Megacities - Living In The City

City Slums - Megacity Problems

Problems of urbanisation in ELDCs of India and Brazil. Mumbai (Bombay) India, Asia and Rio de Janerio, Brazil, South America case studies.

Burden of debt

A debt burden is a large amount of money that one country or organization owes to another and which they find very difficult to repay. A debt burden is the amount of debt that a particular country etc. has, considered as a burden on its economy and people and a hindrance to their progress.

The debt of developing countries refers to the external debt incurred by governments of developing countries, generally in quantities beyond the ability of the governments to repay.

Tariff barriers – trade barriers

The trade between countries can be limited by enforcing tariff barriers and other restrictions (non-tariff barriers). A tariff is a tax on imports or exports. Most trade barriers work on the same principle: the imposition of some sort of cost on trade that raises the price of the traded products.

 

Tariff barriers	Non-tariff   barriers
The trade between countries can be limited by imposing tariff. A tariff is a tax on imports or exports. Tariffs are customs duties (tax) charged on imported or exported goods.	Non-tariff barriers are all trade barriers that restrict international trade, but in a form other than tariffs.
Examples of tariff barriers to trade: -Manufactured goods from LEDCs to the EU face a tariff of 30%. -The European Union may place a tariff on imported beef from the United States if it thinks that the goods could be infected with a disease.   Japanese companies have located in the European Union to avoid tariffs, the EU do not apply duties if 60% of the components are made in Europe.	Examples of non-tariff barriers to trade: -Import licenses -Export licenses -Import quotas -Subsidies -Embargo -Local content requirements -Currency devaluation

 

Why are tariffs and trade barriers used?

Tariffs are often created to protect the domestic industries and developing economies, but are also used by more advanced economies with developed industries.

 

Who benefits?

The benefits of tariffs are uneven. Because a tariff is a tax, the government will see increased revenue as imports enter the domestic market. Domestic industries also benefit from a reduction in competition, since import prices are artificially inflated. Unfortunately for consumers - both individual consumers and businesses - higher import prices mean higher prices for goods.

 

 

The Villages - an age-restricted, gated community in Florida

The Villages is a master-planned retirement community, an age-restricted community in Sumter County, Florida, United States.

http://www.thevillages.com/

 

The Villages consistently ranks as a very high growth area. The US Census ranked The Villages as the fastest-growing U.S. city for the second year in a row. The Villages has more than doubled in size since 2010. As of April 2016, the total population of retirement community The Villages reached 55,000 people.

 

The Villages offers numerous forms of recreation. The majority of the costs are paid for via the monthly amenities fee assessed to residents. The centerpiece of The Villages is its numerous assortment of golf courses. The ability to play "Free Golf for Life" is a key component of The Villages advertising campaigns. In addition, The Villages operates numerous recreation centers. These centers offer local adult-only pools as well as horseshoe, and shuffleboard courts, fitness centers and stages for theatrical and musical productions. Beyond the golf courses and recreation centers, The Villages also operates numerous softball fields, a polo stadium and a woodworking shop, plus the Lifelong Learning College.

 

The Villages is a gated community known for low crime rates.

 

Difference between Beverly Hills and Watts

	Beverly Hills, Bel Air and Santa Monica	Watts
Wealth/poverty	Wealth in Beverly Hills. Less than 7% live below the poverty line.	Poverty in Watts. One-third of all households live below the poverty line and live near slum-like conditions.
Quality of life	Most of the residents are very wealthy, having a good quality of life.	Most of the residents are poor, having a low quality of life.
Managerial jobs	53 % of the residents are working in managerial jobs.	9 % of the residents are working in managerial jobs.
		10 % of the residents are working in unskilled jobs.
Graduates	47 % of the residents are graduates.	3.1 % of the residents are graduates.
Ethnic groups	Predominantly European residents	69% of the residents are Hispanics from Mexico of Central America and 24% are African-American.
Employment	Unemployment rate is low.	Many people are out of work.

Integration, assimilation and segregation

Integration 

Immigrants take an active part in the society, they got to school, get a job and speak the language. Integration does not mean you have to give up your culture.
 

Assimilation 

Assimilation means that immigrants must adapt as much as possible and encouraged to adapt the national culture. Assimilation is the process whereby a minority group increasingly adapts to the customs and attitudes of the prevailing culture and customs.


Segregation

The word segregation means separation. 

Segregation happens in two ways:

1 - spatial segregation: groups have their own area to live in. Examples; rich/poor, ethnic neighbourhoods (Little Italy, Chinatown).

2 - social segregation: groups live separately from each other. Examples; groups have their own schools, own sports clubs. The groups have little or no contact with each other.

Windward and leeward side of a mountain

The windward side of a mountain faces the wind while the leeward side faces away from the prevailing wind. The climate on different sides of the mountain can vary greatly. 

The windward side of a mountain	The leeward side of a mountain
The windward side of a mountain faces the prevailing wind (the Dutch word is loef). As air passes across the windward side of the mountain, most of the moisture is drawn out of it. This is because the air cools as it rises up the slope of the mountain and condenses, leading to clouds and rain.	The leeward side faces away from the prevailing wind (the Dutch word is lij). On the leeward side of the mountain, the climate is warmer and drier; as the air moves down the opposite side of the mountain, it loses its moisture and warms up. Scientists call this the rain shadow effect.

 

The United States–Mexico Border

The United States–Mexico border is the international border between the United States and Mexico.

It runs from California (in the west) to Texas (in the east). It covers a variety of terrains, ranging from major urban areas to inhospitable deserts.

The United States–Mexico border has the highest number of legal crossings of any land border in the world. Over five million cars and trucks travel through the border annually. According to Vulliamy, one in five Mexican nationals will visit or work in the United States at one point in their lifetime. As of 2010, the border is guarded by more than twenty thousand Border Patrol agents, more than at any time in its history. However, they only have "effective control" of less than 1,100 km of the 3,145 km of total border, with an ability to actually prevent or stop illegal entries along 208 km of that border. The border is paralleled by United States Border Patrol Interior Checkpoints on major roads generally between 65 and 120 km from the U.S. side of the border, and garitas generally within 50 km of the border on the Mexican side.

Drug trafficking tunnel under the U.S.-Mexico border used by the Sinaloa Cartel
There are an estimated half a million illegal entries into the United States each year. Border Patrol activity is concentrated around big border cities such as San Diego and El Paso which do have extensive border fencing.

US - population density

US - topographic relief

Peat in the Netherlands

Peat, or turf, is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation.

Peat forms in wetland bogs, moors, mires, and swamps. Peat forms when plant material, usually in marshy areas. It is composed mainly of marshland vegetation: trees, grasses, fungi, as well as other types of organic remains, such as insects, and animal remains.

Zika virus

The World Health Organisation has called an emergency meeting (28 January 2016) to address the spread of the mysterious Zika virus, as health experts warned the outbreak is ballooning at an “extremely alarming” rate.

Zika virus is a virus transmitted by daytime-active mosquitoes. Zika is spread by mosquitoes, not from person to person. There is no vaccine to prevent infection or medicine to treat Zika.
Once a person has been infected, he or she is likely to be protected from future infections.
The name Zika comes from the Zika Forest of Uganda, where the virus was first isolated in 1947.

The infections, known as Zika fever, often causes no or only mild symptoms. Since the 1950s it has been known to happen within Africa and Asia. In 2014, the virus spread eastward across the Pacific Ocean to French Polynesia, then to Easter Island and in 2015 to Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America, where the Zika outbreak has reached pandemic levels.

Zika virus is related to dengue and yellow fever. The illness it causes is similar to a mild form of dengue fever, is treated by rest, and cannot yet be prevented by drugs or vaccines. 

Symptoms of the Zika virus

• About 1 in 5 people infected with Zika virus become ill.
• The most common symptoms of Zika are fever, rash, joint pain, or red eyes. Other common symptoms include muscle pain and headache.
• The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting for several days to a week.
• People usually don’t get sick enough to go to the hospital, and they very rarely die of Zika.
• Zika virus usually remains in the blood of an infected person for about a week but it can be found longer in some people.
• There is a link between Zika fever and microcephaly in newborn babies by mother-to-child transmission. Microcephaly is a birth defect where a baby’s head is smaller than expected when compared to babies of the same sex and age. Babies with microcephaly often have smaller brains that might not have developed properly.

The story of Daniele Ferreira dos Santos and her baby Juan
Around the fifth month of her pregnancy, Daniele Ferreira dos Santos fell ill with a high fever and angry red splotches on her skin. She soon recovered. But weeks later, when she went to the hospital for a prenatal exam, the news was horrific: The baby she was carrying likely had a severe brain injury.
When Juan Pedro Campos dos Santos came into the world in December, the circumference of his head was just ten inches, about 20 per cent smaller than normal.
Ms Santos was never diagnosed with Zika, but she blames the virus for her son's defect and for the terrible toll it has taken on her life. Living in Recife in the northeastern state of Pernambuco, she is at the epicenter of the Zika outbreak, and Pedro is among 4,000 suspected cases of microcephaly that may be connected to the virus, although no link has yet been proven. 

A man wearing protective clothing sprays grave stones with a fumigation machine. Health workers carry out fumigation as part of preventive measures against the Zika virus and other mosquito-borne diseases.