How Many People Have to Live in Urban Slums - How Many More Have to Die?
There are so many urban slums around the world now, and some are so large they have greater populations that many of our largest cities.
Take the Kibera Slum, an urban area slum along the Nairobi River in Nairobi Kenya, there are 880,000 people living there.
Well actually that figure comes from a UN Habitat for Humanity report put out in 2005.
It could well be over a million today.
And unfortunately, it's not the only massive urban slum on our planet.
Back in 2007, I believe, I wrote an Action Plan to help clean-up the Nairobi Kibera Slum.
Indeed, I mailed this plan to the folks at Davos, UN, various NGOs, and the leadership in Kenya too.
It seems the previous plans to fix things there have gone unanswered.
They didn't work, the problem has only worsened over the years.
Worse the Kenyan government says "those people are there illegally" - and the Kibera slum is therefore not their responsibility.
The other day, someone who was looking at all this, sent me a note and stated; "I checked your blogs on the internet and you seem like a very interesting guy with many interests.
I especially liked your paper on the Nairobi slums and I applaud you for taking on these kinds of issues and hopefully positively affecting the lives of people across the globe.
" "Thanks," I said, but I know for a fact they wouldn't do it for me, you see, I'm white, they'd probably rob or try to kill me if I was there after dark.
In fact, white people are not even allowed in the Kibera Slum area anymore - for a couple of reasons.
One, it appears the Nairobi leadership is embarrassed by the pictures taken there and shown to the rest of the world and; two, for their own safety, as they don't want dead white people around, it's bad PR for tourism, trade, and foreign investment.
So, I ask, if we sweep this urban slum problem of humanity under the carpet, and deny it exists, if we refuse to address these real issues, then more people will continue to live in these places.
These are totally unsafe living conditions which breed disease and death.
Let me ask this another way: "How Many People Have to Live in Urban Slums - How Many More Have to Die - How Long Until Humanity Wakes Up?" Indeed, I hope you will please consider all this.
Take the Kibera Slum, an urban area slum along the Nairobi River in Nairobi Kenya, there are 880,000 people living there.
Well actually that figure comes from a UN Habitat for Humanity report put out in 2005.
It could well be over a million today.
And unfortunately, it's not the only massive urban slum on our planet.
Back in 2007, I believe, I wrote an Action Plan to help clean-up the Nairobi Kibera Slum.
Indeed, I mailed this plan to the folks at Davos, UN, various NGOs, and the leadership in Kenya too.
It seems the previous plans to fix things there have gone unanswered.
They didn't work, the problem has only worsened over the years.
Worse the Kenyan government says "those people are there illegally" - and the Kibera slum is therefore not their responsibility.
The other day, someone who was looking at all this, sent me a note and stated; "I checked your blogs on the internet and you seem like a very interesting guy with many interests.
I especially liked your paper on the Nairobi slums and I applaud you for taking on these kinds of issues and hopefully positively affecting the lives of people across the globe.
" "Thanks," I said, but I know for a fact they wouldn't do it for me, you see, I'm white, they'd probably rob or try to kill me if I was there after dark.
In fact, white people are not even allowed in the Kibera Slum area anymore - for a couple of reasons.
One, it appears the Nairobi leadership is embarrassed by the pictures taken there and shown to the rest of the world and; two, for their own safety, as they don't want dead white people around, it's bad PR for tourism, trade, and foreign investment.
So, I ask, if we sweep this urban slum problem of humanity under the carpet, and deny it exists, if we refuse to address these real issues, then more people will continue to live in these places.
These are totally unsafe living conditions which breed disease and death.
Let me ask this another way: "How Many People Have to Live in Urban Slums - How Many More Have to Die - How Long Until Humanity Wakes Up?" Indeed, I hope you will please consider all this.
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