slums

Cambodia - Living around the Boeung Kak Lake

ZigZag — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 10:09:53 +0100

PhotoBlog - Fire burns Deep Sea slum in Kenya's capital Nairobi

vero — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 11:19:34 +0100

Around 80-90% of Deep Sea informal settlement in Nairobi were destroyed after a fire broke out on the afternoon of 8 March. According to the Kenya Red Cross, up to 10,000 people may have been affected by the fire - a majority of them having been made homeless, and dozens were reportedly injured.

Source: PhotoBlog - Fire burns Deep Sea slum in Kenya's capital Nairobi

Cambodians evicted in 'land grab' | World news | Guardian Weekly

vero — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 17:16:50 +0100

According to the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Cambodia, Professor Surya P Subedi, this is "not an isolated case". It is "representative of the problems of this nature that exist in the country. Land grabbing by the rich and powerful is a major problem."

Source: Cambodians evicted in 'land grab' | World news | Guardian Weekly

Cambodia's growing dispossessed - Features - Al Jazeera English

vero — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 12:59:38 +0000

"Only foreign pressure can help us now," says resident and local organiser Tep Vanny. "We believe the companies are tied to the government and when we protest, we are threatened and no one listens. Please, see what is happening here."

Time may also be running out. Last week, Vanny says the remaining residents were given seven days to accept the company's offer of $8,500 compensation and demolish their homes, or get nothing.

"We would rather die here," says Vanny. "People must also understand this. This is our home and we will not leave."

Source: Cambodia's growing dispossessed - Features - Al Jazeera English

Welcome to Bridges Across Borders Cambodia!

vero — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 10:40:50 +0000

The World Bank’s Inspection Panel found that the Bank breached its operational policies by failing to properly design and supervise the Cambodia Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP), contributing to the forced eviction of some 4,250 families.

Source: Welcome to Bridges Across Borders Cambodia!

About the Save Boeung Kak Campaign: « Save Boeung Kak

vero — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 10:33:19 +0000

The residents of Phnom Penh are becoming increasingly frustrated by the chaotic and largely unplanned construction in this ‘jewel’of an Asian city.

While welcoming sustainable and inspired development the latest and largest ‘development’ is the filling of Boeung Kok. The loss of this iconic open space is nothing short of tragic particularly in the light that the 133 hecatres of public property will be developed for private business gain (estimated at US$2 billion +).

Source: About the Save Boeung Kak Campaign: « Save Boeung Kak

Mapping Kibera

vero — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 16:55:26 +0000

Until recently, what is often billed as one of Africa's largest slums - Kibera, in the Kenyan capital Nairobi - was a blank spot on official maps. But a group of volunteers have been training young people living there to create their own digital map of the area.

Source: Mapping Kibera

Treated like waste

vero — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 15:18:40 +0000

Nigeria's urban renewal is trying to bulldoze human rights | Celestine Akpobari | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

vero — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 21:59:06 +0000

Okpadio used to live in Njemanze, an informal settlement on Port Harcourt's waterfronts, with her husband and five children. In August 2009, Okpadio and her family were forcibly evicted from their home which was demolished under state authorities' orders.

She received no eviction notice, no compensation and no alternative accommodation. Today she and some of her family are living with her sister in another home in another part of the waterfront. Most of the 13,000 residents have found other accommodation but some of them remain homeless or are living in makeshift inadequate structures in other parts of the waterfront.

Source: Nigeria's urban renewal is trying to bulldoze human rights | Celestine Akpobari | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Forced evictions in Port Harcourt

vero — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 20:55:16 +0100

Solidarity messages for residents of Port Harcourt

vero — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 13:38:53 +0100

Eye on Rivers - Nigeria's Port Harcourt

vero — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 12:58:31 +0100

Eye on Rivers - Nigeria's Port Harcourt

vero — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 22:27:13 +0100

squattercity: Squatters and the World Cup

vero — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 18:03:44 +0000

South African squatters are suggesting that they will protest during the soccer World Cup to dramatize the lack of affordable housing and horribly deprived and neglected condition of their communities.

Understandable. After all, the South African government and various municipalities are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the Football World Cup, including, the Telegraph notes, $170 million just for security.

Source: squattercity: Squatters and the World Cup

227 million people escape world's slums, UN report finds | World news | guardian.co.uk

vero — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 18:23:15 +0000

Although north Africa made considerable progress reducing slum numbers, the 34 sub-Saharan African countries between them only improved the living conditions of 17 million slum-dwellers in the last decade. These countries now have virtually 200 million people – over 60% of their populations – living in slums.

Source: 227 million people escape world's slums, UN report finds | World news | guardian.co.uk

Our role in Haiti's plight | Peter Hallward | Comment is free | The Guardian

ZigZag — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 15:30:33 +0000

Haiti is now a country where, according to the best available study, around 75% of the population "lives on less than $2 per day, and 56% – four and a half million people – live on less than $1 per day". It is this poverty and powerlessness that account for the full scale of the horror in Port-au-Prince today. Since the late 1970s, relentless neoliberal assault on Haiti's agrarian economy has forced tens of thousands of small farmers into overcrowded urban slums.

Source: Our role in Haiti's plight | Peter Hallward | Comment is free | The Guardian

Forced evictions in Kenya - Justus Nyang'aya

vero — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:09:00 +0000

Women are heroes

vero — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:50:28 +0000

People of Kibera

vero — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:27:11 +0000

Reaction housing

ZigZag — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:41:08 +0000

Al Jazeera English - Africa - Algiers police fire on slum protest

vero — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:20:21 +0000

People living in a slum district of the Algerian capital have taken to the streets for a second day to protest against job and housing shortages.

Source: Al Jazeera English - Africa - Algiers police fire on slum protest

CAMBODIA: An "epidemic" of evictions

vero — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:54:41 +0100

In recent years, NGOs and rights groups have raised concerns over what they say is an epidemic of forced evictions amid spiralling land prices and lax enforcement of laws.

Many evictions make way for hotels and skyscrapers in the rapidly developing capital. In the countryside, evictions are often justified to make way for logging, mining, resorts, casinos or plantations.

Source: CAMBODIA: An "epidemic" of evictions

Forced Evictions In Africa Series | Human Rights Now - Amnesty International USA Blog

vero — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:12:25 +0100

Approximately 85% of Angolans live in slum conditions surrounding major cities.

Source: Forced Evictions In Africa Series | Human Rights Now - Amnesty International USA Blog

Forced evictions in Kenya

vero — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:55:01 +0100

World Habitat Day - Stop forced evictions in Africa

vero — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:29:45 +0100

Women are heroes - Photo project in Kibera slum, Kenya

vero — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:33:30 +0100

At the beginning of 2009, in Kenya, JR used the rooftops of Africa’s largest shanty-town, in Kibera (Nairobi), to mount an unofficial exhibition. It was in this shanty-town that conflict began in February 2008, after the presidential elections.

Source: Women are heroes - Photo project in Kibera slum, Kenya

Violent attacks on settlement in South Africa

vero — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:54:59 +0100

Kenya's slums attract poverty tourism | World news | The Guardian

ZigZag — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:50:43 +0100

"It might seem a bit strange to come here," said Eric Schlangen, as the guide led him towards the sea of tin-roofed shacks that constitute Kibera, often described as one of the world's largest slums. "But I wanted to see how people live in this country, not just the animals."

Source: Kenya's slums attract poverty tourism | World news | The Guardian

Subtopia: Squatter Imaginaries

vero — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:37:24 +0100

One of the most intriguing facets of Dionisio Gonzalez's photographic constructions is that they immediately question the viewer's knowledge of what a "slum" actually looks like and what are the political forces that shape slums.

Source: Subtopia: Squatter Imaginaries

Squattercity

vero — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:34:37 +0100

I'm a writer who spent two years living in squatter communities in four continents. These neighborhoods--which dominate most of the cities of the developing world--are vibrant and energetic, but horribly misunderstood.

Source: Squattercity