Showing posts with label Earth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Earth. Show all posts
Saturday, April 24, 2021
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
10 Places on Earth You Don’t Want to Live
The World is a Giant Jigsaw Puzzle, spotted with both exquisitely Beautiful and potentially Dangerous Places.
While you may dream of spending a Lifetime in some of the True Paradises-on- Earth, you should be equally wary of stepping up in some Real Hell Spots for your own safety.
But not everyone is fortunate enough to get a Cozy and Safe Home and there are Places on Earth where people are actually living on the Edge of Peril.
Here are Top 10 such Nightmarish Places on Earth where you would never want to Live.
1. Dharavi, Mumbai, India
Sprawling over 175 hectares between Mahim and Sion, Dharavi has emerged as the largest slum of Asia inhabiting a population exceeding 600,000. Dharavi has its rival in Orangi Town in Karachi, Pakistan that has a notorious filth and expanse. Dharavi presents a brighter picture as a cheap pocket in the midst of expensive Mumbai where you could stay for as low as 4 US dollars rent per month.
Dharavi is an abode for various small-scale industries like pottery, embroidered garments, leather and plastic goods. Unbelievably the total net income of the residents of Dharavi amounts to almost 650 million US dollars. But Dharavi is no paradise – its inadequate water supply and toilet facilities get worse during the monsoon floods and the unhygienic environment of Dharavi poses serious threats to public health issues.
2. Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Rocinha in Portuguese means Small Ranch. The largest favela (basically meaning shanty town) in Rio De Janeiro. Situated between the districts of Rio de Janeiro, is the largest Slum or Favela in South America. Posed on a hillside within one kilometer of the beach, Rocinha originated as a shanty to transform quickly into a modern slum neighborhood. You will find it better off than many shanties because of its brick buildings, sanitation, plumbing and other urban facilities.
What makes Rocinha a potentially dangerous place to live is the prevalence of a violent drug trade. This leads to endless tussles and encounters between the drug peddlers and the police, giving rise to a dangerous ambiance. The population of 100,000 has a poor economic state and high mortality rates. What is more, Rocinha being built on steep mountain slope is susceptible to landslides, rock falls and floods.
3. Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya
Kibera means Forest in Nubian, is the home for a million people, which earned notoriety for being the biggest slum in the whole of Africa. Most of the population here are tenants with no rights living in mud-walled shacks owned by landlords who have vacated Kibera. Most of the population is African Muslims, who huddle up eight per shack, often sleeping on the floors.
Just 20% of Kibera has electricity and no regular supply of clean water. The dam water that people use is the root to cholera and typhoid, aggravated by poor sewage condition. There is widespread menace of AIDS and the total absence of government medical facilities. What worsens the general livelihood of Kibera is the availability of a cheap alcoholic drink called Changaa.
Faced with rampant unemployment, most of the slum-dwellers resort to Changaa early in life and grow into criminals, drunkards and rapists. The problem is aggravated by the availability of cheap drugs and tendencies of glue sniffing. The result is the rising rate of unwanted pregnancy among girls of all ages who invariably turn to abortion. Some charities and churches are working towards the betterment of the condition.
4. Linfen, China
Located right at the center of Shanxi Province of China coal region, Linfen is one of the most polluted cities in the world. The air is thick with dust and smoke to a degree that hampers visibility. The three million people who live in Linfen take regular doses of arsenic rich water, further polluted with fossil fuels and poisonous gases through the air they breathe. You can actually catch a lasting stink when you step in Linfen with overflowing sewage everywhere.
The river flowing by Linfen has its water thickened with oil. No wonder! The inhabitants using this water have high occurrences of cancer. When you look at the trees around the Linfen factories, they present a sad withered picture. It is the last place on earth that you would think of sending someone, even your worst enemy.
5. Kabwe, Zambia
The lead and cadmium accumulations in this former British colony have skyrocketed since their discovery in 1902 when Zambia was valued for a rich lead mine. Although the mines have closed and no smelters are operational now, Kabwe residents have faced the threat of lead poisoning through decades.
Blood tests in the children have revealed lead concentrations exceeding 5-10 times the normal limit that could turn fatal any day. Only recently, the World Bank has allotted funds for tackling the problem.
6. Chernobyl, Ukraine
Talking of life-threatening pollution and poisoning, nothing could beat the nuclear reactor accident record set by Chernobyl that has left about 5.5 million people facing the threat of thyroid cancer. The fallout that occurred in April 26, 1986 has led to the leakage of nuclear radiation 100 times more pronounced in volume and effect than that of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki explosions.
It is a horror that thousands of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian children living close to the damaged plant still cannot escape the radiation impact.
7. Dzerzhinsk, Russia
Situated beside the Oka River in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast of Russia, Dzerzhinsk is named after the Russian leader Feliks Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky. Right From its inception, Dzerzhinsk has remained a chemical industry hub and has been producing chemical weapons for Russia. It has been labeled one of the worst polluted cities of the world with a staggering death rate.
In Dzerzhinsk, the average life of men is just 42 years and women 47 years. Environmentalists attribute such high mortality rate to the ceaseless production of organic chemicals like toxic dioxins, hydrogen cyanide, lead and sulfur mustard. The phenol and dioxin contents in the Dzerzhinsk waters surpasses the normal limit by seventeen million times.
8. Cubat, Paulo, Brazil
The city of Cubat extending over 142 square kilometers is more appropriately known as the Valley of Death for its precarious living conditions. It has a high air pollution level that has led to the destruction of forests over the surrounding hills and birth of children with congenital organ defects.
The life threatening pollution took a new dimension in 1984 when an event of oil spill burnt down the town, killing almost 200 people. Only recently extensive steps worth $1.2 billion are being taken to improve the damages caused by organic pollutants. Despite such measures, it is quite impossible to clean the soil and underground water from the spreading tentacles of pollution thus making Cubat=E3o unfit for staying.
9. Bassac Apartments, Cambodia
One of the architectural jewels of Cambodia, the innovative apartment complex designed in the early 1960s by Lu Ban Hap.
The 300-metre-long Basaac Apartments were built due to the town planning director Lu Ban Hap=92s initiative to put up a low-cost social housing project in the 1960s. However, this government-financed housing project has been the home to 2,500 refugees since 1979, when its legal tenants vacated the property because of the onset of decay. The structure made of concrete and brick has now given way to dangerous gaps in between the reinforced concrete walls marked by the ingrowths of parasitic plants. The building can collapse any time burying alive its 2500 residents.
10. Mogadishu, Somalia
A rusty and bullet-ridden Coca Cola sign gives a telling welcome for visitors to the volatile city of Mogadishu.
Mogadishu, an advanced former port has been witnessing the 17-year tussle between rival military camps since the fall of the government in 1991. It turned into the most chaotic and anarchic city of the world, marked by civil unrest and insurgencies. Such disturbances caused its original inhabitants to flee, leaving Mogadishu to be controlled by military factions. Only recently, a new federal government has taken up the reins of control and is trying to re-establish law and order.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Most Beautiful Places On Earth
Heavens In World
Algonquin Park, Canada
Found in the center of Southern Ontario, just a three-hour drive from Toronto, Algonquin Park is a natural paradise on Earth with its wind-sculptured pines, craggy shorelines and rushing rivers. Aside from a few camping grounds, lodgings and park buildings, the park is completely free from the burden of human civilization.
Found in the center of Southern Ontario, just a three-hour drive from Toronto, Algonquin Park is a natural paradise on Earth with its wind-sculptured pines, craggy shorelines and rushing rivers. Aside from a few camping grounds, lodgings and park buildings, the park is completely free from the burden of human civilization.
Cotswolds, England
If it’s good enough for the bevy of British celebrities who descend on this paradise on Earth every weekend, it’s certainly good enough for you. Located in the county of Gloucestershire, the Cotswolds feature swooping hills, acres of lush greenery, shimmering lakes, and winding roads.
If it’s good enough for the bevy of British celebrities who descend on this paradise on Earth every weekend, it’s certainly good enough for you. Located in the county of Gloucestershire, the Cotswolds feature swooping hills, acres of lush greenery, shimmering lakes, and winding roads.
Fernando de Noronha, Brazil
As soon as you restrict access to a place, its allure increases. Such is the case with Fernando de Noronha, which sits pretty 200 miles off Brazil’s northeastern coast. Only 240 people are allowed on the archipelago at any one time, all of whom are required to pay environmental taxes to preserve the beauty of the 21 islands. Only the main island is inhabited, and that's where you’ll stay in quaint boutique-style bed-and-breakfasts. The jet set may prefer Pousada Maravilha, where they can unwind in one of its ocean-facing bungalows. There’s not much to do on this paradise on Earth other than swim in the Atlantic Ocean and bask beneath the sun, but that’s kind of the point, isn’t it?
As soon as you restrict access to a place, its allure increases. Such is the case with Fernando de Noronha, which sits pretty 200 miles off Brazil’s northeastern coast. Only 240 people are allowed on the archipelago at any one time, all of whom are required to pay environmental taxes to preserve the beauty of the 21 islands. Only the main island is inhabited, and that's where you’ll stay in quaint boutique-style bed-and-breakfasts. The jet set may prefer Pousada Maravilha, where they can unwind in one of its ocean-facing bungalows. There’s not much to do on this paradise on Earth other than swim in the Atlantic Ocean and bask beneath the sun, but that’s kind of the point, isn’t it?
Isla Vieques, Puerto Rico
Just six miles off the coast is Isla Vieques, an untouched paradise on Earth with verdant forests, never-ending stretches of white sand and a backdrop of rolling hills that only Monet could have dreamed. Up until 2003, it was under the control of the Navy, but now they’re gone, so we can go there. Stay at the blissfully chic Bravo Beach Hotel, which has direct access to the coastline. Here you’ll be able to saddle up and gallop across the sand Black Beauty-style. If you do go, be sure to do it soon. With Starwood’s W Retreat having opened, Isla Vieques’ undiscovered appeal could soon be lost forever.
Just six miles off the coast is Isla Vieques, an untouched paradise on Earth with verdant forests, never-ending stretches of white sand and a backdrop of rolling hills that only Monet could have dreamed. Up until 2003, it was under the control of the Navy, but now they’re gone, so we can go there. Stay at the blissfully chic Bravo Beach Hotel, which has direct access to the coastline. Here you’ll be able to saddle up and gallop across the sand Black Beauty-style. If you do go, be sure to do it soon. With Starwood’s W Retreat having opened, Isla Vieques’ undiscovered appeal could soon be lost forever.
Kauai, Hawaii
While the rest of Hawaii may have been overrun with soul-destroying developers, volcanic Kauai is so lightly developed that it has been dubbed The Garden Island -- and that’s not just brochure speak. Fortunately, the state of Hawaii has declared over half of Kauai as parkland, meaning that developers will never get their grubby little paws on it. Most of the island’s interior is roadless, with thick forests, cascading waterfalls and the only navigable rivers in Hawaii.
While the rest of Hawaii may have been overrun with soul-destroying developers, volcanic Kauai is so lightly developed that it has been dubbed The Garden Island -- and that’s not just brochure speak. Fortunately, the state of Hawaii has declared over half of Kauai as parkland, meaning that developers will never get their grubby little paws on it. Most of the island’s interior is roadless, with thick forests, cascading waterfalls and the only navigable rivers in Hawaii.
Kiribati, Micronesia
The world’s most eastern point, Kiribati (formerly known as the Gilbert Islands) is an island nation found about 2,485 miles southwest of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. Straddling the equator, it comprises 33 islands (only 21 of which are inhabited), and is home to the world’s largest protected marine reserve.
Thought to be one of the last untouched coral archipelagos, it’s about the size of California and offers more marine life than any Western museum could. With coconut trees galore (its main economy), white-sand beaches and crystal-clear lagoon waters, it’s like a luxurious Sandals resort, only natural.
The world’s most eastern point, Kiribati (formerly known as the Gilbert Islands) is an island nation found about 2,485 miles southwest of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. Straddling the equator, it comprises 33 islands (only 21 of which are inhabited), and is home to the world’s largest protected marine reserve.
Thought to be one of the last untouched coral archipelagos, it’s about the size of California and offers more marine life than any Western museum could. With coconut trees galore (its main economy), white-sand beaches and crystal-clear lagoon waters, it’s like a luxurious Sandals resort, only natural.
Morzine, France
A chic alpine paradise on Earth, Morzine, nestled in the heart of the Portes du Soleil, is the perfect place to get back to nature. Stay in a low-key chalet-hotel like La Chaumiere and enjoy traditional mountain hospitality with modern-day comforts. With powdered snow, green pine trees at every turn and more fresh air than your polluted lungs are used to, you’ll never want to leave.
A chic alpine paradise on Earth, Morzine, nestled in the heart of the Portes du Soleil, is the perfect place to get back to nature. Stay in a low-key chalet-hotel like La Chaumiere and enjoy traditional mountain hospitality with modern-day comforts. With powdered snow, green pine trees at every turn and more fresh air than your polluted lungs are used to, you’ll never want to leave.
Patagonia, Chile
A little-known region of Chile, Patagonia is seriously underrated -- and thank god, otherwise it would probably be overrun with bucket-and-spaders. With beautiful forests, islands, fjords, and ice fields, coming to this paradise on Earth is like stumbling onto the edge of the world.
Located in Southern Chile, the region is divided into two halves: Northern Patagonia and Southern Patagonia. Among them you’ll find virgin forests, stunning glaciers, gushing rivers, and twinkling ice fields. With very few roads cutting through Patagonia, you’ll need to take ferries across the fjords if you want to catch a glimpse of the breathtaking scenery
A little-known region of Chile, Patagonia is seriously underrated -- and thank god, otherwise it would probably be overrun with bucket-and-spaders. With beautiful forests, islands, fjords, and ice fields, coming to this paradise on Earth is like stumbling onto the edge of the world.
Located in Southern Chile, the region is divided into two halves: Northern Patagonia and Southern Patagonia. Among them you’ll find virgin forests, stunning glaciers, gushing rivers, and twinkling ice fields. With very few roads cutting through Patagonia, you’ll need to take ferries across the fjords if you want to catch a glimpse of the breathtaking scenery
Thornybush Game Reserve, South Africa
Africa is arguably one of the most stunning continents on the planet, teeming with exotic animals not found elsewhere and characterized by thousands of miles of untouched wilderness. Check out Thornybush Game Reserve, located in the heart of the rolling Lowveld and adjacent to Kruger National Park. Stay at the Chapungu Luxury Tented Camp, which boasts an old-world colonial atmosphere and has a strict policy of no more than 16 guests at any one time. Indeed, it’s the perfect way to take in this gold-tinged paradise on Earth.
Africa is arguably one of the most stunning continents on the planet, teeming with exotic animals not found elsewhere and characterized by thousands of miles of untouched wilderness. Check out Thornybush Game Reserve, located in the heart of the rolling Lowveld and adjacent to Kruger National Park. Stay at the Chapungu Luxury Tented Camp, which boasts an old-world colonial atmosphere and has a strict policy of no more than 16 guests at any one time. Indeed, it’s the perfect way to take in this gold-tinged paradise on Earth.
Tristan da Cunha
Officially the world’s remotest island, Tristan da Cunha rises out from the South Atlantic Ocean like a prehistoric volcano. Situated 1,242 miles from St. Helena and 1,739 miles from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, it really does cut a lonely but beautiful figure.
There’s not just the main island, either; comprised of several uninhabited islands, one inaccessible island and the Nightingale Islands, this archipelago is like the lost world.
Officially the world’s remotest island, Tristan da Cunha rises out from the South Atlantic Ocean like a prehistoric volcano. Situated 1,242 miles from St. Helena and 1,739 miles from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, it really does cut a lonely but beautiful figure.
There’s not just the main island, either; comprised of several uninhabited islands, one inaccessible island and the Nightingale Islands, this archipelago is like the lost world.
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