global economic crisis deepens and the demand for Chinese exports slackens, manufacturing jobs in the Pearl River Delta and all along the once-booming coast are disappearing at a stunning pace. Over the last few months, more than 20 million migrant workers have been cast into the ranks of the unemployed, depriving impoverished towns like Tanjia of the much-needed income the workers sent home. Since December, hundreds of employees at Ms. Tan’s uniform factory have been let go and wages have been cut by a third as orders from the United States dry up. Last year, 2,400 factories in and around Guangzhou closed. “I hope I still have a job,” Ms. Tan said this month, a few hours before leaving Tanjia on a train for the 10-hour ride that in recent years has carried away most of the town’s working-age residents. “I don’t want to go back to being a poor farmer.” In a nation obsessed with social harmony, the well-being of China’s mobile work force has become the top priority for a government that has long seen its fortunes tied to those of the country’s 800 million rural dwellers. Mao’s revolution, after all, was fueled by embittered peasants, and it has not gone unnoticed in Beijing that decades of heady growth has fed a widening gap between urban residents and those who live in the rural interior. Although the government has not released updated information about rural unrest, officials have been strategizing about how best to keep large protests and riots from spreading, should the dispossessed grow unruly. This week, more than 3,000 public security directors from across the country are gathering in the capital to learn how to neutralize rallies and strikes before they blossom into so-called mass incidents. At a meeting of the Chinese cabinet last month, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao told government leaders they should prepare for rough times ahead. “The country’s employment situation is extremely grim,” he said. To ameliorate the hardship of idled migrants, the central government has announced a series of initiatives that include vocational training, an expansion of rural health care and crop subsidies to ensure that those who return to the land can make a living despite a slump in agricultural prices. A $585 billion stimulus package introduced in November, much of it weighted toward labor-intensive construction projects, is also expected to absorb some of the newly unemployed. But here in Tanjia and the surrounding countryside of northeast Hunan Province, most people say they have yet to see much in the way of government largess. As the Lunar New Year came to an end two weeks ago, many migrants who had come home for the holidays were anxious to return south, where they hoped to reclaim their old jobs or find new ones. About 40 percent of the town’s 2,000 residents work outside the province, and their remittances have been a lifeline for the children and elderly people who remain behind. Much of that money has been spent on motorcycles, high school educations and new homes, some trimmed with Corinthian columns and ceramic dragons, that are the brick-and-mortar embodiment of this newfound prosperity. Ms. Tan’s family home, like those of her neighbors, is a work in progress. Since 2005, her mother, father and brother, all migrant workers, have poured $15,000 into the two-story house, but they still need another $9,000 for appliances, fixtures and a white tiled facade. “We have no savings,” said her father, Tan Liangsheng, 52, a haggard-looking man who recently lost his job as a construction worker. “All our hard work and bitterness is invested in this house.” Just behind him sat the mud-brick structure where the extended Tan clan used to live. In some ways, Tanjia’s residents are luckier than most. Unlike China’s drought-stricken north and its chronically arid west, Hunan Province is well watered and blessed with a temperate climate that allows farmers to grow food much of the year. Still, with 64 million people squeezed into an area the size of Kansas, most people make do with tiny plots of land; in Tanjia the average size is a tenth of an acre. “Maybe we won’t starve to death, but life would become very difficult if everyone came back home,” said Long Feng, 29, who works at a car repair shop in Shenzhen, not far from the Hong Kong border. In Zhuzhou, the nearest city of any consequence, government officials are not very concerned about a surge in jobless farmers. Chen Shuxian, director of Zhuzhou’s employment center, said he was more worried about the 3.7 million people who live in and around his booming city, people who have become accustomed to relatively comfortable lives. “They have cellphone bills and rent to pay,” he said. “The migrants don’t have a lot of expectations and they can always fall back on the land and their family savings.” Such sentiments are common in China, where rural laborers are often viewed as dime-a-dozen workhorses capable of enduring enormous hardship. He Xuefeng, a professor who studies rural life, said many manufacturers believed the most productive workers were spent by 40. “As workers grow older, they can’t work as quickly or accurately, so they are naturally eliminated,” said Mr. He, who teaches at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Hubei Province. “The financial crisis will simply speed up that process by two or three years and force them to return home earlier.” After he lost his job at a glass factory in Guangzhou last year, Wang Liming, 39, returned to his home on the outskirts of Zhuzhou thinking he could find employment nearby. Things turned more dire after his wife lost her job just before the New Year festivities. He acknowledged that there was work to be had in Zhuzhou, but those jobs generally pay less than $100 a month, about half what a semiskilled assembly line position pays in Guangzhou. “I couldn’t even afford my daughter’s high school tuition on that kind of salary,” he said, standing in front of his home, a half-built box that lacks windows and a refrigerator. A gruff, chain-smoking man, Mr. Wang said the decade he spent in the south turned him off to agricultural work. “I hate working the fields,” he said as his neighbors nodded in agreement. Even if they wanted to, he and his fellow villagers could not make much money from farming: some of the best patches of land have been swallowed up by Zhuzhou’s rapid development, including the electric generating plant that dominates the view from his front door. Asked about his plans, Mr. Wang shook his head, glanced at his cellphone and said he was waiting for friends in Guangzhou to call him about a job. “I’m just hoping the phone rings,” he said. Zhang Jing contributed research. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090224/a0d06e6e/attachment.html From mashalngo at gmail.com Wed Feb 25 18:30:33 2009 From: mashalngo at gmail.com (Sharad Mahajan) Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:30:33 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Postdoctoral Research Associate: Mumbai In-Reply-To: <031173627889364697C50B3B266CBB8A03E5F34F@GEOGMAIL.geog.ad.dur.ac.uk> References: <031173627889364697C50B3B266CBB8A03E5F34F@GEOGMAIL.geog.ad.dur.ac.uk> Message-ID: <1f3dfff30902250500g1319793cpdd3e9ad991d624f@mail.gmail.com> Dear all, Please visit www.dharavi-survey.net sharad On 2/24/09, Colin McFarlane wrote: > > Dear All, > > > > Please find below information on a Postdoctoral Research Associate position > in Geography at Durham University, UK, entitled ‘Everyday Sanitation: A > Comparative Study of Mumbai’s Informal Settlements’. Details are available > on this link – could I ask you to circulate this amongst anyone you think > could be interested? > http://www.jobs.ac.uk/jobs/YB908/Post_Doctoral_Research_Associate/. The > ‘Further Details’ link provides both more information on the post and a link > to applying online (deadline March 27th): > > > > The Department of Geography at the Durham University wishes to appoint a > full-time post-doctoral Research Associate to work on a research project > ‘Everyday Sanitation: A Comparative Study of Mumbai's Informal Settlements’ > awarded by the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council). The ‘Everyday > Sanitation’ project is awarded to Dr Colin McFarlane and Prof Steve Graham > through the ESRC’s standard research grants scheme. The research will > involve ethnographic research within informal settlements in Mumbai > examining people's experiences and perceptions of urban sanitation, and will > produce both practical and theoretical outputs. ‘Everyday Sanitation’ will > significantly advance social scientific knowledge of how people receive, > cope with, and perceive different sanitation conditions, and will lead to > potential applied outputs. A Research Steering Group based in Mumbai > consisting of state officials, non-governmental organization staff, and > academics will facilitate the Research Assistant's access to information and > contacts, and will provide occasional additional advice. > > We are looking for a Research Assistant who is interested in the questions > of urban informality, development, and poverty, broadly conceived, that this > project addresses. The successful candidate will have a Masters in a related > research area, and will preferably have been awarded (or recently submitted) > a PhD on a related research area. Disciplinary areas of particular relevance > may include (but are not limited to) geography, urban planning, development, > anthropology and public health. The successful candidate will be based in > the Department of Geography at Durham University which was founded in 1928 > and remains among the strongest in the country. It was ranked joint first > nationally in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise and the quality of our > teaching has been rated ‘excellent’ by an external Quality Assessment Audit. > Recognition extends to the most recent university guides, which consistently > place the Department of Geography at Durham in the top flight. The > successful candidate will also join the department's > internationally-recognized Centre for the Study of Cities and Regions (CSCR) > research group and the Social Well-Being and Spatial Justice (SWSJ) research > cluster. The appointee will be responsible for: critical appraisal of > academic and policy literatures; planning and conducting 9 months of > ethnographic fieldwork within informal settlements in Mumbai, India, > including semi-structured interviews, non-participant observations and focus > group interviews; managing their individual research budget whilst in the > field; dissemination of research findings, including drafting of co-authored > publications with the Principal and Co-Investigator and presentation of > conference papers. > > > > With thanks and best wishes > > Colin. > > > > Dr. Colin McFarlane > > Lecturer in Human Geography > > Department of Geography > > Durham University > > South Road > > Durham > > DH1 3LE > > > > Tel: +44 (0)191 334 1959 > > Fax: +44 (0)191 334 1801 > > Email: colin.mcfarlane at durham.ac.uk > > Web: * > www.dur.ac.uk/geography/research/researchclusters/?mode=staff&id=4570* > > CSCR: www.dur.ac.uk/cscr > > _______________________________________________ > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > > -- Sharad Mahajan - Architect-Planner Maharashtra Social Housing & Action Leaque, Office no 007,1st floor,MAHADA Commercial Complex, Gokhale Nagar, Pune - 411016 Phone- 020-25653566 Fax- 020-25656340 Mobil- 9766695601 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090225/0730cc00/attachment-0001.html From zzjamaal at yahoo.co.in Thu Feb 26 10:58:50 2009 From: zzjamaal at yahoo.co.in (khalid jamal) Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 10:58:50 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Yeh lamhe, Yeh memories.. In-Reply-To: <86b8a7050901310642s10be7990kc3711249877ec2f2@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <97288.5710.qm@web8903.mail.in.yahoo.com> Inside the American cultural-laboratory: Where the pain meets the Doctor, the Hindi and the Slumdog. It was an unusually bright sunny day in Athens, Ohio when I was sitting outside the laundry, waiting for my clothes to dry. I haven’t had enough sleep the previous night and the sun-rays, after the long period of continuous snowing, were rather intoxicating. I had assignments to finish. One of them was this very assignment; to write the field notes of a situational observation. And outside this huge laundry, where students came with bucket full clothes, I noticed a strange pattern; that all buckets were blue and that all of them were painfully heavy and that the carriers of the buckets, mostly the students, had to stretch their body really hard to be able to make it to the washing machines. They all struggled against the gravity and the weight of the bucket. Another strange pattern that was quite apparent was the presence of at least one book on the top of the dirty clothes, which did not look as dirty to me as the bucket itself, with brown and green mud-like marks on almost all buckets I noticed. Another observation that I invariably noticed was that the book was never read! People came with the book and the clothes, put the clothes in the machine and started talking on the their multi-colored, jazzy looking cell phones, while the book they brought along,  peacefully lying on their laps or in their   now empty bucket. I just wondered why add the weight of the book which is never to be read and pain the body? Anyway, in the midst of this “patternful” laundry, I started writing my assignment from the notes I took while observing a meeting of undergraduate students with a local NGO representative, a few hours ago. Suddenly, I felt a stroke of pain in my left molar-tooth. I recalled that the pain had been there for quite some time and that I had been ignoring it. But this time it was not only sudden, it was sharp. So I decided to see a doctor. On my way, up the hill to the heath center, I decided to observe the heath center and write about it instead of the undergraduate meeting. So as a patient at the health center, I converted myself into an observer as well. As a patient, I think during my observation, I was also a participant in some ways. So I reached the heath centre and pulled the door open. The door was rustic and made a big sound, which was equally rustic. The board hanging cautioned “No pets please”, which was reassuring that I am not in veterinary clinic! Within a span of 3 seconds, there was another rustic door which made another rustic sound. It seemed to me that these doors are some kind of a declaration of the clinic-staff for the arrival of the patients saying “You are here again, damn it?”.  And on my way back, the door seemed to be saying, “Don’t you dare show up again, you sick people!!”.With those loud noises and my perceived meaning of them, I entered. As I entered, I noticed a huge array of people, again, like in the laundry, mostly students. And yet again, like the clothes never looked dirty, none of these, supposedly patients, did not look sick at all. They were all reading business and entertainment magazines which were very decoratively kept on the shelves. Some of them were talking on phones and yet another set of people were only staring at the first two set of people I mentioned! Later I realized it is this last category of people which actually look ill at least in some ways; they looked lazy, tired, their eyes were drowsy and so on. But let me not run ahead of my discoveries. I entered the gate and went to the reception only to find a male receptionist. After many years of going to places with a Reception, this was clearly a break. I hadn’t seen a male receptionist in many years. And in this case, a white male receptionist was really exotic and rare. But these things do not matter if you have a terrible toothache. And therefore I immediately came out of my observer’s mode, and became a patient. I went to the reception and shared my shooting pain with the receptionist thinking he would stand up and rush me to the doctor. But he looked at me and in a matter- of- factly, routine manner asked, “ Are you a student?” and before I could answer ,he directed me to the computers, installed behind me which was his front asking me to fill-in the details. His 100% flat face which did not react at all to my shooting pain convinced me why we have more women receptionists across the globe than men; for a simple reason; they react at least to a shooting toothache! With one hand on my left cheek, I turned and went to the computer to fill-in the details. I was happy to find “toothache” as one of the “reason to visit” option. It was soothing. After I filled in the details, I tried to go back to the receptionist but he as I took the first step towards him, he popped up and said, “ Sit there!” directing me to a bunch of chairs, which were already occupied by people I described above. I went away from him and stood against one of the corners of the hall. I waited for another 5 minutes during which I heard the receptionist yelling people’s name and also the nurses in blue trousers and blue jacket coming in from the other direction and also yelling names. “Blue is certainly the color of the day”, I thought while being in a toothache- blues. Almost after 15 minutes, I heard one name being repeated yelled by the receptionist and no one was showing up. The name was yelled at least 5 times, piercing the silence of the pin-drop silent hall. The hall was really silent. The only sound that registered in my mind, besides this yelling, was the sound of the pain pounding my tooth! After repeatedly yelling the same name several times, the receptionist picked up another name and then another. “Ricky!”, “Michael!”, “Sophia!”, “Martin!” and so on. My pain was now at its peak and reluctantly, I went to the reception to try my fate one more time. “I will go home and gargle with lukewarm water with salt in it, if he doesn’t take me to the doctor this time”, I told myself while heading the cream-colored desk where he sat. As I went to him and tried to convince him of my emergency-like situation if not fully 9/11- types- emergency, he punched in few details on his computer and almost ferociously looked at me to say, “Where were you?”. I said I was here. He irritatedly said he called my name several times, to which I enquired, “Which name?” ,to which he responded, with full confidence, “ Your name, Saied!” , pronouncing the name with a heavy American accent with all the force on the last “ed”. That was a mispronunciation. And that wasn’t the name my parent gave me 26 years ago. So it wasn’t wrong on my part not to respond to anything that was not pronounced Syed, my first name that he chose to pick or at least something close to it like Saeed, Said and so on. But with the pain already bothering me, I simply apologized and requested to send me to the doctor now. I also urged him to call me with my last name which was much easier to pronounce and I think it cannot be mispronounced, no matter how lyrical one tries to be with it.          To my surprise, I was told to wait. Again. And I did, against the same corner of the wall. But this time in almost 4 minutes, a woman with a stethoscope around her long neck and blue jacket came and yelled my name; correctly enough probably because she used my last name. I immediately stood up and went with her. She smiled and I tried to smile back but couldn’t. The pain blocked the smile completely. She took me to a room with a computer, three chairs and a table with lots chocolate cookies on it. Asking me to sit and she went out. I was alone with those cookies. I picked one to eat but realized I shouldn’t, given my toothache. So I grabbed some 10 of those cookies and stocked the inner pocked of my blue (yet again!!) coat. This, I did as a kind of a small revenge on the clinic that hasn’t treated me at all in the last 55 minutes now!! But in a few minutes, fortunately, the woman, who I thought was doctor because of her possession of a stethoscope, which, in my country, only doctors carry, returned, with another elderly woman. As I discovered they were both nurses. And one, who brought me to this room, was a trainee nurse. Now we all three sat there. The elderly nurse asked the trainee, loud enough and I could hear, to ask me, “What’s your student –ID?” I waited for the trainee to ask me so that I could answer. She did ask and I did answer. And she punched that in to the computer. Then the elderly woman asked the trainee to ask me, “How are you doing today?”I again heard it but again waited for the trainee to ask. And when she did ask, I answered by lying and saying that I was “fine”. And yet gain the elderly woman asked the trainee to ask me, “What’s the problem that I have?”.This time I did not wait and looking straight into the eyes of the elderly woman I said, “I have terrible toothache and would really appreciate if you can do something about it!”.The elderly nurse looked at me and then calmly looked at the trainee winking with both eyes. The trainee smiled and started punching “that detail’ in to the computer. By now I understood that this was a training session going in progress and not my treatment may or may not be one of its manifestations. I prayed for it being one! After punching for over 3 minutes the trainee nurse asked to follow her. I did. As we walked down the corridor of the clinic for some 50 seconds, we came across a table. I saw one young man in his early twenties sitting. He looked weak and sleepy. But he sat straight on the table occupying only 30% of the table space. The trainee without looking at the table or me or the person on the table, directed me to sit while she slipped my file into the room on my left through an opening in the middle of the door. Without uttering any other word, she moved away from me and almost faded-out in the corridor. I was finishing almost 1 hour in the clinic with my terrible toothache only accelerating every minute while I was being engaged in all sorts of so called, medical- procedures of the health clinic. Helplessly and by now, hopelessly, I waited for the doctor’s call. Another 15 minutes of silence passed during which the person beside me barely moved. He sat straight demonstrating some kind if a military regimentation in sitting position. I tried sitting like him for a few minutes but soon gave up. “There is no need for another pain”, I soothed myself, almost couching into the table with my fingers running through my oily hair and finally resting on my somewhat-sweaty neck. And then, the door opened, a name was called. It was “Mike!”. I heard it clearly but by now I could not take any chances and I did not want to take any chances! So, I stood up while the person beside me also standing with me, hinting enough that he was Mike, I still asked him his name while both of us entered the doctor’s room. As we took the first few steps inside the doctor’s room, he said, clearly shockingly, “I AM Mike!!”. I said, “OK” and came out of the room. After another 10-12 minutes, Mike came out. My name wasn’t called yet and I wondered painfully, “Lunch time??No??”.Thankfully, it wasn’t. I WAS called-in, again by the name which wasn’t mine! But I knew “it” was me. For, there was no one else waiting. And there I was, finally sitting face- to-face with a doctor who would just give me a painkiller. But I again, I am rushing. The doctor, like everyone else till now, was very calm-looking. And as humanely as possible, in that shooting pain, I hated it. But this time, I managed to smile and sit on the chair as the doctor directed me. The chair was at least 7 feet away from the doctor. This was an overwhelmingly long patient-doctor distance for me. I had to listen hard to the singing accent. Back home, this distance was never more than 2 feet! I took another deep breath and decided to continue the internal “struggle” with patience. I did not want the doctor to ask me how I was and how my day was and all of that protocol questions so I went ahead and started speaking: Hi doctor! I have been ok for the last 6 months ever since I came from India. But since this morning I am having a terrible toothache and would appreciate if you can please do some thing it. The doctor looked little bugged at my decision to speak first without being asked anything. After few seconds, which he utilized to utter a long “hmm..mm”, he started by asking a question and then another question and then another: “Where is the pain? I wondered where else can a toothache? Heart? Kidney?  I politely said, “My tooth”. “Which side?” Left. “At the end?” Yes, the very end! “ For how long?” Since morning!! “What kind of pain..is it bleeding?” And, on and on… “If only he sees my tooth, he would know all the answers in just one go. That’s what the doctors back home would do. See and not ask!” I thought to myself. So I went-on to suggest if “he would like to see my tooth please. That might help”. After another long “hmm..mm” he said, “Sure”. I spell that “sure” with only one “r”, but as he pronounced that word, I could hear at least five of them! And then, he continued, “ theek ho.” .Those are Hindi words. He found out from my records that I am from India and assumed that I understand Hindi despite coming from a country, housing 1/6th of the world population and having at least 17 official languages, with 1.5 billion people speaking and understanding not more than one or two languages, one of which is mostly English! “ Theek hai”, I corrected him and he nodded with a receptive smile. Those words mean “ok”  Anyway, he directed me to another room and told me to sit on a bed-like table. I almost jumped in excitement. He told me if I would stretch my mouth open and use my index finger to point where the pain is. But before he told me that, I had already done it. There I was, stretching my cheeks from inside, so that he could see clearly. But alas! He couldn’t! He pulled himself back and said, “It too dark there. I can’t see.”. I suggested using a lamp, which was safely parked next to the bed-like table. He said we could use it but it has a hot-light. I responded with courage, “No problem sir. Please use it”. He agreed after deciding to keep the lamp little away from my face because the lamp had a hot-bulb radiating hot rays and not the cool florescent light, which normally are used in such cases. He again uttered “ theek ho”, but almost immediately correcting himself .. “oh o..theek hai.”, followed by his, now standard smile. He kept looking for over 3 minutes and then switched off the lamp, which was a hint to me that he was done. Then he pulled himself back and asked to come back to his room and again directed me to sit on the “distant” chair. I did without a choice. And then he started explaining to me what all he discovered in my mouth. Worse still, his explanations were so “medically jargoned” that I couldn’t believe my mouth was so “full of those alien and scary stuff”. While he was still speaking, I interrupted and asked, “So.. Sir what’s the treatment please?”. But without answering my question he went on and said few other things I heard but did not listen to at all. But after that he said, “It’s normal.”  I did not understand what he was referring to; the stuff in my mouth, his habit of not answering the questions, his pathological urge to tell everything. Or, my pain? Or, something else? I knew my pain wasn’t normal, because it was shooting!  And I didn’t care what else was what!! So I simply agreed with a nod to his telling me, “ Its normal.” Finally I asked him if there’s any treatment for what I came here for. And for the first time in the last one decade (well YES, that’s what I felt at that moment!!) someone said that word; Prescription!! But again followed by three more Hindi words in lyrical accent: Elaaj hai na!, meaning “ Indeed, there is a treatment!” I normally like non-native Hindi speakers, speak or try to speak Hindi to me but for some reasons this was an exception. Every demonstration that this doctor made of showing-off his knowledge of few phrases of Hindi that he learnt from his son who was in India for a few days, was the most annoying moment for me in that clinic on that day. And probably, as I now recall, anywhere, any time in my whole lifetime! Finally, he handed over an A-4 prescription sheet to me and said I have to take these medicines twice a day for two weeks. As I said “ok” in a concluding tone while standing up holding my left cheek, he yet again demonstrated his knowledge of lyrical, accented Hindi, uttering this: Slumdog Millionaire dhekhee?” Meaning, “Did you see Slumdog Millionaire?” I had seen this film which was weaved around a story in India, almost three months ago, but to avoid any further conversation and gulp the painkillers he prescribed, as soon as possible, I said “No, not yet”. And he suddenly was delighted to find an opportunity to share the film he had seen the previous night! “This is about “Moom-bai city”, he began, referring to a financial Indian city called Mumbai. “Terrible life, you know. I was thinking it would a musical Indian film with dance and pleasant story but I was very disturbed.. you should watch and see..and ..and..” “Does it really happen? “ Have you been to Moom-bai” “ My son was working there last year and he..” I stood up, painfully smiling and interrupted, “Sir, I will watch this film for you. I have a class now.. Where would I get the medicines?.. While saying those last few words, I was almost out of his room leaving him behind me saying, “there’s a pharmacy out there behind the reception..Straight.. Left..Right..” And the words faded out behind me, as I rushed out through the corridors. I found the pharmacy and stood there. The pain of the tooth wasn’t as prominent now as the pain of my recent memories. In the midst of those memories, I saw Mike, standing just at the pharmacy counter right in front of me; No movement at all. Militarily, straight as ever. I closed my eyes for few seconds, waiting for him to turn to me so that I could give him a farewell smile. But before my few seconds could pass, I heard an accented, melodious “ Yesss.. pleeease!”. I was finally getting the painkiller for the pain that was almost fully treated by the experiential richness of my graduate program’s Observation-assignment. Everything was Normal. ONE LIFE. ONE SHOT. Happiness, Health & Peace, Syed Khalid Jamal    Add more friends to your messenger and enjoy! Go to http://messenger.yahoo.com/invite/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090226/1b1db06d/attachment-0001.html From yanivbin at gmail.com Fri Feb 27 01:23:41 2009 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2009 01:23:41 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] growth commission report vol I on urbanisation and growth Message-ID: <86b8a7050902261153t5867ad90k451a57288f7cb5e5@mail.gmail.com> FYI http://www.growthcommission.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=105&Itemid=199 Volume I: Urbanization and Growth [image: urbancoverweb.jpg] First in a series of thematic volumes, this book has been prepared for the Commission on Growth and Development to evaluate the state of knowledge on the relationship of urbanization and economic growth. It does not pretend to provide all the answers, but does identify insights and policy levers to help countries make urbanization work as part of a national growth strategy. It examines a variety of topics: the relevance and policy implications of recent advances in urban economics for developing countries, the role of economic geography in global economic trends and trade patterns, and the impacts of urbanization on spatial inequality within countries; and alternative approaches to financing the substantial infrastructure investments required in developing-country cities. Written by prominent academics in their fields, *Urbanization and Growth *seeks to create a better understanding of the role of urbanization in growth and to inform policy makers tackling the formidable challenges it poses. One can find the answers to the following questions in the book: - Why is productivity higher in cities? - Does urbanization cause growth or does growth cause urbanization? - Do countries achieve high incomes or rapid growth without urbanization? - How can policymakers reap the benefits of urbanization without paying too high a cost? - Does supporting urbanization imply neglecting rural areas? - Why do so few governments welcome urbanization? - What should governments do to improve housing conditions in cities as they urbanize? - Are innovations in housing finance a blessing or a curse for developing countries? - How will governments finance the trillions of dollars of infrastructure spending needed for cities in developing countries? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090227/8c9d5ce4/attachment.html From elkamath at yahoo.com Sat Feb 28 08:44:19 2009 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2009 19:14:19 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] UK tackling BigRetail Message-ID: <783214.32241.qm@web53602.mail.re2.yahoo.com> This might be of interest in light of the concerns about big retail destroying small kirana shops and the subsequent closure of many of the big retailer's outlets... Tesco and Asda attack Competition Commission crackdown By James Thompson Friday, 27 February 2009 Tesco and Asda have attacked the Competition Commission's plans to crack down on supermarkets' relationships with suppliers, arguing it will lead to higher prices for consumers as grocers are burdened with a further deluge of red tape. The commission today unveiled its proposals for a new and strengthened Groceries Supply Code of Practice that includes prohibiting retrospective adjustments to contracts. It also plans to make it harder for grocers to delist suppliers and prohibit them from holding suppliers liable for losses due to shrinkage, such as damaged products. Paul Kelly, the director of corporate affairs at Asda, said the cost of administering the code for supermarkets and its impact on weakening the "competitive tension" that exists between grocers and suppliers will lead to higher prices for consumers. "It seems perverse to put in regulations that by the Competition Commission's own admission will put up prices for consumers." The commission has given the inquiry's participants one month to respond to its guidance, but after that, it is keen to bring in GSCOP before the end of 2009. Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Tesco's executive director, said: "In the current sensitive economic climate, this proposal adds substantial costs to an industry that is generally working well for the consumer. The Commission says they are seeking to avoid undue burdens on business, but they have done no cost benefit analysis of the kind usually carried out under Government guidelines on regulation." Mr Kelly said the new code will offer protection to under-performing suppliers. "This is potentially a mandate for protecting smaller suppliers whereas good manufacturers will lose out because they cannot easily replace poor ones and that seems slightly perverse as well," he said. Ms Neville-Rolfe cited the administrative burden of the new code. "We are glad the order is out for consultation, and we will be making a number of points to reduce compliance costs for all concerned and avoid regulatory creep. For example very minor changes to arrangements will now have to be formally confirmed in writing which will involve an extra 2 million emails a year for Tesco alone," she said. While Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury's are covered by the current code of practice, all grocery retailers with annual turnover of more than £1bn, includinng Iceland, Aldi and Waitrose, will be covered by GSCOP. The commission also wants to introduce an ombudsman which will handle disputes between grocers and suppliers. The commission delivered its final report into the two-year grocery inquiry in April 2008, but Tesco is appealing a separate proposal, the Competition Test, which seeks to prevent one retailer from gaining a dominant position in a local market. The Competition Appeals Tribunal is expected to deliver its verdict on Tesco's appeal of the Competition Test over the coming weeks. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/tesco-and-asda-attack-competition-commission-crackdown-1633868.html Cross-posted from Debate DEBATE at debate.kabissa.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20090227/fc9fd5fa/attachment.html