Posted on 05/27/2011 8:47:50 PM PDT by TheDingoAteMyBaby
The United Nations recently published its two-yearly update of world population projections. These suggest that Nigeria could rise to 725 million people by 2100. Western media are shrilly calling for Nigeria to put a check on her population growth.
No way, sorry. We Nigerians are rejoicing.
Africans love children. First for financial security. In the past children helped in the farms and the more of them the better. Today, with little or no social security, children are needed to support their parents in old age. Their contributions constitute an informal pension scheme. And having more children means a better pension.
Second, many children ensure that we avoid the problem of ageing populations. We know that in Europe and America, birthrates are far below replacement level. Their populations are ageing and a huge pension debt is resting on the shoulders of a shrinking number sof their working youths. A day of reckoning is looming for them. Nigerians want to avoid this.
Third, our large population supplies our economy with the dynamic and youthful workforce it needs to grow, as well as huge markets for all types of businesses.
Why are Westerners so nervous? Perhaps they believe that Africans will consume all the food. Critics of large population argue that population grows geometrically and food production arithmetically and that soon the human population will outstrip food production and we will all starve. This theory was first floated by Thomas Malthus.
What Malthusians fail to take into consideration is the human spirit of enterprise. Necessity is the mother of invention. This was the case with the breakthrough of Norman Boulaug, the famous scientist who invented high yield crops. Even though Boulaug did not realize it, he had refuted Malthus.
Nor is our large population the primary reason why we are poor. “For these countries to overpopulate themselves like this is a burden on themselves and the world. They are driving themselves into poverty. I suppose they will be expecting other nations to accept their overflow when their irresponsibility makes life in their own countries unbearable,” sniffs a Malthusian reader of The Economist. “High rates of population growth is the number one indicator of under-development,” shouts another.
Such nonsense is often based on ignorance. Even that paragon of exactitude, The Economist, mixed up Niger and Nigeria in its comment on a graph of population growth. But this is a salutary mistake. Let’s compare the two countries. Niger has a population of 15 million and suffers from high unemployment, poverty and an unskilled workforce. It is poorer than Nigeria with its 150 million people by a long margin. Are population and poverty really linked?
The real reason for poverty is corrupt rulers, not a lack of birth control.
Most Africans are ruled by sit-tight leaders who are supported by Western countries because they guarantee secure access to resources. “Rivalry between the United States and the USSR for the rich resources of Congo culminated in General Mobutu Sese Seko’s rule, an extremely corrupt regime that lasted 32 years and sapped the country of its income and stability,” says Paul Johnson in his book Modern Times. African democracy — with some exceptions like Ghana and Botswana — is replete with power-hungry men who cling to power even if it destroys their country. Just think of Kenya, Gabon and recently the Ivory Coast. Such men loot and steal the resources entrusted to them for the development of their people. In many cases they stash their loot in Western banks while the Western governments look the other way.
In 2009 US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton flew around Africa and spoke tough words to many African strongmen. But she sadly refused to comment when asked what the US and its allies are doing to ensure that embezzled funds are returned. Surely this evasive and insincere attitude keeps many Africans poor. Until corrupt leaders know that Europe will not shield them because of their wealth, they will not stop bleeding Africa dry.
Yet the Western propaganda that people make us poor blares on. It is often parroted by our own local media and now many Africans fear having many children. When I was young, I was taught that the world was overpopulated by my primary school teacher. My relatives complained about my mother’s seven children. “A modern woman,” they said, “shouldn’t have so many.”
But we all grew up to be healthy, normal adults and are now a great source of joy and support to my mother and father in their old age. Many of those relatives are envious because in their twilight years they have to deal with few children whom they spoilt silly.
The comfort of a small family is deceptive. Many young people in advanced countries are so spoilt by luxury that even the smallest setback feels intolerable. Euthanasia and birth control result from an inability to cope with suffering, pain and self denial. As one American lady said to me: “My biggest fear is suffering and I am so scared of pain.” No wonder they have high suicide rates!
According to The Economist, “many people in the rich world live alone and die alone.” Even in the US, white people will be in minority in the next ten years because of their low birth rate.
Nigeria and other African countries stand a good chance of becoming world leaders in the coming decades. They will be helping Europe and the US to fill gaps left by acute shortages of manpower. Perhaps it is a sign of the times that a Nigerian father of five is the new head of the United Nations Population Fund. “A world of 7 billion is both a challenge and an opportunity,” says Dr Babatunde Osotimehin.
I totally agree with him.
I’m guessing that this article doesn’t show up if you search on Google.cn
The countries in Africa are so prosperous and well run. We could learn much from them.
“The countries in Africa are so prosperous and well run. We could learn much from them.”
Well we can learn from Nigeria, at least, that if you’re going to run a Ponzi scheme, you shouldn’t cut off the legs of it.
The Nigerians are an industrious group. Just put an ad on craigslist and you’ll immediately get emails from them asking you to agree to take delivery of their BMW that is being shipped to the states. In return for your efforts they will forward you a check for $20,000 which they want you to deposit to your checking account and you can keep $5,000 of it for yourself.
Good deal. Not.
Fat chance.
Maybe we could elect a President from over there, and follow in their footsteps....
I thought you might find this article interesting.
Hey, Nigeria in a few decades will be another Moslem cesspool after they finish killing off millions of Christians.
Nigeria once had a lot of promise as the British tried their best to make its independence a peaceful and well-structed one. Biafra showed how tribalism and religion made this impossible. Oil has continued this disaster as has Islamic jihadism.
750 million Nigerians would be a disaster for not only Africa, but the world as a whole.
Not if we don't send it to them. A beautiful, rich continent where so many countries can't feed themselves due to corruption. Pitiful.
And, while we're at it, let's also embrace the explosive population of Mexico, the epitome of a well run country free of corruption. /S
When I first saw the source of the article ("Crisis Magazine"), I thought first of commie W.E.B. DuBois' rag, still run by that vile NAACP racist outfit. It's known as "The Crisis Magazine".
There are too many nonsense points in this article. First, he says whites will be a minority in 10 years. 2. He assumes that many of ‘his’ people WON’T be leaving by the boatload to come to the West. 3. There will likely be worse clashes between Christian and Mooselimb in future, ensuring a poor investment rate in the country. 4. He mentions nothing about Chinese inroads to Africa, to buy up their natural resources. The Chinese will not back down the way the West will when challenged. 5. MOST women don’t necessarily want 6 or 7 children if they have a choice.
Ever lived in Africa (Afrika)?
No matter what you try and teach them they end up having sex even if they know that they have a 90% change of getting a disease which will either kill them or cripple them the rest of their lives.
They no longer have tribal leaders.
If we leave them alone and stop trying to save them they will eventually decrease their population and put power back into tribal leaders who used to control who mated with who.
I’m thinking “natural” population reduction - famines, disasters, not to mention warfare, diseases, etc. Do-gooders are pushing for zero population growth on one hand, not realizing foreign aid usually has the opposite effect.
I have the feeling that the writer and much of his intended audience have the unquestioning belief that, if things go horribly wrong with this plan for him and them and their relatives, neighbors, and friends, Europeans and those of European descent are going to come along and take care of them anyway. But there’s no colonial guilt anymore with generations that weren’t alive when there were colonies of Europeans ruling throughout the world, ‘racist’ is a term that has progressively less traction to the point it is almost completely ignored as a nonsense term that only says something about the person slinging it, and compassion fatigue has set in to such an extent that it’s not even discernible from any other way of thinking about beggar nations’ issues.
“5. MOST women don’t necessarily want 6 or 7 children if they have a choice.”
I beg to differ. Leave a FReeperette alone with the following:
*Reagan (when he was alive)
*GW
*Chuck Norris
*Bill Gates
*This ridiculously handsome Russian doctor at the clinic I go to
Any one of them and you’ll see at LEAST eight kids, happily if I may add.
“4. He mentions nothing about Chinese inroads to Africa, to buy up their natural resources. The Chinese will not back down the way the West will when challenged.”
Why aren’t people paying attention to this? They keep ignoriing it, as if the Chinese colonizing the place isn’t going to be a hugely decisive factor. The Chinese are not going to flinch in the opposition of the world, they are more apt to laugh at it. They haven’t backed down over Tibet and they won’t back down over Africa after establishing a foothold. Once they are established, nothing will stop them; they have Mugabe under their thumb and they would likely welcome military confrontation in Africa to test their forces.
no more need to send food or financial aid to Africa? they can take care of themselves now?
what a relief!
Years ago in the late '70's while I was in high school I worked during the summer months as a longshoreman if I was out of work. Even if I was working you could still get weekend work which just boosted my spare spending money. It was great money for a young kid and there was usually a long list of ships needing to be loaded at the ports. The work was hard, the weather was hot and humid and many times it was back-breaking labor. Anybody who has ever loaded 120/150 lb sacks of flour into barges or ships for 12 straight hours can attest to that.
I would often be impressed with the vast amount of goods that were being loaded. I was also impressed with the generosity of the American people. Everything was marked in some manner or another with "Provided by the People of America" or words to that effect. The crew, when asked, usually stated that the destination was Africa. Sometimes it went elsewhere, but Africa seemed to be the main destination for most of them.
And so it was that one time the gang I was picked to go with got sent to the dock and the older guys kept saying how lucky we were to have gotten this particular load. I figured out what they were talking about when we got to the dock. The forklifts had already started bringing out the pallets to be loaded aboard and they had small cardboard boxes about one foot square on them and they weighed just a few pounds each. What an easy load, I thought, in comparison to the gangs that were sent to the flour docks or to load full 55 gallon drums. Even though there would be thousands upon thousands of boxes loaded to fill that ship it would still be an easy day for the whole gang.
You can well imagine my surprise when I read from the information printed on the boxes that I and my fellow Americans were sending out, as a sign of our generosity, boxes full of either condoms or birth control pills! The crew, as usual, said they were going to Africa. I read this article with a faint sense of deja vu, knowing what that particular ship carried.
It's easy for me from my past personal experience to say...He's so right. It isn't from lack of birth control. Africa has been receiving free birth control in vast quantities for decades and most Americans were not, and never have been, aware of what was being sent out in their name.
Surface area of Nigeria: 356,667 sq.mi.
Projected population in the year 2010: 725 million
Projected pop. density in 2010: 2,033 persons per sq.mi.
This is one-third the CURRENT pop. density of Hong Kong.
In fact, Nigeria's projected pop. density is CURRENTLY exceeded by only five territories: Macau, Monaco, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Gibraltar - all city-states and the like.
In the year 2010, Nigeria's pop. density would be DOUBLE Bangladesh's CURRENT pop. density.
Regards,
While it doesn't help, this isn't the real problem.
Let's say corrupt leader A steals $10B over 10 years, and that his country has a population of 20M people.
That's $50 per person per year. While such an amount, if evenly distributed, would make a difference in a very poor country, it would not raise the poor to a decent standard of living, much less to affluence.
Given the culture of these countries, it is highly unlikely the money would be invested in projects that would increase the production of wealth over time. Instead, it would probably almost all be spent on consumer products, leaving the people just about as poor at the end of the 10 years as if the money had been stolen.
I also like the way the author places responsibility for the corruption of democratic African leaders on the West. The leaders are African, and they are elected and re-elected by Africans, but somehow it's whitey's fault they steal everything in sight.
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