The Rush Faced By The School Child In The City

The  rush  of  the  school  child

The fast-paced life of the urban does not solely seek out the adults and working class people in society; it engulfs even the children. With its wide selection of renowned prestige school, parents and children are beckoned into facing the rush every morning to attend a school in the city.  These school children as seen in the pictures above become roped into the web of the seeming chaos which pervades the city. They are forced to embrace the fast-paced lifestyle along with adults. The boy on the left, darts to the bus stop with minutes to spare before the school bell rings. His bag and lunch kit appearing to be the equivalent of his size, make the trek even harder. Similarly, the school children on the right, with little time to spare, purchase the quickest most affordable breakfast they could locate. Their lifestyles exemplify the tale of many a school child in the city. A meal on the go seems to be the new trend as life becomes too hectic to enjoy a healthy breakfast in the comfort of one’s home. This poses severe implications to one’s health and physiological development.

Abraham Maslow (1943) proposed the Hierarchy of Needs theory, whereby every human being has a hierarchy of 5 levels of needs which must be met in order to reach self-actualization. These include, physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualization, all aligned in a hierarchical structure in ascending order from the most basic to the highest growth need. He argues that in order to advance to higher level needs, one must first satisfy lower level needs such as, the need for food which is physiological in nature. He even goes on to discuss the retarding effect that life experiences may have on one’s ability to elevate to a higher level if lower level needs are not met.  This directly relates to the school children in the pictures above. Their busy lives may result in failure to consume a healthy and satisfactory meal before arriving at school. As suggested by Maslow’s theory, this lifestyle threatens their development and impairs their ability to reach the higher level needs , mandatory to excel in school.  

The link below provides a thorough explanation of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory

http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

References

McLeod, S. A. (2007). Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Retrieved February 23, 2014, from http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

Time Waits For No Man

Business woman purchasing a newspaper before going to work

Upon disembarking the water taxi, this business woman hurriedly purchases newspapers from the adjacent newspaper stand before heading to work. While searching for money in one of her many bags, she glances the headlines with limited time to leisurely read the newspapers.  This sight baffled me, revealing that people so consumed with their daily routine in the city, are forced to squeeze in time in order to keep pace with current events in the country and by extension the world. Their lives in the city become so overwhelmingly hectic that they don’t have the time to even peruse current news-worthy events in their country. Such is the life of many a working person in the City.

Businessman  hurrying  to  work  with  no  time  to  spare  

The picture on the left is synonymous with the picture above. This businessman runs with envelope in hand to catch a ride to work. Leisurely walking is not affordable with his time schedule of having to arrive to work before a specified time.  With no time to spare, he hurriedly hops a ride with a friend, bearing in mind his report for the Boss due at 11:00a.m. sharp! Most professionals in the city are subjected to this fast-paced, demanding, monotonous nightmare! “More and more it feels like our lives have turned into a grueling race toward a finish line we never reach. No matter how fast we go, no matter how many comforts we forgo in order to quicken our pace, there never seems to be enough time.” Time is evidently a factor of major concern in the City.

References

Life In The Fast Lane Fails To Fulfil Us. It’s time to go with the slow. (2009). Retrieved February 21, 2014, from http://www.jaywalljasper.com/articles/life-in-the-fast-lane.html.

Life In The Fast Lane Begins    

The video below depicts the fast-paced life in the city of Singapore

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwTGK9qY19U

The city of Port-of-Spain, the capital of Trinidad, is the hub of commerce and trade, similar to Singapore in the video above. With increasing globalization, the city has attracted international companies to set base. It's increasing investment in multinational companies such as BP, Repsol and the Hyatt Hotel, in addition to fast food chains including KFC and Subway, has created an environment attractive to residents from all corners of the country. This agglomeration of people has fostered a lifestyle quite different from the peripheral regions: a lifestyle on fast- forward, driven by business, commerce and a quest for power (Abbott, 2012). This has induced implications for stress, bad eating habits and an overall degradation in health.

The Water Taxi in Port-of-Spain

As passengers make their way off the Water Taxi, life in the urban begins. They are greeted with a torrential downpour and are forced to seek shelter among the host of people at the nearby bus stop and water taxi terminal. This sets the pace for the hectic day ahead. The urban lifestyle for commuters as well as, people residing in the city, is filled with the hustle and bustle of people from all demographic groups. The urban life is fast-paced for the single mother, the businessman, the elderly woman, and even the school children. It excludes no one. As an individual steps foot in the city, their experience may differ from that of another and as stated by Hall and Barrett (2012, 13), "this personal experience forms an important foundation from which to research and theorize about cities." As such, the fast-paced lifestyle differs with each individual and may raise particular problems of city life in relation to human lifestyles.

References

Abbott, Alison. (2012). Stress and the city: Urban decay [Electronic Version]. International weekly journal of science, 490, 162-164.

Hall, Tim. and Heather Barrett. (2012).  Urban Geography 4th edition. London and New York: Routledge.

How the city hurts your brain…And what you can do about it. (2009). Retrieved January 20, 2014, from http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/01/04/how_the_city_hurts_your_brain/