Left Behind: The Reality Show

Mike Davis' work on world poverty, "Planet of Slums," is perhaps the most revolutionary work written in the last half-century. It ranks with many works that describe the horrendous conditions in which most of the world's population lives.

In the following interview, Davis discusses some of the important political aspects of his work:


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Remember, though sounding like something from revelation, the following is something that real people live every real day:

Hundreds never woke up. They were killed even before they realized what had happened. Enormous flames leapt from the nearby gas storage plant and shot a mile into the air. Bodies simply disappeared in the fireball, snatched from the earth without a trace. People ran through the street, some with their clothes and hair on fire, all screaming in fear. The sun had not yet come up, but the light from the flames lit up the scene as if it were noon. -- Simon, quoted in David, Planet of Slums, p. 130

Someday someone will write a "real-time" version of revelation and it will contain images like this.