by Jennifer Roback Morse
This article was first published at familyinamerica.org on January 10, 2012.
Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men
Mara Hvistendahl
Public Affairs, 2011; 314 pages, $26.99
This brave and timely book has many strengths and one glaring, but understandable, weakness. The strength of this book is the reporting. Mara Hvistendahl, a liberal, pro-choice feminist, painstakingly documents the catastrophic consequences of the worldwide “choice” for male babies: gender imbalance leading to prostitution, sex slavery, and male frustration and aggression. The weakness of this book is the political analysis. She doesn’t understand how deeply Roe v. Wade changed American political culture, particularly within the conservative movement broadly conceived. But both these strengths and weaknesses work together to yield an honest and courageous book that should be read by anyone who considers himself (or herself) well informed. Read more…
Categories: Babies, Children, Demography, gender, Jennifer Roback Morse, Newsletter articles, Population Tags: fertility, gender imbalance, gender selection, Jennifer Roback Morse, Population
by Shannon Roberts
Past Eugenics and sterilisation programs in the United States are coming back to bite them, with North Carolina currently the first State to address compensation for victims.
According to the North Carolina Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation, at one time 31 states in the United States had government-run eugenics programs. In North Carolina alone, close to 8,000 men, women, and children, largely poor, black, disabled or uneducated, were forcibly sterilized from 1929 to 1974. The programs were aimed at creating a better society by eliminating those considered undesirable. Read more…
Who celebrates a birth nowadays?
By Mark Steyn
Our lesson today comes from the Gospel according to Luke. No, no, not the manger, the shepherds, the wise men, any of that stuff, but the other birth: “But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.” Read more…
November 25th, 2011
Betsy
by Shannon Buckley
A few weeks ago Marcus commented on Russia’s enthusiasm for the coming of what is believed to be the belt of the Virgin Mary. Normally situated at the Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos in Greece, the relic made of camel wool is believed to have the power to boost fertility. The National Post reports yesterday that the Russian people really have come out in force! Braving cold and snow, Moscow residents were willing to stand in a 5km line just to touch the belt: Read more…
November 17th, 2011
Betsy
by Marcus Roberts
Nothing much from me today – instead, for all of you who are more visual learners, here’s a video! This is on the beneficial effect that population has on poverty and was produced by the Population Research Institute. (You can also see another one of their videos in this earlier DID post.) Enjoy!
Watch video.
by Joel Kotkin
The world’s population recently passed the 7 billion mark, and, of course, the news was greeted with hysteria and consternation in the media. “It’s not hard to be alarmed,” intoned National Geographic. “We should all be afraid, very afraid,” warned the Guardian. Read more…
by Denyse O’Leary
It is mainly religious people who raise children, and more women in America are religious.
First, the context: Modern political science — which readily understands imperialism, resistance, and clash of competing interests — does not similarly understand “the wasting away of nations.” That, says David Goldman, author of How Civilizations Die: (and why Islam is dying too), is because political scientists tend to assume that people will follow their rational self-interest. In fact, they often don’t. Read more…
by Michael Cook
Demographic denialists are ignoring the perils of an ageing population.
Like many others, the US-based Center for Biological Diversity was aghast at the arrival of the 7 billionth person today. “Overpopulation and overconsumption are the root causes of environmental destruction. They’re driving species extinct, destroying wildlife habitat, and undermining the basic needs of all life at an unprecedented rate. It has to stop.” Read more…
by Marcus Roberts
One of the common concerns that is about our expanding world population : is that our planet will not be able to feed this growing population. (As an aside, here is an interesting and visually appealing video on the continuing rise in the world’s population despite the slowing growth rate): Read more…
by Carolyn Moynihan
Have you read the latest on the Greek bailout? Last I heard people who were lucky enough to have government jobs are on strike because they are about to lose them, thanks to austerity measures being forced on the country by the EU and the IMF. Read more…
by Marcus Roberts
A couple of related pieces today that both underline a theme that has been commonplace at Demography is Destiny over the past few months. If you have to ask what that theme is then you obviously have not been reading with the necessary assiduity and I am not going to help you. Read more…
September 21st, 2011
Betsy
by Steven W. Mosher
Over the years, I have been asked many times to estimate how many lives have been lost in China as a result of the one-child policy. Given that the policy has been in place for 30 years, I respond, and given that each year the government aborts between 10 to 15 million women, the total number of unborn children whose lives have been sacrificed is somewhere between 300 and 450 million. It is impossible to be more precise, I add, because of the Chinese Communist party’s penchant for secrecy about such sensitive matters. Read more…
by Marcus Roberts
Recently the UK newspaper, the Independent, has published an article about the Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan in India, where there is a statewide target to sterilise 1% of the population.
Of course the state officials cannot do so through coercion – that would be too much like eugenics! And last time that India tried forced sterilisation it proved to be “deeply controversial”: Read more…
by Marcus Roberts
We have discussed recently on this blog the effect of demography on a country’s economy and the potential link between fertility rates and the recession. Today I would like to draw your attention to an article from USAToday which suggests that the link runs both ways. Read more…
BY JONATHAN V. LAST
Low fertility threatens the world’s economic future, but a new report ignores the danger.
In 2004, the United Nations published demographic projections suggesting that the world in general, and the West in particular, was in real trouble: Persistently low fertility meant that the population of most industrialized nations would shrink in the coming decades. The U.N. report seemed to crystallize decades of increasingly gloomy predictions. Read more…
by Colin Mason
I remember standing in my room in the Cosmos Hotel, sleep-deprived from airports and loaded down with equipment. The room may have once been handsome, but now its current condition is stale and threadbare — its blue carpet has thinned and its twin beds have sunken into visibly concave shapes. I turn the shower faucet, it spits yellow-tinged water. Read more…
a speech by Don Feder to the Moscow Demographic Summit, June 29, 2011
Imagine that you’re walking in the forest. There’s a layer of fresh snow on the ground. Suddenly you realize that you’re lost. You’re cold. You’re tired. You’re hungry. If that weren’t enough, there are wolves howling in the distance. This is beginning to sound like a Russian novel. Read more…
What are the population controllers to do when birth rates keep falling? Why, put pressure on the demographers in their employ to fudge the numbers, of course.
by Steven W. Mosher
You will be glad to learn that we all have official permission from the UN people-counters to panic about about “overpopulation” — yet again. Read more…
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