Word: ruralism
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...violence. But the racism that affects these minorities has not been nearly as pervasive, isolating, recalcitrant, and deeply-rooted as the racism affecting African Americans, whose 400 years' experience of slavery, exploitation, segregation, ghettoization, and struggle has kept them by and large a distinct "nation within a nation." The rural South and the urban ghetto have for just about all African-Americans rich cultural and historical significance. By contrast, while there are admittedly many Chinatowns and barrio bordertowns in America, these enclaves are not germinating places for Latino and Asian American cultures that are strongly shared or felt by most...
...Singapore be cloned? Not without a Lee Kuan Yew, say many citizens. Moreover, their city-state possesses special advantages: small size that makes control easy and infrastructure cheap, no job-seeking rural poor to overwhelm the city with slums, an ambitious immigrant population, a Confucian ethic stressing education and respect for authority, location on a major trade route in the heart of a dynamic region. The country's perpetual siege mentality -- it feels threatened by bigger neighbors and fears its own ethnic mix is volatile -- also encourages economic and political sacrifice...
During earlier periods of urban collapse, the fact that human society was largely rural tempered the effects of catastrophes. When the black death wiped out 80% of Europe's urban population, more than 95% of the people lived in the country. But if the world enters a new age of epidemics, few will escape unaffected...
...swept native village in Africa, Asia or Latin America may look more inviting than a squalid urban squatter settlement. But until recently even the most wretched city slums have offered better access to paying jobs, more varied diets, better education and better health care than what was available in rural communities...
...cities obviously need more money. In many countries the help that urban areas receive from the national government has dwindled steadily. Moreover, during the past decade, foreign aid shifted more and more to rural problems even as people moved to the cities. Now, with urban areas producing half the world's income, and governments nervous about restive urban populations, agencies such as the World Bank have begun to focus more on cities once again...