I'm posting the below because yesterday I was both surprised AND angry when I heard a favourite radio commentator comment on a recent report by a large population concern agency which stated that couples should have no more than two children, in order not to add to the world's overpopulation problems. He was offended at being told how many children to have. Was I more surprised at his selfishness or just the fact that this appeared to both the agency and the commentator as "new " information? Am I the ONLY one who remembers the 70s? - Richard Nixon, not exactly a poster boy for modernity, said it best when he asked Americans to "replace only yourselves." This was about 30 years ago. How is it that these obvious ideas have been around for so long, yet myself and the milkman are the only ones who "know" about them?
"Oops, I'm pregnant." Even in today's age of safe and effective modern contraception, women in every society get pregnant when that wasn't the plan. It's a simple point I explore in More: Population, Nature, and What Women Want. In the wealthy and health-obsessed United States, for example, 49 percent of conceptions result in "oops" pregnancies. The figure for the world as a whole is estimated at around 38 percent. I suspect that women in many countries under-report unintended pregnancies and that the real proportion is even higher. Interestingly, the estimated number of annual unintended pregnancies worldwide is almost the same as the annual added population-around 80 million in the first case, 78 million in the second. The two numbers actually aren't fully comparable, since many unintended pregnancies result in abortions and others simply occurred earlier than a woman intended. Nonetheless, it's clear that much of the world's population growth is the outcome of unintentional or at least ill-timed reproduction. Unintentional pregnancy is common even among rich, well-educated, and influential women. You could hardly find a better example of this than the curious case of Cherie Blair, wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. In her new tell-all autobiography, Speaking for Myself, Ms. Blair reveals that her fourth pregnancy came about because she was too embarrassed to bring her "contraceptive equipment" with her on a royal visit to Balmoral Castle, Queen Elizabeth's Scottish residence. Apparently the Royal Unpackers at the residence carefully remove and put away all the contents of their guests' luggage. When the prime minister and his wife first visited the castle, Ms. Blair writes, she had been annoyed that all her possessions had been unpacked, down to "my distinctly ancient toilet bag with its range of unmentionables." (Interesting noun.) So, on the next visit, she "had been a little more circumspect" and left the said unmentionables at home. I'll spare you her description of what happened later in the "bitterly cold" castle, but the result was the Blair's fourth child, who is considerably younger than the other three. Incredibly, though Cherie Blair was only 45 years old at the time, this accomplished barrister and judge believed she was "too old" to become pregnant. I wouldn't spotlight this example of an "oops" pregnancy if Ms. Blair hadn't published it. I've heard similar stories from friends for years. Such stories support important points in my book about women's lives and population. Many people-including some prominent economists-seem to believe that sexually active partners simply decide how many children to have and then set about having their "desired family size." But sex happens even when couples don't want to conceive. Preventing conception takes effort, a willingness to risk embarrassment (whether at shop counters or in royal residences), and some kind of "contraceptive equipment." This is just as true among the wealthy as it is among the poor. The wealthy contribute a lot more on a per-capita basis to human-induced climate change and many of the world's other environmental problems. Yet a significant proportion of their own population growth results from "oops" pregnancies. For anyone who cares about the environment and the influence of population size on it, it's not enough to support access to family planning in developing countries, important as that is. We also need much better contraceptive access and options in industrialized countries as well. And we need to figure out how to make contraception less of an "unmentionable" for every woman and man, right up to the level of prime ministers and their spouses. /www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article4333852.ece Anyone living in the UK would have had to be hiding under a rock not to have heard about the mess made by American testing company ETS, which won the 156 milliion pound contract to grade the papers of all English test taking children. The pundits' first question was why can't the English educational system do its own work, but I'll leave that one alone. My concerns go far beyond such a nonsense - the tests ARE a nonsense! - but that this, to this observer, is a real statement about how bad the educational system is as a whole AND perhaps answers just why, when there is a curriculum for "safe sex" and all that entails, we are continuing to lose ground with our young people when it comes to that issue. The preceding blog kind of links on to this one - or vice versa - with a new government warning that parents must think twice this summer, as the experts on children's safety are warning that the credit crunch means lots of parents cannot or will not afford child care for their children, which means the expectation is that 1.2ish million children will be latch key kids over the summer. If personal experience is anything to go by, the glass ceiling for women in the workplace, has never actually gone away, but a new study by a women in the work place watch dog is warning that it is getting worse; women in the UK, they say, are getting the short end of the stick if they want/decide to have children while working. The research has led the experts to conclude that women may want to re-think either that desire for motherhood OR reconsider their professional goals, as these two do not work well together, at least according to a significanat number of employers. The National Health Trust has uncovered a worrying trend; women in the UK and 70 other countries (in the UK, we mean mostly Northern Ireland) are ordering abortion drugs over the internet. Whatever these contain, they don't quite work and the problem came to light as it was realized that most of the women who are using these must have surgery, literally to save their lives. Remember the Great Depression, when the number of marriages and births dropped to an historic low because it was "too expensive" (and, conversely, condoms sales soared!)? One has to wonder if the same kind of knock off effect will happen in this dreadful economy and time of horrendous social and political upheaval. Perhaps what happened when the South Koreans were so fearful of the North Koreans' foray into nuclear weapons will happen around the world...they bought lots and lots of condoms!! and the birth rate dropped like a stone that year. One could argue that this would be a very good thing, as the poor old Earth groans under the weight of toooooo many people. Remember that Pope who invented a sort of liquid led condom? Well, remember, it was about a 1000 years ago! You have to love language! For anyone who has ever loved to watch Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (I think I have that right!), or Master Chef, it's obvious why these guys are such fun to watch. The talent - and the food - are fantastic! But between their colourful presentations and the amazing pictures of yummy foods we see in newspapers, TV, etc., and our ever-growing love of food, would it shock most people to know there is something deeply psychological about this relatively new voyeuristic passion; we even have a term for it! In the Uk, over 75% of all the boys in borstals (young offenders institutes), who are all under 21, are parents. Often they are fathers to more than one child, with more than one partner. A few years ago, a study on those same boys discovered that about 80% of them were the children of teenaged mothers. Although the prison services have been tasked with providing some forms of education to these prisoners, to include life's skills classes, teaching them about birth control might be just a bit like shutting the barn door after the cows have gotten out. |
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