TBB Best of Web: Urbanization, Heroin Court, Eric Cantona Past, Bourdain Travel Tips, Texas Prisons

We bring you the TBB Best of Web links: An amazing visual feast about fast spreading urbanization, where addicts go to get clean at heroin court, we learn about the Eric Cantona past, we read more Anthony Bourdain travel tips and end this post with an amazing article about how the Texas prisons were reformed. All coming to you once again for freeeeeee!

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Every Sunday I pick the best reads that blew my mind in the previous week. It can be…anything! I like to be eclectic and despise salesy/clickbait/sameold content you read…everywhere else!

As always, click on the headline to be taken to the original source. Sometimes I insert my incendiary comments on article excerpts between [brackets].

If you enjoy my blog, please pass it on to someone you care about so they can enjoy it too. And do some clicking on the colorful linkies above, thanks!

 

Urbanization

This will blow you away. Click the Play button and see what happens…Your kids and grand kids will be living in a city:

The chart below, however, provides a snapshot overview of how the world has become — and is expected to continue to — more urbanized. It shows, for any given country, whether more people (the majority) live in urban or rural areas. Using the timeline feature and “play” button in the bottom-left of the chart, you can explore how this has changed over time. Also included are UN Urbanization projections to 2050. In 1950, it was predominantly high-income countries across Europe, the Americas, Australasia and Japan who were largely urban. A century later — in 2050 — it’s projected that most countries will have more people living in urban areas than not.

As we see, urban living is a very recent development. For most of our history humans lived in low-density, rural settings. Prior to 1600, it’s estimated that the share of the world population living in urban settings did not reach 5 percent. By 1800, this share reached 7 percent; and by 1900 had increased to 16 percent. It was not until the 20th century that urbanization across the world began to increase rapidly.

Since the crossing point in 2007, urban population has continued to increase rapidly whilst rural population has grown only marginally. In 2016 it’s estimated that 4 billion people lived in urban areas, and 3.4 billion in rural.

By 2050, it’s projected that 68 percent of the world’s population will live in urban areas (an increase from 54 percent in 2016). In fact, by 2050 there are very few countries where rural shares are expected to be higher than urban. These include several across Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Pacific Island States, and Guyana in Latin America.

As of 2018 we see that there is around 7.6 billion people in the world (4.2 billion in urban and 3.4 billion in rural areas). By 2050, global population is projected to increase to around 9.8 billion. It’s estimated that more than twice as many people in the world will be living in urban (6.7 billion) than in rural settings (3.1 billion). 

From 1990 to 2014, for example, the share of the urban population in slum households fell from:

• 44 to 25 percent in China;
• 55 to 24 percent in India;
• 37 to 22 percent in Brazil;
• 77 to 50 percent in Nigeria.

In 2018, Japan’s capital — Tokyo — had the largest population of the world’s capital cities at over 37 million people. This was followed by Delhi (India) at over 28 million; Mexico City (Mexico) at 21 million; and Cairo (Egypt) with 20 million.

Second-Chance Court

A handful of heroin addicts struggle to get clean and reclaim their lives with the help of a Macomb County drug program.

A gut wrenching account what it takes to get clean from heroin. Kudos to the people involved in this program to help these addicts. I wish them well. Now this would be something worth volunteering in some way, you know, help real people instead of BSing with fake awards events, sigh. And don’t expect me here to ever link charitable actions with marketing my blog, remember Wounded Warriors 🙂

As much work as addiction is — all the scheming for money to pay for drugs, all the time spent getting high, all the lies told to keep from being found out by parents, partners, loved ones and employers — recovery is infinitely harder. It’s a long road. One with starts and stops, ups and downs, sudden twists and dizzying turns where heroin always taunts from the shadows and even the best intentions don’t guarantee a thing.

There’s nothing casual about heroin; it is never just a one-night stand. Users fall for it fast and they fall hard, and everything else gets left behind. As Megan Ferranti, a 30-year-old heroin addict who became one of Jessica’s drug court friends explained: “All you care about is getting high. You don’t care about what you have to do for it. You don’t care about anyone you hurt. You don’t care about your kid crying for you.”

Hope we direct more money to programs like this instead of throwing these people in jail…only for them to get back in it when they get out. Which of course does not guarantee that they wouldn’t do that if they are treated. But they sure have much higher chances!

I am really interested to see what happens now that Michigan legalized recreational marijuana. Will it lead more people to do it and then graduate to heroin? I sure hope not, time will tell.

What is The Meaning of Life?

One of the most colorful football/soccer players ever was Eric Cantona. His exploits on the pitch were legendary. And this is an amazingly personal account of his past, must read, wow!

This is how it starts…

We have to go back to 1939, during the Spanish Civil War. My maternal grandfather was from Barcelona, and he fought against the dictator Franco until the bitter end. At the very end of the war, he was a wanted man, and he only had a few minutes to make an escape before the Nationalist soldiers captured the city. He had to cross the Pyrenees mountains on foot to get to France, and he did not have time to say proper goodbyes. This was the end. Life or death.

and it gets better….I had no idea!

How to Travel Like Anthony Bourdain Did

Fine advice within!

Don’t Eat Airplane Food—Always Arrive Hungry

Be a Traveler; Not a Tourist

Don’t Preface Your Experiences Around Safety or Cleanliness

Harness The Power of “Food Nerd Fury”

Read Novels By People Who Spent Time In These Places—Not Bona Fide Guide Books

“Just Be Nice”

Don’t Eat Mussels Unless You Know Where They Came From

Don’t Travel Solely For Good Times

You Don’t Have To Visit Big Cities To Have a Good Time

Drink. A Lot. With Everybody.

The Love Story That Upended the Texas Prison System

Another amazing article at Texas Monthly. What a beautiful story. You can learn a few things from it too.

In 1967, a 56-year-old lawyer met a young inmate with a brilliant mind and horrifying stories about life inside. Their complicated alliance—and even more complicated romance—would shed light on a nationwide scandal, disrupt a system of abuse and virtual slavery across the state, and change incarceration in Texas forever.

And I leave you with this…Enjoy your Sunday!

TBB
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