Global village is no more a dream; it is already in the process of realization. But are we there yet? I don't think so, we are connected well but only with the primary cities around the world. A few secondary cities too were connected. But is that enough?
There is a different definition but for me a global village is actually a dream which not just allows you to stay connected with your business and the world from anywhere, but also lets you perform your job from almost anywhere and gets the same results and remuneration. Global village should avoid the necessity of moving to a bigger city for better opportunities of work and living.
The problem for more than a century is over populated cities. A United Nations report published in 2007 indicated that about half of the world’s population is living in towns and cities. The organization expects urban population to grow tremendously in the developing nations of Asia, Africa and Latin America over the forthcoming decades. Developing nations face the risk of agglomeration due to this process. As per 2006 estimates, the ten most populated cities in the world are:
- Tokyo, Japan
- Mexico City, Mexico
- New York City, US
- Mumbai (Bombay), India
- São Paulo, Brazil
- Delhi, India
- Shanghai, China
- Kolkata (Calcutta), India
- Jakarta, Indonesia
- Dhaka, Bangladesh
Notice that three of these are from India. The population in cities is a big worry. The lack of civic amenities is the most prominent problem confronted by populous cities. Unregulated urban migration leads to the problem of slums (unsanitary squatter settlements) where people live in unhygienic conditions. Growing unemployment (due to large scale migration) is the cause of violence and criminal activities. Congested roads and environmental degradation are also rampant in over populated cities.
At the same time few villages are already deserted and few others are almost as the working population and children are moving to cities for better opportunities and education. This causes greater ecological imbalance. The only solution is to depopulate the cities by providing better opportunities in villages and smaller towns. Proper utilization of technology would let us achieve this. I, for one, would love to move to a remote village for a calm and peaceful living which is free of pollution, traffic and stress. But what is stopping me is the lack of infrastructure. This, I'm sure, is the obstacle for many more like me.
The secondary cities, towns, villages and remote places should also have minimum infrastructure like electricity, transportation, schools, and network connectivity etc. so that people could think of moving to those places for a healthy and quality living without losing or sacrificing on opportunities. In these days of 3G and 4G the availability of better and continued connectivity could allow people in at least few business sectors like IT and software to work from remote locations. The improvement in infrastructure and other facilities would encourage people and companies to move out of cities.
The existing technology should be utilized and further investment should be made in research for providing better alternatives in other sectors like agriculture, manufacturing etc. For example, it should be possible to have smaller units of a manufacturing company at different remote locations, which could produce different smaller parts of a bigger product. The amount spent on transporting the different pieces to the assembling unit could be covered in the lower cost of maintenance of the smaller units.
What is the minimum infrastructure required to bring back people to towns and villages? Few minimum requirements, which are basic in nature, are water, power, well maintained roads and better transportation, better schools/colleges, and places for recreation. Governments should take initiative in developing these probably they may also take support from private organizations. If these basic requirements are guaranteed to be met many people would love to move to smaller cities, towns and villages.
By realizing the true global village, cities would become less crowded eventually restoring the ecological balance. This would also help in developing the minimum infrastructure across the nation while maintaining the ecological balance. This should allow people move to any place of their convenience and choice without having to bother about the lack of facilities.
Signing off with the hope that the technology would advance in the direction to solve the century old problem of over populated cities while taking care of the environment friendliness across the globe.
