Lawry and Harry, the slum, or favela, I was in was a third stage favela. First stage favelas had people living in shacks made of cardboard boxes, second stage in clapboard shacks, and third stage in two to three story buildings made of brick blocks. One theory was that slum neighborhoods would start as first stage, move to second and then to third. I don't think it happened that way. I believe that neighborhoods didn't change very much - first stage remained first stage etc. Most of the people who lived in first and second stage stayed there for life.
It was actually a class system, with the most resilient and responsible people, many of whom kept little shops or worked downtown, living in third stage slums. Those less able to cope lived in shacks of wood or cardboard. Boundaries between the types of slums were not well defined. It was a very short walk from the third stage building I stayed in to some of the worst housing conditions imaginable. The third stage people around me kept themselves and their houses clean and in good repair. Their kids were well looked after. This did not seem to be the case with the kids who lived in the second or third stage slums down the road. I don't know much about the immunization programs that were available, but I believe that the third stage kids had pretty good health care while they were living at home and going to school. However, the ability of a slum population to handle an epidemic would not be great. People lived very close together. While the people around me practiced good sanitation to the extent they could, there were practical problems, such as not being able to flush toilet paper into the sewer system because it could clog the sewers. There were low-capacity sewers in my third stage slum, but I don't think there were any down the road. In the worst of the slums, there was garbage and filth everywhere. I don't think it's slum conditions that produced heartier people. More likely, it's who the people were and where they came from originally. The people around me had migrated in from the countryside within the past twenty years or so. Prior to that they had been agricultural workers on coffee plantations or small town trades and crafts people. Their roles in the rural economy collapsed with the mechanization of agriculture. However, their lives in the country could not have been easy. If there was a process of natural selection and survival of the hardiest at work it had probably been going on for generations before they moved to Sao Paulo. All of the people who lived in the slums, whether first, second or third stage, where probably hardy. What type of slum they wound up in was probably a reflection of their ability to adapt to urban life, and more likely, family and other connections which had moved to the city with them. Ed Ed Weick 577 Melbourne Ave. Ottawa, ON, K2A 1W7 Canada Phone (613) 728 4630 Fax (613) 728 9382 > Ed, thanks for the interesting posts. Do you have a sense of whether > sanitary conditions are changing in such slums? Can you offer a guess on > why such a catastrophic epidemic hasn't occurred as yet? How extensive are > current vaccination programs? Is it possible that the conditions you > describe produce a heartier sub-population in the slums? I am interested in > epidemiology or other natural dynamics that may create genetic differences > among peoples. > > Cheers, > Lawry > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Ed Weick > > Sent: Friday, January 17, 2003 3:08 PM > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Christoph Reuss > > Subject: Re: [Futurework] Epidemics > > > > > > Chris, I wasn't suggesting that free trade is a causative factor in the > > spread of disease. The fact that goods and people move around is > > a factor, > > but I don't see why it wouldn't be even if trade were severely restricted. > > People and goods would still move around, if not legally then > > illegally. It > > reminds me of a lecture I once attended on trade between eastern > > and western > > Europe during the Cold War. Though illegal, trade continued to be brisk. > > The Poles were particularly good at it, bringing all kinds of goods into > > eastern Europe via underground networks. As Canute found out, the tides > > don't stop just because they are commanded to. And if people and goods > > aren't the principal carriers of disease, something else may be, > > like fleas > > and rats during the bubonic plague, or ticks or mosquitoes, > > things that pay > > little attention to sealed borders. > > > > My concern was about huge and growing population clusters, like Sao Paulo, > > and the lack of a medical infrastructure that might stand a > > chance of coping > > with an epidemic. The slum I stayed in was very densely populated and > > sanitation was poor. A nearby slum was even worse - indeed, far worse. > > There were medical facilities not too far away, but they looked > > more able to > > spread than contain disease. Turn a virulent disease loose in places like > > that and the results could be catastrophic. > > > > Ed > > > > Ed Weick > > 577 Melbourne Ave. > > Ottawa, ON, K2A 1W7 > > Canada > > Phone (613) 728 4630 > > Fax (613) 728 9382 > > > > > > > Ed Weick wrote: > > > > Keith and Chris, the prospect is truly frightening. I've spent some > > time in > > > > a huge, densely crowded slum in Sao Paulo and visited slums in other > > second > > > > and third world cities. If the kind of disease Keith poses began to > > spread, > > > > there is absolutely no way it could be stopped or confined. The > > > > infrastructure simply isn't there. > > > > > > Worse, the same global "free" trade that helps the spread of > > such diseases > > > also helps the spread of slums in the first place. More incentive to > > > oppose it... > > > > > > Wonder if at least the British royals in their newly-built high-security > > > rooms will be spared...? > > > > > > Chris > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Futurework mailing list > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Futurework mailing list > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework > > > _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
