Root Causes

A number of readers disagree with my position that there is no direct causal relation between our burgeoning population and poverty. They insist that our country remains economically poor because of over population; because we have no real honest to goodness program of controlling birth through artificial methods like contraceptives, vasectomy, ligation, use of condoms, sterilization and abortion.

This controversy will have a clearer perspective when viewed in the light of two main issues: Is over population the real primary cause of our present economic woes? Will the installation of a population control program really help solve our economic problems?

Simply blaming overpopulation as the main cause of poverty in the land plainly overlooks the other more plausible reasons for the economic mess we are in.There is a more direct causal connection between the country’s economic problems and present state of the nation on peace and order, graft and corruption, inadequate and poor quality of our educational system and too much politics. Before instituting a population control program, measures should first be adopted to remove these other more likely causes hindering our progress.Until these other causes are effectively curbed, there is no overriding need to install a population control program.

Despite the emerging view that population growth is not the root cause of a nation’s development troubles,a controversial UN agency, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) continues to exert its huge financial clout to support population control in developing countries.It supports forced abortion in China and is at "least partially responsible for the forced sterilization of close to 200,000 Peruvian women according to a Peruvian government report. It is perhaps this same agency that is now trying to lobby for the introduction of a population control program in our country.It is highly likely that it may throw its financial support for the presidential candidate whose platform contains a population control program to its liking.

But what is more alarming is that such a reputable international organization known for its humanitarian and pro-life projects like the Rotary International announced in June 2001 that it had signed "a Memorandum of Cooperation with UNFPA to work together on population and reproductive health issues and promote awareness worldwide of the "social, economic and environmental implications of population growth". I am not sure if the local Rotary districts are aware of this development. But there are several Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Caloocan Monumento spearheaded by Rotarian Jake Kliatchko who have expressed their opposition to the population/birth control activities of Rotary International. Being a Rotarian myself, I hope the Philippine Rotary will adopt a firm and forceful stand against this alliance. Otherwise it may suffer a depopulation not overpopulation in its ranks.

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