BY FR. SHAY CULLEN
POPULATION growth is a huge problem in the developing world. The poor have more children in the hope they will provide security as they face an early death or old age without any income and they cannot feed them all. Besides, millions are in refugee camps because of climate change and war. Instinct drives them to survive by having large families and besides they have little access to birth control methods. The decrease in infant mortality rates in Africa has added to the population growth. Nigeria, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Niger and Sudan are among the countries with the highest birth rates.
There are now eight billion people on the planet at present and that is increasing every day. According to a UN report, about 140 million babies are born every year. That is about 385,000 babies born each day worldwide. The highest populations however are in Asia: India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh. The Philippines’ population is very high, too. It stands at 114 million as of July 2023 based on the UN Worldometer data. In Africa, Liberia has the highest population growth of all.
In Asia, the rich countries have declining populations. There are more deaths than births. Singapore and Japan are in rapid decline and have serious labor shortages and are hiring more overseas workers especially Filipinos. China has an annual decline in population with 850,000 less children born every year.
The poor in underdeveloped countries receive little or no meaningful social or health benefits or services and most poor people have no pensions and income. They are so poor they can hardly feed their children. That lack of nutrition means low energy levels and leaves millions of children prone to sickness and slow mental development. Many children have short attention spans and cannot learn so well in ill-equipped shabby school rooms with poorly paid, under-trained teachers. There are presently recurrent teacher strikes across West Africa because of poor wages and conditions. Education is the hope of any nation to overcome poverty but corrupt politicians steal part of the available funds.
In rural villages and towns, their teaching aids are a black board and a stick of chalk without teaching or visual aids. The students are mostly taught by rote without discussion and participation in the learning process. This disables intelligent, independent thinking and decision-making. It seems authoritarian regimes prefer unquestioning students. Many drop out for lack of inspiration and encouragement. Others go to school hungry and cannot concentrate. In some developing countries, foreign aid for education, infrastructure and job creation are passed through the hands of corrupt politicians and serve their interests as they serve the interests of the rich nations and allow them to exploit natural resources. These countries in Africa and Asia have a cluster of millionaire politicians that rule with cronies and their dynastic family members are in every part of government.
The Philippines suffers, too. It ranks lowest among all of the ASEAN nations. The respected Philippine economist Winnie Monsod says it simply in her excellent analysis (see marengwinniemonsod.ph) She points out that the Philippines has the lowest GDP per capita, the most unequal distribution of income, the highest poverty headcount ratio and the highest learning poverty rate of 90.9 percent. This means among 10-year olds, nine out of 10 cannot understand what they are reading. (To be continued)/PN
