In the Cities of the South : Scenes from a Developing World by Jeremy Seabrook (Verso)

Slum - the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as “a densely populated usually urban area marked by crowding, run-down housing, poverty, and social disorganization.” The word conjures up images of the shantytowns of Johannesburg, the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and even the ghettos of almost any large city in the U.S.  It is often believed to be a haven for criminals and gang members, where disease and pestilence run rampant. 

Jeremy Seabrook has compiled a book on the expanding cities of South Asia including Bangkok, Bombay (Mumbai), Dhaka, Manila, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh and Kuala Lumpur. The cities and their governments are experiencing a trend in industrialization and urbanization which is also the leading cause of creating the slums. This has all been done in the name of development. 

Seabrook focuses on the people’s daily lives who live in these less than ideal habitats.The slum-dwellers are often depicted as dirty, worthless, idle alcoholics and prostitutes who do not contribute anything to society. In the Cities of the South shows that not all slum dwellers are the scourge of society nor are all slums dangerous as Western media portrays them as many of the inhabitants come from the same rural areas and find a sort of comfort and sense of security with each other. 

Many of the people who live in the slums come to the city seeking jobs because they cannot make a living in the country. Traditional occupations like fishing and farming have become impossible as the land gets developed for a consumer society. The people have no choice but to move into the city because they cannot feed their families and the only opportunity to make money is in the city.

In Bombay, Seabrook talks to the people who live in Dharavi, one of the biggest slums in the world. The Prime Minister’s Grand Project was to replace much of the slum housing with multistorey apartment blocks. “The people who lived in the jopris (huts) were promised they would be given the first option to buy the flats that were to be constructed on the site of their then houses.” 

Unfortunately, the reality is far from what they expected. There are approximately 600,000 people living in Dharavi. The apartments were completed but were a lot less than the original plan and the space was much smaller than then huts that were demolished. It also cost twice as much then was originally quoted so many of the people were worse off than before. 

Seabrook often makes comparisons to the expanding cities of South Asia with the industrialization of his native U.K. The rampant corruption of government officials, the use of child-labor, the influx of multi-nationals - all in the name of progress and development. Unfortunately, the only aspect of progress not taken into consideration is the human factor.

Who are we as Westerners to criticize the Third World countries in their desire to become more developed. We should not make assumptions about the people who live in the slums. Many are not there because they want to be, they just had nowhere else to go. Seabrook manages to give these people a voice to show us that they are human just like us and are only struggling to survive. ~Ernie Hoyt