Overpopulation - an issue that is still debatable up to this day. Among Filipinos, this debate is between the always attention-seeking Catholic Church and environmentalist (or simply people who just care about the environment) and anti-poverty groups. I'm siding the latter.
They said this issue is a big deal among developing nations (in the case of the Philippines, we'll forever be in the developing stage, never moving forward). In Japan, as we all know they have the opposite dilemma despite the fact that sex is not a taboo, that there's not much censorship in anime/manga. Again, it's the opposite in the Philippines. We were supposed to be conservative, we were taught not to have pre-marital sex and stuff. So what's happening really?
Effects, definitely there are. First is poverty. In the Philippines it is a major effect. Assuming we started off as a poor country -- illiteracy, low employment rate, weak capacity to buy the basic needs like food and having a decent shelter, poor health. Why did we start off as a country in poverty? Unequal wealth distribution/land ownership and dirty politics to name a few reasons. You can go as far as the Spanish colonial period in tracing why we have all these inequalities. Now match that with an exponential growth in population and the impossibility in the increase of land mass and resources. It leads us where? Worst poverty. Now Filipinos are stuck in this condition because the problems we had from the beginning are not yet (or will never be) resolved.
Why is population booming anyway? It's simple. Poor Filipinos have nothing to do. Many are unemployed. Unlike Japanese people who work until midnight, Filipinos do not have much to do at night plus there's not much form of entertainment at home. Plus, Japanese think of the expenses they will have in the future if they deliberately and carelessly have sex (Don't get me wrong, I definitely don't know the sex habits of Japanese.) which Filipinos don't really care about. Another big difference, we have the Catholic Church with us that they don't have.
The Church is supposed to lead us to a better place, to lead us to a better life. One BIG problem about the Catholic Church is they are stuck in their ancient beliefs, they never progressed with time. I'm a practicing Catholic so don't get me wrong. The Church trusts the people too much, a trust that many people don't deserve to have. Natural family planning? It's effective ONLY if everyone is disciplined and if everyone will take responsibility - something that will never happen. The Church needs a good slap in the face to wake up in reality. For a long time they've been sleeping since the time of Pope-put-a-name-here that they forgot there are already contraceptives, condoms, that ariplane was already invented or that we already buy water in bottles.
Now back to the real issue (Church intervention in various issues is a whole story in itself) of overpopulation and poverty. Since Filipinos with big families are chained in poverty, it's normal that their primary concern for most of them is to look for a way to attend the basic needs (food, shelter, clothing, education, health). Nothing else. And in the process of finding all the possible ways to meet those necessities (remember they are in poverty) there's destruction of the environment. How?
Imagine a poor family living beside the Pasig river - they live in a shanty, a make-shift house made of used GI sheets, used tarpaulin, used wood, sack, cartons, and rocks to hold them down all together. It's a given that a shanty doesn't have a real toilet and bath. And why would they need one? There's the big wide river! (hint:sarcasm?) So yes, their toilet and bath is the river. They do all sorts of things there. Name it. Now imagine hundreds and hundreds or even thousand of shanties living beside a body of water and this scene is like a daily routine, do you still want to imagine it? It's really scary. And that's the second major effect of overpopulation that came out because of poverty - murder of the environment.
Now, just a reminder, we are all at fault, we're all culprits in one way or another. Together with the ballooning number of poor families and the average to the elite members of the society, we all share in a very limited natural resources. In effect we try to squeeze everything out from mother nature, all the possible things we can get and make it useful for us. I remember my ES1 (Environmental Science) professor told the class that people will only give a damn concern with the environment when they're already filthy rich. Assuming that's true, when we compare the percentage of the rich from the poor, the difference is like Pluto and Jupiter. If that's the scenario, efforts wouldn't really be that big. Again, the major concern of poor Filipinos is their hungry stomachs and caring about the environment is not the least their concern. Now let's call it raping our natural resources - like forcing ourselves to get our own satisfaction. Sad right?
Now the effects are like a chain of events. One thing comes up as a result of a prior unresolved problem. And the list goes on and on. Like overpopulation+poverty=pollution-poor sanitation-poor health-infectious disease-death or overpopulation+government corruption=insufficient number of classrooms-illiteracy-increasing unemployment rate-poorer families-worst state of poverty or overpopulation+low domestic employment rate=professionals/blue-collar job employees leaving the country for another country-brain drain-stagnant technology. There are lots of lethal combinations. Overpopulation is the root of it all.
Why did I go through the trouble of writing stuff like this? Just recently I saw a post in Facebook, a video, saying overpopulation is not a problem. Like what?? It really made a vein in my temple burst. I want to hit him really hard. I think he's from US that's why he did trouble himself and make a ridiculous video. That 5 minute video I consider a wasted time. Tsk.It's Christmas I know, I should be happy and all but knowing apathetic and people unconscious of the 'real' world spreading a myth, it's really worth bothering about. Oh well, I said my peace.
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