Sunday, March 13, 2011

A Garden City Without A Garden!


A recent report of the Economist Intelligence Unit of the 168-year-old Economist magazine would have rudely shattered the dreams of those visionaries of making Sri Lanka the ‘Asian Miracle’ with its capital, Colombo, as the ‘Garden City of Asia’. After conducting a global survey on basic criteria essential for good living, the Economic Intelligence Unit declared that Colombo was among the ‘Worst Ten Livable Cities’ in the world’. The other cities conferred this dishonour are: Dakar (Senegal), Douala (Cameroon), Lagos (Nigeria), Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea), Dhaka (Bangladesh), Harare (Zimbabwe), Karachi (Pakistan), Tehran (Iran) and Algiers (Algeria).
other day we were being told that our capital would once again be the ‘Garden City of Asia’ with the construction of Chinese Shangri-La’s in the Galle Face environs along with other tourist attractions. Being a citizen of Colombo and its environs for long years we certainly wish that our city  ranks as a Garden City of Asia but all of us should not be carried away by the euphoria and tourism blurbs of propagandists, determined to please their masters, ignoring stark realities.


Colombo, Sri Lanka, photo by whl.travel
A transportation center in Colombo, photo by olaf.kellerhoff
Colombo, by LeeLeFever
more about Indian sub-continent:

Design Lessons From India's Poorest Neighborhoods

Urbanization, Urban India and Metropolitan Cities in India

Is India Aiming for Urban Sustainability?

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