Ridding the world of the over-consuming mindset
Saturday, 12 September 2009
Nerun Yakub
The population 'problem' keeps coming up as a monotonous refrain with very few acknowledging that the core issue actually is the mindset of the over-consuming class, not those who are obliged to exist on the edge on 'a dollar a day' yardstick. Roughly a quarter of the global population is said to gobble as much as three quarters of the world's resources. Or as Matthew Connelly, a young writer and historian participating in a recent BBC World debate on the subject, pointed out, 'an American consumes sixteen times more than a Bangladeshi.' Over-consumption is the problem and the solution lies in getting rid of all the fat cats, retorted Connelly when a DU Professor and a British do-gooder kept harping on the 'problem'! A Chinese discussant put the 'problem' in a more realistic perspective. It is 'capital', not a liability, as far as the Chinese are concerned, and they have come thus far by investing in their vibrant people ---- through education, nutrition, health care, skill development, employment, all the basic imperatives that result in a highly productive human resource.
But the global population isn't growing fast enough where per-capita space is huge, as in all the 'stolen lands' of America and Australia. Or Africa as a whole. Many rich countries are rightly worried about birth-dearth among WASPs (white Anglo-Saxon persons) as their sperm counts have gone down over the past decades due to toxins in the food chain and the environment. May be the scenario drawn by PD James in her chilling bestseller, 'Children of Men', would become a reality in no time. The novel, set in England, paints a picture of a largely infertile population obsessed with the ability to procreate. Fecundity has been fast disappearing over the years, and the land had too many senior citizens unable to die because health services were too good. WASPs, in other words were endangered !
Ten years ago the United Nations biennial population update for 2050 had to be brought down to 8.9 billion from 9.4 billion ---- half a billion less ! This projected 500 million drop was not at all due to contraceptives or enhanced livelihoods, according to the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute. A third of it would be the result of rising death rates, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia which together contain nearly two billion, or a third of humanity, the majority of whom are poor and powerless. A marked birth-dearth among the richest has also been identified as a factor for the revision of the projected world population growth figure for the year 2050 but hunger-related diseases and lack of security from natural disasters understandably take the greatest toll. Add to it is the relentless violence of low and high intensity wars and terrorism and riot-related mortalities everywhere.
But even with this undesirable rise in death rates, there is no denying that the absolute numbers in this region are growing beyond its 'carrying capacity' ---- as population alarmists are fond of harping --- and unless governments here start investing in their education, health and employment right away, the future would be unthinkable. But do policy makers understand the necessity of investing, urgently, in the fertile population of Bangladesh ? In a world where the affluent minority is consuming a major portion of the earth's resources ---- obsessed with prolonging pleasure, enhancing personal pulchritude and amassing creature comforts ---- the poorest are making do with too little, suffering slow starvation and exclusion and getting scant attention save as a showcase for 'development initiatives'.
Governments and civil society in countries like ours, which are so much in focus for the so-called population problem, should take their blinkers off and give the poor, unlettered people, their due. Nothing but token recognition is given to the over-exploited migrant labour who bring in billions for the country. Only in recent years has there been any talk of investing in their welfare, though one is not quite convinced that those who benefit most from manpower export, including the government, mean what they say. Investing in the teeming millions for better training in marketable skills, as well as for protecting their rights in their workplaces, should be a national priority if we are to make the most of our human capital.
By the mid 21st century South Asia is projected to overtake China in population growth. As a part of the region, and certainly one of the worst off countries in terms of land space, acquifer depletion, shrinking croplands, hunger-related diseases, bad politics and myopic governance, what is the scenario for Bangladesh ? The much touted gains in contraceptive use would be of no avail, given the overwhelming population momentum and the fact that nearly half the 120 million of the population is under-fifteen. This is bound to become a veritable time-bomb and calls for nothing short of 'emergency' attention on the part of the collective leadership of politicians, corporate class and intelligentsia. The problem, as pragmatic thinkers stress, is not only of containing fertility but more importantly of developing the human resource that is bubbling with potential. If we are to minimize the cumulative impact of inadequate education, unemployment and general criminalization of the body politic we must all put our heads together - now--- and transform the growing population into a positive, productive force.
Can that be visualized anywhere in the near future when the powers-that-be behave like colonialists in their own land ? Consider the police excesses on pro-people activists seeking to protect our national gas resources from international plunderers and their kick-back hungry agents at home . Over fifty peaceful protesters were bludgeoned, among them Professor Anu Mohammad whose two legs were literally smashed. This could not have happened without the instructions of powerful wheelers and dealers and if the avowedly democratic government were really so. The global corporate beast and the ruthless, home-grown, rent-seeking nexus sucking the country dry, could'nt care less if the majority at large were culled or used as guinea pigs for research and development of drugs, chemical and biological weapons or ingenious experiments in psycho-social control. For all they care, Bangladesh's fecund folk may be fattened for choice meats for the tables of the rich or cleansed away and tossed into the Bay of Bengal !
The population 'problem' keeps coming up as a monotonous refrain with very few acknowledging that the core issue actually is the mindset of the over-consuming class, not those who are obliged to exist on the edge on 'a dollar a day' yardstick. Roughly a quarter of the global population is said to gobble as much as three quarters of the world's resources. Or as Matthew Connelly, a young writer and historian participating in a recent BBC World debate on the subject, pointed out, 'an American consumes sixteen times more than a Bangladeshi.' Over-consumption is the problem and the solution lies in getting rid of all the fat cats, retorted Connelly when a DU Professor and a British do-gooder kept harping on the 'problem'! A Chinese discussant put the 'problem' in a more realistic perspective. It is 'capital', not a liability, as far as the Chinese are concerned, and they have come thus far by investing in their vibrant people ---- through education, nutrition, health care, skill development, employment, all the basic imperatives that result in a highly productive human resource.
But the global population isn't growing fast enough where per-capita space is huge, as in all the 'stolen lands' of America and Australia. Or Africa as a whole. Many rich countries are rightly worried about birth-dearth among WASPs (white Anglo-Saxon persons) as their sperm counts have gone down over the past decades due to toxins in the food chain and the environment. May be the scenario drawn by PD James in her chilling bestseller, 'Children of Men', would become a reality in no time. The novel, set in England, paints a picture of a largely infertile population obsessed with the ability to procreate. Fecundity has been fast disappearing over the years, and the land had too many senior citizens unable to die because health services were too good. WASPs, in other words were endangered !
Ten years ago the United Nations biennial population update for 2050 had to be brought down to 8.9 billion from 9.4 billion ---- half a billion less ! This projected 500 million drop was not at all due to contraceptives or enhanced livelihoods, according to the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute. A third of it would be the result of rising death rates, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia which together contain nearly two billion, or a third of humanity, the majority of whom are poor and powerless. A marked birth-dearth among the richest has also been identified as a factor for the revision of the projected world population growth figure for the year 2050 but hunger-related diseases and lack of security from natural disasters understandably take the greatest toll. Add to it is the relentless violence of low and high intensity wars and terrorism and riot-related mortalities everywhere.
But even with this undesirable rise in death rates, there is no denying that the absolute numbers in this region are growing beyond its 'carrying capacity' ---- as population alarmists are fond of harping --- and unless governments here start investing in their education, health and employment right away, the future would be unthinkable. But do policy makers understand the necessity of investing, urgently, in the fertile population of Bangladesh ? In a world where the affluent minority is consuming a major portion of the earth's resources ---- obsessed with prolonging pleasure, enhancing personal pulchritude and amassing creature comforts ---- the poorest are making do with too little, suffering slow starvation and exclusion and getting scant attention save as a showcase for 'development initiatives'.
Governments and civil society in countries like ours, which are so much in focus for the so-called population problem, should take their blinkers off and give the poor, unlettered people, their due. Nothing but token recognition is given to the over-exploited migrant labour who bring in billions for the country. Only in recent years has there been any talk of investing in their welfare, though one is not quite convinced that those who benefit most from manpower export, including the government, mean what they say. Investing in the teeming millions for better training in marketable skills, as well as for protecting their rights in their workplaces, should be a national priority if we are to make the most of our human capital.
By the mid 21st century South Asia is projected to overtake China in population growth. As a part of the region, and certainly one of the worst off countries in terms of land space, acquifer depletion, shrinking croplands, hunger-related diseases, bad politics and myopic governance, what is the scenario for Bangladesh ? The much touted gains in contraceptive use would be of no avail, given the overwhelming population momentum and the fact that nearly half the 120 million of the population is under-fifteen. This is bound to become a veritable time-bomb and calls for nothing short of 'emergency' attention on the part of the collective leadership of politicians, corporate class and intelligentsia. The problem, as pragmatic thinkers stress, is not only of containing fertility but more importantly of developing the human resource that is bubbling with potential. If we are to minimize the cumulative impact of inadequate education, unemployment and general criminalization of the body politic we must all put our heads together - now--- and transform the growing population into a positive, productive force.
Can that be visualized anywhere in the near future when the powers-that-be behave like colonialists in their own land ? Consider the police excesses on pro-people activists seeking to protect our national gas resources from international plunderers and their kick-back hungry agents at home . Over fifty peaceful protesters were bludgeoned, among them Professor Anu Mohammad whose two legs were literally smashed. This could not have happened without the instructions of powerful wheelers and dealers and if the avowedly democratic government were really so. The global corporate beast and the ruthless, home-grown, rent-seeking nexus sucking the country dry, could'nt care less if the majority at large were culled or used as guinea pigs for research and development of drugs, chemical and biological weapons or ingenious experiments in psycho-social control. For all they care, Bangladesh's fecund folk may be fattened for choice meats for the tables of the rich or cleansed away and tossed into the Bay of Bengal !