ANARCHI-TECTURE

Festival of Lights

2009-10-17T23:07:00.005+01:00

For over one billion people around the world, most of who are in India, today will mark a new beginning. A celebratory beginning symbolized by among other things – a festival of lights. This celebration known to many Hindus and even some Buddhists as Diwali involves lights, fireworks and sweets and is the most popular South Asian festival. The Times of India has called it the ‘reaffirmation of hope’.

In India, all across the country, houses and shops have already been decorated with oil lamps called diyas. In the developed world as is in many parts of India, electric lights are an attractive alternative for decoration during the festival. Sadly, electricity and access to it, remain a luxury for millions of the country’s poor. Despite improvements to the infrastructure, over 400 million people in India still lack access to electricity – namely rural households but most often, the urban poor living in India’s slums.

Electrification can hardly be seen as a mere ingredient of infrastructural development among the poor. In fact, it should be viewed as integral part of systemic strategy for improving health systems. For India’s rural poor, electrification means providing pumps to supply the villages with clean water – a necessary risk-aversion from numerous communicable disease challenges. For the country’s urban slum dwellers, it means the provision of refrigeration for vaccines at clinics. Studies have evidenced the direct correlation between electrification and health among the poor households. In Gambia and Nepal, improved access to electricity was shown to have a direct correlation with substantially reducing Acute Respiratory Illnesses (ARI) in children. In Guatemala, electrification among poor communities resulted in higher birth weights, and in South Africa, a substantial reduction in burns from paraffin poisoning was recorded.

For India’s poor, which (depending on who supplies the data) is stated to be 25, 50 or 75 percent of the population, tomorrow may not be an entirely new beginning. Electrification, if and when it does arrive will not only represent vital improvements to the country’s standard of living. For millions it will most certainly be a reaffirmation of hope that the despite their living and housing conditions, they can begin to close the gap on widening health disparities across the sub-continent.

Building Green must first mean: Building Health

2009-04-05T22:37:00.007+01:00

As I alluded to in my last entry, we are in the midst of a global momentum of humanitarianism – not focusing on an epidemic or a post-disaster reconstruction effort but what Sachs has described as The Climate Change Revolution. There is, without a shadow of doubt, the need and urgency to build green. Yet beyond the tax reliefs and altruistic motives, how do we incentivize ordinary homeowners, renters and household occupants - particularly the poor, to build, rent and live green? We must first necessarily build health.

The USGBC and EPA ask rhetorically, why build green? Among the responses, we are told that it ‘improves air, thermal and acoustic environments, enhances occupant comfort and health and contributes to overall quality of life.’ Meanwhile, the Healthy House Institute defines a green home as, among other things, ‘one which is healthier for the people living inside.’ In both cases, it would seem that at first glance, health is considered a by-product of building green rather than an incentive for taking such action.

However, what incentivizes the poor to conserve water or consume less energy in an attempt to save the planet, when it already requires every ounce of their energy to strategize how to save themselves and their families from overt risks to health? These are some of the irreconcilable issues that the poor must face every day.

Those who earn less than $10 a day represent 80 % of all our entire world population. For those living in poor housing conditions - informal settlements or otherwise, housing represents safety, a living place for the family and protection from adverse weather. Rarely is housing used as an operational term to suggest a way of improving health. If we can first change the paradigm in which we define and understand the concept of housing, we may be able to fully embrace the potential for housing to be considered a tool/process rather than a fixed entity.

Where the poor can be encouraged to build and improve housing as a means to improving their health, re-defining our concept of housing may be a key strategy in encouraging them to do the above in an environmentally sound way. But let’s not kid ourselves by thinking that this would be a new strategy for the poor. The world’s poor have been building green long before the developed world made it trendy. They have been recycling old car tires for use as furniture, using paint cans as flowerpots and utility cables as clothes lines.

Therefore, what is now needed is not a new solution but rather the deployment of a strategic focus to empower the poor to rent housing with features like adequate ventilation, which reduces humidity and potentially TB. Whether the target groups are those that earn less than $1 per day or $10 per day, incentivizing them to build, rent and live green must first mean: building health.

How to start building health globally

2009-03-06T00:25:00.012Z

In Building Health Globally (BHG), we must begin by prioritising the interconnections between housing and health. Within international development, a great many issue come and go – holding headlines, stirring sensations and driving donor-dollars. The past twenty years hasve seen an emphasis placed on post-disaster reconstruction, famines, conflict, epidemics and recently climate change. The challenges to development are not confined to improved roads, education, health or carbon emissions alone. They are widespread, much more than mentioned and so too are the strategies for success – these are in fact multi-sectoral. My advocacy for pairing human settlements and health stands on my firm belief and observation that the two are mutually informing agents of development.

From Maslow to MDGs, adequate housing and health are necessities for reversing cycles of poverty and installing the seeds of improved livelihoods for persons in many countries. When AIDS has run its course, ie. A vaccine has been developed and new infections, are minimal , we will still be under threat much as we have always been, from new and emerging diseases that threaten to be even more devastating than those of the 20^th century. BHG for the 21^st century is designing and building effective and sustainable quarantine strategies in response to an influenza pandemic, building well–ventilated homes to limit TB risks, covering interior dirt floors to prevent diarrhoea, and making home repairs to prevent Chagas. Increasingly, BHG will also require building for the millions affected by Neglected Tropical Diseases such as Bilharzias, even though it is not yet our problem. The increased threat from poor health is among the greatest threat to our urbanized world.

As the urban population sets to double over the next 20 years, one can only imagine the outcome. Building Green, must necessarily first mean building health. We cannot think of sustainable and integrated approaches to our brave new urban world without a focused strategy of how to simultaneously improve urban living conditions and health.

By the Rivers of Kingston

2008-12-22T03:53:00.006Z

This entry was written over a year ago but it is just as relevant today as it was when first drafted.

It shouldn’t be difficult to accept that the more we build, the less our environment will be able to tolerate us. I was in Jamaica back in March 2007 and experienced what easily would be described as a typical rain day in the life of most Jamaicans. It was my drive through Kingston one afternoon that alerted me up to what little has been done in my hometown regarding the city’s ever expanding building-boom. The rain hadn’t seemed to be falling for 15 minutes when I turned unto Trafalgar Road opposite the pulse fashion house. Trafalgar Road can only be described as the Orchard Road of Singapore, the Madison have of New York or the Kensington High Street of London. You get the drift. Yet driving through what must have been about 10 inches of water seemed a bit surreal. We were bumper to bumper what few cars had been able to creep slowly along and by the time I turned off a minor road and unto oxford road. (50 meters from the magnificent Jamaica Pegasus hotel) my engine seemed to be on its last leg as it tried with all its might to overcome the 13 inches of water which turned the boulevard into a raging river. This was not to be…rather this needed not be the case. What Kingston was suffering was not only the effects of blocked drains through poor maintenance but in adequate foresight on the part of planners to specify adequate drainage for storm water that has resulted from the city’s building growth.

Concisely, the more we build the more we need to drain. Surface runoff is caused by the creation of pavement, driveways, tiled floors, sidewalks, etc. all of which act as substitutes for the previous lawns, soil, earth, ground which absorbed much of the water that would accompany a rainfall of this type. Where lack of sufficient drainage exists, water simply flows in the direction of its lowest point, which can then take hours to find a means of escape. With building over the past ten years taking on the scale which it has in Kingston, the city ought to have simultaneously invested in expansion and clearing of drains to accommodate increased runoffs. While the problem as I described affected only my ability to drive around comfortably, many imagine while others more personally recall the damage caused by a neglect of this problem: for homes as well as possible loss of life. Runoff from highways and major roads enter into low-lying housing areas; usually the only option afforded to those who lack the means to afford suitable locations. Many homes have been damaged through floods and residents have drowned by being washed away by the currents of these waters. Kingston needs less rivers and better solutions to protect those most vulnerable.

XDR-TB @ home

2008-11-25T00:25:00.008Z

The term XDR-TB is unfamiliar to most outside the field of public health and to those unable to have closely followed the events in South Africa over recent years. Extensively Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (XDR-TB), in addition to the less viral but just as deadly, Multi-Drug Resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), is, as the name suggests, a mutation of the respiratory virus deemed unresponsive to usual medication and treatment.

Though in existence for years, XDR-TB was brought to the mainstream media when a story published in the New York Times (March 25, 2008) disclosed the quarantine and isolation practices taking place within hospitals. Former patients revealed that the “inhumane quarantines” whereby they were restricted to live with other severely ill patients, amounted to psychological torment.

In South Africa today, XDR-TB has found a different mode of treatment: home-based care (HBC). Despite being long in place as a viable choice of treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS, hospital beds are now simply unavailable due to increased demand resulting from the countywide impact of both AIDS and TB. The topic of HBCs will be discussed in a later entry, but what is particularly useful to mention here is that in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, one community has successfully managed to reduce the number of MDR and XDR-TB cases to a much lower percentage than the national average. What is also worthy of note is that home based care forms part of a strategy which places housing squarely at the center of treatment. Whereas informal settlements are often bear a high prevalence of overcrowding and closely-sited dwellings, people in the aforementioned community reside in small family groups and their custom-designed houses are set at great distances from each other. In this community, a combination of HBCs and the proper site planning of housing appears to be more effective than the alternative quarantine facilities.

And yet, ‘the Eastern Cape province of South Africa seems to have placed public health ahead of individual freedom', concluded one BBC reporter covering this story. Patients are required to remain in facilities which restrict their movement and interaction with the outside world is beyond the boundary of the facility.

Therein lies one of the major paradoxes of the present quarantine strategy: patients tested positive for XDR and MDR-TB are forced to remain in close and confined facilities in forced coexistence with several other patients, bearing witness to a slow but nonetheless extremely high mortality rate in these compounds.

As architects, designers and planners, we are challenged to prioritize the development and design of alternative spaces, facilities and strategies to confront the expected global increase in XDR and MDR-TB. Whilst it remains clear that governments, multi-laterals and civil society must deliver a partnered action in their care of this increasing constituency, the argument made here is that Design and Planning professionals can be central actors in the process, participating in forging solutions by intelligently using the role that housing can play in dealing with global dilemmas. An increase in the number of health facilities, clinics, and hospitals cannot alone provide a sustainable solution to the problem. As the number of infected persons increases globally, HBCs, especially in developing countries and the informal settlements where in many instances the epidemic has become rife, may become the most sustainable approach to delivering care to those most in need.

Until new drugs are developed, XDR and MDR-TB will continue to kill thousands upon thousands of victims. If drugs to combat XDR are not found and developed, then the implications may be even direr in light of the present statistics that over 100,000 children around the world die each year from the epidemic, even though treatment does exist.

WA_Day2008

2008-12-02T05:09:00.002Z

It’s the time of year again when we witness much of the world’s attention (or so I hope) turned towards HIV/AIDS and the many challenges it has brought to millions around the world. Though ARCHIVE is often mistakenly described as an AIDS organization, the members have agreed to place the pandemic at the forefront of our work. As organizations and governments continue to meet the challenges brought on by the disease, my hope for the year ahead is that we increasingly include if not prioritize attention to the root causes of the pandemic: poverty.

We have known for sometime that HIV/AIDS is much more than a public health issue. Therefore we run the risk, even over dinner conversations, of negating discussions about poverty which is exponentially more endemic than HIV/AIDS.

World AIDS Day 2008 is marked by steady and encouraging reports over the past year that many countries have finally began to experience a tapering and in many cases, a slowing of prevalence rates. Other cases highlight recent admissions that previous estimates for HIV cases in India had been exaggerated and actual figures suggest a prevalence rate in the country of 2.7 million. While these declines point to a host of reasons, it is certainly not time to be complacent. What remains true: i) one in every three persons globally is exposed to TB resulting 2 million deaths each year and; ii) 8 out of every 10 persons exist on less than US10 a day: both attendants of HIV/AIDS.

Two Years Too Long

2008-09-25T07:28:00.002+01:00

It’s approaching two years now since my last entry here on the blog. There’s no reasonable excuse for this other than my being consumed with academic work as well as ARCHIVE’s global initiative which ended in 2007. Over the coming months I’ll make every effort to improve the frequency of my entries while at the same time aim to deliver writings on an even more diverse set of topics relating to the stated definition of “anarchi-tecture”.

What to expect:
1) Entries which deliver more periodic accounts of my experiences whether working for ARCHIVE, the World Bank or travelling. Some will undoubtedly take on an academic tone while others will deliver a heartfelt, subjective, and at times emotional, account.
2) Hopefully more interactive discussions between readers and myself
3) Introduction of topics without extensive elaboration. This, it is hoped, may allow sub-forums to emerge among readers: Independently developed and sustained by them.
4) As mentioned a more diverse set of topics resulting in more frequent entries.

Quick updates:
- I’m in Pretoria, South Africa these days and expect to be here till mid-November.
- The work of the ARCHIVE Institute continues along with pre-planning discussions about our next ‘glocal’ initiative.
- I expect to be writing from Zimbabwe & Botswana in the coming weeks.

The Day After: Worlds AIDS Day

2006-12-17T15:43:00.000Z

“Has Singapore done enough in the fight against AIDS?” asked the 5-foot tall reporter from **** sent to conduct an interview with me on World AIDS Day. The answer was clearly, NO. “But are they?” I asked myself. After all if she were to also ask the question of whether Singapore feels itself threatened by the seen ravages of HIV/AIDS, the answer would also be no. Is the country really to be at fault for its seemingly lackluster approach to stigmatization and the other AIDS related issues that has plagued the nearly 1,000 000 new cases of infection in Asia alone this year?

Residents; Health Sector; Government; whose responsibility is it anyway?

In Singapore as across the world, December 1, 2006 saw much media activity about HIV/AIDS perhaps more than had been the case in previous years. I have gotten used to the ill-sustained hype that surrounds December 1st each year. There are often fresh reports on statistics, new findings, plans, efforts…all the usual suspects…then December 2 arrives and sadly too are the return of news items about the newest mall openings or the boom in real estate. I spoke with a few media personnel about the work that ARCHIVE was doing in the region. Not surprisingly, they each appeared less interested in the efforts being underway across the region and wanted to focus more on what was being done here in Singapore. The truth is: Singapore does not yet have the alarming stats of HIV/AIDS cases which Asian giants such as India and China sadly boasts. I have therefore always thought it important that the country can be a great model to the region by adopting more aggressive campaigns both at educational institutions as well as at the workplace. To reiterate one article published by the TODAY newspaper, the country desperately needs a new face to the disease; referring to the last HIV+ advocate, Paddy Chew.

But Singapore had best not rest comfortably on its laurels. A lot can and should be taken from cases such as Russia who saw the number of HIV infections caused by sexual contact dramatically increase from 4% in 2001 to 20% in 2004. This was due largely to insufficient public education about the disease, compounded by allegations of denial by the health ministry.

Singapore does indeed have an important role for health policy in the region. As it pushes forward to position itself as a top tourist destination in South East Asia, the country continues to attract top multinationals and business to site their offices here. The resulting increased number of visitor arrivals and migrant workers (more aptly called expats) will quite obviously be cause for concern. Consequently the public health impact of its’ expat and tourist arrivals will need to be better studied in order to assess just how much is at risk to its citizens as well as the country’s health sector.

HIV Comes Calling...

2006-10-30T10:54:00.000Z

Call centers in India have for some time been attracting more than just consumers in need of customer support. Increasingly, these hubs which operate all across the sub-continent have become the potential threshold across which the HIV pandemic will move from the largely impoverished groups in India and into the middle class.

Call centers in India emerged during the late 80s and expanded their popularity throughout the 90s. As jobs migrated from the US and other countries into India, so too followed the vast migration of young Indian graduates into cities like Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai. Social critics have long argued that the rapid cultural shift among young Indians in these cities have been directly and negatively related to the increase in the number of call centers. But such a shift should hardly be alarming. As India continues to output more than one million graduates each year, many will seek entry to the call center workplace or other IT related firms. In a country where the per capita income is less than $500/yr, call center operators can expect to earn between $3000 and $5000 annually. The cities are tasked with providing entertainment and leisure for the large employment sector, the result now being that they the largest number of pubs in all of Asia. Increasingly more businesses are seeing and seizing the opportunity of grabbing a portion of this emerging and exploding market.

For many poor families the decision to send their sons and daughters off to these cities represents an opportunity for betterment and upward social mobility. For many young girls in particular, the move to the city represents the first time living away from home on the own.

The call centers themselves are a 24-hour machine. The operators perform long shifts which require them to work through the night as cities such as Bangalore are almost 12 hours ahead of New York. With a high concentration of young people with their new found freedom and lots of cash with which to enjoy that freedom, sexual activity has also risen dramatically. This also represents a dramatic cultural shift. Whereas two decades ago open discussions about premarital sex was somewhat of a taboo subject, many of these “round the clock” operators now openly admit to having such encounters. At the same time several others admit to having multiple partners since moving to the cities.

These admissions are an obvious cause for concern. Over 80% of HIV cases in India are transmitted sexually while the country now has the highest HIV positive population in the world with over 5.7 million. Largely considered to be an epidemic striking much of India’s poor (see Nuke’s aren’t India’s greatest threat to the world), HIV/AIDS is now aggressively knocking on the door of India’s rising middle class.

Pandemic Architecture pt 3

2006-10-11T09:41:00.000+01:00

This is the third and last excerpt of this discussion to be posted here. Please continue to field your questions although I'd encourage everyone to present their topics here on the blog.

On Fri, 12 May 2006 18:55:30 –0700, Lionel Han <*****@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Peter,

Thanks for your response.

That's right, I agree with your point on the relation between pandemics and modern living and its analogous nature to economies, ideologies, etc, which had not occurred to me before. However, I must add that pandemics are far more pervasive in nature as its spread depends on the availability of hosts. Unlike cultures and economies that are in fact human constructs, pandemics have a biological edge that enables its rapid surge through communities 'regardless of race, language or religion' (aptly taken from our National Pledge), without having to persuade or bribe its way through societal structures and mindsets.

Then again, there are lifelines yet that lie in antidotes, hygiene measures/policies and, yes, architecture and planning. What caught my attention most was your point on the emergent theory and 'isolation' as identification of principles by which the community operates. But before our intentions become too megalomaniacal, would studying responses at local scales provide a suitable response on global scale? True that vaccines and medicines can be prescribed across the board, but even then allergies exist; What more architecture that is a physical prescription of a style/typology across countries, climates and communities? Maybe it will be wiser to be more focused in the target users and even working on a smaller scale, you think?

Gotta bear in mind that the virus of concern is SARS and bird flu, the former contagion being infamous for its efficient spread and almost immediate fatal consequence of infection. Both are new phenomenons, and I guess we'd have to be equally daring in our architectural response if traditional methods are evidently inadequate.

We are Singaporeans and have just completed our 3rd year at the National Uni S'pore. We're doing a vacation project now on reassessing 'architecture', 'environment', 'ecology' and 'sustainability' and felt that architecture based on the current virological situation is a rather pertinent and relevant global topic. We only have about 3 months to complete it, so research and design has to be highly rigorous to meet the production deadline in August.
Thanks again for your responses, which have been most helpful.

Lionel

Pandemic Architecture pt 2

2006-10-06T03:13:00.000+01:00

On Sun, 7 May 2006 18:37:56 -0700 , peter williams <*******@yahoo.com> wrote:

Hi Lionel:

Sorry for the delay in responding to your mail. I am delighted that you are taking interest in such a serious and rather relevant study. Are you based here in Singapore? It wasn't clear from your mail. You raised a number of points, many I wished that was shared on the blog. With that said, I will do my best to address some of the issues that you have raised.

First: regarding your comments on "isolation." It is important to first reconstruct our understanding of pandemics as a logical off shoot to globalization. Pandemics are therefore interwoven into the complexities of modern living in much the same way that economies, languages, political ideologies and pop culture do.

The concept of isolation as we know it is very useful in this case. Rather than separation and exclusion...perhaps what is preferred is a "glocalized" approach...One which understands the instruments necessary to participate at the local level while fully understand its ability in having a global outcome. Isolation therefore suggests for us an opportunity to distinguish and identify categories/behaviors in order to engender a holistic outcome. (emergence theory)

Also..be careful not to get trapped in a mechanistic reading of "terms" and their definition. "Community" for example has certain principles/bylaws which operate overtly but more often covertly in order to clearly define it as such. Within communities therefore it is quite easy to isolate the strands by which such a collective exists...the successful application of this will allow architects and planners to make preventive strategies rather than reactive ones as you suggested. If you are successful at uncovering the internal logic of any system you can target and better predict ways in which the system will behave. (pandemic-ready). Also...it needs to be restated that pandemics themselves exist as an institution...and therefore I would argue as a community also..in and of itself. Architecture and planning also are important communities. Seeing how these communities participate with and within each other is helpful in your undertaking

Keep this in mind as you proceed.

I hope my thoughts could help. Please keep me posted. Is this a year/semester long undertaking?

Let me know.

Peter

Pandemic Architecture pt 1

2006-09-30T11:55:00.000+01:00

Many readers have sent emails with comments on the many topics posted over the last 18 months. Though I find time to respond to these questions and comments by email, my preference remains that such discussions occur in the public realm....ie on the blog. With permission I have decided to post one such discussion that occured between myself and a reader here in Asia.

On Sat, 29 Apr 2006 02:49:04 +0800, Lionel Han <*****@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Peter:

I read with great interest your entries on HIV and architecture. We are a couple of architectural undergrads in our 3rd year at the local university and are currently doing a research on pandemic+architecture as a reassessment of the environment in which we are designing today. Your entries have been insightful and enjoyable and I have some questions pertaining to the topic that I hope you can share your opinions.

Our focus tends towards the more acute consequences of SARS and avianflu and its seemingly uncontrollable spread due to the migratory birds. It was mentioned in the blog, and generally understood, that isolation is the best, if not the only, method of containment. However, it is surely a crime for us architects to design for anti-social spaces. What strategies/approaches are there in designing for 'isolated communities', an oxymoron in itself?

And the answer to the above is likely a defensive and possibly curative solution to a pandemic. We are in search of (hopefully), a 'preventive' typology that may be prescribed, which allows for a rapidconversion to a 'defensive' state should the pandemic arise. It is yet to be decided at which scale we will be tackling this issue, andyour advice could be critical here.

De Landa does mention the parasitic nature of cities that thrives on the influx of man and meat due to the higher mortality rate in the cities as a result of 'urban epidemics'. I agree that the laws and policies set in place in Singapore is a major contributing factor to preventing epidemics in our dense and apparently vulnerable society.Yet, when SARS arrived, it was evident that much of the measurestaken were ad hoc. Is it naive to think that one can apply an architectural typology at all scales now, in a built-up city like Singapore, and allow it to convert to a 'pandemic-ready' state? Or should we realistically aim to design attachments and appendages to buildings for when the need arises, these 'tents' would simply befilters for people transiting in and out of buildings?

I must say the coincidence in stumbling upon your blog and that you're sited in Singapore is simply uncanny. I hope this will prove to be an engaging email dialogue and hope to hear from you soon. Thank you for your time!

Regards,
Lionel Han

LIFT OFF!! THE ARCHIVE INSTITUTE

2006-09-24T17:21:00.000+01:00

After a long three month hiatus ....I've returned to do some writing. My absence has been due to behind the scenes work for launching the ARCHIVE Institute.

ARCHIVE, is an acronym for Architectural Research Concerning Health, Infections and Various Epidemics. The institute is a think-tank dedicated to extending many of the topics and work discussed on this blog. The main difference is that we have been fortunate to have assembled a stellar group of academics and practitioners passionate enough to contribute their expertise towards realizing our aims.

I will use the opportunity to focus on posting articles more frequently.
Anarchi-tecture.blogspopt.com will still be the site for discussions about repositioning and redefining architecture's role in a new socio-cultural and socio-geographical setting. Topics on fear, epidemics and spatial politics will still be on the agenda. In the meantime please be encouraged to visit the site.

http://www.archiveinstitute.org/

FIGHTING FAKES

2006-06-13T06:08:00.000+01:00

The narcotics trade is aggressively fought in many parts of the world, perhaps none more popular and more funded than the US “war on drugs” now in its 33rd year. What is easy to dismiss and ignore however, is the more profitable trade of counterfeit drugs which is even more dangerous and shares many similarly devastating consequences. This practice takes the form of products which are disguised as authentic medications and sold on the open market. These items mimic popular medicinal brands that are often used to treat severe illnesses ranging from diabetes to HIV/AIDS.

There are several alarming reasons why this practice is particularly dangerous. Firstly, they prevent needy patients from receiving the required remedy for their illness as the products contain little if any of the necessary chemicals used for treatment. Secondly, in many documented cases, substances like chalk and gypsum were used to replicate certain pills. Prolonged consumption of such substances have proved harmful and even fatal as the body either rejects it or causes complication of preexisting disorders for which proper medication was needed. Thirdly, in cases such as the treatment of malaria, continued intake of these fake pills actually aid in developing mutated strains of the virus. This is also quite true for the ARVs necessary for patients that are HIV positive.

Like the HIV disease itself, the industry of fake drugs operates covertly. Its operations and so too consequences largely go undetected as thousands die each year while many more profit from these practices. There are a few reasons why such a widespread practice has not been given the attention it deserves. Developed countries fear the political fallout which would occur from peoples demand for governments to protect them against illegal importation of such substances. But much more widespread is the deliberate practice of pharmaceutical companies in shielding the names of their branded products that have become compromised. This is done in order to protect the integrity of their brand but in so doing unsuspecting patients continue to die while many more fall ill. In all likelihood this industry of deception will continue to grow – fuelled by the high costs of prescription drugs. It threatens to undermine all progress that has been made in combating major diseases especially in the developing world. Industry epicenters for manufacture and distribution exists in China, India and many other countries across East Asia while importation and widespread use of these fakes continue to infiltrate markets in every region of the world.

Architecture of AIDS

2006-05-06T11:47:00.000+01:00

The practice of architecture is undergoing a paradigm shift. It is forced to realign itself with cultural changes and presenting itself as a more politically relevant profession. The spread of HIV/AIDS also has its own underlying structure through which it operates. It too does not enjoy a stable state existence but should be defined as a dynamic institution operating in flux; across and within many disciplines. Firstly, AIDS can be defined by the millions that have contracted the disease. AIDS is also the disease, the development of the HIV virus and its epidemiologic spread. AIDS is the feared threat to national security and global instability. AIDS is the paradoxical self-healing way in which infected persons transform their lives into more holistic beings. AIDS is increasingly a profitable industry for specialized products, from medication to clothing. When a country’s population approaches 40 percent infection rate, we can imagine that AIDS is also a constituency. As an institution, the spread of AIDS is particularly profitable for many special interest groups. Regrettably, from non profit organizations to advertisers, a very many organizations play in the sphere of knowledge that as destructive as the disease’s spread continues to be, there are many selfish spoils to be gained.

Jamaica_Johannesburg

2006-04-16T18:53:00.000+01:00

The two places are inextricably linked by the memory I have of Jamaica’s unwavering support in calling for an end to the apartheid regime and for the release of Nelson Mandela. Growing up in Jamaica, I had gone to see Archbishop Desmond Tutu and remember shaking his hand as he greeted thousands at the National Heroes Circle in Kingston. I have even fonder memories of seeing Nelson Mandela when he visited Jamaica not long after his release. That was 1991.

Fifteen years later, I think about how much South Africa has undergone since then as they struggle to emerge from their history of segregation, stereotypes and stigmas. Both Jamaica and Jo’burg are suffering from the unwanted notoriety of having the first and second highest murders per capita in the world respectively. These stats are more closely tied to the continued unequal distribution of resources giving rise to great disparities in economic opportunities and wealth. But the similarities that Jamaica and Jo’burg share go way beyond intersections of poverty and crime but extend towards a new nexus: that of HIV/AIDS and murder.
To be continued. See upcoming article Jamaica_Jo’burg II.

To chew and not to be CHEW part II

2006-04-02T18:06:00.000+01:00

Singapore’s Strong Social Stigmas

Forget the symbolism in Singapore’s ban on selling chewing gum. Try instead to conjure the difficulties faced by the country’s first openly HIV+ activist who died in 1999, Paddy Chew. Paddy Chew faced many challenges when first diagnosed with the virus. Among them was the fact that the prescriptive “cocktails” were not locally available which forced him often to travel as far as Europe. By far Paddy’s greatest challenge in Singapore was not the lack of available medicine but the strong social stigmas towards infected persons in the country at that time. The same remains present to this day.

On Friday I left the office early to go see the doctor. This elicited questions from concerned co-workers about the nature of my visit. While I understood and very much welcomed their outward poring of concern, it prompted me to ask what someone would do in the event he/she had a serious illness that they wanted to keep private. One colleague remarked, “We would expect them to tell us, then we could try to comfort them.” When asked if the same would be true if the person was infected with HIV/AIDS, my colleague not surprisingly replied, “Of course not!” “You see, Peter, AIDS is seen as a result of people’s own immoral behavior.” Yes, here in Singapore and all over the world these sentiments are all too common. This conversation took place three weeks after the Anglican Church body in Kenya formally and publicly issued an apology for dealing with the disease as a “curse from God” upon sinners.

The truth is that to be Paddy Chew (meaning open about HIV+ status) here in Singapore today means a willingness to suffer scorn, judgment and severe public discrimination. As AIDS continues to be the silent killer here in Singapore and other parts of the world, people take pride in the notion that they do not know anyone that’s infected with the disease. It therefore remains an “abstract disease” prone to homosexuals and the morally corrupt. As long as these perceptions remain intact and unchallenged, we won’t see more infected persons wanting to be Paddy Chew. Fewer Paddy Chew’s in Singapore actually means more people will be less likely to get tested ─ avoiding a practice considered to be the first step in slowing the spread of the pandemic.

Nukes aren’t India's greatest threat to the world.

2006-03-19T17:31:00.000Z

In the same week that el Presidente George Bush pushed his controversial nukes deal forward with India, he also entered into further partnership by funding long overdue prevention measures in the fight against HIV virus in that country. It has long been thought that the exponentially rapid spread of the disease on the Indian sub-continent would surface as a threat to the instability in the region. Activists such as Dr. Suniti Solomon began one of the first HIV awareness programs over 20 years ago. He has constantly predicted dire consequences if control measures were not forcefully implemented. Today with over 1 billion people, the situation is said to be only worse in South Africa.

Like South Africa, India has finally awoken itself to the role that migrant workers play in the spread of the virus. This phenomenon, involves truck drivers who transport “much more than cargo” from town to town.(see image) It is estimated that there are between 2 to 5 million long distance drivers in India. The time spent away from their families often places them in close proximity to “high risk” sexual networks. These networks are locations where sex workers and drug addicts often frequent. The road networks in India are some of the most extensive in the world. This network has become the “veins” through which the disease now spreads throughout India─ making these drivers the single greatest HIV/AIDS source in the country.

Rather than partnering for the sake of nuclear energy/weapons research, the US and others should further their role in partnering to increase AIDS awareness in India. With an ever increasing infection rate (now approximately 7 million), coupled with India's continued furthering of nuclear energy research ─ India is fast becoming not only a territory for instability but a growing security threat to the region and to the world.

Crime, Homelessness and the AIDS crises in Singapore

2006-03-15T04:06:00.000Z

For slowing the spread of the AIDS virus in the country, Singapore seems to have created all the right social ingredients. There is in fact no AIDS crises in the country and actual numbers from the UNAIDS indicate that approximately 4000 adults are living with HIV in that country. With an infection rate of less than 0.02 percent, this is far lower than many of its neighbors in the region.

Many reasons can be attributed to this. Among them, Singapore has a zero tolerance policy toward drug use and drug trafficking, the latter is punishable by death. (This clearly translates: no needle sharing program for which to actively debate its effectiveness) This no nonsense approach has more to do with the historical impact of drug use in the region dating back to the opium wars and their unwillingness to revoke a similarly dark period. Today Singapore is all but regressing. Its per capita income is approx. $25,000 and its GDP is expected to reach close to 6% this year. But its real success is its awareness to the interdependence of social ills and their causes/effects in the society. As I mentioned in a previous post (see To chew or not to chew), the country continues to boast an enviable crime rate when compared to other major cities. Although "low crime doesn’t mean no crime" ( a catchy phrase I’ve picked up here), incidents of violent crime and drug abuse/trafficking are minimal or not apparent. These are all social factors (especially drug use) which when prevalent, are largely associated with the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Homelessness too in Singapore is a contributing factor. A factor because of its rarity that has helped to limit the disease’s spread. Homeless populations are usually a high risk group for being infected. This is mainly because of their participation in "risky behavior" such as needle sharing and prostitution. With the shocking availablity of public housing in Singapore (the newer ones looking quite appealing), the number of people that find themselves homeless is staggeringly low. The usual "risky behavior" sometimes associated with the homeless culture continue to be diminished. This as the government maintains its CPF (central provident fund: a much more advanced social security system than in the U.S.) to ensure access to home ownership by its citizens.

Despite all the good which is having a positive effect in lowering infected cases, stigmas and government lethargy in the area of patient care are still present. Individuals who have tested positive for HIV face all sorts of battles, the likes of which are not overcome by low crime rate or a high GDP. In the end, sensibility and care remain most crucial to those who need it most.

Anarchy for Anarchists

2006-03-12T14:44:00.000Z

I continue to receive questions about the role of anarchists in architecture. I’ll respond by first stating that you would all do well to share your comments/questions with readers (therefore on the blog)so as to illicit a more broadly based consensus on the topic. Since I am responding directly to those of you who have written in, I will take the necessary liberties in expanding on the definition.

Anarchy as it understood in the context of architects as critical thinkers, is above all not concerned with an architecture (no pun intended) without rules. It does not refer to an absence or defiance of all authority. (Therefore I proudly declare myself an anarchist.) It is instead a system of thought/practice based on a self-regulated and non hierarchical operandi. In architecture and planning we can look to shanty towns, unplanned settlements and self generated communities as examples of this. The cape flats in Cape Town, South Africa as well as the favelas (see image) of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil both evidence this type of bottom up approach to community planning. The latter despite preconceived ideas about the lack of order, displays a neighborhood structure based heavily on regulations, discipline and adherence to social structures which the residents themselves create.

In politics, we’ve seen the use of text messages and email to mobilize masses for protests such as the WTO Seattle marches in 1999. In the Philippines two years later, then president Joseph Estrada lost power in large part due to the ad hoc mobilization of citizens through cell phone text messaging. In the 2008 US elections we are likely to see candidates such as Hillary Clinton (should she decide to run) make full use of peer to peer communication to maximize the effectiveness of their campaign. In culture and technology, P2P efforts(see P2P Architecture) to help find the cure for cancers and other diseases are examples of decentralized and random agents working collectively.

In summation, Anarchy is not practiced solely by anarchist (if we insist on holding the Newtonian definition of the term). It is not understood here in its mechanistic view which suggests disorder. I’ll state again, it is in fact the very opposite. The seemingly isolated practices that yet engender cohesive and complex results is the perfect example of how we ought to rethink the "old" paradigm of anarchy. Anarchy is above all is therefore cooperative, non-linear and systemic.

ANTONYMS: Cooperation and Globalization

2006-03-11T16:35:00.000Z

Jonathan Marcus of the BBC recently presented a program on globalization and its unintended consequences. Listed among the various topics was the ease with which epidemics take hold in our now borderless world. Marcos mentions that unlike the plague of 1665 that hit much of Europe, globalization today really works against the slowing the spread of diseases. What was critical of the 17th century plague was that cooperation was the active ingredient that suppressed the spread of illnesses. Churchyards and villages were closed and all agreed that this was a necessary means of containment to slow the spread. .More than three hundred years later, cooperation has become exponentially more difficult. No longer are we speaking of a few hundreds or thousands of villagers but rather millions each year who make intercontinental travel one of the deadliest weapons today. After all, pandemics really mimic our ability to travel.

One easily recalls the health rather than military conquest of the Native Americans as they were wiped out by the Europeans armed with small pox and measles. Today, our mega-cities or megalopolises are the agents for public health disasters and pandemic spread. Urbanization of these megalopolises have changed significantly, from 2 in 1950 to 27 in 2005. Each of them boasts an international airport thus further globalizing the spread of diseases, covertly or not. Globalization continues to be about flows. Air travel remains the "life and breath" which sustains this political psuedonym.

I return to the idea that cooperation will be paramount in controlling the spread. The real test for globalization and its continued discontents remain whether countries will be able to rise to the challenge of controlling its borders. Like the villages of the 17th century plague, it may be as extreme as no one in..no one out. One need only imagine what crippling effects this would have for world economies. This is where the true test of cooperation among governments will lie... whether or not there can be such a glocalized and unified sacrifice for the case of a greater good.

CRYING WOLF?

2006-02-18T16:43:00.000Z

At first, I was generally excited about Dr. Marc Siegel’s book titled False Alarm. Sadly it took only a few pages of reading to realize that Dr. Siegel, however informed, has not acted in the best interest of his reading audience and has instead gone on to make irresponsible claims. I agree with the general thesis of his book, that there is indeed an epidemic of fear which is present in our postmodern culture. I am in total disagreement however that this it is this epidemic has in someway triggered a series of so called "false alarms."

What is true and has been for some time is that peoples heightened sensitization towards fear has not been in alignment with the actual risks involved. This is not a new phenomenon and has more to do with our physiological and instinctive self preservationist mechanisms. By downplaying the seriousness of threats such as SARS and the West Nile Virus Dr. Siegel risks lowering peoples alertness to other present crises such as HIV/AIDS and the Avian flu influenza. While his concern seems to be that people are scaring themselves to death, it is critical that he and others not undermine the responsibility which the media and other outlets have in presenting urgent information regarding our safety.

I would urge people to read the book in much the same way that I would urge anyone to ask the pertinent questions about any topic. Being informed, remains the greatest tool that people have to make critical decisions about navigating the complexities of modern society.

AVIAN FLU LANDS: in a city near you

2006-02-14T00:39:00.000Z

The Avian influenza seems to be slowly making its way through South East Asia and has surfaced on the African continent as well as in Europe. Maybe it will take the loss of the first American human victim before the world realizes the immediacy of this crisis. I have spoken before of the catastrophic effects that would result if the flu intersects with those already carrying the HIV virus. Entire economies would be destabilized if not crippled. Now I have receive a number of emails about this since writing the post and need to make known the following. I am not attempting to contribute to mass panic. Neither am I trying to let people remain in their comfort zone. My aim is mainly to create awareness.

We will begin to see the emergence of surveillance communities as a measure of controlling the spread of the influenza. These communities will be ideally be designed as temporal landscapes to be reused and alternative uses redeployed unto their terrain. As mentioned before, unless an effective vaccine is developed, we may easily witness the death of millions in a short space of time. The measures of containment will through habitable, humane yet non-permanent environments prove to be most effective in limiting the impacts of this pending pandemic.

SINGAPORE: To chew or not to chew..

2006-02-11T16:36:00.000Z

Since arriving in Singapore last week, I’ve found myself displaying great caution in performing everyday practices which otherwise I would instinctively carry out without much contemplation. My senses being heightened by Donna and others ongoing reminder of the American that was caned for spraying graffiti many years ago. Singapore’s reputation does bellow to all visitors, that control and authority proudly evokes the discipline and punishment that has successfully sustained its thriving economy and “safe city” brand to the rest of the world. Indeed the country boast an impressively low crime rate unequaled by any other major city. And it is true that the panoptic nature of this society along with the consequences of playing outside its rules act as tremendous deterrents.

I continue to enjoy my conversations about public policy with taxi drivers who always get around to proudly stating that the ban on chewing gum is good thing. They all seem very aware that the state’s enforcement is for their own good in creating a cleaner, “better” quality of life. As it is my first week here, I am hesitant to make uninformed remarks about the society at this point. Instead, I will just have to wait and see whether the instruments of Foucault’s arguments as practiced through the state laws have indeed succeeded in creating a homogenous culture. So far, that doesn’t appear to be the case and maybe Singapore is indeed an exception to the rule. A question I will hopefully be able to answer with time.

Is AIDS the ultimate pandemic of FEAR?

2006-01-27T03:34:00.000Z

I recently watched a movie called "Yesterday". The movie focuses on the issue of living with AIDS in an under-developed country. Although the setting is South Africa, I see very real and relevant applications in the US (can anyone forget Katrina in 2005?)

You may ask again, what does AIDS or pandemics have to do with design, planning, or architecture? Well I'm no architect... but the movie focuses on a woman who after contracting AIDS from her husband, has to deal with the effort of obtaining medical care for her husband, protect her young child, and deal with the society's fear, anger, and potential ostracizing.The woman eventually builds a new home for her painfully ill husband. I won't go into the details of the building, (watch the movie) but it highlights the impact of fear of this deadly disease and the resultant dwelling. On a larger scale, it brings to mind how fear feeds into communities, how fear feeds into the development of communities, new communities, poorly built communities, communities that can potentially breed more fear and more/different situations. Does this sound gloomy? It does not have to.

The poor and suffering are not the only ones who are afraid.What of the fear of the 'riche'? Do they also fear that they lose what they have? Are there those who fear that the illness of the poor and underprivileged might rob them of their status? Is that why they build in the hills, on the remote islands, on the cliffs of mountainsides that are well off the tracks that are off the beaten tracks? What about the pandemic of fear? Recently I watched a piece of a Michael Moore film - "Bowling for Columbine". He went to an actor's house, rang the bell at the gate which was quite a distance from the house. The house was guarded and had all of the artifacts of security. Michael Moore asked whether his security measures weren't overkill. The actor was living in a very remote area of suburbia.

The thing is that maybe there is a fear that many of us won't talk about. Especially the rich and the haves. Could it be possible that it's fear... and fear alone that drives architecture? What do you think about that?