In Papua New Guinea (PNG), the growing trend of urban migration is leading to a rapid increase in the urban population. As a result, the country has the greatest numbers of people living in squatter and informal settlements in the Pacific Region (Jones 2012, p. 8). This is most evident in the capital of PNG, Port Moresby (population 400,000), where about 45% of the city’s total population lives in settlements (Jones 2012, p. 9). As in other parts of the world, these settlements are characterized by a deficiency in planning, poor infrastructure and a lack of urban services. This in turn is creating a set of complex development planning challenges for the city.
This paper will discuss urbanisation as one of the most significant
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However, national policies relating to the issues have not been fully implemented, or even developed in some cases.
Admittedly, there is recognition of urban poverty in the National Urbanisation Policy, the National Poverty Reduction Strategy and the Medium Term Development Strategy of PNG (Storey 2010, p. 11). However, there is limited consensus on what constitutes urban poverty, or how it should be measured. Proposed methods on how it should be tackled has proven inadequate over time, with reality obstructing the expectations set in the plans. While the above strategies have been adopted, a coalition of support for change and implementation has not been built or maintained. Among the critical factors is how the local urban government lacks financial and management capacities to respond to the challenge of urban poverty (UN-HABITAT 2010).
Added to the existing trepidations in this urban melting pot, city and settlement dwellers are also experiencing ethnic clashes and a rapid increase in crime and violence (Storey 2010, p. 8-10). This has resulted from the unplanned growth and expansion of squatter settlements, income disparities, high youth unemployment rates, an erosion of cultural values that assist with conflict resolution, and the abuse of the ‘wantok system,’- people from the same language group helping each other (UN-HABITAT 2007, 2010).
Crime is exacerbated by
Living in communities that are run down, neglected and forgotten takes a toll on all members of the community. This is especially true when residents witness new properties being erected around the city as their own neighborhoods are deemed “ghettos” and not receiving the investment necessary for improvements. Many of the low income housing that is available to city residents aren’t the most desirable properties as they may have structural deficiencies, lead paint, rats and roaches running amuck. Many older properties also do not have adequately functioning heat or hot water availability. The housing projects also do not have air conditioning. On hot days, having no cool break in addition to all the other negative social factors, this can be a deadly combination that may perpetuate frustrations and ultimately lead to violence.
A small nation with widespread brutality and domestic violence, Papua New Guinea, located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, struggles with multiple developmental challenges. It is one of the poorest countries on the planet per capita, as well as one of the most culturally diverse with over 800 languages are spoken there (Campano). According to ReCom, a research and communication on foreign aid organization, it is ranked at 148 on the Human Development Index and most human well-being indicators show that the conditions there are similar to those in Sub-Saharan Africa (Stewart). The country is in desperate need of social services for the many abused and battered woman and the vengeful violent acts that take place for accused witchcraft
Throughout the article “The Code of the Streets,” Elijah Anderson explains the differences between “decent” and “street” people that can be applied to the approaches of social control, labeling, and social conflict theories when talking about the violence among inner cities due to cultural adaptations.
Urban areas in multi-racial cities, have their fair share of problems ranging from the cohabitation of different
Poverty can be defined by a multitude of factors, and can be displayed in different forms in different regions. No two regions have identical dimensions of poverty, thus making it interesting for human geographers to explore, while also making it difficult to find a perfect solution. Portland is an interesting subject for studying poverty, given its lack of ethnic diversity but political progressiveness. It is curious to see how Portland’s politics and state of being conflict to create the inequalities present in the city today.
Gentrification can be defined as the renovation and re-purposing of buildings in run-down areas in order to suit the use of higher income social groups. It also assumes the creation of amenities in the area such as shopping facilities and restaurants to fulfill the needs of the new residents (Giddens, 1997). The topic of gentrification is one that is highly debated by scholars and the general public alike, particularly due to the fact that the process and aftermath of gentrification can be felt on a concrete and tangible level by those who experience its effects. While some view it as a means of returning a level of affluence to lower-income neighborhoods, others view it as the defilement of the authenticity of an area and the ethnic elements contained within it, much to the financial and social detriment of its inhabitants. (Sheppard, 2012)
According to Pogge (2008), poverty is a state at which individuals are not able to fulfill their basic human needs of food, shelter and clothing. This is taken in the context of quality and insufficient amounts in quantity. Poverty is categorized into two main classes, absolute and relative
Gentrification has been a controversial issue both in urban planning and politics primarily due to the displacement of poor people by the rich folks (Shaw & Hagemans, 2015). Many individuals have viewed gentrification as an illegal act that should be avoided at all costs. On the other hand, another group of people believe that gentrification is the way forward to promoting growth and development. With such contrasting ideas, this paper is going to take a look at gentrification from a positive and negative perspective, its effects, and how it can be prevented or contained. Apart from this, the paper will also address the following questions.
Poverty for centuries has been a very severe issue that has troubled many nations while impeding economic developments and progress. Poverty stricken countries are majorly concentrated in the continents of Africa and Asia. Continents like the Americas and Europe have globally been recognized as been wealthier yet still many parts of these ostensible countries face massive cases of poverty. Most at times, countries with high populations owing to high birth rates face the most cases of poverty. The definition of poverty can be boundless in the sense that poverty entails so many subsections as it sometimes gets complicated to group everything under one umbrella. Society tends to focus more on the tangible aspects of poverty because many people associate poverty with lacking money and it makes sense because poverty in terms of lacking money is a major problem affecting almost every country in the world. Even though it is debatable that poverty can be physical, intellectual, spiritual and even emotional, it is best to talk about the lack of money and economic developments in this essay. With reference to the oxford English Dictionary, poverty is state of being extremely poor and the state of being inferior in quality or insufficient in amount. Reflecting on this definition given, I deduced that malnutrition and hunger can define poverty. In the light of this, I think poverty is lacking a comfortable place of shelter, being ill and not having access to a better
When it comes to poverty, there is the magnitude of definitions explaining the term. The definition of poverty has important implications from point of view of policy making, politics and academic debates. Each view has its own value judgments and explanations. Over the times, new definitions have surfaced the debates and yet, there is not a single universally acceptable definition of poverty. Definitions usually set the perimeters of the terminology and often subject to limitations and criticism. According to the definition of the World Bank, the term lack refers to the scarcity of economic resources while the term inability refers to the failure of competence to take part in a community (Bellu & Liberati, 2005). It is now widely
Many describe poverty as an economic deprivation, or lack of income. However, this alone does not incorporate the different social, cultural and political aspects of this unfortunate reality. Poverty is not only a deprivation of economic or material resources but a violation of human dignity. The general scarcity, lack, or the state of one without a specific amount of material possessions or money. It is a versatile concept that may be defined as either absolute or relative. Time and again, poverty is a call to action, for the poor and the wealthy alike, it is a call to change the world so that many more may have enough to eat, adequate shelter, access to education and health, protection from violence, and a voice in what happens in their communities.
Poverty is the lack of the basic needs of life, including food, shelter, clothing and safe drinking water. For a person to live normally, it is important to meet a certain level of physical, social, and emotional needs. People who live in poverty have difficult time to achieve those as they are not welcomed in many places. Because of their low incomes, they have troubles in maintaining their health, hunger, education. Poverty has become a large issue around the world. It is something that many of us know about but we’re not realizing just how big of a problem it is. This paper will include basic information about poverty, its effects, facts and statistics which can make people aware and want to help reduce poverty.
This paper will discuss poverty, the different types of poverty and their definitions and who is affected by each type of poverty. It will look at the some of the major reasons why poverty exists and what causes poverty, like such things as inequality, stratification and international debt. Some of the impacts of poverty will also be analyzed from a national and global perspective; things like education, literacy rate, and crime. This paper will demonstrate that poverty affects almost everyone in some form or another and exists because those with power and wealth want and need poverty to exist to force a dependence on the wealthy. A few of the main
Cities are places which have huge amount of gathering of people, collection of economic activities and complex infrastructure for people which all together are supported by transport systems.
The situation keeps aggravating despite of several poverty alleviation programs that are implemented every year. The main reason for such failure, apart from the implementation issues, would be the measurement and numbers on which these programs are based. Appropriate measurement is central to analyzing and understanding poverty and its alleviation.