Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow celebrates slums in the Boston Globe:

Their humming economic activity and proximity to city centers represent big advantages over the subsistence farming that many slum dwellers have fled. Numerous observers have noted the enterprising spirit of these places, evident not only in their countless tiny businesses, but also in the constant upgrading and expansion of homes.

Longstanding slum communities tend to be much more tightknit than many prosperous parts of the developed world, where neighbors hardly know one another. Indeed, slums embody many of the principles frequently invoked by urban planners: They are walkable, high-density, and mixed-use, meaning that housing and commerce mingle. Consider too that the buildings are often made of materials that would otherwise be piling up in landfills, and slums are by some measures exceptionally ecologically friendly.

I spent today wandering West Point–not the military academy, but the oceanside slum spilling out on the isthmus west of Monrovia. Tuhus-Dubrow is partly right: slums are hives of activity and innovation, in spite of (or because?) of the fact they’re seldom visited by government and NGOs.

But most of the youth I met want out. You have to ‘hustle’ for work: unloading trucks, pulling in the catch, hawking DVDs. They’re miserable, and want something simple: a predictable income. Slum life is volatile. All that bustle and business is the froth of stress and struggle. So let’s not romanticize Slumdogs too far.

Africa Unchained, who pointed me to the Globe article, also points me to a wiki map of the world’s mega slums here: