The Contemporary Urban Life

Today, Latin American cities are unequal, but the region stands out as one of the significantly urbanized areas of the modern Southern America. The level is currently higher than those of the North America. The epic indicators range from the type of housing, luxury, and the quality of accommodation. Others are the type of transportation, retail outlets, type of work many people are engaged in and the general satisfaction of the citizens. However, although the cities have experienced vast positive developments, there are still some negative changes including crime rate, unequal economies between the cities and the adjacent suburban environments. This continued to widen gradually since the first cities were erected in 1930’s.
Every part of the Spanish South American city has transformed in a way from the predominantly rural region to cities and towns. Millions of citizens have now moved from these rural areas to the urban quarters. However, the rate is not equal among the different regions and cities. The urban growth accelerated during the early twentieth century although the development was sparked from the late 1930s. By 1950, the population had already doubled from 167 million Southern American city populations to about 287 million by 1970. The first major cause of the deviation is the geographical structure and land holding policies. Previously, the native cultures were organized within the large cities. With the onset of the Spanish colonists, the settlements were localized.

New land ownership policies were enacted as the Spanish sought to control and organize the territories. Many of the cities were therefore located near the trading centers or where there was an abundance of labor. As a result, the colonizers determined where the cities are located. Infrastructures and service provision were poor while the economic group stimulated the creation of jobs within and without these cities. The kind of workers who were welcomed to work in the cities determined by far the population within these cities.
The growth of these Spanish cities was accelerated by the industrialization process between 1930 and 1970 and especially the introduction of the capitalist production in the rural areas. Further, they were encouraged by the reorganization and consolidation of the previous settlement system after independence. However, from the late 1970’s the many of these cities were hit by the so-called the debt crisis. This led to a decrease of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). By then, many of the cities’ growth were connected to the inherent political administration and commercial functions such as the port functions. However, the regional economic dynamism became worse during the second half that started in the early 21st century. This was marked by increased rates of unemployment and underemployment. The debt crisis was a rebuttal of the 1930’s economic crisis that generated many opportunities within the cities. Then the rural-urban migration was fuelled by the rapture of the modes of production in the countryside. This percentage is higher in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. Countries in the current incipient or moderate stages of urbanization are currently the ones registering urban growth rates of more than the regional average. It is, however, evident that the urban and demographic transition are interrelated in complex ways. The very urbanized southern cities are the ones that experienced the most significant early demographic transition. The typologies indicate that the urbanization is closely related to socioeconomic. Human development index is high in those countries with significant urban development
Question 2
Bolivia and Uruguay are two of the most developed Spanish South American city. Bolivia broke out of the Spanish rule in the year 1825, only 14 years after Paraguay. This indicates that the two have almost equal years of historical development under independence. However, the ruling in Bolivia has faced too many downfalls through a series of coups. The development has been delayed by social unrest, deep-seated poverty, and illegal drugs. Since the restoration of the civilian rule after 1982, the country’s promise of a change in the traditional political class that has created a rather queer gap between the low socioeconomic class and the affluent few. Comparatively, Paraguay suffered a similar setback since the Triple Alliance war of 1870. They have suffered under a dictatorial leadership up to 1989 a situation that created political disparity and hence economic recession and inequality. Both of the states are in a similar class of development so far.
Geographically, Bolivia (1098,581 sq km) has an extensive area than Paraguay (406, 752 sq km). Both the countries are located in the central South America and to the southwest of Brazil although Paraguay is more to the northeast of Argentina. And although the two countries border each other, Bolivia’s temperature varies with altitude from a tropical and humid to semiarid and cold. Paraguay, on the other hand, experiences subtropical rainfall in the eastern region with the other areas being semi-arid. The geographical coverage is that of wooded hills and grassy plains with thorny shrubs and dry forests in most of the regions. This indicates its low agricultural productive terrain as opposed to that of Bolivia that is a highland plateau with lowland plains without the Amazon basin. As a result, the country experiences frequent flooding especially to the northeast and volcanic activities in the mountainous regions of the Andes Mountains. Flooding only occurs in the poorly drained plains in Paraguay. However, the increased cases of deforestation have led to massive water pollution and poor waste disposal thus posing greater health risks for the inhabitants, especially in the urban settings. This is a hindrance to the entire development of the country owing to the reduced agricultural productivity and poor health of the residents. The situation in Bolivia is rather different. The primary cause of deforestation is the international demand for the tropical timber. However, some other forests are cleared for agricultural purposes. Similar to Paraguay, this is too causing a lot of erosion, loss of biodiversity, pollution of water resources and desertification. This makes the two countries face similar economic development problems from reduced agricultural activities to poor health.
Some of the similar development profiles are indicated by the education and literacy levels, urbanization, population growth rate and infant mortality rate among others. The two countries show near literacy levels with Paraguay recording about 93.3% literacy and Bolivia 91.2%. The school life expectancy and especially the transition from primary to the tertiary education are 13 years for both states. At the same time, the duo has almost equal urbanization rate with Bolivia having a 66.8% of the total population living in the urban centers and the later 61.9%. The transition is above 2% although that for Paraguay is higher. However, on the issues of sanitation as opposed to the urban growth rate, Paraguay is more developed with more than 95% of the urban population having access to sanitation facilities as compared to that of Bolivia asserted to be below 60%. Paraguay, although having an adverse geographical structure, is developing at a higher rate than Bolivia.