The poor as actors Millions of miles away between Jakarta and Bangkok (3) EITHER in Jakarta or in Bangkok, the poor dwell in marginal spaces such as in river banks, in the nearby of railways, on the sidewalks as street vendors or hawkers, and absentee plots of land owned by the government, private owners or by corporations. In both cities, in fact the access of the poor to city spaces and lands is very limitted. Both governments, meanwhile, target at having clean cities. Such policy of building clean cities so far tends to place the poor as the source of problems. It is because poverty is perceived as equal to dirty slump areas. To build a clean city, therefore, means to fight against such areas. So far actually there is no difference between Jakarta and Bangkok. Both fight against slump areas. The only difference is the ways in implementing such policy.
for a complete text, please visit our blog: http://ecosocrights.blogspot.com/ Regards yanti
