Discuss the reasons for and consequences of social and economic groupings of nations (40)

Discuss the reasons for and consequences of social and economic groupings of nations (40)

Global social and economic groupings of nations contain within them, a vast amount of power, which can influence, under the correct circumstances, the way the world and society functions. Examples of these include the Organisations of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the European Union (EU). There are reasons for why they are formed and I will discuss these and their relevant consequences in the following essay.

OPEC, for example, is a producer cartel founded in 1960s, with 12 members in major oil producing countries within Africa (Algeria, Angola, Libya and Nigeria), South America (Ecuador, Venezuela), but also half of them in the Middle East; Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE. It's aim is simple; to coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of member countries and ensure the stabilisation of oil markets in order to secure an efficient and regular supply to consumers, to provide a steady income to producers and have a fair return to the capital.

Consequently, there have been positive socioeconomic impacts surrounding their formation, OPEC has control over 2/3rds of global oil reserves. According to the Energy Information Administration in the USA in 2010, the OPEC crude oil production, being such a large organisation has been an important factor which affects global oil prices. It had set production for its member nations and generally, when OPEC production targets are reduced, oil prices increase. Ultimately as they are a large organisation, they have a major influence on the price of oil on a global scale.

While I understand there are positive socioeconomic impacts, I need to highlight the negative consequences, which have arisen fro OPEC. In 2008, for example, Indonesia opted to leave OPEC and succeeded. I feel that this was entirely proportional to the aims in which they proposed, providing a 'fair return' to member states- leading me to question what determines a fair return and who decides what goes back to member states. When they left in 20008, there was a lot of speculation as to why they had left, certain analysts, who spoke on behalf of OPEC's analytical team had stated that Indonesia had left due to unhappiness upon certain OPEC regulations, specifically, their reluctance to increase the output in the face of the price surge in 208- which took the cost of a barrel of oil above $135.

Like other global social and economic groupings, regulations set by these organisations pose problems for member states. Gabon and Ecuador, for example, had left OPEC by 1995, simply because of the $2 million membership fee, as well as wanting to produce more out than was allowed by the OPEC Quota. Personally, I think that OPEC is a cartel, with monopolistic and price controlling power- which brings about consequences, although they have been doing well- despite the demand for crude oil increasing by 45% over the past year.

Other global social and economic groupings, such as the OECD (organisation for economic cooperation and development) have been established and have relevant consequences. It was set up in 1961, and is, essentially, a group of 34 of the richest, most powerful countries, the top 8 are the G8- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, USA and UK. Their main objective, was for the organisation to promote free market and trade. Essentially, the OECD members had ambassadors who attend yearly meetings- and have an annual budget of about $10 million.

There have, of course, been criticisms against the OECD, where there is almost a sense of peer pressure from G8 states (particularly UK, USA and Japan- coincidentally the three countries with the three major world cities- London, LA and Tokyo) to improve policy and implement 'soft law; (that which has no legal binding force) in order to get their policies across.

During the setting about of the guidelines of the OECD, it was found that there were no delegates from low income countries- it leads me to question how they can make global decision policies without consulting other leaders in other countries. Membership is entirely proportional to wealth, depending on their GDP- and I feel as though there is a contradiction, because if the OECD members, like UK and USA were really set on protecting the rights of the people in low income countries from "corporate impunity", then they should have at least invited the third world countries to participate in drafting the guidelines.

In my opinion, their 'guidelines' are simply a cosmetic tool for western countries like the UK and USA to try and portray empathy for third world countries, about their fundamental rights, while in reality, these same western countries are major contributors of the profits made by large corporations from investing in third world countries through hook or crook. This is only another example of the consequences of global social groupings on countries.

The European Union, established in 1957, had its main aim to establish a single market. It is an economic and political union of 29 member states in Europe. It was formed to create a single market, and have a free circulation of goods, capital, people and services within it.

There have been positive, political impacts as a consequence of the EU. Firstly, there is a sense of European harmony, EU countries are no longer loggerheads like they were in the past. With the exception of civil war in Yugoslavia (which wasn't in the EU at the time), Europe has managed to heal the divisions which were so painfully exposed in the two World Wars  in the 20th century that they even won the Nobel Peace prize in 2012 for helping promote peace and international corporation.

From an economic aspect, the EU is one of the strongest economic areas in the world. With 500 million people, it has 7.% of the world's population, but accounts for 23% of nominal global GDP. Free trade and removal of non-tariff barriers have helped reduce costs and prices for consumers.

There are benefits of EU membership, the intention behind the cohesion of these member states are that they will reduce the gap between the rich and poor, The EU's regional policy is used to achieve these aims by investing in people. 36% of the EU's budget between 2007-2013 (around 340 billion Euros) will be used to help the poorer regions of development enjoyed across the rest of Europe. There are three sources of funding; The European Regional Development fund (ERDF)- which invests in infrastructure and innovation, the European Social Fund (ESF) which incests in skills training, job creation and support. The Cohesion Fund- invests in the development of renewable energy, environmental and transport infrastructure projects. This is reserved for countries whose living standards are below 90$ of the EU average. Together, these funds are designed to keep the EU attractive for investment, enhance accessibility and provide high quality services. I feel that it has been successful as a whole, particularly in encouraging innovation in the economy.

However, there are drawbacks of EU's policies in certain industries such as the Common Agricultural Policy, which subsidises EU farmers, introduced in 1962. It is, arguable, the most controversial concern surrounding the EU particularly because at its peak, the EU spent around 2/3rs of the EU budget on agricultural production. As of the April 2015 report from the Times Newspaper, the CAP accounts for 40% of EU budgetary expenditure.

I strongly feel that the EU should significantly reduce the amount it spends on agricultural production subsidies- particularly because developing countries cannot compete. Due to subsidies given to EU farmers, the farmers left in developing countries in Africa, such as Uganda and Nigeria, are unable to sell their products to EU countries at competitive prices. The World Trade Organisation has recently released a report in their March blog- that the tariffs that developing countries face prevents the expansion of production, which could have lead to an increase in prosperity for much larger, rural populations, especially in Africa, Uganda and Nigeria being targeted specifically in the blog. EU farmers, on the other hand, are protected because of the subsidies they receive. I feel as though liberalisation of trade between the EU and developing countries could arguably be more valuable than Western aid to the developing world.

Furthermore, when researching statistics, I found that farmers in the EU represent 5.4% of the EU's population- they generate a mere 1.6% of the unions GDP- yet receive 40% of the EU's total budget through CAP handouts. Ultimately, it costs Europe's taxpayers £58 billion in subsidies to this tiny, unproductive minority. It strikes me, that this is still the case, despite times of economic hardship- only making the rich farmers richer, swimming in wine lakes and hiking through food mountains.

Conclusively, I feel that global social and economic groupings do serve purpose in today's global economy- though it is questionable whether the policies of free trade are justifiable in certain groupings as they impact negatively on developing countries that would serve better purposes if they had less trade restrictions, yet, overall, they are important in the running of today's global economy.

COMMENT: 36/40 Needs a better conclusion, possibly more synoptic opportunity to spice it up. 

Obsessive Love- La Belle Dame Sans Merci

La Belle Dame Sans Merci- John Keates

You should know the drill by now, have a read

Summary

So this poem starts off with an unnamed speaker, who comes across a "knight at arms" alone, and on the verge of death in a field. After asking him (twice) what's' wrong, the knight takes over as narrator and answers the rest of the poem. He talks of how he met a beautiful girl in the fields, and he gave her flowers and let her ride his horse (possible sex reference here) and they she invited him back to her fairy cave. After she had "lulled" him to sleep, he had a crazy nightmare, about other people who were now dead, and then he woke up, alone, on the side of a hill somewhere. 

Breakdown

Stanza 1- The poem opes with a question, an unnamed speaker asks a "knight at arms" what's wrong, or what's "ail(ing)" him. This is the first mention in the poem that he is "pale" and be warned, this word is repeated a lot. 

There is a foreboding tone right from the first stanza of this poem. Also, there is imagery, in the references that are made to "wither'd' plants" and the "lack of birdsong" which is suggestive of the lonely, desolate surroundings. There is also consonance of the L sound, which makes the line sound very musical. Also, the word "palely" creates an internal rhyme with "ail thee" from the previous line. By associating those words together, it is made clear that the knight's paleness has to do with whatever it is that is ailing him.

Stanza 2- There is echoing of the first line of the stanza that is in the second one as well. There are two more adjectives used to describe the knight so, he is "haggard", "woe-begone" which highlights how deathly and drawn that he looks. 

Stanza 3- There is flower imagery that is used to emphasise how pale and haggard the knight looks. This is portrayed by the metaphor, "I see a lily on thy brow", conveying his paleness. There is also a double-meaning as lilies are the flowers associated with death,in Western culture, and contributes to the deathly feel of the poem. There is also a rose metaphor, ""And on thy cheek a fading rose/ Fast withered too"" which suggests that colour has left his cheek and his beauty (represented by the rose) has withered. 

Stanza 4- There is a change in narrative in this stanza. The "I" is the knight, rather than the original speaker. HE describes how he met a "beautiful lady" in the fields, which is an idealistic description, which is quite characteristic of the Romantic era. She is described as. "Full beautiful" and  "A faery's child"", which creates the image of an enchanting and mysterious person. 

Stanza 5-  There is more nature imagery, about flowers, but there is also an erotic reference, when he says that the lady is "look(ing)" at him while ""lov(ing)" and "moaning" which leads us to believe that he is getting some. When he talks about the "fragrant zone" it can also be interpreted as a euphemism for the zone, under her belt. 

Stanza 6- So the knight puts the lady on his horse, his "pacing steed" to take a ride... it could also mean his penis. In case you didn't catch that. He is so absorbed with his erotic encounter that he doesn't notice anything "all day long" There is also a suggestion of supernatural enchantment when he mentions that she sand, ""A faery's song"". 

Stanza 7- There is a religious aspect taken into course, here, as "Manna" is the food that Jewish scriptures say that the Israelites ate when they were wandering the desert after Moses freed them from slavery. It is meant to be food from heaven, which, in the poem would make the lady seem supernatural or divine, almost. Moreover, it could be that he was enslaved by the lady. It is an allusion, made with the Israelites when they were trying to find the promised land.

Stanza 8-  The fairy lady takes the knight to her "Elfin grot", her lady-cave basically, and there is contrast with the infatuation from the previous paragraph, whereby Keats introduces a hint of sadness, when the lady ""Wept, and sigh'd full sore"". It can either be left to our imagination about why she is said, or it could possibly be part of her seduction, to capture young knights. Again, there is repetition of the word, "wild" which emphasises her enchanting eyes as well as the knight's obsession with her, the repetition reflects the oral nature of the ballad  and the ability of the form to keep the reader engaged.

Stanza 9- The sadness in the previous stanza is contrasted with the gentleness of the words "lulled" and "dream'd" There is contrast conveyed with the use of hyphen introducing the plaintive line, ""-Ah! Woe betide" which is an archaic expression used to express extreme grief or suffering. The knight's use of this expression emphasises the medieval romance setting. 

Stanza 10-   There is again, repetition in using the word, "pale" which, again could be a religious allusion to the book of Revelations, where the fourth horseman of the Apocalypse is Death and he rides on a pale horse. Again, there is consonance, with the words 'all, belle, thrall' which associates those words as we read them, making us consider how the belle dame might be responsible for the paleness of all the knights she has had in thrall. 

Stanza 11-  This penultimate stanza presents us with a nightmarish imagery of, ""Starv;d lips"", ""Horrid"" and ""gaped wide". There is more talk of his dream here, when he wakes up, he is alone, and there is a gloomy sense of isolation as he uses the word ''cold'' to describe it.

Stanza 12- The final stanza reminds us that he is telling a story to the unnamed speaker, and it also reminds us of the poem's opening question, which is common with the folk tradition of the ballad form. There is an ambiguous ending as we are unsure if the knight will survive his experience or what decision he has come to, ""And this is why I sojourn here,/ Alone and palely loitering,"" 

Overall

The poem, is written in the form of a traditional folk ballad, and is broken into twelve quatrains. There is simple language, the story of one event, and the repetition of ideas and refrains. They all combine to serve the traditional purpose of the ballad which was to keep listeners engaged and entertained. Each of the quatrains has a simple ABCB pattern. 

The basic meter of the poem is iambic tetrameter, stressed/unstressed. However, on the fourth line of each quatrain, there are only three stressed syllables in the fourth line of each quatrain. It is consistently shorter- which is effective in terms of him *insert your own conclusion*. 

Also, remember that the poem is a dialogue between two people, the unnamed stranger and the knight. That's about all I have for this poem, its good for any obsessive, erotic love poetry comparisons, even infatuation to the point it makes the main character at the point of death. Memorise, memorise, memorise! 

All-round love- Antony and Cleopatra

Antony and Cleopatra- William Shakespeare

Okay I know, its been a few days since I last posted, I have been focusing on geography for the last few days... but this drama piece, as a friend of mine pointed out, is amazing, because it covers all types of love, really... also, I'm lucky enough to have studied this in class, so I know this story inside and out, really. Yay, me :-) 

Summary

Antony and Cleopatra is, without a doubt, a tragedy. It revolves around three protagonists, Antony and Cleopatra (duh) and Octavius Caesar. NOT JULIUS CAESAR. I made that mistake in the beginning and it just confused me. The story revolves around Antony, being a Roman and taking his role as leader of a third of the triumvirate too easily, while Caesar wants him to get off his bum and lead. Cleopatra is a carefree Egyptian who loves Antony and would do anything for him (except she chickened out of a battle and made Antony flee the battle too, leading to a series of events which made Antony kill himself... I told you its a tragedy), so what is left, really, is a drama watching the hot mess of two people trying to come out of impossible circumstances. Eventually, Cleopatra sticks a poisonous snake in her boobs and Antony kills himself instead of surrendering to Octavius Caesar. A tragedy. One which shows courage and love between these two characters. 

Theme and Analysis

The whole tone of the play is quite poetic, and decadent, almost stoic. The themes which I have picked out are: 

Exaggerated declarations of love: "CLEOPATRA 'If it be love indeed tell me how much.' ANTONY 'There's beggary in the love can be reckoned.' CLEOPATRA 'I'll set a bound how far to be beloved' ANTONY 'Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.'" This exchange sets the tone for the rest of the play. Cleopatra wants a love that can be demonstrated. 

Female Sexuality-  There is this power struggle between Caesar and Cleopatra. Caesar and his men almost condemn Antony for his weakness which makes him bow to the Egyptian queen, and blame his downfall on Cleopatra. When the Romans are not calling her a whore, they refer to her as an enchantress whose beauty is almost enchanting to men. Enobarbus says that she almost has the power to warp the minds and judgement of all men, even "holy priests" who "bless her" even when she acts like a whore. Its almost as if Cleopatra's sexuality is threatening the Romans. In a way, the women in the play (Cleopatra and Octavia) are saddled with both the responsibility for men's political alliances and the blame for their personal failures.

Important bits you can memorise

Betrayal in 'Antony and Cleopatra'- There is this never-ending battle with the characters of the story, where they have to choose to either be loyal to their ideals or to their circumstances. The loyalty of characters is constantly questioned by their quick betrayals of one another, and the question of whether loyalty is an enduring feeling is raised as a result. 

Quotes about this: "CLEOPATRA 'O, never was there queen/ So mightily betrayed! Yet at the first I saw the treason planted.' ANTONY 'Cleopatra-' CLEOPATRA 'Why should I think you can be mine, and true-/ Though you in swearing shake the throned gods-/ Who have been false to Fulvia? Riotous madness,/ To be entangled with those mouth-made vows,/ Which break themselves in swearing!'" Essentially, Cleopatra recognises that marriage is supposed to be a sacred act, yet Antony had disregarded his marriage to Fulvia to be with Cleopatra, and she worries that he would do to her what he did to Fulvia and betray her. I don't blame her... once a cheater always a cheater. 

Love in 'Antony and Cleopatra'- Even though the foundation of this theme is tragedy, love is still a central theme. Though love ultimately fails in the end (as the lovers cannot be together IRL, but they can in heaven), it is upheld and honoured by the lovers' suicidal loyalty to each other. 

Quotes about this: "CLEOPATRA 'If it be love indeed, tell me how much.' ANTONY 'There's beggary in the love that can be reckoned.' CLEOPATRA 'I'll set a born how far to be beloved' ANTONY 'Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new Earth.'" I talked about this quote previously, in the theme and analysis section, give it a read there. 

Overall Analysis

Thing about Antony and Cleopatra, is that there is a lot of phallic and yonic imagery. Swords feature prominently in the play as stand-ins for manhood, and they're often linked to the sexual self. There are a lot more inferences, read about them here. 

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Familial Love- Sons and Lovers

Sons and Lovers- D.H Lawrence

Yes! Another Lawrence book! I'll be honest though, I haven''t read this one, I'm halfway through it though, and so far, so good. It is loosely based around the Oedipus Complex- and I love when different subjects integrate, in this case, psychology and English, but anyway, happy revising :-) 

Summary

Sons and Lovers initially starts off with the unhappy marriage of Walter and Gertrude Morel, and their four children. Mrs Morel starts to fall out with her husband, and begins to turn her attention towards their four children, of which her elder one, William, dies. She then fills her emotional void of her lack of attention from her husband and death of her son to her other son, Paul. The almost imprisoning nature of Mrs Morel's love towards Paul becomes a cripple, to any romantic relationship that he attempts to maintain, thus eliciting an abnormality in Paul's character as a result of the relationship he has with his mother. 

Theme and Analysis

A lot of the book is based around the Oedipus Complex, as I had said before, so it is awkward finding a specific theme for this book, but one thing that we have to understand now, is that Paul is not romantically linked to his mother. He is just very attached to her. Very. Attached. To the point where no woman can actually compare to how incredible he finds her. Trust me though, they are not romantically linked. Themes: 

-Familial love: Come on. That's pretty obvious. 

Important bits you can memorise: 

Family in 'Sons and Lovers'- There is this unhealthy attachment that Mrs. Morel has to her sons, and the entire Morel's family united resentment for their father. Lawrence uses this book to basically pop our happy balloons about the importance of family bonds or unconditional love. 

Quotes about this: "While the baby was still tiny, the father's temper had become so irritable that it was not to be trusted. The child had only to give a little trouble when the man began to bully. A little more, and the hard hands of the collier hit the baby." It is from very early on in the story that we notice Walter's anger, which would end up destroying him. The fact that he cannot be patient with his own baby shows what an absolute ass he was. I'm not sorry. Also there is, "The deepest of his love belonged to his mother" This kid just flat out admits it. And again, "The two shared lives... his soul seemed always sensitive to her" This may be borderline creepy, considering it is the mother talking about her son. Then again, we're dealing with Freud, can you expect any less?

Love in 'Sons and Lovers'- There is a combination of love and hate in this book. The idea being that people cannot feel love without feeling enmity at the same time. It's a pretty interesting thought actually, because love is a feeling which fulfils out desires to connect with other people, but those connections can only happen when barriers are broken down between us and other people. It is the barriers which makes us individuals. 

Quotes about this: "Whereupon he got up and went out of the house, returning presently and crossing the kitchen with averted face, hurrying upstairs. As Mrs Morel saw him slink quickly through the inner doorway holding his bundle, she laughed to herself: but her heart was bitter because she had loved him" I'll be honest with you, this quote is pretty sinister. It was said after Walter had made an empty threat to leave Mrs Morel forever, but then comes back. All the Mrs can do is laugh, but the reality of the situation is that it is super sad, as she realises she no longer loves her husband, and has become bitter thinking of how far their relationship has fallen. 

Sex in 'Sons and Lovers'- I'm going to skip this intro bit, because the quotes seem to be pretty self explanatory. Don't say I didn't warn you...

Quotes about this: "He never forgot seeing her as she lay on the bed, where he was unfastening his collar. First he saw only her beauty, and was blind with it. She had the most beautiful body he had ever imagined," Yep. It gets better, "He sunk his mouth on her throat, where he felt her heavy pulse beat under his lips" You get the hint. 

Overall Analysis

Throughout the entire book, Lawrence talks about Paul's relationships with Clara and Miriam in romantic terms, and there isn't really anything weird about it. The weird part is where Lawrence uses the same romantic terms to describe Paul#s relationship with his mother. "The mother and son walked down Station Street, feeling the excitement of lover having an adventure together." Its almost as if Lawrence is going out of his way to suggest that there is some sort of unconscious sexual deal going on between mother and son. We read later, that Paul loves sitting between his mother and his beautiful "friend", Miriam, at church, "uniting his two loves under the spell of the place of worship." The direct comparison between Miriam and his mother shows how much influence Lawrence may have had over the Oedipus Complex. There is almost this idea that the characters won't admit it to themselves.Which just leaves us in a state of confusion. 

The fact that it is written in third person allows Lawrence to make us a little more sympathetic towards characters such as Walter, that everyone else hates. 

He uses a lot of similes in his book, for example, "as if all the fire had swum down there" 

Overall, I'd recommend reading it, but its all about the familial love, if you want to ace this exam- read read read! 

Using examples, evaluate the relationship between economic development and urbanisation (10)

Using examples, evaluate the relationship between economic development and urbanisation (10)

The relationship is not straightforward. At a global scale, rapid urbanisation has occurred over the last 50 years. 50% of the world population lives in towns and cities; over 20% of the population live in cities over one million. The most urbanised continents are Europe, North America, South America and Oceania (mostly developed); the least urbanised are Asia and Africa (mostly developing). However, in terms of urban growth, the number of urban dwellers is by far the largest in Asia, with 1.6 billion people living in towns and cities, which is over 40% of the population. 

Urbanisation is increasing most rapidly in Africa and Asia- economically developing areas. This trend is expected to continue, so that by 2025, almost half the population of these continents will live in urban areas and 80% of urban dwellers will be in these areas of the world, most of which are currently developing. However, a consequence of the most rapid economic development that is taking place in most parts of China, India and south east Asia is that the level of urbanisation is increasing very rapidly. Rates of economic development and rates of urbanisation are rising simultaneously in these countries. 

Large cities, mostly in developing nations, have been faced with problems, which include inadequate infrastructure (housing, sewage and water supply) and lack of employment are rooted in their explosive population growth over the last 4 decades; a growth so rapid that it outstrips the resources or urban authorities to provide even the most basic needs to millions of their citizens. The result is poverty on an unimaginable scale. 

Although world cities also suffers problems of pollution, unemployment and housing shortages, their scale and severity is much smaller than in mega cities in the developing world. Ironically, world cities face challenges due to their success in the international economy. Most obvious one being, the growing income inequality between the minority of workers engaged in the global service economy and the majority who are excluded. The outcome has been the emergence of 'cities within cities'.

COMMENT FROM ME: Again, I don't see how it answers the question entirely, but this is taken directly from the mark scheme, it makes more sense than my previous post though, I will give it that. Happy revising! :-) 

Discuss the planning and management issues that have arisen in areas that have undergone urbanisation in recent years (10)

Discuss the planning and management issues that have arisen in areas that have undergone urbanisation in the recent years (10)

Urbanisation is an increase in the proportion of a country's population that lives in towns and cities. Recently, there have been countries which have undergone rapid urbanisation in the recent years, and there are relevant planning and management issues which arise as a result of it. 

An example of an area which has had massive urban growth in the recent years is Kibera, on the outskirts of Nairobi. It faces huge social, economic and environmental planning and management issues. 

The average population density in Kibera exceeds 3000 people per hectare. It comprises of housing which are usually makeshift shacks built from corrugated iron, mud, timber and any other materials that are to cheap to hand, as the majority of the population of Kibera are not at a high state of economic development which means that people cannot afford better quality building materials for housing. 

Kibera is unplanned and lacks even the most basic infrastructure. There are open sewers along the street and roughly one million people use the 600 pit latrines. Most households have no piped water and rely on standpipes, tanks or water vendors, who would sell water door-to-door, by carrying it on their head or in a cart. Women and children would sometimes have to queue for hours to buy water. There is no organised rubbish collection, and garbage is thrown in the streets, into watercourses and along railway tracks. Only 20% of households are connected legally to the electricity grid. 

The narrow, uneven and unpaved roads are inaccessible to vehicles, which is a problem, if ever there needs to be emergency aid that needs to be provided, there are no access points for them to enter. Half of Kibera's inhabitants are HIV positive, and there are thousands of abandoned children whose parents have died from AIDS. It is through the unsanitary and overcrowded conditions that promote the spread of waterborne disease, diarrhoea and TB.

Nearly four fifths of the population is unemployed, and most people rely on self employment. Jobs in the formal sector (construction) are concentrated in Nairobi's city centre, and along the commercial/ industrial spine of Mombasa Road. Several people cannot afford transport and walk long distances to work.

Like many slum areas in the cities, Kibera suffers from high crime rates as people feel they need to resort to crime in order to obtain money to feed their families. This is due to the scarce job opportunities available to them as most of them are unskilled. 

COMMENT FROM ME: oOkaay, so I got this answer directly from the Mark Scheme of the Jan 2012 paper, I don't really see how it answered the question, if I am completely honest... but I guess that if the mark scheme says this, it must be okay? The question is about planning and management issues, I would maybe talk more about government involvement in this? A good website I found is here, which may improve this answer slightly. 

Outline the processes of counter-urbanisation and descirbe its effects (8)

Outline the processes of counter-urbanisation and describe its effects (8) 

Counter urbanisation is the process of migration of people from major urban areas to smaller urban settlements and rural areas. The process of counter urbanisation began as there was an increase in the number of people who wanted a better quality of life, away from inner cities, which suffered from a lot of air and noise pollution, as well as busy traffic, dirt and the crime of urban environments. Additionally, as GNP was rising, most people wanted larger homes, with a lot of land, which is found in rural fringes. 

The process continued developing as land on the rural fringes was a lot cheaper than in inner cities, which meant that employers were also starting to move to rural areas, and thus attracted people to move too. Between 1981 and 1996, rural areas gained more than 1 million jobs. Improvements in telecommunications, and faster Internet has also allowed people to work from home, which allowed them to move away from the louder towns and cities. Additionally, there has also been a rise in demand for homes to be bought by elderly retirees, who have higher levels of affluent. This also links with the need for rural areas to attract more incomes, for example agricultural businesses are struggling and one way for them to make money is by selling unwanted land or buildings as residential properties. 

There have been effects, of counter urbanisation, for example, the change in the layout of rural settlements. Modern housing estates are built on the edges of small settlements, and small industrial units on the main roads leading into the settlement. Former open areas are built on, old properties and some agricultural buildings are being converted and modernised. As with the gentrified areas in inner cities, there is thus tension between the newcomers and the locals. Additionally as more people want to move to urban areas there is a higher demand for housing, and so house prices increase, while this is a positive impact for landlords who live in the rural area, young people from the same area may not be able to afford that housing, and thus, the population would then be dominated by older people.