In the article
"Explosive growth in Asian cities: Bright ideas to Seize the Urban
Moment", Khanna (2015) claims that Asian cities are coping with rapid
urbanisation through 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 rapid urban growth with flexible governance,
resourceful citizens and local infrastructure innovation. Ideas such as a
mobile application Beeline adjusts private bus routes based on its citizen’s
demands. And in the Philippines, the country is providing more Wi-Fi
hotspots to its citizens. support the writer’s view that Southeast Asia is
having rapid urbanisation as compared to the rest of the world. However, I
disagree with Khanna’s examples on how Southeast Asian countries are
tackling the main issue of rapid urbanisation growth.
Khanna himself
states that due to increasing populations, 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 manage 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). I strongly believe that for a country to
become an exemplary model in urban development in this era, it must first be
able to adhere to three basic necessities. These three basic necessities are
housing, water and efficient transport.
Such example of a
country adhering to these basic necessities is Philippines. The writer
emphasizes that in Manila, housing is a grave issue for its growing population.
He did not provide concrete examples 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. To address the issue of water, a $1.2 billion USD mandate
from the Philippine government has been provided 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
residences which are able to shelter 900 families in them.
(Hodal, 2013). The Philippine Government implemented this mandate and provided
its citizens with two basic necessities, housing and clean water, to support
the country’s ever increasing population and provide more water sources.
Another basic
necessity, transport, has been tackled by Singapore. Singapore plans to boost
its already densely populated nation up by another 30%.The country has
provided key planning ideas to adjust to this 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. Apps like beeline that
Khanna provided as an innovative idea to tackle Singapore’s transport demands does
not help alleviate the transportation problems in Singapore. his shows that the
Singapore government has indirectly promoted its public transport to its
citizens by making the train services easily accessible to commuters. This
shows that Singapore has plans for providing efficient transport to its growing
population.
To conclude, the
innovative ideas provided by Khanna have substance but unfortunately there are
no positive outcomes when they are implemented. This does not show how khanna’s
innovative ideas make Southeast Asian countries exemplary to other countries on
how to tackle the sudden urban immigration growth. This is especially true when
the innovative idea does not cover the basic necessities which Khanna stated are
necessary 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 is able to adapt with proper planning and ideas.
(707 Words)
References
Hodal,K (2013).Manilla 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
Parag, K. (2015, June 11). Explosive growth
in Asian cities: Bright ideas to ‘seize the urban moment’. Straits Times. Retrieved from http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/explosive-growth-in-asian-cities-bright-ideas-to-seize-the-urban-moment
Singapore,
Ministry of Trade and Industry. 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
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
Hi Muhammad.
ReplyDeleteI did the same article as you. Interestingly, both of us had a slight view in Khanna's article. I think you focused well on her article as you stated that the basic necessities of Philippines was not focused on. That is a very good point to highlight for a developing country. A need over wants. Good job.
Hi Muhammad,
ReplyDeleteIt is always nice to see someone disagree with an article and argue against it. Your points are valid as Khanna's supposed 'innovative ideas' are merely fanciful apps that accomplish very little. The way you talk about the real problems and how the ideas actually do not solve them can be easily understood.
I just want to ask, have you found Khanna?
Sincerely,
Xue Yuan
Hi Xue Yuan,
DeleteUnfortunately he found me instead....
Regards,
Muhammad
Hi Muhammad,
ReplyDeleteThis is such a fine and excellent work! I like your command of English that not only makes you sound professional and have a good insight of such topic but it makes it even much so enjoyable to read. I also like how you do your argument to make it sound valid, and though I did not read the article before, reading just your reader response has made me learn so much about it.
Cheers,
Sha