Here’s something you don’t read about every day: a United Nations official complaining about under-population. Karen Hardee, of Population Action International, reports on the PAI blog that the Ethopian representative of the United Nations Environment Program ticked her off at one of those posh UN summits. This one took place on Ethiopia's first celebration of Earth Day on April 22.

Dr Strike Mkandla told Ms Hardee, who was waxing eloquent on the need to slow down population growth to prepare for climate change, that Africa has lots of land that can contain many more people. There is no video  of the event on the internet, but I imagine that Ms Hardee was speechless. For a moment, anyway. "Dr. Mkandla left before I could respond or the audience could ask questions."

It would be interesting to why Dr Mkandla was so outspoken on the issue. His contribution to the conference dealt with the effects of climate change.

Not all Africans have signed up to the belief that a lower population is a better population. I recently received an email from Chief Albert Ngwana, the chairman of an opposition party in Cameroon, the Cardinal Democratic Party. This is what he had to say:

"Africa can only develop and industrialize quickly if there is a fast growing population. This is what happened to Western Europe during the Industrial Revolution, there was a population explosion in the 18th and 19th centuries. During this period the population of Europe increased from 190 million to 423 million. This is what is happening to China and India now. China for the past decade has remained the fastest growing economy in the world.

"Europe is far more densely populated per square kilometer than Africa. Europe as of 2003, had 115 persons per square kilometer, while Africa had 25. Europe is far richer per capita than Africa. Europe income per capita is US$23,660, while Africa is US$637."

He is puzzled, therefore, about why wealthy Western nations are pushing population control in Africa. More than puzzled, he is furious: "The UNFPA and the International Planned Parenthood Federation with branches all over the developing world are bent on executing this Obama/Clinton murderous agenda, but please be warned, we shall not allow you kill our children."

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