Week 2: Cinema in Cities

             Week two of Professor Sanchez’s Urban Public Issues class brought up some very interesting topics and discussions pertaining to people’s differing views of the city; people’s outlooks were most directly impacted by the media or a different social/birthplace background. Movies and television shows do an excellent job of portraying areas to fit their movie specifically. What I mean by this is that instead of worrying about portraying a city or place accurately, they worry about making it out to be what fits their movie or show the best. They make scenes and locations to be anything that will make their movie or show more interesting and exciting.  http://www.theiacp.org/PoliceServices/ExecutiveServices/ProfessionalAssistance/ThePublicImageofthePolice/tabid/198/Default.aspx#ch2.
             To expand on this, movies and television do not normally focus on a city as a whole, but “zoom in” on specific parts. For example, a movie about violence and drugs, will set their movie in the slums of a city, showing only negative aspects, when in reality most cities have areas that are spectacular. Showing movies and television shows in this manner affect societies’ opinions on places, because they are not allowed to see the whole city as it really is, but only certain parts, and even then those parts are being portrayed only in a way to best fit a scene or point that the media is trying to make. A particularly striking example of this is Law and Order: SVU. It portrays the city as a place filled with rape, drugs, homicide, and human deprivation, without really focusing on the good aspects of the city. Look here; even celebrities get angered by Law and Order SVU’s frightening portrayal of cities: (http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,1550333,00.html). Elizabeth Hasselback is furious that her name was used in Law and Order: SVU. And rightfully so! Because there are most definitely not 10,000+ other people with that name as well..... 

In my search for more articles relating to how Cinema’s depict cities in today’s culture, I stumbled upon a website that writes of society’s view of the police. In the “Entertainment Media Influences” section, it speaks of how society views the “good” police jobs as those that break the rules and go against codes to save the world, as opposed to in reality when the police should be viewed as a respectable agency of honorable and honest men. Check it out! This article (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2009/mar/10/filmic-visions-of-the-future.)is about different movies that have depicted different scenarios our world could end up in. One movie (mentioned in class) Children of Men is about a world where people have lost the ability to reproduce. Also, other movies have depicted an apocalyptic type future such as Mad Max where people fight over gasoline. They’re even movies that depict a zombie apocalypse (Dawn of the Dead). It is strange to see that most "futuristic" movies are showing cities with destruction and chaos. Sadly, these movies are somewhat correct. Look at the way we carelessly deplete natural resources now: http://flowingdata.com/2009/04/24/how-long-will-the-worlds-natural-resources-last/. This data essentially predicts when we are expected to run out of natural resources if we keep exhausting them at our current rate; take a look... its interesting! On that note, I would like to talk about the idea of a sustainable city; because honestly, THERE IS NOTHING THAT GETS ME MORE EXCITED IN LIFE THAN THAT.
Masdar City, in Abu Dhabi, is predicted to be completely sustainable by 2025 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/25/masdar-abu-dhabi-planned-city_n_1229311.html) because they are slowly but surely making the switch to solar, wind, and geothermal (from the ground essentially) energy. And, I understand this city only is expected to house 40,000 people, but this is a huge step in the right direction!This also means that they will not rely on ANY non-renewable resources to run their city; no oil, no coal, etc. The only resource they need to acquire is water... which is easier said than done in Abu Dhabi. Anyways, this is surprisingly spectacular because Abu Dhabi is home to 8% of the worlds crude oil reserves, so they are looking to make a particularly large profit if they keep this sustainable living thing up throughout a larger portion of their country. USA... Please take note!!!!

Week 1 Blog Post

            My group members and I walked into class Thursday, unsuspecting of what Professor Sanchez had in store for us. We trusted him to guide us down the monotonous path formally known as “the history of cities and how they have changed over time.” But, this mundane, commonly trodden, dirt path – before our eyes – transformed into a lively park filled with adventure and knowledge. This experience is what we make of it. And, being my group’s first blog post, we intend to make the most of this situation. In todays post, we hope to guide you - as the reader - through the roles of hierarchy, record keeping, and walls in ancient cities (and we hope you learn something along the way).

            In class, our professor described hierarchy as “an innate human creation.” He said it was created because of human’s desire for power, and it also helps to organize people into distinct groups. Essentially, it rewards people for their hard work (hopefully), and puts people in a specific class that way, specialization can occur, increasing the overall efficiency of a body/city.  On the other hand, an article from learninggeneralist.com claims the word hierarchy is hated by many modern organizations because it tends to slow decision-making and undermine exceptional people. I will attempt to cover up my bias in this post; however, I feel it is clear what side most people will take on this issue. Historically, hierarchies were employed because a king could not run a kingdom alone, thus he employed advisors. These advisors, employed people to help them, and so on and so on until we get down to the very bottom of the social pyramid – the slaves. “The hierarchy was in place to achieve a set of organizational objectives and for leader to actually spend more time with their people. So the purpose of hierarchy in the first place, wasn't really to add process or slow down decision-making -- in fact it aided decision-making in a big way. Nor was this to undermine exceptional people - in fact it was put in place to get the best out of them and to ensure that there was someone empowered to help them remove blockers and look at problems differently” (http://www.learninggeneralist.com/2009/01/history-of-hierarchy.html).Yet, history has assured us that the goal hierarchies were meant to fulfill was not achieved… sadly enough. Now… onto the role of record keeping!

            A need for record keeping has always existed; whether it be orally, written down, etc.… In early times, record keeping was conducted mainly through spoken word, passed down from generation to generation. This need for record keeping was also described as “instinctual” by our professor: Humans wants to learn from their mistakes and do not want to forget their accomplishments. Records often did not have exact information such as dates and places (http://undeception.com/ancient-vs-modern-history/). As time and technology progressed new forms of record keeping have been created, such as writing down history and information on paper. This allowed historians to become much more exact in their accounts of historical events such as times, places, and people involved. Lastly, lets talk about the role of walls in historic societies…

The wall was one of the earliest forms of defense because nomads, wild animals, and other cities surrounded historic urban societies- some with the goal of taking over these establishments. Nomadic peoples knew that cities had food and water and never hesitated to form raids in an attempt to obtain such supplies. Kings often wanted to take over other cities for food, territory, and slaves, but were prevented from doing so by one of the simplest, yet effective structures—the wall. This important structure also acted as a tool for order along with a Citadel. The wall, while normally meant for keeping unwanted visitors out, was also used to keep uncooperative people in who retaliated against the king. The Citadel also was used to represent a central authority. With authority comes order. 
The following website talks of the Great Wall of China and how “its purpose was to protect China from outside aggression, but also to preserve its culture from the customs of foreign barbarians” (http://www.globalmountainsummit.org/great-wall-of-china.html).