From the coronavirus’s initial outbreak in the sprawling city of Wuhan in central China, urban areas from New York and Sao Paulo to London, Moscow and Johannesburg have been the primary epicenters of the COVID-19 pandemic. On the Trend Lines podcast this week, WPR’s Elliot Waldman spoke to Ronak B. Patel, the founder and director of the Urbanization and Resilience Program at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, about the historical trends that have made large cities more susceptible to outbreaks of disease, and how municipalities can protect their residents from future pandemics. Listen to the full conversation here: And if you [...]
In 1950, less than one-third of the world’s population lived in cities. Today, that share has leaped to 55 percent, according to the United Nations, and is projected to grow further to 68 percent by 2050. Cities have also become much more globally interconnected and much more diverse, as improvements in transportation infrastructure and the ease of commercial air travel led millions of people to migrate to urban areas. In many countries, these trends have produced impressive economic gains, but have also come with significant damage to the environment, as well as risks to health, as we’re seeing now with [...]
Amid its struggles with the public health and economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, the United Arab Emirates announced a wide-ranging restructuring of federal government agencies and senior personnel last month. The UAE’s prime minister and vice president, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who rules the emirate of Dubai, detailed the shake-up in a series of tweets, saying it was intended to craft an “agile government quick in solidifying the achievement of our nation.” Previous government reshuffles in the small but wealthy Gulf nation were notable for their public relations aspects, such as the creation in 2016 of two [...]
