Cities grew over
the centuries because they served aims that could
not have been served
otherwise. Two thousand years ago most people lived in the countryside.
It was not their
choice. Today, almost half of humanity lives in cities. Man has always
lived in groups. It
makes life safer and easier. Geography – rich soil, a safe
navigable river, ample
fresh water, easy defense, coal – was the start of many towns. In
Europe towns grew
over the strongholds of a local lord. Most of them developed as
buying and selling
centres; trade needed a market, and markets needed people.
Towns served
their citizens very well if they in turn were served by
them. During the
Middle Ages when harvest failed, the nearby town offered hope of
survival. All successful
towns satisfied economic needs. For a peasant town was the only
place where he
might make a fortune. In the new industrial order, the city was the
nerve centre, brining
to a focus all dynamic economic forces: vast accumulation of
capital, business and
financial institutions, spreading railroad yards, factories, and armies
of manual and
clerical workers. For example, in the USA villages, attracting
people from the
countryside and from the land across the seas, grew into towns and towns
into cities
almost overnight.
Life in the city
is much easier than in the country – developed
transport system, sewerage
system, information, sports, shopping mails, etc. Modern men are
too sophisticated
for simple country pleasures. There is far more entertainment in the
city than in the
country. Cities offer high concentration of good things in life: big
stores, restaurants,
theatres, cinema, art galleries. Life is more convenient in a city:
services are always
better here. In the city people are more open-minded. It is possible to
go out, make
friends and never be cut off from them by weather conditions. Generally,
people do not
mind what you do in the city. In the country everybody knows you and
expects you to live
and behave in a certain way. Moreover, life is never dull in the city,
people always have
something to do here.
It is needless
to say that the citizens are more advantaged in
education. The students
have museum classes and excursions. They can attend lectures and
preparatory courses and
therefore have more chances to enter this or that university. After
graduating from the
university the residents of big cities and more likely to find a
prestigious and well-paid
job, than the outsiders. They are more communicative, more experienced
and have more
friends, relatives and to help them. In the city people have more
chances to succeed.
The objections
to city living are not convincing enough. People
easily adapt to various
inconveniences of city life. For example, noise and traffic are hardly
noticeable to
city-dwellers. In the city especially in our country people live in
apartments with
central heating, telephone, gas, electricity, radio, TV, the Internet.
Most people love
cities. In 330 BC Aristotle wrote that by nature man belonged to a city.
Many people love
the busy city life. It is enough for them to visit a country at
week-ends.
It goes without
saying that life in a big city has got a lot of
disadvantages.
Pollution is the greatest disadvantage of the city life today. Polluted
air is hanging
like a brown cloud over cities. All big cities have problems with air
pollution. There was
still nothing anywhere like "killer-smog” which caused some 3000-4000
deaths in London
in December 1952. Mexico city’s air is famously filthy, as is
that of many
Indian, Chinese, and East European cities. Noise pollution is the
problem of big cities
too.
Urban
garbage – like food, paper, and cans – on the ground
or in the street is
one more problem of cities. People don’t always put their garbage in the
garbage can.
Urban garbage is ugly. It makes the city look dirty, and it spoils the
view.
There are lots
of other disadvantages of living in a big city.
Today’s cities are
ballooning. Bombay in 1960 was a jam-packed city of 4 mln. people. Now
Mexico city holds
around 18 m people. "The rash-hour” with crowded streets, packed trains,
full buses
that happens twice a day is one of them. Everyone grumbles about exorbitant
rents that must be paid for tiny flats which even country hens would disdain
to
live in. Apart from accommodation, the cost of living is very high. A
citizen runs into a
lot of extra expenses paying for public transport, snacks, food delivery
and
entertainment.
Besides, life in
a big city is much more stressful than that in the
country it causes
stresses and heart disease. Drivers suffer from traffic jams accidents
and car crashes, pedestrians
curse rush hours, constant queuing and irregularity of public
transport. In addition,
people live under constant threat. Businessmen and clerks are scared to
lose their jobs
and become unemployed. Living conditions in crowded cities are similar
to those of animals
in a zoo and make inhabitants abnormally aggressive. So the crime rate
is constantly
increasing. In the city people loose touch with land, rhythms of nature.
Everyone who
cares about his health tries to move out from the city. Cities are not
fit to live in, man
are born for countryside. Most people in Europe and America try to live
in non-industrial
cities, which are set down near big cities and can not be killed by
pollution and traffic.
In the
countryside people enjoy such simple things of primary
importance as sunlight
and fresh air. Besides, living in the countryside is cheaper and safer
than in a city. It
provides people with more security. There is less crime and, of course,
there is less
traffic there. Life in the countryside is quiet, peaceful, and healthy
if you like to be
close to nature. Here people are friendly and it is much more pleasant
in the countryside
than in the city. Unfortunately, life in the countryside is rather hard.
Working and
living conditions are difficult, social and cultural life in the
countryside is not full
of entertainment. And annually more and more young people flee
from the
countryside for a better life in the city.
Certainly, the
problem of employment in the countryside is very crucial
today.
It is especially acute for the young people and professionals. As
a rule there are
few labour places for skilled agricultural workers and less for
professionals. Although
villages do need teachers and physicians, they can not provide them with
the necessary
facilities. There are few schools and clinics in the countryside.
Sometimes there is one
secondary school for several villages and children have to walk ten
kilometers to study
there. Usually either the village community is too poor to provide the
children with a bus
or the roads are too bad for the bus to run off them.
Surely, people
should always be optimists and hope for a better life.
Where there is a
will there is a way. Nowadays we can witness the revival of some
villages. So far
they are few but annually their number is increasing. |