Most of the urban centers in these fast growing meta-cities have one very visible trait in common. Each is ringed by dense, ever-expanding squatter communities where large portions of the city’s population—and economy—reside. Squatter communities and shantytowns are now home to 800 million people and are projected to grow by 16,000 people every day for… Read More »
The first best thing that I can say, on Robert Neuwirth’s Stealth of Nations, is that I’m grateful to the author for writing the book. I’ve just finished reading it, after purchasing it at a premium from Kinokuniya in downtown Singapore. At least twice while reading I found myself wanting to bake cookies for the… Read More »
Across the globe, 1.8 billion people — a quarter of the world’s population — work off the books each day. They are paid in cash for the goods they sell and the services they provide, and due to their ubiquity, there’s a word for these merchants in nearly every language. As Robert Neuwirth reports, in… Read More »