FUTURE CITY: VISIONS AND BEYOND

FUTURE CITY SERIES: PART 2

THE CITY BEYOND PRESENT......

FUTURE TRAJECTORY: A DILEMMA

NILITA KHUNDRAKPAM

City - a seductress to all. It attracts every one of us, hypnotises all people to come to her and enjoy her. Its charm and poise wins all men. Everyone is trapped by its assets – opportunities and luxuries which no village or rural place can give. It is the “Golden Girl” of all of us, whose one single smile will make our entire life worth living.

Like us human beings, cities also have their own story which nobody cares to know. It was born and brought up on the surface of this earth. In early period of human history, when men were nomads, no cities existed. Then, physical survival was the sole aim of man. Hence, they were always in search of places with favourable climate and soil resources and other basic resources which could support their lives and livelihood.

Slowly men learnt to domesticate plants and animals and they started to look for places which could provide them with maximum resources. Man began to settle at places favourable to them and their needs. More people came to these ‘favourable’ places and started settling and the number of inhabitants gradually grew, thus forming a significant settlement. I’m reminding you, the city is not yet born but it has been now conceived. Settlements began to grow in size with more inhabitants and houses and people engaging in other activities other than agriculture emerged. Religions flourished, politics and new technologies supported its growth. Thus, first cities were born.

Cities are very selfish. She wants all the best things to be hers and with her. She is never willing to share anything good with her neighbouring villages or rural areas. She wants to dominate all. She wants herself to be the supreme of all. Thus, all important activities happened on her lap. She became the powerhouse of wealth and authority. Cities thus had an implosion of power rather than an explosion. Division of labour emerged. Occupational specialization came in. Hence, cities grew to a beautiful lady – admiration of all souls.

CITIES – NOW

With the development and advancement of science and technology, cities have matured and become even more beautiful than ever. Science and technology are her anti-ageing cream and culture and innovation are her fairness cream. Opportunities for wealth generation and economic development are her magic spell to captivate more people. This phenomenon of attracting more people for wealth and development has created “Megacities” – a more glamorous version of herself with more power. She has grown so ambitious in time that she has been creating a sorority group of megacities all over the world, proving she’s all powerful and magnificent. She has already swept half of the world’s population under her feet.

Her attempts and ways to woo people and spread her authority have been too aggressive. Yes, people have always fallen prey to her spells and go running to her. But she has been too harsh on herself and the people. At the same time, we should not forget that the people who went running after her beauty and charm are too selfish. They just rape her opportunities and advantages but do nothing for her health and hygiene. Even her sorority sisters are facing the same problems. They are being used but not cared for. Worst is that cities enjoy being used and taken advantage of. They are just happy that they have been acknowledged for their beauty. They don’t care that people are coming to her not for her personality and quality but just seeing their physical beauty and her property to quench their thirst for growth and wealth. In short we can put that cities and people coming to her have been both equally reckless. One enjoys exploiting and the other being exploited.

Cities have both energy and synergy, a unique vibe which attracts people to its fast-paced, aggressive and cross-culture lifestyle. People have been so blinded by its glitters that many of them are living in city slums and informal settlements. But the pressure created by people coming from all directions is immense and it is taking a toll on the health of the ever-youthful cities. Severe ecological, economic and social problems are arising. Thus, the freshness cities once had is perishing.

FUTURE OF CITIES – WHICH WAY CITIES ARE GOING?

Today, cities and the life they are offering are equally very complicated. The cities are losing their wisdom and composure. They are becoming more of power centres. Once her inner beauty is lost, city has started to use more make-up and ornaments to woo people showing her stubbornness and over-ambitious side. Her wealth is lessen, her dress wearing out, she is getting wrinkles. But she is relying fully on science and technology to work out miracles for her. And as always, science and technology, her best friend come to her rescue bringing more inventions and innovations to help her stay as beautiful as morning dewdrops.

She surely is beautiful from every angle you can see. But her health – it is not in good state. She is suffering from pollution of all kinds. People cannot breathe, men are suffocating. There is no pure air or water. Two extremes – rich and poor have emerged, thus comes social stratification. Increase in crimes can be witnessed. Everything has been compromised for her looks and the material opportunities. She is just a fertile body of wealth accumulation and power concentration.

Yet, cities are no complete fools. They know they are going in the path of unsustainable existence. They know that they have been too ambitious and materialistic which do not guarantee a healthy and long life. Some of the city sorority sisters are working out ways to overcome their wrong-doings and make their existence more meaningful and worthwhile instead of just luring people with the material comforts they can offer. But girls are naive and so thus some of the city sorority sisters. They don’t want to lose their control over the minds of the people. They want to exercise full dominance. They often overlook the fact that they can be more powerful and beautiful with a balanced or more appropriately, a sustainable existence.

Considering the characteristics of the cities, hence, we can project the likely future of them – of how they might be or look like in the coming years; if they will cease to exist or prosper even more.

A SUSTAINABLE CITY???

Cities are cunning in one sense. They know who the potential advantageous groups of people are – the ones who would care for her, nourish her and make her healthy and fit like never before. Every city knows her health status and condition. It is just her negligence that makes it worst or her responsible self that would save her with timely medication and treatment.

Those few responsible cities are accumulating efficient brains to work out sustainable solutions to their problems – their health, because they know their beauty lies in their health. They know that if their health is not properly maintained their lives will perish one day and their existence will be remembered through bedtime stories only.

The brains, the devotees and well-wishers of city life are making great efforts in drawing out possible solutions for her worries. Rules and regulations have been drawn out for controlling emissions in the city, industries are being relocated far from the city circle or in the periphery regions, eco-friendly products have been produced such as eco-friendly vehicles to cut down the emissions. Instructions have been laid out regarding the use of resources. “Reuse, Reduce, Recycle” have become a popular mantra for all cities to eliminate wastes to protect their environment or health.

Thus rigorous campaigns are being carried out for a sustainable future of the city. If these campaigns are successful, if the devotees are strongly determined and if city people continue to follow the rules and regulations so laid out, a well-balanced city will emerged which will be the envy of all.

NEARING DOOMSDAY???

As mentioned earlier, cities are egoistic and the people benefitting from them are equally carefree and reckless. City people have bad habits of realizing only their ambitions and ends. They hardly care for the welfare of the city or its health. In fact, they are the ones who act as parasites and eat up the health and beauty of the cities.

Men pollute the environment by emitting toxic gases from their factories and industries. The emissions from their vehicles account for maximum pollutants. The sounds from every possible gatherings, functions, events, rituals and vehicles have combined to produce irritating noises thus, giving birth to another type of pollution – noise pollution. All these emissions and pollutions are also a factor of climate change, making the city environment more fragile and week. Again, men are clearing forests for settlement expansion, thus posing a threat to the habitat of wild animals and birds of the city. This act is even threatening their existence giving the fear of total extinction. The constructions taking place in every nook and corner of the city with the aim of beautification and modernisation is also affecting the health and sustainability of the city. People are extracting and exploiting resources more than needed making the city all the more fragile.

All these negativities, if not taken into consideration and solutions are put forward, will lead to a tragic turn of event. These factors will slowly but steadily eat up the life of the cities bit by bit in no time. Soon, cities will vanish from the surface of the earth. They will eventually meet their doomsday and even their ashes will be wiped out. Thus, cities will fall and they will die a painful death.

AN ADVANCED CITY???

There can also be another possible future for cities. The cities may become aware of their present unstable and fragile condition and may put efforts to work out most favourable solutions. The science and technology is very much well developed today. Interesting wonderful discoveries have been made and it is still continuing. Remarkable inventions have also seen the light and touched human life.

Scientists never rest, even when they sleep their brains work. The cities provide a platform to them for exercising and testing their creativity. If cities fall, their platform will also fall, which they would not allow to happen at any cost. These well-wisher intellectuals and scientists will come together and think for a solution which will not only avoid the collapse and destruction of cities but strengthen them and prolong their lives to may be many thousand years.

It is very much possible that the scientists make certain important life-changing discoveries which will become the elixir of life to cities. Or it may be that they make inventions so powerful that with the help of them all the shortcomings, negativities that a city possesses can be erased or overcome. The advancement and development in the field of science and technology can be so enormous that it will discard and fix the defects of cities.

With these inventions and developments, there will exist an everlasting content and rich city. This city will have no problem of resource shortage or disequilibrium state of environment. Everything in this advanced city will be in their best and full potential. There will be only surplus. There will be no extremes of rich and poor – everybody will be equal. All these situations will be the fruit of our scientists’ hard work, the highly advanced science and technology that will come. And cities will prosper forever with no worries.

CONCLUSION

The future of our cities is in our hands – the city dwellers. Our time to time decisions and our course of actions will define the fate of the cities. If we want them to live, we need to think rationally and design our path according to it. We need to be responsible citizens and take care of her instead of just reaping her resources and opportunities. Cities need to be planned keeping in mind our needs and their carrying capacity and the possible demands of the coming future generations. After all, cities exist because of men and men progresses with the opportunities cities provide.

Author's Bio- Note:

Nilita Khundrakpam is pursuing her Masters in Geography from Department of Geography, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi.