There is NO plan to permanently kill off the black race. Such sentiments are exactly the problem that is keeping countries like Uganda, which has one of the very highest population growth rates in the world at the bottom. Name one single country with the population that has developed at this rate, that has had a growth in average income! None!
Uganda has been having a respectable economic growth rate over the last 20 or so years. The funny thing though is whereas the GDP has grown grown considerably, the average income or even GDP per capita has remained stagnant, which should be extremely ironical unless one knows the population growth has been too high & not matching the economic growth rate. It makes a huge difference whether you divide a total income of x through 20 or 30 million people. There was an article in the New Vision last year saying the population was expected to grow by 1.2 million in 2011! That is BAD NEWS, because WE CANNOT AFFORD that. Or can we? It depends on how we define our priorities. If one is satisfied with an economy that for a long time remain based on subsistence farming, then of course we can.
It makes a difference whether some father earning let’s say the equivalent of $100 a month is feeding 3 mouths or 8 kids. It should be common sense to see that you are much more likely to be able to finance 3 kids at school & let them probably study or learn a trade than 7, 8 or 9, let alone be able to buy them some more decent food or clothes. How many kids in villages end up working on a subsistence level, may be digging or looking after goats because the father does not have enough money or no relative is rich enough to help? Remember 85% of the population of Uganda is RURAL. No one should be mislead by the people in Kampala or a few other towns.
Whereas in the past it was normal in many “traditions” to have many kids, times have changed.
These days, education, jobs & the like matter.
Let us look around Africa …
In the few success stories like Botswana or Mauritius or in Asia, countries like South Korea or Singapore, which where at the same level as Uganda around independence, but are light years away now in terms of average income & development, none of them is known for people having huge populations, making another reasoning of some of the rapid population growth advocates say, claiming it’s good for the economy a myth.
Many of these countries have women having 1 – 3 kids.
What about places with high population growth rates like Bangladesh, or Pakistan or Nigeria? What good are their huge populations done them? A few weeks ago, the Nigerian president announced the government was working out a plan to urgently bring in family planning, because the population growth was A PROBLEM.
We do urgently need the government to spearhead a family planning program that goes much farther than this one.
Rwanda, which is a small country, but with a high population density has realized that & they are currently encouraging women to have up to 3 kids, and have also matched their words with education and facilities in this field. Common sense tells them, they have on the other side LIMITED LAND RESOURCES.
For those who do not know that huge families also have a big impact on the environment, look at BUDUDA. There is no secret reason for the rapid increase in frequency & fatality of mudslides in the last 2 decades. Bugisu, especially the mountainous part is densely populated & most of the natural vegetation cover, which was binding the soil has been cleared & replaced with coffee & beans, matoke plantations, which on those slopes cannot provide enough defense in times of heavy rain. There is hardly free land in Bugisu nowadays & yet the number of kids per family is high. Maths tells me soon or later, this will not add up. If you have a ONE big sauce pan of beans, it cannot be used to serve 200 or 800 kids in a boarding school. That pan has a maximum number of kids it can serve. Beyond that, some will not get anything or go hungry. The results can be seen. Bududa, however is not the only place, with environmental damage directly connected to HIGH POPULATION. For others, the results will come soon or later.
On the economical side, the effects are there though.
What is said on habariportal.com in different articles on this topic of too rapid population & the solution of the urgent introduction and implementation of family planning makes sense.
Based on the New Vision article of Sep 20, 2012.