Part 24: Overloaded nations 

If you continue reading this series, and you don't think we're in trouble-- I seize this opportunity to bring your attention to other specialists who know we're in trouble. 

They've seen what I've seen.  They know what I know.   They understand; if you 'see' it, you comprehend it.   If you haven't, then, it's easy to deny or ignore it.  

Refresher: the "official" U.S. Census Bureau told us that we 'celebrated' three hundred million Americans in October 2006.  Meanwhile, Vanderbilt University reported the actual number exceeded 327 million.  

In the U.S., we overload demographic saturation levels more than the average voter realizes.

Would our government intentionally understate demographic numbers?

Nothing about the next added 100 million Americans can be ignored.  When the "new folks" manifest upon our shores, it's not like you can wave a magic wand to make them vanish.  

Lawrence Smith, President of the Population Institute, wrote for the Providence Journal on the overloaded populations developing around the world. 

Speaking at a symposium in the National Press Club last July, Smith said, "The eminent environmentalist Lester Brown said he was pondering a question I don't believe he, or anyone else, really wants answered:

'How many failed nation-states would it take to make a failed world?' "

"The World Bank, which prefers to call them 'fragile nation-states,' recently identified 26 countries that pose some of the world's "toughest development challenges, noting that all face similar hurdles:

*      Weak security

*      Fractured societal relations

*      Corruption

*      Breakdown in the rule of law

*      Lack of mechanisms for generating legitimate power and authority."

These countries already experience massive human die-offs from famine and disease that we talked about earlier in this 100-million series. Refresher: eight million people die every year from starvation globally.

Smith continued, "Poor governance and extended internal conflicts are common among these low-income countries under stress, a new World Bank report observes, but past international engagement has failed to yield significant improvements.  The report emphasizes that to avoid 'adverse spillover effects -- such as conflict, terrorism and epidemic disease -- the international community and the World Bank need to find more effective ways' to assist these fragile states."

Fragile Nation-States Freefall -- Horrible Consequences

Nothing can be done once these fragile states freefall into starvation, wars, terrorism and genocide.  Look at Darfur and Sudan today. 

Do you think Americans care?  Short answer: nope! 

However, given enough time, the same problems impacting those societies migrate here to affect our society.

"U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned that failing countries present 'unparalleled danger to U.S. security,' and that they 'serve as global pathways that facilitate the spread of pandemics, the movement of criminals and terrorists, and the proliferation of the world's most dangerous weapons,'" Smith said. “Though the World Bank report points out that the countries it cites are home to nearly 500 million people, roughly half of whom earn less than $1 per day, it does not single out spiraling human growth as a factor in their plight."

Today, two billion people stand at-risk on planet Earth.  Third World nation inhabitants dream of migrating to a First World nation.   This thinking breeds unrest and contempt.

Look around this world as to demographic overload

You can see, read or hear about it on any public service channel.  You'll see religious leaders and programs to 'feed the children' -- but when they feed the children; those they feed grow up to birth even more children – kids that die in greater numbers. 

If they used common sense, they would STOP celebrating burgeoning populations and instead provide birth control and education along with food. 

If they don't provide birth control, those organizations create even greater deaths in the future.  Again, you cannot fool Mother Nature. 

"The total world fertility rate is 2.7 children per woman; for the industrialized world, it is 1.6 children per woman," Smith said.

§        The omission of rapid population growth from the World Bank's report is a serious fault -- considering that women average six or more children in eight of the countries it labels as fragile: Afghanistan, Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia and Somalia. 

§        "The birth rate is five or more children in another eight countries : Congo, Ivory Coast, Eritrea, Guinea, Nigeria, the Palestinian territories, Sudan and Togo.

§        "And it is four or more in six fragile states : Central African Republic, Comoros, Solomon Islands, Vanuatau, Haiti and Laos.

Smith said, "Such high total fertility rates lead to disproportionately large youth populations -- an indicator, particularly in impoverished countries where educational and employment opportunities are few or virtually nonexistent, of fertile ground for radical and terrorist group recruitment."

Please, stop reading for a moment, and soak this in –

World population grows to a high of ten billion or more within the next 43 years.  This number will haunt future generations – as they contemplate what they could have done to stop the freight-train.  I bet the eight million human deaths annually from starvation will be ten times greater.

"Two-thirds of the failing countries are projected to have population increases of 118 percent or more by mid-century, a nightmare scenario considering that they are already mired in the quicksand of poverty and deprivation – and resistant to rescue efforts by the global community," Smith said.

Africa, at 767million people today, expects to double its population in this century.  Mexico grows from 104 million to 300 million.

Lawrence Smith talks about a global illusion – belief in magic, smoke, and mirrors. 

I would go one further and say the United States suffers from a national illusion and/or national denial of reality – a typical view held by addicts.  The U.S. hangs itself on the gallows of unending population growth.

As you look around, no leader -- not President Bush nor any presidential candidates -- whether it's Hillary, Obama, Romney or McCain -- no governor, no senator or anyone in power speaks to this national crisis. 

The fact is-- it's coming, as surely as the dawn.

"The failure of the World Bank to mention, much less discuss, rapid population growth as a root cause of the conditions engulfing virtually all fragile countries reflects a mindset in international circles," Smith said. “Population stabilization fades as a development priority, perhaps because fertility declines in much of the industrialized world have created the false impression that rapid human growth is no longer a critical global concern."

Smith continued, "This illusion neglects to take into account the soaring human numbers in the poorest of the poor countries, where the provision of food, shelter, health care, education and employment is all too often problematic at best."

The irony is that a variety of safe and effective family planning methods exist, but the political courage to offer them falls far short of the need. QS Permanent Female Contraception (quinacrine) provides a safe, inexpensive permanent birth control method.

Addiction to Population Growth Blinds Us

Smith finished with, "Meanwhile, the World Bank's list of fragile states has expanded from 17 to 26 – a 53% increase in only the last three years." 

No one pretends that substantially curtailing human growth will be the salvation of these troubled nations, but to preclude an issue-parameter that  must be factored into the equation remains a glaring oversight.

Fool Me Once, Shame On You.  Fool Me Twice, Shame On Me.

We can fool ourselves -- for only so long. 

We can con ourselves into believing we have fooled Mother Nature -- for only so long. 

But we must NOT fool with the reality of adding 100 million people in the next 33 years. 

As this "Human Katrina" hits, we'll be no different than Darfur or any of the aforementioned voluntary victims of their own overloaded demographic disasters.

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