belongs here: hop to it

Here's the URL (that would help I suppose)
http://www.nwc.navy.mil/press/Review/2003/Autumn/art6-a03.htm

I find two things remarkable about this little blurb (the Web page, can't comment on the book):

1) an official .navy.mil site actually admits the obvious but unflattering statement that laws are not enforced in modern-day ghettoes because state chooses not to enforce the laws there. But why would a state committed to anti-drug policies choose not to stop open-air drug markets in the black ghetto... hmmm... curious...

2) the analysis offers no explanation of how food is to enter the "feral" city. Moghadishu is actually cited as the clearest borderline case - but the U.S. troops got into trouble there trying to hand out food because of people starving! If you have a city divided into too many petty power structures at war with each other, which can't produce its own food locally and which can't effectively get it to the central portions, it won't remain a city for long.

More generally in terms of the philosophy, it's not clear that there's a genuine distinction between a "feral" city and any other. While it looks like a clear distinction on the little chart there, it doesn't seem automatically to follow that just because the city is held by resistance groups or local authorities that it must be worse in all ways than a city linked to an internationally recognized nation! Especially not considering what some of THOSE are like. Nor is there any obvious reason to me why a government should be able to hold authority throughout rural areas but lose its power at the city limits - traditionally, after all, you think of rebels in the hills and jungles and governments ruling from capitals.

Mostly, it seems like such a term is only useful for propaganda value - by staking out the concept and applying it selectively, in certain cases a conflict can be spun in favor of the rural-based power if that is what is desired.

I think it is easier to consider the failure of state rather than focus on cities. According to that chart Baghdad has been a feral city at times last year, while Basra would be wavering between the red and the yellow.

There are already feral cities in Western Africa, as there are feral countries and the cities just mirror the problem.

And Banshee is right that a feral city would quickly become a depopulated one. Brazzaville during the civil war is an example, with millions of displaced refugees. Or Beirut, again a victim of a state level power vacuum.

Which brings to mind where exactly the novelty of those "feral" cities are. Their size?

Only an external factor would keep such a city partially viable, such as being the entry port for international aid.

The bibliography listing is very informative on the depth of research. A 1999 PBS documentary as the main source on Mexico City?

José

They are talking about Beruit in the early 80's.

Several different powerful groups fighting there.

No social services were available.

It was still part of Lebanon although the Lebanese government controlled very little.

It had a large population and was an important seaport.

"Should the feral city be of special importance"”for example, a major seaport or airport"”the state might find it easier to negotiate power and profit-sharing arrangements with city power centers to ensure that facilities important to state survival continue to operate".
Like the NYC Port Authority/Labor unions/Mob
triad that runs Kennedy airport?
Is NYC a "feral city" then?

quote:

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Originally posted by RUR:
Is NYC a "feral city" then?

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No, it specifically mention NYC as a "green" city due to its stable tax base, extensive social services, police, fire and educational systems.

Thie Mexico City image painted there is almost right. Pollution has been controlled to an extent; thermal inversion emergencies during winter months have been quite rare in the last 6 years. Corruption in the judiciary sysem is quite bad, though, and lately, used as another weapon in political factions' public battles. But foreign investment is going strong. Wal-mart is today the largest private employer in Mexico...

quote:

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The anarchic allure of the feral city for criminal and terrorist groups has already been discussed. The combination of large profits from criminal activity and the increasing availability of all families of weapons might make it possible for relatively small groups to acquire weapons of mass destruction. A terrorist group in a feral city with access to world markets, especially if it can directly ship material by air or sea, might launch an all but untraceable attack from its urban haven.

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Maybe that's their biggest concern. So perhaps an anarchic, 'feral' city/country will be elligible for WMD search, next time around? Gulp.

The article sounded to me like the author really didn't have a very good example of what this "feral city" is currently. More that he had a vague notion that an autonomous city could break off from it's state, whatever state that might be while still being tied to the global network in less than legitiamte fashion. Something like a Shanghai between 1946 and 1949 perhaps, but updated for the modern world.

In any case it seemed clear that the authority, such as it was, would be criminal and the structure of rule would largely be improvised and then settle into an accepted regimentation as time went on. Not so different from Gibson's Bridge culture if it was say run by the Red Mafiya or some such.

Yet, with the distributed nature of a wired world, having all your crims and smuggling and such goin on in one place, which was a concern the report raiused, seems to me to be an advantage rather than a a cause for concern. Certainly with some locus of control and or conduction you could more easily track and or intercept information and contraband, no?

Searching for more links to accelerated population decline and the emmergence of feral cities I found this blurb from two years ago on "Amputation of the Soul" in relation to demographics. Thought it was interesting coming from a site called the Center for Defense Information:
Link
Jan. 30, 2003: #7040 #7041 JRL Home
#7 - JRL 7040
pravda.ru
January 29, 2003
Russia Is Given Up for Lost

An All-Russian conference "Demographic crisis as a complex problem" was held in the Russian city of Magnitogorsk on January 16-17; the conference was organized by public association "Center for maternity and childhood protection" and department for psychology of personality development of the Magnitogorsk State University with support of the Russian Health Care Ministry. The demographic catastrophe raging in Russia was considered from different aspects. Participants of the conference delivered reports on the actual state of the national problem, such problem as excess weight of the population was also touched upon there. Doctor of Medical Science Igor Gundarov delivered a report which became a real sensation against the background of other, not less interesting reports delivered at the conference.

In the words of Igor Gundarov, science now officially recognizes what it used to deny categorically some time ago: it is recognized that people own some substance called "soul". What is more, scientists say that when the soul aches, it causes demographic crisis.

Rate of Human Death

Russia's present-day demographic crisis is characterized not only with birth rate reduction, but with an incredible death rate as well. Doctors even mention the words "super death-rate". The population of Russia reduces by 0.7% every year. Scientists even calculated the speed at which Russia's population is dying out -- 16 per mille a year (the showing was 2.5 times lower in the 1960s). If the nation keeps on dying away at this speed, the Russian population will reduce by 15 million people in 13 years.

The problem arose not yesterday and not immediately at all. The negative growth of population (it means that death rate is higher than birth rate) in Russia's Chelyabinsk region outlined for the first time nine years ago, and the situation hasn't improved there since that time. In some regions of the country this situation could be explained with unfavorable ecological conditions. However, the demographic catastrophe is spreading synchronously at an enormous distance. At the time when an outbreak of heart attack deaths is registered in Kaliningrad, the same situation will be registered in Vladivostok as well. The nation is aging speedily. On average, women aged by 3 years in the physiological aspects and men by 7-8 years. It is rather frequent that men die in the heyday.

The problem of sweeping dying out is urgent not only for Russians. The population of former Baltic republics of the Soviet Union is also under the threat of depopulation. Does it mean that it is not a mortality epidemic, but a pandemic which is fatal for the whole of the world community, not one country?

Why Do We Die Out?

Doctors and demographers have compiled already long ago a so-called list of social vices that cause dreadful diseases and entail high death rate; the vices are smoking, alcoholism, stresses. But when scientists studied statistics concerning smoking, they discovered that people smoke as much as they did ten years ago. However, the death rate is increasing. The same situation is with alcoholism. When official world statistics concerning alcohol drinking per capita was studied, it turned out that people in France, Germany and Portugal drink even more alcohol than Russians. However, the life-span in these countries is much longer than in Russia, where deaths of men still capable of working are frequent.

When historic parallels were drawn, it became clear that stresses were no longer relevant as reasons of the demographic catastrophe. For instance, there were too many reasons for stresses in the years of the Great Depression in the USA and Western Europe, however, number of suicides increased there only by 8% at that period. But number of suicides increased by 80% within the period of Russia's transition to market economy. It is quite natural that the above mentioned risk factors cannot be ignored. But all these factors explain the process of rapid dying out of the nation just partially.

Amputation of Soul

When scientists failed to discover reasons of the demographic catastrophe in the reality, they focused attention on the irreality. They studied once again works of religious figures, recollected the divine commandments and analyzed the list of the deadly sins. They discovered actually very interesting facts!

With the help of information provided by the official statistics, it was found out that death rate increases when people break the divine commandments frequently. For instance, when several bloody murders are committed in some part of the country (the commandment not to murder), it means that in half a year the place will be struck with deaths from heart attacks. When number of divorces increased in a city in the Moscow region (the commandment not to commit adultery), it is for sure that hundreds of people will die there from cerebral hemorrhages and hypertension in a year.

The interrelation between spiritual and physical ill health of the nation explains why people die so frequently here. So, a theory of soul rejection arose. As Professor Igor Gundarov says, some time ago souls of Soviet people were oriented at equality and community. But this soul was amputated with a sharp scalpel of political reforms in the 1990s. And philosophy of our life radically changed at the same time: people began treating each others like enemies; some of us traditionally think that cheating is inevitable in everyday life and helps us survive, etc. But this new soul failed to get acclimatized, and human body rejected it, the same way like transplanted organs are sometimes rejected. This is the explanation to the question why the nation is dying away. Professor Gundarov thinks that it's time for Russia to reanimate moral principles and even base the national economy on moral and fair principles. Is it another utopia or a way to salvation?

Dialog Magnitogortsev newspaper

Translated by Maria Gousseva


Norton probably considers Karachi a feral city.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Eric,

A correction in governing body (taxation, law enforcement, etc.) due to a steady decrease in population could lead to a feral city. The lack of tax base leading to the remaining government making monetary negotiations from questionable sources in trade for use of government infrastructure. I don't know what I'm talking about. Really just wanted to post the list of countries and citizenships restricted from opening a
Swiss Bank Account:

Restricted countries
If you live in one of the following countries you cannot open this account: Afghanistan, Albania, Colombia, Cook Islands, Dominica, Egypt, Grenada, Guatemala, Indonesia, Marshall Islands, Myanmar, Nauru, Nigeria, Niue, St. Vincent, The Philippines.


Restricted citizenships
If you are a citizen of one of the following countries you cannot open this account: Afghanistan, Albania, Colombia, Cook Islands, Dominica, Egypt, Grenada, Guatemala, Indonesia, Marshall Islands, Myanmar, Nauru, Nigeria, Niue, St. Vincent, The Philippines.