Sub-Saharan Africa is urbanizing at the fastest rate in the world.

General elections for India’s lower house of parliament began on April 11 and will last through May 19, with all ballots counted on May 23. This is the world’s largest democratic exercise. I had the …

A case of Ebola, the deadly hemorrhagic fever with terrifying symptoms, has been found in the second-largest city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The city, Bunia, has a population of almost one million. The disease has already been identified in Butembo and Beni, the former with a population slightly larger than Bunia, the latter slightly smaller. The disease is now urban and rural in eastern Congo.

A rapidly growing population will create a “demographic dividend,” and urbanization will accelerate economic development, or so the “Africa rising” narrative goes. Given Africa’s lack of basic infrastructure, ranging from roads to hospitals to schools, both propositions are dubious.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is on the urbanization warpath. For Li, urbanization—transforming rural Chinese into urban dwellers—has become perhaps the most important issue of his early months as premi…