That's why it's nice to know that in response to agitprop like this article, which I wrote about this last week, and this article, which I didn't, there are eminently sensible rejoinders like this:
Ask the average informed first world citizen what he or she knows about the Philippines and they are likely to tell you that it is a poor, overpopulated, Catholic country, and that the “Catholic” part explains all the rest. A recent article in the Washington Post is typical of the media coverage that feeds this view: “Birthrates Help Keep Filipinos in Poverty,” ran the heading. “Contraceptives, Rejected by Government, Are Unaffordable for Many in Majority-Catholic Nation,” the subheading explained. Enough said.
The Post’s pitch faithfully reflects the view of the global family planning industry, which has long viewed the Philippines as “that Asian upstart” for resisting a national population control program. In the past thirty years official aid agencies and non-government groups led by International Planned Parenthood have poured resources into influencing the Philippines government to enact such a program.
Whence comes this resistance? How has it benefited the Philippines?
Certainly the majority Catholic culture explains a lot. Even when other parts of the Catholic world fell in with the birth control mentality, the Philippine clergy were stalwart in their defence of the principles set out in Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae 40 years ago. Asian family values have also played their part.
Now, media messages to the contrary, they stand vindicated. As much of the world confronts a demographic meltdown caused by very low birth rates and ageing populations, the Philippines is in a strong demographic position to build its own social and economic wellbeing -- as well as continue contributing to the workforce of the developed world. That is my ultimate argument in this article.
Read the whole thing.
[HT: Sunnyday at This Is Not a Job for Superheroes]
1 comment:
What is the difference between espousing the following statements at a cocktail party.
"I think there are too many niggers and we need to sterilize them!"
and
"The difficulty of the Developing World is the lack of access to greater family planning and reproductive rights."
Qualitatively nothing.
But one will get you kicked out after the socialites spit out their martinis, the other will get knowing nods of approval and - per chance - an offer to work with some UN organization.
PJ O'Rourke sums it up best in his book All the Trouble in the World: The Lighter Side of Overpopulation, Famine, Ecological Disaster, Ethnic Hatred, Plague, and Poverty: Zero population growth models are dependent on whitey (who knows what is good for you!) saying: Just enough of me, way too much of you!
Truth in advertising, eh?
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