Philanthropy and population control are familiar partners: the Ford Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation… one could go on, but let’s stop at Erwin Goggle’s House and Land Foundation in Colombia.

Since 2002 Goggel, a film producer and heir to a dairy fortune, has been offering nine-acre plots rent-free to poor peasants who agree to be sterilised, the LA Times reports. He pays for all the surgical procedures, and has led by example: the 61-year-old father of two had a vasectomy 10 years ago. So far, however, only 46 couples, the majority with three or four children, have taken up his offer, and his goal of providing a model for other landowners and even the government has come to nothing.… click here to read whole article and make comments

Each year the Commission on the Status of Women attracts women (mostly) from all over the globe to the United Nations for a two-week jam session that includes statements made by government officials and cabinet ministers dealing with women’s issues; side events sponsored by governments, UN agencies and the more activist non-governmental organizations accredited to the UN; and long, drawn out deliberations on resolutions presented by delegations. First and foremost is the theme of empowering women.

This year’s meeting commemorated the 15th anniversary of the UN’s Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, thus attracting even greater than usual attendance. It concluded with a major address by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – who in 1995 had been a leading protagonist at Beijing for the reproductive rights agenda.

Pro-life voices

In the many addresses given over… click here to read whole article and make comments

It has taken 20 years, but gendercide has finally made the front page of The Economist. Back in 1990, Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen wrote an astonishing article in the New York Review of Books claiming that 100 million girls had been aborted because of son-preference. This was happening mostly in China and India, but also in other Asian countries.

Some were initially sceptical of Sen’s allegations, and countered that the gigantic gender gap could be due to a higher rate of Hepatitis B amongst infant girls. But as the figures came in, there could be no doubt. A perfect storm of malign factors has created conditions in which girls are being aborted in the millions: son-preference, families with only one or two children, readily available abortion, and portable ultrasound equipment. As a result, the natural birth ratio… click here to read whole article and make comments

The United Nations, which collects voluminous statistics across the planet, recently introduced disaggregated data for mortality rates to show data for children under five years of age. The latter are distinct from infant mortality rates which are much more widely quoted and cover deaths of babies under one year. The new data tell us that if infants make it beyond the first year of life, their chance of survival to age five becomes even more difficult: the mortality rates for those under five are generally higher.

Mortality rates for both infants and children under five years are expressed in number of deaths per 1,000. Data are further broken down to indicate male and female mortality and show that the female death ratio is lower than that of males nearly everywhere and, in the more developed countries, the rates are often both low… click here to read whole article and make comments

As part of the annual meetings of the Commission on Social Development at the United Nations recently, The Republic of Korea sponsored a “side event” entitled: “Low Fertility and Aging Society in East Asia.” The presenters were a research director from the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, the Ambassador of Population issues of the Republic of Korea and a Korean Senior Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu. A few officials from the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs were also present – and we engaged in a wonderful conversation afterwards.

Korea has the lowest fertility rate among the 30 OECD (most developed) nations: 1.19 in 2008, its population has started to decline and the population is aging rapidly. This has to be put into perspective. The Korean Government has had a very strong… click here to read whole article and make comments

Isthe women’s equality movement leading to the extinction of females?China’s coercive one-child policy is well known but other countries arefreely expressing a population preference with similar direconsequences in the works. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)is well known for the promotion of gender equality through“reproductive health and reproductive rights” and provides assistanceto individual countries for many population related matters. Interalia, the latter includes the financing of various studies to collect,analyze and disseminate population data. One such study Recent Increase in the Sex Ratio at Birth in Vietnam: A Review of Evidence [1]provided some astounding analysis relating to abortion consequences inVietnam: a dynamic country with a population of 87 million – 14thhighest in the world – with a 90% literacy rate and a fertility rate of1.83 that is just below replacement (2.1). While these data were not inthe Report, they… click here to read whole article and make comments

The penny has finally dropped for the Chinese government. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has admitted that gender imbalance because of its draconian one-child policy is a serious problem. In a report in the Chinese newspaper Global Times, demographers Wang Guangzhou and Wang Yuesheng sketched some of China’s intractable problems.

Sex-selective abortions: "extremely commonplace, especially in rural areas".

Scarcity of wives in rural areas: men in poorer parts of China will have to accept late marriage or no marriage at all. "The chance of getting married will be rare if a man is more than 40 years old in the countryside. They will be more dependent on social security as they age and have fewer household resources to rely on."

Abductions and trafficking of women: "rampant" in areas with excess numbers of men, according to the National… click here to read whole article and make comments

With a population of 141.9 million, Russia is registering a growth for the first time since 1995, says Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. For the past five years the number of Russian deaths had declined, while births had risen. Life-expectancy is about to reach the age of 69.

"We can say with a high degree of confidence that Russia will register a growth in population for the first time since 1995," said Mr Putin at an end-of-year government meeting broadcast on state television. A spokesman said that while the total growth was a minuscule 20,000, it was a "symbolic" milestone.

In part, the good news is due to Mr Putin himself. As demographer Carl Haub points out in the Population Reference Bureau blog "Behind the Numbers", in 2007 his government decided to give US$9,000 to women upon the birth… click here to read whole article and make comments

Gee, I missed this one from the hoo-haa surrounding the Copenhagen Summit. Sorry…

How can anyone dislike Boris Johnson, former editor of the Spectator, former MP, former shadow minister for the Conservatives, an old Etonian with unkempt blonde hair, a harum-scarum poupourri of astonishing talent and schoolboy silliness? He is currently mayor of London and his obiter dicta are faithfully reported by the London press. Like this one:

"There is no doubt that humanity faces a risk of environmental catastrophe. We are replicating too fast, hurtling towards nine billion souls on the planet like bacteria multiplying on a Petri dish."

How many children does dear old Boris have? Four. Are you scuttling around on the Petri dish with the other bacteria, Boris, old son, or is it just the benighted people south of the Equator? ~ click here to read whole article and make comments

Bangladesh is going to introduce a voluntary "one couple, one child" population planning policy by 2015 to curb its growing population.

The Director General of the Directorate of Family Planning Mohammad Abdul Qayyum told the Chinese news agency Xinhua that: "The Chinese policy influenced us in framing our policy though we are not making it mandatory." He said that the government plans to promote a "No more than two children, one is best".

"We are eager to develop relationship with Chinese population planning authorities for training our men, using modern contraceptive and other related matters," Qayyum said.

According to the government’s draft policy, one-child families will have preference in state schools and will be eligible for financial grants.

With a population of about 150 million and a birth rate of about 2.7 children per woman, Bangladesh is… click here to read whole article and make comments