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How Happy Is City Life?

AFFLICTED mankind in today’s cities seek happiness in a number of ways. Cities such as Bombay, Bangkok, Monte Carlo, San Francisco, and Dallas try to provide it. In many ways they do. But are any of the world’s cities a source of lasting joy?

Make-​Believe Versus Reality

Early in this century, Hollywood became the motion-​picture capital of the world. So it may be surprising to learn that India produces perhaps as many as 800 films a year. “India’s masses are hooked on films,” notes the German magazine Geo, calling their addiction “almost like a religion.” It adds: “Nowhere else does the movie theater so clearly serve as a substitute world for the congregated millions who find success and riches, happiness and justice only on the silver screen.”

Although about half of India’s films are produced in Madras on the east coast, its film industry got its start on the west coast. In 1896, French brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière, inventors of a commercially viable projector, presented their first film hit at Bombay’s Watson Hotel.

Bombay was a small village when Portuguese traders took control of it in 1534. Britain’s King Charles II married a Portuguese princess in 1661, and the village was given to him as a wedding gift. In 1668 it came into the control of the East India Company, and soon Bombay became India’s chief western seaport.

One encyclopedia says that “the natural beauty of Bombay is unsurpassed by that of any city in the region.” In view of its beautiful setting and in keeping with the make-​believe world of Indian films it has helped to create​—a mixture of music, dance, and love—​Bombay should be a city of joy.

But Bombay has one of the highest population densities in the world. Crowded conditions mar the city’s beautiful surroundings and bring little happiness to the many thousands who live in shantytowns “without running water or sanitation” and who are forced to use “nearby rivers and open spaces as toilets.”​—5000 Days to Save the Planet.

Bombay also has a number of religions. But rather than joy resulting, there have been severe religious riots in India. In just the past two years, these have taken hundreds of lives in Bombay alone.

All That Glitters Is Not Gold

San Francisco is also a city of natural beauty. It is noted for its hills, for one of the finest natural harbors in the world, and for its bridges, including the Golden Gate spanning the entrance to the harbor. Few visitors go away unimpressed.

In 1835 Yerba Buena was founded, and in 1847 it was renamed San Francisco. One year later gold was discovered nearby, and the California gold rush began. A village of just a few hundred quickly became a frontier boomtown. But it had its setbacks, such as the devastating earthquake and fire of 1906.

Contributing to San Francisco’s popularity is its international flair. It has within its boundaries, notes The European, “separate worlds far removed in both atmosphere and appearance.” Several national groups represent Europe and Asia, such as one of the largest Chinese communities outside of Asia. Spanish-​speaking residents point up the city’s origins by way of Mexico.

Recently, several hundred tourist experts voted San Francisco their “dream city,” praising its “unique mixture of friendliness, elegance and tolerance.” A journalist elaborated: “If one thing characterizes Northern California and the city in which I live, it is tolerance for all manner of human behavior that confounds and enrages folks in other parts of the country.”

Its Bohemian traits have often made headlines. In the 1960’s many watched uneasily as long-​haired, untidy flower children paid honor to “love” and “peace” before descending into the ugly culture of drugs and promiscuity. And the city has one of the largest homosexual communities in the country.

AIDS has hit San Francisco very hard. A German newspaper calls the epidemic the city’s “severest crisis” since the 1906 earthquake and fire, adding that its “cheerful atmosphere seems lost forever.” The city by the Golden Gate has had to face a painful truth: “Golden” life-​styles, for all their promise, have lost their glitter in the midst of heartache.

More Lose Than Win

Monte Carlo, long a playground for the rich and the elite, is the home of one of the best-​known gambling houses in the world. Since opening in 1861, its casino has been a famous stop for tourists. Several casinos cater to those who feel that winning at gambling is the way to perpetual happiness. But far more people lose at gambling than win.

Monte Carlo is located on the French Riviera in the principality of Monaco and is less than a square mile [2.5 sq km] in area. Monaco was inhabited by the Romans in ancient times. In 1297 the wealthy Grimaldi family from Italy got control. After losing its independence, first to Spain and then to France, the principality was restored under the Grimaldis in 1814.

In 1992, Rainier III, a Grimaldi descendant, expressed concern for the safety of his subjects. After noting that “forty per cent of the world’s tanker traffic goes through the Mediterranean,” he added: “It has 150 times more oil pollution than the North Sea. Eighty per cent of the sewers that border this sea discharge straight into it untreated.”

Despite problems, “no other resort,” says The European, “can so immediately evoke an image of excitement and old-​fashioned abandon simply at the mention of its name.” Contributing to this image are its casinos, its museums, its luxurious yacht club, its automobile rally​—some say the greatest of races and the most glamorous—​as well as its opera house. However, culture is not all that draws the wealthy to Monte Carlo; its tax benefits are substantial.

Yet, money and culture cannot assure lasting happiness. Charles Wells, an Englishman, actually did break the bank in Monte Carlo in 1891, but despite his ‘good luck,’ he eventually ended up in prison. And in a city noted for the thrills of auto racing and boating, it is sadly ironic that Prince Rainier’s wife, Princess Grace, died in 1982 in an auto accident and that their daughter’s husband was killed in a boat-​racing accident in 1990.

Culture Made in the United States

Although critical of America’s pop culture, many Europeans seem to adopt much of it for their own. For example, they watched with pleasure as scenes of intrigue and family scandal flickered across TV screens for several years in the series called Dallas. A German newspaper praised the series for “satisfying an emotional need” and for imparting “a sense of security, trust, and a sense of belonging.”

Time magazine was less complimentary. It noted that the program “elevated conspicuous consumption to a secular religion . . . It introduced viewers to the Greedy ’80s, by establishing as a pop icon a Texas oilman.”

The image given the city by its TV namesake is hardly what lawyer and trader John Bryan had in mind when he founded a trading post in 1841, probably naming it after George Dallas, a U.S. vice-​president. A financial, transportation, and manufacturing city​—home to more oil companies than any other U.S. city​—“Big D” is indeed wealthy.

Wealth is often equated with happiness, so people may view Dallas as being a joyful city. However, wealth does not prevent bad things from happening. Dallas is where John F. Kennedy, 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on November 22, 1963.

Big-​city crime is one of Dallas’ problems that rob people of happiness. Another is racial and cultural tension. In Dallas, as in every city with a multiracial and multicultural society, there is always the potential for violence, as race riots in Los Angeles and religious riots in Bombay demonstrate.

Strangling on Its Success

Because of its many canals, Bangkok used to be called the “Venice of the East.” Now most of the canals have been replaced by roads, and a report says that a “typical motorist spends the equivalent of 44 days a year staring at the rear bumper just ahead.”

King Rama I knew nothing of such problems when he turned a small village into a royal city in 1782, renaming it Krung Thep, meaning “City of Angels.” After the Grand Palace was built, the rest of the city was laid out around it in accordance with the Thai belief that the palace was the center of the universe. During World War II, Bangkok suffered extensive damage from bombing raids. Despite its name and its magnificent temples, there was no evidence of angelic protection.

Though it lies some 20 miles [30 km] from the Gulf of Siam, Bangkok was made into a seaport by the constant dredging of the Chao Phraya River that cuts through the city. The river often overflows its banks and floods certain parts of the city, some of which lie only two feet [0.6 m] above sea level. However, floodwaters are now detoured through a diversion channel, and this has brought a measure of relief. Another problem is that thousands of artesian wells have caused the water table to drop. Since 1984 the entire city has been sinking at the rate of four inches a year.

Bangkok’s growth to more than five million people, along with a measure of economic success, should be a cause for happiness. And annually millions of tourists visit the city and fatten its coffers. But this is partially at the expense of its reputation, for many visitors are drawn by cheap and easily available sex in Bangkok’s brothels. So the city is now known as the lust capital of the Far East.

Not even the joy from events such as Bangkok’s bicentennial celebration​—floral parades, historical exhibits, royal ceremonies, classical dances, and fireworks—​can blot out the sadness felt in this city. Bangkok, Newsweek said, is “strangling on its own economic success.”

Finding Real Joy

What do trend-​setting entertainment centers, as represented by the above cities, really have to offer? Momentary pleasure at best, not lasting happiness. Today, lasting happiness can only be achieved in conjunction with God’s spirit, of which joy is a fruit.​—Galatians 5:22.

So do not look for joy in vain, not in the film studios of Bombay, the gambling casinos of Monte Carlo, the alternate life-​styles of San Francisco, the apparant wealth of Dallas, or the sex parlors of Bangkok. In future issues, we will see where lasting joy can be found.

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San Francisco, U.S.A.

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Bombay, India

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Bangkok, Thailand