[Peace-discuss] a friend: Haiti's problem is overpopulation

[Jenifer Cartwright]

Folks,According to Wikipedia, 80-85% of the population in Haiti is Roman Catholichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Haiti
Lots of info (and opinion) on the issue by googling birth control Haiti, but here's one example from the Tacoma Times under the headline:HAITI: Country Badly Needs Birth Control"The recent tragedy in Haiti certainly deserves our sympathy. However, in all the news coverage and analyses of Haiti, no one has even dared to mention the underlying big problem: overpopulation. The country is too small and not productive enough to support nine million-plus people and could not survive on its own without all the long-term aid given by well-meaning organizations all over the world.The 200,000 killed in the recent earthquake will be replaced in just a few years.Haiti must get its population under control and overcome its misguided historical influences. There are many others in the world also in this situation. By providing and sustaining aid, there is no incentive to practice population control, because the more children there are, the more Haiti will benefit.A
 Los Angeles Times story (TNT, 1-25) quotes a 21-year-old woman who has six children! Haiti’s problem is that it has an extremely high birth rate, fostered by the Catholic Church and the Bush administration’s ban on any birth control information in the past decade. Nine million people on 27,000 square miles of depleted and eroded land, a density of about 1,000 people per square mile is too many. Washington’s density is 97, and Oregon’s 39.Along with food and water, the thousands of charitable organizations now in Haiti should also be educating and encouraging birth control. This would help that country immensely."The whole article is at    www.thenewstribune.com/468/story/1043981.html?storylink=omni_popularAnd of course you'll also find sneering entries slamming Planned Parenthood for trying to help... --Jenifer
--- On Sun, 2/7/10, John W. <jbw292002 at gmail.com> wrote:

From: John W. <jbw292002 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] a friend: Haiti's problem is overpopulation
To: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at illinois.edu>
Cc: "Peace-discuss List" <Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>, "Karen Medina" <kmedina67 at gmail.com>
Date: Sunday, February 7, 2010, 3:06 PM



On Sun, Feb 7, 2010 at 1:50 PM, C. G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu> wrote:

 
Two centuries of US attention, so to speak, have reduced the richest colony in the Americas (more profitable than all thirteen British colonies) to the poorest country in the hemisphere.  It's not an accident; in the past century liberal Democratic presidents (Wilson, Clinton) have overthrown popular governments and destroyed the economy. If there were any justice in these matters, we'd be paying massive reparations, not occupying the country militarily.


Although Aristide was a Catholic priest when he was elected president against US wishes, the situation has little to do with Catholicism.

Across the world, people are not poor because they have too many children: they have too many children because they're poor.  An extended family is often the only form of social security amidst poverty, especially the poverty created by neoliberal "Washington consensus" policies, as in Haiti.


Your friends' ignorance is all too common among liberal Americans, I'm afraid.

 
And also among "conservative" Americans.  Let's face it.....only a tiny handful of us possess anything even approximating The Truth.   Which tends to make us unpopular among the masses whom we say we want to "organize".  News from Neptune, remember?

 
 
 
--CGE 




Karen Medina wrote:

At a dinner party last week, we were briefly discussing Haiti.

A friend said that Haiti's poverty problem is due to overpopulation,

that their Catholicism kept them from using birth control, and that if
they used birth control it would be the biggest help to solving their
poverty problem.

How terribly uninformed can people be?
Even MY FRIENDS are saying things like this. I was shocked.


For starters, as far as I know, Haiti is not a Catholic country.
Voodoo and Protestantism seem more prevalent than Catholicism. For
instance, United Methodists have a mission in Haiti and they are just
one among hundreds probably.


How do YOU deal with people like this?

-- karen medina

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