From: martinc@grover.cs.unc.edu (Charles R. Martin)
Newsgroups: soc.singles
Subject: Re: PRES DEBATE
Date: 9 Nov 92 15:08:01 GMT
	<MARTINC.92Nov7122205@grover.cs.unc.edu> <BxGAw1.8HC@access.digex.com>
Distribution: usa
Organization: UNC Department of Computer Science
In-reply-to: huston@access.digex.com's message of 9 Nov 92 13:31:12 GMT

In article <BxGAw1.8HC@access.digex.com> huston@access.digex.com (Herb Huston) writes:

   In article <MARTINC.92Nov7122205@grover.cs.unc.edu> martinc@grover.cs.unc.edu (Charles R. Martin) writes:
   >In article <BxAMyG.7DE@access.digex.com> huston@access.digex.com (Herb Huston) writes:
   [In regard to population control:]

   >   I'll assume you mean my identification of George Bush as being
   >   one of the chief obstacles.
   >
   >Nope.  (You know better than that, Herb.  You said population control is
   >the main issue, and I agreed.  What is it about campaign season that
   >makes people prefer to try to score points over find answers?)

   Since you hadn't posted a rebuttal to my identification, I had to
   resort to an assumption despite my distaste for doing so.  I have no
   use for "points."

It'd be hard to argue effectively without going back to my article, and
I'm not that interested.  *I* thought at least that what I said was
relatively unambiguous, enough so that I felt you'd had to stretch to
turn my comment into an anti-Bush one.

   >                                                            Last I saw,
   >China, India, u.s.w. were being reasonably effective at population
   >control, although they could use more help.

   In China the rate of natural increase was 1.4% in 1987.  This is slightly
   higher than the average rate for East Asia during the '80s despite coercive
   policies and compulsory abortions.

   In India the rate was 1.8%.

   >                                             But the last I saw, the
   >countries with by far the greatest population problem are the ones in
   >which their dominant religious group forbids effective birth control or
   >abortion.

   Ethiopia at 4.7% and Kenya at 4.1% were the highest rates that I could find
   in a non-exhaustive search.  Mexico's rate was 2.6%, Italy's was 0.05%, and
   Eire's was 0.78%.

Although the dominant religious group in Africa isn't Catholicism, there
are still strong religious and cultural assumptions in much of Africa
that lead to very high birthrates.

Similarly, while Italy and Ireland have relatively low rates, Mexico is
well above China and India, and although I don't have a reference book
at my desk for figures, as I recall much of South America scores pretty
high. 

I guess I wonder how effective population control money would be/will be
in Kenya and Ethiopia.

   >   You might not like my specific recommendations, though.
   >
   >Depends on if you can separate your science from your politics.

   How am I doing so far?

I don't think I've got enough data to tell.

--
		Charles R. Martin/(Charlie)/martinc@cs.unc.edu
     Dept. of Computer Science/CB #3175 UNC-CH/Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3175
	    3611 University Dr #13M/Durham, NC 27707/(919) 419 1754
     "Oh God, please help me be civil in tongue, pure in thought, and able
      to resist the temptation to laugh uncontrollably.  Amen." -- Rob T
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