I remember my parents watching The Bill when it first came out, back when the main inspector was this Ginger-headed bloke. (Cranky character too!) Wow. 26 years and it’s over? I’m getting old.
Of course they have already released the first six series on DVD, if anyone has withdrawal symptoms.
Or the ABC could emulate what Channel 72 has done with “Heartbeat” which showed the very, very final ( FINAL ! ) episode two weeks ago - and run the series from episode 1 ( series 1 ) - which is what 7TWO did last Saturday night - when a fresh eyed Nick Berry and his Doctor wife arrived at Aidensfield Police Station all over again. Talk about “deja view” ;).
So maybe we’ll again be seeing very fresh looking Sun Hill plods waking the beat on our screens - as the archives are gleaned for more re-runs. Those British TV BBC and ITV chappies definitely knew how to make some classic TV shows.
But, but, but, that would be a cop show before the widespread use of mobile phones. Heck, 26 years ago… most people didn’t really know what the internet was. We didn’t even know that we didn’t know what 95% of the universe was made up of!
I think we were talking about cutting down on your coffee intake ;)
Apart from mobile phones, don’t you just love it when today’s TV cops ( and FBI agents ) don’t use mobiles - they just talk into their shirt cuffs. Must get their electronic buttons from Jaycar.
Back now to the AFL Grand Final - go St Kilda ! ( Brendan Goddard is in with a chance to take the Norm Smith Medal for best player in a Grand Final. Go Goddard ! )
AFL UPDATE : It was a draw - and they will have to play again next Saturday !
[ Edited: 25 September 2010 05:49 PM by Kevin Goddard]
Recommend: Kevin McCloud: slumming it (Tuesday 8:30 ABC1)
Saw last night’s episode of this two-parter, and it was fascinating.
Huge slum in Mumbai, but the people in the very centre are industrious, well-fed, healthy-looking, attractively dressed, and happy-looking. In spite of the overcrowding, non-code shacks, the filth and the rats, and the seriously bad working conditions.
Cool, thanks. Are they saying super-slums eventually develop their own ‘civilisation’ and economy / industrial ecosystem that provides certain basic services and goods?
Seems to be something like that.
But I’m not sure to what extent that can be generalised to other slums. The Dharavi slum (made famous by Slumdog Millionaire)started around a group of potters - so it’s always had the potting industry at its centre. Perhaps if a slum doesn’t have that seed of industry it would be inhibited from developing the economy and civilisation.
Dharavi’s manufactures now include things like the trolley handles built into suitcases. These sorts of things are produced on a cottage basis, and sold on. They are branded further down the line, not with ‘Made in Dharavi’, so their origin is concealed to the consumer. So the slum is an exporter as well.
It was interesting to note that the worst parts of the slum are on the edges, and the most liveable and properous (if I can use those kinds of terms!) in the very heart, which is where the potting industry has its base. It also has very low crime rate, apparently, and very strong community. With one million people crammed into one square mile (2.6 square kilometres) I guess you couldn’t do anything without being seen! Also, you can’t just go in there. The doco guy’s entry ticket was a colour TV. The people he stayed with were among the ‘prosperous’ ones, so his view is skewed in that way.
With one million people crammed into one square mile (2.6 square kilometres) I guess you couldn’t do anything without being seen!
Wow! Now that’s density! New Urbanist’s aim for 1 million people to fit into 40 square miles, which is 10 times better than 400 square miles which is the suburban model of land habitation.
New Urbanism it’s not! An ‘extreme’ environment I think he called it. Now I come to do the arithmetic, I think that’s 1 person per 2.4 sq metres. Can that be right? It’s not high-rise.
I was just taking the program info at face value:
With one million people crammed into one square mile (2.6 square kilometres), Dharavi is one of Asia’s biggest slums and one of the most densely populated places on the planet.
Dharavi has been hailed by architects, planners and even Prince Charles, as offering solutions to some of our largest Western cities’ biggest problems, like crime, lack of community and of sustainable living.
Part 2 is on tomorrow night. 8.30 ABC1 Link to Info You might want to at least catch a bit of it.
Kevin McCloud continues his journey into the heart of Mumbai’s Dharavi, India’s largest slum.
Kevin’s passion is sustainable living and in his second week in the slum he goes to work, joining the slum’s biggest workforce of all: recycling the city’s vast quantities of rubbish.
He explores Dharavi’s extraordinary recycling industry and discovers that everything from plastic straws to the coating on electric cables gets sorted, stripped down and cleaned ready to be re-formed into new products.
He works alongside the dustmen of Mumbai and follows the rag pickers who eke out a small living by collecting plastic from the city’s dumps.
He meets people who’ve made it big in the slum, and visits the most expensive real estate Dharavi has to offer.
Kevin also discovers that the city of Mumbai has plans to demolish the slum, and in doing so will destroy the lives of those who live and work there.
I’m still trying to work out why the people he was staying with looked happy. The conditions are horrible. Perhaps it’s because they were the ‘relatively wealthy’ ones, and were better off than others around them. (That’s what recent studies say makes people happy!) They seemed to have control of their lives, coping well with their extreme environment, their kids were getting an education and had ambition for their future, and hope. They were probably the small minority there.
OTOH, I remember one of the women in my Bible Study saying she went on a short term mission giving nursing aid in - I think it may have been the Dharavi slum, because she mentioned the movie - and describing an atmosphere of oppressive evil that was nearly unbearable.
OTOH, I remember one of the women in my Bible Study saying she went on a short term mission giving nursing aid in - I think it may have been the Dharavi slum, because she mentioned the movie - and describing an atmosphere of oppressive evil that was nearly unbearable.
I don’t know the person you’re relating this from, but I’m a bit sceptical about ‘atmosphere’s’. It’s highly subjective. One person’s ‘atmosphere of evil’ is another person’s party or fun. EG: Yesterday our family had some fun with Halloween. Our minister even made a few oldies gasp in horror when he said “Happy Halloween!” He then went on to explain that it was all Hallow’s day, after all. All the ‘hallowed’, or all the saints! Our church is called ‘All Saints’. It’s OUR day!
At least, that’s the ‘Christianised’ version, and I don’t mind my kids dressing up and getting some lollies. It was supervised by adults. It’s no worse than celebrating Christmas, and we all know what the original foundations of Christmas was! So some on the more Charismatic, fearful side of Christianity might ‘sense evil’ as kids are walking around in dress ups, but I’m just looking at a party.
So some westerners living in or visiting Dharavi slum might be a bit freaked out by cross cultural stuff. They might have seen placed in front of idols. I see that and I’m just sad, not freaked out. I’m sad for their lack of understanding and lack of relationship with their Father. Add some of that, and squalid conditions, and you have a ‘sense of evil’ to some kid raised in an overly clean, rather spoilt, Australian suburb.
But to the people living there, it’s home, it’s family, it’s work, and it’s even fun. They probably have 100 times the friends and sense of community than we do. Happy? I think we need to go camping with thousands of church mates for a year or so in cramped conditions to even guess at what we might be missing out on. It might be materially poor but relationally rich. Us westerners are so, so superficial.
Hey Dave, just to clarify, I wasn’t endorsing her viewpoint, just noting another perspective. And it would have been from the poorer fringe of the slum, not the richer centre. Perhaps there is hopelessness and despair there. That would fit in with the thesis that the mega-slum develops it’s own ‘civilisation’.
I’m not dissing their community, it is genuinely admirable!
But the conditions are seriously horrible in many respects. Things like a water pipe that travels through a sewer.
Mumbai’s Dharavi, made famous by the film Slumdog Millionaire, where disease is rife, water is contaminated and sanitation is basic.
....
As Kevin enters Dharavi he finds open sewers, rats and hazardous chemicals everywhere.
Noting your general objection to ‘atmospheres’, I wonder if you are discounting the existence of evil spirits, or just the possibility that Christians might be sensitive to them?
[ Edited: 01 November 2010 08:40 AM by Ros Burgess]
Re: Evil spirits, I’m not theologically ruling out Christians being sensitive to evil spirits… but I am fairly sceptical of such matters, especially where cross-cultural subjectivities might be involved. There are quite a few Charismatic people in my life, so I see the negative consequences of fearing ‘Satan behind every bush’ so to speak. Certain Charismatic people seem to be a very fearful and superstitious bunch. I thought the gospel had freed us from all that.
I watched Part 1 of “Slumming it”. Amazing. As a fan of New Urbanism, everything he said about Dharavi community rang true. New Urbanist’s would not pack them in so close, and would of course focus on comfortable, clean, sanitary modern conveniences. But they would also create town squares and parks and places where you naturally bump into people and want to sit and have a coffee, places of vitality and community, places with soul. It struck me more than ever. In suburbia, there’s no ‘there’ there.
Just finished Part 2 of “Slumming it”. I can hardly think for the sheer visual pollution and imagined smells wafting around my head… images that just don’t want to go away.
They’re going to develop it.
This is what the ‘development’ ends up looking like.
That manky looking set of apartments might only be 6 years old, according to the show. The slum dwellers don’t want to be isolated and alienated by living in tiny little high-rise apartments that lock them away from everyone. They want to have sanitation and fresh water and then be left alone. They’ll look after themselves.
But here’s the thing: that would basically be the government accepting the illegal, tax-free nature of the industry in Dharavi… where millionaire’s live off child labour and shocking working conditions.
I’m really confused and torn by the plight of these people. If the government could help them gain access to good New urbanism with town squares and local employment with safe working conditions, I’d support that. But it would probably cost the government more, and take up more of the precious real estate than those ugly apartments. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharavi
I agree, it was gut-wrenching, and confusing.
The developers just see this prize real estate.
So they’d just sweep these people’s lives out of the way. Monumentally unjust.
The rubbish-sorting (vile though it is) and recycling do an invaluable service, and I wonder if the rest of the city will really lose as well by demolishing it all. (I think that’s what they said was the plan for the industry too?) There must be a better way of doing it, but will they? It also got me wondering what part the caste system had to play in all this.
I’m still pondering the question of what makes a good liveable community? I don’t think density in itself does or doesn’t do this. (Although I agree our suburbia is a problem.)
The ideas I’m tossing around include valuable employment, a sense of ownership of and responsibility for one’s little bit, as well as in relation to the communal space (the color and variety and individuation in Dharavi are a stand-out - compare this to the drabness of uniform boxes in a high-rise, leading to isolation and alienation). Local employment is also good. (I find our acceptance of hours of commuting bizarre.) There is a tension between the benefits of natural free growth and enterprise, which adopts and adapts, and the need for public amenity. None of this is original or profound.
I would also like to learn more about the history and development of Dharavi. What values and belief systems did its founders have? How did they maintain social cohesion, why did crime not develop? This seems to me more important than merely the material aspects.
Agreed on the community questions, but I was annoyed at the focus on recycling in those rubbish tips! What an inhumane way to live… when there are better ways to recycle our garbage… at an atomic level!
I’m a bit annoyed by the primitive state of plastic recycling. New technology means we just don’t have to do that. If I ran the world, we’d put all glass and paper in the Yellow Bin for recycling to take pressure off the sand mines and trees, all green waste in the Green bin for recycling through a biochar cooker to create biochar fertiliser for local farms, and all plastics, nappies, food waste, even asbestos into a large Red bin and run it through the plasma burner.
Then there’s absolutely no need to sort plastics into their various categories! If we used these plasma burners, or ‘lightning on a stick’, it all gets ripped back to its atomic level: food, nappies, toothbrushes, shoes, asbestos, wood, lawn clippings (if someone dumped it in the wrong bin), and EVERYTHING apart from radioactive waste can be recycled at the atomic level through this burner.
Gases shoot out the top as gases that go back into the petrochemical industry to make everything from kerosene for planes, motor lubricants, paints, and yes, all the plastics we could need. Slag comes out the bottom as various building materials.
Thanks for the links, that’s really interesting.
The plasma burners look good, but (from the wiki) still in the development stages as far as building a big facility for a mega-city like Mumbai just yet. Maybe the construction of a couple of these should be an integral part of any ‘redevelopment’ plan.
On a side note, I thought this bit from eclipsenow kind of amusing, for its portrayal of modern guilt, in our supposedly post-Christian world.
■a tiny RED bin for everything else that is not easily recyclable, such as dirty diapers (nappies), pizza boxes, old rags, food wrappers, plastic bags, and spoiled food. The RED bin is usually the ‘guilty bin because it is not recycled. Stuff thrown into the RED bin is going to landfill. It is the smaller bin with the RED lid for a reason! It is the ‘bad’ bin. You are meant to feel guilt, guilt, guilt! (We will solve this below!)
Actually, Jesus solves our guilt problem.
Although it would be good to have a more effective disposal of our household waste.
Hi Ros,
(edit to add: of course only Jesus deals with our real guilt).
I was just portraying our ‘enviro-guilt’ that the greenies always try to use against us.
I’m Eclipse. I wrote that as a bit of a parody of the ‘greenie nag factor’ which is also on that page. So much environmentalism is about sacrifice and pain and guilt, as if we can just atone for our past environmental ‘sins’ by suffering some more.
Where technology can easily solve the issues, I’m totally against that vibe. I saw a few articles on how the Japanese recycle their stuff and it takes HOURS each week of sorting stuff into different plastic bags! They have a whole plastic bag industry just to supply the various labelled bags for various kinds of recyclables. It’s ridiculous!
So, as I said…
As long as the costs come down as advertised, I can see Plasma burners becoming a reality. Indeed, a local friend tells me Randwick council in Sydney are already considering it! I can see this happening. It saves the effort of sorting too many kinds of rubbish during our busy weeks. That excites me! It is so convenient it actually reduces the ‘greenie nag factor‘. It does not require massive changes in our behaviour. We don’t have to end up like Japan where some cities require you to put out 4 different categories of recycling and waste on 4 different days of the week, each week! Not only this, but they must sort waste into specially labelled plastic bags. Neighbours have even been known to return your incorrectly sorted plastic bag to your house. All of this fuss and bother is just not needed!
I was just portraying our ‘enviro-guilt’ that the greenies always try to use against us.
“against us” ? Dave, are you intimating that greenies are anti-Christian - or just against everyone who doesn’t meet their criteria ? To quote someone else, “please explain”.
Hi Dave,
I like your site, but find it a bit exhausting to read. I could tell that red-bin-guilt thing was a bit of a parody.
So much environmentalism is about sacrifice and pain and guilt, as if we can just atone for our past environmental ‘sins’ by suffering some more.
Wow, that is serious, and sad that people are trapped in that.
I see ‘Greenie-guilt’ as a manifestation of contemporary denial of real guilt (the sort Jesus has solved). Unbelievers (and believers too, unnecessarily) try to push down real guilt, and it pops up somewhere else, in distorted form. Greenie-guilt is the major current manifestation. There is also food-guilt, etc.. But greenie-guilt has a more credible foundation, in that our environmental stewardship issues are genuinely serious.
One problem of all this is how all this is linked to the contemporary idea that the green movement has some ‘moral high ground’ which can be quite spiritualised in people’s minds.
Back to the plasma-burners.
I must have missed the place that discussed the costs, and how they might come down.
Being able to put asbestos in surprised me. I had some mistaken idea it was actually an element, but it’s not, it’s various silicon metal oxygen hydrogen combos.
Did I get this right about how they operate:
3 major outputs: syngas, slag (3 useful varieties, but only one at a time, depending on setting), and steam.
Organic garbage and plastics would mostly come out in the syngas.
Metals, glass and other junk come out mostly in the slag, but metal and glass are only recoverable if the operational run is set to metal and sand recovery.
Keeping metal Paper and glass recycling separate are therefore a good idea for effective materials recovery.
Plastics - can be manufactured from the syngas, so this is a better solution, not requiring labor-intensive sorting.
They’re a net energy producer, from the syngas and steam output.
I would think before this should be implemented on a major scale, we ought to know quantities of outputs expected, and any challenges that might pose, say, a big surplus of rock wool.
And if syngas helps peak oil problems, won’t it contribute to global warming? You may have already addressed these somewhere and I missed it.
I have no idea where there are any e-waste depots.
@ Kevin,
The ‘Greenie guilt’ is directed at us Aussie citizen consumers for… consuming.
If I’m right, it doesn’t have to be so. It seems to me that we have the technology to radically reduce our impact on the environment and live comfortable, dignified, modern lives. (Possibly in eco-cities that will look ‘more European than Europe’, but still modern with iPads and coffee and modern medicine). If I’m wrong, then the natural systems we depend on will collapse because from observation, no amount of ‘Greenie guilt’ will change our behaviour radically enough. Stay tuned for the movie “Dirt” coming soon.
@ Ros, whatever one’s worldview Greenie guilt can still be a real phenomenon. I’m glad you can see that the environmental stewardship issues are truly serious. Ultimately for me it’s not about the environment, but my Christian obligation to love my neighbour, because environmental questions are now so serious on so many fronts that the way we live really is impacting on whether or not Africans can even eat!
You’ve picked up the Plasma burner very quickly. Yes, metals should probably be pre-sorted into our Yellow bins and not run through the Plasma burner in the first place. I’ve learned from a local friend who works over in Randwick council that costs have come down to the point that they’re currently considering one!
Tips have always been a source of methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more powerful than Co2. Tom Blee’s book said that each plasma burner produces about 5 or 6 times the energy it needs to run itself. If they burned all the syngas to produce electricity, America’s landfill would produce about as much electricity as 25 nukes!
Surpluses of rock wool might not be that big a deal, as we can make so many things from it… but if it DID ever become an issue? One idea was to shape it as a reef and dump it in the ocean! That’s an instant increase in marine life and biodiversity.
However, this is where we need to consider our ‘industrial ecosystem’ with peak oil in mind as well as global warming. Syngas should be prioritised to making plastics and fuel for larger vehicles and even aircraft. There’s no one-stop shop that can produce enough liquid fuels to replace oil. I had a few beers with Andrew McNamara, Queensland Labor’s environment minister for a while. He got it right on Four Corners when he said “The only way to solve peak oil is to use less oil”.
If we increase public transport, introduce bike-sharing clubs around town, gradually reverse suburban sprawl and collapse it back into ecocity town centres, and then maybe have some electric cars, we can get through this.
This is Denver imagined as ecocity.
Good point about environmental concern being about loving your neighbour. BTW I don’t consider environmental stewardship in itself to be some kind of lower order obligation; God gave us humans this world he carefully created to look after, and surely it’s a grave offence against him to negligently ruin it.
no amount of ‘Greenie guilt’ will change our behaviour radically enough
Andrew McNamara, Queensland Labor’s environment minister .... got it right on Four Corners when he said “The only way to solve peak oil is to use less oil”.
If we increase public transport, introduce bike-sharing clubs around town, gradually reverse suburban sprawl and collapse it back into ecocity town centres, and then maybe have some electric cars, we can get through this.
Where I live, (just south of Baulkham Hills) the culture seems so against this. Particularly the car culture.
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