Vol.8 No.1

Enchanted Ground
What lures people to the stress, disease, crime and poverty of the big city environment?
How does city life affect the moral nature of its inhabitants?
by Betsy Mayer

Cities are as old as civilization. Yet until the 20th century, the percentage of the world’s population inhabiting cities has been relatively small. Even as late as the 16th century A.D., city populations only accounted for about 5% of Earth’s inhabitants. But by the 21st century, more than half of all individuals will live in cities.¹

Additionally, twenty-one cities will have a population of 10 million or more—qualifying them as “megacities.” A staggering eighteen of these “mega-cities” will be in developing nations such as India, Africa and China. Aggressive population growth and migration from rural areas will continue to swell urban centers, some (as in the case of Africa) at the explosive rate of 10% annually.²

With the increasing urban population already straining  the resources and function of these cities, why do people still go? What do big cities offer that would induce countless immigrants to endure the licentiousness, crime, ugliness and stress of city life?

THE LURE OF THE CITY

People migrate to cities because of opportunities. Historically, cities have been the birthplace of progress, the cradle of civilization. The reason is simple: while Rome was not built in a day, it also took more than one man to build it. The inventiveness of the human mind, as well as skill and strength were amplified with each increase in population.

But what really gave the necessary impetus to the existence of modern cities was the industrial revolution. Suddenly, industries were available to support more people at a given location. In turn the industries actually required more people to keep them running. People left small towns and villages to work in factories and sweatshops. With the increase of goods came the need of services to support them. In turn, the potential for service occupations and opportunities drew more people.

Consider Thailand. This nation of 58 million people has climbed from among the world’s poorest 20 years ago to the middle class of industrial nations—not rich, perhaps, but getting richer. What has happened to Thailand’s poor villages? They are inhabited by children and old people—eerily deserted by able-bodied adults who have gone to Bangkok to find work.

“The attraction of the cities is employment,”  says Mechai Viravaidya, the head of a Bangkok community development group. Because the Thai government has not provided irrigation to rural areas, “workers, on average, earn twelve times more in non-agricultural jobs than they do on the land. . . .They are bringing bodies to meet machines.”³

Others believe that the lure is more than economic. It is also the glamor. Providing electricity and education to rural areas has only allowed rural residents to see the glitter of cities on television, awakening the desire to go there.⁴

CITY SHOCK

But all that glitters is not gold. Once a city is well established, populations often continue increasing beyond the point of manageability and teeter on the brink of chaos. Some urban planners address these problems, but many cities grow faster than plans have been formulated, spilling sewage, crime, makeshift housing, industrial waste, pollution, traffic and disease onto their streets.

Disease is reaching frightening proportions in many cities, especially respiratory diseases. Tuberculosis, responsible for 2.7 million deaths yearly, and acute respiratory infection, which claims nearly five million children annually, thrive in cities.⁵ The Harvard School of Public Health suggests that residents from cities with dirty air have a 30% increased risk of cardiopulmonary diseases and lung cancer than residents from cities with the cleanest air.

Dr. Carolyn Stephens of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine predicts that “many urban centers will face crisis in tuberculosis, AIDS, cholera, and tropical diseases as their hard-pressed services seek to accommodate more people.”⁶

Housing lags far behind urban growth. Venezuela offers a unique example. Of a nation of 21 million inhabitants, 86 percent live in cities and 41 percent in shanties—shelters made from scraps of tin, wood or cardboard— including half the residents of Caracas.⁷ In Manila, half of the nine million people live as squatters on 5% of the land, this despite the fact that squatting is illegal in the Philippines.⁸ Crowded, government-funded housing in poor neighborhoods and homelessness are more common sights in western countries.

The combination of a lack of clean water and air, decent shelter and adequate sewage and garbage disposal for a city’s inhabitants puts entire communities at grave health risks.

Transportation in most cities has become a nightmare, adding a layer of stress that the human psyche is ill-equipped to handle. Recently, a Bangkok traffic cop “snapped” at one of the city’s most notorious intersections, under the pressure of trying to direct the endless streams of crawling vehicles. “He switched all his lights to green and danced gaily amid the ensuing chaos.” Eventually he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital where he was diagnosed with an “unspecified mental illness.”

Understandably, it takes 4-5 hours to cross the city of Bangkok. Some have estimated that “30% of the city’s productivity is being lost in commuting hours and gasoline consumption by cars idling at a standstill, with air conditioners on full blast.”⁹

Cities with inadequate public services and housing are also at higher risk in case of natural disasters. The inability to respond with swiftness in the wake of urban fires, floods, and earthquakes is often a greater cause of death than the natural disaster itself. Shanties can become death traps, yet may stand next to buildings untouched by a hurricane.

But solving urban problems only brings more people to the cities, argue some big city planners, “perpetuating the ever-expanding unsustainable entities which only serve the elite in the long run.”¹⁰

WORRIED WORLD LEADERS

What is the inevitable result of urban stresses? Conflict, for one. “Uncontrolled urban growth has created the conditions for violence, . . . ethnic conflict, and political unrest.”¹¹ The L.A. riots in 1991 were not caused by the Rodney King verdict. The verdict was merely the match in a well supplied gas tank of racial tension and city pressures.

Urban activists are quick to remind us that the most vulnerable victims of street fighting and gang wars are not the active participants, however. They are the families, women and children who must live under these conditions.

Another result from city stress is tension, raw nerves, and urban anxiety. “Every one is at the scream level,” said Joe Maier, a priest who helps slum dwellers in Bangkok.

Concern about social anarchy in metropolitan areas has prompted the United Nations to conduct the big City Summit in Istanbul, June 1996. Men and women from many nations will present the best solutions they know to keep cities from self destructing.

How do city stresses impact the spirituality of men and women? Jesus taught that the cares of this life, the love of pleasure and the pursuit of riches could preoccupy our minds to the extent that spiritual things would be forgotten. The frenzy of city life keeps many from hearing God’s still small voice.

Depictions of crime, drugs, and immorality assault one’s senses in a city environment. It is hard to escape it and by beholding it we are imperceptibly changed by our environment. Better to remove ourselves from the constant impression of evil to a place more conducive to pure thinking and clean living.

Cities are also a symbol of human pride and sufficiency. The tower of Babel was the forerunner of the modern city. The Bible tells us that God scattered the tower builders to save civilization. The pride and wickedness of the carnal heart, the influence of rebellion on fellow citizens are potentiated in a city environment. Think of Sodom and Gomorrah, Babylon, and Nineveh. 

CITIZENS FOR A NEW CITY

Throughout history, God’s people have typically lived in rural settings and for good reason. It is here that God can speak directly to our senses through His creation, where monuments to man’s ingenuity are not dominant. It is here that we can sustain our families largely by our own efforts, and can be independent of urban economic systems in meeting needs for food, shelter, and water.

In many ways city living can be easier and more convenient. Yet a Christian is at odds with the ways of the world. Poverty is not the only option in the country. Unfortunately, society has lost the art of dignified country living. Pictures of country living depict people ground down by poverty and illiteracy, but these are far from the images of past centuries. Many great men and women of past ages were not dependent on a city infrastructure for survival. Technology itself has equipped us with many options to be as dependent or as self sufficient as we choose.

As we near the end of earth’s history, the Bible tells us that the vast majority of earth’s inhabitants will give their allegiance to a religio-political system in direct opposition to God. They will not be allowed to buy or sell unless they give their worship to this system. (See Revelation 13.) The ability to control large numbers of people is much easier in cities than in the countryside. We see the migration of millions of people to the cities as a partial fulfillment of this prophecy. It will be nearly impossible for city dwellers to have freedom of choice because already their cities are too large for democracy. This beast power will easily control the populations of the world’s cities.

God’s people are depicted in the 12th chapter of Revelation as the church in the wilderness. Paul wrote that God’s people would wander as pilgrims and strangers in the earth looking “for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10). The ultimate megacity is the New Jerusalem. Here Jesus has promised mansions in the city for His children and sinless beings will dwell together in perfect harmony. Here we can be assured that no strife or ethnic tensions will ever threaten our unity. No disease, war, famine, economic uncertainty or traffic jam will mar the perfect order of heaven. I long for such a world, don’t you?

References:

1. Haq, Farhan, “Population-Habitat: Majority Will Soon Live in Cities, U.N. Says,” Inter Press Service English News Wire, May 30, 1996.
2. Linden, Eugene “Mega Cities” Time, January 11, 1993.
3. Wallace, Charles P., “All Roads Lead to Asian Cities,” Los Angeles Times, Home Edition , November 30, 1993.
4. Haq, Farhan, “Habitat: Urban Experts Debate Whether Cities Should Be Mended,” Inter Press Service English News Wire, April 26, 1996.
5. Haq, Farhan, “Population-Habitat: Majority Will Soon Live in Cities, U.N. Says,” Inter Press Service English News Wire, May 30, 1996. 
6. Haq, Farhan, “Habitat: Urban Experts Debate Whether Cities Should Be Mended,” Inter Press Service English News Wire, April 26, 1996.
7. Marquez, Humberto, “Latam-Habitat: Women the Architects of Shanty Towns,” Inter Press Service English News Wire, February 24, 1996.
8. Murphey, Denis and Minar Pimple, “Eviction Watch Asia: Forced Evictions and Housing Rights Abuses in Asia,” quoted in Inter Press Service English News Wire, January 23, 1996.
9. Williams, Lousie, “Asia’s Urban Meltdown,” Vol. 41, World Press Review, February 1, 1994.
10. Haq, Farhan, “Habitat: Urban Experts Debate Whether Cities Should Be Mended,” Inter Press Service English News Wire, April 26, 1996.
11. Son, Johanna, “Today’s Cities and Future Shock,” Inter Press Service English News Wire, November 11, 1995.