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About Me
- rn
- I spent most of the past four years hanging out with street hawkers, smugglers, and sub-rosa import/export firms to write Stealth of Nations, a book that chronicles the global growth of System D--the parallel economic arena that today accounts for half the jobs on the planet. Prior to that, I lived in squatter communities across four continents to write Shadow Cities, a book that attempts to humanize these vibrant, energetic, and horribly misunderstood communities. My articles on cities, politics, and economic issues have appeared in many publications, including Harper's, Scientific American, Forbes, Fortune, The Nation, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Metropolis, and City Limits. Before becoming a reporter, I worked as a community organizer and studied philosophy. I live in New York City and do most of my writing on manual typewriters.
8 comments:
Hi,
I got to your blog from the worldchanging post... for whatever reason the Atom feed is password-protected. I'd like to be able to read your site in my news aggregator, so if you could turn it off, that'd be cool.
Thanks
I'd be glad to do what you ask, but I'm not tech savvy. Please excuse my ignorance, but how do I disable the password protection?
Hi, I am a freelance journalist writing an article on your "Shadow cities" for a swiss daily paper. I would be very grateful if you could reply to a few questions I couls ask by e-mail or ba phone. Of course the deadline is short, sending-in time noon wednesday.
Thanks for your time and greetings from an ex-Geneva (Switz) 10 year squatter.
Philippe
ph_derougemont@datas.ch
1 819 822 42 98
Sherbrooke, QC
Do you recommend NYC as a good city for squatting?
No, anonymous, I don't think NYC is good for squatting these days. The city is in a real estate boom (some might say bubble) right now. I thought it couldn't get worse than the 80s, but it has. It has become increasingly privatized and rich. Developers are building 'luxury' homes in previously unthought of areas, like East New York. So the city doesn't have the quantity of vacant land and vacant buildings it use to. Almost everything's being developed. What's more, we're in a rather law and order phase here in the city--and I wouldn't expect the cops to look kindly on squatters.
Hello,
I would like to invite you to speak at a conference at Columbia University on Urbanization in the Developing World. How can I get in contact with you?
You can email me at sabrinalenoir@hotmail.com
Thank you
Hi Robert,
I am a social worker and artist in Portland, Oregon. I am about to leave for Lebanon to curate an exhibit of works in Beirut, emphasizing reuse projects in shantytowns around the world. I will be visiting Cairo, and living in Beirut for 3 months. I'd love to contact you and ask you some questions about sustainable social and artistic reuse projects/practices that you might have come across in shantytowns. I can be reached at:
redsemilla@riseup.net
Thanks!
Taylor Stevenson
Hi Robert:
Hope this finds you well. I am a doctoral student in public health, studying health, health systems and urban slums. I am planning to do some work in Mumbai (not Dharavi) this summer and would like to ask you some practical questions about your time living in squatter cities -- drinking water and things like that.
If you could email me: hlanthor@hsph.harvard.edu, I would really appreciate it!
Best,
Heather
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