Cities and Megacities

Concepts –

Primate Cities dominate the urban networks of which they form a part. Usually in political, economic, social, cultural focus of the country.

Push factors: Lack of money, opportunities, education, future

Pull factors: “The American Dream” (money, employment, high standard of living, education)

Centrifugal: pollution, transportation, declining services

 

Tangent –

Functions of Green Belts:

Landscape (separates parts of the island), recreational, (natural habitats), avoiding traffic, way of dividing city – LIMITING URBAN SPRAWL

 

Megacities –

Top Ten Megacities (not in any order): Tokyo, Seoul, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Mexico City, New York City, Los Angeles, Osaka, Manila, Beijing

Eight “Weird” Megacities (megacities/large cities you have never heard of): Lagos, Nigeria; Wuhan, China; Zengcheng, China; Calcutta, India; Sao Paolo, Brazil; Dhaka, Bangladesh; Shijiayuan, China; Tianjin, China

Most megacities are situated in Asia… in NICs… and in China. These megacities have a massive growth rate and the reason is not because city-dwellers are having more babies but because rural-urban migration. SO many people move from rural areas to urban areas that cities are becoming bigger and bigger.

 

Globalization –

What does it mean?

Spreading of culture, Development, Urbanization, Process, Modernization, Ideologies, International Relations, International Influences, Movement of Ideas and People and Things

Rangoon/Yangon, Burma/Myanmar

Urbanization (Textbook CH. 11)

Rangoon/Rangun/Yangon is the capital city of Myanmar or Burma. Following its independence, Burma changed its name to Myanmar but people call Burma, Burma or Myanmar (it doesn’t really matter because apparently, they sound really similar).

In 1946 when Gandhi was doing his magic and Britain losing all of its money, Britain lost all of its colonies in Asia like India, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Burma. Of course because colonization and independence never work out well, there are conflicts between these countries even today. (Stupid colonization.) Long ago, Bangladesh and Pakistan were the same country and because borders weren’t drawn very clearly, there are conflicts between Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Burma.

Along with border-conflict, religious conflicts are some of the top causes of unrest in this area. Kashmir, a region of an Indian subcontinent, north of India and Pakistan, has conflicts between the Muslim and the Hindi. When Pakistan and India were colonies of Britain, the majority of Pakistan people were Muslim and the majority of Indian people were Hindi. After their independence, Kashmir was given the options: 1. Join India; 2. Join Pakistan; and 3. Be your own country, by Britain. The Hindi population of Kashmir prevailed and now Kashmir is a part of India, however, there are ongoing problems because the Muslims of Kashmir want to be a part of Pakistan.

I suggest we all erase border lines all over the world and get rid of self-determination so we could all just stop fighting about which region belongs to which country. But things aren’t that simple, are they?

Back to Burma –> Burma is very rich with resources – drugs, sapphires, diamonds – Burma could be rich. But these goods are all smuggled into Thailand and Laos. This, obviously, is another problem people in Burma have to worry about. On the bright side, there has been evidences of development as the Burmese police have loosened their grip around the country. This is all thanks to China and their ability to influence its neighboring countries. (You go, China. Four for you, China.)

Thus ends the blost (blog post) for the week of April 1~5 in Mr. Lindop’s IBSL-1 Geography class. See you next week, Internet.