A Book About Nothing

7/21/2019 A Book About Nothing

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his book is many things. There are also

many things this book is not, including: in‐

sightful, meaningful, intelligent, or useful.

As the title of this book suggests, there is

nothing here. In reality, the content that ap‐

pears in this book is the product of yet an‐

other year spent idling in college. Slavery

takes a front seat on this journey, with in‐

equity and Asia bringing up the rear (with alittle be of Math thrown in for fun), making

for one hell of a boring, left‐wing indoctri‐

nated journey. Yes, the liberals are running the schools, and they are

openly recruiting.

Perhaps “A Book About Nothing” is too harsh of a title. Yes,

there are tidbits of introspection in here, and most, if not all, of the

topics covered have influenced and changed my perspective on life,

race, nationality, and relationships. Maybe there is something to begained from all this; and maybe you can figure it all out. As for me,

I’m happy just knowing another year is behind me, and that I’m inch‐

ing towards the finish line, my limp dick pressed between my

sweaty, fat thighs.

College is rough. It’s rough for an 18 year old, and it’s rough

for a 33 year old. It’s even rougher when you’re trying to hold down

a shitty job, pay the ever‐increasing cost of living expenses, and raise

a family (i.e. a rabbit). There are times when I think, “You know,

maybe this college stuff isn’t for me—maybe I should just be happy

with what I have.” And then there are times when I think, “Fuck the

rest of the world, I’m going to get what’s mine, and fuck over anyone

who gets in my way.” And, of course, there are times when I think,

“Why am I doing this? I should build a bomb or something.” Usually

it’s the first. Occasionally the second.

With that said, this book is really just another collection ofnotes, essays, papers, and study guides from my time at CSU. As it

goes, the past year has been spent acing humanities and mathemat‐

ics courses. I just didn’t have it in me for anymore science. That



ii

starts next year, so be prepared to see more editions of Madman Bi‐

ology (as if you wanted them).

Why am I writing this? I’m essentially talking to myself. Who

the fuck is going to read this? I probably won’t even read this. Is this

depressing or what?

Yours forever,

Thomas Trotter







1

i

For Black America & Africa, Spring 2013

ook backward to look forward,” writes Robin

Kelley in Dreams of a New Land (Kelley

2002). The weight of this statement is felt in

nearly every facet of his introduction, and

carries with it the reverberations of past ten‐

ets, assuring history will not repeat itself and

informing us that social evolution requires

the edification of truth and the discovery ofyesterday. As a nation, or country, or world I

agree: we learn from those who came and

acted before us. As an individual I hesitate:

do I stop and allow the digressions of my forefathers to punctuate

the narrative of my American sabbatical, or do I purposefully blind

the peripheral and loiter around the horizon of tomorrow? Is it wise

or even fair, to carry the sins of white America? After all, there is no

hope for yesterday, but there is for tomorrow. White or black, anindividual who looks for reason in the auspices of yesterday be‐

comes bound by it, like a steel cage masquerading as self‐discoveryii.

Space is the place, as the infinitely kaleidoscopic Sun Ra put it, only

because the ethereal pages of world history are wrought with moral

depravity—an almost tangible cresting wave that washes over all

people, regardless of race. Space is the place because space is the

future.

Maya Angelou certainly does not share my viewpoint. Her

accidental exodus from America, while empowering in consequence,

seemed encumbered by the threat of pomposityiii. She begins An Af-

rican American in Ghana with an impressive, if not exhaustive, tally

of fellow expatriates and their condensed résumés—a list that forces

the implication that education can be positively correlated with rad‐

ical introspectioniv. What does it mean to be black in America? How

about Africa? Does your phenotype give allegiance to a land? Doyour genetics claim citizenship? If space is the place, why the Atlan‐

tic voyage?



2

I understand the desire to feel ancestral connections, espe‐

cially when one’s line of ancestry is obscured by the unmitigated shit

that was New World slavery. As a white man born and raised in

America I can claim one of many countries as my Motherland, includ‐

ing Germany, the Netherlands, England, and Ireland. My bloodline is

a homogenous mixture of white Europeans and early 20th century

American immigrants. My parents and grandparents have traced my

heritage along the path of least resistance, to a small village in Ire‐

land where grass‐roof cottages adorn cobblestone streets; where

good, hardworking people toil in cold shafts of sunlight, filtered

through the billowing ironclad batteries that so often blanket the

rocky isle; and where a good few were, like those that gave meaning

and life to Maya Angelou, enslaved and sent off to build an empire.The question persists: do I identify with these people? Do I

look to their struggles and hope to divine, or construct the future?

Do I expect others to recognize my historical revelations? Even after

visiting Ireland and meeting other pallid, nearly translucent people I

can firmly affix my allegiance, heritage and home to the United

States of America—to Ohio, to Cleveland, to a small apartment I

share with a rabbit and a wonderful woman I love. I see no value in

the past; I only want to move forward in this life, preferably un‐hitched from dead people in dead times.

But that is me.

Era Bell Thompson’s opening in An African American in Africa

is, if anything, forthright. Her awareness and apprehension towards

Africa is slowly altered as she becomes informed of Africa’s hidden

history, eventually leading to an awakening in Nigeria. Unlike Maya

Angelou, Thompson would probably agree with my sentiments to‐

wards the aggregation, or evolution of personal identity. Like Robin

Kelley, Thompson must “look backward to look forward”, and does

so sincerely. Her travels across Africa inform her of a world shroud‐

ed by misconception, and reveal to her a race of people that mirror

not only her color, but her new found sentiments towards a black

nation. And yet in the end she anchors herself to America. Either

she sees that the ties are too strong to break, the similarities too few,

or that discovering yesterday is not about a total metamorphosis ofpersonal conviction but a granular addition to a constantly expand‐

ing world perspective.



3

Or maybe I project too much. In reality I’m just a white man

trying to survive into the future. I see color and race and religion

and sex all around me. I know fuck‐all about the world or the people

that inhabit it. In fact, I tend to see them as obstacles. I hide my em‐

pathy with silence, and my conviction with apathy. I am a living

ghost.

But enough about me.

After some thought I have realized that (perhaps) it is less

about self‐discovery and more about rediscovery. Europeans

robbed black people not only from their homeland, but also of their

homeland. Perhaps the “awakening” associated with visiting Africa

is nothing more than a persuasive, Afrocentric culture shock, admin‐

istered by beautiful people in a land steeped in lore and veiled histo‐ries, invoking pathos and revealing a cultural identity that had been

locked away for nearly 400 years. And perhaps the rediscovery of

African history is the spark that ignites the fires of black power,

pushing black Americans towards the horizon of tomorrow, where

freedom is no longer just a joke on the inside of gum wrapper. After

all, you can’t get to space without first lighting a fire.

Maulana Karenga’s contribution to the inferno of Black Na‐

tionalism was Kwanzaa, the anti‐capitalist, anti‐white, anti‐establishment surrogate holidayv. While the origins of Kwanzaa lie

with one man whose ideas about America and Black Power eventual‐

ly led to the formation of the US Organization, its sentiments and

dogmas lie with the people who practice it. In particular, the seven

principles of Kwanzaa speak volumes about black power and its des‐

tination. The rise of Kwanzaa as an accepted holiday is punctuated

by several key moments that span the country, including experi‐

mental gatherings led by Sister Makinya in California and the EAST

Organization in New York. Yet still, after nearly sixty years since the

first celebration of Kwanzaa, the majority of the country is only pas‐

sively aware of its existence or purpose (BIG Research 2004).

I feel conflicted. There is an immediate assumption that

Christmas and capitalism are exclusively white affairs, ignoring the

fact that Christianity has proselytized people and spread its philoso‐

phy across every continent. There is no doubt that Catholicism isrun by old, nearly comatose white men garbed in dresses, but the

underlying message in Christian doctrine can be separated from the

popes and bishops dallying through Vatican City and applied to any



4

person of any color, so long as they possess the ability to generate

faith. The perversion of Christmas in America is a symptom of capi‐

talism—and a mild one at that. I enjoy receiving gifts just as much as

the next person, but I gain more pleasure from giving. I do not hold

faith anywhere on or in my body, but I can always appreciate the

happiness propagated from charity, even if it is commercially driven.

I realize that Karenga fought against popular white culture in

a bid to push his ideals concerning black people in America, and that

the creation of Kwanzaa was an embodiment of that, but it seems

predicated on the total dismissal of the qualities of America that are

positive and, at the very least, potentially race‐neutralvi. Further‐

more, the separatist approach taken by Kwanzaa seems counterintu‐

itive to equality; after all, how can a group be inclusive and exclusiveat the same timevii. Former Black Panther member James Coleman

said it best, “By only stressing the unity of black people, Kwanzaa

separates black people from the rest of Americans. Americans must

unify on whatever principles ensure we live in a safe, prosperous,

God‐loving country, with the race and ethnicity of any American

seeking to abide by those principles being of no consequence.”

(Scholer 2001)

E. Frances White explores the possible reasons why capital‐ism and Kwanzaa should be shunned by black people in America.

His article, Africa on My Mind: Gender, Counterdiscourse, and African-

American Nationalism explores the more sordid, conspiratorial as‐

pects of racial relations in America. The white bourgeoisie, as he as‐

serts, engender racist and sexist views toward black Americans and

Africans via psychological warfare—a strategy primarily enforced

via the control of popular opinion (dictated by the white media) and

the misuse of language. I can certainly see his point concerning the

media: in today’s world interests are shaped by radio, television, in‐

ternet, and various news outlets that, quite curiously, congeal as

they swarm around hot‐button issues. Often times the turn is plain

to see, but I still have to wonder how often people are swayed or

fooled by liberal editing, fallacious anchors, or outright lies. At some

point I had to stop trusting “the news” and accept that the words and

images that constantly bombard me are simply advertisements con‐cocted by a controlling class. If this can happen with gun control,

missing white children, and presidential elections, then there is no

doubt that the dominant image of black culture (“a model of abnor‐



5

mality”, as White puts it) had been, or continues to be fabricated by

elite old white men.

However, it could also be argued that the images of Africa we

are being fed in this class are similar fabrications, born from Black

Nationalism and the Afrocentric movement heralded by Molefi Kete

Asante and Kariamu Welshviii. In fact, the same could be true of any

view held by any country/person. It is all very confusing and convo‐

luted, and getting to the truth seems insurmountable.

Does this mean that Afrocentric ideals lie polar to, or conflict

with Eurocentric ones? As Asante argued in Afrocentricity, Race, and

Reason, the goal of Afrocentricity is not to isolate black culture from

white culture, but to coexist as best as possible. In fact, there seems

to be a lot of overlap when looking at the intentions of Afrocentricityand Eurocentricity. The five characteristics of the Afrocentric idea,

as outlined in Asante’s article, could theoretically be applied to any

group of people. The “subject‐object” relationship, however, is what

really drives Afrocentricity to the forefront of the American con‐

science.

There are so many threads to follow in these first few weeks

that my head physically hurts. It’s like trying to put together a puz‐

zle while wearing oversized mittens. It may not seem obvious, butthis reaction paper was written over span of two weeks, and the ini‐

tial apprehension and dissent conveyed near the start of it all is a

recorded manifestation of the resistant force applied when conven‐

tional ideas are challenged. Even now, as I go back and read the first

few pages, I feel the hesitance and chagrin from provoking an old

mind set in old ways. If time permitted, and if I were only going after

approval, I’d take a blowtorch to this paper and start it over. I tried

to keep my reactions as unadulterated as possible, even at the risk of

sounding ignorant and/or absurd. As is said, change does not come

easy, and must be fought for.

So keep fighting me; by the summer I may have a more pow‐

erful lens to focus the world through.



6

i Please Note: these endnotes often contain reactions not pertinent to the topics at hand,

reactions that were cut from the original draft, and/or passages that attempt to elabo-

rate/clarify certain talking points. I understand that their use may be unconventional,

but their inclusion was a natural process involved in writing this reaction paper.ii

I should clarify that “looking at yesterday”, in this context, involves people and mo-ments not directly connected to the present—that is, the history of those that came be-

fore us. This says nothing about self-reflection, which can be a powerful tool when

dealing with psychological malaise. Looking at past moments in our lives can signifi-

cantly affect how we view and interpret the world. For some, I’d imagine, the act of

learning history and incorporating it into their personal views has the same effect. It

exists, and I’m aware of it—I’m just wondering if it improves or hastens the spread of

equality.iii This is based purely on an initial reaction to her writing. I could be totally wrong

(and likely am), but I’m leaving it as is. These are my reactions, for better or worse.iv This is a cut reaction: “She and her American-born, American-educated friends ro-

manticize the discovery of intrinsic African virtue—accomplished via intermittent and

exclusive gatherings—in a country that only now has raised its Human Development Rating to 130 (Klugman 2010).” There are several reasons why I decided to cut this

reaction from the body of the paper: It sounds mean, it is mean, and it paints Africa inthe same light that E. Frances White discusses in his article Africa on My Mind: Gender,

Counterdiscourse, and African-American Nationalism. I certainly don’t want to propa-

gate that image of Africa, but I think it is important to include my initial reactions sothat I know where my preconceptions lie, and were the dysfunction in them exists.v Now, when I read that one man is responsible for the creation of a holiday I ask two

questions: who is this man, and who is following him? I’m immediately reminded of

more nefarious actors such as Jim Jones, preacher to the poor, promising a new nation

in space to a group of well-intentioned but uneducated astronauts, or L. Ron Hubbard,

the quasi-Jesus who charged into Florida armed with new age decrees to purify and

cure the mind. While Karenga’s past is certainly filled with controversy, including

convictions for torture and kidnapping, the intentions of Kwanzaa, including its crea-

tion and practice, appear to be genuine, and born from a polarizing movement to unify

and differentiate black Americans from the white majority.

vi This is in specific reference to the philosophies behind Christianity and capitalism. I

understand that, as practiced in America during time Kwanzaa was invented, these two

philosophies were stacked in favor of white men. However, this says nothing about themoral implications behind these two philosophies, and everything about their corrup-

tion. vii

Original draft read: Furthermore, the separatist approach taken by Kwanzaa seems

counterintuitive to equality; after all, if a group of people can manufacture a nationallyrecognized holiday whenever they choose, the idea that black and white Americans are

somehow equal, or ever will be, seems trivial. How can two groups be equal if one is

given the power to reinstate, subjugate or fabricate culture? The rural plains of Ameri-ca may be overrun by conservative white men, but its cities and borders and universi-

ties house its greatest secret: that every religious, political, racial and special interest

group under the sun has a hand in shaping the country’s underlying moral fabric. If



7

every group has a voice, then Kwanzaa is a god damned power ballad, sung through abullhorn atop a ladder made of light . This reaction was cut for obvious reasons.viii

I certainly enjoyed how Asante mentioned that it was Asante who first started the

Afrocentric movement. My initial comments on Maya Angelou’s pomposity pale in

comparison to this. While it may be true that Asante was the proverbial progenitor ofAfrocentricity, self-aggrandizing the fact (when no challenge to the contrary had been

issued) seems unnecessary. As is this commentary on it.

References

BIG Research. 2004. 2004 Holiday Spending by Region. Report, WashingtonDC: National Retail Federation.

Kelley, Robin. 2002. "Dreams of the New Land." In Freedom Dreams: The

Black Radical Imagination, by Robin Kelley, 14-35. Boston: Beacon

Press.

Klugman, Jeni. 2010. Human Devleopment Report 2010. Report, New York:

Palgrave Macmillan.

Scholer, J. Lawrence. 2001. "The Story of Kwanzaa." The Dartmouth Review.



8



9


he rich and intricate history of the black At‐lantic is, in many ways, responsible for the

American diaspora. From the buildup of

port towns and urban centers in Africa, to

Africa’s intercontinental slave trading, and

eventually to the dispersal of Africans to

various places across the Atlantic, these

narratives aggregate and congeal into themodern sentiments that support and spread

the foundation of the American diaspora.

However, I have to question the validity of a

vast, overreaching black diaspora existing in country that is, in my

opinion, a machine that constantly churns out smaller and smaller

diasporas.

I think it is only right to start with the definition of “diaspora”.

David Northrup, in his introduction to Crosscurrents in the Black At-lantic, describes a diaspora as, “[the] people dispersed away from

their homeland by force or other circumstances” (Northrup 2008).

This seems like a concise definition, and one that applies not only to

dispersed black people but to any group ejected from their home‐

land. However, as pointed out later in Northrup’s introduction only

a small percentage of African‐Americans are in touch with their Afri‐

can roots, and many still view Africa as a continent rife with poverty

and savagery, an unconscious image perpetuated by the dominanceof Eurocentric ideals. This begs the question: is a diaspora a label, an

emotion, an elevated sense of identity, or a movement? Are African

Americans—those who do not identify with either Africa or slav‐

ery—still part of a diaspora, despite their views being predicated on

subliminal misinformation? Can we refine the definition of a diaspo‐

ra and extrapolate a more broad meaning, or is it too specific? Can I

experience a diaspora in my own family? In school? In my commu‐nity? What entails being dispersed and what constitutes a home‐

land?



10

Stuart Hall’s rise to diasporic intellectuality was maintained

and underscored by his involvement in the New Left Movement and

his education in England—a place that he describes as a diaspora

within a diaspora. From his interview, The Formation of a Diasporic

Intellectual , it can be seen how formal European education eventual‐

ly led him to a more mature and worldly view of the diasporic phe‐

nomenon. It is interesting, then, that Hall chose to stay in England

rather than return to Jamaica (or set off for Africa). Most of his black

colleagues/contemporaries (many from Africa) took their white Eu‐

ropean education back home in an attempt to mend whatever politi‐

cal, cultural, or economic landscape that needed repair.

Like many of us today, Hall experienced a feeling of separa‐

tion/alienation from both his home country and the country he livedin. He alludes to the idea that this is an increasingly potent part of

the human condition—that as technology and human ingenuity con‐

tinue to increase, in both speed and availability, the world shrinks.

Culture and customs and information bleed through satellite feeds,

phone towers, and fiber optic cables, spreading across the world in‐

stantaneously. Humans move and shuffle across borders, learn new

languages, share experiences, and make what is foreign known. We

form our identities based on this wealth of variability. We group to‐gether in countries, in cities, in schools, in cliques, in pairs, and even‐

tually we find ourselves alone, sitting on the precipice of self‐

awareness, wondering why we are so different from everyone else.

For many, then, it seems as if such isolation outweighs the

emotional thrust of being part of a focused diaspora. Hall’s situation

was certainly unique, but his identity was formed, in part, by this al‐

ienation, as well as the speed of the world and its ability to pass you

by—an aspect of life that affects all of us, regardless of race.

In comparison to Hall, President Obama’s diasporic arousal

was more succinct. He starts off chapter 15 from Dreams of My Fa-

ther by contemplating the dichotomy of Africa; how the dissemina‐

tion of the Eurocentric‐led condemnation of Africa clashes with the

Afrocentric, near utopian notions of black Africa. This same dichot‐

omy carries over into his physical presence in Kenya—from his

wholly unimpressive arrival at the airport, to his treatment as atourist at the market, and eventually to his sense of belonging when

reunited with his family. Still, he seems conflicted at times; he real‐

izes the world has changed and that he must adapt to survive, but



11

also that the changes are so damaging to the perception of Africa and

black people that he must rebel. He wants to take Africa to America,

but sees the futility. He wants to feel united, but isolation still haunts

him. Even his sister, who spent time in Germany, still clings to an

identity that is, at times, European—and one that seems incongruent

with the identities forged by the people of Kenya. He sees the sin‐

ewy connections in Africa, but knows he is an American.

So again I ask: what is a diaspora, and how is it bound? If we

abide by the definition given by Northrup, would Obama be part of a

diaspora? How can he be dispersed away from his homeland if he is

an American? Was slavery even a factor? Many paths lead back to

the enslavement of Africans and their displacement across the Atlan‐

tic, but in today’s world, in today’s America, in a time when we allstruggle to identify who we are, what we are, and why we are, we

must first recognize the emotional buffers that shine and illuminate

the patina of our individual identities before we blanket ourselves

with the horrors of history.

Of course, that is not to say that slavery cannot, or should not

fit alongside the gears that turn identity, or that slavery is not a fun‐

damental pillar of the diaspora; it is more a question of whether or

not current generation African Americans attribute slavery as a rootcause for their cultural/societal detachment (if any even exists).

Let me try to explain. I consider myself an average human being in

nearly every facet: height, weight, wealth, education, intelligence,

wit, and so on. I am a shining example that the distribution of such

characteristics fit nicely within a bell curve. My knowledge of Afri‐

can slavery was one of profound ignorance—that evil (and primarily

white) sea pirates sailed the Atlantic, drunk on rum, high on opium,

and stole their human booty from the shores of foreign lands. These

sea pirates, like most pirates of fiction, would rape and loot and

murder and plunder wherever they went. They were, as guilt and

race would have it, my relatives. I carried their blood in my veins

and their sins in the color of my skin. I would forever be branded as

such, and held responsible for the consequences of their slanted mo‐

res.

Being an average human I now wonder how the perception ofslavery plays out in the minds of others. Are they just as erroneous?

Do they exist on a spectrum of color, where white leads to guilt and

black to reproach? Is the concept, not the content, of slavery used as



12

an excuse for such learned emotions? Or is my gap in knowledge an

oddity? Furthermore, can a middle‐aged white man who never

cared for history class—who much preferred the cold calculations of

science and math—be qualified to comment on how slavery, race,

and history factor into the densely wound tendrils of the diaspora?

In short, if I am average, and if I am an idiot, then so too are the ma‐

jority of Americans. We are mostly unaware of what motivates, in‐

spires, or moves us. Our identities are a heterogeneous mixture of

lies, half‐truths, and straight out delusions.

Stephanie Smallwood’s Saltwater Slavery: A Middle Passage

from Africa to American Diaspora works against my factually (and

intellectually) deficient picture of slavery. Thus far, Smallwood’s

book has accomplished two things: it has corrected and focused myinept sea pirate metaphor, bringing life to some aspects and killing

others, and it has me wondering if Karenga was right about capital‐

ism. Philosophically speaking, and seeing as how the timeline of

human ethics appears to be entirely relative, I am also wondering if

Immanuel Kant was full of shit.

The enslavement and commodification of people, as de‐

scribed by Smallwood, certainly provokes an emotional response—

primarily that humans are severely and unabashedly fucked up—butit also illustrates how a cultural (and evil, immoral, disgusting, etc.)

practice of taking slaves from warfare can be corrupted into an en‐

terprise that spans the world. Humans seem to be good at manipu‐

lating and exploiting markets, and slavery was no different. Small‐

wood meticulously walks us through the struggles Europeans faced

as trading in slaves became big business, as well as the cultural and

societal impact it had on the enslaved. It is a surprisingly detailed

account of how, in her opinion, the American diaspora was born1.

I feel a bit lost. Perhaps these events coalesce and ripple

across time, like a handful of rocks being thrown into a lake that is

already crowded with cresting whitecaps. Perhaps I lack the insight

to see it all, or perhaps I don’t want to see it. The sea pirates found a

way to turn humans into coconuts, and kinship into nihility, but how

does that connect to Stuart Hall and Obama, whose own Diasporas

1 The fact that African and European slave traders/factors kept such detailed logs and

diaries during this period further illustrates how human ethics takes a back seat to

greed. I should stop being so surprised by this.



13

had more to do with uncovering and facing personal dilemmas than

with the implications of saltwater slavery? Is there some bolded

thread that I’m missing? Does history channel and direct the flow of

emotion over generations?

I am not saying the connection to slavery is absent or trifling

when considering the American diaspora, or that its existence hinges

on understand and/or relating to the experiences discussed in

Smallwood’s book, but more and more I wonder how many people

actually incorporate saltwater slavery into their personal identities.

The concept of a diaspora is clear in its meaning, but when its prin‐

ciple—that people can be neatly grouped together based on a second

hand experience—takes precedence over the innate individuality

and pervasive alienation in modern America, the diaspora trans‐forms into a pseudo‐boundary between people of different racial

backgrounds.

We are all lost. It is part of the reason people like me (those

who are not in their early twenties, who are not coming into adult‐

hood, and who think a fedora should not be worn with jeans) go to

college and take history classes about things they know nothing

about. We don’t know what else to do, and no one is there guide us.

We are all struggling to fulfill a role in a society that neither caresnor wants us. I am one of over a hundred biology majors at Cleve‐

land State University, one of thousands in Ohio, of tens of thousands

in the country, and, if karma has its way with me, in several years we

will all be fighting over a single, low‐wage job in a town or city or

country that only exists to bleed us of our money and privacy. The

thousands of dollars I owe to the government will be paid back in

small increments, each check a woeful reminder of how totally bro‐

ken our higher education system is. There is no time to sit around

and contemplate slavery when contending with such immediate and

pressing matters. The same, I assume, applies to many in my posi‐

tion.

To put it another way: there are no slaves or slavers on a

sinking ship. There are no class lines, no sexism, no racism, and no

divisions among men. What you will find, however, is a bunch of

brainy, fire‐wielding apes, all clinging, crawling, fighting and drown‐ing in a deep and dark blue abyss.

References



14

Northrup, David. 2008. Crosscurrents in the Black Atlantic. Boston:

Bedford/St. Martin's.



15


s of late I have been working nearly 60hours a week as a bookbinder in a win‐

dowless brick building, plodding along at

heart‐attack‐pace to make someone in a

suit another hundred thousand a year.

The few moments I have at home I spendreading. I read about men and women,

religion, slavery, taxes, education, racism,crime, poverty, hope, fear, heaven and

hell. I read and I think, ‘what, exactly, is

slavery?’ It is control or forced obedi‐

ence? Is it the denial of freedom? Is it a seizure of the psyche, or a

battering of faculties? It is expressed physically or emotionally? It is

all of that, or none? The more I think on this the more I come to real‐

ize: I am just an amalgamation and representation of the vastness of

humanity. I own nothing. My thoughts, my genetics, my desires, myinstincts are all products of the past. There is nothing original about

me or any other human. I parrot talking points expressed by the

culmination of human discourse, seek women, food and fighting that

satiate the chemical hunger embedded in a mass a grey matter, fold‐

ed in the electric wool of neurons and synapses, and I write with the

sedated aplomb of those that came before me, the Vonnegut’s and

Orwell’s that I so passionately envied and mimicked. Religion stillperverts my intimations of life and death, like a thin nimbus cloudinflated over a barren desert, and science casts an austere shadow

over an existence that, at one point, seemed crowded with romance,

mystery and creativity.

And then I think, ‘I am a slave’.

Immediately such a thought would be discarded as absurd. In

fact, I would have to be drunk or high to make such a claim. How can

my American life—one festooned with amenity and luxury—possibly compare to that of an African slave in the 18th or 19th centu‐

ry? I am neither beaten nor raped by captors. I am not chained. I



16

am not forced to work in that windowless brick building, nor am I

forced to sit here and write about it. And yet I still feel throttled by

this existence, as if some pair of inexorable hands were pulling me

towards surrender and conformity. I feel owned; not by any one

person, but by the remnants of history, by the nucleotide sequences

in my genes, and by the ideas passed on via friends, family, film, and

every other influential medium. To be sure, my life is neither physi‐cally torturous nor lamentable when compared with any individual

that existed during the period of African slavery, but the effects arethe same. I carry with me these sentiments, and if I were selfish

enough to reproduce I would pass them on to younger generations.

And then I think, ‘I am a slave’.

The people I read about are slaves as well. Their tales are thesame. Whether originating from Meriwether’s “Proudly We Can Be

Africans” or Campbell’s “Middle Passages”, these stories aggregate toform a singular narrative of misplaced obligation to Africa, no doubt

spurred by common misconceptions about the continent (and itspeople) as well as the blindingly surreal machinations of Christiani‐

ty. William Sheppard stands as the exception to the rule; though his

involvement in spreading God’s gospel remained strong until his

death, the common image of Africa being populated with unenlight‐ened savages was quelled and contorted to something more in linewith the truth—that the people of Africa had their own cultures and

societies, their own methods of governing, each of which was no lessvalid or savage than America’s, Belgium’s, or Britain’s. It is a shame

that it took years of comingling with native African’s to find this uni‐

versal axiom.

The other characters in this history are sheathed in grime.

Delany, who thankfully left the dissemination of Christian idealism

to others, reeked of self‐aggrandizement. His constant flip‐floppingon issues speaks to this, and shows he was more concerned with

garnering recognition from those in high places than enacting actualchange. That’s not to say a person cannot change his mind. Certain‐

ly I have had my fair share of flip‐flopping, but changing an opinion

when convenient, or when opposition bares down on you, is more

akin to modern politics. Yes, the Fugitive Slave Laws of 1850 pro‐vided a prime opportunity to change opinions on emigration, butDelany would change again and again depending on where he was



17

and with whom he was in negotiations with. He would have made a

very good senator or congressman.

Henry Turner was at least consistent when it came to emigra‐

tion. I find it hard to villainize, or at least criticize those who hold

faith in religion or God. I cannot cast aside statistics—that the ma‐

jority of humans gravitate towards some Godly explanation as to our

existence and purpose—but I also cannot ignore my instincts.Turner certainly felt that what he was doing would benefit black

people in Africa and America, but to what cost? I read of these in‐trepid men and their exploits in Africa and only see cultural destruc‐

tion. Christianity has this curious ability to shape and mold cultures,

to obliterate tradition, to convert innocence into sin, and to shame or

kill those who stand in its way. Turner came into Africa bleating thetenets of the Bible and parroting the populist American opinion that

Africa was a land shrouded in heathenish darkness, two powerfultools he used assail the native African cultures. He wanted to “uplift”

the African peoples with stacks of Bibles, with the wise words ofChrist, and with promises of redemption and permanent placement

in some utopian afterlife. He was a slave to his beliefs, a carbon copy

of every other American missionary, only louder.

This, of course, assumes that Christianity, or missionaries ingeneral, had a net negative effect on African people. If this were amanifesto I would loudly proclaim that religion always has a net

negative effect on people and society; but these are not the pages ofmy diary, and I am neither stupid nor brave enough to swing such a

sword. I find myself hung up on this point because I recognize how

religion plays a part in my own world view. I cannot subscribe to

religion because it delays the advancement of human civilization, but

I cannot subscribe to atheism either. I cannot spout atheistic rheto‐

ric without feeling dishonest, without admitting that I’m just someknow‐nothing shithead living in a malaise of intellectual laziness. I

don’t know if God is dead, or if life really is a divine spark. I onlyknow what I believe, and that makes me just as suspect as Turner

and Sheppard, just as much a slave to authority and influence.

Charles Joyner offers some insight into African American

Christianity in “Believer I Know”. Again we find Christianity beingused as a tool to subjugate and “domesticate” so‐called heathens.What astonishes me is that the slaveholder’s mission was predicated

on outright lies, contradictions that can be easily traced through



18

Christian scripture. Follow Jesus and you’ll be a better able to serve

your master. Follow Jesus and your soul, not your life, will be saved.

It is amazing that black Americans were so quick to adopt and

transmute Christianity, even if it contained “seeds of disorder”.

The development and spread of Christianity amongst the en‐

slaved laid the groundwork for what would become a quest to save

Africa from itself. If we ignore the spirit possessions, the “Plat Eyes”,and the magical shamanism (and its derivatives), we find a set of

moral tenets that practically compel the most devout to lay hands ofsalvation on Africa. These are the sentiments that expose organized

Christianity as the corrosive toxin it is. Throw some missionaries

into the “heathenish darkness” and you can simultaneously save and

destroy a culture. It casts aside native African society as intrinsicallydevoid of worth. These enslaved peoples, some of whom had been

taken from Africa, quickly found faith in a religion that was able tojustify the horrors of slavery, and then sought to spread it to their

motherland. This truly confuses me.So, naturally, we look to history in hopes that it will illumi‐

nate the reasons for why these people were so quick to adopt and

spread their ideas of civilized culture. Some historical retellings

would have me believe that slavery was abolished in this country,that the land of the free finally earned its name by putting question‐able words into law. However, there is so much evidence that points

in the opposite direction. As an institution and commerce slaverymay have heard its death knell, but its recession into history only

opened alternate avenues of repression, control and segregation.

Even Sheppard, a man celebrated among white and black communi‐

ties, could not shake the body blow delivered by Southern life. As a

man who accomplished more in life than most could ever hope for,

he still felt pinned under the white finger of inequality, never ques‐tioning the white man’s position on the Congo or its problems.

I find it troubling that Turner, Sheppard and Delany were soquick to adopt a culture that, for the most part, would not accept

them as equals. Inequality, as a cultural cornerstone, was carried

across the Atlantic by those who had been slighted. African Ameri‐

cans came to the shores of their motherland—to Sierra Leone andLiberia—with the same mentality as their white suppressors, goingso far (in some cases) as to enslave native Africans, or to take em‐

ployment amongst the slaving syndicate. These immigrants were



19

not Africans, they were Americans through and through. I tend to

agree with Fredrick Douglass, who positioned himself against emi‐

gration, claiming the onus was on America, his home, to enact radical

change.

Of course, African Americans were also carving out their own

culture from the subjugating fabric of American democracy. Gomez

discusses this brand of cultural development in “Talking Half Africa”,shedding light on the adoption and molding of the English language

amongst enslaved populations. So we see that culture is a malleableproduct of human evolution, able to be plied and folded into virtually

any shape. And we see that enslaved blacks, who had no choice but

to integrate into American culture, affixed their own poetic flair to

the language. This appropriation and metamorphoses of culturalmainstays cascaded into the religious realm as well, seeing the ad‐

vent of a distinctly African American Christian sect. Still, these slightmodifications do not make up for what is, at the very core, tainted.

Cultures clash and adopt various mores from one anothernaturally. This much I understand. I do not want to paint either

American culture or African culture in any color other than clear

coat. It just seems that the colonization of Africa was so violent and

forceful that any cultural comingling that occurred was aberrant. Ido not mean to sound opposed to interweaving cultural fabrics, butwe can at least let it happen naturally via the more docile facets of

culture (music, writing, photography, etc.) without the sacking ofcivilizations or the complete proselytization of people’s beliefs.

Without turning them into slaves.

This relationship America had with Africa went further than

just Liberia and missionary efforts. For some it was cerebral, with

Africa representing an uncivilized expanse, replete with barbarism,

cannibalism and horrid disease, often attributed to supernaturalforces. Other saw Africa as the shadow of a kingdom long gone, of‐

ten claiming that their blood was that of royalty. As Campbell shows,some of that is true: the Zappo Zaps often roasted and ate human

flesh, disease was one of the more deadly aspects that Westerners

had to contend with, and kings certainly did rule and procreate, but

by and large this image of Africa was false. Chapter four in yourbook explores how some African Americans confronted these no‐tions via stage plays, and illustrates how influential arts can be when

assaulting a culture’s dominant discourse. Whether the plays were



20

successful or not matters little; their existence stands as a testament

to a changing tide in African American sentiment, one that wiped the

lens clean of white bigotry.

I spoke briefly of emigration in class, and my thoughts on it

are as muddled as ever. Cugoano certainly saw the predicament

black people were being swayed into when the first ships sailed for

Sierra Leone, and the American Colonization Society is the antithesisof a morally pristine charity, further cementing Cugoano’s fears.

There was nothing graceful or humble about the intentions of thosewho advocated for freed blacks to emigrate from the United States,

and there was nothing punctual or organized about the logistics of

transportation or colonization. For all intents and purposes, emigra‐

tion and colonization were synonyms for the plunder of Africa, andboth represent breeding grounds for corruption and mismanage‐

ment. As for the people that partook in emigrating, I feel as if theyleft one country that did not want them and found another that did

not need them. It is hard for me to sit here and question their mo‐tives for leaving America, for in the face of racism, inequality, lynch‐

ing and political marginalization I cannot fault a man or woman for

seeking asylum elsewhere. In reality, I’m surprised that violent up‐

heaval was not more commonplace in the South. It would have beenbloody and unnecessary, but justified.

Emigration presents an interesting argument: does a margin‐

alized person flee from the land that marginalizes them, or does heor she fight to change the cultural and societal landscape, hit the

problem head on, and assault those who stand opposed? It is a ques‐

tion that I am not equipped to tackle. To run, whether from defeat or

in search of respite, corrodes social progress. To stay and fight

strengthens the resolve of the enemy, confirms their suspicions, and

forces tumult. Douglas argued that freed blacks should stay in Amer‐ica and fight, a position that I find to be more manageable, if not

more righteous, than emigrating. Sheppard and Delany (occasional‐ly) argued the opposite. I have to reiterate: the end of reconstruc‐

tion saw the South return to slavery, if only by another name, and

had those in power actively working to disenfranchise, if not eradi‐

cate, free black Americans. How do you fight that? And how can yourun from it when such sentiments are firmly engrained in the Ameri‐can psyche?



21

In the end I see no clear answer. In the mind’s eye emigration

is painted with wide, disingenuous strokes, and highlighted with far‐

cical tones. It seems as if it were nothing more than a ploy to get rid

of freed black people. However, proponents like Alexander Crum‐

mell and William Sheppard describe Africa as a land steeped in beau‐

ty and riches, a place ripe for cultivating a black Christian nation that

could rival America. How could one deny this possibility? How couldone balk at such an idealized future? In the end, however, Africa

would not be transformed into some Afro‐Christian superpower; ra‐ther, it would be divided and sectioned off, like a golden pie, and

served to European countries whose sole intention was to gorge on

it. It would be given to people like King Leopold and others of simi‐

lar ilk.This can be quick and dirty: King Leopold was a prick. He rep‐

resents all that is wrong with government leadership. How do suchmen rise to power? Why is necessary that those who lead countries

be sociopathic assholes, devoid of humanity, hell bent on power andgreed? What creates these men, and what festers in their soul?

Honestly, he reads like some James Bond villain, or Orwell’s Big

Brother, or Koestler’s No. 1. I have to constantly remind myself that

I am reading historical accounts and not some political thriller.There was a lot of talk about social Darwinism during this time, and Ican think of no greater antagonist to this already feeble hypothesis

than King Leopold. He demonstrates that power and prestige arenot won with merit, but with nepotism, deceit and murder, qualities

that make him more a savage than the people he bled in the Congo.

I am finding it hard to put a wrapper on this reaction paper. I

have ignored large topics, including: the conditions immigrants met

in Sierra Leone and Liberia, Paul Cuffe and his involvement during

the infancy of the emigration movement, Thomas Jefferson and hisabsurdly malignant plan to “eliminate future breeders”, and I cer‐

tainly missed a prime opportunity to further explore the cartoonish‐ly immoral American Colonization Society. On top of that I cut about

a thousand words that drunkenly wobbled into the realm of philo‐

sophical bullshit, paragraphs that attempted to explore the origins of

evil and the ethical principles of utilitarianism and egoism. Again, Ifound myself emulating others, spouting ideas that were never myown.



22

I suppose there is no logical end for this paper. The ideas that

exist here will bleed into the next reaction, and I have no doubt that

in a couple of weeks you’ll be reading another collection of words

that attempt to cobble together this historical narrative. I apologize

for the length and promise to be more active in culling the more su‐

perfluous tangents.



23


am still not sure what to make of Marcus

Garvey. Is he a prophet, as the Rastafarians

claim, or is he a dedicated grifter, setting up

pyramid schemes like the Black Star Line

only to extract money from the poor? It is

hard to classify a man who is so revered yet

stumbled so many times. His United NegroImprovement Association certainly had de‐

signs on uplifting poor black African Ameri‐

cans, and he did firmly fix his eyes towards

the Western shores of Africa, where Liberia

stood on the precipice of Black Nationalism, but the methods he em‐

ployed to convey these designs were often times marred by poor

leadership. However, does this detract from the message he propa‐

gated through books and newspaper articles? Are his shortcomingsthe epitaph for the movement, or can Garveyism transcend these

faults and rally on into new generations?

Garvey’s message of “Africa for the Africans” appealed to all

permutations of African Americans, but his following mainly consist‐

ed of the under‐privileged. This makes his appeal for money (in the

form of stocks) a bit suspect. I understand that his jail sentence and

deportation was largely political, but the single instance of defraud‐

ing a man for 25 dollars seems indicative of a larger problem—thathe would ask for and misspend money from people who had little to

offer other than hope. The Black Star Line is one example of how

Garvey was able to defraud his followers in the name of sensational‐

ism and spectacle. Garvey seems to exude this palpable bravado,

never deviating from the pomp and circumstance of public demon‐

stration or from the trivial titular endowments he was so fond of

(Provisional President of Africa?). His conquest for racial unity and“Africa for the Africans” seems steeped in naiveté, probably a conse‐

quence of him never visiting Africa (or from misinformation on the

topic). Furthermore, his personal views concerning black people



24

seem to contradict his message; if the majority of “his” people “are in

darkness and are really unfit for good society” how can they rule Af‐

rica for themselves? If his intentions were to uplift them (which, I

suppose, they were), you only need to look at Liberia as an example

of what black immigrants “uplifted” in a Western culture will do

when tasked with colonizing their Motherland. To make matters

worse, Liberia, the one foothold America had in Africa, did not want

Garvey or his ideology to penetrate its borders.

Garvey’s faults become even more apparent when examining

his personal life, particularly his romantic endeavors. By all ac‐

counts Garvey had great taste in women: strong, independent, intel‐

ligent, motivated, and free from the mold of subservience. And by all

accounts Garvey had great trouble with women: the qualities thatinitially sparked his attraction were moot when marriage entered

the equation. Amy Ashwood, his first wife, found this out the hard

way. He abandoned his second wife, Amy Jacques, when he traveled

to Britain. Both women embodied the feminist movement of the late

19th to early 20th century, when cultural and social inequalities ap‐

plied to both white and black women. Ashwood’s involvement in

creating and organizing the UNIA illustrates the influence feminism

had over Garvey during his early years, and her intimate involve‐ment in the organization, even after (supposedly) divorcing Garvey

stands as a testament to her dedication to the cause.

Aside from these criticisms, Garvey’s message to African

Americans was one of profound truth. He, like other prominent

black figures of the time, rightfully advocated for all forms of equali‐

ty, and his U.N.I.A. justly argued for rise of a black nation (even if

Garvey’s own designs for said nation were “vague”, as Sundiata put

it). Furthermore, as Vinson points out in his chapter “The Rise of

Marcus Garvey and His Gospel of Garveyism in Southern Africa”,

Garvey also “demanded freedom for the people of India and Ireland

and all other colonized lands”. He was not afraid to rattle the cage,

so to speak, which is probably why he drew so much attention from

Hoover and the F.B.I.

I think it is apparent that Garveyism was able to transcend

the failings of Garvey. I suppose all movements are shaped in a simi‐lar manner: via the distillation of basic principles. I am reminded of

Occupy Wall Street, which despite being a failure on the frontline

planted its seed in the American psyche, assuring that its sentiments



25

would live on. Garvey assured his gospel would rise above his per‐

sonal defects by basing his assertions in clear truth. His anticolonial

ideologies would live on in the early Rastafarian movement, where

he would be described as a prophet, his divinity second only to Se‐

lassie.

Like Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. Du Bois is a hard man to catego‐

rize. Early on in life he viewed Africa in burnished shades of racial

divergence, advocating for “self‐segregation” and “separate but

equal” treatment of blacks. To Du Bois, black Africans were crea‐

tures driven by emotion rather than logic, a quality that lent beauty

and romanticism to native Africans, and one that stood out as sepa‐

rate from white men. It also reinforced the idea that skin color is

correlated with expectations of cognizance, an argument that, in myopinion, only pushes the racist conceit of human speciation further

into the collective white mindset. Even when working and living in

Liberia, Du Bois directed most of his attention to the controlling set‐

tler class, further illustrating, if not accepting, the cavernous divide

between the indigenous population and those in power.

Liberia held promise for both W.E.B. Du Bois and Marcus Gar‐

vey. It served as a staging ground for the whole of Africa, and if suc‐

cessful would bolster their impassioned ideas of a successfully runblack government. Early on Du Bois used religious mysticism to pos‐

it black solidarity, relying on specific scriptures and divine authority

to rally supporters. It was not until later in his life when the common

threads of oppression and global enslavement wound around the

diaspora. This, perhaps, allowed Du Bois to see Liberia in terms of

social and political terraforming—as a piece of the Motherland that,

with his ingenuity and support, could be sculpted into the penulti‐

mate black nation, the last stop on the road to a unified Africa. Never

mind the corruption, stemming from both the colonial government

Liberia adopted and the divide between Western immigrants and

native Africans. Never mind the greed, the missing funds from loans,

or the complete mismanagement of assets. Let us just forget about

the Firestone Rubber Company steamrolling through, effectively en‐

slaving a nation founded by the enslaved, a deal Du Bois helped to

fruition. If we could only see around these innately human forms ofexploitation and demoralization, we could position Liberia as the

centerpiece of global black power.



26

Du Bois knew of the corruption taking place in Liberia and

remained silent, evidence that he was either party to it, or indiffer‐

ent. Liberia was rife with forced slavery, rape, and open rebellion.

The conditions were so amiss that American officials attempted to

paint the Firestone Rubber Company as a victim of Liberia’s social

decay, unable to conduct legitimate business in a country ravished

by corruption. Du Bois even blamed Africans for the inception of the

transatlantic slave trade, the point in time that he knew to be the

framework for the African diaspora. Thankfully, George Shuyler

was around to contend with Du Bois’ combative conjecture. He lifted

pockets of truth from Liberia and exposed them to his readers, al‐

lowing a more transparent discussion to take place. His advocacy of

colonial over indigenous rule in Liberia, while controversial in itsown right, spoke to the corruption that permeated every nook of the

government.

In many ways DuBois and Garvey were similar. They both

sought freedom from, if not the abolition of white supremacy the

world over. They both conceived of a solidified black nation existing

in Africa—a nation capable of self‐preservation without the support

of Europe or America. They both inspired masses of African Ameri‐

cans to reinterpret their conceptions of Africa and its native people(DuBois more so). And both made considerable missteps along the

way. Yet they hated each other, squabbling over ego, jabbing each

other with childish insults and public mockery. The foundation of

black solidarity, built and supported by both men, seems to crumble

under such behavior. Here we have two giants working towards

similar goals, yet unable to collaborate or even discuss their differ‐

ences in a civilized manner. It all seems silly and pointless.

Du Bois describes Africa and its native people as beautiful.

The popular movement to “uplift” Africa from heathenish darkness

was lost on Du Bois, who viewed Africans through a lens of pride.

Ethiopia’s triumph over Italy in 1896 had a similar effect on African

Americans, who were able to look across the sea with contented eyes

as members of their race defeated an invading white army, illustrat‐

ing how war has the ability to inspire solidarity. Similarly, when

Mussolini came looking for retribution in the early 1930’s AfricanAmericans were again able to rally around Ethiopia as a beacon of

racial pride.



27

James Meriwether’s “Proudly We Can Be Africans” throws so

much history at you in the first two chapters that I have to wonder if

each paragraph could be extrapolated into its own book. There are

certainly some odd bits thrown in there: white people claiming Ethi‐

opians as members of their own race, the protracted pleas from Afri‐

can Americans as they petitioned the impotent American govern‐

ment to show support for Ethiopia, and the role of communism in

reshaping the struggle for black solidarity. African Americans, it

seems, met with opposition every time they moved to support Ethi‐

opia, culminating in a level of frustration I cannot even imagine.

They wanted to volunteer their service to the Ethiopian army but

were blocked and threatened with denaturalization or jail time.

They wanted to send aid and supplies, but only a few charities werelegitimate, the others existing to con people of their money (none of

which were charged!?). Competing newspapers argued about the

level of involvement African Americans should take in the war (if

any), at least one of which doubled back on their position and then

conveniently forgot the path they tread. The general lack of re‐

sponse from the American government prompted many African

Americans to question Washington’s political motivations, some

claiming America wanted Italy to win, effectively forging an allianceagainst Hitler.

As Meriwether points out, the turn‐of‐the‐century idea that

Africa needed European colonialism to uplift its people began to dis‐

sipate as African Americans investigated and read more about the

continent. The fact that Ethiopia was able to stand united against a

foe was, according to The Courier , enough to inspire African Ameri‐

cans to unite. I still do not fully understand Mussolini’s reasoning for

invading Ethiopia, other than retaliatory. Was it that easy to sell war

to the Italians: revenge for a battle lost nearly 40 years ago? Where

was their outcry? Where was their opposition?

Then the Nazis come swooping in with their notions of racial

superiority. For all of America’s faults—their history of slavery, the

American Colonization Society and emigration, Jim Crowism, segre‐

gation, lynching, and so on—I am honestly surprised that America

did not carry Hitler’s torch as he cut swaths through Europe andRussia. I suppose it speaks to the changing mentality in the States,

especially concerning racial superiority and communism, the emerg‐

ing menace to freedom.



28

So let me get this straight: America fought against fascism and

communism, and today we fight against socialism. Is there any –ism

we won’t fight? Moreover, in fighting against communism America

decided it was better to allow European countries to keep their col‐

onies in Africa rather than let newly independent nations develop

their own forms of government, some of which may have been com‐

munist. That rationale seems broken. Why would America fear the

development of communism in Africa? As Meriwether points out,

Washington had little interest in Africa South of the Sahara, so why

the concern?

For me, a lot of this information is lost in translation. I can

see why Russia was a threat to our survival, just as any nuclear pow‐

er is, but communism seemed to have a place in American politicsduring the 30’s and 40’s, when many black activists supported Marx‐

ist interpretations. Furthermore, the fact that Washington began to

question Jim Crowism only when segregation was used as anti‐

American propaganda shows how reputation took precedence over

equality. Both of these chapters weave a story of African American

pleas falling on deaf ears, and that the speed and moral “uplifting” of

Washington was motivated solely by the machinations of politics,

war, and imagined “red” threats in Africa.



29


n 1948, we find the notions of white su‐

premacy transfigured into government pol‐

icy. How Malan was able to sell apartheid to

anyone is disconcerting in itself; however,

the fact that he nearly doubled his majority

in Parliament in 1953 indicates that white

South Africans were supportive of apart‐heid’s inherent racial bias. In general, this

seems like a fundamental problem arising

from the construct of race. More specifical‐

ly, the (mostly) nonviolent opposition aris‐

ing from the Defiance Campaign worked against the fight for racial

equality; the government was able to portray opposition to apart‐

heid as savage pro‐communism. Furthermore, America made it clear

to the world that communism in any form was the real enemy tofreedom and democracy, therefore providing justification for color‐

ing anyone who opposed Malan and apartheid in the most fervently

anti‐democratic shade of red.

America’s indifference to apartheid went beyond cold war

anti‐communist rhetoric and supplanted the fundamental ideals of

democracy with the need for strategic material goods. America

needed uranium, and South America had plenty of it. This seems to

be a problem birthed by global markets, and one no longer unique toAmerica. America needed uranium to build nuclear weapons during

the cold war, so it ignored racial inequality in South Africa as a

means to obtain it. Today, America needs a variety of transitional

and rare metals to produce iPhones, computers, weapons and so on,

so we ignore the racial inequality, human rights violations, and vio‐

lent conflict arising from their acquisition. The convenience and im‐

mediacy afforded by these products far outweighs the destructionleft in their wake. Capitalism wins again.

As well, the marginalization and denial of civil rights to Afri‐

can Americans at home severely limited Washington’s willingness or



30

ability to criticize South Africa’s raced‐based legislation. America’s

lack of criticism provided the Soviets with even more propaganda.

African Americans were quick to respond: they argued that apart‐

heid contributed to the rise of communism in South America, and

that American intervention could subdue or eliminate communist

tendencies amongst the non‐white races. Still, America walked the

middle ground, ignoring South Africa’s perversions of democracy in

order to maintain a profitable and strategic relationship. The irony is

clear: America allowed the degradation of democracy to proliferate

through its African ally while at the same time presenting it to the

world as only viable vessel for freedom. With this understanding,

Soviet propaganda transforms into factual statements.

The tragic events of Sharpeville set apartheid on a globalstage, and forced America to make a public statement concerning

South Africa’s treatment of Africans. Yet even in the wake of this

massacre, Eisenhower reaffirmed his lackadaisical attitude towards

apartheid and assured South Africa that America would continue to

support white rule. This illustrates two things: that America needed

colonial power in South Africa to continue unabated, and that the

U.N. was/is entirely ineffectual in promoting its own mission state‐

ment. African Americans convened in several congresses to pressureWashington and the U.N. to condemn racial discrimination in South

Africa. Nothing occurred. Again, the threat of communism took prec‐

edence over the freedom, welfare, and now lives of black Africans.

The U.N. was complicit with this course, showing that American con‐

cern far outweighed peace and human rights in South Africa.

Despite these mixed messages from Washington, and despite

Sharpeville putting apartheid and white supremacy on a global

stage, many African Americans still viewed Africa as a dark continent

in need of uplifting. The fact that the black press continued to per‐

petuate this viewpoint during the Defiance Campaign stands as a tes‐

tament to the persuasive power of American propaganda. Thankful‐

ly, the Mau Mau and Nkrumah stood poised to challenge the status

quo, forcing America’s reconceptualization of Africa, its native peo‐

ple, and her colonial interlopers.

The British, in an apparent conquest to colonize the entireglobe, went to Kenya and did what they do best: plant flags in foreign

soil and pillage what is ripe and fruitful. As to be expected, the native

inhabitants, united under the Mau Mau movement, fought back, jus‐



31

tifiably invoking violence in place of the (mostly ineffectual) civil

disobedience displayed by the Defiance Campaign. Like apartheid,

African Americans framed the Mau Mau movement as an anti‐

colonial fight against white supremacy. Unlike apartheid, it adopted

a militant comportment, and chose blood as its fuel.

Unsurprisingly, America was hesitant to challenge colonial

powers at a time when support against communism was valued

more than upholding democratic principles, and chose to remain in‐

different to or supportive of Britain’s actions in Kenya. Essentially,

ending white rule was deemed harmful to the fight against those

commies. Furthermore, the notion that native Africans had only just

come down from the trees permeated the government’s psyche, af‐

firming their belief that a colonial‐ruled Africa was far better than anative‐ruled Africa. African Americans had a different perspective,

viewing the Mau Mau’s struggle for land and freedom as an anti‐

colonial endeavor, and perhaps for some, a violent parallel to their

own struggle for equality. Since many African Americans saw com‐

munism as supporting racial equality, they argued that colonial rule

and white supremacy in Africa necessitated the adoption of com‐

munist ideals. America, not wanting to make waves in their democ‐

racy‐for‐all kiddie pool, chose to walk the middle ground (just asthey did with South Africa). Again, African American outcry went vir‐

tually unnoticed by Washington.

The violence of the Mau Mau movement stands as the most

glaring point of contention; after all, the violence affected more na‐

tive Africans than it did white invaders. The civil disobedience exhib‐

ited by the Defiance Campaign hindered their cause when Malan

painted their opposition as evidence that South Africa needed even

more race‐based legislation. The Mau Mau movement had a similar

response from America; it reaffirmed stereotypical beliefs that na‐

tive Africans were barbaric heathens. Of course, America was quick

to forget their own violent struggle for land and freedom from a co‐

lonial power. Still, statistics show that the Mau Mau directed most of

their violence towards complicit natives rather than colonial settlers.

This, perhaps, is one reason why African Americans would not open‐

ly support the Mau Mau’s militant tactics; after all, black America’sguiding imperative to end the colonization of Africa and white su‐

premacy the world over could never be measured with piles of black

corpses.



32

The Mau Mau movement precipitated new ideas concerning

Africa and its native people. Older notions that painted Africa as an

uncivilized continent began to deteriorate as Mau Mau frustration

boiled over. However, Eurocentric preconceptions of Africa would

not fully wither until the Gold Coast wrestled freedom from Britain,

and Kwame Nkrumah took his seat as the proverbial leader of an in‐

dependent Ghana.

Ghana’s independence inspired many African Americans to

refocus their mental pictures of Africa and its native people. Ghana’s

history of slavery linked many African Americans to its shores, and

many could trace the component lines of the black diaspora to the

Gold Coast. This, coupled with the political thrust Ghana received

when it achieved independence, provided African Americans with anew view of Africa, and perhaps for the first time, showed them tan‐

gible evidence of a united black nation.

Nkrumah emphatically embraced Garveyism, going so far as

to start his own Black Star Line and to adopt the symbol as the cen‐

terpiece for the Ghanaian flag. The ideals embodied in Garveyism

stood forefront in Nkrumah’s vision for Africa, and were important

factors that led many African American to immigrate into Ghana, in‐

cluding George Padmore and W.E.B. Du Bois. In particular, Nkru‐mah’s visit to America (after becoming president) moved many Afri‐

can Americans to reinterpret their notions of Africa, and convinced

others to heed the call to help build the foundation of a unified Afri‐

ca. However, America stood looming in the shadows like a jealous

ex‐boyfriend, ready to sabotage any chance Ghana had for achieving

its vision as if it were a date at the Olive Garden.

The expatriates that came to reside in Ghana during Nkru‐

mah’s rule were unified in nearly every aspect, save for their politi‐

cal ideologies. Most had come as temporary workers, helping to

build up Ghana’s woefully deficient infrastructure, but a few promi‐

nent African American figures did appear, including Julian Mayfield,

Maya Angelou, William Hunton Jr., Preston King and Bill Sutherland.

Most of them had similar stories: troubles in America led them to be

unemployed, blacklisted, or frustrated. Ghana provided them with an

opportunity to work outside the confines of American Southern rac‐ism and white supremacy, and gave them hope for the future of Afri‐

ca. However, the political diversity of these outspoken expatriates

drew the eye of America. The expatriates found themselves in the



33

perfect position to criticize America’s internal civil rights struggle,

potentially providing more propaganda to the Soviets. And if we

know one thing about America it is this: they love to hate com‐

munism.

Communism, communism, communism. Boy, America really

hated communism. It makes America look like a one‐trick pony, run‐

ning around the world giving gold stars to countries that embrace

democracy, and conspiring to topple those that did not. Of course,

that is assuming America really did make a concerted effort to raise

opposition to Nkrumah and his idea of nationalism. That is also as‐

suming Nkrumah’s downfall was a result of American meddling, and

not his own paranoia and/or abuse of power. Campbell’s chapter

strongly alludes to a C.I.A. plot to foster dissent, eventually leading tothe coup d’état, but makes no definitive conclusions. Either way,

Ghana never fully achieved the ideals of Garveyism.

The notion that Ghana provided a haven for American expat‐

riates, and therefore a breeding ground for communist propaganda,

likely contributed to America’s exuberance when Operation Cold

Chop succeeded. Perhaps Nkrumah would have never led Ghana into

an age of a United Africa, but in this political game of chess, Ghana

looks the pawn, simply changing hands from Britain to America, andnever given a genuine chance to succeed.

Still, Ghana’s independence became a source of pride for

many Africans and African Americans. Furthermore, Ghana led the

charge of African independence, seeing more than a dozen countries

gain independence only three years after Nkrumah came into power.

Africa certainly appeared to be on the right track. However, Ghana’s

relative ease into independence stands in contrast to the Congo,

where freedom from colonial rule cast the country into tumult.

Meriwether is blunt about the Congo’s history: King Leopold

and the Belgian government enslaved, slaughtered and suppressed

the native people. The horrors of the Congo are tied directly to colo‐

nial rule, providing concrete evidence that colonization only benefits

the colonizer. Even after achieving independence in 1960, colonial

powers still meddled in Congo affairs, afraid that Lumumba would

fall into Soviet hands. The conflict that arose from independence wasa consequence of colonial rule as well; after generations of suppres‐

sion, subpar education for natives, and wholesale enslavement, the

ill‐equipped Congolese grasped the reins of government and



34

promptly made of mess of things. African Americans seemed to be

the only ones recognize this fundamental problem.

From America’s point of view, it is the same story: do not let

the fires of communism burn in Africa. To achieve this, America at‐

tempted to keep peace in the Congo via the U.N. What followed

comes as no surprise: more problems. This brings up a strange con‐

tradiction I am currently struggling with: many Americans wish

Washington would mind its business when dealing with foreign af‐

fairs, that we should pull support, either financially or militarily from

those countries we see as potential threats, or from countries we

deem to be “backwards” or in violation of our mores. Others believe

America should be more involved, that our military might has the

ability to keep peace, and that Washington has the bankroll neces‐sary to buy allies and quell disorder (or something to that effect).

Meriwether casts Washington in both lights: as do‐nothings and as

involved meddlers, and in both situations, America looks bad. Any

course America could have taken in either situation would have end‐

ed poorly, and non‐action can certainly carry the same moral weight

as action. I suppose I am just trying to ascertain any semblance of

reason for America acting as it did, or if it was in any way justifiable.

In any event, the mid‐20th century marked many changes forboth Africa and African Americans. Not only had the continent

changed with the rise of independent black‐ruled nations, but Amer‐

ican sentiments towards the continent shifted more towards a posi‐

tion of hope and pride. Nelson Mandela and the defiance campaign,

Nkrumah and Ghana, the Mau Mau in Kenya, and Lumumba in the

Congo all challenged American misinformation concerning Africa,

and corroded the cage that colonization held them in. The success or

failure that any of these movements found was moot: Africa was

changing, and neither America nor their cold war newspeak could

change that.



35


he African diaspora persists throughout

modern society, serving as a perpetual re‐

minder of how the autocratic European ide‐

alism dominant during the Atlantic slave

trade shaped and molded the modern insti‐

tutions that influence black identity and cul‐ture. In particular, the comprehensive

transformation of an African indentured

servant to a European commodity—

including the processes of capture, en‐

slavement and shipment across the Atlan‐

tic—serves not only as a microscope for viewing the enigmatic moral

fabric that insulates the Western world, but also as the fundamental

infrastructure from which the African diaspora is shaped and trans‐ferred through generations.

Stephanie Smallwood, in her book Saltwater Slavery: A Middle

Passage from Africa to American Diaspora explores the logistics and

systematization that buffeted the commodification of people living

on the African continent. The callous and calculated manner in which

European factors stripped enslaved Africans of their cultural, social

and physical identities contributed greatly to a profound sense of

isolation and displacement—emotions which have since calcified

into the constituent pillars of the African diaspora. It was this trans‐

formation—from prisoner to product—that exacerbated and has‐

tened the endemic practices of enslavement and warfare, two innate

African divisions that ultimately drove Atlantic trade.

Michael Gomez makes a similar argument in his article Talk-

ing Half African: Middle Passage, Seasoning, and Language, where he

writes, “. . . the very process of enslavement directly informed therestructuring of the slave’s identity” (Gomez 1998, 154). This re‐

structuring—caused not only by the process of enslavement but also



36

by the European commodification of the enslaved—marked what

would ultimately become the base of the African Diaspora, and (to

some) still serves as the mechanism by which they disconnect from,

or reject, the Eurocentric identity so prevalent in the Western world.

Like most other commodities, the trade in human beings

takes root in the simple economics of supply and demand, and finds

corruption with the impending allure of greed and gold. As Small‐

wood writes, “. . . for African merchants with insufficient access to

gold, ships like the San Francisco represented an expansion of oppor‐

tunity—a fresh avenue to wealth and power” (Smallwood 2007, 18).

Even in today’s economic climate, where corruption seemingly

knows no bounds, it is hard to imagine that this “fresh avenue” that

led many African merchants toward prosperity was constructed andpaid for with the social, cultural and physical deaths of thousands of

captured Africans. Slaves were treated like disobedient animals:

stripped naked, shackled, and forced to abandon their land, people

and customs. They were branded, both physically and emotionally,

and had their features and physical qualities meticulously recorded

in factory manifestos and shipping logs—distinctions reserved for

cattle or crates of tobacco. Upon reaching the Atlantic coast slaves

were held in prisons, mixed and intermingled with other enslavedpeople from across the continent, further diluting their sense of

community or shared heritage. Every part of their journey was

marked with some kind of death; social death, which worked to as‐

phyxiate the African’s intrinsic cultural fires, took precedence over

physical death, where fleeting moments of pain could end a lifetime

of servitude and suffering. To the African it was the death of their old

identity and the birth of a new one. It was the initiation of a social,

cultural and economic metamorphosis—one that would immutably

thrust them into the margins humanity. As Smallwood succinctly ex‐

plains, “[t]he Atlantic market for slaves changed what it meant to be

a socially, politically, or economically marginalized person” (Small‐

wood 2007, 30).

This experience of commodification had two very unique

consequences: it weakened and dehumanized the enslaved African,

easing their transition from person to product, and it forced an oth‐erwise segregated population of Africans to share in an experience

that, in spite of (or perhaps because of ) the atrocities, inspired a

sense of solidarity. Smallwood elaborates, “[the] Atlantic commodifi‐



37

cation meant not only exclusion from that which was recognizable as

community, but also immersion in a collective whose most distin‐

guishing feature was its unnatural constitution: it brought strangers

together in anomalous intimacy” (Smallwood 2007, 101). It is in this

warped method of forging unity and intimacy where we begin see

the glinting particles of the African diaspora settle.

The commodification of African people was driven by the

demand of both physical and intellectual labor in South and North

America. European trade facilitated the transfer of African slaves to

the New World, a process that could last for months and could lead

to the deaths of many captives. For the African, the horrid and humil‐

iating conditions aboard the cargo ships often eclipsed those seen on

land, where such obstacles as obtaining food, water, and physicalspace were, at the very least, easier to tackle. The death and dirt and

rape experienced by those who survived the voyage—those who

reached the New World and were sold at market—only strength‐

ened the solidarity within their community. In fact, the emotional

devastation was strong enough to send out a generational reverbera‐

tion, affecting the offspring of their offspring, the kin of their kin, and

the multitudes of African descendants the world over. Gomez inter‐

jects with similar insight, writing, “[t]he means by which they weretransported was of such violence, the anguish they suffered of such

depth, that their memory was veritably seared into the conscious‐

ness of both the African and her African‐born progeny” (Gomez

1998, 164).

This generational bleed‐through is evidenced in the writings

of Stuart Hall, whose own struggle with isolation and identity shed

light on the far‐reaching consequences of the Atlantic slave trade.

Although Hall had no direct relationship with Africa, his writings and

ideas about identity focus and reflect how the years of colonialism

brought on by the Atlantic slave trade affected his conceptual under‐

standing of the diaspora, and how it influenced his intellectual pur‐

suits. In Hall’s interview with Kuan‐Hsing Chen, appropriately titled

The Formation of a Diasporic Intellectual , he writes, “[g]radually, I

came to recognize I was a black West Indian, just like everybody else,

I could relate to that, I could write from and out of that position”(Chen 1996, 489). This recognition served as the base for his intel‐

lectual development while living and studying in England, and com‐

pelled him to view the African diaspora as a composite of cultural



38

duties, eventually leading to his involvement in various like‐minded

organizations.

Hall further expands on this concept in his article Cultural

Identity and Diaspora, where he writes “. . . our cultural identities re‐

flect the common historical experiences and shared cultural codes

which provide us, as 'one people', with stable, unchanging and con‐

tinuous frames of reference and meaning, beneath the shifting divi‐

sions and vicissitudes of our actual history” (Hall 1994, 393). Here,

his writing clearly illustrates how black identity is fashioned from

the African diaspora and its irrefutable cultural impact, a conse‐

quence of their “common historical experiences”.

The African diaspora envelopes, motivates, and edifies people

from every corner of this planet. Luminaries such as President Bar‐rack Obama and Maya Angelou, both of whom reconnect with an Af‐

rica lost to slavery, stand as a testament to the objective existence of

a group whose connective tissue is wrought in iron shackles and

branded by the immoral enterprise of European capitalism. The

practice of slavery is, in itself, a seemingly timeless part of world his‐

tory, but the methods employed during the transatlantic slave trade

were so visceral and affective that the resulting diaspora was, in

both its worldly breadth and cultural profundity, unparalleled. Itsability to change and alter the consciousness of the individual cas‐

cades into the political and economic realms, affecting laws, local

economies, neighborhoods, and, more importantly, the dominant

perceptions of race and identity. To say that slavery had an impact

on the African diaspora would be a disservice to the documentation

presented by Smallwood and Gomez—slavery is the reason for the

diaspora, the sole progenitor, the only god it knows.

Furthermore, the addendums of slavery—that is, the capture

of warring tribesmen and women, the deadpan commodification of

human beings, and the excremental (among other) horrors of the

transatlantic voyage—firmly grasp the African diaspora and thrust it

into the modern age, assailing Eurocentric preconceptions and chal‐

lenging historiographical authority. It gives the diaspora the ether

needed to live and thrive, the metaphysical fuel to rocket it into the

stratosphere of human consciousness, and it red‐lines humanity’scapacity for compassion and understanding. It shapes and molds the

identities of everyone it touches, regardless of whether or not they

recognize it. It defibrillates the intendment of the dead and enlight‐



39

ens the living, allowing the world to glimpse truths that would oth‐

erwise remain embalmed in the archives of European history. It

serves as a rough‐hewn integument for the African diaspora, collect‐

ing and unifying people into one worldly body; and like all epidermal

canvases it grows calloused and strong with time, like a living,

breathing scar raised on the shoulders of Atlas. It is unwavering, un‐

relenting, and perhaps for some, it is the incontrovertible definition

of life itself.

References

Chen, Kuan‐Hsing. 1996. "The Formation of a Diasporic Intellectual."In Stuart Hall: Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies, by Kuan‐Hsing

Chen and David Morley, 484‐503. London: Routledge.

Gomez, Michael E. 1998. Exchanging Our Country Marks. Chapel Hill:

University of North Carolina Press.

Hall, Stuart. 1994. "Cultural Identity and Diaspora." In Colonial Dis-

course and Post-Colonial Theory: A Reader , by Patrick Williams, 392‐

401. London: Havester Wheatsheaf.

Smallwood, Stephanie. 2007. Saltwater Slavery: A Middle Passage from Africa to American Diaspora. Cambridge: Harvard University

Press.



40



41


frica for the Africans” wrote Marcus Garvey

in a poem of the same name, invoking an

African nationalist pathos at a time when

colonial rule dominated the continent.

Though Garvey never visited Africa, his

gospel carried across the Atlantic as a prel‐ude to the anti‐colonialist movements that

would redefine Africa’s role in world affairs.

With Garveyism as its driving doctrine, Afri‐

ca saw the rise of nationalism and its evolu‐

tion into a struggle for independence in the

early to mid‐20th century, when America’s pro‐colonial Cold War

stratagems dominated world politics. Such stratagems defined these

nationalist movements as anti‐democratic and pro‐communist, fur‐ther delineating America’s need to suppress black independence

movements as an artifice for world peace. As a result, anti‐colonial

movements, including South Africa’s Defiance Campaign, Kenya’s

Mau Mau uprising, Lumumba’s rise to power in the Congo, and Gha‐

na’s procurement of complete independence, were stifled by Wash‐

ington’s Cold War agenda.

Though the inception of mass Black Nationalism and African

suffrage movements point to Garvey’s unified Africa doctrine, it was

Kwame Nkrumah’s ascension to political power in 1957 that truly

catalyzed the transduction of colonial disunity throughout the Afri‐

can continent, extending its nationalist objective to Kenya, the Congo

and South Africa. Nkrumah’s elucidation of Garveyism found its

footing at the Fifth Pan‐African Congress in 1945, where he evange‐

lized a non‐violent Gandhist program that “. . . centered round the

demand for constitutional change, providing for universal suffrage”(Northrup 2008, 101). In the following years, this pacifist articula‐

tion of African nationalism assailed the Gold Coast’s political arena,



42

annexed Britain’s colonial hold on the region, and heralded Nkrumah

and his Convention People’s Party (CPP) as auspicious leaders of an

independent Africa. Although Nkrumah’s commitment to Garveyism

waned as his newly independent Ghana grew more authoritarian,

the abrogation of its colonial interlopers reignited strong African

American solidarity, roused prospects of a United Africa, and exem‐

plified how nonviolent political agitation can erect routes to inde‐

pendence.

While Nkrumah led Ghana into the proverbial spectrum of

world politics, America’s anti‐communist agenda provoked move‐

ments to asphyxiate anti‐colonial rebellion throughout Africa. Ghana

soon found itself embroiled in war over political theory; the freedom

it provided to American expatriates, some of whom extolled the ide‐als of communism, roused alleged C.I.A subversion tactics, eventually

leading to Operation Cold Chop, the coup d’état that fell Nkrumah’s

reign as Ghana’s president for life. As James H. Meriwether writes in

“Proudly We Can Be Africans”, “Ghana, the most important symbol of

an ascendant Third World for African Americans, pushed black

Americans away from the Cold War‐influenced anticommunist rhet‐

oric and mindset of the early 1950’s” (Meriwether 2002, 165). The

purging of blind pro‐American support by disenfranchised expatri‐ates had the potential to cultivate Soviet propaganda, and threatened

Washington’s campaign for freedom and democracy. The coup not

only ousted Nkrumah and the CPP, but also adjoined Ghana’s politics

with America’s Cold War agenda.

Anti‐America propaganda stemmed from the country’s inter‐

nal civil rights struggle, when black America’s plight for racial equal‐

ity aligned more harmoniously with the communist model, and pro‐

vided the Soviet Union with ample propaganda. James Campbell

writes, “. . . the course and progress of the American civil rights

movement was inextricably bound up with the global propaganda

war waged between the United States and the Soviet Union. What‐

ever their private feelings about racial equality, American policy

makers understood that Jim Crow undermined the U.S. internation‐

ally” (Campbell 2006, 348). The appeal of communism to black

America, and to newly independent African nations, exasperatedAmerica’s involvement in African politics, reaffirming Washington’s

pro‐colonial attitude. Allowing allied European nations to continue

their colonial rule provided a buffer zone against an invasive Soviet



43

mindshare. As Meriwether points out, “[t]he seeming safety of back‐

ing colonial powers who were Cold War allies continued to override

considerations of truly supporting African independence” (Meri‐

wether 2002, 169). Furthermore, the acquisition of strategic miner‐

als took precedence over burgeoning African Nationalism. Rich ura‐

nium deposits in South Africa and the Congo fueled America’s Cold

War tactics, and suppressed any conspicuous African nationalist

movements.

One such movement, South Africa’s Defiance Campaign—a

nonviolent offensive against apartheid—faltered after colliding with

America’s Cold War objective. Echoing Nkrumah’s Fifth Pan‐African

Congress, the Defiance Campaign adopted Garvey’s ambition of “Af‐

rica for the African’s” and Gandhi’s passive approach to protest.America’s involvement was minimal: Washington officials preferred

colonial‐rule to native‐rule, and South Africa’s abundance of urani‐

um was a far more vital component than eradicating apartheid in the

fight against communism. Furthermore, the Defiance Campaign’s

tenet of racial equality and Black Nationalism posited communist

bias, at least within Cold War dogma, and Washington viewed con‐

tinued colonial dominance as a blockade against a Soviet acquisition

of nuclear materials. Meriwether writes, “. . . [Washington] officialsmaintained much more interest in securing South Africa’s support

for the struggle against communism and in expanding markets for

trade. At this point, and for a long time to come, strategic considera‐

tions trumped any concerns about racial polity” (Meriwether 2002,

97).

Black America’s response to the Defiance Campaign was

largely undivided; the fight against apartheid paralleled their own

struggle for civil rights. The violent tragedy of the Sharpesville mas‐

sacre in 1960, when South African police shot and killed 69 peaceful

protesters, rallied African American support and raised petitions to

the UN. Washington responded, noting, “. . . that criticism voiced in

the UN had the effect of aligning colored nations of the world against

white South Africa while providing a useful subject for Soviet propa‐

ganda against the West. Allying with South Africa linked the United

States to South Africa’s racial policies, damaging American efforts towin the hearts and minds of Third World peoples” (Meriwether

2002, 100). However, Washington’s disinterest in suppressing

apartheid continued unabated, and American criticism against the



44

South African government remained muted. In the Cold War world,

colonial‐rule held more strategic importance than the rise of African

independence.

Washington’s response to Kenya’s Mau Mau movement elicit‐

ed a similar apathetical attitude. Among the affronts of white‐rule,

Britain’s colonial presence bore the theft of fertile lands, the margin‐

alization of Kenya’s native population, and sparked the violent Mau

Mau movement between 1952 and 1960. Naked aggression over‐

shadowed this decidedly anticolonial uprising and divided African

American opinion, most of whom subscribed to a more pacifist ap‐

proach to independence. As Meriwether explains, “[a]s black Ameri‐

cans grappled with different approaches to gaining rights and free‐

dom, most at this time did not accept, let alone embrace, violence”(Meriwether 2002, 125). Washington’s official stance swayed in fa‐

vor of Britain, an important Cold War ally, and painted the Mau Mau

Uprising as trivial barbarism.

The misrepresentation and/or ignorance of African culture,

an American and European tradition on decline during the 20th cen‐

tury, framed the Mau Mau uprising as detrimental to the West’s Cold

War front. America, not willing to jeopardize a long standing rela‐

tionship with Britain, nor lose Kenya to the Soviets, remained stag‐nant. Meriwether agrees, stating, “American officials in the early

1950s had little desire to end white minority rule, for they saw de‐

colonization as being at odds with their overarching objective of con‐

taining communism” (Meriwether 2002, 128). America’s reluctance

to criticize or dissuade British colonization drew the ire of African

Americans, some of whom saw Mau Mau violence as an eleventh‐

hour melee to reclaim native lands. Petitions and conferences went

virtually unnoticed by Washington.

America’s active involvement in the Congolese nationalist

movement stands in stark contrast to their languid attitude towards

the Mau Mau uprising and South Africa’s Defiance Campaign. When

Ghana’s precedent of sovereignty dominoed across the continent,

taking with it Garvey’s message of a unified Africa, the Congolese re‐

sponded, reclaimed their land from Belgian’s colonial tenure and

elected Patrice Lumumba as prime minister. Despite his public dis‐missal of communism, the turmoil that followed the Congo’s inde‐

pendence prompted American officials to question Lumumba’s

commitment to the Cold War platform. Like South Africa, the Congo



45

held strategic caches of uranium, and Washington officials presented

Lumumba’s (perceived) slide towards communism as a threat to

American interests. Embassy officials declared that Lumumba had,

“maneuvered himself into a position of opposition to West, re‐

sistance to United Nations and increasing dependence on Soviet Un‐

ion,” and “to plan on basis that Lumumba government threatens our

vital interests in Congo and Africa generally” (Meriwether 2002,

217). The Belgian government and American CIA assisted the Con‐

golese with imprisoning and executing Lumumba in 1961.

As demonstrated by America’s strict adherence to a Cold War

strategy, as well as Washington’s complete dismissal of the Atlantic

Charter—a pact dedicated to the decolonization of Africa—most na‐

tionalist movements in Africa were portrayed as detrimental toWestern objectives. America’s conceited view of world politics not

only suppressed these movements, but also undermined the very

fabric of democracy purported by its Cold War bravado. America’s

tenets of justice, equality, and freedom were systematically denied to

native Africans as a means to armor itself against Soviet contamina‐

tion. As well, the line between colonizer and colonized became an

important barricade against communist penetration, and Washing‐

ton’s refusal to assist, or even acknowledge, nationalist movementsillustrates that any interest in Africa was purely strategic. Formal

relationships with Africa were relegated to colonial powers, most of

whom had no interest in seeing nationalism blossom. As a result,

Garvey’s message of “Africa for the Africans” stumbled, and Nkru‐

mah’s vision of a “United States of Africa” fell victim to an oppressive

American regime.



46

Works Cited

Campbell, J. T. (2006). Middle Passages: African American Journeys to

AFrica, 1787-2005. London: The Penguin Press.

Meriwether, J. H. (2002). Proudly We Can Be Africans. Chapel Hill and

London: The University of North Carolina Press.

Northrup, D. (2008). Crosscurrents in the Black Atlantic. Boston: Bed‐

ford/St. Martin's.



47


he first half of this chapter explores severalof the more prominent African Americans

who emigrated to Ghana. The second half

takes a look at the reasons behind the mili‐

tary coup in 1966.

The gold coast gained independence

from Britain in 1957, becoming The Repub‐

lic of Ghana. Many African Americans were

moved by this, primarily due to the historyof the Gold Coast. Kwame Nkrumah was

also viewed as a sort of honorary American,

since he spent near a decade studying at Lincoln University and the

University of Pennsylvania.

While studying in America Kwame was inspired by the works of

Du Bois and Garvey. He would later adopt Garvey’s black star as

Ghana’s national flag, and even create another Black Star Line, whichstill exists today.

Ghana’s political stature shot through the roof when it gained in‐

dependence. The black star symbolism that Kwame adopted had

materialized into something tangible. Finally, there was an inde‐

pendent black nation in Africa, one that held seats at the United Na‐

tions, and one that was seen as a beacon of hope for many African

Americans, most of whom were fighting for civil rights in the States.

However, Ghana’s infrastructure and economy was underdeveloped,and Kwame invited African Americans to come and help out. By

1964 more than three hundred African Americans had immigrated

into Ghana.

A very diverse group came to Ghana, including laborers as well as

artists, writers, actors and teachers, most of whom taught at Univer‐

sity of Ghana. Politically, they were diverse as well, with com‐

munists mixing with socialists, but most supported Kwame, at least

initially. This chapter explores some of the more prominent Ameri‐can figures who settled in Ghana during Kwame’s time as president.







50

spent money they did not have, and did not let Maya work. After

moving to Cairo, Maya left him and took a job in Liberia. En route

her son broke his neck in Ghana and Maya decided it would be

best to stay in Ghana and look after her son.

So the idealism Garvey contained within the Black Star, primarily

that of a unified black nation in Africa, never really came to fruition.

Kwame’s leadership rapidly became more authoritarian: he banned

opposition parties, declared himself president for life, and held at

least a thousand political opponents in prison. America was collabo‐

rating with Kwame’s opponents, and there is strong evidence sug‐

gesting that the C.I.A. had informants within the expatriate commu‐

nity, actively working to bring down Kwame.Now, at the time America was putting a spin on the civil rights

movement and the fight for racial equality—essentially claiming

America was on the path of progress and openness. The expatriates

living in Africa posed a threat to this, as they were in an ideal posi‐

tion to slow that spin, and perhaps provide the Soviet Union with

more anti‐American propaganda. The result was an effort on behalf

of the American government to discredit the expats living abroad,

calling them anti‐Americans and delusionists. Campbell points outthe irony in this: 100 years prior to this moment black people were

struggling to claim their American identity amidst movements to

send them back to African, and now, after going to Africa, they were

struggling against claims that they should be more American.

Two events really define the expatriate’s feelings during this

time. The first event coincided with the March on Washington, when

the Politicals organized a march outside the US embassy in a show of

solidarity. The event escalated and ended in a confrontation be‐

tween the Politicals and embassy soldiers. The second event was the

arrival of Malcolm X, who was visiting a number of African countries,

hoping one would introduce a resolution to bring the United States

before the United Nations for is abuse of African Americans. His visit

inspired many of the expatriates, most of whom saw him as the per‐

fect leader for a global black revolutionary movement. However,

Ghana was already starting to fall apart by this time, and any hopethat it would be able to lead this movement were deflated.

The coup d’état (blow of state), dubbed Operation Cold Chop,

happened on the 21st of February, 1966, exactly one year after Mal‐



51

colm X was murdered. Going against all recommendations, Kwame

boarded a flight for Hanoi, hoping to broker peace between North

Vietnam and the United States. He heard about the coup as soon as

he landed and quickly returned to Africa, but was unable to reenter

Ghana. The National Liberation Council quickly erased all traces of

Kwame’s leadership, and also affirmed their intentions to bring Gha‐

na in line with American politics, further pushing the idea that Amer‐

ica was intimately involved with the coup.

Most of the expatriates had already left Ghana by the time the

National Liberation Council came rolling in, and those that did re‐

main quickly fled. The only one to remain was Robert E. Lee.

POSSIBLE QUESTIONS Did the presence of the Politicals, or any of the expatriates dis‐

cussed in this chapter, benefit Nkrumah’s Ghana?

Why did so few people immigrate to Ghana when it first became

independent? Ghana seemed to embody the ideals of Garveyism,

which was very popular.

Did Ghana really embody the ideals of Garveyism during Nkru‐

mah’s presidency?

INTRODUCTION

Assigned two article from Northrup’s book that deal with the

ideas, practice and implementation of emigration in Britain and

America. Although they are short articles they do contain quite a

bit of insight into how emigration was being handled, how it was

received, and ultimately, the end goal of it all.

All of the articles are primary sources.

Article 1:3 An Account of the First Black Emigration from Britain to

Sierra Leone

Ottabah Cugoano

Cugoano was a slave in West Africa, the West Indies, and Britain,

where he was later freed.

Essentially, this article is a snapshot of how emigration to Sierra

Leone (around 1787) was being handled in Britain. At the time, the dominant discourse was that emigration was a

noble and honorable gesture—one that was extended to poor

black people.



52

Of course, and especially with government, things aren’t always

as they seem. The whole process was fucked. He criticizes Brit‐

ain for not working with the Native Africans around Sierra Leone,

and mentions that the plan for getting blacks in Britain to Sierra

Leone was not well thought out. He mentions that ships were of‐

ten delayed, resulting in the deaths of many blacks aboard due to

cold or illness or just to the general bad conditions of the ship.

We’ve already read descriptions like this in Saltwater Slavery.

So slavery was still occurring in Britain at the time Cugoano

wrote this. The few black people that had become free were hes‐

itant about returning to Africa. He posits that many more black

people would have been receptive to emigration had the fear of

being enslaved again been erased. He claims that prejudiceagainst black people among European and British traders was so

strong that even British ex‐slaves who traveled to Sierra Leone

were not free from their terror. Furthermore, slavery in other

parts of the world, including the newly formed USA, was still go‐

ing strong, and the market for trading in slaves and in the com‐

modification of human beings was as strong as ever. So for some,

returning to Africa meant that they could be captured and sold

into slavery yet again. He ends the article by showing the contradictory nature of the

British government—on the one hand they support creating a

free colony in Africa for black people, and on the other hand they

support their forts and vessels that keep slavery alive. There’s

no consistency to Britain’s moral fiber.

Article 1:7 Annual Report

American Colonization Society’s

So at the start of this article it is mentioned that the supporters of

the American Colonization Society—a group that helped freed

black people get to Africa—consisted of people who were, “genu‐

inely concerned with the welfare of black people” and also

southern slave owners, who really just wanted to get rid of freed

black people, fearing they would rebel and revolt, similar to the

events that took place in Africa. So, despite their ill intentions,we now see slave owners acting as charitable benefactors to the

people they once owned, while still owning others.



53

This is like a newsletter to such supporters, explaining how

things are going with emigration and detailing their future plans.

At the beginning they mention how broke they are, but still con‐

tinue to send people over to Liberia. And they’re doing this—and

it just reads this way in the report—because they genuinely care

about the people who wish to return to Africa.

The report details some of their accomplishments, including their

purchase of more land in Liberia, the shuttering of slave markets

in New Cesters and Gallinas, and the positive effects they’ve had

on Liberia’s economy and welfare. In fact, the only negative

point they make concerns ACS’s accumulation of debt—to the

tune of 6,000 dollars, which was spent on a military operation to

end the slave trade at New Cesters. They’re saying that every‐thing is great, we just need more money.

So we see that the ACS was not only concerned with getting black

people to Africa, but were actively engaged in ending slavery.

They go on and list even more accomplishments. And this is

where some problems begin to crop up. They claim that their ef‐

forts have “brought under the canopy of Liberian law more than

80,000 hitherto wild and untutored savages . . .” What they have

done is brought America to Africa—they’ve colonized Liberiawith their Eurocentric arts and humanities, laws and ideas of jus‐

tice, and with their language and religion. In particular, religion

is important for the ACS, as they describe Africa as, “a land

shrouded in the deepest heathenish darkness”.

They also show their hand towards the end of the report—that

they wish to affect all of Africa in the same manner as Liberia.

They wish to transform it into something else—something more

understandable and relatable to white people. This is, at least in

my opinion, tantamount to the cultural death that African’s expe‐

rienced during the enslavement process—as we read about in

Saltwater slavery.

So in the end we have a group of people who, for the most part

have noble intentions, and who are actively working to erase Af‐

rica off the map and replace it with quasi black America.



54

POSSIBLE QUESTIONS

Would emigration have been more popular or acceptable under

different conditions? And if so, under what conditions? Emigra‐

tion, in both Britain and America, got off to a rocky start. Sierra

Leone enjoyed more success than Liberia, but those who re‐

turned to Africa were faced with challenges they were not pre‐

pared for—a different climate, a native population that was not

very accepting of them, and one that most viewed as “wild and

untutored savages”—from Northrup introduction. Perhaps if

black Americans had helmed the emigration initiative there

would have been better results, or more people would have

gone?

Was emigration good for either Africa or America/Britain? Why does religion seem to be so integral to the changing scenery

in Africa, and to American colonization efforts in particular? Was

Christianity good for Africa?







55

For Contemporary Urban Issues, Fall 2013 It appears that industrialized nations with

access to health care have always led the

averages of wealth vs. lifespan. Interesting‐

ly, there appears to be some correlation be‐

tween colonized countries and the impedi‐

ment of growing wealth/health. Perhaps

more interesting, countries plagued with

colonial interlopers saw dramatic move‐

ment towards prosperity and health when

given, or upon gaining independence. In re‐

gards to the graph, Africa still lingers towards the origin point, but

continues to push upwards towards the industrialized leaders.

At only 4 minutes, this video presents statistics that practical‐

ly demand our minds to conjure cursory answers; and we can draw

all manner of conclusions from a simple graph. Wealthy countriescan afford to implement social programs that protect its citizens

from disease and poverty, while countries that lack capital and infra‐

structure continue to languish in the margins of insolvency. Im‐

proved health care is derived from advances in science and technol‐

ogy, two academic fields that, perhaps, arise and gain momentum in

countries that have already stabilized their economic and social

growth. We can think in terms of education; that a wealthy populace

is an educated populace, and an educated populace is an enlightenedpopulace. Regardless of the reasoning we apply, such statists only

explain what is happening, not why .

Framing the discussion of equity as a “gap” rather than a “disparity”

plays as an argument in semantics; after all, large gaps in equity (as

defined by Blackwell) create disparities in health, education, accessto employment, and so on. Her assertion that a “language of dispari‐

ties” colors the issue of equity in superfluous tones of race, and that

a language of equity circumvents such issues, is almost immediately



56

debunked by the statistics she provides. The equity gap, the “exodus

of fresh food”, and the zip codes deficient in opportunity are all given

racial identities. The base argument here is that some have and

some have‐not. This is the gap, the disparity, the discrepancy, the

inequality that exists throughout all human societies. The language

we use to describe the gap is equity is not always consistent, but the

intent is.

Closing the equity gap is one way to sustain a prosperous fu‐

ture, though I assume we should first understand why the gap exists

to begin with. Why do people self‐segregate based on wealth or suc‐

cess? Why does a zip code define the parameters in which we live?

Why do supermarkets fail or flee from communities rife with inequi‐

ty? Why does opportunity commute away from these pockets of dis‐parity? These “whys” of inequity are better examined by Dr. Camara

Jones, who makes a convincing argument that racism is largely re‐

sponsible for such gaps.

The availability of fresh produce and healthy food can likely

be attributed to the income gap. Food that is inherently healthy is

often more expensive and less energy‐dense than the common fast

food/junk food. If we couple that with a lack of supermarkets and

fresh produce, obesity takes root, further skewing health and life‐expectancy statistics.

So we have a poor zip code, one linked to crime, sub‐par edu‐

cation, health problems, and all around inequity. As a result, or per‐

haps as a contributing factor, opportunity dries up. This made me

question whether opportunity is something given, something

earned, or something created. Simply being born in America can be

considered a given opportunity. Inheriting wealth is a given oppor‐

tunity. But employment, at least in my opinion, is something we cre‐

ate or earn. Higher education is an opportunity we earn (though

more and more it seems as if it is being given away with no fore‐

thought). I wasn’t given a job based on my zip code, but on past per‐

formance, reliability, and hard work. I earned my job, and I continue

to earn it every day. The idea that our zip code is a “proxy for oppor‐

tunity” becomes less relevant when we consider how the internet

and social media play into creating and finding opportunity. You cansit on your couch and search the globe for employment. If we were

to factor in race, as Dr. Jones did, we’d have a better understanding



57

of how a zip code can set internalized expectations, and how oppor‐

tunity is affected by that.

Like the Hans Rosling video, we are given the “what” and not

the “why”. We can extrapolate the data and see the sinewy threads of

connective tissue, but we first have to understand why the equity

gap exists before we can address solutions.

Dr. Jones’ presentation was refreshing in its honesty, and entirely

on‐point. We finally get the “why” of inequity. She weaves a compel‐

ling analogy, describing the effects of white privilege, and conclud‐

ing, emphatically, that racism, particularly institutionalized racism,

is responsible for the gap in equity. I agree that addressing institu‐tionalized racism can reverberate through culture and affect both

personally mediated and internalized racism, just as the inception of

institutionalized racism led to their creation.

To squash inequity we first have to address how the media,

how the government, and how corporations perpetuate or remain

willfully ignorant of institutionalized racism. We have to look at

crime, culture, poverty, and education—the flower box (or zip

code)—and admit that it is a response to historical injustice, andhow that historical injustice malforms a person’s, or a people’s, self‐

perception and/or expectations (the internalized racism).

In this light, Angela Blackwell’s discussion is illuminated. It is

an issue of race. And if we want to close the equity gap we have to

be honest and admit, as Dr. Jones did, that institutionalized racism

affects not only the minority group, but the society as a whole.

There were several points in this article that surprised/shocked me,

despite the increasingly conspicuous evidence that it should not:

Party politics aside, the increase in the income‐growth gap caused

under the Reagan administration shows how skewed American poli‐

tics is towards the wealthy/powerful. Even when it became appar‐

ent that cost‐cutting welfare programs was increasing poverty, the

Democratic opposition remained impotent, choosing to focus moreon their own job security than on actual policy. Furthermore, the

programs that were affected by these cuts were squarely aimed at



58

younger generations; generations less likely to vote, and who leaned

blue.

Intention speaks volumes, and it is impossible to decipher

whether or not Reagan’s attempt to cut waste and corruption in the

welfare system was done in good faith or in service of further delin‐

eating class warfare and/or discrimination of the “have‐nots”. What

is evident, however, is that once it became clear that these programs

exacerbated poverty, favored the wealthy, and shifted power away

from poorer Americans, the government backtracked only slightly.

As the article mentioned, it is difficult to reinstate funding once it has

been cut.

The factors that led to the recession were a consequence of

global capitalism. Manufacturing jobs, which typically paid highwages to less‐educated people, slunk off to cheaper Asian markets,

where profits margins were given room to grow. That, coupled with

a policy that practically endorsed widening the inequity gap, gave all

the money and power to the 1% of Americans whose lassitude to‐

wards social inequality served as a foundation to further increase

their own wealth and influence. Their disdain for poor people, their

characterization of the poor as system‐gaming thieves, served as in‐

trinsic propaganda—as ammunition to simultaneously bolster theirown position and to strip the poor of their own. They started a war,

not over land or oil, but over the perceptions of poverty.

Some of the cuts in federal spending just didn’t make sense. As stat‐

ed in the article, 70% of all cuts were made to “entitlement” pro‐

grams. As an example, the Reagan administration made cuts to job

training and place programs at the same time manufacturing jobs

were fleeing the country. Where is the logic in that?

As simple as this may sound, a lot of the correlations presented in

this video make sense. Higher income and better education lead to

longer, less‐stressful, and healthier lives. Racial discrimination in‐

creases stress, leads to disease, and shortens life expectancy. The

environments we live and development in serve as the mold for our

future endeavors, and set an almost tangible limit on level of educa‐tion, income, and stress (amount of cortisol). The social determi‐

nants for health and life expectancy seem inextricably bound to in‐



59

come, race, and social class. Biologically speaking, the neighbor‐

hoods we live in, the food we eat, the pressure we feel from subser‐

vience, and the challenge we face in providing for ourselves and fam‐

ily, are all dominant factors that either increase or decrease the

wear‐and‐tear on our cells, organs, and, ultimately, our health.

When the Bough Breaks

The life‐course perspective, combined with institutionalized

racism, appears to be the culprit for the high infant mortality rates

among African Americans of all income levels. Some of this infor‐

mation was touched on in the previous video; higher levels of corti‐

sol, via stress from racial discrimination, leads to all sorts of detri‐

mental biological effects, including decreased blood flow to the pla‐

centa. This stress (from institutionalized racism) is cumulative andindependent of social status.

Particularly disturbing was Harvard’s study of racism, show‐

ing that black males with no criminal record were less likely to be

given a job than a white male with a felony. This should serve as a

wake‐up call to the 70% of white Americans who think racism and

discrimination are things of the past. It is engrained in the culture,

proliferated by the media and corporate conglomerates, and then

passed off as extinct dogma within an alleged progressive society.Becoming American

There are several interesting points within this video:

Culture and community factor in greatly when comparing rel‐

ative health amongst poorer demographics. Culture acts as a protec‐

tive integument for recently immigrated Mexicans, but slowly

sloughs off as they become more and more Americanized. This

seems to point back to Dr. Camara Jones’ speech on personally medi‐

ated and internalized racism. As immigrants integrate into Ameri‐

can culture their internal perceptions of race begin to contort and

deform into the qualities ascribed by institutionalized and personal‐

ly‐mediated racism. This, in turn, creates increased levels of stress

and mental illness (depression and anxiety), which leads to an over‐

all decrease in health. That sense of community and culture degrades

as more time is spent in America, and that protective integument

slowly disintegrates. This leads to social isolation—or the Americanstandard of living.

Furthermore, living and surviving in America is qualitatively

different than in Mexico, and puts more pressure on parents to pro‐



60

vide adequate housing and food for their children. These children,

then, develop a greater risk for mental health problems as the cul‐

tural metamorphosis takes place.

Some of these entitlement quandaries were discussed in the Poverty

and Power chapter. The woman who feared that acquiring a job

would lead to a loss of health coverage is part of a system designed

to punish the poor. Essentially, government policy teaches us that

remaining unemployed and poor is a better alternative to working

some minimum wage job with no benefits. If government sponsored

health coverage covered such industrious people those fears would

begin to evaporate. Instead, the system, which was sold as a solutionto poverty, ultimately feeds into and widens the gap in inequity.

You touch on a lot of topics that really stuck out to me. To see that

70% of budget cuts were aimed at the poor (excluding the elderly,

who voted and supported Reaganomics), is definitive proof that class

warfare was a driving force behind Republican policy. To punish the

poor, and to design a system whereby staying unemployed is a bet‐

ter alternative to working, is counterproductive and illogical.

You’re also right about sharing the blame. The ineffectualness of the

Democratic Party speaks volumes about the true intentions of most

politicians—mainly, to keep their job, their social status, and all the

benefits that come with that.

And yes, the poverty level was nearly the same when Reagan

exited office as when he came in, but that says more about the gov‐ernment backtracking on a lot of policy changes then it does to

Reagan’s political and social ideologies. Cutting entitlement pro‐

grams was sold as a solution to poverty and government corruption,

and when it backfired people scrambled to fix it.

In regards to the Poverty and Power chapter:

First, judging Reagan based on one aspect of his policy is inconsider‐ate to his presidency as a whole. Second, the poorest of poor Ameri‐

cans—those who were most affected by Reagan’s budget cuts—were



61

not only stripped of their social safety nets, but also of their ability to

“ally” and force meaningful change. The budget cuts, 70% of which

were aimed at the poor, shifted money and power to the wealthy

1%. Those living in poverty saw the writing on the wall—getting a

job and working to survive was more of a struggle than staying un‐

employed and collecting assistance. The system punished those who

actually tried by taking away their safety nets, their assistance, and

by partially denying the poor the social services needed to achieve

equity (at least where health is concerned). Thankfully, when it be‐

came apparent that these cuts were detrimental to the poor, and ac‐

tually worsened poverty, some effort was made to reverse policy.

Unemployment declined by the end of Reagan’s second term, but the

shift in wealth had already taken place. Those who were poor werestigmatized, and those who were rich were idolized.

The United States’ military base was indeed a casual factor in the de‐

clining health of the native Marshallese. The cultural erosion, West‐

ernized diets, and substandard urbanization of nearby islands are all

a direct response to a superfluous U.S. presence—a strategic (and

potentially obsolescent) base of operations whose existence seemsmore rooted in Cold War disposition than actual defense. As dis‐

cussed in earlier videos, culture can shield people from the adverse

effects of poverty, but when that culture is abraded in favor of inte‐

gration, the protective qualities dissipate, and health declines.

Emigrating has its benefits: better living conditions, better

education, employment opportunities, and a system of health care

that is equipped to deal with the effects of poverty. The trade‐offcomes in the form of stress, one of many initiators for tuberculosis

and other poverty‐related health issues. Aside from the physi‐

cal/natural differences associated with emigration, the choices the

Marshallese faced when moving to Arkansas were anything but fair.

Colonialism in the form of military occupation is not something the

Marshallese invited or needed, and the extensive, unethical nuclear

testing done on or around the islands is at best duplicitous. Having

to flee your home nation because policy allows a nocuous U.S. to con‐tinue on its path of cultural erosion is not fair or just.



62

There are several reasons why the environment we reside in im‐

pacts health. Environmental quality, including air and water, is often

times worse in poorer areas. Individual choices, such as quality of

food, health care providers, and availability or access to a connectedcommunity are limited by the environments in which they live. As

the video clearly describes, a cycle exists whereby poorer neighbor‐

hoods stay poor. Business vanishes, tax revenue falls, school quality

declines, and people move out. Furthermore, the “poverty tax”

makes sustaining a healthy life (quantitatively) harder by overcharg‐

ing people for basic necessities, such as food, cars, and access to

money. That such a “tax” exists is specious and counterproductive.

Violence is prevalent in poorer areas, and children who mature in anenvironment saturated with violence are more likely to develop

stress‐related health and mental problems. Stress as a trigger for

health complications develops not only from violence, but from all

other facets of the environment, including the quality of food, quality

of air/water, and access to affordable, safe housing. The Seattle pro‐

ject described in the video seems to be an excellent way to combat

all issues that relate to health and environment, and it is unfortunate

that more funding is not available to communities that need over‐hauled.

There are two very different stories in this video; capitalism, free

markets and globalization push companies towards higher profit

margins, often at the expense of the “receding” middle class, and the

loss of income has a dramatic effect on stress, depression, and death.Both of these stories support the idea that inequity is one factor that

determines a person’s overall well‐being. In one instance (closing

Electrolux) depression rose, stress levels increased, and death rates

doubled. Additionally, unemployment zaps individual empower‐

ment and autonomy. The title, “Not Just a Paycheck” refers to how

gainful employment can empower a person to live better, eat better,

and decrease health risks associated with living in poverty (mainly

stress and depression). The bigger the paycheck, the more empow‐ered a person is, or can be.



63

The comparison between Sweden and the US was rather po‐

etic sophistry; universal health care and unionization are heavily

panned here, socialized education is only tolerable through high

school, and any increase in funding for the poor is immediately la‐

beled as a handout. Moreover, socialism appears to be the new en‐

emy to freedom, and increased taxes are only for the rich. Some of

these sentiments may not make sense, but they are virally propagat‐

ed through the media until popular opinion is saturated with misin‐

formation and/or propaganda. People are convinced that socialized

health care, free access to higher education, and better social safety

nets are, at their core, wrong. The individualistic nature of living in

America cements these opinions, and day‐to‐day life becomes a race

to be a “have” while shrugging off the “have‐nots”, often times at theexpense of the individual.

In this video we again see how social and economic circumstances

influence health. The Pima Native American tribe—one of many

groups victimized by colonization—was economically marginalized

by policies that favored rich white men, particularly where water

was concerned. This lack of water corroded their ability to maintainboth social and economic viability, degraded their culture, and

forced them into a system of “bad sugar” food commodity programs.

In turn, poverty, stress and obesity increased, and blood sugar began

to reflect their cultural degradation in the form of type 2 diabetes.

Again, the issue of empowerment is raised; when access to fresh,

healthy food is removed and replaced with substandard commodi‐

ties, when a culture built on a foundation of cultivation and tradi‐tional healthy eating is dissolved by unfair policy, when water is un‐

fairly distributed to the wealthy/powerful, a person’s empowerment

and autonomy over health and well‐being is severely handicapped.

Individual responsibility (when it comes to health) is not entirely

abrogated by a lack of empowerment, but a person’s choices when it

comes to eating healthy and exercising are limited by the social and

economic environment in which they live.

Thankfully, the video does end on a note of hope, not only forthe return of water to the reservation, but for the future of the tribe.



64

The inculturation that occurred within the Pima tribe was the most

disheartening aspect of this video, and shows that it only takes a

couple generations of living under the thumb of “bad sugar” to trans‐

form a culture, cultivate disease (diabetes), and disempower a tribe.The food commodities provided by the government were/are sub‐

standard and counterproductive to the expanding health crisis expe‐

rienced by all displaced people.

You draw an interesting parallel between the Marshallese and Pri‐

ma: mainly that colonization and bad policy are the primary reasons

for bad health and disease (TB and diabetes). The US essentiallytakes over peoples’ land, forces them to adapt to a foreign culture,

irradiates them with poverty and disease, and then sweeps them un‐

der the rug as a statistic. The collateral damage manifests itself not

only physically, but psychologically in the form of stress, depression,

and loss of identity and empowerment. To fix such a problem, which

should fall on the shoulders of the US, is a problem in itself.

You’re right; the environment in which we live affects our health.

But it’s not just the environment quality that determines our health,

but also the access to fresh/healthy food, levels of violence, and ac‐

cess to quality health care. Moreover, poorer neighborhoods tend to

stay poor, as decreased taxes results in decreased funding for

schools, more crime, and a whole host of other factors that deter‐

mine why “place matters”.

The difference between Sweden (and most other European coun‐

tries) and America is, as you accurately describe, the pressure and

responsibility of individuality. If someone falls in the gutter we as‐

sume they did something wrong. If someone is a multi‐millionaire

we assume they are individually responsible. We incorrectly per‐

ceive the social ladder as a tool we climb or fall on our own, and of‐

ten neglect the factors that either prevent people from falling too far,

or those that encourage people to climb farther. An individualistic



65

society is often a “for me and me alone” deal, leaving equity to lan‐

guish in the same category as charity.

The history of American housing is couched in terms of “serving thegreater good of society”, while subliminally forging a greater divide

between our notions of class and welfare. Like most American histo‐

ry, affordable housing is planted in shallow soil, corrupt in its con‐

ception, implementation, and consequence. How does a society con‐

trol its population; how can a government benefit from the subservi‐

ence and composed‐naiveté of its people without appearing too ma‐

licious? Fight the poor and reward the rich, that’s how. Let money

determine policy, and let poverty become stigmatized, fossilizedwithin the strata of indifference and alienation. After all, a society

that fuels its engines with money, rather than social liberali‐

ty/altruism, can better compete in the race towards globalization

and mock manifest‐destiny.

The first federal housing program was devised to benefit

businesses. Factory owners had more say in federal policy than the

working man. At first this makes sense: business owners drive the

economy, and having a stable, sedated work forced is both beneficialand necessary for economic growth. The lie crumbles as history agi‐

tates into the present, where the war against the impoverished

transcends any affordable housing debate, and goes straight to chas‐

tisement and neglect. How many millions or billions of dollars can

we cut from welfare programs? How many substandard housing

projects can we force people into? How far can we push people be‐

fore the glinting patina of hope fades into despondency? The equitygap was, and is still, fabricated by many iniquitous federal policies,

and disingenuous housing programs only work to widen it.

I look at the history of this country; I look at congress, the

senate, the house, the president, the lobbyists, the democrats, the

republicans, and the devoted base of proselytized voters and think,

“the spirit/energy/force/emotion/whatever that drives this country

forward is entirely foreign to me”. It is possible for a war on poverty

to be both overt and covert? Can it be both subliminal and con‐scious? Can the poor actually internalize the anti‐poor propaganda

and hate other impoverished people? Can we delude ourselves into



66

seeing a façade of wealth, of thinking “poorness” is only a temporary

detour while en route to high society? Policy, politics, and class di‐

vide us. What, exactly, unites us? Some spurious notion of ethno‐

centricity; some waning sense of nationalism when a hurricane de‐

stroys a neighborhood, or when a lunatic opens fire in public? That

which divides us is written in law, and that which unites us echoes in

fleeting emotional reaction. Furthermore, the individualistic nature

of the American Dream asphyxiates any notion of shared responsi‐

bility, and our social principles/mores reflect that. It’s your fault for

being poor, and for having a job that pays minimum wage in an

economy that was tanked and exploited by the wealthy.

The complexity of poverty, as well as the gap in equity, come

from the chain reactions of federal programs and policies that ad‐dress (or at least attempt to address) the factors related to being im‐

poverished. A federal housing program, promoted as a benefit to so‐

ciety, has a series of consequences that eventually influence the evo‐

lution of cities, neighborhoods, and individual lives. We have al‐

ready seen why “place matters” and why one’s zip code can be used

a metric for health, and such places evolve under the strict guidance

of federal and state policy. There is a design to

city/town/neighborhood infrastructure, and that design facilitates adivide in wealth, class, and race.

It’s amazing how the natural progression of society breeds reliance

on others. Will Allen and his family did everything for themselves:

hunted all manner of animal, fished for eels and turtles, slaughteredand butchered pigs, and grew vegetables and crops that fed and sup‐

ported their family. It worked back then; it kept them fed and

healthy, and even though Will cultivated lima beans and animosity

for picking lima beans, his early life provided the blueprints for what

would eventually become his adult ambition. Compare the inde‐

pendence and autonomy offered in his early years to his struggling

market in a contemporary urban environment. He witnessed the

transformation of rural, agricultural areas into an overly‐reliantsuburban arcadia, replete with luxury, devoid of character. He

watched as policy killed off farmers, as grocery stores abandoned



67

local producers, and as fresh, healthy food fled from impoverished

black communities. He saw the effects this had on friends, communi‐

ties, and neighborhoods. His struggle to maintain a greenhouse

sanctuary in the face of these dramatic changes caused him to ques‐

tion his life choices, and his good food revolution was nearly a sput‐

tering defeat.

Society changed so fiercely since Will Allen’s childhood that

new generations living in these impoverished areas no longer have a

concrete connection to the self‐determination and self‐reliance that

the Allen family developed. Lack of space and soil has also made

growing healthy food even harder for the poor, and an overabun‐

dance of cheap junk food and fast food has contributed to a culture

of bad health. A good food revolution is just what this countryneeds, and I look forward to reading and discussing more about Will

Allen and his plans to make that happen.

“The Good Food Revolution” ties together several important

contemporary urban issues into one book, and with its main focus on

healthy living for impoverished people, should be read by future

classes. It shows that it is not always easy to maintain health, and

that disparities exist which prevent some from being able to choose

a healthy lifestyle. This is a book with a solution. The solution maynot work for everyone, or may be challenging at times, but the theo‐

retical payoff eclipses the grief and difficulty. Building a better na‐

tion starts in neighborhoods and with individual willing to act for

change, and Will Allen, honestly and equitably, is leading the charge.

The first part of this documentary reinforces the facts and themeswe have already explored in this class: that health and income are

tied together; that obesity and poverty are tied together; that the

food we eat is fundamentally different from past generations; and

the effects of eating this food has contributed to rising levels of heart

disease, diabetes and premature death. I’d love to say that I’m sur‐

prised by this documentary, or that it is eye‐opening or unexpected,

but I can’t. As it plainly shows, America is overweight, and percent‐

ages are up in all levels of income. All it takes to see this reality is tolook at myself, my family, and the people around me. Like many

people, I struggle with weight, bad eating, and habits that promote



68

an unhealthy lifestyle. Unless corrected, this will undoubtedly con‐

tribute to health complications now or in the near future.

If anything, this documentary is honest in its assessments.

Obesity is neither a product of genetics or environment; it is a prod‐

uct of both. Obesity has a dramatic effect on live and heart function,

and a simple diet combined with exercise can reverse most negative

effects. Although used for shock value just as much as for education,

the comparison between healthy and unhealthy hearts serves as a

palpable and vivid truth to obesity’s effect on our organs. Even more

vivid: gaining 5% more body weight over the course of a couple

months has powerful and tragic consequences on liver and heart

function. All it takes to increase your chances of heart disease, high

blood pressure or diabetes is a few fast food meals every week.Each case study presented in the second part of this docu‐

mentary illustrates just how different weight‐gain and weight‐loss is

for people. In some cases it is a struggle between what is genetic and

what is environmental; in other cases it is a constant battle against

the factors that trigger over‐eating and bad‐eating (work life, stress,

tragedy, etc.). Work places, such as my own, typically contain soda

machines, and vending machines that dispense candy or other un‐

healthy foods. Healthy alternatives exist, but their availability isdramatically less than the average fast‐food joint or food truck. It

seems much easier and cheaper (and tastier) to drive to the nearest

McDonalds for lunch than it is to hunt out a healthy salad, or a bowl

of vegetables.

In respect to obesity, the way people rationalize their despair

or hope seems fundamental to their success when attempting to live

a healthy lifestyle. Some take control of their diet, while others ig‐

nore or refuse to change their unhealthy habits until it is too late (or

nearly too late). Some even rely on relatively risky surgeries to force

the weight off. In all, the biological changes that occur when a per‐

son becomes overweight/obese essentially stack the deck against

them. It’s amazing that a person who was once overweight will have

to work much harder to maintain a healthy weight than someone

who has always been trim.

What really stands out is this: American living has evolved topromote a sedentary, calorie‐dense, and all‐around unhealthy life‐

style, and the effects are both emotionally and physically traumatic.

Some of the women in this documentary seem to be so emotionally



69

affected by their physical health that stress (one of the main factors

that promote obesity) takes control of their eating habits. The mar‐

keting of bad‐food, including soda and other sugary drinks, domi‐

nates the consumer’s mind‐share, and provides a cheap, easy, and

biologically destructive way to obtain nutrient‐deficient calories.

When I’m stressed out I will constantly snack on cookies, or crack‐

ers, or candies. I’ll sit around all day just snacking, willingly oblivi‐

ous to the amount of calories I’m eating, or the effects that it will

have on my health.

Still, this video does demonstrate that with knowledge and

determination people can change their eating habits, their health,

and their lives. Don’t fall for diet fads or products that claim to melt

away the pounds. Just eat right, be active, and enjoy life. The twowomen at the end embody this message, and their amiable attitude

towards exercise and dieting should be an inspiration to anyone who

struggles with losing weight.

This documentary makes several salient points concerning

obesity in children, and outlines a lot of issues that can lead children

to become obese. Perhaps the most important factor is parental re‐

sponsibility. If a parent can limit the amount of time their child

spends in front of the television/computer, can education themabout food, can limit their intake of cheap/fast food, can pack their

school lunches, and can encourage healthy physical exercise, then

the problem of childhood obesity can be attacked at the root. Of

course, parents must constantly combat the unhealthy standard set

by overly‐advertised foods and substandard school lunch programs,

but such a fight is essential for setting a life‐long habit of eating and

living healthy. Removing or limiting advertising of bad food won’t

necessarily stop parents from providing bad food to their children.

Young children aren’t driving themselves to McDonalds or scrawling

out shopping lists full of sugary foods. Young children aren’t buying

themselves televisions and computers. The dramatic irony at play

here is this: obese parents complain that their overweight children

do not get enough exercise and refuse to eat healthy.

With this responsibility comes reform. Parents, as well as

children, need to be educated about deceptive advertising, the con‐sequences of unhealthy eating, and the benefits of physical exercise.

With this understanding the country can then tackle the capitalist

disinformation, the state/federal policies that inhibit healthy choices



70

in social institutions, and counteract the cumulative effects of living

and eating unhealthy. In starts in the home; children who are raised

healthy will likely continue living healthy, will likely pass that habit

on to their children, and will contribute to a healthier, happier coun‐

try.

Your point about school lunches being unhealthy and putting al‐

ready disadvantaged children at greater risk is important, and par‐

ents who rely on the school to feed their children need to under‐

stand this. If it comes as a surprise to you, it will likely come as a

surprise to parents. We all know that pizza is not a vegetable, and

that prepackaged fried foods are unhealthy, but how many truly un‐derstand that fruit juice or vitamin water contains just as much sug‐

ar as a soda? Parents have the ability to pressure schools into chang‐

ing policies, and if united they can tackle such issues on a state‐wide

or federal level. Parents also need to become educated about the de‐

ceptive practices of corporate America, as such understanding will

hopefully drive them to make better choices when shopping for food.

The importance of “Medical Apartheid” comes from its illumination

of topics in American history that are often swept under the rug. It is

important to know that the history of American medicine is, much

like the country, plagued with racism and inequality. It is important

to understand that certain aspects of contemporary medicine still

exhibit the inequity embodied by abhorrent medical practices of ear‐

ly America. There is a clear lineage of racism in this country, and aswe’ve seen in other venues, the institutionalization of bigotry has

had profound effects on access to and quality of health care.

The idea that there are doctors who either dismiss this evi‐

dence as hearsay, or are ignorant to it, is not at all surprising. I think

it is fair to question all sources of information—to overly scrutinize

circumstantial evidence as a means to test its validity—but denying

that racism existed in early American medicine seems woefully na‐

ïve. After all, if racism infected every other facet of American society,why not hospitals? There will always be those who deny the horrors

of history, and often times there denial is a confession of racism.



71

There are many compelling stories contained within this

book. The idea that eugenics was widely accepted by not only the

populace and doctors, but by historically important black figures

(e.g. W.E.B. DuBois) is compelling for several reasons. Anytime a so‐

ciety’s ethical code allows horrible things to happen, or justifies hor‐

rible actions as a means to an end, there exits this transparency of

racial pride and superiority. Eugenics, as practiced in the early 19th

century, was just an accepted and classified form of genocide, and as

a country we were able to justify this behavior based on compound‐

ing historical racism. This is particularly compelling because it is not

happening in secrecy. This is not an undocumented injection of plu‐

tonium, or a case of nonconsensual sterilization; it is a branch of

medicine that the world viewed as progressive and beneficial. It iscompelling to know that the guiding moral code of a country can be

so flagrantly malicious.

There are other stories in this book that both shock and

amaze me. From previous readings, classes, and discussions I was

aware that the history of this country has its fair share of blemishes,

but the cases contained within “Medical Apartheid” go beyond what I

thought was possible. The complicity of the country and the scien‐

tific community makes me question contemporary mores, and justhow they will be viewed a hundred years from now.

There are various reasons why prisoners are desirable sub‐

jects for medical studies, and different areas of research favor some

reasons over others. As a more general reason, researchers are able

to conduct follow‐up appointments without fear of the subject ab‐

sconding, as prisoners are more likely to continue participating for

monetary/status gain (and, obviously, that they can’t leave). More

specifically, prison populations have a higher occurrence of HIV and

hepatitis C, making prisoners an easy and plentiful source of partici‐

pants for research in AIDS or hepatitis vaccines. There is also the

social stigmatization of prisoners, leading to the fact that researchers

were/are able to easily justify moral turpitude because prisoners are

often viewed as a lower caste in American society.

The issue of whether or not prisoners should be allowed to

participate in medical research is certain: of course they should. Theproblem here is not that prisoners are used in medical research, but

the frequency and type of research that is conducted. I think that we

can all agree that exposing prisoners to potentially deadly viruses,



72

radioactive isotopes, or carcinogenic substances is ethically wrong.

There are other avenues of research that can address these issues,

and prisoners (or any person) should never be knowingly exposed

to harmful or deadly tests. A set of standards should exist that pro‐

hibits this behavior.

When it comes to pharmaceutical research, human testing is a

necessary evil. Dr. Klingman, however, went beyond what was re‐

quired, and eclipsed the scope of not only his field of expertise, but of

the moral codes established throughout history. The racial feature

of his experiments is particularly troubling, and his refusal to admit

that he knowingly caused harm to primarily black inmates exposes

his internal racist pretext. The obfuscation caused by overly‐complex

consent forms and legalese, the destruction of documents, the mis‐representation of research statistics (such as the percentage of black

participants), and the frequency of prisoners who participated in

multiple studies (hence clouding the research data) all show that Dr.

Klingman, and others like him, put the objectives of the pharmaceu‐

tical and cosmetic companies far above his responsibilities as a doc‐

tor, or as a rational, empathetic human being.

The research conducted at the University of Pennsylvania fur‐

ther this notion, as their justification for their tests being “ethical”relies on a largely ignorant prison population understanding the

risks associated with medical testing. Often times, the rewards of

participating were emphasized while the risks were obscured, usual‐

ly by consent forms designed to confuse. The utilitarian argument

fails as well, when a majority of these experiments fail to materialize

any significant data or treatment.

I think it is fair to compare the medical abuse of Nazi doctors

to the medical abuse of American doctors. In both cases we see med‐

ical professionals performing dangerous and harmful experiments

on an imprisoned population in the name of a greater, more power‐

ful entity. Whether that entity is the state or a corporation is irrele‐

vant. The quantity, breadth and severity of the experiments may dif‐

fer, but the underlying argument is the same.

Genetically modified organisms and food have been around for quite

some time, and I’ve been aware of them for several years now. The



73

controversy surrounding them has prompted most of my family to

move towards a more organic diet—one that is more expensive, but

also more healthy. However, this movie really depicted Monsanto as

a willfully corrupt and malicious corporation to an extent that I had

not known about. Like many others, I assumed that genetically mod‐

ified food was produced as a means to make food cheaper and more

plentiful, and had little knowledge about the backwards patent sys‐

tem, or really that one could patent a gene or living organism. The

extent to which Monsanto has infiltrated the government is anger‐

ing, and their litigious approach to family farming is shameful. I

suppose, then, that it comes as no surprise that government subsi‐

dies benefit the large corporations whom seek to control the world’s

food, and whom financially benefit from world hunger and starva‐tion. It’s strange that corporate welfare is not attacked to the same

degree as social welfare, especially when presented with such in‐

formation. We’re giving money to transnational corporations whom

have no accountability. They could be poisoning us all with GE

crops. Even buying organic is suspect, as cross‐contamination is a

real threat.

The “terminator” technology discussed in the film is truly dis‐

turbing, and seems like it came straight out of some dystopian sci‐ence fiction novel. It’s like one‐time‐use DRM for food. I don’t even

understand how anyone could agree to grow such a crop, or why an‐

yone would want to. I understand the (supposed) reason behind its

creation, but in practice it seems insane. The only thing missing is a

Monsanto‐branded chemical that needs to be sprayed on the crop

every half‐hour, lest the crops explode. In a world where the exist‐

ence of genetically engineered food is justified as serving humanity,

this terminator technology takes ten steps backwards, so far back

that it actually begins to threaten humanity. That we allow this to

happen, and that our government allows this to happen, is depress‐

ing.

Food Inc. continues this narrative of multinational corpora‐

tions controlling the food and health of public. The actual produc‐

tion food is surprising, particularly when so few

farms/slaughterhouses are producing the majority of our meat. Thatcorn is integrated into a nearly all products, and is being fed to ani‐

mals that have no business eating corn is also surprising. However, I

keep getting stuck on this idea that the people who we are supposed



74

to trust to make sure our food is safe to eat are the same people who

have an interest in companies like Monsanto and Perdue growing

larger and larger. The fact that the food industry is protected by the

government, even when food products are harming or killing people,

is intensely disturbing. People being fined or jailed or sued for criti‐

cizing the meat industry? I just don’t understand how or why people

go along with this behavior. Is it greed? It is the pursuit of power? I

feel guilty if I step on a spider in my kitchen; so how do these people

live with themselves?

This is a very enlightening documentary. There seems to be a lot of

misconceptions out there about the value of eating a plant‐based di‐et, particularly when it comes to eliminating meat for your diet. This

movie demonstrates, quite plainly, that “going vegan” can have pro‐

found effects on your health, and that eating dairy and meat is not

necessary to maintain health. The misconceptions about vegan di‐

ets, as the movie shows, comes from doctors and scientists who

serve the interests of diary/meat producers, and not the interests of

the public. Children are taught this propaganda and mature thinking

that meat and dairy are a necessary component of a regulated diet.We are a product of a system designed to sell products that promote

cancer and heart disease. Discovering these machinations of society

make me glad I enrolled in this class. The idea that plants are more

healthy than meat is not new, and I think we’d all agree that such in‐

formation is widely believed, but knowing that dairy and meat can

actually facilitate cancer growth and heart disease is revelatory. In

society’s current state, when we’re arguing about rising health carepremiums and how best to manage the healthcare industry, and

when the poorest people in our country suffer the greatest from

obesity and heart disease, the plant‐based diet seems like a logical

and tremendously beneficial answer to an ever expanding problem.

Now, if we could only get plants to all corners of this country . . .

Personally, I did not infer that, “that by eating a plant‐based diet onecan avoid cancer”. It can lower your chances of getting cancer. At

best, there is a negative correlation between eating a plant‐based, or



75

vegan, diet and the formation of cancerous cells. The mechanisms

that cause cancer are not well defined, and knowing what exactly

causes a cell to become cancerous, as I understand it, is incredibly

complex. More work needs to be done before we can concretely

conclude that diary and meat are significant sources of cancer.

There is plenty of evidence out there that veganism can have a

partial negative effect on health (like vitamin deficiency), or that it

can cause malnutrition if not done properly. However, this movie is

not about veganism, it’s about how the common American diet is

making us unhealthy. A plant‐based diet is an alternative that “can”

have a significant impact on one’s health and quality of life. The

narrator provides evidence of this.

You’re right; there are other metrics that need to be accountedfor when comparing the health of two very different cul‐

tures/countries.

As an opinion: It is a sales pitch, but not for a political party. It’s a

sales pitch for health. Rolling conventional veganism into ve‐

ganarachism, or some other political belief is a slippery slope. I am

not a vegan, nor am I partisan, and I took no political message from

this documentary.



76



76

For Contemporary Urban Issues, Fall 2013

he American dream is defunct; what once

served as an icon of self‐determination is

now a paper‐thin façade, easily crumpled

by weight of reality. Such a realization is

bolstered by the “Unnatural Causes” doc‐

umentary and various readings through‐out these first few weeks of class, where

the continued proliferation of inequity is

shown to be both multiform and sobering,

its effects encumbering individuality, im‐

portant cultural linchpins, and, ultimately,

health. The cycle of poverty—the presumptuous social barricades

that prevent economic ascension—ensures that those affected stay

affected, and, more notably, has the ability to intrinsically alter racialand ethnological reflection. Additionally, the determinants of pov‐

erty inhabit numerous forms, including lopsided federal policy, his‐

torical injustice via colonialism, and systemic, institutionalized rac‐

ism, all of which work to perpetuate its existence and personify the

impoverished as morally accountable parasites.

Inequity Partisan government policy is a primary contributor to ine‐

quality in America; and its astigmatic legislature typically favors the

affluent. Douglas Imig, in his book “Poverty and Power: The Political

Representation of Poor Americans”, examines the asymmetrical dis‐

tribution of government resources during the Reagan administra‐

tion, and draws a convincing parallel between an increase in poverty

and discriminatory budget cuts. Reagan’s budget, which was billed

as a necessary measure to reduce wasteful spending and rampant

corruption, targeted welfare systems designed to mitigate poverty inyounger, progressive populations (food stamps, meal‐programs,

etc.), while preserving welfare system designed for older, conserva‐



77

tive populations (SSI, Medicare, etc.). As an accompaniment to budg‐

etary cuts, Reagan issued tax breaks to the wealthy, producing, “one

of the quickest and most regressive redistributions of wealth in U.S.

history” (Imig 1996). Additionally, Reagan’s economic policy stigma‐

tized impoverished Americans, and conflated the ideas of welfare

and social‐responsibility into a universally panned perception of in‐

dolence. Ultimately, this convergence became the dominant impres‐

sion of the impoverished, and further delineated the innocuous indi‐

vidualistic nature of American society.

Colonialism is another contributor to poverty and inequity.

The “Unnatural Causes” documentary examined two populations

that fell under American colonial rule: the Marshallese and the Pima

Native American tribe. Both cases expose how living under thethumb of U.S. rule can yield expanded poverty and cultural destruc‐

tion, and how careless policies—ones designed to counteract the ef‐

fects of poverty—only further its presence. Moreover, in both cases

the health effects of poverty are clear: respectively, rates of tubercu‐

losis and type II diabetes are much higher in the Marshallese and

Pima tribe members, and emigration or integration into American

culture only presents added health risks (California Newsreel with

Vital Pictures, Inc. 2008). In essence, the artifice of colonialismworks to both strip native peoples of their cultural heritage, effec‐

tively constructing diverse, interconnected diasporas, and to coax

the impoverished into an adverse dependence on American subsidy,

be it commodities or employment.

Poverty is cyclical, and its revolutions can be outlined both empiri‐cally and logically. A series of events cascade across an impoverished

neighborhood; business’ flee poorer areas to satiate their capitalist

appetite, reducing employment opportunity; taxes, both property

and income, suffer in poorer areas, reducing the quality and availa‐

bility of essential social services (health care, police, schools, etc.); as

sufficient education wanes, and as cultural and societal perspectives

of poverty become internalized, people are less likely to either see or

take the steps necessary to scale the economic ladder; violence andcrime become intertwined with impoverished areas, leading to loss

of business and premature death; depression and anxiety, two dom‐



78

inant determinants of overall health, metamorphose into physical

symptoms and decrease life expectancy. Furthermore, poverty is

generational, and passed down from parents to children as if it were

genetic. In her article, “Caught in the Cycle of Poverty”, Anna Gorman

explains, “Children who are born into poverty and spend years that

way are more likely to be teenage parents and remain poor as

adults” (Gorman 2012). That such a cycle exists is a direct conse‐

quence of an aggressive capitalist market, poor policy‐making, and a

society that favors spurious notions of individualism over economic

realities.

Yet another factor that influences the cycle of poverty hides

within the principal fabric of American culture. Institutionalized rac‐

ism, as defined by Vernellia R. Randall, “involves polices, practices,and procedures of institutions that have a disproportionately nega‐

tive effect on racial minorities’ access to and quality of goods, ser‐

vices, and opportunities” (Randall 2008). Racism, be it overt or cov‐

ert, has the ability to affect a person’s perception of self‐worth and

ability. Institutionalized racism, which manages to be both clandes‐

tine and conspicuous, contributes to the cycle of poverty by overtax‐

ing or depriving minorities of their basic human needs/rights, in‐

cluding: access to healthy food, adequate education, fair and equaljob opportunity, safe and clean environments, and access to ac‐

ceptable health care. As Randall explains, “Institutionalized and sys‐

temic racism establishes separate and independent barriers to ac‐

cess and quality of health care” (Randall 2008).

The status of “impoverished” is often refracted through an

Americanized lens of individualism and self‐determination, views

that potentially skew the societal impact of poverty, and shift re‐

sponsibility away from those in power. That idea that a person’s

economic status is tied to individual choice, or that opportunity can

be manifested via individual action, smacks of pseudo‐American

dream naiveté. As Claire Andre and Manuel Velasquez poignantly

surmise, “Americans…still have a Lockean political culture, empha‐

sizing individual freedom and the pursuit of individual affluence (the

American dream) in a society with the most un‐Lockean economy

and government” (Andre and Velasquez 1992). This senseless dis‐parity between perceived economic freedom and reality (i.e. the cy‐

cle of poverty) has led to the stigmatization of poorer people, and

has contributed to anti‐poverty policy‐making, class‐based denigra‐



79

tion, and, ultimately, the contrivances that power the cycle of pov‐

erty.

Poverty and health are inextricably bound together; the cycle ofpoverty—pushed forward and perpetuated by forced inculturation,

institutionalized racism, and discriminatory government policy—not

only leads to stress and depression (two important determinants for

health), but can strip away the protective cultural integuments that

shield immigrants from poverty‐related diseases. Such diseases

manifest physical symptoms that can affect life span, quality of life,

and overall health. Furthermore, the environmental conditions of

impoverished areas lead to increased health risks, and that “workingenvironments of poorer people often hold more environmental risks

for illness and disability; [while] other environmental factors, such

as lack of access to clean water, disproportionately affect poor fami‐

lies” (Murray 2006). Environmental quality, coupled with stress, de‐

pression, poor nutrition, and lack of adequate health care, ensures

that “zip code matters”, and that people affected by poverty live a

shorter, and qualitatively worse life than the wealthy. Perhaps

worse, a widening income gap, a fabricated “war on poverty”, and amirage masquerading as the American dream, all indicate that the

indictment of the impoverished, and by proxy their health, will re‐

main in jeopardy.



80

Andre, Claire, and Manuel Velasquez. Creating the Good Society.

1992. http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v5n1/ (ac‐

cessed September 21, 2013).

Unnatural Causes. Performed by California Newsreel with Vital Pic‐tures, Inc. 2008.

Gorman, Anna. "Caught in the Cycle of Poverty." Los Angeles Times.

May 24, 2012. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/24/local/

la‐me‐natalie‐20120524 (accessed 09 21, 2013).

Imig, Douglas R. Poverty and Power: The Political Representation of

Poor Americans. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996.

Murray, Sally. Poverty and Health. March 28, 2006.

http://www.cmaj.ca/content/174/7/923.short (accessed 09 21,2013).

Randall, Vernellia R. What is Institutionalized Racism. July 03, 2008.

http://academic.udayton.edu/race/2008electionandracism/race

andracism/racism02.htm (accessed 09 21, 2013).



81


nequity, in any form, is the manifestation of institution‐

alized discrimination. The medical institution, in partic‐

ular, has long since been a contributor to the overt and

covert racism and discriminatory practices respiring

through the tenuous veins of American society. In her

meticulously crafted book, “Medical Apartheid: The DarkHistory of Medical Experimentations on Black Ameri‐

cans from Colonial Times to the Present”, Harriet Wash‐

ington exposes the popular conceit of an ethical Ameri‐

can medical history as erroneous, and derives that the

inequity and immoral behavior of the medical estab‐

lishment is, and continues to be, produced by a deeply imbedded and

historical racial bias. Like America, the history of medical research is

built upon this bias, and continues to influence how society func‐tions, evolves, and how gaps in health and healthcare—Washington’s

so‐called “apartheid”—form across racial lines.

To describe and compare the condition of the medical field at any

point in America’s history to apartheid is sensationalist. It is also

apt. Washington walks readers through a clandestine American his‐tory that is both egregious and wonted, and asphyxiates any emo‐

tional response in the name of disclosure. Each chapter tells of an

individual slighted or victimized by a medical system built from the

ashes of slavery, fueled by an ethnological and racial divide, where

men and women could be affixed a value based on a simple equation:

white is greater than black. The experiments and utter depravity of

American doctors seemingly knew no bounds: forced sterilization,

genocide masquerading as eugenics, injections of radioactive sub‐stances, exposure to syphilis, and a blatantly intrusive and racist

prison‐experiment‐culture reveal how historical bigotry shaped not



82

only the moral code of the medical establishment, but also the insti‐

tutionalized racism that persists in society today.

But is “apartheid” an accurate or fair term to apply to con‐

temporary medicine? Have these malicious mainstays in medical re‐

search been eradicated by the evolution of civil rights, or have they

continued with a muted tonality, blanketed by a society whose fa‐

çade of progressiveness is undermined by a foundation and continu‐

ation of historical injustice? The “dark history” of medicine that

Washington describes is blatantly racist, its conceit founded on the

belief that black people are culturally and biologically divergent, and

the disparities that exist in today’s society are repressed offspring

from it. These racial disparities in the medical field manifest in vari‐

ous ways, and one metric used to expose them is the access to andquality of healthcare. As Brian Smedley describes in his book, “Une‐

qual Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health

Care”, African American and other minorities are, “. . . less likely than

whites to have health insurance, have more difficulty getting

healthcare, and have fewer choice in where to receive care” (Smed‐

ley, Stith and Nelson 2003). Moreover, the quality of and access to

healthcare are significantly lower than whites, and blacks are “les

likely to receive even routine medical procedures” (Smedley et al.,2003). The socioeconomic differences that are typically used to ex‐

plain away these disparities are punctured by America’s “dark histo‐

ry”, where discrimination and economic differences are a direct con‐

sequence of a compounding biography of partiality and bias in a na‐

tion that politicked and inculcated its way into a system of institu‐

tionalized racism.

Samuel Zuvekas and Gregg Taliaferro reach a similar conclu‐

sion in there article, “Pathways to Access”, and not only echo the sen‐

timents of inequity in healthcare for minorities, but also that such

disparity, “. . . appear[s] to be growing over the past couple of dec‐

ades” (Zuvekas and Taliaferro 2003). The factors that Zuvekas and

Taliaferro determined feed inequity, including income, education,

insurance, and health care delivery, have been systematically cor‐

rupted by America’s engagement to medical apartheid, and the dis‐

parity exhibited in today’s healthcare system reflect an open‐endednarrative of racial discrimination. It is hard to control for racism or

cultural differences when conducting scientific research, and as

Zuvekas and Taliaferro concluded, “Much of the disparities among



83

blacks . . . remain unexplained even after differences in a large num‐

ber of characteristics are controlled for” (Zuvekas and Taliaferro

2003).

The construct and existence of “race” as an innate characteristic that

defines a group of people is entirely social and philosophical, and

science has shown that biologically and genetically humans do not

differ. However, “Medical Apartheid” illustrates a clear and promi‐

nent historical separation of race in American medicine, one that has

fought its way into the intimations of current medical research, de‐

spite a growing sense of equality. The acknowledgement of race as a

determinant for behavior, intelligence, or importance has had severeimpact on how patients are treated and/or viewed in the medical

field. As Robert S. Schwartz describes in his article, “Racial Profiling

in Medical Research”, “. . . racial designation in the context of medical

management not only defies everything we have learned from biolo‐

gy, genetics, and history but also opens the door to inequities in

medical care” (Schwartz, 2001). Furthermore, and despite the se‐

verity of an immoral and depraved “medical apartheid” eroding, the

construct of race, though inconsequential in terms of biology andhealthcare, has continued to direct the course of medical research.

Schwartz explains:

Such research mistakenly assumes an inherent biologic dif‐

ference between black‐skinned and white‐skinned people. It

falls into error by attributing a complex physiological or clini‐

cal phenomenon to arbitrary aspects of external appearance.It is implausible that the few genes that account for such out‐

ward characteristics could be meaningfully linked to multi‐

genic diseases such as diabetes mellitus or to the intricacies

of the therapeutic effect of a drug . . . (Schwartz, 2001).

Accordingly, as a factor of health, race is capricious. Howev‐

er, history has demonstrated that race will continue to be socially

and culturally significant; and as genetic research tackles complexproblems that affect one group more than another, the concept of

race will continue to influence how medical research is conducted



84

and conveyed. Mark Kohn, in his article “This Racist Undercurrent in

the Tide of Genetic Research”, undertakes the complicated issue of

race in current medical research, stating that, “. . . racial science is

pushing for rehabilitation on a range of fronts” (Kohn 2006). Fronts,

such as medicine specifically designed for black people, are quietly

and subliminally justified through America’s history as a subjugator,

and Kohn, who ultimately concludes that race is relevant in disease‐

research, perpetuates the myth that race is a prevailing factor in

health. Race, as a social, not a biological construct, affects all facets of

life, and appropriating medical research based on race seems coun‐

terproductive to the goal of eliminating race as a de facto determi‐

nant for health. More importantly, the social stigmas associated with

race seem to be the prevailing cause of poor health in minoritygroups, not race itself. The phenotypical differences, as Schwartz

concluded, are superficial.

The causes for health and healthcare disparities in America are nu‐

merous and abstruse, but one reason is obvious: mistrust in a system

that has demonstrated profound racial bias. “Medical Apartheid”

exposes numerous medical initiatives, including the Tuskegee Syphi‐lis Study, as being conceived from a racist agenda. Often, the meth‐

ods employed to obtain participants were specifically designed to be

confusing and onerous, relying on overly complex legalese and scien‐

tific parlance to dupe undereducated minorities into cooperating.

The admission of such practices has had a penetrating effect on peo‐

ple’s trust in the healthcare system. Giselle Corbie‐Smith discusses

in her article, “Attitudes and Beliefs of African Americans TowardParticipation in Medical Research”, that, “For many blacks, the

Tuskegee study became a symbol of their mistreatment by the medi‐

cal establishment, a metaphor for deceit, conspiracy, malpractice,

and neglect, if not outright racial genocide” (Corbie‐Smith, et al.

1999). This mistrust in healthcare has ultimately led to the inequity

found in today’s American society, and “can be justified by a long his‐

tory of exploitation in the name of research that dates back to slav‐

ery and continues to the present day” (Corbie‐Smith, et al. 1999).L. Ebony Boulware reaches a similar conclusion in her article,

“Race and Trust in the Healthcare system”, where she concludes that,



85

“African Americans have been shown to have a greater awareness of

the documented history of racial discrimination in the health care

system . . . and this greater awareness of historical discrimination

has been associated with less trust of clinical and research institu‐

tions” (Boulware, et al. 2003). For some black Americans, the

healthcare system represents a country’s sordid history of racial

prejudice and intolerance, and it can be reasoned that, for some,

simply avoiding healthcare is preferable to involvement in a system

that covertly conspires against them.

Harriet Washington writes that her book, “documents a peculiar

type of injustice in health: the troubled history of medical experi‐mentation with African Americans—and the resulting behavioral

fallout that causes researchers and African Americans to view each

other through jaundiced eyes.” (Washington 2006). History, it seems,

has pitted two groups against each other, separated by the conceit of

race, and widened by a past littered with medical experiments that

only served to justify or further a racist agenda. The implicit laws

that govern medical research and researchers have long been cor‐

rupted, so much so that their existence in today’s society is cloudedby a malaise of unapologetic sentiment and outright denial. The in‐

equity that people experience is directly tied to such corruption, and

gaps in health and healthcare are, despite latent, innately racial. In

the same breath, history can be both depressing and enlightening,

and Washington’s comprehensive look at American medical experi‐

mentation certainly embodies both. Her use of the term “apart‐

heid” is absolutely sensationalist, but damned if it is not accurate.



86

Boulware, L. Ebony, Lisa A Cooper, Lloyd E. Ratner, Thomas A.

LaVeist, and Neil R. Powe. "Race and Trust in the Health Care

System." Public Health Reports 118, no. 4 (July‐August 2003):

358‐365.Corbie‐Smith, Giselle, Stephen B. Thomas, Mark V. Williams, and

Sandra Moody‐Avyers. "Attitudes and Beliefs of African Ameri‐

cans Toward Participation in Medical Research." Journal of In-

ternal Medicine 14, no. 9 (September 1999): 537‐546.

Kohn, Mark. The Racist Undercurrent in the Tide of Genetic Research.

January 16, 2006. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2006

/jan/17/race.science (accessed November 5, 2013).

Schwartz, Robert S. "Racial Profiling in Medical Research." The NewEngland Journal of Medicine 334, no. 18 (May 2001).

Smedley, Brian D., Adrienne Y. Stith, and Alan R. Nelson. Unequal

Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health

Care. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press, 2003.

Washington, Harriet A. Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of

Meidcal Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times

to the Present. New York: Anchor Books, 2006.

Zuvekas, Samuel H., and Gregg S. Taliaferro. "Pathways to Access:Health Insurance, The Health Care Delivery System, and Racial

Ethnic Disparities, 1996‐1999." Health Affairs, March 2003: 139‐

153.



87


Health disparities are often most conspicu‐ous in urban, impoverished environments,where access to quality food is restrictedand education about health‐living is sub‐dued. According to Case Western ReserveUniversity’s NEO CANDO System, as of2000, over a quarter (26.3%) of individuals,and nearly a third (32.3%) of families withchildren living in Cleveland, Ohio had in‐comes below the poverty level (Case West‐

ern Reserve University, 2012). This translates to a wide gap in equityfor residents living in Cleveland’s most impoverished areas, and con‐tributes to the country’s growing health crisis. This “Call to Action”proposes the creation of a health‐focused newsletter aimed at rais‐

ing awareness about, and informing people of the dangers of livingand eating unhealthy and the benefits derived from choosing fresh,healthy food. Other goals of this newsletter include: exposing read‐ers to external content, including documentaries and scientific arti‐cles, that detail the historical and cultural reasons for America’s de‐clining health, pointing readers to informative, health‐centric web‐sites, and encouraging urban residents to start small gardens, eitherindoors or outdoors, to help mitigate the effects of the typical urban

American diet. Arming people with knowledge is, perhaps, the mosteffective means of infiltrating and dismantling the current system offood production in America, and this “Call to Action” aims to equippeople with the insight and ability to begin making better, healthierchoices, not only for them, but for the overall well‐being of the coun‐try.

Health, as a component of equity, is often skewed in urban environ‐ments, where access to quality health care and fresh food is limited.This inequity often affects the impoverished, who typically cannot



88

afford more preferable resources, and many of whom rely on gov‐ernment subsidies and “entitlement programs” designed to pack re‐cipients full of processed, dense caloric foods and corn‐based sugars.This results in a growing health disparity, and emphasizes a need forchange, not only in the food sold and eaten, but in the policies thatguide life in urban environments. According to the Centers for Dis‐ease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) SMART Project, over half of theresidents living in the Cleveland metropolitan area and surroundingcities are either overweight or obese, and, based in BMI, only 33.7%of residents achieved a normal weight (Centers for Disease Controland Prevention, 2013). Furthermore, 8.8% of residents have beenformally diagnosed with diabetes, 4.9% have been diagnosed with

coronary heart disease, 25.6% of residents have reported that theydid not participate in physical activities, and nearly 15% of Cleve‐land’s people lack adequate access to healthcare (Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention, 2013).

These statistics present a sobering reality: the gaps in healthequity are very much prevalent in Cleveland. Most of these statisticscan be attributed to unhealthy eating, a byproduct of having a sur‐plus of fast‐food restaurants, little‐to‐no access to fresh produce and

other healthy products, and easy access to cheap calorie‐densefoods. Moreover, there is a lack of adequate education surroundingthe topic of healthy eating, and for many, identifying which foods aregood versus which foods are bad is problematic. There is little over‐sight on how food is advertised, and often foods that are branded“healthy”, if consumed on a regular basis, turn out to be detrimentalto a person’s overall health. Buzzwords and other “healthy” phrase‐ology often embellish popular food brands, and there is little govern‐ing policy on how slogans such as, “Heart Healthy”, or “Light” areused in packaging or advertising. Perhaps more troubling, children’snetworks and shows are saturated with commercials for junk foodand products that purport to be “healthy”, even when contrary evi‐dence shows that children are more susceptible to advertising thanadults. A study conducted at the Centre for Behavioral Research inCancer Control found evidence suggesting, “that until 8 years of age

most children are cognitively incapable of appreciating the commer‐cial purpose of television advertising and are particularly vulnerableto is persuasive techniques” (Patterson, Donovan, Ewing, Roberts, &Carter, 2011). This makes it difficult for children to choose what



89

foods to eat in order to maintain health, and to understand that eat‐ing mass‐marketed, popular foods can have a lasting negative impacton health.

Access to healthy food is severely limited, particularly in theeastern section of Cleveland city and surrounding suburbs, where alarge population of Cleveland’s impoverished people live. Accordingto Google’s map data, there are only two Giant Eagle Grocery storeswithin a 10 mile radius east of downtown Cleveland, and only oneWhole Foods store, located in a wealthy area of Cleveland Heights(Google Maps, 2013). This presents a problem for people who cannotafford to travel a long distance for food, or whom do not have themeans to travel. The prevalence of corner stores, or convenience

stores, where junk food, cigarettes, and alcohol are sold, is exponen‐tially higher than the number of grocery stores, where fresh fruits,vegetables, and other healthy foods are stocked and sold. It is mucheasier for a resident is these areas to walk a block or two and obtaincheap, unhealthy food than it is for them to travel upwards of 10miles to purchase healthier alternatives.

Children have it even worse. Their access to healthy food islimited by what parents bring home, by what is available in the sur‐

rounding area, and by what is served to them in school. According tothe National Education Association, the quality and safety standardsof school food is lower than those of fast food restaurants, and,“school cafeterias are not being inspected as rigorously required bythe Child Nutrition Act” (Buffenbarger, 2013). Children who rely onschool as a source of nutrition are eating food that is qualitativelyworse for them than the fast food they eat outside of school. Again,this contributes to the health disparity seen in the Cleveland area,and further aggravates the prevalence of childhood obesity. Childrenwho rely on fast food and other unhealthy foods as their sole sourceof nutrition and energy are setting themselves up for an adult lifeplagued with avoidable, health‐related diseases.

Therefore, having knowledge about what kind of food ishealthy, as well as having access to fresh, healthy food is important ifurban residents in Cleveland are to close the gaps in equity.

Knowledge is, perhaps, the progenitor of healthy‐living, and an in‐formed population is better equipped to demand change from thecurrent system of food production and supply. With knowledge, anindividual or group can begin to transform the social and cultural



90

landscapes of their homes and neighborhoods, and usher in a health‐ier climate all can benefit from. Empowerment is derived fromknowledge, and with that, access to healthier food will increase, andgaps in equity will begin shuttering.

It is apparent that government policy concerning the production anddistribution of food is skewed towards corporate interests, and thatthe health of the nation is damaged as a result. This indicates thatthe individual must take charge of their health, become educatedabout the food they eat, and learn how to live a healthy life. Infor‐mation concerning healthy food is freely available through various

sources, but acquiring or seeing such information is often hiddenfrom popular news outlets and websites. Various documentaries ex‐ist that explain and document how food is changing the overallhealth of the country, and the impact it has on individual lives, butsuch films do not receive the same attention or marketing that Hol‐lywood affords its blockbusters. The mindshare of “health” is smalland inconspicuous.

Unhealthy living and eating, particularly in America, can be

frightening, the consequences capable of destroying lives and fami‐lies. A mother, struggling with obesity and diabetes, needs multipleexpensive surgeries to replace worn joints; a father, life‐long smok‐er, bourbon‐connoisseur, and a man who had not met an animal hewould not eat, dies from cancer at 56; a sister, who struggles dailywith food and body image, turns to bulimia; and a brother, hefty andseemingly careless, is diagnosed with heart disease at age 29. Such

stories are found in American families; they are not unique or rare,and the dilemmas they face are largely avoidable. The informationneeded to steer around these health‐related pitfalls is often shroud‐ed behind a thick veneer of American obtuseness, out‐shined by theloud prattling of advertising and entertainment, or tucked awaywithin the folds of the country’s higher‐education system.

In America, education is costly. This limits the number andtype of people that receive an education post‐high school, and in

many ways, creates its own gaps in equity. However, being able toafford, either monetarily or time‐wise, a college education shouldnot be a determining factor in receiving instructions on how to live



91

and eat healthy. Taking a 13 to 15 week health course at a communi‐ty or state college can cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, andcan be rigorous for people not familiar or prepared to face a collegecurriculum. Personally, the information received in college is valua‐ble, and paying a premium for that information is an accepted prac‐tice in America, but affixing a price tag on what is, ostensibly, indi‐vidual health is what initially creates gaps in equity. If one collegeclass has the ability to awaken and diversify a person’s perspectiveon life, health, history, etc., as it has for me time and time again, thenthe information contained within that class should be freely availa‐ble and distributable. Life in America often seems like a malaise ofexcess and unquestioned allegiance to corporate conglomerates, and

waking someone from the clutches of this should not be limited tothose who can afford it.The intent of this “call to action” is to create and distribute a

4‐page newsletter focusing on current and historical topics of healthand well‐being, either through e‐mail or traditional mail, to one EastCleveland neighborhood. Particular emphasis will be put on healthyeating, including what foods to buy at a grocery or corner store, whatfoods can be grown indoors and outdoors, instructions for garden‐

ing, popular myths and facts about healthy food, and meal ideas foryoung children. Each issue will have one or two informative articlesabout health and food, linking recipients to scholarly articles, videos,and documentaries that are freely available on the Internet. In gen‐eral, the newsletter will serve as a launching pad, raising awarenessabout important health‐related issues, and pointing readers to thewealth of knowledge that is often hidden within the pages of the In‐ternet.

This call to action will strive to achieve the following goalsand SMART objectives:

To increase awareness and deliver information about healthyeating and living.

To create and distribute a physical newsletter

to on small neighborhood in East Cleveland.

Specific? Yes, one newsletter.



92

Measurable? Yes, one small neighborhood.

Achievable?Yes, a neighborhood with < 50homes/apartment units

Time‐bound? Yes, by spring 2014

To create and distribute an electronic news‐

letter those whom sign up via social network‐ing sites.

Specific? Yes, one newsletter.

Measurable? Yes.

Achievable?Yes. Newsletter will mirror physical newslet‐ter.


To include indoor and outdoor gardening tips

for adults and children.

Specific? Yes, several gardening tips.

Measurable? Yes.

Achievable? Yes.

Time‐bound? Yes, by spring 2014.

To include meal ideas and relatively inexpen‐sive healthy recipes for adults and children.

Specific? Yes, one or two recipes.

Measurable? Yes.

Achievable? Yes. There are many healthy recipes.

Time‐bound? Yes, by spring 2014.

To include links to external articles, docu‐mentaries, and other material related to

healthy eating.

Specific? Yes, several links.

Measurable? Yes.

Achievable? Yes.




93

Implementing this “Call to Action” is fairly straightforward. The crea‐tion of the physical newsletter will require a person with someknowledge of Microsoft Word and/or the LaTeX document creation

system, as well as someone who is familiar with graphical design andtypesetting. Writing and research can be performed in my sparetime, with the formatting to be done by a volunteer or, if need be,cobbled together myself. Paper can be bought in bulk reams directlyfrom paper suppliers or via online paper outlets. Printing of bothnewsletter and the postage labels can be done on a home laser print‐er, or by utilizing the services of a copy center (e.g. CopyMax). Thefolding, or finishing, of the newsletter will be performed gratis by

DUKE Printing, my employer, and will meet USPS standards. Mailingwill be through the USPS, using first class mail postage, which is taxdeductible.

The electronic newsletter will require a person withknowledge of HTML and some graphical design experience. Mailinglists will be acquired through conventional means: soliciting sign‐ups via popular social media networks, such as Facebook, Twitter,Tumblr, Google+, and LinkedIn, or by free postings on Cleveland‐

related websites. Prior to spring 2014, accounts will be made oneach of the aforementioned social networking sites; their primaryfocus to spread a message of healthy living/eating and to solicit in‐terested parties for email addresses. The address will be kept in con‐fidentiality and destroyed/discarded if unsubscribed.

The electronic newsletter has the ability to reach a far greaterdemographic of people at no additional cost, making it a more attrac‐

tive long term monthly prospect. It also has the benefit of directlylinking to additional resources, making it easier for subscribers toaccess information. Moreover, the costs incurred from writ‐ing/designing an electronic newsletter are negligible, while a physi‐cal newsletter requires paper, ink, and postage. The budget to theright outlines the basic cost of producing one newsletter for ≥50 re‐cipients. Subsequent newsletters, if produced, would be significantlycheaper, as one cartridge of generic black toner can last 2000+ pages

(2000 one‐sided 8.5x11 sheets equals 500 double‐sided 11x17sheets), and one ream of paper can produce 500 newsletters. Thisbudget assumes the cheapest route, with all of the production work



94

done on a volunteer basis(or by myself). Additional‐ly, and with permission,physical newsletters canbe distributed at commu‐nity centers, churches,and other places wherepeople gather, cuttingdown on the cost of post‐age, and reaching a great‐er selection of people withlittle‐to‐no added cost.

While the electron‐ic newsletter sounds bet‐ter in principle, the physi‐cal newsletter benefits byreaching those who arenot constantly connectedto the Internet. Thoughthis “Call to Action” has

realistic, short‐term, at‐tainable goals, a long‐termproject would necessitate the use of both physical and electronicnewsletters. Furthermore, the information contained within thisnewsletter would be culled from reputable scholarly sources, em‐phasizing science over fad, and contain up‐to‐date, relevant infor‐mation concerning nutrition and health. Related videos, documen‐taries, and other external sources would all point to secure, non‐partisan, credible websites. Information would be as non‐biased aspossible, and apply to the greatest number of people.

The initial creation of the newsletter template will take some time,considering the complexities involved in drafting an applicable11x17 signature. Several layers of graphical design will need to be

completed before the text can be inserted. The content of the news‐letter should take no more than 2 weeks to complete. Therefore, apractical timeline for a full‐time student and full‐time worker is

(For both physical and electronic newsletters)(Prices rounded to nearest quarter dollar)

Writing/Design/ResearchDone myself ---

Paper1 ream of 11x17 stock

$16.50

Printing/Ink Black ink for laser printer

$34.00

Finishing/Folding11x17 folded to 5.5x8.5

---

Postage Labels1 box of 300 $9.75

Postage 50 letters at $0.66 per item

$33.00

Coding/DesignDone myself or volunteer

---

Social Media SolicitationDone myself

---

$93.25



95

spring of 2014. Listed below are viable milestones and rough datesas to when they should be completed:

Begin social media blitz. Collect e‐mail address for elec‐tronic newsletter. Gauge interest and begin research intohealthy topics.

Complete first draft of physical newsletter template.Graphic elements should be set in stone at this point.

Complete first draft of electronic newsletter template.HTML code and graphic design should be near completeand in working order.

First draft of newsletter content complete. Will include

rough drafts of all content included in final newsletter,including links to extraneous content, tips for gardening,healthy recipes, informative content, and myths/factsabout healthy food and eating.

Final drafts of both templates and content complete.

Printing, finishing and mailing of physical newslettercomplete. Delivery of electronic newsletter complete.

Two and a half months should be enough time to create twotemplates and gather enough information/content for one 4‐pagenewsletter. Early March of 2014 was chosen as a favorable launchingdate for several reasons: (1) winter is ending and people are moreconscious about their physical condition/appearance, many ofwhom wish to “get in shape” for the summer season; (2) as winterends, spring begins, and the ground is once again fertile and ripe for

planting gardens; and (3) aside from Easter, there are no popularholidays to distract people from maintaining a healthy diet. If suc‐cessful, subsequent newsletters can be delivered more rapidly, atone or more every two months.

The primary metric used to evaluate performance will be individualfeedback. The newsletter will solicit people to leave feedback on so‐cial networking sites, or to write a response/suggestion to the edi‐tor. Other metrics can be used, including the number of people thatinitially sign up for the electronic newsletter, the amount that sub‐



96

scribe after the delivery of the newsletter, the amount that unsub‐scribe after receiving the electronic newsletter, and Internet trafficdata for the extraneous websites/links. For example, page views on aYouTube documentary can be determined and tracked before andafter the newsletter is delivered. Small upticks in average weeklypage views could illuminate the efficiency of the newsletter, or, atthe very least, establish a wavering positive correlation.

In general, it is hard to evaluate the performance of a news‐letter without direct feedback from its recipients. Other than directlyinterviewing people, or conducting a survey after the newsletter isdelivered, measuring performance is restricted to voluntary com‐ments from readers/subscribers. This “Call to Action” is designed

solely to increase awareness and spread information; its hope isthat, armed with this knowledge, individuals will make better choic‐es when it comes to food and health, and be prepared to tackledlarger, nation‐wide issues. By itself, the newsletter is not a measura‐ble metric for overall health and healthy eating; it is tool that can beemployed to focus and shift people’s perception of food and its effecton health. If successful, the newsletter would not change the healthof Cleveland residents, it would empower them to strive for change.

To increase awareness and to education people about foodand healthy eating. To empower them to make better choicesin their homes and neighborhoods when it comes to livinghealthy.

By creating and distributing an informative newsletter to oneneighborhood in Cleveland. Also, by creating and distributingan electronic newsletter to those who subscribe through var‐ious social networking sites.

The newsletter is targeted at impoverished residents, includ‐ing families and children, living in an urban area. In a moregeneral sense, the newsletter is designed to apply to anyone.



97

Buffenbarger, A. (2013). Quality of School Lunches Questioned . Re‐trieved from National Education Association:http://www.nea.org/home/37485.htm

Case Western Reserve University. (2012). Center on Urban Povertyand Community Development . Retrieved from NEO CANDO Sys‐tem: http://neocando.case.edu

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2013, May 9). SMART:

BRFSS City and County Data. Retrieved December 4, 2013, fromhttp://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/BRFSS‐SMART/index.asp

Google Maps. (2013). Cleveland Area. Retrieved from Google:https://maps.google.com/

Patterson, L., Donovan, R., Ewing, M., Roberts, C., & Carter, O. (2011).Children's Understanding of the Selling Versus Persuasive JunkFood Advertising: Implications for Regulation. Social Science and

Medicine, 962‐968.



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101

For Megacities of Asia, Fall 2013

rbanization affects nearly every facet of amegacity, from the lack of infrastructure

and unfettered growth of urban settle‐

ments, to governance and methods of taxa‐

tion. Continuing and growing urbanization

presents a challenge to sustainability, and

Kötter does a commendable job outlining

not only why such hurdles exist, but howto overcome them.

Providing health care for a growing popu‐

lation presents its own problems, but

maintaining that health care via systematic infrastructure (like sew‐

age treatment, garbage removal, and proper systems to prevent

man‐made natural disasters) is a growing concern for those 1.5 bil‐

lion people living in slums. Couple that with unrestricted urban

growth, poor‐to‐no planning, a high consumption of natural re‐sources leading to all manner of ecological pollution, and an absence

of reliable transportation to and from rural areas (practically forcing

people to adopt city dwelling), the act of sustaining a developing

megacity looks more and more like an uphill battle.

Economic factors, such as housing costs, the ability to reform

outdated or inefficient infrastructure, and improper/unchecked tax‐

ation methods also challenge the sustainability of developing meg‐

acities. Have enough money to sustain growth and fight poverty pre‐sents a problem for megacities deficient in proper governance.

Hopefully, Kötter’s cursory outline for addressing these issues will

put developing megacities on the right track towards sustaining ur‐

ban growth.

The economic benefits associated with Imperialistic rule

brought several Asian countries into the modern era. British and

French occupation in India contributed to improved public servicesand some commercial stability. Railroads and trade routes were

built, buildings were erected, and a modicum of French culture was

injected into the fledgling Indian culture. Opium served as an im‐



102

portant trade good, being harvested in India and shipped off to Chi‐

na, where it penetrated and soured the upper class. As a result, Chi‐

na went to war, and equipped with new Imperial modernity, at‐

tempted to fight back its colonial intruders. This development

threads deep into the 20th century, sparking war and uprising.

The modernization of India by Britain and France served as

the precipice for its eventual independence. Indian nationalism

pushed the country over the edge and paved the way for an inde‐

pendent economic future, as well as the extinction of systemic Brit‐

ish oversight. Similar nationalist movement occurred throughout

Asia and Africa in the early‐to‐mid 20th century. These movements,

perhaps, would not have been possible without the modernizing ef‐

fects of Imperialism.It’s unfortunate that it took the Olympics coming to Beijing to

motivate China to bolster and brace their weak anti‐pollution infra‐

structure, but some of the policies put in place before the torch was

lit, while entirely foreign and unimaginable here in the US, have

managed to combat pollution in dramatic ways. One such method

involves the production and use of automobiles; not only have these

laws cracked down on harmful emissions produced by cars and fac‐

tories (in some cases they literally closed or moved factories out ofBeijing), China has gone so far as to implement a ban on automobile

use. The “license plate system” was devised as a measure to cut smog

for the 2008 Olympics, but has since then been implemented as a

full‐time measure to combat pollution. Using license plate numbers

as a control, this law effectively bans vehicles from driving on certain

days of the week. It has reportedly reduced the amount of pollution

in Beijing by 10% (Hays 2012).

Other measures put in place before the 2008 Olympics help in

the fight against pollution; coal mines were closed, power plants

were modified, factories were closed or relocated, inefficient taxis

were replaced with cleaner models, and pollution monitoring sta‐

tions were built to help in struggle for clean air (Hays 2012). The

modest change in air quality around Beijing is a good start, but China

still has a long way to go before its environmental footprint is trivial,

and its megacities are no longer significant contributors to globalpollution.

Of the ten solutions listed in the article, only two strike me as

achievable possibilities: finding and using alternate sources of drink‐



103

ing water (such as rainwater), and the use of deep aquifers. Alt‐

hough Bangladesh is a relatively small country (148,393 km2), the

amount of money needed to install purifiers, filtration devices, con‐

temporary sewage and waste disposal systems, or effective water

treatment plants would likely be too high. However, provided that

an international effort was made to either dilute or remove arsenic

from Bangladesh’s ground water, other remediations could prove

successful. Still, the most cost effect strategies for obtaining clean,

arsenic‐free water for consumption would be to utilize alternate

wells and rainwater, or extract water from deep aquifers. Further‐

more, the ostracization of arsenic‐contaminated Bangladeshi, cou‐

pled with excessive poverty, leads me to believe that the use of al‐

ternate sources of drinking water is a viable remedy—one that eventhe impoverished, or shunned can take advantage of.

As stated in the article, there are several aspects of growth in

Asia that can, and likely will, affect environmental resources. The

unchecked growth of population, combined with urban sprawl, has

had a striking influence on important natural resources, including

water, air, land and biodiversity. Perhaps the most important: the

release of CO2 into the atmosphere via industry and an increasing

preference for automobiles is projected to have a profound effect onglobal warming. Over the next few decades, developing Asian coun‐

tries will continue to increase their need for energy, and as such will

likely rely on cheap, infectious means to produce it. Rising global

temperatures will cause an upward shift in sea level, will destroy cit‐

ies, ruin lands, and place further strain on biodiversity. Couple this

with the Western world who is also projected to increase energy

demand and consumption, and a global catastrophe becomes more

likely. Furthermore, the polluting of land and water in Asian coun‐

tries will only hasten social and biological constriction, perhaps af‐

fecting the health of people and their ability to remain industrious

and competitive in a global economy. Certainly, overly polluted wa‐

ter can destroy important reefs and oxygen‐producing animals, and

deplete oceans of their globally‐important biodiversity.

At first glance the SRA sounds like an exceptionally well

thought‐out plan to redevelop Dharvai and provide new opportuni‐ties for its residents. Legal, registered residents will receive a free

(though incredibly small) living space in a 7‐storey building, have

greater access to healthcare and education, and will have access to



104

better/more modern tools that will (hopefully) allow industry in

Dharvai to grow and prosper. The project itself will be divided

amongst qualified contractors, and planning includes roads, green

areas, and basic infrastructure that should alleviate many problems

current residents face. However, the SRA does not address the many

illegal/unregistered inhabitants, and the temporary relocation of

Dharvai residents could have a dramatic impact on their ability to

survive while the project is being completed.

Perhaps it’s a bit idealistic. Dharvia’s redevelopment would

ultimately result in better living conditions for its residents, but an

important question still remains: how can people who currently sur‐

vive on 1 dollar or less a day afford to live there. The rent may be

free, but the utilities are not. Simply bulldozing over a neighborhoodand rebuilding it does not address the real issue.

, something needs to be done. If the SRA can improve living

conditions for its residents, and also provide them with new em‐

ployment opportunities, then perhaps the utilitarian goal has been

met. The greater issue of poverty can be tackled another day.

When it comes to urban development, it seems like Japan is in

a tug‐o‐war between the economic space and life space. Tokyo was

able to become a world‐class city as Japan favored the economicspace in the early‐to‐mid nineteenth century. Capital was received

by the state and sent directly to projects that favored growth and

expansion in the economic market. Consequentially, the life space

was left to the private markets and suffered. People organized and

fought for their rights, winning precious battles for sunlight and af‐

fordable housing in Tokyo. In the 1980’s there was a shift away from

the economic space, leaning forward into the life space, where peo‐

ple could flourish. Of course, in the 90’s Japan swung back towards

the economic space, and lifted or removed certain restrictions that

forced Tokyo to continue serving its urban inhabitants. They built

higher and higher buildings, removed social structures (bath hous‐

es) in a bid to coerce stubborn citizens out of their now‐valuable

dwellings, and tweaked their state policies to allow more freedom

and control to individual cities.

The urban growth that occurred in Tokyo was tailored forcorporate, not individual, interests. Money was funneled into pro‐

jects that purported to grow the nation’s economy, a culturally im‐

portant pillar of Japanese life. This, in turn, left the life space to rely



105

on private funds. Infrastructure was deficient in many places in To‐

kyo. It is reasonably prudent, then, to suspect that developing cities

in other Asian areas would ultimately sacrifice more life space if they

were to follow in Tokyo’s footsteps. We’ve already seen a great deal

of sacrifice from Chinese and Indian cities, an any further neglect of

the life space would ultimately lead to an even higher demand for

political and economic change. There is likely a balance between the

economic and life spaces, one that equally favors urban growth while

at the same time preserving cultural linchpins and safeguarding all

classes of inhabitants.

There are various modes of transportation, each which fits a

particular culture and/or city. In all likelihood, a megacity that uti‐

lizes all or many of these modes of transportation will be the mostsuccessful in moving people around and easing congestion and/or

pollution. Furthermore, there are a lot of crazy, genius ideas out

there (hyperloop?), and as technology continues to advance, new

and exciting modes of transportation will pop up.

These are cheap, environmentally friends, but require a lot of human

power. There are several cities in the United States that use rick‐shaws as a novel mode of transportation, but, ultimately, it proves

impractical due to the large distances Americans travel in a day. The

Asian cities that use rickshaws generally lack the infrastructure, such

as subways or railways, to move large quantities of people. Cities

that are equipped with such infrastructure would likely not benefit

from this.

Subways, like motorways, will eventually reach a limit. For Asian

cities that have no underground transportation, subways would like‐

ly alleviate a substantial amount of congestion on the roadways.

However, it requires a lot of investment and time to build a network

of underground tubes, and in many American cities—where people

own one or more personal vehicles—a subway would likely be a

waste of money. With new technology, including faster, safer trams,subways could serve as a compliment to all other forms of transpor‐

tation.



106

This is perhaps the most interesting of all the modes of transporta‐

tion. Maglev trains have the ability to transport large quantities of

people very quickly across large distances. Asian cities may benefit

from this, provided people are commuting from far enough away to

make it effective. In America, a Maglev Train would be more useful

in cross‐country traveling, if anything. Building one in Cleveland

would be interesting, but ultimately useless, as commuters travel to

Cleveland from every direction but North. Where would the train

go? Would it travel around the outer circumference of the city? Who

would benefit from it? However, in Asian cities that are densely

populated, having fast and reliable transportation to a megacity from

a rural area could alleviate overcrowding, and afford some peoplenew job opportunities.

By far the most popular choice for Americans, the car poses several

problems for megacities. Even as technology advances, and as oil‐

burning cars are becoming more efficient and less damaging to the

environment, the personal automobile is a detriment for megacities.

They create congestion, pollution, accidents, and other hazards.They take up a lot of space and require areas to park. Buses make

more sense. In America, the car is a necessity. Most people do not

live near where they work, and many do not wish to. CSU and my

work are 40 miles apart, and there is no bus line, tram line, subway,

maglev train, or rickshaw that would take me to both in the same

day in the time required. Nor will there ever be, as the network of

crisscrossing tubes, or armies of buses would be so extensive and

vast it would be economically infeasible. The only other option is by

car, or (at least in the summertime):

Bicycles are useful, weather permitting, and can find a home in any

Asian megacity or American town. Already, in many Asian and Eu‐

ropean cities, the bicycle is the dominant and preferred mode of

transportation. They are cheap, virtually pollution‐free, easily ma‐neuverable, and do not take up a lot of space. I’m reminded of Am‐

sterdam, where you can find multi‐level parking garages specifically

built to house bicycles, and roadways specifically designed for bicy‐



107

cle use. Provided the city is designed for large quantities of bikers,

the bicycle is an attractive mode of transportation for any city.

As mentioned in the article, there are many types of gender

inequality, and almost no country exhibits gender parity. One of the

more pressing issued associated with gender inequality in Asian

countries is the gap in health. Generally, girls are more malnour‐

ished than boys, and women receive less healthcare than men. This,

ultimately, has contributed to countless numbers of premature fe‐

male deaths, and has led to a population ratio that favors men. The

sex‐based abortions that take place in Southern Asia provide evi‐

dence that gender inequality can manifest as life‐and‐death deci‐

sions.There are other concerns. Women receive less education and

their function or importance to society is diminished. This has a cas‐

cading effect not only on women, but on men and children as well.

Mothers who are malnourished give birth to children who, from the

moment they are conceived, are at a disadvantage in health and life.

The article makes the claim that empowered women are less likely

to neglect their children and families, and are more likely to live a

healthier life. In general, gender inequalities seem to affect healthmore than anything.

I was surprised to see that gender inequality in Tehran was

not so different than European countries. Women in Tehran struggle

to compete in a society that is dominated by men, and aside from

their dress, are very similar to the women in America and other

Western countries, were women had to fight for equality. The inte‐

gration of religious and civil law is unique, but as several of the

women discussed, the religious idolatry and regulation is on the de‐

cline. There are still issues that prevent women from achieving

equality (such as social and cultural roles, and restrictions on dress

and travel), but on a whole, I was stunned that Tehran, in both eco‐

nomic and social venues, is very similar to Western cities. Perhaps

as religious influence wanes, the “red‐lines” and censorship will fol‐

low, and Tehran will be able to evolve in a direction that values

women just as much as men.



108



109


ver the past 30 years Asian countries have

seen phenomenal economic growth, par‐

ticularly in China, India, and more recently,

Indonesia. There are various reasons why

economic growth in Asia has outpaced the

rest of the world, including: the lasting ef‐

fects of colonialism/imperialism, the shift

from monopoly capitalism to transnational

corporate capitalism (TCC), demand from

industrialized nations, physical location,

populations dynamics, and effective socio‐

political components (Clark 2003). However, important economic

factors—including economic reforms that led to decollectivizationand a transition to TCC, policies that suppress inflation and promote

macroeconomic stability, and an open‐door policy that advocates

foreign investment—appear to be the most influential to Asia’s eco‐

nomic boon, and contribute to the amelioration of all other elements.

The Asian market has grown considerably due to the low in‐

flation and the relative stability of exchange rates, primarily caused

by highly‐resistant Asian macroeconomics. According to Douglas A.

Galbi (2013) in his article “Economic Growth in East Asia”, EastAsian countries—where economic growth has outpaced that of the

Western world—have stabilized their inflation at around 6% a year,

have kept relatively small government deficits, and have seen rela‐

tively stable exchange rates. There are various reasons why these

Asian markets are committed to keeping inflation in‐check, includ‐

ing: the effects of colonial fiscal conservatism on post‐colonial eco‐

nomic policies, historical tradition, and, as is the case in Indonesia

and China, an aversion grown from, “tramatic [sic] inflationary spi‐

rals that accompanied economic and political crises” (Galbi 2013).

Furthermore, the stability of real exchange rates in East Asia has



110

seen a move from, “long‐term fixed rate regimes, to fixed‐but‐

adjustable regimes with occasional steep devaluations, to managed

floats” (Galbi 2013). The strength of exchange rates have a positive

effect on export industries, and generally work to keep inflation low,

further promoting economic growth and expansion (Galbi 2013).

Another important factor in Asian growth, particularly in re‐

spect to China, involves economic reforms targeted at the expansion

of worker productivity, profit incentives for private businesses, and

decollectivization. Prior to these economic reforms, a significant

percentage of China’s population worked in collective, state‐

controlled agriculture. Zuliu Hu (1997), in his article “Why is China

Growing so Fast”, explains that the decollectivization efforts and

economic reforms of 1978, including the expansion of propertyrights and the decline in state‐owned ventures, resulted in a, “rapid

growth of village enterprises [and] has drawn tens of millions of

people from traditional agriculture to higher‐value‐added manufac‐

turing”. In the years following the 1978 reforms, private ownership

of production increased from 2 to 10%, resulting in an abundance of

non‐agricultural jobs (including jobs satiating Western consumer

demand), a move from monopoly capitalism to transnational corpo‐

rate capitalism, and ultimately offered a level of economic flexibilityand competition that China, or any East Asian country, had never

seen (Hu and Khan 1997).

China’s open door policy, beginning as part of the 1978 eco‐

nomic reform, is also largely responsible for economic growth not

only in China, but in neighboring Asian countries. In respect to ex‐

ports, the Asian market prior to 1978 languished due to a “strong

aversion to trade and foreign investment” (Wei 1995). The suite of

economic reforms in 1978 resulted in many changes to the way Chi‐

na, and by proxy its many neighboring countries/cities (including

Vietnam and then British controlled Hong Kong), viewed and con‐

ducted international business. In his book, “Economic Interdepend‐

ence in the Asian‐Pacific Region”, C.H. Kwan (1994) states that, “Chi‐

na is a now a model to follow for socialist countries in the region,

helping to accelerate the reverse domino phenomenon”. This new

open door policy, coupled with attractive incentives aimed at the de‐velopment of private businesses, resulted in an annual rate of trade

expansion that was, “more than three times higher than that of total

world trade” (Wei 1995). Moreover, from 1978 until the present,



111

such open door policies (along with cheap, competitive labor) have

ushered in a new era of transnational corporate entities, which only

further the expansion of the Asian economy.

In reality, it is an amalgamation of factors that has led to the

Asian economic boon. Many sociopolitical factors end up influencing

economic policy, and vice‐versa. Population dynamics are easily in‐

fluenced by changes to social and political policy (i.e. China’s eco‐

nomic reforms attracted many immigrants/emigrants), and the

physical aspects of many Asian countries (i.e. not being landlocked)

have contributed to their desirability as trade and export capitols.

There is no single reason for the rise of the Asian economy; rather it

was combination of many interconnected components, all designed

to facilitate a social, political and economic transformation thatwould fundamentally change the world.

Clark, David. Urban World/Global City. 2nd. New York: Routledge,

2003.

Galbi, Douglas A. Economic Growth in East Asia. 2013.

http://www.galbithink.org/topics/ea/ea.htm (accessed Sep‐

tember 28, 2013).Hu, Zuliu, and Mohsin S. Khan. "Why Is China Growing So Fast." In-

ternational Monetary Fund. June 1997.

https://www.imf.org/EXTERNAL/PUBS/FT/ISSUES8/INDEX.H

TM (accessed September 29, 2013).

Kwan, C.H. Economic Interdependence in the Asia-Pacific Region. New

York: Routledge, 1994.

Wei, Shang‐Jin. "The Open Door Policy and China's Rapid Growth:Evidence from City‐Level Data." Growth Theories in Light of of

East Asian Experience , 1995: 73‐104.



112



113


he state of Maharashtra, situated in the

Western part of India, harbors one of

Asia’s largest megacities, Mumbai. Of the

twelve million people living in Mumbai, it

is estimated that nearly half are living in

squalor, occupying various illegal and in‐

formal slums, sustaining and deriving sub‐

sistence from unregulated, illegitimate

employment (Rapid Intelligence 2012).

Like many Asian megacities where a clear,

inequitable divide in income and produc‐

tion exists, the formulation of Mumbai’s slums, of which Dharavi is

the largest, is derived from political policies and economic reformsthat favor the wealthy, unchecked and unplanned urban growth, and

an overwhelmingly large influx of migrant workers, most of whom

leave rural, agricultural jobs in hopes of obtaining prosperity in

Mumbai’s vast industrial sector. Such aspects have (and continue to)

contribute to the growing problem of poverty in and around Mum‐

bai, and have lasting consequences for not only the impoverished

living in the slums, but for the environment, the country, and the

world.One of the main factors contributing to poverty in Mumbai re‐

lates to unplanned urban growth. A series of social and budgetary

reforms in the late 20th century spurred the economic disparities ex‐

hibited in Mumbai today and enticed millions of rural farmers to

abandon their lands in search of better employment opportunities in

the urban landscape. The formation of Mumbai’s informal slums,

where a majority of these migrant workers live, was a consequence

of such unregulated immigration, and served as a clear divider be‐

tween the opulence of higher caste members and the squalor of im‐

poverished transients (Berrebi 2011‐2013). Furthermore, the eco‐



114

nomic reforms concentrated investment and development in finan‐

cial and computer‐related sectors, nearly ignoring the expansive

(and often informal) manufacturing sector in slums adjacent to

Mumbai’s affluent city center, where nearly 50% of India’s GDP is

derived (Berrebi 2011‐2013).

As with other Asian megacities, the adoption of transnational

corporate capitalism (TCC) is tangentially responsible for a portion

of the economic disparities seen in contemporary Mumbai (Clark

2003). The recent shift from monopoly capitalism to TCC—a re‐

sponse to a demanding Western market—has stimulated urban

growth by making urban living more attractive to and profitable for

rural inhabitants. This shift, combined with an economic policy that

favors Mumbai’s urban sectors, has created (and continues to create)a large movement of migrants into the city and surrounding slums.

Population growth is therefore chaotic, and urban growth responds

with unregulated expansion.

Attempts to address the growing poverty problem have been

marred by corruption and fallacious intent. As Neelima Risbud

(2003) describes in her article, “The Case of Mumbai, India”, the Ma‐

harashtra Slums Area (Improvement, Clearance and Redevelop‐

ment) Act of 1971 shifted redevelopment resources to private slumowners, who quickly misappropriated funds while carelessly evict‐

ing illegal tenants. Slums located on private lands were ineligible for

national assistance, and those located on state or government‐

owned lands were only marginally improved. In particular, the

manufacturing sector remained grievously deficient due to a lack of

governmental investment, while the financial sector received large

boosts via state and government policy (Risbud 2003). Ultimately,

this ensured that Mumbai’s slums remained among the worst and

largest of Asia, and effectively marginalized not only an entire eco‐

nomic sector, but a population of industrious migrant workers.

The issue of unplanned urban growth and the formation of

slums have indelible effects on both the environment and the people

of Mumbai. As Madhura Swaminathan explains in her article, “As‐

pects of Urban poverty in Bombay”, “People living in the slums and

homeless are often the worst victims of industrial pollution [and] arethe worst affected by the insufficiency and poor quality of water …

and in general, by unhealthy living and working environments”

(Swaminathan 1995). As in other Asian megacities, urban growth in



115

Mumbai has led to air and water pollution in its slums, and has made

day‐to‐day life for the impoverished difficult. In Dharavi, access to

quality health care, clean water, and sanitation services is severely

restricted, causing disease, violence, and the, “disintegration of

communities and the social fabric” (Berrebi 2011‐2013). Further‐

more, the caste system ensures that Mumbai’s population remains

divided, and creates near‐impassable economic and social barrier for

the impoverished to cross.

It appears that without an overhaul of state and government

policies, and without closer attention paid to urban growth, Mum‐

bai’s impoverished population will continue to grow. As projects

that aim to rehabilitate Mumbai’s slums come to a head, India’s larg‐

est and most prosperous city may be teetering on the brink of in‐creased poverty and environmental loss. As with many developing

Asian cities, Mumbai needs to approach the issue of rampant poverty

with a clear focus on manufacturing, infrastructure, and social re‐

form. With a clear and even‐handed response, the often ignored sec‐

tors of Mumbai may very well become essential cornerstones to a

regulated and planned growing megacity.

Berrebi, Dario. Causes of Poverty in India: Traditions of Discrimination

and Exclusion. 2011‐2013. http://www.poverties.org/causes‐of‐

poverty‐in‐india.html (accessed October 27, 2013).

Clark, David. Urban World/Global City. 2nd. New York: Routledge,

2003.

Rapid Intelligence. Statistics on India. 2012.

http://www.nationmaster.com/country/in‐india (accessed Oc‐tober 28, 2013).

Risbud, Neelima. The Case of Mumbai, India. Report, London:

Earthscan, 2003.

Swaminathan, Madhura. Aspects of Urban Poverty in Bombay. Report,

London: Sage, 1995.



116



117


outhern Asia is home to many of theworld’s largest megacities, including Jakar‐

ta, the economic and cultural capital of In‐donesia, and Hong Kong, one of China’s

largest financial capitals. These two dense‐

ly populated regions of Asia share many

common features that not only delineate

megacities, but also define an increasinglyindustrialized, expanding, and globally rel‐

evant stratum of Asian metropoles. Forexample, both Hong Kong and Jakarta are

positioned along Pacific coastlines, making them attractive centers of

commerce and trade, and both inhabit Asian countries that are moti‐vated to provide anchorage for transnational corporate capitalism.

However, for all they share in common, Jakarta and Hong Kong pos‐

sess intrinsic idiosyncrasies that cater to a similar, but ultimatelydistinct, culture, economy, and sociopolitical climate.

In terms of raw population numbers, Jakarta and Hong Kong havemanaged near parity. According to the Hong Kong Special Adminis‐

trative Region Government report, “Hong Kong: Fact Sheet” (2013),the population of all districts within the region in 2012 reached 7.15

million, and achieved an annual growth rate of 1.2%, a year‐to‐year

increase of 0.5%. Furthermore, the population density stood at

6,620 persons per square kilometer on Hong Kong Island, and

56,200 persons per square kilometer in the Kowloon territory, mak‐

ing Hong Kong one of the most densely populated regions not only inChina, but in the world (Hong Kong Special Administrative RegionGovernment 2013). In contrast, the population of Jakarta, according

to the national census conducted in 2000, increased to 8.361 million,



118

and achieved an annual rate of growth of 0.12%, a paltry figure

when compared with Hong Kong’s 1.2% and with Indonesia’s na‐

tional rate of 1.37% (Suryadinata, Nuridya and Anata 2003). Moreo‐

ver, the population density of Jakarta was nearly twice that of Hong

Kong Island, resting at 12,649 persons per square kilometer, but on‐

ly one‐fifth that of Kowloon (Suryadinata 2013).

Jakarta’s low annual rate of growth is attributed to many eco‐nomic and social issues, including low fertility, and in fact achieved a

net negative migration in the 5 year period prior to the 2000 nation‐al census (Suryadinata 2013). In comparison, Hong Kong’s annual

growth rate has increased steadily year‐to‐year, as have the crude

birth rates and total fertility rates (HKSARG 2013). The disparaties

in population growth are likely related to the divergent economicand sociopolitical vistas displayed in each city, and are symptomatic

of local, regional and world government policy.

The unique economic structure of Hong Kong, including its self‐

governing rule of law and constitution structured towards economicfreedom, is primarily responsible for many patterns of growth. Chi‐

na’s suite of economic reforms in 1978, including the critical shift toan open‐door policy, opened many Chinese territories to a demand‐

ing world market, and shifted its stagnant economic structure to the

more viral and globally relevant transnational corporate capitalism.

Hong Kong benefited from this restructuring before and after being

returned to China in 1997, quickly becoming one of the largest cen‐ters for business and trade. According to the Heritage Foundation’s

2013 Index of Economic Freedom, Hong Kong economic freedomscore of 89.3 ranks the highest in the world, and can be attributed to,

“Hong Kong’s competitive regulatory regime, coupled with an effi‐

cient and transparent legal framework” (The Heritage Foundation

2013). When married with China’s open‐door policy, Hong Kong’s

free‐market economy has attracted millions of immigrants, and has

cemented its place as a leader in the world economy.Jakarta, by contrast, is a young upstart, and is considered part

of Southeast Asia’s largest economy (The Heritage Foundation2013). Like China and Hong Kong, Jakarta has recently adopted a

market economy, inviting the footprint of transnational corporate





120

due to its rapid industrialization and growth, but has also experi‐

enced problems in social and class‐based segregation. In her article,

“The Contemporary Urban Setting of Jakarta”, Putra Rizkiya (2011)

contends that, “[the] Segregation problem is worse in the city’s effort

to pursue the status of ‘global city’, [and] the development for elite

area and poor‐middle class area is very unequal”. Essentially, Jakar‐

ta has positioned its political policy behind the elite in a bid to fur‐ther increase economic development, leaving the poor and middle

class to languish in slums and areas deficient in basic infrastructure(Rizkiya 2011). Such segregation is not uncommon in any city, but is

particularly troubling in Jakarta, where the gaps in equity are con‐

spicuous and salient.

In general, the introduction of transnational corporate capi‐talism has changed politics in both Hong Kong and Jakarta, and has

molded the social landscape in its inequitable image. The policiesthat enable these megacities to become vital contenders in a global

market cascade downward to the individual, influencing social dy‐namics and hierarchy. Political policy also has a tremendous effect

on environmental issues, such as water pollution, air pollution, and

the desiccation of crucial resources, which ultimately influences and

guides the social and political culture.

Rapid industrialization and poor policy‐making can lead to an abuse

of, or neglect of, the environment, and, cumulatively, can lead to cli‐

mate change. Hong Kong has several funds and organizations, suchas the Environment and Conservation Fund (EFC), the Environmen‐

tal Campaign Committee (ECC), and the Environmental ProtectionDepartment (EPD), to help mitigate climate change, pollution, and to

reduce its overall environmental footprint (HKSARG 2013). Legisla‐

tion and policy are primary contributors to environmental protec‐

tion, and are responsible for the framework needed to sustain clean

air and water, to reduce noise, collect and treat sewage, and to man‐

age solid waste. Still, despite a history of environmental considera‐tion, air pollution in Hong Kong remains relatively high, and is often

attributed to the burning of fossil fuels. As explained on Hong Kong’sEDP website (2013), “Motor vehicles, especially diesel vehicles, are

the main sources of [pollution] at the street level in Hong Kong”.



121

Measures to combat air pollution include: stricter vehicle emissions

standards, programs that incentivize a switch to liquefied petroleum

gas vehicles, and tax rebates for people who purchase “green” vehi‐

cles (Environmental Protection Department 2013). Furthermore,

the industrial sector and power plants contribute an appreciable

amount of air pollution in and around Hong Kong. The EPD and oth‐

er government bodies work closely with heavy polluters, opening anevened dialogue in an effort to pave a clean and environmentally‐

friendly future (EPD 2013).Jakarta has significantly less legislation concerning the envi‐

ronment and climate change, and is particularly susceptible to envi‐

ronmental shock, including flooding, air and water pollution, the

outbreak of disease, and the depletion of surrounding lands and re‐sources. Past flooding events have been attributed to environmental

neglect and a lack of concise government oversight, and have had atremendous impact on all facets of life. According to the “Jakarta

City Report”, prepared by Indra M. Surbakti (2010), natural disastersthat occurred due to climate change not only destroy private and

public infrastructure, but have also, “disrupted the fabric of social

and economic conditions”. In recent years, flood disasters have in‐

creased and air pollution continues to be a problem, particularly forthe impoverished, prompting the government to create programsaimed at reducing gas emissions, managing air quality, limiting vehi‐

cles use, and creating green areas for development (Surbakti, et al.2010). Still, water scarcity, rising sea levels, heat stress, and disease

are just a few of the environmental issues that Jakarta continues to

face, and unless a more comprehensive policy is created, such prob‐

lems will only intensify.

There are numerous problems and obstacles that a developing meg‐

acity must face: urban sprawl, environmental issues, economic

growth, and the frequently arduous dilemma of transportation. As

in any territory, transportation serves as the connective tissue bind‐ing a population to the city’s economy and culture, and can provide

new opportunities for rural immigrants or marginalized citizens.Often, the task of planning and developing reliable and safe trans‐

portation is daunting and marred by extreme costs and corruption.



122

Hong Kong, however, has implemented a mass transit system that

not only serves its residents, but also turns a profit for the city. In his

article, “The Unique Genius of Hong Kong’s Public Transportation

System”, Neil Padukone (2013) explains that, “The Mass Transit

Railway (MTR) Corporation, which manages the subway and bus

systems on Hong Kong Island and, since 2006, in the northern part

of Kowloon, is considered the gold standard for transit managementworldwide”. This is primarily due to Hong Kong’s understanding of

population demographics, including population density, and the val‐ue in providing citizens and customers with affordable and reliable

modes of transportation (Padukone 2013). Additionally, buses,

railways, and subways not only clear congested roadways, but also

work towards eliminating excessive air pollution caused by theburning of fossil fuels, the main contributor to global warming.

As a developing city, Jakarta is still in the planning and im‐plementation stages when it comes to providing adequate transpor‐

tation to its inhabitants. According to the Jakarta Local Governmentreport (2012), “Jakarta Urban Transport Problems and their Envi‐

ronmental Impacts”, motorized vehicle usage has consistently grown

over the past 5 years, and that, “Uncontrolled private vehicles using

will case saturated traffic congesting in Jakarta at 2014”. Congestioncaused by vehicles results in less travel, less income, and less goodsand service produced in Jakarta, potentially bottlenecking economic

growth. A government master‐plan has been developed to counter‐act this problem, and includes the construction of: subways, mono‐

rails, busways, and waterways (Jakarta Local Government 2012).

These developments, coupled with a more restrictive policy towards

private vehicle usage, will hopefully improve Jakarta’s transporta‐

tion woes while simultaneously combating environmental issues,

planting them on near‐level ground with other Asian megacities.

Perhaps the most important and influential aspect of any Asian meg‐

acity is its urban planning policies. Urban planning can impact near‐ly every feature discussed in this report, and can direct the growth of

a city, its economy, and its culture. Even more important, favorableurban planning can impact the health and well‐being of a megacity’s

population, provide efficient and organized communities, and can



123

help close gaps in equity. Hong Kong has had a long history of urban

planning, and since the 1970’s has committed resources into devel‐

oping organizations, such as the Urban Renewal Authority and the

Town Planning Board (TPB), that focus on land use, building man‐

agement, and overall urban renewal (HKSARG 2013). Studies con‐

ducted in 2007 by the TPB helped to refocus Hong Kong’s urban

planning strategy into, “three broad directions of providing qualityliving environment, enhancing economic competitiveness and

strengthening links with the Mainland” (HKSARG 2013). This con‐centric approach to urban planning has laid the foundation for Hong

Kong’s rise to a dominant Asian megacity, and has provided the

framework for an industrious and balanced population.

Again, as Jakarta is a newly developing megacity, their urbanplanning strategies still rest in the stages of implementation. The

lack of urban planning in Jakarta, combined with policies tailored forthe wealthy, has contributed to the large income gap present in sev‐

eral parts of the city. According to Ronna Nirmala (2012) in her arti‐cle, “Jakarta to Plan City Through 2025”, the long‐term urban devel‐

opment plan is aimed, “to put Jakarta on equal footing with other

large cities in the region, [and] would account for different scenarios

involving low, medium or high growth rates”. Part of this proposalinvolves the aforementioned master‐plan concerning public trans‐portation, which will hopefully be completed by 2025. However, Ja‐

karta is still a far ways off from obtaining parity with other Asianmegacities, and as Nirmala describes, “The capital [Jakarta] is argua‐

bly the worst planned mega‐city in the region, particularly when it

comes to public infrastructure” (Nirmala 2012).

Although Hong Kong and Jakarta share many similar features, they

are very much unique in their structure. In many ways, Jakarta is

going through growing pains similar to what other Asian megacities

went through decades ago, and is struggling to keep its population

and infrastructure growth in pace with its economic growth; and inmany ways Hong Kong can be viewed as a model megacity for aspir‐

ing Asian territories, setting standards in transportation, environ‐ment protection, and urban planning. Such diversity reveals the

complexity and shear difficulty in planning, developing, and main‐



124

taining a megacity, and stands as not only a testament to human in‐

genuity, but to the future of human civilization. As these megacities

continue to grow, their relevance and influence on the global econ‐

omy and culture will intensify. Currently, Asia has the largest num‐

ber of megacities in the world, and with proper policy and planning,

that number will only continue to grow.

Environmental Protection Department. Hong Kong's Environment.

August 26, 2013. http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/ envi‐

ronmentinhk/air/air_maincontent.html (accessed November 25,2013).

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. "Hong Kong:The Facts." GovHK. July 2013. http://www.gov.hk/en/

about/abouthk/factsheets/docs/population.pdf (accessed No‐

vember 21, 2013).

Jakarta Local Government. "Jakarta Urban Transport Prlbems and

Their Environmental Impacts." University of Indonesia. 2012.

http://www.ui.ac.id/download/apru‐awi/jakarta‐local‐goverment.pdf (accessed November 24, 2013).

Nirmala, Ronna. Jakarta to Plan City Through 2025. March 16, 2012.http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/archive/jakarta‐to‐plan‐city‐

through‐2025/ (accessed November 22, 2013).

Padukone, Neil. The Unique Genius of Hong Kong's Public Transporta-

tion System. September 10, 2013. http://www.theatlantic.com

/china/archive/2013/09/the‐unique‐genius‐of‐hong‐kongs‐public‐transportation‐system/279528/ (accessed November 25,

2013).Pui‐tak, Lee. Hong Kong Reintegrating with China: Political, Cultural

and Social Dimensions. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press,

2001.

Rizkiya, Putra. Contemporary Urban Setting in Jakarta and Indonesia.

Project Work for Master of Urban Agglomerations Course,

Frankfurt: University of Applied Sciences, 2011.Surbakti, Indra M., Izhar C. Idroes, Hendricus A. Simarmata, and

Tommy Firman. Jakarta City Report: Information Related to Cli-mate Change in Jakara City. City Report, Kakorn Pathom: Work‐

shops of Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment, 2010.



125

Suryadinata, Leo, Arifin Nuridya, and Kris Anata. Indonesia's Popula-

tion: Ethnicity and Religion in a Changing Political Landscape.

Singapore: Institue of Southeast Asian Studies, 2003.

The Heritage Foundation. Hong Kong Economy: Popuation, Facts,

GDP, Buisness, Trade, Inflation. 2013. http://www.heritage.org

/index/country/hongkong (accessed 11 24, 2013).

—. Indonesia Economy: Population, GDP, Inflation, Business, Trade,

FDI, Corruption. 2013. http://www.heritage.org/index/country

/indonesia (accessed 11 24, 2013).



126



127


More and more people are living in urban

environments. The number of megacities

(cities with more than 10 million people)

is ever increasing. Projected 59 by 2015.

Most urbanization is taking place in de‐

veloping countries, specifically in Asiaand Africa. Furthermore, most growth is

taking place in poor quarters of cities.

This presents many challenges for urban

growth. Urbanization and megacities present environmental, eco‐

nomic, and social problems. Land consumption, air pollution, water

scarcity, poverty, social segregation, and vulnerability are all prob‐

lems that urban environments and megacities must deal with. Rapid

urbanization is often unplanned in developing countries, whichmakes these areas unsafe. The accelerated and uncontrolled growth

has contributed to the ecological transformation of the cities and

their immediate surroundings.

The Effects and Impacts of Urbanization and Megacities:

Density: megacities are very dense. This means that they serve

as important centers of political and economic decisions, have a sur‐

plus of cheap labor, and have a concentration of capital stock thatmakes them attractive for investments. Megacities generate a lot of

income and their local economies influence rural surroundings, and,

increasingly, global markets.

Settlement, Infrastructure, and Land Tenure: In areas that are

not properly structured for urban growth, infrastructure suffers. In

Asia, migrants build informal, and often illegal, settlements/housing

quarters. They are labeled as “squatters”. Such settlements arise

from the “land tenure system”.Socio‐economic Disparities: This is essentially the “haves” and

the “have‐nots”. In impoverished are often pushed out of informal



128

settlements with deficient public facilities and infrastructure to

make way for strong economic purposes and land use. Roughly, a

quarter of the population of the developing countries (1.3 billion

people) live in absolute poverty. The growing socio‐economic dis‐

parity within megacities and the lack of social cohesion is a serious

explosive charge.

Risks and Vulnerabilities: Man‐made and natural disasters are

one risk of megacities. Since megacities have such high populations

they consume natural resources at a high rate, which results in an

ecological strain on the environment, and contributes of air, water

and soil pollution. Traffic congestion also plays into air pollution.

Water table lowering, rising sea levels, earthquakes, storms and

land‐slides are other forms of risks associated with megacities.Governance: often, in these developing areas of the world, the

governance that guides urban growth and expansion is woefully de‐

ficient.

Sustainable Development: A regional settlement structure has to

be designed which set up on the elements of density, mixing of dif‐

ferent land uses, polycentrality and capacity of public mass transport

systems and public facilities. The priority should be to slow down

urban growth and strengthen the living and economic conditions ofrural lands.

Strategies of Urban Development: In respects to sustainability,

the integration and coordination of urban and rural areas with the

central city should be a main principle. Informal settlements should

be registered and made legal. Social improvements should also be

made is urban development is to be sustained.

Providing health care for a growing population presents its own

problems, but maintaining that health care via systematic infrastruc‐

ture (like sewage treatment, garbage removal, and proper systems to

prevent man‐made natural disasters) is a growing concern for those

1.5 billion people living in slums. Couple that with unrestricted ur‐

ban growth, poor‐to‐no planning, a high consumption of natural re‐

sources leading to all manner of ecological pollution, and an absence

of reliable transportation to and from rural areas (practically forcing

people to adopt city dwelling), the act of sustaining a developingmegacity looks more and more like an uphill battle.

Economic factors, such as housing costs, the ability to reform

outdated or inefficient infrastructure, and improper/unchecked tax‐



129

ation methods also challenge the sustainability of developing meg‐

acities. Have enough money to sustain growth and fight poverty pre‐

sents a problem for megacities deficient in proper governance.

Hopefully, Kötter’s cursory outline for addressing these issues will

put developing megacities on the right track towards sustaining ur‐

ban growth.

The economic benefits associated with Imperialistic rule brought

several Asian countries into the modern era. British and French oc‐

cupation in India contributed to improved public services and some

commercial stability. Railroads and trade routes were built, build‐

ings were erected, and a modicum of French culture was injected in‐to the fledgling Indian culture. Opium served as an important trade

good, being harvested in India and shipped off to China, where it

penetrated and soured the upper class. As a result, China went to

war, and equipped with new Imperial modernity, attempted to fight

back its colonial intruders. This development threads deep into the

20th century, sparking war and uprising.

The modernization of India by Britain and France served as

the precipice for its eventual independence. Indian nationalismpushed the country over the edge and paved the way for an inde‐

pendent economic future, as well as the extinction of systemic Brit‐

ish oversight. Similar nationalist movement occurred throughout

Asia and Africa in the early‐to‐mid 20th century. These movements,

perhaps, would not have been possible without the modernizing ef‐

fects of Imperialism.

The world population is expanding and megacities are becoming

more common. More and more people are living in urban environ‐

ments. The most rapid growth has occurred in the last 50 years, par‐

ticularly in Asia, India and Latin America. The 21st century will be an

“Urban Century”. Asia is where almost half of the urban population

of the world lives, and soon it will have the majority of the world’s

urban population. Urbanization generally takes place with corre‐sponding acceleration of economic growth. Urbanization is promot‐

ed by:



130

Economies of Scale in production and manufacturing. As

economies of scale in production begin to take hold larger

size plants become necessary, thus contributing to the need

for larger settlements of people.

The existence of informal externalities

Technology development, particularly in building and trans‐

portation technology.

Substitution of capital for land as made possible by techno‐

logical developments. As technology develops and capital is

substituted for land, taller buildings become possible, intensi‐

fying population density further.

The historical pattern of urbanization suggests that countries

tend to urbanize very slowly until they attain urbanization levelsaround 25 to 30 percent. The pace of economic growth and overall

development then quickens, with rapid structural shifts occurring in

the economy, away from agriculture to industry and services.

Urbanization presents many challenges for megacities, particu‐

larly in providing adequate infrastructure and sanitation services.

Access to clean water and proper health services are also problems

present in urban Asian environments.

Urbanization has been relatively well addressed in Asian citiesand has led to an increase in living standards and quality of life of its

residents. However, there are still problems, including:

Vast increase in urban population in these countries

Low per capita income

Constrained fiscal circumstances of governments, leading to

low expenditure on urban infrastructure

The existence of weak local governments in must urban are‐

as.

If time, review the rest of the article.

Cities are economic and social systems of space. They are a

product of deep‐seated and persistent processes, which enable and

encourage people to amass in large numbers in small areas. The ur‐

ban world is distinctive in socio‐economic as well as spatial terms.Patterns of demand converge as consumerism absorbs ever more of

the world’s population. Irrespective of continent or country, many



131

urban residents live their lives in broadly similar ways, with com‐

mon concerns over home, children, school and world. Although

towns and cities have existed for over eight millennia, the wholesale

transition to urban location and urban living is very recent in origin.

Many highly successful urban civilizations existed in the past, but

their impacts where both limited and localized. Major and rapid

changes began in Britain in the late 18th century in response to in‐

dustrial capitalism. They the beginning of the 20th century about

15% of the world’s population was living in urban environments.

Compare that with about 6 billion people today living in urban envi‐

ronments.

The adoption of a world perspective on cities and urban soci‐

ety is a recent development, which was foreshadowed nearly 100years ago, in the formative work of Adna Ferin Weber (1899) on the

Growth of Cities in the Nineteenth Century . The urban world Weber

analyzed consisted of 50 countries in which there was significant ur‐

ban development. Within urbanized countries, statistics on employ‐

ment patterns, family structures and demography pointed to the ex‐

istence of pronounced urban‐rural contrasts. Cities were places with

particular socio‐economic characteristics that sustained and perpet‐

uated distinctive patters of social and economic behavior.The world economy is capitalist in formation in that it is

based upon principles of private rather than state ownership of the

means of production and seeks to generate profits through the ma‐

nipulation of land, labor, finance and entrepreneurship. The world

economy is distinguished by the ways in which it is organized and

operates. Structure and function are key defining features, rather

than the worldwide scale of supply and demand, and of production

and consumption. The world economy is dominated by powerful

transnational corporations (TNC’s) and is regulated through global

institutions. TNC’s are large, complex companies that make and sell

many products in many countries around the world. They dominate

and control production and consumption in key economic sectors.

They also have disproportionate influence over supplies of raw ma‐

terials and manufacturing capacity, and determine/direct patters of

spending through advertising and promotional activities. TNC’s aresupported by banking and investment houses that manage and ma‐

nipulate global finance, and a range of organizations that provide



132

producer services in the form of management consultancy and legal,

personnel and marketing advice on an international basis.

The world economy is organized around and through cities.

Implicit in the global approach is the view that cities much increas‐

ingly be seen as interactive and interrelated elements within an ur‐

ban hierarchy that underpins and makes possible processes of capi‐

talist accumulation and reproduction. The accumulation of wealth

through manufacturing, exchange, and consumption is the primary

cause of urban growth and urbanization. It leads to a concentration

of population in towns and cities throughout the core and in the pe‐

riphery, so that urban development in both is an interdependent

outcome of the operation of global capitalism.

Spatial and temporal variations in levels of urban develop‐ment are consequences of the ways in which capitalism has evolved

and of its changing relations with areas of supply and demand across

the world. Overseas resources and markets are secured and manipu‐

lated by colonization, colonialism, and imperialism. Explanations of

urban development lie in the social and economic characteristics of

successive forms of capitalism.

The emergence of global society is made possible by advances

in transport and communications that overcome barriers of inacces‐sibility and distance and facilitate easy and cheap worldwide move‐

ments of ideas and people. Global society is reflected in the long‐

distance and instantaneous circulation of information and imagery

by broadcasting, telecommunications, videos, and the Internet. The

global society is reinforced by the international traffic of tourists,

business travelers, migrants and workers.

A strong case can be made that global society is increasingly ur‐

ban in character. Cities are points of production and reproduction of

urban ways of life and culture. As major and dense concentrations of

population drawn from many different backgrounds, they are places

in which a diverse array of beliefs, styles, values and attitudes origi‐

nate, ferment, and flourish. Society is becoming urbanized in the

sense that increasing numbers of people are being exposed to, and

are absorbing the social values that arise of, and are most closely as‐

sociated with life in cities.Globalism is a contested concept, the existence and meaning of a

global economy and society being widely discussed and questioned

by analysts. Globalists point to 3 major areas of debate:



133

1. The central issue surrounds the extent of economic and social

fusion. Globalists argue that most places are locked into

worldwide economic and social networks, which transcend

national and regional boundaries. They point to the unlim‐

ited reach of air travel, the mass media, and the Internet as

evidence of interconnection and interdependency. The coun‐

ter argument is that many countries and parts of countries

have poor transportation and communications and so can en‐

gage readily to only a limited extent with places outside the

local area. They are characterized by traditional subsistence

or semi‐subsistence rural economies and societies that func‐

tion interdependently of national and global relations.

2. A second area of contention surrounds the extent and mean‐ing of global economic influences, even in areas that are well

connected. It is closely related to TNC’s and their

role/importance in the world economy. Globalists cite the

proliferation of such companies and the spread of their prod‐

ucts/brands as evidence of global economic power and domi‐

nation.

3. The third debate is grounded in history and concerns the

novelty of global perspectives. A case can be made that globalrelationships are not new and were well established by the

end of the 19th century, thus calling into question the present

preoccupation with all things global. Proponents of this de‐

bate point to the influence of the imperial powers at the time,

and the free and widespread movement of capital, profits,

and labor around the world.

The urban world is a heterogeneous place. Important and highly

significant differences exist within and between regions and coun‐

tries in the size and proportions of their populations that line in ur‐

ban places. Generalizations concerning the urban world depend on

their validity upon data that relate each of the world’s sovereign

states. Particular problems surround the reliability and frequency of

census in many of the world’s poorest nations where, paradoxically,the scale and problems are most severe. They are especially acute in

highly populated countries of the developing world, such as China



134

and India. International urban statistics are surrounded by many dif‐

ficulties of availability and reliability and must be regarded as crude

estimates rather than precise measures. Detailed information on the

urban world is formed of population estimates is assembled and

published on a regular basis in the United Nations in its annual De‐

mographic Yearbook and in its biennial World Urbanization Pro‐

spects, which are available online. These publications incorporate

data for each of the world’s sovereign states that are principally

based upon national censuses.

The geography of the contemporary urban world is charac‐

terized by pronounced variations in the number and proportion of

people who live in urban places. Some parts of the world have huge

number of urban people, in others there are very few. China, by far,has the greatest number of urban dwellers. One in five of the world’s

urban people lives in China and the total population of Chinese

towns and cities, at 460 million, is similar to the urban population of

Africa and South America combined. Chinese cities are both numer‐

ous and large, there being 28 with populations in excess of two mil‐

lion and 46 with between one and two million. The urban popula‐

tion of India is 280 million, which is almost exactly the same as the

urban population of the whole of Africa. The urban populations ofChina and India are so high that they completely overshadow and

suppress the more subtle variations which exist elsewhere and

which may be highly significant at the regional scale.

The distribution of the world’s urban population is not re‐

flected in the balance of research activity in urban geography. Most

research has been undertaken on the towns and cities of the USA

and Europe, although the majority of the urban population lives out‐

side these areas. Until recently, China was closed to foreign academ‐

ics. It was not until the borders were opened in 1978 that urban

fieldwork was possible. There is in contrast a rich and long‐

established tradition of urban geography study in India, based upon

the Census of India, which traces its origins to the work of R.L. Singh

at the University of Delhi. Some of the highest levels of urban devel‐

opment in proportionate terms are found in South America, the most

urban continent. The population is more urban than rural in all butone of the major South American countries (Guyana), and over 80%

of the population of Venezuela, Uruguay, Chile, and Argentina are



135

town and city dwellers. The proportion of the population that is

similarly high in Europe, Australia, and parts of Western Asia.

Unlike the Americas, where levels of urban development are

uniformly high, there are however, countries in Europe and Western

Asia that are predominantly rural (Albania, Moldova and Yemen).

Levels of urban development are low throughout most of Southern

Africa, Eastern, South‐central and South‐Eastern Asia. Only a small

percentage of their populations live in urban places and these re‐

gions include many of the world’s most rural areas. The situation

here is different because it contains the world’s most highly populat‐

ed countries, although the distribution of population within these

countries, and in the region as a whole, is predominantly rural.

With some 28% of India’s 1.1 billion people thought to be liv‐ing in urban places, the level of urbanization is broadly similar to

that in China and Pakistan. Fewer than 25% of the population of Af‐

ghanistan, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand is urban.

The number and proportion of the population that live in towns and

cities are products of a country’s history, culture, and resources and

are only weakly linked to its level of contemporary economic devel‐

opment. The correlation between gross national product (GNP) per

head of population and the percentage of urban is 0.59. Countrieswith high GNP’s per head tend to have high levels of urban develop‐

ment amount countries with low GNP’s per capita (huh?).

The urban population is distributed among settlements of

widely different size. Urban places range from towns and cities with

several thousands of people to those with tens of millions. Most

would agree that settlements with populations over 100,000 are

probably cities, but the status of places with around 20,000 is more

questionable, especially when they have important local government

and commercial functions. Most of the world’s urban populations

live in small to medium‐sized urban places. According to UN esti‐

mates, some 25% of the world’s populations live in cities with fewer

than 500,000 inhabitants. The primary function of smaller urban

settlements is to act as points of linkage between towns and country,

where agricultural surpluses are exchanged for urban goods and

services.A notable feature of the contemporary urban pattern is the

degree to which the urban population lives in giant cities. In 2000,

the UN recognized 320 cities with over a million people, who togeth‐



136

er housed one fifth of the world’s total population (Tokyo, Sao Paulo,

Mexico, New York, etc.). Not only is the urban population concen‐

trated in a small number of countries, but within many of these

countries there is a disproportionate concentration in a small num‐

ber of cities. The concentration of the urban populations of countries

into large cities occurs in all parts of the world. It is a pattern that is

independent of region, length of urban history, and level of economic

or urban development. Metropolitan dominance is most pro‐

nounced in Sought America and the Caribbean. Despite their enor‐

mous size, the world’s major cities at present are viable and stable

places that represent a significant social and economic achievement.

They contribute disproportionately to national economic growth

and social transformation by providing economies of scale and prox‐imity that allow industry and commerce to flourish.

There are some strong indications that global economic fac‐

tors account for the way in which the population in a country is dis‐

tributed among cities of different size. Implicit in the concept of the

urban hierarchy is the assumption that population is spread across a

range of cities of different sizes, which interact and interdepend as a

functioning urban system. In many countries there is a regular

graduation of cities according to size. Generally, the second largestcity was half the size of the first, and the third city a third size of the

first, and so on, so that the size of any center could be predicted by

simply its rank and size of the largest place. So widespread is this

relationship between cities that it became known as the “rank‐size

rule”. The USA, UK, Japan, China and Brazil are examples of coun‐

tries which the distribution of cities is approximately rank‐sized.

The situation in some countries is, however, different in that

the population is unevenly distributed among urban places. The ex‐

treme is reached where there is one excessively large primate center

that dominates all others. Primate cities are not necessarily large in

international terms, but they are by definition, very much bigger

than any other place in the country. They are most common and

most pronounced among the poorest and most sparsely populated

states in the developing world. Primacy is especially prevalent in

Central America and Africa. Such dominance of the primate city issome countries that it houses a disproportionate share of the na‐

tional as well as the urban population.



137

Primacy has important spatial consequences. It means that,

in many cases, most the national population is concentrated in one

small part of the country and the remainder is profoundly rural.

Many primate cities are costal ports, so that the population is pe‐

ripherally rather than centrally located within the boundaries of the

nation state. Research into city size distributions supports two broad

generalizations: Rank size patters are most common among mature,

well‐integrated and balanced economies, while primate distributions

are a feature of embryonic urban systems and so are more common

in the developing world. The degree of primacy decreases over time:

as the economy matures, so the population becomes more evenly

spread across all the cities. One city may remain dominant, but not

excessively. Such findings suggest that city size distributions mayrelate in some way to the degree to which a country’s cities are inte‐

grated within the global urban network.

There are 4 reasons why primacy may exist in developing coun‐

tries:

1. The first is associated with colonialism and arises because

empires tend to be controlled through key cities, which, as fo‐

ci of imperial interchange, operate at a different and higher

level than local indigenous cities. Primacy is thus a functionof colonial control, an explanation that appears adequately to

explain the existence of dominant cities in Asia.

2. Primate cities are seen as major outlets for products generat‐

ed in dependent export economies. They are the point of

linkage between interior producing regions and external

overseas markets.

3. Primacy may be created from within by the collapse or de‐

cline of the rural economy. Local industry and trade are often

destroyed by export dependence, and this undermines the

economic base of provincial centers. In this case, the largest

city grows at the expense of the smallest.

4. Primacy by be a social capitalist production. Such change typ‐

ically transforms class and labor relations and, in particular,

leads to a reduction in the amount of labor that is required in

agriculture. Those no longer needed in farming tend to con‐centrate in, and so inflate the size of, major cities, where there

are possibilities of jobs in service activities, or opportunities

for income generation within the informal sector.



138

Primacy points to the existence of a two‐tier urban system in

many of the countries of the world. People either live in one of the

myriad small villages or in the primate city. There are few settle‐

ments of intermediate size. Differences in size are inevitably reflect‐

ed in an imbalance of importance and role. Primate cities typically

dominate their countries in economic and political terms. They are

the centers in which national elites and other major decision makers

and opinion leaders are concentrated.

Cities with rank‐size patterns tend to be well integrated within

wider networks, those in countries with primate distributions, with

the exception of the primate city itself, are predominately inward‐

looking and have strongest connections with the indigenous econo‐

my. These differences suggest that the global urban system is pres‐ently fragmented and incomplete. Rather than a coherent whole, the

contemporary urban world consists of a set of loosely‐knit subsys‐

tems.

The world is an urban place because towns and cities offer sub‐

stantial benefits over other forms of settlement. The advantages that

people derive from clustering together are greater than when they

scatter and disperse. Theories of urban formation seek to identify

the forces that permit and encourage large numbers of people toconcentrate in comparatively small areas. Two broadly contrasting

viewpoints are prevalent:

1. Economic Benefits: Underlying economic interpretation of

urban formations is a set of relationships best explained by

economic theories views as two interdependent sectors: the

Basic Sector and the Non‐Basic Sector, described below: Basic

Sector – Consists of all those activities and employment that

produce goods and services that are sold outside the city and

provide the finance to enable basic requirements to be im‐

ported into the city (corn, seed merchants, agricultural advi‐

sory services, and farm machinery manufacturers, which are

urban based and which serve a non‐urban market). Non‐Basic

Sector – Consists of all those activities that provide goods and

services for the city itself (municipal government, street

cleaning services, police, fire and ambulance services, cornerstores, etc.). The two sectors are mutually interdependent.

Any change in the size of one sector will be associated with a

change in the size of the other. It is important to emphasize



139

that cities exist because of, and at the expense of, their sur‐

rounding environments.

2. Social Bonds: The fact that urban centers are present in a

wide range of economies and cultures throughout the world

suggests that origins of urban living are a product of human

relationships and lie in the interpersonal ties that encourage

people to congregate in space. Social explanations of urban

formation stress the gregarious nature of human behavior.

They point to the complementary properties of links such as

male and female, mother and child, sender and receiver,

speaker and listener, and giver and takers, and argue that

such bonds introduce strong centripetal tendencies among

human populations. These arguments are most closely asso‐ciated with the work of Adams (1966) on the emergence of

cities in early Mesopotamia. The rise of cities was seen as

preeminently a social process, an expression more of changes

in people’s interactions with each other than with their envi‐

ronment. The novelty of the city consisted of a whole series

of new institutions and a vastly greater size complexity of so‐

cial unit, rather than basic innovations in subsistence.

For Lampard (1965), society evolved through a number of organ‐izational stages, each of which is associated with different settlement

forms. Emphasis was placed on “primordial” since this represents

the achievement of a level of social organization that is necessary to

support and sustain village life. Improvements in agriculture

productivity is an essential requirement, however, the development

of community structures to manage farming and ensure social stabil‐

ity is crucial to the viability of the settlement. The existence of cities,

the next stage represents the achievement of a higher level of social

sophistication and consensus. This is reflected in formal bureaucrat‐

ic, religions, military, and political systems.

Most cities across the world have strong international links and

interdependencies, but studies of city size distributions, and espe‐

cially primacy, point to many instances of weak connections with the

lower order center in the domestic hierarchy. The concept of the

global urban system has considerable attraction and appeal as anintellectual construct, but its substance is contested.



140

It’s unfortunate that it took the Olympics coming to Beijing to moti‐

vate China to bolster and brace their weak anti‐pollution infrastruc‐

ture, but some of the policies put in place before the torch was lit,

while entirely foreign and unimaginable here in the US, have man‐aged to combat pollution in dramatic ways. One such method in‐

volves the production and use of automobiles; not only have these

laws cracked down on harmful emissions produced by cars and fac‐

tories (in some cases they literally closed or moved factories out of

Beijing), China has gone so far as to implement a ban on automobile

use. The “license plate system” was devised as a measure to cut smog

for the 2008 Olympics, but has since then been implemented as a

full‐time measure to combat pollution. Using license plate numbersas a control, this law effectively bans vehicles from driving on certain

days of the week. It has reportedly reduced the amount of pollution

in Beijing by 10% (Hays 2012).

Other measures put in place before the 2008 Olympics help in

the fight against pollution; coal mines were closed, power plants

were modified, factories were closed or relocated, inefficient taxis

were replaced with cleaner models, and pollution monitoring sta‐

tions were built to help in struggle for clean air (Hays 2012). Themodest change in air quality around Beijing is a good start, but China

still has a long way to go before its environmental footprint is trivial,

and its megacities are no longer significant contributors to global

pollution.

Air quality in China is horrible. The good news is that the bad airquality that Beijing and most of North China has experienced for

much of this year is having an impact on policy. The Ministry of En‐

vironmental Protection issued is most comprehensive and toughest

plant to reduce air pollution by 2017, setting stricter limits on the

levels of particulate matter. The plan targets Northern China, par‐

ticularly Beijing, Tianjin, and the Hebei province. Reducing pollution

will be accomplished by the following:

1. Restrictions of vehicle usage. This includes the license platesystem discussed in a previous article.

2. Increasing the number of vehicles powered by natural gas.



141

3. Beijing will close many factories and ban certain industries

from opening factories in the city.

4. Replacing coal‐burning boilers in city centers with clean en‐

ergy systems.

5. Increasing the number of bicycles for rend.

6. Boost the output of natural gas power plants in order to re‐

duce pollution from coal fired plants.

The present pattern of global urban development is merely the most

recent product of processes of urban change that began over 8,000years ago. It represents an intermediate stage in the progression

from a wholly rural to what will possibly be a completely urban

world. The global urban pattern is changing in three different and

unconnected ways: through urban growth, urbanization, and the

spread of urbanism. Urban growth occurs when the population of

towns and cities rise. Urbanization refers to the increase in the

proportion of the population that lives in towns and cities. Urban-

ism is the name that is most commonly used to describe the social

and behavioral characteristics of urban living that are being extend‐

ed across society as a whole as people identify and attempt to identi‐

fy and account for recent patterns of urban growth and urbanization

as the global scale.

Urban growth and urbanization are separate and independ‐

ent trends. Urban Growth refers to the absolute increase in the size

of the urban population. It occurs both through natural increase,which is an excess of births over deaths, and through net in‐

migration. In most cities both factors operate together to reinforce

each other. Urbanization measures the switch from a spread‐out

pattern of human settlement to one in which the population is con‐

centrated in urban centers. It occurs with relative shift in the distri‐

bution of population from the countryside into towns and cities. Ur‐

banization is a change that has a beginning and an end, the former

being when the population is wholly rural, the latter occurring wheneveryone is recorded as living in an urban place.



142

It is important to emphasize that, as the total population of a

country consists of both urban and rural dwellers, an increase in the

proportion urban is a function of both. It occurs when the urban

component increases in relative size, either through faster urban

growth or more rapid rural population decline. The measurement of

urbanization is not without difficulties, as it depends upon the divi‐

sion of a country into urban and rural. It is affected by changes in

definition and the classification of centers that are made from time

to time by national census authorities.

By far the most important characteristics of contemporary urban

change is the sheer scale of urban population growth. Urban growth

correlates strongly with overall population growth, so it is not sur‐

prising to find that greatest gains occur in highly populated coun‐tries where large numbers were added to the national population.

Urban populations are growing more rapidly throughout Africa and

Southern Asia. The rates are highest in parts of sub‐Saharan African

and Western Asia. Little or no growth is occurring in urban popula‐

tions throughout most of the developed world. The average annual

rate of urban growth in Europe is less that 0.11% annum between

1990 and 2000.

Generally, metropolitan centers are stagnant or are losing popu‐lations, while towns and small cities are gaining. The most signifi‐

cant trends in the fall in the population of major cities. Metropolitan

decline in developed countries is very much a feature of the last 30

years. Metropolitan decline is well established in the UK. All of the

largest 15 cities lost population during the 1970s and again during

the 1980s. Also, 13 of the largest 15 cities declined between 1991

and 2001. The UN estimates indicated that the number of cities with

over 8 million people increased from ten in 1970 to 24 in 2000. The

number and size of megacities are increasing most rapidly in devel‐

oping countries. In 1950, the only megacities, London and New

York, were both in the developed world, while 18 of the 24 megaci‐

ties in 2000 were in the developed world.

Urbanization is a cyclical process through which nations pass as

they evolve from agrarian to industrial societies. Substantial shifts

in the distribution of population can be expected in many countrieswith presently low levels of urbanization as the proportion of the

population that lives in towns and cities rises to ceiling levels.



143

Urbanization is presently a developing world phenomenon. It

involves the large‐scale redistribution of people in many of the

world’s poorest nations that are least able to cope with its conse‐

quences. Urbanization is occurring at greatest speed in countries

that score low on the UN Human Development Index—there people

have the lowest level of life expectancy at birth, and the lowest levels

of education and per capita income. It is however, restricted to Afri‐

ca and Asia. Little or no urbanization is taking place in South Ameri‐

ca despite generally low levels of economic development, because

the wholesale switch of population from rural to urban has already

taken place.

In examining the overall association between urbanization and

development, the World Bank estimates that urbanization is increas‐ing three times faster in low‐and middle‐income countries than it is

in high‐income countries. Because the rate is greater, levels of urban

development in the developing world are catching up with, and will

soon approximate, those in the developed world. Little change is tak‐

ing place in the urban and rural balance in the developed world be‐

cause, in most countries, the cycle of urbanization has run its course.

Counter‐urbanization replaced urbanization as the dominant pro‐

cess of location change in the USA more than three decades ago. Be‐tween 1960 and 1970 the metropolitan areas in the USA grew five

times as fast as the rural areas. But during the 1970s the pattern

was inverted with the rural areas gaining population at one‐and‐a‐

half times the rate of that in the cities. The rate of counter‐

urbanization has recently slacked across much of the developed

world, including Great Britain, so it could be no more than a minor

blip in an otherwise continuing process of urbanization.

The expansion of the ring reflects environmental attractions of

ex‐urban locations and an increase in the number of people who can

afford to move out of the core. It is facilitated by major improve‐

ments, including the development of suburban rail networks and the

introduction of tram and bus services. Core decline and ring growth

are closely linked to rising levels of car ownership and use, which

enables large numbers of people to populate the commuter belt, es‐

pecially those areas which are well away from the major radialroute‐ways. A decline in the population of daily urban system, both

core and ring together, distinguishes the third and fourth stages of

urban development. In place of urban expansion, it is the rural areas



144

beyond the daily commuting range of the core where growth takes

place. The net effect is that there is a shift, at the national scale, from

a state of more concentration or urbanization, to one of less concen‐

tration of counter‐urbanization.

Urban growth and urbanization at the global scale are very re‐

cent phenomena. Although towns and cities have existed since Neo‐

lithic times, a massive rise in the number and size of cities and a

wholesale shift of populating from rural to urban have occurred only

in the last 50 years. The world was very much a rural place in 1950,

with only slightly over one‐quarter of the population living in towns

and cities. The population was more urban than rural in North

America and parts of Europe, South America and Australia/Asia, alt‐

hough only in the UK and the Netherlands did more than 80% live inurban places.

Global urban development is a consequence of two linked pro‐

cesses:

Changes in the way in which wealth is accumulated

The evolution of the world system of nations.

The mechanism involved can be explained by the interdependen‐

cy theory of global urban development, which argues that urban de‐

velopment wherever it occurs, is one of spatial outcomes of capital‐ism. It has echoes in dependency theory, which explores and at‐

tempts to account for the links between development in core regions

and underdevelopment in the periphery. The interdependency theo‐

ry of global urban development can be criticized on four grounds:

Changes in capitalism do no imply a connection to urban de‐

velopment.

Urbanization in the developing world lagged so far behind

that in the developed world that it cannot be regarded as part

of the same process.

Interdependency theory undervalues the rich traditions of

urban development, supported by non‐capitalist economic

systems that existed in many developing countries.

The foundation of interdependency theory lies not in its

foundations in capitalism, per se, but in the links that it pro‐

poses between successive stages in the evolution of capital‐ism and urban development across the world.

Stages of Global Urban Development



145

The foundations for urban development in the core, and in local‐

ized areas in the periphery, were established up to about 1780 un‐

der conditions of mercantilism. This was the economic system that

originated in the 15th century and involved the accumulation of

wealth through trade. Its main feature was the buying and selling of

products of labor. These were primarily agricultural and craft items.

Most trade followed established land or sea routes and took place

with suppliers in well‐defined source areas, so the Mediterranean,

the Baltic, the North Atlantic, the Indian Ocean, and central Asia

emerged as distinctive trade areas. Buying, selling and consumption,

however, were restricted to towns and cities, where sources of fi‐

nance trading opportunities and good communications were availa‐

ble. An important feature of mercantilism was the belief that the vol‐ume of trade was finite, so wealth could best be accumulated by cap‐

turing supplies and markets from rivals. This competition for terri‐

tory and its products was the prime driving force being exploration,

discovery and colonization in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was the

process that was endorsed by national governments and was led by

monarchism aristocrats and privately‐owned companies who spon‐

sored exploration and settlement in the hope that it would lead to

new trading opportunities and the creation of vast wealth.Mercantilism was responsible for establishing foundations for

urban development in colonial powers. IT made possible the intro‐

duction of highly profitable concentrations of wealth in cities. The

process of colonialism extended over many decades and therefore

led to the creation of urban patterns of varying complexity. In some

territories there were existing urban structures upon which colonial

influences were introduced, but mostly there was no prior urban set‐

tlement of significance and so the pattern that developed was wholly

colonial in character.

An important characteristic of the settlement pattern in the colo‐

ny is the linearity. Settlements are aligned along the coasts and are

also located along the routes of trade that connect the coastal points

of attachment to the staple producing interiors. Over time these be‐

come integrated within a functionally interdependent system of cit‐

ies.The spatial patterns of urban development that were established

under mercantilism and early colonialism were accentuated and



146

compounded when capitalism and imperialism became the domi‐

nant economic and political systems in the late 18th century.

Capitalism is a form of economic organization in which wealth is

generated for investors through the production of saleable goods

and services. Its main feature is that the capitalist employs workers

directly rather than merely bargaining for the trading in the items

they produce. To be most successful, it requires large inputs of raw

materials and extensive markets, which are best ensured through

the possession of empire. Capitalism through mass production and

associated agglomeration generates urban growth and urbanization

because it concentrates productive activity and all the workers and

spending power that are associated with it. In addition the city con‐

tinues to serve as a center for the consumption of the profits of capi‐talism.

It is possible to trace the evolution of capitalism through distinct

industrial, monopoly and transnational corporate stages since it first

became the dominant economic system in the late 18th century Brit‐

ain. The individual stages are distinguished by both structure and

space relations. In initial phase was industrial capitalism in which

wealth was created by making rather than merely trading goods.

Monopoly capitalism replaced industrial capitalism and colonialismtowards the end of the 19th century. It involved the ruthless exploi‐

tation of peripheral areas and was distinguished by a vastly in‐

creased scale of economic activity and the domination of newly cre‐

ated international markets, within the state‐controlled empires, by a

small number of producers in each sector.

Monopoly capitalism emerged in response to the demand for

products that was generated by the rapidly growing population of

the industrial nations. This stimulated manufacturers to diversify

from making heavy, crude products into mass production of a wide

range of consumer foods and services. Monopoly capitalism in‐

volved the more ruthless exploitation of peripheral areas. The larger

scale of industrial activity required the international sourcing of raw

material and the international marketing of manufactured products,

so the success of the core regions becoming dependent on their abil‐

ity to dominate and control overseas territories.Monopoly capitalism produced further urban growth and urban‐

ization in an expanded core, although urban development in the pe‐

riphery remained limited.



147

Urban growth and urbanization were reinforced and extended by

monopoly capitalism in the late 19th century. The urban develop‐

ment that resulted was largely restricted to core areas and the costs

of the empire, so that the world in 1950 was highly differentiated in

urban terms.

The world has recently become urban because of major changes in

the distribution of population in developing countries. Urbanization

became a global phenomenon in the last half‐century as a conse‐

quence of deep‐seated and far‐reaching changes in the structure and

spatial relations of capitalism. Two principal developments were

involved: The replacement of monopoly capitalism by TNC capitalism

The creating of patterns of production, trade and service pro‐

vision, which, rather than being restricted to the North Atlan‐

tic, or to political empires, are truly global in extent.

The organization of production and consumption under con‐

ditions of TNC capitalism within a new world system of nations is

producing urban development in the developing world for two main

reasons: The first is because investment in manufacturing and services

by global capitalists is concentrated in selected cities in the

periphery points to growth.

Because large numbers of workers are being displaced from

the land and flock into towns and cities, as traditional sub‐

sistence farming is replaced by globally oriented commercial

agriculture.Africa and Asia were almost wholly rural in 1950 and it is here

that subsequent transition to urban living is most market and is hav‐

ing the most profound consequences. Major urban development,

measurable at the national scale, began to affect parts of Africa and

the Middle East between 1950 and 1970. Urbanization began signif‐

icantly to affect the countries of Southern and Eastern Asia much lat‐

er, as most did not pass even the 20% urban mark until 1990.

Urban development became a worldwide phenomenon over thelast 30 years because of fundamental changes in the organization

and location of production and services as TNC capitalism succeeded



148

monopoly capitalism. A new economic order has emerged, charac‐

terized by global manufacturing, and managed and controlled from

the core economies by TNC’s, which is based on a new international

division of labor in which management, development, and design

take place in the core economies and routine production of service

provision are located in the periphery. It is associated with global

organization of business, finance and services.

This new arrangement became possible because of and owes

much of its success to the situation of relative peace and political

stability at the global scale that has existed since the end of the Sec‐

ond World War. The key change is in the location of manufacturing.

Over the past half‐century, an increasing volume of goods and pro‐

duction have been arranged globally rather than within the narrowconfines of nation states or empires, as was the case under monopo‐

ly capitalism. Much manufacturing has shifted from the core to the

periphery where the availability of very cheap labor enables stand‐

ardized production to be undertaken at very low cost. The types of

production that have shifted to the periphery include:

Technology – more advanced products, such as pharmaceuti‐

cals, computers and scientific instruments.

Large‐volume, medium‐technology consumers goods, such asmotor vehicles, tires, televisions, and refrigerators.

Mass‐produced, branded consumer goods such as cigarettes,

soft drinks, toilet paper and breakfast cereals.

Parallel changes have occurred in agriculture as supply of an in‐

creasing range of farm products have been organized on a global ba‐

sis. Exotic fruits, vegetables, flowers and poultry have joined the

19th century staples of tea, coffee, cocoa, sugar, pineapples, citrus

fruits and rubber. The volume of high‐value foods in global circula‐

tion has increased rapidly as consumers in core economies have ac‐

quired a taste for ethnic cuisine. The value of world trade in such

products accounted for 5% of global commodity exchange in 1990

and increased by 8% per annum throughout the 1980s.

Global production is principally undertaken by TNCs that have

interests, affiliates and facilities in many countries. Vodaphone is

reckoned to be the largest non‐financial TNC in terms of both foreignassets and the transnationality of its business as measured by an in‐

dex based upon foreign assets, sales and employment. The interna‐

tionalization of production is made possible by, and in turn gives rise



149

to, a new pattern of international finance. A global system of supply

and circulation has emerged in recent years in place of the bilateral

funding arrangements, tied to trading blocs and dominated by gov‐

ernments that existed in the mid‐19th century.

The most important features of the global financial system are its

size and spread. The global financial system is mediated by a num‐

ber of institutions, including the International Monetary Fund and

the World Bank, which set multilateral aid for development. It is fa‐

cilitated by the development of multinational organizations, such as

the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the Organization for

Economic Cooperation and the Development and the North Ameri‐

can Free Trade Agreement, which seek to promote and influence

trade. The system is dominated by a small number of powerful banksthat rank alongside TNCs as global institutions. 13 of the largest 15

banks are based in the core economies and 4 are Japanese. The ma‐

jor banks of Europe and North America, however, handle more for‐

eign business. It is made possible by the growth of the US dollar and

Eurodollars as international currencies and media of exchange.

Developments in production and finance are associated with, and

are in part dependent upon, the growth of international service

economy. Service activities that were once domestically bound havereorganized on a transnational basis so as to serve the needs of

businesses operating across the globe. The change of global opera‐

tion has been most marked in those service sectors in which the lev‐

el of international activity was historically limited (i.e., accountancy).

A similar pattern applies in advertising, banking and legal services.

Global business is further facilitated by means of the organization of

employee services, including hotel accommodation, car hire and per‐

sonal finance, on an international basis.

The emergence of a new political map of the world enabled, and

in turn was made possible by, the new economic order. The key fea‐

ture was the ending of imperialism by the UK, France, Belgium and

the Netherlands between 1950 and 1980; and Russia in the late

1980s. The former resulted in the creation of new nation states in

many parts of colonial Africa and Asia.

A vast extension of capitalism, at the expense of alternative eco‐nomic systems, accompanied the new political geography, further

facilitating the process of globalization. Imperialism effectively end‐

ed with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989. Communism is in



150

retreat, although China, North Korea and Cuba maintain their cen‐

trally planned economies.

The new political pattern was created in conditions of relative

peace in the first half of the 20th century, with its two world wars

and numerous regional conflicts. Global stability since 1945 princi‐

pally arouse out of the balance of power between West and the

communist bloc under which major wars were restricted to Korea

and Vietnam. Sustainability was further facilitated by the creation of

supra‐national and international organizations by many of the mar‐

ket economies to undertake some of the traditional roles of the na‐

tion state. The effect was to rise overall levels of international confi‐

dence and so create improved conditions for restructuring of capital,

for purposes of wealth accumulation, on a global basis.The new economic order is principally responsible for the recent

rapid urbanization of the periphery, which in turn raised the level of

urbanization at the global scale beyond the 50% mark. Since the

mid‐20th century, and especially for the past 20 years, the global

economy has subsumed local and regional economies across the

world, so that most of the remaining peripheral countries and terri‐

tories have been drawn into the world economic system.

Urbanization is triggered by investment because economic ex‐changes between core and periphery are spatially focused and so

lead to a concentration of globally related economic activity in urban

places. The urban concentration of foreign investment‐led economic

activity is high across much of the periphery. Urbanization is also

taking place as an indirect consequence of the impact of TNC capital‐

ism upon the economies of developing countries.

The policies of post‐colonial governments stimulate urban

growth by further enhancing the attractiveness of towns and cities at

the expense of rural areas through:

Exaggerated bias of government expenditure on infrastruc‐

ture and services in favor or urban areas.

Higher wage rates and better employment protection that ex‐

ist in cities because urban workers are organized into trade

unions.

The effect of trade tariffs on the price of goods.Settlement patters across large parts of the developing world

have been transformed in recent years, as external investments have

created jobs in cities and as workers, displaced from the land be‐



151

cause of the switch from subsistence to commercial agriculture, have

migrated into urban areas. Such changes are seen as consequences

of the progressive incorporation of their economies within the global

corporate capitalist economy.

Of the ten solutions listed in the article, only two strike me as

achievable possibilities: finding and using alternate sources of drink‐

ing water (such as rainwater), and the use of deep aquifers. Alt‐

hough Bangladesh is a relatively small country (148,393 km2), the

amount of money needed to install purifiers, filtration devices, con‐

temporary sewage and waste disposal systems, or effective watertreatment plants would likely be too high. However, provided that

an international effort was made to either dilute or remove arsenic

from Bangladesh’s ground water, other remediations could prove

successful. Still, the most cost effect strategies for obtaining clean,

arsenic‐free water for consumption would be to utilize alternate

wells and rainwater, or extract water from deep aquifers. Further‐

more, the ostracization of arsenic‐contaminated Bangladeshi, cou‐

pled with excessive poverty, leads me to believe that the use of al‐

ternate sources of drinking water is a viable remedy—one that even

the impoverished, or shunned can take advantage of.

There are many socio‐economic consequences associated with the

global shift in distribution of population to urban from rural places.Many countries are struggling to cope, and face major problems of

employment, housing and service provision. Also health. Some

think that developed nations have a humanitarian and moral re‐

sponsibility arising out of their historical exploitation of the develop‐

ing world, to intervene on a major scale and so should contribute as‐

sistance and aid to provide housing and basic infrastructure. Others

think that these problems should be left to national governments

and must be resolved domestically.



152







155

For Calculus I

andCalculus II,

Fall 2013o begin with, we are going to go through alittle review of some basic trigonometry.This will be used as a base for all calculus,and is instrumental in all future mathe‐matics courses, physics courses, andsome chemistry courses. Basic trigono‐metric equations and identities are foundfarther into the study guide, and are moreuseful for calculus II then for anythingelse. Anyway, let’s kick this shit pile offwith some definitions that apply to allmath courses:

Unit Circle:

A circle whose center lies on the coordinates 0,0 andwhose radius is 1. Standard Position: an angle where the vertex is on the originand the initial side is on the X axis. Acute Angle: any angle between 0 and 900. Right Angle: any 900 angle. Obtuse Angle: any angle between 90 and 1800. Straight Angle:

any 1800

angle. Complementary Angles:

2 or more positive angles that add upto 900 (or a right angle). Supplementary Angles: 2 or more positive angles that add up to1800 (or a straight angle). Coterminal Angles: 2 angles that share the same terminal side.Add or subtract 3600 to find the coterminal angle. Radian: relationship between the circumference and the inside

degrees.

Theta: a fraction of 3600, otherwise known as the angle.



156

Circumference:

2Degrees to Radians ∗ 180 °Radians to Degrees

∗ 180° Arc Length ∗ S is arc Length. R is radius. Answer must be in Radians.Linear Speed

S is arc length (in radians). R is rate (also written as V). T is time. Angular Speed

R is rate (also written as W). T is time. Theta is angle (in degrees).Pythagorean Theorem



157

Sine of Theta is the Opposite Side over the Hypotenuse The Cosine of Theta is the Adjacent Side over the Hypotenuse

The Tangent of Theta is the Opposite Side over the Adjacent The Cotangent of Theta is the Adjacent Side over the Opposite. (Re‐ciprocal of Tangent)

The Secant of Theta is the Hypotenuse over Adjacent Side (Recipro‐cal of Cosine) The Cosecant of Theta is the Hypotenuse over the Opposite Side (Re‐ciprocal of Sine)



158



159

Critical Point: the point at which the derivative of f(x)=0, or where f(x)does not exist.

Fermat’s Theorem on Local Extrema: If f(c) is a local min or max, then cis a critical point If restricted to an interval, the max or min can be an endpoint. It is okay if a function has no critical points, or if the critical points areendpoints. Rolle’s Theorem: Assume f(x) is continuous on [a,b], and differentiableon (a,b). If f(a)=f(b), then there exists a number “c” between a and bsuch that f’(c)=0 If f(x) is continuous on [a,b], then there exists at least one “c” between aand b such that If f’(x) > 0, then f(x) is increasing. If f’(x) <0, then f(x) is decreasing. First Derivative Test: Create a number line and place all critical points

on it. Test values around critical points to determine if they are posi‐tive or negative. If f’(x) changes from + to – at “c”, then f(c) is a local max. If f’(x) changes from – to + at “c”, then f(c) is a local min. If f’ is positive, f is increasing

If f’ is negative, f is decreasing.

F(x) is concave up if f’(x) is increasing, or if f’’(x) > 0 F(x) is concave down if f’(x) is decreasing, or if f’’(x) < 0 If f’’(c)=0, or if f’’(c) does not exist and the concavity of f(x) changes at“c”, then “c” is an inflection point. Second Derivative Test: Plug critical points into the second derivativeto determine concavity.

If f’’(c) > 0, then “c” is a local min and is concave up.

If f’’(c) < 0, then “c” is a local max and is concave down. If f’’(c) = 0 then the test is inconclusive and you must use thefirst derivative test to classify the critical point.



160

If lim → then we can use this rule.

Is it a geometric series? If so you can use the following formula to deter‐mine convergence/divergence:lim→ 1 Where C = a(1) and r = the ratioIf || 1, then the series is convergent

If|

| 1, then the series is

divergent.

Examples: Convergent Geometric Series where || 1 115

1151 115 1151415

15 1625

1 15

162565

44 141 14 1434

25

2251 25 22535

Examples

: Divergent Geometric Series where || 1 52 109

42 11

Is it a p‐series? There are two types of p‐series, unbounded and infinitediscontinuity. For each we can easily determine if they are convergent ordivergent. Getting the value to which they converge is a bit more difficult,as it requires solving an integral. Let’s look at each of the two types of p‐series:



161

Unbounded P-Series

1

Convergent if 1Divergent if 1

Infinite Discontinuity P-Series

1

Convergent

if 1Divergent if 1Examples: Determine whether the series is convergent or divergent. 1

lim→ 1

lim→ 12 lim→ 12 12 1

0 12

This is an unbounded p‐series where 1. Therefore, it converges. Fur‐thermore, it converges to ½. 1.

lim→ 1 lim 2 → lim→ 23 2

2√ 3 0 √This is an infinite discontinuity p‐series where 1. Therefore, it con‐verges. Furthermore, it converges to √

.

If the series is not a geometric or p‐series, then the first thing you shoulddo is the divergence test . This will tell you whether or not the series di‐verges. We do this by taking the limit as the general term approaches in‐finity. If the limit equals any number, this series diverges. If the limit tendsto “0”then the test in inconclusive and more work is needed. In general, wecan use the following formula: lim→ divergence/inconclusive



162

Example: Divergent Series 4

3 2

, 4

3 2

lim→ 43 2 lim→ 43 2 lim→ 43 2 43 0 Since the limit as n approaches infinity for the general term is 4/3, it failsthe divergence test. We can therefore conclude that this series diverges.Example: Inconclusive 6

, 6 lim→ 6

lim→

6

lim→ 6

1 1 01 0 Since the limit as n approaches infinity for the general term tends to 0, itpasses the divergence test. Therefore, the test in inconclusive and morework is needed.Example: Divergent Series

√ 4 , √ 4 lim→ √ 4 lim→ 4 lim→ 4 lim→ 87 ∞

Since the limit as n approaches infinity for the general term is ∞, it fails thedivergence test. We can therefore conclude that this series diverges.



163

This is yet another test to determine convergence/divergence, but onlyworks for alternating series. That is, it only works for series whose termsalternate in + and – signs. Here we introduce the concept of

absolute and

conditional convergence

. Understanding this concept is key to decipher‐ing alternating series. For absolute/conditional convergence we use thefollowing Theorem: if |a| converges,then a converges. if |a| diverges,but a convergesExample: Determine whether the series converges absolutely or condi‐tionally

1√

1√ 1 1√ 2 1√ 3 1√ 4 ⋯So, we can see from writing out the first few terms that this is an alternat‐

ing series. Now, let’s look at the absolute value of the series, which will tellus whether or not it converges absolutely or conditionally. 1√ 1√ 1 1√ 2 1√ 3 1√ 4 ⋯ √

When written in this form we can see that we have a divergent, unboundedp‐series, where p=1/2. Since p < 1, it diverges. Now, since an convergesand |a

| diverges, we can say that this seriesconverges

conditionally

.Example: Determine whether the series converges absolutely or condi‐tionally 11.1 11 11.1 11.1 11.1 ⋯

So, we see that this is an alternating series. Now, let’s look at the absolutevalue of the series. 11.1 11 11.1 11.1 11.1 ⋯ .



164

When written in this form we can now see that we have a convergent geo‐metric series, where the |r| < 1. Now, since an and |a| both converge, wecan say that this series converges absolutely.Example

: Determine whether the series converges absolutely or condi‐tionally 1

11 12 13 14 ⋯

So, we see that this is an alternating series. Now, let’s look at the absolute

value of the series: 1 11 12 13 14 ⋯

When written in this form we can see that we have a divergent p‐series,were p = ¼. Since |a| diverges, but an converges, we can conclude thatthis series converges conditionally.

If you don’t have a p‐series, geometric series, alternating series, and if youdivergence test is inconclusive, the next step would be to use the compari-

son test . This can get a little confusing, so pay close attention to the termsand logic used. This can get a little confusing, so pay close attention to theterms and logic used. First, let’s start with the theorem:THEOREM: Assume that there exists M > 0 such that 0 a b for n M

If b ,then a also If a

,then b also

Essentially, what we’re going to do is compare one series with another that

is either larger or smaller. If the larger one converges, then so does thesmaller one. If the smaller one diverges, then so does the larger one. Let’sdo a few examples and hopefully clear things up. NOTE: to use the com‐parison test you must first check to see if the series only has positive

terms.



165

Example: Determine if each of the following series is convergent or diver‐gent

2 1

Now, if we use the divergence test we will see that the limit of the generalterm tends to zero, indicating that the test is inconclusive. We could evalu‐ate this using the integral test, but let’s try the comparison test instead.First we need to find a series that is larger or smaller to compare it to.Why don’t we try the following:

2

2 1

Therefore, 2

2 1

We now have a series, an

, that we know how to evaluate, so let’s do that: 2 12 1 Now, we already know that this is a harmonic series, which is divergent .Therefore, since an diverges, bn diverges as well based on the comparisontest.Example

: Determine if each of the following series is convergent or diver‐gent 2 5

In this case the “+2” and the “+5” don’t really add anything to the seriesand so the series terms should behave pretty much like: 1



166

Which will converge as a series. Therefore, we can guess that the originalseries will converge and we will need to find a larger series which alsoconverges. This means that we’ll either have to make the numerator largeror the denominator smaller. We can make the denominator smaller bydropping the “+5”. Doing this gives, 2 5 2 At this point, notice that we can’t drop the “+2” from the numerator sincethis would make the term smaller and that’s not what we want. However,this is actually the furthest that we need to go. Let’s take a look at the fol‐lowing series.

2 2 1 2 As shown, we can write the series as a sum of two series and both of theseseries are convergent by the p‐series test. Therefore, since each of theseseries are convergent we know that the sum, 2 Is also a convergent series. Recall that the sum of two convergent serieswill also be convergent. Now, since the terms of this series are larger thanthe terms of the original series we know that the original series must alsobe convergent by the Comparison Test.

Here is yet another comparison test that we can use if every other tech‐nique before has failed (or if you’re feeling particularly brave). Here is thebasic theorem:THEOREM: Limit Comparison TestSuppose that we have two series, an and bn that are both ≥ 0 for all “n”. De‐fine,

lim→ If “c” is positive (c > 0) and is finite (c < ∞), then either both series con‐verge or both series diverge.



167

This is very similar to the comparison test. We pick a series that we knowthe convergence of (doesn’t matter if its smaller or larger) and then com‐pare it to the original via the limit test. If “c” is greater than zero, and if it’snot infinity, then both series converge/diverge. Let’s look at a couple ofexamples:Example: Determine if each of the following series is convergent or diver‐gent

√ 4

Now, we can already guess that this series is divergent, because we candrop the +4 in the denominator, giving us a series that we know the con‐vergence of, as seen below: √

So now all we need to do is compare the two in limit form: lim→ √ 4 lim→ √ 4 lim→ √ 4 lim→ 4

lim→ 4 11 0

Now, since c = 1 and c > 0 and c is finite, we can conclude that both seriesdiverge.Here is yet another test to determine convergence/divergence. This is alittle more straight‐forward. Let’s start off with the basic theorem andwork from there:



168

Theorem I: The Ratio Test lim→

if , then a if ,then a if ,then the test is Now, what does all this mean? Essentially, we are using a ratio to deter‐mine convergence. The ratio is obtained by dividing the general term ofthe series, an into a new general term, an+1, where we substitute (n+1) infor any (n) in the general term. Let’s look at a few examples, which willhopefully clear things up. Example: Ratio Test

15

Now, we already know that this is a geomet‐ric series where || < 1, and therefore con‐verges, but let’s try the ratio test just tomake sure. First, we get our two terms usedto make up the ratio. 15 15 And now we set up our equation, which isbased on theorem 1. lim→ 1515 lim→ 55 Now, since p < 1, we can say that this seriesconverges absolutely. Easy, right? Let’s trysomething more difficult.



169

Example: Ratio Test !

Now, this one is a bit more complicated be‐cause we have n! in the denominator. Let’swork through it step‐by‐step, staring withthe two terms used to make up the ratio: ! 1 1!

And now we set up our equation, which isbased on theorem 1: lim→ 1 1!! lim→ 1 1! ∗ ! lim→ 1 ∗ 1 1

Now, since p < 1 we can say that this seriesconverges absolutely. Remember that(n + 1)! = (n + 1)n!Example: Ratio Test

3

7

First, let’s get our two terms used to makeup the ratio. This one should be fairlystraight‐forward: 3 7 3 1 7

And now we set up our ratio equation,which is based on theorem 1:



170

lim→ 3 1 73 7

lim→ 33 ∗ 7 8 3 ∗ 1 Now, since p = 3 and p > 1, we can say thatthis series diverges. Let’s do another.Example: Ratio Test

2! Again we have an n! in the denominator, solet’s work through this carefully. First, let’sstart with getting the two terms we’ll use tomake up the ratio:

2! 2 1! And now we can set up our ratio equation,which is based on theorem 1: lim→ 2 1!2

!

lim→ ! 1! ∗ 22 0 ∗ 2 Now, since p = 0 and p < 1, we can say thatthis series converges absolutely.



171

The root test is very similar to the ratio test, and, again, is used to test forconvergence/divergence. Like before, let’s start with the basic theoremand then build upon it. Theorem II: The Root Test lim→ || if , then a

if ,then a if ,then the test is Now, the rules for determine convergence/divergence are exactly the sameas in the ratio test. We should be able to apply them easily. Let’s do a cou‐ple of examples:

Example: Use the Root Test to Determine Convergence or Divergence 79 10 By the look of it this series is a perfect candidate for the root test:

lim→ 79 10 lim→ 79 10 lim→ 79 10

Since L = 1/9 and is < 1, we can conclude that this series converges abso-

lutely.Example: Use the Root Test to Determine Convergence or Divergence

1 19

By the look of it this series is a perfect candidate for the root test:



172

lim→ 1 19 lim→ 1 19 lim→ 11 19

Since L = 1, we can say that the root test is inconclusive

.The power series is one of the more involved and complicated chaptersthis semester (or at least for this test). There are several different topicswe have to tackle, including finding the interval of convergence, the radiusof convergence, and creating/finding power series from a given function.Let’s start with finding the interval and radius of convergence, as that issomewhat less complicated. We’ll look at a few examples:Example: Determine the interval of convergence of the power series cen‐tered at x = ‐2

24

Step

1

: Use ratio test lim→ 2 14 ∗ 4 2 lim→ 2 ∗ 4416 14 | 2| lim→ 4 4 | | ∗

Step 2: Get preliminary interval of convergence

According to the ratio test, this series will converge when:14 | 2| 1Therefore, we can set up the equation:1 14 2 14 2 4 This is our new interval of convergence. However, there is one more step.Step 3: Check endpoints.We can check the endpoints by plugging them into the original series andthen checking for convergence/divergence using whatever test we need.



173

44

This is an alternating series. Remember, for an alternating series to beconvergent it needs to be decreasing and the limit must be 0. So we cansee that the series is definitely decreasing, but the limit needs checked:lim→ 44 lim→ 444 lim→ 14 0So, when x = ‐6, the series converges. Let’s check the other endpoint.

44 444 14 After simplifying, we see that we have a divergent p‐series, where p=1.Since p ≤ 1, this series diverges when x = 2Step 4: Interval of convergence

We now have ourinterval of convergence.

It will not include x=2., The radius of convergence is:right endpoint left endpoint2 2 62

Example

: Use the ratio test to determine the values of x for which thepower series below converges: 3

Step 1: Use ratio test lim→ 1 3 3 lim→ 1 ∗ 3 3 lim→ 1



174

Step 2: Get preliminary interval of convergenceAccording to the ratio test, this series will converge when:3

1Therefore, we can set up the equation:1 3 1 This is our new interval of convergence. However, there is one more step.

Step 3: Check endpoints.We can check the endpoints by plugging them into the original series andthen checking for convergence/divergence using whatever test we need. 1

This is an alternating series. Remember, for an alternating series to beconvergent it needs to be decreasing and the limit must be 0. In this in‐

stance, the series is not decreasing and the limit does not equal 0.So, when x = ‐3, the series diverges. Let’s check the other endpoint. 1

After simplifying, we see that this is a divergent series.

Step 4

: Interval of convergenceWe now have our interval of convergence. It will not include either end‐point., The radius of convergence is:right endpoint left endpoint

2 3 3

2



175

Example: Find the interval of convergence for the power series: 4!

! 3

Step 1: Use ratio test lim→ 4 1! 1! 34!! 3

lim→ 4 1

! 3

1! ∗!

4! 3 | 3| lim→ 1 1 ∗ 4 4!4! | 3| ∗ 0 ∗ ∞ 0Step 2: Get interval of convergenceSince p=0, this series converges everywhere, giving us the interval of con-

vergence:

∞,∞ Furthermore, it has a radius of ∞.In this section we will look at a few basic examples of parameterization.These should be fairly simple and to the point.

SEGMENT

Parameterizing a segment can be somewhat confusing, but if you followthese general formulas you should be okay. Most questions will come inthe form of: find the parameterization of the segment joining (a,b) and (c,d)over [0,1], where a,b,c, and d are real numbers. Parameterizing a segmentbasically means you adjust the coordinates of (a,b) so they fit into (c,d).We can do this by using the following formulas:

And generally, , Let’s look at a few examples, which will hopefully clear this up:



176

Example: SegmentParameterize the segment joining (1,3) and (4,1) over [0,1]. 4 1 1 1 3 3 And therefore: ,

Example: SegmentParameterize the segment joining (1,1) and (2,3) over [0,1] 2 1 1 3 1 1 And therefore: ,

CIRCLES AND VARIATIONSParameterizing circles is easy, provided you know the following generalequations: , ,

Use Multiplication “r” to scale the size/radius of the circleUse Addition “+c” to adjust the position of the circle’s center.TANGENT SLOPEThe slope of the tangent at a given point, “a”, can be calculated by the fol‐lowing equation:

SPEED

Instantaneous Speed can be calculated using the following equation:

ARC LENGTHArc length over a given interval can be calculated using the following equa‐tion:



177

SURFACE AREASurface over a given interval can be calculated using the following equa‐tion:

CYCLOID CURVEWhat is the surface area of the cycloid curve, c(t) = (t‐sin(t), 1‐cos(t)) over[0, 2π]? 2 1 c o s 1 cos sin 2 1 c o s 1 2 cos si

2 1 c o s 2 2 cos

2 1 c o s 21cos

: 1 cos 2 2

2 2 2 4 2

8 2

8 2 2

: sin 2



178

Example: Cartesian to polar ConversionConvert (1,0) from rectangular (Cartesian) coordinates to polar coordi‐nates: 1 0 √ 1 1∅ tan 01 tan0 0Therefore, the polar coordinates for (1,0) are:

(1,0)

Example

: Cartesian to polar ConversionConvert (5, 0) to polar coordinates 5 0 √ 25 5∅ tan 05 tan0 0Therefore, the polar coordinates for (5,0) are:(5, 0)

Example

: Cartesian to Polar ConversionConvert 9, √ to polar coordinates 9 9√ 3 81 813 √ 81 27 √ 108

∅ tan

9√ 39 tan

1√ 3

6 Therefore, the polar coordinates for 9, √ are:√ ,

Example: Polar to Cartesian ConversionConvert (5,0) to rectangular coordinates 5 cos0 5 5 sin0 0Therefore, the rectangular coordinates for (5,0) are:

(5,0)



179

Example: Polar to Cartesian ConversionConvert 9, into rectangular coordinates

9 cos 32 0 9 sin 32 9Therefore, the rectangular coordinates for 9, are:

(0, -9)

For a simple problem, we use the following equation: Where f(x) is the top function and g(x) is the bottom function, over the in‐terval [a,b].Or, for vertical curves,

Where g(y) is the right‐most curve and h(y) is the left‐most curve, over theinterval [c,d].This type of problem involves functions in respect to “y”, so you will needto switch variables. See example below.Example

: Determine the Area between the Curves , , 3 2 3 3 3

31 13 0



180

There are two methods for volume of revolution problems, as seen below:For standard problems, with one function, and rotated about the x‐axis: ∶ For problems involving two functions, rotated about the x‐axis: :

For standard problems, with one function, rotated about the y‐axis:

: 2

cos2 2 1cos2 1 2 sin2 2 sin cos

12 12 cos2 12 12 cos2 1 1





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