Demography - The Conservative Effort

Demography – The Conservative Effort scratch pad



Define ‘conservative effort’: try to solve problems or resolve conflicts with a positive state of mind (optimism).

SCENARIO: A very ‘well-liked’ politician (still very ‘well-liked’) once stated that the ‘youths’ in his area were ‘irredeemable’ (He wasn’t assassinated. Instead, very hardworking young people who were busy education the regular human being about HIV/AIDS were being brutally murdered.). This gives the average human being the impression that he was ready to throw in the towel instead of trying to put the logical part of his brain into use and come up with ideas to try to solve the problems they face.

Somebody once wrote a letter to Sir Winston Churchill that had the following line in it: “The people have lost confidence in themselves, and they turn to the Government, looking for a restoration of that confidence. It is the task of the Government to supply it.” When he was in control of the prison system and he took the opportunity to work on reducing lengthy prison terms for youthful offenders and find alternative punishment for them, in some cases, instead of prison.


Who is Thomas Malthus?


Sources to acquire data from:
United Nations
European Union
UNICEF
World Health Organization
CDC
International Committee of the Red Cross
World Bank
Environmental Organizations – Greenpeace, etc.
Roman Catholic Church (NGO)
Other major active NGOs – Oxfam, etc.
CIA (Fact Book)

Compare and explain population densities:
Singapore
Monaco*
Barbados
Jamaica*
Trinidad & Tobago*
England*
India
China – One child policy
Sub-Saharan Africa*
Tibet*
The Vatican*
Brazil
Mongolia
Russia
Australia
Canada
Haiti
Netherlands**
Finland
Somalia*

Problems (means of population control):
Drought
Famine
Plague/Diseases
War/conflict – genocide
Natural disasters – flooding (New Orleans), earthquake (Haiti, China, Singapore), tsunami (Indian Ocean), tornado, volcano
Major Environmental Issues – Brazil (The Amazon – Deforestation, creation of dams), China (creation of dams, oppression of Tibet for natural resources), USA (need to address fuel efficiency in cars)
Manmade disasters – oil spill (USA), disasters caused from deforestation, arson (severe threats to the environment)

Notable conflicts caused from religious, population or other social issues:
A summary of ancient conflicts
World War I
World War II
Northern Ireland Conflict
Arab-Israeli Conflict (Israel/Palestine)
Liberia
Rwandan Genocide
Somalia Civil War
Pakistan
Afghanistan
Iraqi-Wars
Wars of Yugoslav succession
Chechnyan War

International social events effective in bringing nations together and aid in fostering peace:
FIFA World Cup
Olympic Games
Other events – Live Aid

Social Institutions that can be effective in helping to solve the social/population crisis:
Religion
School/education system
The media (various sorts)
Other organizations – YMCA, orphanages



ARGUMENTS:

Underpopulation is as big a problem as overpopulation but, while the former can be solved by increased immigration and birth rate, the latter will be a whole lot more difficult to solve being that, while migration is possible and encouraged, a nation should not consider killing its citizens to decrease population and population density. It is almost impossible to convince a lot of skeptics, and others, that this is not what is secretly happening in countries that have a high population density and a devastatingly high murder rate which seem to be unresolvable, such as Jamaica.

Mother Teresa adapted the approach of solving poverty one person at a time but I think the government of any nation should devise a foolproof framework or template which could handle any kind of population crisis that should arise at any given time.

Thomas Malthus advocated that citizens should marry at a later age and have small families but this method is not at all foolproof being that a great proportion of citizens in any average nation is born outside of wedlock. He also advocated that restraint should also be used to control population growth but this is undoubtedly a clear violation of human rights.

In India, under Indira Gandhi’s rule, she gave her younger son political power who then organized a compulsory sterilization campaign which mandated vasectomies for men with families of two or more children. This campaign was met with widespread fear and resistance and caused her party to lose the next election. She was even imprisoned after that.

Where overpopulation exists, any logical thinker can easily extrapolate that a government might and will secretly make its male citizens sterile through the vaccinations received during immunization.

In a nation where mass underpopulation exists, one will find that a lot of traditions will be overridden in the procreation process. The most specific of these traditions is marriage.

Where mass underpopulation exists, you will find the advocacy and most likely, instatement of a lower age of consent. You will also find that this policy will face very high opposition from religion and other moral groups.

Being that a smaller population is easier to tend to, the government in an underpopulated nation should capitalize on the opportunity to design and apply a fully functional social template that will entail its citizens being one hundred percent educated and well socially rounded and this will eventually become a culture that will be instilled in newborns.

While mass migration from an area of high population density and overpopulation to an area or low population density and underpopulation might seem like one quite suitable fix for population problems there are two other problems which will, most likely arise, making this transition difficult. A nation accepting immigrants will most definitely not want unskilled or uneducated persons coming to their country while the nations where the skilled persons are migrating from will most definitely suffer from brain drain.

In Britain, for instance, when concerned citizens indulge in conversations regarding population increase and overpopulation, a solution often suggested is triggering a warfare that will wipe out a percentage of the population. While this might come across as ridiculously absurd or a twisted joke to the masses, one must never take it for granted that this tactic has been used some time in some nations throughout history.

At the beginning of World War II Russia was one of Hitler’s allies but ties between the two nations were soon broken when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa: a directive to invade Russia. Its execution triggered a battle that lead to the greatest loss of lives in any one battle in human history. Hitler tried to justify this act of treachery by stating that he needed ‘living space’. It is a known fact that the control of the rich wealth of oil in the Stalingrad area was among Hitler’s main ambitions. This is an example of a conflict which resulted from one nation’s need to acquire more natural resources.

Singapore has one of the highest population densities in the world. They build high-rise apartment blocks to solve their population problems. They also have one of the wealthiest societies in the world which means that, technically, they are not overpopulated. We must be aware of the fact that, should they get hit by a very devastating natural disaster such as an earthquake, they will suffer more devastating loss of lives because of their population density.

It is quite logical that the smaller the country the greater the chance of having a very high population density and overpopulation. It is also a fact that such nations lack great cultural diversity and diverse cultural and social infrastructure. This is due to limitations caused by lack of land space to build. Some of the countries with the greatest population densities in the world are Monaco, Singapore, Malta and Barbados.

More precise town planning is required for smaller countries and a more uniformed geometrical pattern emerges during development. This is evident in Vatican City.

An overpopulated nation will face grave difficulty in an attempt to centralize its already uncentralized infrastructure in order to make them more efficient in their operations so underpopulated nations that are most likely to face a population explosion in the future and eventually become overpopulated should apply careful town planning and use the space they currently have to construct necessary infrastructure in convenient locations in preparation for the increase.

One child per dedicated couple decreases population growth and density; two children per dedicated couple keep population growth and density stable; but three or more children per couple increases population growth and density.

The greatest fear of the one-child policy becomes a reality whenever a devastating earthquake hits China and schools, homes and other social infrastructures collapse and children get killed. The children killed would be the only one any couple would have and some couples may be too old to have anymore. Women living in a society that enforces this law incessantly suffer overwhelming physical and emotional abuses, and therefore, long-term mental disorders inflicted upon them during their compulsory termination of pregnancies.

A Chinese leader once stated that, if it wasn’t for the instatement of the one-child policy in China the Chinese population would be way bigger than it is now. He didn’t take into consideration the fact that China is the fourth biggest country on the planet and that it has almost half the population density as India which the seventh biggest country. It is also quite evident that China has equal number of slums as India despite this fact. China cannot be considered overpopulated with their population density, they are somewhere on the verge of the outer upper side of a moderate population density. They have a rather underdeveloped economy.

The United States, being the third biggest country in the world and having a population of approximately half a billion, can be considered moderately underpopulated and has the potential of being the model nation to handle future population explosions and crises should they start preemptive strategizing now. Canada and Russia also have a very long way to go.

It is a fact that the death penalty is most commonly used and for lesser serious offenses in nations that have a very high population density and a large population. This is evident in Singapore and China.

Certain universal trends are noticeable for nations with various population traits. Where there is low population density there is either an urgency or citizens are encouraged to procreate and skilled persons are encouraged to immigrate to such a nation. You will also find that their cultural traditions, regarding socialisation and not necessarily procreation, might be very well-preserved especially if the society has a singular race or ethnicity. Where there is moderate population density, which one could describe as the perfect society, there is an urgency to socialize and citizens of such nations usually find comfort in their own nation without having to travel much. They also have very well-preserved traditions all around. Spain is a perfect example. Where there is high population density, if such a nation has a very functional economy, there is an urgency to decrease the population size, if such a nation has a dysfunctional economy this problem is always accompanied by other social ills such as overpopulation and a very high crime rate especially murder. You will find that governments of such a nation will have a tendency to want to kill off particular traditions while forcefully enforcing others, such as marriage, with the belief that this might solve its population problems. An attempt to solve the problems of this kind of society can be very devastating and discouraging being that there is usually a very great deficit in financial and other resources that would be needed to solve them.

Tibet is an autonomous region in China meaning that it is self-governed like a separate country. It has long being a theocracy meaning that is was ruled by religious leaders (Buddhism). Despite being a part of China, Tibet has one of the lowest population densities on the planet, seventy times lower than China’s, making it one of the most grossly underpopulated nations on earth. This is a prime example of how sticking to traditions can help to solve the overpopulation crisis.

The Chinese government has been doing extensive mining of rare resources, constructing hydroelectric and geothermal plants and logging timber in Tibet since 1959. As a result, serious environmental concerns have been raised among the Tibetan people, particularly in the east, over the extent of pollution and deforestation resulting from these projects.

Jamaica has a population density almost twice that of China. While it is not official that Jamaica has a one child policy they have a ridiculously high murder rate that keeps breaking its own record year after year among other social issues. China is a growing economy and one can effortlessly extrapolate that a high murder rate will deter a majority of investors from investing in Jamaica’s economy hence, a slumping economy.

You will find that a nation that has a very high murder rate will have severely deprecated family values which defeats the whole purpose of having a family in that nation.

The average person in a nation with grave social problems will, in turn, possess a very low self esteem, exude antisocial behaviours, and have very low expectations in life.

Regardless of the population size or density of any nation, the logical thinker would agree that, in a multi-racial or multi-ethnic society, the preservation of racial ethnicities and their cultures should be radically advocated and legislated by especially the government. This gesture would discourage and, hopefully, eradicate instances of racial discrimination especially against minorities. It is exactly this very fragile issue that triggered conflicts such as the Arab-Israeli war, the Northern Ireland conflict, the Rwandan genocide, the Wars of Yugoslav succession, the Chechnyan War among others.

While abstinence should be verbosely advocated in an effort to decrease overpopulation it would be illogical for a government of any nation to legislate it being that the separation of religion from state is necessary since, what is deemed sinners, in the eyes of religion, might, most definitely not be criminals, in the eyes of the law. The logical approach to tackle this issue or any other issue or crisis, in the name of democracy, which has been proven to be the most effective and efficient form of government, is to offer incentives as encouragement for citizens to follow suit.

Social scientists often theorize the possibility of the world’s population reaching a figure as high as three times what it is at the moment. Should this prediction become a reality mankind would witness more devastating levels of conflicts and treachery. The possibility of nations invading their neighbours for a resource as fundamental as drinking water should not be the least undermined.

Not much effort is being made to make mankind conscious of the fact that fundamental natural resources such as oil will eventually run out in the future. This means that oil is not a renewable resource. It is often stated in various documentaries that the earth only has approximately fifty to sixty years oil left and scientists are currently working on various kinds of alternate energy sources; many of them merely theoretical at the moment. It should be no surprise to humanity that the most reliable renewable resource is actually the oldest one used by mankind: timber. This is true being that a tree can be replanted after one has been cut down for timber. If trees are not replanted and mankind continues to cut them down then we are faced with the problem of deforestation. Deforestation is also occurs when there is an increase in the demand for timber and the replanting of trees does not increase likewise. Some nations are just too poor and, eventually, uneducated to be able to replant trees. Such is the case with Haiti and the native people of the Amazon. The lesson learned here is that even renewable resources can diminish if they are not managed efficiently. Finland is an example of a nation that is in total control of his most precious natural resource which coincidentally happens to be timber. Timber is so important in Finland that they often refer to it as ‘green gold’.

Based on what I have learned from issues regarding timber and timber management from Haiti, Finland, The Amazon and other nations, I have devised a plan I call the ‘100/1000 square acres practical of timber management’. If a nation depends on 100 square acres of timber each year for consumption and export and one such tree takes 10 years to mature, the government should dedicate 1000 square acres of land to this industry, not necessarily in the same area in order to prevent leaving too much of a large surface area of land bare which could lead to landslides during heavy rainfall. At the end of the first year that the first 100 square acres of trees are cut down there would be another team replanting that same area with young trees. The second year would see the second 100 square acres of trees cut down and the planters would follow suit. At the end of the tenth year, the first 100 square acres should be fit and ready to be cut down again thus continuing a cycle. Should population increases and likewise the demand for timber, the government should increase the amount of land allocated to the industry. We must bear in mind that not more than about 10 percent of any nation’s forest should be allocated to this industry.

The fishing industry is another example of a resource which is showing signs of depreciation as increased demands due to an increase in population sizes lead to overfishing. There are many cases where organizations such as the European Union had to intervene and pass laws to regulate the amount of fishes that can be caught by the fishing industry. There are places in the world where fishing or the catching of a certain species of fish is totally banned.

There are rivers, lakes or other bodies of water in places of the world that are referred to in the most ancient texts that have either dried up or are gradually drying up at the moment due to the increasing demand for water based on rapid population increases in these regions and the instability of rainfall, which should replace the water evaporated from them, caused by the devastating levels of pollution and other exponential levels of environmental degradation taking place worldwide. This is evident in India, Africa and the Middle East. Governments have to intervene in some cases and set up apparatuses that will constantly pump water back into them to prevent this from happening.

In the movie Erwin Brockovich, which title, is the actual name of a lawyer in the United States who took on a corporate company accused of dumping waste in a lake which was the water supply of the local people. The people then consumed the polluted water and in the long term some of them developed various forms of cancer among other ills and some of them eventually died. She won the case and this was a landmark victory and motivation for people making such claims. The Federal Government (FBI) played a great role during the investigations of the claims made by the citizens. The United States is the perfect example of nation that has a system setup (the FBI) to protect its citizens’ interests. Though many may argue that this is because it is a first world nation we must not undermine the fact that the lack of this form of constitution in nations such as Rwanda has lead to the genocide that happened there.

During the civil war in Liberia, many child soldiers were created. After the end of the civil war eighty percent of the education system and infrastructure was completely demolished. Some international organizations describe this as a major step back into the dark ages. This is true because, before the civil war, Liberia was struggling to educate its people so the aftermath of the destruction caused by the civil war can be only negative. Instead of this nation making the effort to solve its population crises it was left in total devastation.

Nepal is one of the most remote nations on earth being that it is located in the regions of the Himalayas. As a result of its remoteness, it has one of the most underdeveloped economies in the world. Still they are a very well-cultured people and they do not have a very high population density. It is well evident that traditions are playing a vital role in their survival. It is quite logical that the smart thing for the industrialized nations such as China and India to do is to study how they have managed to maintain their survival despite their inefficiencies and adapt their strategies and inject them into their economies for positive change.

Africa does not possess a population density for anyone to draw the conclusion that the continent is overpopulated. Africa is rather the poorest continent with the most underdeveloped economy on the planet making it difficult for them to combat whatever crises they face.


CONSERVATIVE SOLUTIONS:

Overpopulation:
Advocate abstinence and give incentives to encourage it.

Make contraception more available to every citizens of the population, especially the uneducated ones. This will be met with widespread protest and criticism from religions but they must realize that a population can never be 100% devout. Besides, pregnancy takes place where the sperm reaches the egg so the type of contraception that should be made available in abundance is the ones which prevent this such as the condom. Condoms are also the most effective protection method of protection against STDs.

Educate the nation about STDs for you will find that a nation that is very well aware about this issue will put out the extra effort not to indulge in careless sexual activities.

Provide functional social infrastructure and encourage citizens to utilize them to indulge in social activities that will discourage them from indulging in sexual activities being that sex leads to possible procreation and, hence, population growth.

Centralize these social institutions to make them easily accessible to the greatest possible proportion of the society.

Encourage and assist citizens to migrate to other nations that have lower population densities that will accept them. As stated before, this method can prove to be very difficult.

Governments should grant religious freedom to every citizen and even assist in the establishment of religious institutions that would, in turn, educate the society about the whole population crisis and assist in abstinence.

Encourage marriage at a later date and couples to have smaller families.

The government should put out every effort to make sure that the population is 100% educated for an educated society is more aware of issues affecting them being that they can utilize the various medium available and do a wide range of reading and research to gain enlightenment. This should make them more logical thinkers that would make them greater collective problem solvers.

Starting with a clean slate, live by the guidelines mentioned above and instill them in the people as a culture or a new culture they should live by from then into the future.


Underpopulation:

Encourage and assist in the immigration of skilled people from other nations that are overpopulated or have a very high population density. As stated before, this method can prove to be very difficult.

Give incentives such as welfare to encourage procreation. Individuals should be very cautious of the STD issue here also.

The government should build and centralize social infrastructures and institutions that will create an environment for people to meet suitable partners to procreate with.