Wah? Really, that was a very poor presentation which told me pretty much nothing, explained nothing, delivered it in a poorly constructed way.

Did not like that at all.

I could be wrong, but my common sense is screaming "bullshit!"

>> ^spoco2:
Really, that was a very poor presentation which told me pretty much nothing, explained nothing, delivered it in a poorly constructed way.

I think the problem is that it was limited to 3 minutes. As you can see, he has to run through some of those slides without enough time to even read what's on them.

The upshot of what he's saying is that the squatter cities are a big economic engine. And while those of us used to living in far better conditions view them as centers of crushing poverty and disease, the simple fact is, virtually everyone living in them are in fact better off than they were living in a remote rural village.

They are creating their own economy, their own infrastructure, their own education systems, etc., with essentially no help from governments or NGOs. And the fact that more than 15% of the world's population live in them (soon to be > 40%) means we should be paying a lot of attention to them.


>> ^MaxWilder:
I could be wrong, but my common sense is screaming "bullshit!"

I'm guessing that's because your common sense is derived from living in the highly developed West. I'm not saying that it's invalid, just that it's a completely different perspective than that of the people living in squatter cities.

Bull. Shit.

The poor fucks condemned to live in these toilets aren't creating anything except more wretched, miserable, desperate, squalor-dwellers. This isn't where some new utopia will emerge, this is where the next religious nut-job will start his jihad.

Yes we should be paying a lot of attention to them, trying to ELIMINATE them and replace them with humane conditions and genuine opportunities.

If you fly in to Sao Paulo airport you see miles and miles of squatter cities. They're lawless, the buildings they live in are unsafe. It reflects that the government has refused to do its job, it's not some kind of miraculous transition out of poverty.

I lived and worked in those favelas in and around Sao Paulo. I think that while he completely ignores the lawless underbelly of the squatter cities, he also makes some very good points. By our standards in the west, the living conditions are reprehensible. But when you compare the living standards most of the people had in rural areas it is vast improvement. I also agree that for many of the people it is a stepping stone to a better life because of the educational and entrepreneurial opportunities to which they now have access.



edit: apostrophe fail

Is it just me, or did the video not answer the title?

It's not you. Brand needs to read How to Lie With Statistics.

First bad TED presentation I've seen, and it's horrible.

"I think the problem is that it was limited to 3 minutes."

That has nothing to do with it, it was poor, not cramped.

As a gross conceptual gesture, urban living is much better for long term survival of the species and the planet. Here in America we have malignant urban sprawl, everyone with a parcel of land with a cheaply constructed house and leaking septic and oil tanks and an over-fertalized lawn. A forty minute commute in an emission-spewing SUV, no sidewalks and strip malls you can't walk to. I've just returned from a couple of large European cites and the difference is breathtaking. A proliferation of bicycles and public transport, bounteous pedestrian traffic, food and groceries close enough that you can carry them home. Almost no one is obese. So much more efficient. But Europe has had a thousand years to build it's infrastructure. I bet if you went to the grounds of the cathedral five hundred years ago, we'd have thought of them as shantytowns too.

But, yeah. This could have been at least a half an hour's worth of information.