Xem mẫu
The ills of modern cities
The most glaring ill of modern cities is that the people in it
are always in a hurry. Businesspeople, wage-earners,
laborers, pedlars, crooks and assorted characters all rush
about in their activities. It is rush, rush and more rush. City
folks rush to work, rush to get their work done, rush to
have lunch and rush home. Then perhaps they rush to
have dinner or rush to a party. Finally in the early hours of
the morning it is a rush to, as they say, grab some sleep
before the rush next morning.
I was in Sydney, Australia, for a visit once. As I took a
leisurely stroll along the city streets, I was amazed at how
everyone seemed to be walking very quickly past me.
Even old ladies of seventy simply overtook me without any
difficulty. Some younger ones were actually running
towards God knows where. To cross the busy roads,
everyone crowded near the traffic lights. The moment the
lights changed to green for the pedestrians, they took off
not unlike sprinters off the blocks. That was a rush indeed.
I was forced to walk quickly too, otherwise I was likely to
be trampled on by the crowd.
NO wonder modern city-dwellers suffer from all sorts of
stress-related diseases. Some of these stressed people
are probably rushing towards an early grave too.
In a city like Kuala Lumpur, after the workers have gone
home, the uglier side of the city emerges. The night-sports
open up attracting all sorts of people. Prostitutes, drug
addicts, drug pushers, con-men, thugs and other
potentially dangerous characters abound. The police are
hard-pressed to handle them. The crime rate is always
rising.
However, compared to other cities like New York, Kuala
Lumpur is relatively tame. In New York, everyone knows
that it is dangerous to even go for a walk in some areas
after 5 p.m. The likelihood of getting mugged or even killed
is very high. The street gangs rule and no sane person
would go out to tempt them. Still robberies, murders and
all manner of human perversion continue. Certainly there
is great ill in this city. This trend of lawlessness s
spreading in other cities as well and there is no indication
that things will get better.
While skyscrapers dominate the skyline in a city, one
could say squatters and shanties dominate the baseline.
In some cities, it is estimated that these shanties occupy
more than half the city space. On one side, the wealthy
ones rush around in their posh cars, while on the other
side, the less fortunate ones rush around stealing them.
The imbalance of wealth is glaring and nothing is done
...
- tailieumienphi.vn
nguon tai.lieu . vn