Re: Suggesting birth control to starving Africans against their human rights?

"Moira de Swardt" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> "David" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
>
> > The way the Indians in particular got widescale acceptance of
> vasectomy was
> > via financial initiatives. Somewhere along the line somebody got
> something
> > out of it from the government. The programs where there was no
> financial
> > initiative had much poorer take up. Not perfect by any means, but
> it did the
> > job. Maybe the answer is some sort of initiative that would
> benefit those
> > who volunteered to be sterilised.
>
> In 2010 we could offer a free ticket to the World Cup to people who
> undergo vasectomies.  Right now?  What would it be worth?
>
> Of course, a pregancy is the surest proof that someone has been
> having unprotected sex.  As far as sub-Saharan Africa is concerned
> people should be counselled to consider planned pregnancies only.
> That way the HIV issue is also being addressed.


Right now, "counselling" people not to have "unprotected sex" is about as
practical as standing outside in the middle of a thunderstorm and telling it
not to rain. We see reports on a regular basis of people living in poverty,
without any sort of employment and without any real chance of employment,
having 6 or 7 children to support.

I live in a small town, but if I drive down Main Street at 7am, on any day
of the week, including Sunday, I can see more than 300 able bodied men, most
of whom have certain basic artisan skills, looking for casual employment.
Drive into the local informal settlement (which has now been formalised) and
which started off with 60 homes and has now grown to more that 6 000) and
there is no way that you could count the number of children.

Counselling is not going to work. Something more effective, in terms of the
culture of the people, is what is required. Right now, there does not appear
to be any appreciation of "cause and effect". People know that having sex
can result in having children, but that does not seem to register at the
moment critique.

Vasectomies are a possible answer to one half of the problem, provided that
the male population has an incentive to participate, but surely there are
chemical means, by which females, who already have more children than they
can possibly cope with, can be sterilised? Perhaps they would be more
willing to undergo such a procedure because they are the ones who have to
try to cope and they experience, on a 24 hour basis, just what the
difficulties are.

Mbeki seems to regard AIDS as a way of controlling population growth. Would
it not be more humane if he could be persuaded to take an active stance on
treating AIDS sufferers, whilst at the same time implementing a practical
policy of population control without relying on death to do the work for
him?

Mark Richardson