Environmental Group Breaks the Silence on Population Control – NYTimes.com

Population is a hot button issue, that’s turning red again.  (Did you wonder what was so compelling about last week’s “7 Billion” story?  Here is the explanation.)

As recently as the 1970s, the subject of population control was less controversial, partly because the baby boom years had given rise to concerns about scarcity of resources, some population experts and environmentalists said. Then came China’s coercive one-child policy and a rise in social conservatism in the United States, combined with the country’s aversion to anything perceived as restricting individual freedoms, be it the right to bear arms or children.

Some groups also fear whipping up anti-immigrant sentiment and opposition to family planning. Immigration now accounts for about one-third of the growth rate in the United States.

“We see reluctance and fear to deal with this issue,” said Jose Miguel Guzman of the United Nations Population Fund.

via Environmental Group Breaks the Silence on Population Control – NYTimes.com.

The ‘Enabling Violation’ of International Adoption – NYTimes.com

Are children in the developing world “better off” if they are adopted by people in the US and Europe?  This Sunday opinion article explores issue unresolved by the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption.

There is no easy way in which the adopted child’s imaginary domain can be facilitated, although dual citizenship seems to be a minimum guarantee to adopted children, so that they can return to their country of birth if they so desire. Ultimately, international adoption is profoundly implicated in relations of inequality that cannot be addressed on the basis of one family alone. Perhaps, then, if we at least recognize international adoption as an enabling violation, we can avoid the worst kinds of self-righteous humanitarianism, and find ourselves pointed towards a struggle for a more just world.

via The ‘Enabling Violation’ of International Adoption – NYTimes.com.

The Age of Possibility – NYTimes.com

Do you wonder what era we’re in now?  From Post-Cold War to Globalization to 9/11 and the “War on Terror”?  The IHT has an interesting series, with Roger Cohen leading off:

The essential global divide today is between a worried, depressed and disoriented West (where free trade is framed as loss of jobs) and the buoyant, questing and increasingly confident emergent world of nations like Brazil and Turkey and South Africa. The West suffers from a nagging feeling its time has passed; outside it many countries believe their time is now — or near.

Although there’s talk in the West of a new Age of Anxiety, the neurosis is in fact fairly narrowly confined. True, the unease lies in what is still by far the world’s largest economy — the United States — and is shared by the European Union.

via The Age of Possibility – NYTimes.com.

“The battle for Rio de Janeiro” – Global Post

Things are heating up as the Brazilian government works to retake the slums of Rio in preparation for the World Cup and Olympic Games.  Let’s hope that Brazilian policy and political leaders are familiar with the lessons of COIN–as well as “The Wire” lest these efforts fail to ‘take and hold’ the terrain and local support.

Most estimates in the Brazilian press place the number of armed gang members hiding out in Complexo do Alemao in the low hundreds, suggesting many have escaped to other slums.

The state’s public security director, Jose Mariano Beltrame, told reporters police will continue the push into two other huge slums, Rocinha and Vidigal, but he declined to say when.

via Brazil | Rio de Janeiro | Drug War.

Also, for a more personal view of the ‘crisis’ from the inside–what else, Twitter updates from Rene Silva, a 17 year old favela resident–as reported on the Beeb.

Who is Thilo Sarrazin?

The big conversation in Germany involves a straight-talking political elite names Thilo Sarrazine.

“Bluntness,” Mr. Sarrazin said, “on the right subject at the right time is an element of success.  Mr. Sarrazin’s latest blunt assessment came in the form of his book, “Germany Does Away With Itself,” which was released in August and provoked a heated national debate that has still not cooled. The government hosted a so-called integration conference last week, and a group of 650 citizens of Turkish origin issued a public letter saying, “We all feel discredited through the current debate.”

Mr. Sarrazin seems to be enjoying it all.  “As an author who had something to say and who wanted to influence the public debate, I could not be happier.”

via The Saturday Profile – Thilo Sarrazin – NYTimes.com.

Here’s why he’s a challenge :

His statements have shocked many in Germany not only because of a national sensitivity to anything remotely smacking of genetic superiority claims in the post-World War II era. What has also shocked many is that so many Germans have rallied to his side as the central bank and his political party have sought to oust him for his pronouncements.

via Economist’s views on Muslims spark controversy in Germany in WaPo

 

Ranks of Hungry Shrink, but Remain Large, U.N. Says – NYTimes.com

Good news and bad news from the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in Rome:

The number of undernourished people in the world decreased this year for the first time in 15 years, but the level remains higher than before the 2008 food crisis, and the volatile state of prices gives cause for unease, senior United Nations officials said Tuesday.

The number of hungry people fell to 925 million from the record high of 1.02 billion in 2009, with much of the improvement tied to income growth in the Asia-Pacific region and to a 40 percent drop in food prices from their 2008 peak.

via Ranks of Hungry Shrink, but Remain Large, U.N. Says – NYTimes.com.

The New “U.N. Women”: What’s in a Name?

Ms. Bachelet said she was aware that some of the socially groundbreaking policies she put forward in Chile might not have a universal application, that cultural approaches will vary. “In some places women have all the rights they deserve and in others there are big restrictions — in some countries they even mutilate women,” she said, referring to the custom of female circumcision. “In some places it will be faster and others it will take longer. It is not easy and it has a lot of controversial aspects.”

via Bachelet to Lead U.N. Women, a New Agency on Women’s Rights – NYTimes.com.

“Controversial aspects”?  Social conservatives would be jumping off the top floors of the UN tower–if it weren’t closed for renovation.

The creation of this body is cheered by many gender activists–but even they have to admit that diplospeak has reared its ugly head.  After 15 years of hard work since Beijing, the new international body will be known as the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.  Will its acronmy be  UNEGEEW (uh/neh/goo)?  The NYT article suggests the shorthand “Gender Entity” which should keep Conan, Jimmy Falon, and the other boys of late night television with material to last another season.

Admittedly, Neil MacFarquhar of the Times has already addressed the challenges inherent to naming rights.  But at the end of the day, is “U.N. Women” really the right message–at least for supporters?  (Again, insert more jokes here.)

At issue are global challenges facing women.  The LA Times explains:

Bachelet won’t be able to solve all of the world’s unfinished gender business, of course, but she is a leader with a strong record in fighting for women’s rights. As president, she named 10 men and 10 women to her Cabinet, legalized alimony payments to divorced women in that Catholic country and spoke out on discrimination against women. She’ll need to be a good bureaucratic combatant as well. Her agency will encompass four others that work on women’s issues, absorbing their staffs and combined budget of about $220 million, with field operations dependent on voluntary contributions from member states. She and Ban must make sure the donors pay up, and fulfill the agenda for gender equality launched in 1995.

via Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. and the gender equality battle – opinion

We’ll have to wait and see how another agency fares amidst tough economic and political times—in a world that is still very unequal for women.

Not a Fan of the UN Population Fund

From the WSJ Opinion page, an argument explaining why some find UNFPA, also known as the UN Population Fund, to be on a fool’s errand:

Now the Fund has gone a step further, arguing that the scourge of reproduction is not just a question of raw numbers, but that humanity itself is destructive. “No human is genuinely 'carbon neutral,' especially when all greenhouse gases are figured into the equation,” the report tells us in a section entitled “At the brink.” “Therefore, everyone is part of the problem, so everyone must be part of the solution.”

That sounds like a somewhat totalitarian formulation to us, even if the Fund goes out of its way to shed its image as a eugenics-advocacy group by swapping the term “population control” for “population dynamics.” Indeed, the Fund—unusually for a U.N. organ—favors efficiency when it comes to culling our ranks, citing one finding that “dollar-for-dollar, investments in voluntary family planning and girls' education would also in the long run reduce greenhouse-gas emissions at least as much as the same investments in nuclear or wind energy.” Even better, the report says other studies indicate that avoiding one billion new babies by 2050 would save as much energy as building two million one-megawatt wind turbines. The environmental argument extends equally to human welfare—the report notes that “the use of voluntary family planning directly decreases child mortality.”

via U.N. Population Fund Supports Population Control – WSJ.com.

FAO Meeting leads to “stomach full of promises” yet “think we have found a solution.”

The North/South divide rears its head in Rome, where the FAO hoped for a major commitment to reduce hunger.  Apparently, the two major views were not ready for consensus:

In the hard-fought negotiations over a draft declaration from the three-day talks, richer nations succeeded in removing a goal to end world hunger by 2025 and declined to commit to increasing agricultural aid to nearly 20 percent of all international development aid, where it peaked in 1980 before gradually falling.Instead, the draft declaration restated the United Nations target of halving world hunger by 2015 and said that eradicating hunger should come “at the earliest possible date.” Diplomats from wealthier countries argued that creating a deadline for eradicating hunger was unrealistic, according to officials involved in the negotiations. The United Nations estimates that the number of people facing hunger around the world rose to more than one billion this year.

via Disagreement Over Goals at U.N. Meeting on Hunger – NYTimes.com.

Two Steps Forward, But HIV Efforts “on a treadmill”

The bad news seems to outweigh the good news:

“In the space of one year, you’re seeing a huge ramping up of AIDS services,” said Mark Stirling, regional director for the United Nations’ efforts against AIDS in eastern and southern Africa. “It’s unprecedented. In the acceleration and intensification of reach, 2008 was an extraordinary year.”

But the United Nations’ progress report on AIDS also contained sobering news. While more than a million people were put on drugs in the past year — drugs they will need for the rest of their lives — 2.7 million people were newly infected with H.I.V. in 2007, the latest year for which there were estimates.

via U.N. Cites Global Rise in Detection and Treatment of AIDS – NYTimes.com.

Take a look at the epidemic map, where you can see how Sub-Saharan Africa has 70% of the total world HIV-positive population.  Or this sobering graphic: