Television celebrity Sir David Attenborough (pictured) has come under fire for blaming famine in Africa on population growth and the Catholic Church in a controversial interview reported in the Daily Telegraph.These latest comments follow the broadcaster’s descriptionof human beings earlier this year as ‘a plague on the Earth that needs to be controlled by limiting population growth’.
Sir David, who is a patron of the Population Matters, has spoken out previously about what he sees as the ‘frightening explosion in human numbers’.
This week in an articleposted on Culture of Life Africa, and republishedon Life Site News, African woman journalist Obianuju Ekeocha takes the presenter to task for his ‘condescension towards the people of Africa’, his ‘lack of understanding of the African reality’ and for predicating his comments on ‘blatant inaccuracies’ and ‘common stereotypes’.
The article is well worth reading in full but here are some highlights:
1. Sir David exhibits the exact alarmist mindset and philosophy that set the Chinese government on the painful path of extreme population control , a path now paved with the blood of millions of innocent unborn babies and soaked with the tears of millions of women coercively deprived of the joy of motherhood (See my previous blog on 160 million Asian women missing as a result of ultrasound and second trimester abortion).
2. The undeniable decline in population, which is now occurring in many western countries where the fertility rate has dropped below replacement rate, is creating all sorts of complex fiscal and economic difficulties associated with population aging, labour shortage, loss of tax revenues, collapse of social welfare systems and general economic decline. This has real consequences that are now slowly but surely paralyzing some of the most powerful countries in the world: growing elderly population, shrinking workforce, increasing health needs and the move into the ‘lonely world of the nursing home’ (See this articleand my previous blogon Japan).
3. By contrast in the developing world there are enough children and grandchildren to care for their elderly parents in warm and loving multigenerational households. A child is not just a mouth to feed, but a specially unique individual with incredible potentials to learn, love and live a life of service to the family and community. Africans encourage marriage, celebrate motherhood and welcome babies because they are a sign of hope for the future.
4. With more than three times the population density of Ethiopia, there is still abundant food to feed the vast numbers of people living in Great Britain, so how can anyone living therein point an accusing finger to the Ethiopians to control their wildly reproducing population or forever face the scourge of famine? (Famine is Africa is due not to population but to a variety of factors including deforestation, poor farming, climate change and also war, often fought with weapons supplied by the West!)
Ekeocha concludes with an appeal to all the ‘population control minded elite of the western world, who are propagating and pushing their philosophy to the ends of the earth, to please respect the African people in their quest for sustainable authentic growth and development that is consistent and compatible with their Culture of Life.’ Strong words indeed!
Some previous blogs on population
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