Glasgow Population Rejects Cairo Ethic

Glasgow Population Rejects Cairo Ethic

A conference on population in Glasgow under the heading People Count, held last Saturday as a counter to the Cairo conference, put forth the notion that if poverty is controlled, population would look after itself. Three eminent speakers at the conference rejected the UN Cairo ethic as a combination of claims without evidence and called for population discussion to be based on human rights and scientific facts.

Professor Khurshid Ahmad, a member of Pakistan’s Senate and a well-known economist, said that the agenda for population control was not based on economic factors but a “cultural imperialism to spread values of a secular society. The language and the methodology of population control movements,” he said, “are based on propaganda, not objective facts and scientific arguments.” He condemned “scientists who depart from facts and indulge in hyperbole.”

Population projections showing the so-called population explosion were, he said, “all conjecture and not scientifically supported.” Professor Khurshid explained how all population alarms had been false. Food supply, per capita income and production had always been ahead of population growth so that there was “no justification for any arbitrary movement for population control”.

Comparing the rapid growth rates of many economies, Professor Ahmad said that technological growth was providing for human needs and that “this is the future, not the doomsday scenario of population controllers”.

Robert Wellan, the UK Director of the Committee on Population and the Economy, explained the difference between family planning and population control. “Family planning,” he said, “was the decision by couples as to how many children they would like to have. Population control was a decision by governments as to how many children families were allowed. Family planning”, said Whelan, “increases choice; population control takes it away.” Whelan added that the green movement and the population control lobby were now closely linked, and he made a plea to “trust the parents and not the governments, who are more likely to make the right decision for themselves and the planet.

Dr Bob Ryder, a consultant physician, described the evidence for the effectiveness of Natural Family Planning. Based on his British Medical Journal survey of scientific papers (18th September 1993), Dr Ryder explained how the modern ovulation method was found to be almost 100 per cent effective in a study of 20,000 Indian women. These findings were backed by the World Health Organisation in a worldwide study which showed that NFP could be used by almost all women, including those who were illiterate or without education.

Dr Ryder concluded, “It might be argued that NFP being cheap, effective, without side effects and acceptable in areas of poverty may be the family planning method of choice for the third world.”

‘Leave population in parents’ hands’ plea

DOOMSDAY predictions of a population explosion were speedily defused at an international conference in Glasgow. Timed to coincide with the Cairo Conference, People Count heard calls for discussions to be based on human rights and scientific fact. Robert Whelan, of the Committee on Population and the Economy, attacked the Green movement and its ‘people are pollution’ agenda.

“The extent to which we affect climate change is negligible compared to natural forces over which we have no control,” he said.

Control

Contrasting family planning and population control, he added: “Family planning is a decision by a couple as to how many children they would like to have; population control is a decision by government to how many children a couple should have. “Family planning increases choice, population control takes it away.” He pleaded: “Trust the parents – not governments – who are more likely to make the right decisions for themselves, and the planet.”

Top economist and Muslim scholar Senator Professor Khurshid Ahmad, of Pakistan, urged cooperation between people who believed in faith and human dignity.

He said the Cairo agenda was based on a “cultural imperialism to spread the values of secular society” and was supported by propaganda and not objective arguments.

Alarmist

Pointing out that food supply was always ahead of population growth, he dismissed calls for controls as alarmist. Instead he called for a more just and equitable distribution of resources, to counter the present reality where 82 per cent of the world’s population lives off 18 per cent of its resources.

To achieve prosperity, Prof Ahmad added, humanity needed a re-affirmation of the spiritual values of friendship and co-operation among peoples.

Population bomb is defused in Glasgow

PEOPLE COUNT, an international conference on population and development, took place in Glasgow as its Cairo equivalent came to a close. Timed to coincide with the UN Conference, participants heard three prominent speakers reject the Cairo ethic as a combination of claims without evidence and call for population discussions to be based on human rights and scientific fact.

Senator Professor Khurshid Ahmad, from Pakistan, said that ‘the sanctity of human life is a primary value which must be respected.’ The Cairo ‘crusade against births’ had highlighted the need for co-operation among likeminded people who believed in faith and human dignity. A world renowned economist and Muslim scholar, Ahmad said that the population control agenda “has never been based on economic factors but on a cultural imperialism to spread the values of secular society. The language and methodology of the population control movement is based on propaganda, not objective facts and scientific arguments. He condemned population scientists who ‘depart from fact to indulge in hyperbole Population projections, showing the so-called “population explosions’ were, he said, ‘all conjecture and not scientifically supported. He noted that demography was a social science, so that it was impossible to make forecasts for more than a decade into the future.

Ahmad showed how population alarms had been filtered; supply, per capita income and production had always been ahead of population growth that there was ‘no justification to any arbitrary movement for population control. Man comes not only with a mouth to feed but hands to work and a brain to think and provide for the world,” he added. Comparing the rapid growth rates of many economies, Ahmad said that technological growth was provided for human needs and that “this is the future, not the doomsday scenario of population controllers. The reason for population control was ‘control of resources by vested interests not prepared to establish a just and equitable world.” Ahmad said that 82% of the world’s population currently lived on 18% of its resources. The answer, therefore, was to “look after the poverty and, population will largely take care of itself.”

To achieve prosperity, humanity needed a re-affirmation of the spiritual values of friendship and co-operation among peoples. Robert Whelan, the Director (UK) of the committee on population and the Economy, explained the difference between family planning and population control: “Family planning is a decision by a couple as to how many children they would like to have; population control is a decision by governments as to how many children a couple should have. Family planning increases choice; population control takes it away.” Whelan said that the Green movement and the population control lobby were now closely linked. Analysing the Green claim that “people are pollution,” he said that “the extent to which we affect climate change is negligible compared to natural forces over which we have no control.” He cited scientific evidence showing that natural events, such as volcanic eruptions or sunspot activity, have far more effect on the atmosphere than human use of cars or fridges and that recent satellite data showed no evidence for global warming. Despite this, “green arguments are being accepted which will lower the world-wide standard of living.” Whelan noted that, throughout history, couples have always had only the number of children they could support, and he ended with a plea to ‘trust the parents, not governments, who are more likely to make the right decisions for themselves, and the planet’. Dr Bob Ryder, a consultant physician, described the evidence for the effectiveness of natural family planning (NFP). Based on his now-famous British Medical, Journal survey of scientific papers, Ryder explained how the modern Ovulation Method was shown to be almost 100% effective in a study of 20,000 Indian women. These findings were backed by the WHO in worldwide, which found that NFP should be used by almost all women, including those who are illiterate or without education.  Ryder added it might be argued that natural family planning, being cheap, effective, without side effects and acceptable in areas of poverty, may be the family planning method of choice for the Third World.