Please rate my essay: Claim: Governments must ensure that their major cities receive

[Sagnik Banerjee]

Questions:

 

Claim: Governments must ensure that their major cities receive the financial support they need in order to thrive.

 

Reason: It is primarily in cities that a nation's cultural traditions are preserved and generated.

 

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim and the reason on which that claim is based.

 

Response:

 

A nation’s cultural tradition is deeply rooted in its countryside. Big cities are home to people who are more interested in gaining wealth and hence give very little importance to tradition. Cities already have enough means to thrive and often have a surplus of resources at their disposal. So governments do not need to support big cities to maintain themselves. I also disagree with the reason of the claim as cultures are better preserved in villages and not in big cities.

 

Big cities have several ways to generate money and they do not need any external help. They have big factories, financial institutions that lend money to the needy, banks, stock exchange and other related offices which are considered the major sources of wealth generation. The economy of any big city is governed by the services sector, a hugely profitable sector. In the US, more than three fourth of the economy depends on the services sector and this sector is thriving in big cities in the form of banking, finance, software etc. When it comes to facilities like healthcare, education, clean drinking water, proper sanity etc. bigger cities have the lion’s share of those.

 

In contrast, villages have limited sources of wealth generation like agriculture, handicrafts, small factories. They contribute to the majority of the economy of the villages. Sometimes these mechanism are not capable to generate enough jobs to retain people to villages. In developing countries like India, villages almost completely depend on agriculture which in turn depends on rain for most of the country. The failure of rain causes the failure of crops and villages suffer due to lack of money to continue the doing agriculture. At this pernicious time, they need government support to sustain the people of villages and their means of livelihood. Villages do not have ample access to healthcare, education etc. as well.

 

The reason for the claim falls apart when we look at the history of any place in this world. Any civilization be it Maya, Indus Valley or Chinese, everything started with villages and not cities. Cities came a lot later in the history of civilization. When people started dwelling and living together, they started to build up communities and for livelihood, they started doing diverse works, enjoyed celebrations, mourn burials. This marked the beginning of traditions, customs being made. Some of the age old customs can still be seen in villages like special kind of dance when crops are ready. But ancient traditions are things of yore for big cities as they are only a place to earn money and become wealthy. People do not have time out of their busy lives to make old custom a part of their lives. And gradually they die.

 

So if the traditions are to be preserved, governments need to support villages that are not self-sufficient. Big cities will take care of themselves.