Saturday 29 October 2011

Overpopulation - a point I've not yet read

Here's a piece, by a Telegraph blogger, discussing the alleged problem of over-population.

Since I live in Sub-Saharan Africa, which is where most of the population growth in the world is happening, I've read several such pieces with interest.

Much could be said, but one point that I've never yet read is one that is very obvious and ought to be. If not for the losses due to corruption, tribalism, dishonesty, political infighting, cartels and laziness, Sub-Saharan Africa could easily support many more people at a higher level than it does today. Poor morals are a, and quite likely the, major cause of suffering amongst the peoples of East Africa.

I'm not yet sure if Westerners who write about the over-population "problem" (yes, those are "scare quotes"!), either are not aware of it, or whether it's politically correct to ignore it. A writer in a Kenyan newspaper I read this week did point out the same thing in reverse, and various writers do this: that if Westerners didn't throw out a third of their food (Europe), or half of their food (USA), then that would support quite a lot more people than they do (and that could be extended to the other parts of life - technology etc; does it need to be the case that the average smartphone user replaces his gadget every 18 months?). Why all this talk of education and birth control when you could just not chuck your resources in the bin? Again, fixing poor morals would lead to a quick solution that would make others redundant pretty quickly. But, fixing morals needs a change of heart because of original sin, but that's a hard matter for today's secularists to face up to.

But the truth is, that if and when the gospel takes root more firmly amongst these peoples and begins to change their culture, a lot of other supposed problems largely deal with themselves. The West's best gift to improve standards of living in Africa would be the same divine gift which laid the foundation of the West's progress: sincere and joyful servants of Jesus Christ.

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