"Less population equals more development" is often an assumption of most developing countries as a policy for development.
The origin of this idea is from the west and has been repeated so many times by leaders and media that almost everyone accepts equivocally it.
For instance, the recent warning by the National Coordinating Agency for Population and Development (NCAPD) of Kenya that "Kenya's population is expanding too fast, and may become unsustainable in the near future" is thought provoking.
In simple terms, such a thought is supposed to mean that the fewer people a country has the better the government can take care of them.
Human beings are hereby reduced to what the governments can manage or: a manageable population.
That is to say, people are the problem! A few examples may however lead us out of this otherwise confusion.
One: According to the world population 2008 report by the UN, there are 170 persons per square kilometer in Western Europe.
In Africa on the other hand, we have 33 persons per square kilometer.
Two: the UK has 253 persons per square kilometer whereas Kenya has a paltry 69 people per square kilometer.
From these two simple analysis it is evident that countries of Western Europe such as France, Germany or Switzerland will still be more overpopulated than African countries in the next few decades.
This same assumption about overpopulation equaling less development for developing nations was made about Hong Kong in the 1950s, when she was still poor.
Predictions were that the overcrowded city-state with lack of natural resources had a bleak future, that one newspaper proclaimed Hong Kong as "dying".
Hong Kong then lamented that at the core of her problems was her rapidly increasing population.
But this eventually never turned to be true.
It is alleged that miracles do happen but only to those who are open to them.
And God has indeed decided to embarrass Hong Kong with an economic miracle: she currently boasts a population of 7,026,400 people with 6,460 people per square kilometer (2009 estimate) with a per capita income of US $ 42,748 according to the IMF 2009 estimates.
This per capita income is the 8th highest place in the world, if separated from mainland China.
Her population has increased about six-fold the number she had in the 1950s, when it was first alleged that she had a population beyond her "carrying" capacity" What these figures tell us is that population size and development are significantly not related.
Reality has it that when people are educated and earn more, authentic development occurs.
The trend today in most villages across developing nations however is that education about "birth control is the way to development" as gospel truth fed to our uneducated.
This ultimately places an emphasis where it shouldn't be- birth control is only a stage in development.
Such ideologies shall eventually have the developing nations, especially from Africa, to press a pause button, then retrace her feet back to where she lost track of her sanity-that is if she ever had one- and challenge Swaziland's king's observation that HIV/AIDS is an invention of pharmaceutical companies mainly from the west.
When a better education system, security, health-care services that reduce child mortality and opportunities to exercise their talents are made available to people, they will make free choices, and determine the spacing of their children according to their needs, desires, hopes and dreams.
This will eventually boost economies in poor countries rather than associate population growth with every other calamity-whether natural or made through ignorance- ranging from food shortage to environmental degradation.
The origin of this idea is from the west and has been repeated so many times by leaders and media that almost everyone accepts equivocally it.
For instance, the recent warning by the National Coordinating Agency for Population and Development (NCAPD) of Kenya that "Kenya's population is expanding too fast, and may become unsustainable in the near future" is thought provoking.
In simple terms, such a thought is supposed to mean that the fewer people a country has the better the government can take care of them.
Human beings are hereby reduced to what the governments can manage or: a manageable population.
That is to say, people are the problem! A few examples may however lead us out of this otherwise confusion.
One: According to the world population 2008 report by the UN, there are 170 persons per square kilometer in Western Europe.
In Africa on the other hand, we have 33 persons per square kilometer.
Two: the UK has 253 persons per square kilometer whereas Kenya has a paltry 69 people per square kilometer.
From these two simple analysis it is evident that countries of Western Europe such as France, Germany or Switzerland will still be more overpopulated than African countries in the next few decades.
This same assumption about overpopulation equaling less development for developing nations was made about Hong Kong in the 1950s, when she was still poor.
Predictions were that the overcrowded city-state with lack of natural resources had a bleak future, that one newspaper proclaimed Hong Kong as "dying".
Hong Kong then lamented that at the core of her problems was her rapidly increasing population.
But this eventually never turned to be true.
It is alleged that miracles do happen but only to those who are open to them.
And God has indeed decided to embarrass Hong Kong with an economic miracle: she currently boasts a population of 7,026,400 people with 6,460 people per square kilometer (2009 estimate) with a per capita income of US $ 42,748 according to the IMF 2009 estimates.
This per capita income is the 8th highest place in the world, if separated from mainland China.
Her population has increased about six-fold the number she had in the 1950s, when it was first alleged that she had a population beyond her "carrying" capacity" What these figures tell us is that population size and development are significantly not related.
Reality has it that when people are educated and earn more, authentic development occurs.
The trend today in most villages across developing nations however is that education about "birth control is the way to development" as gospel truth fed to our uneducated.
This ultimately places an emphasis where it shouldn't be- birth control is only a stage in development.
Such ideologies shall eventually have the developing nations, especially from Africa, to press a pause button, then retrace her feet back to where she lost track of her sanity-that is if she ever had one- and challenge Swaziland's king's observation that HIV/AIDS is an invention of pharmaceutical companies mainly from the west.
When a better education system, security, health-care services that reduce child mortality and opportunities to exercise their talents are made available to people, they will make free choices, and determine the spacing of their children according to their needs, desires, hopes and dreams.
This will eventually boost economies in poor countries rather than associate population growth with every other calamity-whether natural or made through ignorance- ranging from food shortage to environmental degradation.
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