Reader's Response Draft 2

In the article "Explosive growth in Asian cities: Bright ideas to Seize the Urban Moment", Khanna (2015) claims that Asian Cities are becoming the global benchmark for citification through its innovative ideas. The writer asserts that compared to Europe and America, Southeast Asia has more than twice the amount of people immigrating into the cities from its rural areas. He argues that Southeast Asian metropolises are managing its rapid urban growth with flexible governance, resourceful citizens and local infrastructure innovation. Ideas such as a mobile application in Singapore called Beeline which adjust private bus route based on its citizen’s demands. While in the Philippines, it is providing more Wi-Fi hotspots to its citizens. I support the writer’s view that Southeast Asia is having a rapid urbanisation compared to the rest of the world and adapting with relevant ideas. However, I refute on Khanna’s stand on how Southeast Asian countries are tackling the main issue of rapid urbanisation growth in spite of his stated innovative ideas.

Khanna himself states that due to its dense population and size, difficulties emerge to provide essential necessities like housing, water and efficient transport to support a large and growing population. Developing countries will encounter various obstacles to comprehend their increasing urban populations in areas “such as housing, infrastructure, transportation, energy and employment, education and health care.”(United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs,2014)  Hence I strongly believe for a country to become an exemplary to urban development in this era, it must first be able to adhere to these three basic necessities.

To begin, the writer emphasizes that in Manila, housing is a grave issue for its growing population. He did not reiterate on how Manila is tackling this with a suitable innovative idea. The idea that the writer provides only tackles the issue on cyberspace connectivity which I strongly believe does not support any basic necessities. The Philippine government has set-up a $1.2 billion USD mandate to clear up its polluted waterways in Manila Bay. This will shift 104,000 families from the city’s many water towns surrounding Manila Bay's water ways. The government plans to relocate these estimated 500,000 citizens into new structure developments in Manila. Under the mandate, the Philippine government plans to create new accommodations which are able to shelter 900 families in them. (Kate Hodal, 2013) The Philippine Government has provided an idea and this in turn has tackled two of its countries basic necessities, housing & water, to support its ever increasing population and provide more water sources.

Adding on, another Southeast Asian country, Singapore with its forecasted white paper policy which would boost its already densely populated population up by another 30% has provided key planning ideas to adjust to its increased growth. It plans on increasing rail network from 180km to 360km twice its current length by 2030. This will allow more households to be able to access the train services just a walkable distance from their homes (Ministry of Trade and Industry Singapore, 2013). From this, we can clearly see how a Southeast Asian country such as Singapore supports its growing population with a thorough idea and tackles one of the key main necessities, Transport. Instead of a mobile app whereby Khanna provides as a form of innovative idea to tackle Singapore’s transport demands with no coherent outcome. This has showed that the Singapore government has indirectly promoted its train public transport to its citizens by making the train services easily accessible to commuters. Thus making public transport the better alternative to commute around Singapore.

To wrap it up, the innovative ideas provided by Khanna has its substance but unfortunately there are no direct outcomes from its implementation. It does not show how it makes Southeast Asian countries an exemplary to other countries of how they tackle their sudden urban immigration growth especially when it does not cover direct essential necessities which Khanna has stated to support a large city population or even a basic city population. Nonetheless, I Strongly agree that Khanna is precise in implying that Southeast Asian countries are experiencing a larger urban migration compared to the rest of the world and are able to adapt with proper planning and ideas.

(Edited 02/10/2015)

References

Singapore. Ministry of trade and industry Singapore. (2013). FAQs on Population White Paper:"A sustainable population for a dynamic Singapore”. Retrieved from https://www.mti.gov.sg/MTIInsights/Documents/FAQs%20for%20White%20Paper.pdf

Kate Hodal. (2013).” Manila is a Hotbed of Progressive Housing Solutions

A City’s Quest to Build a Better Informal Settlement”. Next City. Retrieved
from https://nextcity.org/features/view/slum-lab-manilas-quest-to-build-a-better-informal-settlement

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (2014). “World’s population increasingly urban with more than half living in urban areas”. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/world-urbanization-prospects.html

Reader's Response Draft 1

In the article "Explosive growth in Asian cities: Bright ideas to Seize the Urban Moment", Khanna (2015) believes that Asian cities are becoming the global benchmark for citification. The writer posits that 36 capitals have over 10 million citizens. Out of those, 20 capitals belong in Asia. Khanna states that compared to Europe and America, Asia has more than twice the amount of people immigrating into the cities from its rural area. He argues that Southeast Asian metropolises are spearheading with "flexible governments, resourceful citizens and local infrastructure innovation. “.The statements presented by Khanna in the article do show rapid growth in Southeast Asia compared to the rest of the world however, he did not give concrete examples of how Southeast Asian countries are coping despite its innovative ideas. With this unforeseen population growth, it is the countries outmost important in providing essential necessities like housing, water and efficient transport to its large population.

The author stated in Manila, housing is a grave issue for its growing population. He did not reiterate on how Manila is tackling this with a suitable innovative idea. The Philippine government has created a $1.2 billion USD mandate to clean up its polluted waterways in Manila Bay, this will shift 104,000 families from the city’s many water towns surrounding Manila Bay's water ways. The government plans to relocate these estimated 500,000 citizens into new structure developments in Manila. Under the mandate, the government plans to create new medium-rise buildings which are able to accommodate 900 families in them. (Kate Hodal, 2013) The Philippine Government has provided an idea and this in turn has tackled two of its countries basic necessities, Housing & water, to support its ever increasing population and provide more water sources.

Another Southeast Asian country, Singapore with its forecasted white paper policy which would boost its already densely populated population up by another 30% has provided key planning ideas to adjust to its increased growth. It plans on increasing rail network from 180km to 360km twice its current length by 2030. This will allow more households to be able to access the train services just a walkable distance from their homes (Ministry of Trade and Industry Singapore, 2013). From this, we can clearly see how a country such as Singapore supports its growing population with a thorough idea and tackles one of the key main necessities, Transport. Instead of a mobile app whereby the author provides as a form of innovative idea to tackle Singapore’s transport demands with no coherent outcome. This source has showed that the Singapore government has indirectly promoted its train public transport to its citizens by making the train services easily accessible to commuters. Hence making public transport the better alternative to commute around Singapore.

To wrap it up, the innovative ideas provided by the author has its substance but unfortunately there are no direct outcomes from its implementation. It does not show how it makes Southeast Asian countries an exemplary example of how they tackle their sudden urban immigration growth especially when it does not cover direct essential necessities to support a large city population or even a basic city population. Though, the author is precise in implying that Southeast Asian countries are experiencing a larger urban migration compared to the rest of the world.

(531 Words)

References
 

https://www.mti.gov.sg/MTIInsights/Documents/FAQs%20for%20White%20Paper.pdf

https://nextcity.org/features/view/slum-lab-manilas-quest-to-build-a-better-informal-settlement

Summary:"Explosive growth in Asian cities:Bright ideas to Seize the Urban Moment"

 In the article "Explosive growth in Asian cities: Bright ideas to Seize the Urban Moment", Khanna (2015) believes that Asian cities are becoming the global benchmark for citification. The writer posits that 36 capitals have over 10 million citizens. Out of those, 20 capitals belong in Asia. Khanna states that compared to Europe and America, Asia has more than twice the amount of people immigrating into the cities from its rural area. He argues that Southeast Asian metropolises are spearheading with "flexible governments, resourceful citizens and local infrastructure innovation."

The Importance Of English For Me

The importance of English for me is that it is the most effective form of communication in Singapore. You can navigate your way through the streets of Singapore with just the English language alone.I use English everyday when communicating with those around me such as my family members and friends.

Being able to communicate with people of different races and backgrounds in itself amazes me as how we are able to interact as a whole society just through a standardized form of language.Although being able to converse in English is one thing, to write it down is another and most commonly in the form of a report.I am not precise when it comes to writing reports or letters however I think that the most important thing is that the recipient is able to understand what I am trying to relay

Coincidentally, through lectures during effective communications, I realize that as an engineer, a report would be read by countless numbers of people. Additionally, there would be different perspectives on how the report is being interpreted.During my internship, there were countless of quarrels between two individuals which involved miscommunications solely because of their writing .They were both questioning each other’s representation on how their writing did not coincide with one another’s proposed ideas.

Through this I realized that I have to improve my report writing with the proper format and structure so that I would be able to provide the best explanation to those that require my knowledge to carry out their given task.I intend to practice more on my writing during this effective communications module. And through the mini projects and e-portfolios, I hope that I would be able to identify the areas of improvement and from there make the necessary changes to produce an excellent report.To conclude, I feel being able to speak  a language and to write it are two very different things altogether.

Edited ( 22/09/2015 )