After reading the article on the founding of Brazil’s health care system, I looked to Brazil for examples of progressive policies that have sought to scale up slum improvements.  In “Rio de Janeiro to spend US$1 billion on
innovative slum improvement programme”, the author details the steps taken under the program Favela-Bairro, which has actually inspired similar programs in other Latin American cities.  In “Closing the divide between those who
are starving and those who waste food”, programs to combat food insecurity in Belo Horizonte, Brazil are described with particular emphasis on poor residents living in slums.  

In the article, “Slums are ‘Economically Rational’”, by the Affordable Housing Institute, the author shows how slums inevitably arise in the absence of government intervention and the process by which the private housing sector contributes to their creation.   

On a side note, before policy makers devise new programs for scaling up slum improvements, it could be helpful to analyze the successes of slum communities in different sectors, like security and the environment.  The article, “What Slums Can Teach Us About Sustainability”, briefly shows how slums are also learning opportunities for urban planners.   

Brazilian Slums

Take a look into Brazilian Slums.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9907E0D61639F93BA25752C0A9629C8B63&scp=2&sq=slums&st=cse

Alma Ata

In looking through my notes from class last week, I wanted to learn more about Alma Ata. I thought I'd share what I found. Here's a link to the Alma Ata Declaration, made in 1978.

Motel Rooms Become Home for Some - NYTimes.com

Motel Rooms Become Home for Some - NYTimes.com:

By ERIK ECKHOLM
Published: March 10, 2009

COSTA MESA, Calif. — Greg Hayworth, 44, graduated from Syracuse University and made a good living in his home state, California, from real estate and mortgage finance. Then that business crashed, and early last year the bank foreclosed on the house his family was renting, forcing their eviction."

Learning from slums

This article, from the Boston Globe last week, portrays slums in a much more positive way than we are usually accustomed -- though, she does glorify them. Think Jane Jacobs applied to 21st century urban planning and population trends. For example, the author cites findings on the high safety levels in Dharavi (Mumbai's slum) that exceed those in most American cities because of the tight community that the settlements produce. I haven't thought about this until now, but it does make sense.

To read the article, click here.

Bed Stuy Meadow Project

An interesting approach to beautifying one of NYC's neglected neighborhoods...

Project Description

The goal is to sow wildflower seeds on every single patch of abandoned soil in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bed Stuy this April. By early summer, there should be so many wildflowers growing in the untended treepits, vacant lots, half-built developments and other tiny scraps of neglected soil in Bed Stuy that the whole neighborhood effectively turns into a meadow.

Wildflower seeds are very easy to plant, and they grow well in poor, shallow soils without human attention, so it's going to be relatively easy to make a huge visual impact over the entire neighborhood. The profusion of wildflowers that result from this minimal effort will be relentless and visually unifying, and this relentless unity of wildflowers will make anyone walking down the street feel good.

The Meadow is going to work because it doesn't work against what Bed Stuy is. Bed Stuy's low-slung, long-blocked character and the expansiveness of its territory are not like an urban jungle or forest as much as an urban prairie. The effort of the meadow is another chapter in the community gardening history of the neighborhood. Wildflowers are beautiful in the way that the architecture here is beautiful, the way the people who go out of their way to say good morning on the streets here are beautiful. And wildflowers are tough enough to grow wherever the seeds are cast.

Find out more here.

Dharavi Slum in Mumbai -- Photo Gallery from National Geographic

The photo gallery below vividly portrays what life is for today's 1billion slum dwellers.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/05/dharavi-mumbai-slum/jonas-bendiksen-photography

Sen argues for theory of comparative justice

Apparently, Amartya Sen gave the same lecture at Harvard that I attended here. Enjoy the summary!

Sen argues for theory of comparative justice - News

Women: Think, fight, make, work, live, do.

amazing photo collection

Women: Think, fight, make, work, live, do. Flickr Blog

Gifts from Former Students

Before our class worked in groups or teams, individual case studies were required as final projects. Former student Maryann Fiebach, who later became the teaching assistant for Annie Feighery (and is now our friend, colleague, and co-author), asked her fellow students if she might post their case studies as examples for later classes. She modeled generous behavior (case study 1 is her own) and 10 former students sent her their case studies to post. I added these 11 case studies to our CourseWorks site under the session for this week, not so much for you to model your own team projects after, but as a way of appreciating how our ideas around interdisciplinary learning have evolved over time. Hopefully certain of the class discussions, postings, and discussions thus far will help you in thinking about and posing a "problem" to your teammates on Wednesday, and from your collective ideas, one will rise to the top as worthy of joint pursuit for the rest of the term. See you soon, Mary

Muhammad Yunus at Columbia

SIPA

I tried to go see Muhammad Yunus (the Nobel Prize winner) when he was on campus at the end of January, but sadly, due to poor organization and massive amounts of people, I was turned away. I was happy to see they posted a recording of his appearance. You can find it here. The title is "Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism", which is relevant to our discussion last class.

Aid in the downturn | In need of more | The Economist

In light of Jeffrey Sachs' talk and our class discussion last week, I thought this brief article was interesting.

 "The need for aid is increasing as the downturn worsens the already parlous condition of the poor across the developing world. The World Bank reckons that 53m people in developing countries are likely to be pushed back into extreme poverty by the economic crisis."

'Maama' Kits promote safe deliveries in Uganda

This is at the Millennium Village I'll be staying at for Spring Break:

ReliefWeb Document'Maama' Kits promote safe deliveries in Uganda:

"...Now, thanks to a health kit disseminated by UNDP and known as the 'Maama' Kit, the number of medically-supervised deliveries in Ruhiira has increased to 75%, up from 8% in December 2007. That's 263 births per months, up from 51.

The 'Maama' Kits are designed to help women deliver in clean conditions. They include baby sheets; soap; pads; gloves; a surgical blade; a sterilized chord for tying the umbilical cord and rehydration packages.

The pack reduces the risk of vaginal and eye infections, tetanus and diarrhea, all of which may occur in bad hygiene conditions [...]"

ABC News: Life Expectancy Slips in Poor Parts of America

ABC News: Life Expectancy Slips in Poor Parts of America: "New Study Shows Drop in Life Expectancy in Deep South, Parts of Midwest, Texas and Appalachia, Particularly for Women"

The Places We Live...

Also related to this week's readings .... The Places We Live is an amazing website of photos and sounds from slums around the world.

The photos are taken by Jonas Bendikson and are compiled in a book of the same title.

Sex attacks blight lives of Haitian girls

click to the article to see the accompanying short video:

Sex attacks blight lives of Haitian girls | World news | The Observer:

"The government of Haiti is being urged to take action to stop the wave of sexual violence that is blighting the lives of young women in one of the world's poorest nations."

Toilet Tales: Inside the World of Waste - TIME

This article is related to the readings for next class. 

Another huge problem faced by slum dwellers. (there is a link to view the full article)

Toilet Tales: Inside the World of Waste - TIME: "Save the poop jokes, because Rose George has heard them all. When the London-based journalist decided to write a book on human waste, toilets and the world sanitation crisis, she knew that she'd be the butt of a few jokes around the pub. What she didn't realize — at least not fully — was just how important her subject was. George's new book The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters delves into the taboo subject of bowel evacuation, with tact, sensitivity — and the right amount of style. Reporting on the sewers of London and the slums of New Delhi and the high-tech toilets of Tokyo, George comes to understand that sanitation is no laughing matter — it's the difference between life and death. 'I thought a toilet was my right,' writes George in the book's introduction. 'It was a privilege.' (Listen to George talk about the global sanitation crisis in this week's Greencast.)"

cool urban art