The city of Cubatão 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.



sticker mundo / Photo from caio antunes

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 Cubatão unfit for staying.

Photo from jinja_cambodia

The 300-metre-long Basaac Apartments were built due to the town planning director Lu Ban Hap’s 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.

Pictures from an armed convoy trip in Mogadishu / Photo from ctsnow

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.