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[Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>]

Just move the population to already high-density, basically unhabitable 
cities.  You KNOW how the Republicrat diddlers will cope with this 
problem---more flag-waving, gay marriage amendments, leaving 44,000,000 
citizens without healthcare, now THAT ought to spread pandemics quite 
nicely.  That's OK I suppose, most economic problems would be solved by 
a precipitous U.S. population reduction to 100,000,000 or less, maybe 
30,000,000, still a knowledge reservoir without the impact on 
environment.  A reversible vasectomy for all male children might hold 
the population where it should be.


.cy
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Waiting for peace with agriculture: AVSI fighting food vulnerability in 
northern Uganda

<http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/109465114142.htm>Powered 
by SUN <http://www.sun.com> 	
Spreading slums may boost extremism-UN agency
13 Sep 2004 19:28:16 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Emma Graham-Harrison BARCELONA, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Extremism is 
likely to flourish in the world's rapidly spreading slums if governments 
do not tackle the poverty that fuels it, a senior United Nations 
official said at the start of a forum on urban life on Monday. 
UN-Habitat Executive Director Anna Tibaijuka issued the warning before a 
report due to be launched by her agency on Tuesday, "The State of the 
World's Cities". The number of slum dwellers will double to nearly two 
billion by 2030. Cities overall will grow at a similarly explosive rate, 
Tibaijuka said, reaching nearly five billion people by 2030 from 2.9 
billion in 2001. The growth of cities will be partly due to immigration, 
which could exacerbate urban tensions if no efforts were made to smooth 
integration, she said. "The risks are that we see more (cultural) 
differences; we are bound to see more extremism because of desperation," 
she told Reuters at the start of the World Urban Forum. "The poor are 
not terrorists, but the hopelessness in which people find themselves can 
create conducive conditions for criminals to manipulate the situation," 
she added. Tibaijuka hopes the report will encourage governments to 
invest in slums and work on solutions to the simmering problems. "These 
crises are processes, not events," she said. Tibaijuka also said world 
trade rules needed to take more account of the needs of the poor, and 
called for tight regulation of privatised companies providing basic 
services like water or refuse collection. ECONOMICS FOR THE WEAK As well 
as highlighting a widening rich-poor gap, the "State of the World's 
Cities" report attacked the argument that unfettered trade is a sure 
route to wider developing-world prosperity and warned of a "race to the 
bottom" as companies seeking cheaper labour shift capital and jobs 
across borders. Tibaijuka said economists needed to ensure they based 
their economic policy on basic moral values. "You cannot develop peace 
and prosperity on the rules of the strong ... the weak are embroiled in 
surviving, there is no capacity for real, serious engagement," Tibaijuka 
said. The report also warned that private companies providing basic 
services could be torn between shareholders' demands for profits and the 
needs of impoverished slum dwellers. Tibaijuka called for firm controls. 
"We need the private sector ... (but) privatisation without regulatory 
capacity is corruption. If you privatise where there is no regulation, 
either you don't know what you are doing or there are ulterior motives," 
she said. Praful Patel, head of the World Bank delegation to the World 
Urban Forum, defended the free trade policies that the global lender 
often advocates. "Our studies indicate a different kind of finding. 
There are specific cases of trade liberalisation that hurt ... countries 
that did not follow through," he told Reuters. "However where taken to 
the full length it always works." Many of the world's least developed 
regions, where much of the urban growth will take place, focus more on 
boosting economies to help citizens climb out of poverty than halting 
pollution. Environmental concern is considered a luxury the poor cannot 
afford, Tibaijuka said. "Poverty is the biggest polluter. If you go into 
slums these are places where solid waste, waste water, you name it, 
diseases running rampant. In pursuit of protecting the environment we 
must first protect the people," she said. On a positive note, the World 
Urban Forum gave an award to Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri for 
rebuilding the ruins of Lebanon after a devastating civil war.