Janurary, 3 2010, Population growth
Saturday, January 2, 2010
The PhilStar is reporting that population in the Philippine population will reach 94 million, with a birth rate of two million babies annually. The ideal birth rate should be less than 1% to match the economic groweth rate. It is not uncommon for a Philippine family to have 6, 8, or 10 children or more. Many are influenced by the Catholic church and do not practice birth control, other than natural means. Even the RP government has not passed a measure to help control the population groweth, apperantely influenced by the Catholic church. Link to the news report click HERE. . This makes if very hard for the Philippinos to feed their families. There are so many unwanted children, that many are given away or abandoned to the streets. Children have no way to care for themselves and many turn to prostitution.
From an economic standpoint, comparing the cost of labor in the Philippines to the US, the labor is very cheap in the Philippines. In every shop there are two or three people doing the same job, and 15 people in line for a job.
94 million people presents a great missionary challenge. Most of the churches in the Philippines are Catholic or SDA. There are precious few who are preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ as I have presented in the Philippines; that he is God himself manifest in the flesh. The Philippines are wide open for the gospel. There is such need for 94 million people to hear that "Jesus Chirst is the same, yesterday, today and forever."
2 comments:
Bill,
Instead of reducing (healthy) population growth by teaching the poor to sterilize themselves, we should look for solutions to increasing the economic growth. Reducing poverty by reducing the poor is an immoral solution; the ends do not justify the means. The Catholic Church is right on this issue.
Thanks Tim for your comment. You make a very valid point about the need for real economic growth. I would that there be such and abundance of jobs and wealth that the whole question of "population control" is a mute point. Indeed, what has been reported as happening in China, that they have forced abortions and sterilization, is an atrocity. The PhilStar artical cited a bill that has been in the Philippine congress for 14 years but has not passed that would address population control methods (education and condoms) on a national level, doing the same thing that is available on a local/regional level. The PhilStar speculated that this was due to Catholic influence in the RP. Only those in government could accurately answer such a question. However, looking beyond the morality of the question, the PhilStar compared RP to Thailand and called it a "twin country." Except that the population growth in RP was greater than the GDP, but that is not the case in Thailand. That stat alone proves your point for the need for economic growth; in the long run, as long as population growth is greater than GDP the people will become more poor.
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