[flipsyde]

Originally Posted by hrag

All you educated well-meaning folks on this forum who have children of your own - did you consider adoption?

Its funny to see this being conveniently ignored!! LOL!

[condor]

Originally Posted by diabloo

1. Education: need more schools, and teachers for those schools
2. Health: need more hospitals, and more doctors/nurses for those hospitals.

To achieve this, I can't figure out why anybody must clear forest area ...

So what will the schools you mention be built of ? Thin air ? or material brought from outer-space ? Even basic things like the pencils, the paper, the wood in that school building .. come from the forests.

The health you mention : where will you provide this ? Open air ? Even if you did, to do that you will still need to use resources from around you.

The doctors & nurses : where & how will you groom them ?

Anything you think of needs material from the surrounding environment. You want to provide more of anything, you will use more of the environment.

Today, you are seeing the stuff you want delivered to your doorstep. There doesnt seem to be a problem or scarcity, because it somehow is delivered to you. One of these days, it's going to start and then homo sapiens sapiens will not know what hit it.

Go and look around, deeper, towards the source of all that you use. You will be alarmed, if you only look deep enough.

The world is thinking only of today. There is hardly a thought towards sustainability.

rippergeo : .. or imposing fines on a poor farmer who is already struggling to make ends meet?

Why drag the poor farmer into this ? He's doing his bit to feed us .. he knows the environment, & the impact of things on the environment much better than the 'educated' city folk. He's the one who sees first, the effects of erratic & non-average rain fall. He's the one who faces the brunt of the policies & practices that the seed companies follow.

The farmer's contribution to today's problems is a tiny fraction of the whole - almost nil, when compared to the contribution of the people in the cities.

hrag : All you educated well-meaning folks on this forum who have children of your own - did you consider adoption
v1p3r : Lol, do you notice how NO ONE has answered this?! Well said, hrag, well said!

So, v1p3r, what would you be doing, when you are ready to get there ?

[Sankar]

Q: A solution to our population problem, please contribute.
A: Condoms, Celibacy, Being Gay/Lesbian


I have a pet rabbit. It eats lot of carrots.

Originally Posted by condor

The world is thinking only of today. There is hardly a thought towards sustainability.

I think we are all saying the same thing. just seeing different sides of the same situation.
Sustainability is definitely important. but curtailing an individual's personal freedom is wrong. just as wrong as thoughtlessly destroying our environment.

A blanket statement that population growth is all evil is just as wrong as a blanket statement that population growth does not need to be checked.

Making another person accept one's views using force breeds resentment(forced sterilisation/financial penalties)

the message that population growth has to be checked holds no appeal to a villager who is struggling to make ends meet. he thinks having more children will mean more hands to help him in the field/workplace

the message has to be relevant for him,in a way that he understands

two things need to be changed
1. he/she needs access to healthcare and education
2. he /she needs to see the logic of having fewer children

there is change happening. it might not be enough for some people. as far as I'm concerned, India has done well so far. I agree it could have done better. but I'd like to know how things could have been done better.
I'd also like to know, what right we have to complain, when we have done nothing to contribute to these efforts.

EDIT-why am i dragging the poor farmer into this?
where is most of the population growth coming from? from the educated city dweller? or from the illiterate farmers/slum dwellers/potters/cowherds?
its easier just to type poor farmers than type each proffesion seperately with backslahes in between. thats also why.

also, lets not elevate the poor farmer to sainthood.
he's not "doing his bit to feed us" he's doing his bit to earn a living. just like all of us. agreed he has a horrible life, but he's not in farming out of the magnanimity of his soul. he's there, because he's trapped

[Torqy]

Don't we have in-built mechanisms to control population?

I'm talking about our roads, traffic, terrorists, murderers, buses, trucks, call centre cabs, idiotic drivers, idiotic drivers who are also drunk..and the list goes on.

Why do you think we keep all these specimens here?
Don't worry, they're in control.

-- Torqy

[ibm_jennifer]

Believe me or not, Me and My wife decided not to have any babies(!!!). Population is not the main reason, but one of.

[Cyrus43]

Originally Posted by Sankar

Q: A solution to our population problem, please contribute.
A: Condoms, Celibacy, Being Gay/Lesbian


I have a pet rabbit. It eats lot of carrots.

What does Rabbits have to do with Birth Control.

Though your answer is a good one!! We should have more lesbians...
I ams ure most people will agree with me. Also, i think the government should start a Massive Condom Distribution Drive.

[v1p3r]

Originally Posted by condor

So, v1p3r, what would you be doing, when you are ready to get there ?

I dunno, spend the money on a car? It's nice to be safe in singledom and point fingers at other people!

Originally Posted by Sankar

Q: A solution to our population problem, please contribute.
A: Condoms, Celibacy, Being Gay/Lesbian

Erm, ever heard of a contraceptive pill?

[hondadude]

A friend of mine had an idea which sounded goofy but perhaps has merit. His theory was that people (especially those who are poor) have no/very-less means of evening entertainment so they engage in easiest form of it and hence have more number of kids .

What if Govt gave free TVs and free cable/satellite connection to everyone ?

[v1p3r]

Originally Posted by hondadude

A friend of mine had an idea which sounded goofy but perhaps has merit. His theory was that people (especially those who are poor) have no/very-less means of evening entertainment so they engage in easiest form of it and hence have more number of kids .

What if Govt gave free TVs and free cable/satellite connection to everyone ?

That's a very old theory. Added to which, they don't know that this 'entertainment' leads to having children.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by v1p3r

... ... ...Erm, ever heard of a contraceptive pill?

Ever heard of a quick and simple operation a man can have, out-patient, done while you wait, back at work within a day or so, and yes, even in the factory or the fields.

It takes a woman a couple of weeks to get over her operation.

But the ignorance is such that even the women are against men being sterilized because they think it destroys his manhood, or even that he will loose his muscular strength and not be able to work.

Education, education, education.

[v1p3r]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Ever heard of a quick and simple operation a man can have, out-patient, done while you wait, back at work within a day or so, and yes, even in the factory or the fields.

Yeah, but it's not exactly OTC or cheap, which the other options are. And, you can't drive for 24 hours! Blasphemy!

[kuttapan]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

But the ignorance is such that even the women are against men being sterilized because they think it destroys his manhood, or even that he will loose his muscular strength and not be able to work.

Education, education, education.

India has had a good penetration of television, and I can remember the 'nasbandi'(that is what the operation is called in Hindi) ads on tv even in the late 80's, aired regularly at prime time.

In fact, thanks to TV, I knew what NIRODH was, at a very young age itself.. But children are curious about these things, so they express interest. I wonder how many adults actually expressed interest and decided to make a change in their life.

[Sankar]

Originally Posted by v1p3r

Erm, ever heard of a contraceptive pill?

A solution to a problem that can be avoided. Pills of any kind is bad one way or the other.

And condoms are safer

[Blue Thunder]

Originally Posted by Wrong

As we are all aware our country is bursting at the seams. We have a massive population of 1.3Bn in a country that is one fifth the size of United States. Due to the large number of people, we have 75% of the population living below $2 a day. India is home to 1/3rd of the world's poor.

There is no denying that we have massive traffic issues and way too many cars than roads. I believe many of our problems are related to our large population. Effective control and reduction measures, if taken will benefit all of us a great deal....

The population of India is NOT a problem (please...we are talking about human life here).

Unfortunately, I get all worked up when I hear such statements (marked in bold in the quote above) ...and again, unfortunately, forum rules prevent me from expressing myself fully here. So I will refrain from commenting further on this thread.

Ciao

.