Singapore city is one exceptional example of how a city can change its pattern in very little time. With less than 50 years from being independent Singapore has managed to change its status from "country under development" to "developed country". The city has grown economic and urban wise; it is an attractive spot for tourism and investments and the population has increase it's quality of life.
Today the Tampere-Mwanza team had a meeting, together with the city council of Mwanza and a consultant from Singapore. In here we discussed the direction of the city of Mwanza for the next 20 years. Also, the visitor from Singapore, shared some knowledge on what are the necessary steps to follow in order to become a World Class City.
The biggest challenge? Cultural change. A city cannot be changed if there is no awareness in its citizens. Therefore educational and awareness programs play a big part on the process.
Tomorrow the Tampere and Singapore team will meet again to discuss in detail every step of the process.
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| From left to right: Singapore - Suburbana Ministry of Lands Mayor from Ilemela Municipality Ilemela District Commissioner Mwanza City Director Depute mayor - Mwanza City Council |
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| Overview of Singapore and planning Framework Presentation |
By: Natalia Rincon
Hello team, kudos for the good job done. It is indisputable that every cities should learn from the rapid achievement in Singapore. However, I think the main issue that should be acknowledged is adaptation instead of pursuing what other cities have done in order to emerge as a "developed nation", at least by the western standard. It is definitely more sensible and practical to identify how the model of Singapore (or any cities) can be adapted to Mwanza to improve the life quality of its inhabitants.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the project should focus on "awareness transition" instead of "cultural change". I don't think cities must compromise their regional identities for globalization. I do hope the life quality, environmental management and education in Mwanza to improve, but more so for the city to embrace its original identity and culture along the process.
We have received very interesting comments from our readers on what is a world class city is and what would be the path for Mwanza. Here are some very interesting comments worth of sharing!:
ReplyDelete"What is a world class city? Globalized city, city for european tourists, a city were you can do the same thing as in Tampere, San Diego, Melbourne or Kioto… but protecting the folkloric traits, the scenery that allows us to remember, step by step, that we haven't left Tanzania and that Mwanza is part of what the world knows as Africa.
We can't deny the rights that all human beings have, no matter were they are or which tongue they speak, to achieve better levels of existence. Nonetheless, we define those levels from an optic that denies differences, that searches for the unattainable progress for all meanwhile the surroundings constantly deteriorates.
A worthy life means to live in peace, knowing that one is member of a society that respects one and that allows one to eat more than enough, have a place to live according to what one knows and understands without spacial and comfort limitations, aside from the surrounding that one must transform in a daily basis in order to achieve one's dream, in other words, work to live.
When we assume that any person in the world should live as in Kioto, Melbourne, San Diego or Tampere, we are trying to impose our forms of existence with no possible livelihood. I see the images of Mwanza and I ask myself how contaminated is Lake Victoria, were is the water from the almost superficial sewage released, what is all this people living from, how is the quality of the air that is inhale with so many vehicles whose mechanic conditions are not the best, what can bantus from this region expect when an element as fundamental part of their history is tumbled down by the modernity icon, a cocacola truck; the world class tumbles trees, cuts the history, demolishes the past, the present and the future and apparently nothing crucial happens.
But the world class can substitute trees for ATMs, dirt roads for modern highways for Mercedez and Ferrari to flow, the beans and rice, the potato and yucca for Mcdonals or Pizzahuts, the agriculture for prostitution and slavery in diamond mines, and the zest for life for a bad payed job as a tourist guide at Serengeti. The world class will mean high rise apartment buildings that will avoid the traditional bantu grouping, and the whole world will forget Swahili to communicate in english or german through a smartphone.
What to do in Mwanza? A city less aggressive towards the environment, but also less aggressive with the bantu culture. I know that a city of these proportion little has to do with the millennial tradition of all that people, but Mwanza can try to be an example of respect towards culture without forgetting that it is part of the world that everyday looks more similar in all its latitudes. Can a motor-free transportation be achieved? Is it possible to use alternative means of energy? What are the intentions of this city's inhabitants? I know that those who are in charge of the government of the city, are in a better position to create a big project however, its viability depends a lot on the follow up of the traditional ways that are followed used to take decisions and in the clarity of what you think that Mwanza's people understand of what it is to live in a world class city." - Ricardo León, Anthropologist
Another interesting comment!:
ReplyDelete"The City which is organised, well planned, beautified, highly connected within and without. A City that has organised Public Transport, international Airport, Parks, pedestrians,green city,Service oriented, town train, reserved areas, Community areas for Sports, lack of noise, lack of traffics, recreational Centers, beautified with a clean and beautified with a reserved river crossing the town( i.e.river mirongo) and etc
And i Quote.!
There are some cities in the world that are worse–much worse–than others, cities from which a multitude would flee if offered half a chance to relocate elsewhere. Lagos comes to mind, as do Karachi, Lima, Nairobi, Cairo, Caracas, Dhaka, Jakarta, Manila … these are utterly charmless cities (such charm as there once was in a few of them has been murdered by noise, traffic, a teeming population, dirt and crime); these are edgy, aggressive and inhospitable cities, cities in which contempt for the resident is everywhere apparent, cities with few parks and sidewalks, and with scarcely any of the amenities that comprise the core of urban civilization.
So what, by contrast, makes up a city that people would opt to live in, to travel to, to long for? What makes a city, in effect, the Anti-Lagos or the Un-Caracas or the Not-Manila? What makes a city world-class, cosmopolitan and alluring? What makes a city, in sum, truly civilized? In pursuit of answers, I talked to a dozen urban and urbane people (accomplished city-dwellers all), who each gave me a personal reckoning–sometimes idiosyncratic–of what a city of this caliber must have.
It is believed Tampere is the best City to live in the world. Why?" - Amin, Mwanza's Project Manager