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Post by Gregory Hewett on Nov 21, 2007 7:09:21 GMT 5.5
Post your summaries and reflections here.
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Post by yulli on Nov 21, 2007 11:34:52 GMT 5.5
Yulli Kim Developing Nations Video reflection and summary
-Summary
“Population explosion” is a major problem in developing world, countries like Zimbabwe, India, Philippines, Indonesia, Bolivia, Bangladesh etc. In the undeveloped nations, they have poor education for the children and limited heatlh care, hardly enough to protect the people from all those diseases out there. The major part of this documentary was about how the people avoid giving birth to a girl, yet seek only for sons. Women are treated unfairly and are suffering due to this wrong, rooted idea of male superiority. Sexism has been a tiresome problem all over the world and it is even stronger in developing nations. It is quite complicated to explain how “unfairness” is connected to the population explosion problem. Since all these countries that are mentioned above are not able to provide proper education for everyone, women are obviously left behind in houses because parents send sons rather than daughters to schools. Therefore most of women are unknowledgeable about using condoms, birth control pills and other contraception. Unfortunately and very cruelly, some governments force these women to get an abortion, or even trick them to get it. According to the documentary, in 1985, fifty percent of girls died in a family. Nonetheless, people are starting to recognize the importance of educating women, to practically reduce the population growth. In Indonesia, the fifth most populated nation in the world, the government is trying to slow down the population growth by providing contraception. The decreasing of population growth will help in cutting down two third of poverty in Indonesia. However, women are facing some other problems, the improper healthcare system. This crisis is not only for Indonesia but for Bolivia, Mexico, India and other countries. In the case of Bolivia, which is the poorest nation in South America is also having consequences due to the population explosion. In the urban side of the country, per family consists of more than at least three children, or even seven. These families cannot afford to send all of their children thus the life gets harder as they have more babies. As a matter of fact, they are very ignorant about using contraception, or hardly know what it is. Poverty, isolation and ignorance may suit the title for these unfortunate people. Most of their husbands come home drunk and they urge their wives to have sex, and women can’t do anything but to obey. In Mexico, the problem is as likely severe. “The men should always be the boss” passes down on the generation through fathers to the sons in Mexico City. Women have no rights or any power whatsoever. Even though the government is aiming to influence and give a special care to enlighten Mexican young men, this ignorance of women are not quite ceased yet.
The most severe, horrible part is where they kill babies after they are born, after recognizing them they are not sons but useless daughters. This favor of boys has somehow arisen from religion and tradition. In order for the parents to go to heaven after their death, sons should burn up the pyre. In China, their strikingly high population growth makes impossible for the government to provide basic needs for the Chinese people. Although the country is trying extremely hard to cut down the population growth by one child per family policy, seventy five percent of the majority of Chinese people still want sons, and do not follow this policy which might be crucial in nation’s development.
In contrast, women in Kerela, India are overcome by population control, they have right to have proper education and become successful. In fact a lot of companies start to hire women labors and they find easier to have only one child because then they can take care of their children very well, rather than having so many children and suffer. The comparison between one Nepal family and American family showed surprising contrast. In Nepal family, they walk and everyone works by hand and have natural house. On the other hand, in normal American family, they have two cars, use plastics, woods, gas, steel, electrical tools and other sources and are able to work by a lot of different resources due to the technological development. After all, it really is that how much impact each person has.
-Reflection
As I watched this documentary about population explosion, I grew very sad and sympathetic about those women out there in the developing countries. As a woman myself, I was fortunate enough to not gone through all those mockingly harsh ignorance. However, I still could truly understand how they might feel and what really needs to be changed for them to enhance their life condition. Although many governments and women leaders are trying to influence over young generation to promote their knowledge about respecting women and treat them equally as men, I don’t think the undeveloped world has grasped fully enough of those influence. I felt very insulted especially in the case of Mexico. Those guys did not even recognize women as human beings, just because they think they were right to do so. The most important thing for them to learn is that they must throw away the old tradition, the idea that the men should always be the boss. Use of contraception among the developing countries to cut down their population growth is another matter. It is very odd, how rich countries like France and Switzerland have so less population, but on the other hand, poor nations like Bangladesh and India are overly populated, almost threatening the economy of their own. In my opinion, the proper health care and fair sexual education for young women might prevent them from pregnancy. It is good for them to have fewer children because otherwise the already hard life would be doubly harder for them to go on. To express my true thought, I really don’t understand why some people like Pilipino want to have as many children as possible. Are they having capacity in feeding them all? Not really. In the case of China, male superiority is extremely high. In my experience, my mother told me that she wouldn’t have had another child if I was a boy. That did not offend me that much because she explained that my grandmother urged her to have a son. In China, this is worse. I knew some Chinese mothers when I was in Korea and they always wanted to bear sons and if their babies turn out to be daughters, they were very disappointed. This crisis or unfairness for women should be stopped quickly. How sad or even irksome it is to being treated like this. Overall my mood towards this video wasn’t that pleasing. However I really felt that we all should contribute our voice to the society and influence women’s rights. The governments in the countries that are being frequently mentioned in the documentary should help out women to stand up against men’s unfairness. In that way, women will gain power and population growth will go down. Because people will feel satisfied to have girls if the sexism is perhaps demolished or weakened.
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Post by yeeun on Nov 21, 2007 11:35:20 GMT 5.5
Population Bomb Killed So Many Women and BabiesYe Eun.Park 20.11.07 Developing Nation 4th Summary and reflection on CNN documentary While an American family of four with its two to three cars does its part to make up America’s consumption of 72% of global oil consumption, a Nepalese family of nine walks. Further, when this American family spends about 100 buckets of water for bathing, washing and cleaning, the Nepalese family uses only three buckets of water for the same things. Yes, what you are thinking is right; ‘Oh my god’ because these two families are clear examples of the two different dimensions of the population explosion. One shows how much they consume, and the other shows how many they are. But you are probably wondering why this Nepalese family is a problem because they do not consume or waste as much as the American family. So now, I would like to tell you why the Nepalese family is also a problem; they are still living in the 13th century, are uneducated and too religious making the issue of population explosion hard to control. In developing nation, most of poor families are still living like living in the thirteenth century. In the past, there was a time when the whole world was under the agriculture period, so during the time, a family bore as many kids as they could because they needed workers. But today, many countries developed, and invented more convenient tools for agriculture. On the other hand, most of the developing nations are still in the agriculture period, same as the life style in the thirteenth century. In worse, the tool they use requires much more energy. So one thing they can do is bearing more children so they can have more hands. But, though a family can keep bearing babies, it does not mean the babies can grow so well and healthy because most of the farming families, in developing nations, are busy with feeding their own mouth, not the new born babies’. So in the end, what automatically happen to them are killing the babies indirectly by starvation or diseases. Therefore, letting the population increase in developing nation is using more lands as the innocent dead babies’ graves. In developing nation, most of people cannot get a proper education-especially sexual education. How many children in developing nations have actually worn a school uniform? Furthermore, how many girls in developing nations have actually worn a school uniform? Today in Ethiopia, so many women get an illegal abortion to reduce the number of family member, and hang their lives on the itinerant doctors’ hands. Because most of women have not gone to a school, they have not taken any sexual education of birth control methods; they do not know how to avoid pregnancy. So every time, when the women get pregnant, they think a cruel abortion is the only way to not decrease the number of family. –Because; they already have too many children. Therefore, without a right education of sex for all the people in developing nation, letting the developing nation keep increasing its population is too atrocious for women mentally and physically, and the aborted babies too. In developing nation, most of people are as religious as women accept all the unfairness. Why in Hinduism, should the female fetuses detected and killed before they see the world, out of their mother’s womb? And, why does Christianity treat using birth control methods as committing a sin if that actually helps people having a family in a better condition of life? It is because people believe that the god will take care of them and their children too. So they just accept the majority of men because that is the god’s sentence;”A son is the only one who can bring the parents to the heaven.” And, at same time, all the girls and women are ignored from the time they were born, and should work for men. On the other hand, like the incident of a Philippine girl; looking at the dead baby who died by infection, many women experience this horrible situation because they cannot use the birth control methods or pills. Further, the reason they cannot use it is because the religion they believe in is against this methods. Therefore, letting the developing nations keep increasing its population means at some point, the god’s will be killing babies, not giving a birth. Today, in developing nations, many people are realizing the importance and function of birth control methods. Further, in several states, like Kerala in India, the government already got some successes of family forming. But still, in developing nations, there are too many people who are still living in the thirteenth century, uneducated and too religious. So many babies and women are dying because of the reason they are not or cannot bear a boy. Well, then, now I have few questions. If all the women know what they will be like if they marry, why do they have to marry as they pay the entire dowry to their evil husbands. And if the government’s idea of sterilizing people is for reducing the population, how far the population has decreased, and how many people have been suffered? The best solution for this population explosion is neither the birth control methods nor the sterilizing surgery, but it is the humanization for the suffered women and killed babies. Reflection While I was watching this documentary, I heard so many sexual words which were not really comfortable to hear, but then after I finished watching this whole documentary, I realized how these words are much more horrible to the people who actually experienced it in reality. Further, I was also really angry when I was watching the part of majority of men because the women are not born to work for them for their entire life. Further, the idea of bearing the next child right after a wife’s pregnancy to have more boys was so horrible. Do the men actually know how long should women wait for bearing one baby? Women wait for about ten months to bear a baby, but the men are thinking pregnancy as some kind of bat, who bears more boys? Shouldn’t the men wait the new baby with their wives together? Further, because of this documentary I again realized how the power of women needs to grow up more. This documentary is not a current one, but still so many women are suffering with same terrific problems. Well, I do not really remember how many times I said the word, HORRIBLE, while I was watching this documentary, but again, I really appreciate for my parents to raise me up in such a good condition.
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Post by rikke on Nov 21, 2007 11:36:19 GMT 5.5
Reflection on the documentary and a summary By Rikke Madsen
This documentary is basically about overpopulation, and about poor families that get to many children and can’t control it, so many of those children don’t get a proper health care, an education, or anything and they are basically suffering. The poor families that have all this children don’t have money to feed all of them, and give them an education. Even some woman kill their children because they don’t want them to suffer, because that is what they do, and are going through a long time in there life. If you don’t get an education, how can you then get a proper job and money for food when you grow up? That is not that easy, not for anybody.
Actually there are a lot of women who don’t want anymore children after 4 or even less, but who don’t have family planning or the husbands says that he wants more and more, so the women just get along with it, because they don’t want to argue, are some of the main problems to why the poor families have so many children.
Another thing that is mentioned in the documentary is overpopulated. They are talking about if it is the poor people who keep on getting more and more children, but not use as much things because they don’t have enough money. Or if it is the rich or normal families like in Europe or America their uses a lot of resources but maybe only have 2 children, that is a good question. In poor families where they don’t have that much money, and can’t educate all their children it is mostly only the boys that are able to go to school, and it is also only them their get to play. The girls have to work and help their mothers even though they are very young, which I think is awe full, and very shocking. Actually many things in this documentary shocks me a lot. And it is clearly showing in the documentary that the women and girls (females) are suffering more than men and boys (male) are, and families also want boys rather than girls, and that is also one of the reason why families have so many children, because if they first have born girls they try one more time and one more time, because they want to have more boys also, rather than girls, as they think boys are better and the only once who can give the family growing, but I totally disagree!
But of course some women get an education which is really good, but it is not many, because not many can afford it. I think it is basically only the families that are glad that they got girls respect and are happy what they have got, and don’t try to get new until they get a boy, and by that they also have fewer children, but that might only be in some cases and only in some countries also.
Another thing they talk about is sex protection and adoration, this are also related to the fact that the people are trying everything until they get a son, and also that they don’t know family planning so they are just getting more and more children without even wanting to, because they don’t have so good sex protection, and can’t afford condoms, and medicine to avoid getting a baby, so when they find out they are pregnant again, they want a adoration, which is illegal in many places, and because it is that way they just go to who ever wants to do it, which goes wrong almost every time. So they have to go to the hospital which properly can’t do that much to change it either. So to avoid that, it is really important that they learn family planning, which people later in this documentary actually also do and it is also affecting people, but not enough, but that is also only some people who can afford an education to learn family planning, so there are many problems still.
There are too many babies dying every day, basically from poor families, because they are suffering and don’t get health care, and to go back to the women killing their babies because they are suffering, they are going up to mountains where there is water and a river, and putting their babies into it properly, so they are dying. Which is really sad, and most be really hard, but inside it is properly the best, because they know they don’t have enough money to feed them, but one question I have is, when they do kill their children because they are suffering, why is it then that they keep on getting more, and not stopping it instead? Also because they know that their other children and they don’t get enough food, they only get one meal a day which isn’t enough to live.
Another thing in this documentary is that the government was teasing the people, asking them if they wanted a job in a hospital, and of course they said yes, and when they came their, they get taken in and put down on a bed, and the doctors are removing something and blocking something, so they can’t get anymore children. The government doesn’t even care about the people, they only care about the population of getting more and more people in their country, but what about the poor people? Was it really a help when you are doing it this way, we can ask them? I don’t think so, maybe to help them in the right way, and educated them about family planning would have helped them much more, because now they are just hurt and suffering even more than before.
Another thing is that in many poor families the men are treating the women as dirt, and as they own everything, and go around and think they are the boss, but why? Aren’t the women as independent? Maybe not, but it should be like that. Maybe the men think they are the boss, and think they can treat the women has they want to, but we (the women) should stand on our own feet, not with help of the husband; we are has good has them, and that is why the women have the right to get an education too, and have the right to be treated fairly, and independent, of course if they can afford it.
But to end the summary, it is important also to talk about the good side behind all the bad and shocking stuff that is around us in the world, there are also people who have a good life between the poor, and there are people who are smart. For example they live properly, the women is educated, they only have two or three children, because they think it’s important to give them a good health care, and a proper and good education, and give them food everyday. Also because they know if they got anymore children they wouldn’t be able to give them that, so they think it is better to stick with them they have, and make them happy, which I totally agree on.
My opinion to all this, is that I think it is really shocking how bad peoples life are, and to hear about their situations, and to watch how small babies are suffering, and almost dying, and how girls are working so hard even though they only are around 4 years old, and should be playing around instead. But no, that is not how it is; here is only the boys their get to do that, which I don’t understand.
There is specially one thing I really disagree with, and that is how much they think, for example here in India boys are better than girls. Who made that up? Because I think that is the most stupid thing I have ever heard, what is it there does that they are better, what it is their make boys more special than girls, what can boys do that girls can’t, from my opinion barely nothing, of course there are always things boys are better at than girls, and stuff that girls are better at than boys, but in general I don’t think so. I just think that there were some people there said that, and now everybody just follows that, without even having a reason to follow it.
If there were one thing I would change to make the poor peoples life better, it would be to tell them about what women can do, and tell them that it is both human, no big difference, serious I think they make to much out of it, and just put on to it. Because why should men be the boss, why can’t they work as a team in the family? And other thing I would tell them is to be happy about the children they have, because it is a gift, but not if you keep on getting more and more, just because you want a boy and can’t get it, so you keep on trying, then it is just something there are coming you just want to get away with again. So I think that the families should think about that, and be happy with the wants you have, and get them a nice and good life, instead of getting more children and then none of them would have a nice and good and healthy life, because the parents can’t afford it. So that is something to think about, and if I ever got the chance to tell them, I think I would.
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Post by divya on Nov 21, 2007 11:37:38 GMT 5.5
Population Explosion
In the CNN documentary, they reported on the realities of the world and its people. When we talk about our earth today, we say that there are six billion people but can we really imagine that number and how many that really is? Even though our earth is colossal, statistics are saying that now and in the future it may not be able to sustain the amount of people we have on the planet. The movie starts with averages and generalizations of places such as Latin America, Africa, and Asia which have so many people and the majority of them are impoverished. Necessities are not being provided for them and many of us feel sorry for them. But one point that they made in the documentary was that the poor villages in rural places are not necessarily the overpopulated families. The amount of people does not matter but instead the impact they make on the environment. The babies in developed countries such as United States will use more resources and consume more energy than those in developing countries. Appliances and luxuries are not available to the poor so they do not affect the environment as much as those who have access to the machines and create much less trash and carbon dioxide. But in the end, it is not just one group of people who are solely responsible for the issues we face today. The responsibility is on all of our shoulders and we need to work together to solve it.
The next topic the movie talked about were the slums in cities and why we have them. Slums are made up of those who look for a better life but the fact is that they rarely find it. But to them, a roof is equal to a better life instantly. In the slums and most rural areas, family planning is not available and not accessible. Many efforts are made but it is extremely hard to target everyone and get that money or funding. It is more important for the girls to understand family planning and birth control before the boys because they are the ones who after sex may get stuck with the baby. But sadly girls, even in the state of desperation many face, are given the leftovers of any care and are seen as inferior, still even today in some places. Poor families who cannot afford health care and other assets to a healthy life give the best they can afford to those who they think can carry on the family name and make them proud, or in other words make up for the resources they lack. Many people and organizations try to convince these people that this way is not right but in the end it is the family who decides. Because of these harsh conditions, women in places such as Ethiopia have unsafe abortions to avoid having girls which causes great danger to their health and some go through forced sterilization which makes it so that their body cannot produce anymore. They see this as family planning and it prevents babies, which is what they think will prevent them from having harder lives, but in reality only makes it worse.
Sometimes traditions and customs play a huge party in family planning and the way a family lives and therefore a society. As they said in the movie, the Chinese New Year bring in about 17 million more babies and when it is the year of the monkey or some other sacred animal, tradition says that babies born in this time will be blessed. China has now put the reproductive rights of people into the hands of the state and came up with the one child policy. Older generations look down upon this law because they always felt the larger families meant more people to carry on the family name therefore big families were ideal. Even today in rural areas, the one child policy does not work because if a family does not have a son, some keep trying and end up with many children, which they are excused for if they pay a bribe or a fine. The Chinese government imposed this law, not only to control the population but to also maintain stability in the country. The more people, the more ideas and opinions they will have and these days even the peasants revolt. The Chinese environment has drastically worsened over the years largely due to the population crisis.
Near the end of the documentary they talk about Kerela, India, which surprisingly has amazing statistics in terms of family planning and the amount of pollution emitted. Many say that Kerela should be taken as a role model but on the other side, Kerela has the highest suicide rates and many die from illnesses every year. Their overall system is ideal with women’s rights and education for all but still there is much unemployment which defeats the purpose of the positive side. There may be less people but they are sick and that means they cannot work which does not help the society.
Reflection--
As I watched this documentary, I was disturbed by the images, as they were harsh though absolutely real but I was not surprised. I have seen these images in many places and sometimes in real life. In India, this happens in our own backyard just maybe not in front of our eyes. I have seen that in India, people who come from overseas try to create the same life they had their, sometimes being oblivious to the realities outside. Just because we create our own world does not mean that one goes away. But in defense of the wealthy, many of them do donate money and offer help to causes and try their best. There are so many people in the world to satisfy and it is hard when they are targeted as some of the many causes of pollution when many of them do recycle and are environmentally conscience. I don’t think that anyone would change their lifestyle completely to try and help the environment because I think we all feel a sense of helplessness because we feel as one person cannot help the environment much.
But the different crises in other countries are amazing and saddening almost to the point where it is disgusting to see them try and fight for survival. To solve this, we need the cooperation of the world to try and stop the population explosion and make the environment better. But that is extremely hard and one group or organization cannot represent all of us. The girl’s situation in many countries is pathetic because we would hope, living in a world where we have all the rights, everyone else is entitled to the same which is sadly not the case. I don’t feel completely against governments making laws for birth control and how many babies you are allowed to have like in China but of course there is the ethical question of whose right it is and obviously a large majority would disagree with that idea. But all in all it is a way of controlling the population and has helped China from reaching a catastrophe today in terms of population and China’s environment. Watching this documentary has just shown me that there are so many small problems we need to address before we look at the big issues and that there is hope but we need to act fast.
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Post by eunjucho on Nov 21, 2007 11:37:45 GMT 5.5
There are many issues in our world in these days and one of them is people bomb. In fact, it has been one of the most important issues in the world before, too. The document tells how it can cause more pollution, more crimes, more diseases, more gaps between the rich and the poor, and other unpleasant things that we do not want. This documentary gives a lot of examples of the countries all over the world.
This documentary starts with an American family who live in California and a poor large family who live in Nepal. They compared how much each family spends and of course it was the American country. So, that is population bomb.
The documentary also shows a lot about women. How some of the poor women live. First one was something about pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Most of the women in Ethiopia do not want more kids but because they do not know of anything that prevents them from getting pregnant or cannot afford to do that, the women sometimes die during the abortion or after. The women in developing nations do not usually go to school and does not get sex education which means people are unaware of the diseases. That is the one of the reasons how women cannot prevent themselves from getting pregnant. There was something about religion, too. In Manila, most of the people are Christians and the religion is powerful, too. That means they are not allowed to use contraceptions because preventing the lives of something is against god’s will. So, women keep having babies. Another thing was that women have limited freedom, choice. In India, they are taught to do whatever their husbands say and this documentary also shows how they are abused by their husbands. There are other ridiculous things like a husband cheating on his wife in Mexico.
This documentary also shows something about males as well. It showed how some of the countries, the women are still weak. Like the guy in Mexico, he sleeps with various women to relax because he is stressed from his work. According to this article, in Mexico, the guy like him is common. These days, luckily, the schools teach kids how that is wrong. Another thing is how men control women. Even if the men know that the women will get pregnant, they keep insist women to have sex or sometimes be abusive. According to this documentary we watched, in Bolivia, the woman do not have any choice. In the documentary, the men also said that they are the boss, which was ridiculous and surprising.
Other big themes in the documentary are baby issues and kids in villages. In some countries especially in India and China, even if you are a woman, they want male kids. It is because they think they boys can help the work and be beneficial to families. Some women have abortion, some women kill babies, infanticides, some women keep on having babies till they have sons. These things result countless problems. In India, according to the documentary, there are only few females compare to males. Also, when they keep on having babies to get sons, they have hard time raising them because they cannot afford and unable to provide what the kids need. This documentary showed how the kids in Nepal look so young and short even if they are eighteen or so because they lack nutrition and other things you need to have in life. In addition, this documentary showed how the girls always work in home and boy either go to school or enjoying their lives.
Over all, I enjoyed watching this documentary. However, I was very annoyed by certain things in the documentary like how the girl washes dishes everyday and how the boys play cricket with their friends for all day long. Plus, the Mexican guy who just use the women to “relax”. I was about to explode. Maybe the women there are used to those kinds of situations but I think they should be more independent. Well, it is kind of impossible them to be independent because some of men won’t let them but still. I the think male populations in developing countries are enjoying the power that they have. Moreover, killing babies and abortion part was gruesome but sad, too. In my personal opinion, the part of the reason why the women kill their babies or have abortions is because they do not want to disappoint their husbands. Women should have more chances and opportunities to raise their voices.
Also, in my opinion education is really important part of this. That is what I thought while watching this document. The people in developing nations should know that women are just like men. They should be able to treat them the same way. Of course it is hard to ignore their cultures, but I don’t think being sexists is a right thing. Also, the education is important because sex education is part of educations. The people, both women and men, should know what to do and they should be able to think before they act. Anyway, I hope the people bomb problems will soon be over.
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Post by jihyeyun on Nov 21, 2007 11:38:33 GMT 5.5
People Bomb This documentary is for about the serious problems developing nations have. First of the huge population in developing nations is the root of all the other problems. Land, water and air are limited for the some amount of people. And they are started to pollute and destroy those natural resources. It is important that how much impacts each person rather than just number of people. a In megacities, cities that have urbanized, usually middle and upper-classes is living. also people who have migrated to this place to seek jobs or work place. Violence, poverty, bigger gap between the rich and the poor are the main problems in Megacities. The government can not provide enough education services especially, sex education. As a result more babies are born and more migration to cities to seek of better life. Ethiopia, unsafe abortion kills so many people in the rural area. Contraceptives are available but not accessible. The government didn’t provide family plan it just has started to provide the services. Furthermore, sex education is not provided to the in reachable countryside. People still in the world prefer boys. I learned that also too many people in this world causes problems. However, the biggest cause is that how much impacts each person has like U.S. In United States, people use up 72% of steel and emit 3/4 of carbon dioxide in the world. even though US has low fertility rate, the consumption and wasting things are much greater than any other poor developing nations do, much high fertility rate. Thus, more resource consumption promotes global climate changes by emission of green house and gas and destroying ozone layer. Education gives more opportunity. People believe that children are kind of security insurance for parent’ old age, taken care of by their children. Thus, parents try to have many children to get help to work and earn more money. Many babies usually die before they become five years old, so increase the possibility of survival by having a lot. Most of babies are malnutrition, handicap because mothers are not healthy. India 30 years ago, the government forced men to get operation that they can’t have babies, steroids. The one of the reason that people want to have lost of babies is that many children die before they become adults. The parents want their children to take care of their old age and help them to work and earn money. It is like security insurance for parents. 88% of Philippine people believe in Roman Catholic and they are not allowed to use contraception to prevent having babies. They believe that they should give life not prevent life, all god’s children. Furthermore, in Bolivia, country of extreme, women have no choice. Similarly, Mexico men are in absolute control over women. For those people it’s difficult to get information or family planning services. “They do not know how” (“they” refers to the poor people living in the countryside). Male dominated society so women have little control over men. Before 17th century, in Indonesia, 60% of population were living in slum and had average 6 children per family. However, since 17th, the price of energy of Indonesia has skyrocketed. Furthermore, foreign investment has increased and the middle classes started to grow fast. Family planning was providing. Thus, average children are 3 children and 2/3 of poverty in Indonesia has cut by. Sanitary condition has improved a lot. First of all, it was shocking that still men are in control of women and people still prefer to have more sons rather than daughter. Long time ago in Korea, people always wanted to have son and not daughters. They educate sons and take care of them. This trigger that spread in all over the world should be eliminated. Sexism is one of the biggest blocks hinder development in countries. Equal opportunity should be given to men and women. By discriminating sexes, countries are just ignoring the potential power to step further. Nowadays, people started to change their attitudes toward this problem. I believe that women have so much potential to improve the world and this is the way to approach the flat world. One more serious problem that we have is that choice of abortion. There are countries have specific religion and tradition that do not allow people to have abortion. Thus, people who do not want to have anymore babies get illegal abortion in bad condition. Because abortion is illegal, the places have bad sanitary condition. As a result, women have abortion in that place get infection and even die in there. In my point of view, instead of getting abortion, people should be provided contraceptives to prevent having too many babies especially, in developing nations. One of the effective ways to decrease the growth of population is the family planning program. The government should provide sex education or the family planning to uneducated people. It will prevent people from more poverty and just having babies without any realization. Decrease in population affects other economic activities like in Indonesia, after the country provides family planning and decrease in population growth, economy has increased a lot and poverty has been eliminated. There are limited natural resources and environment and people should control the amount of consumption. According to this report, the impact that each person has is more important than just number of people. United States has much less population than the poor developing has however, the consumption of the natural resources and the emission of carbon dioxide is much higher than in the developing nations. This documentary helped me a lot to be aware of the real situations all over the world. People in other parts of the world should be informed about this
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Post by sam on Nov 21, 2007 11:38:58 GMT 5.5
People Bomb
The world’s population is currently at over 6 billion. At the rate at which it is presently growing, it will reach over 14 billion by the end of the century. Overpopulation is a frightening reality in which there is little that can be done. Lack of space isn’t the only problem we are facing with the ever growing number of people on the planet. Poverty, crime, feticide, infanticide and pollution are just a few of the consequences of the people bomb we are facing. Without the means to fight it, no one really knows what will happen long term. People need to realize that without the means to advance in the world, accept the changes and adapt to them, chances are they will not only fall behind, conditions of life for them and their children will almost inhumane, as it already is in many parts of the world. Every time a child is born in the world, it’s almost as if they cry out for a better lifestyle.
In the last century, crime has increased dramatically. In large and prosperous city such as Rio de Janeiro, people come from far and wide in the hopes of getting jobs. The reality is that most of them end up on the street with no home, no money, and little of no knowledge of contraceptives. Just getting through the night is reason enough to give thanks. Not only are cities like this a magnet for job-seekers, it is also a hot spot for crime. Criminals are drawn to the large crowds, and manage to succeed there. This is another effect of overpopulation. Somehow people have to make a living, and they are left with the decision: should I starve to death, or should I sell drugs? Sadly most of them choose a life of crime. Bodies turn up every morning. The ineffective police force finds itself at a great disadvantage. And the people keep coming. Whether from births on the street or from people migrating in, there are still more and more people. More people, more crime, and no easy way of stopping it.
Many people already have too many children. With little knowledge of how to stop them from coming, and little access to the little that they do know, many people are forced to take action themselves. Back-alley abortions are far from uncommon in poorer, overpopulated areas. However, the women doing this might in fact be better off keeping the child. Thousands die every single year from unsafe abortions, which appear to be their only way of keeping what little they have. People cannot afford to feed so many mouths. One year of birth control such as condoms or pills cost around and average of $40 for people who usually make around $120 if they are lucky. Illegal abortions in an unsafe environment seem like only the most available and convenient thing to do rather than having to deal with yet another mouth to feed.
In many countries however, they are trying to make a difference. They offer free family planning and give information concerning contraceptives. They mostly choose to target the youth, knowing full well that they see what is happening in their lives, and they know that they must do something unless they want to end up like their parents or anyone they might see by the road. They are kept well informed by the family planning services that are provided and use them. They have no desire to get pregnant or get any STDs. The family planning services know that the kids have an idea of what’s going on in the world and have all but given up on the older generation.
Cultural taboos often keep women from talking about sex and birth control. It is simply not done, and is not considered proper in many different cultures around the world. They grow up not talking about it, they do not talk about it with their children, and they never truly learn about the use of birth control. This ignorance leads them to desperate measure that need not be taken (such as back-alley abortions). Very conservative religions and cultures almost forbid the talk of such things, and being a woman cannot help the situation a whole lot. Even in the Roman Catholic Church it is a sin to use contraceptives. But if people truly want to recuperate and succeed, then they need to move past their discomforts.
These cultural barriers also make it harder for women. Girls are often considered as minorities. Mere tools, even (in the extreme cases). They are believed to have one sole purpose, and that is to serve their husband and bear him children. In India, for example, 1 out of 4 girls will die before the age of 15. If boys are ill, then the parents will go through the trouble and spend the money to take them to the hospital and get them looked at. With girls however, then they simply do not think that it is worth it to pay for them to get looked at. Many times they die. They need the care as much as the boys do. With the boys, they look at him as being the future of their family. They need to have boys. They try again and again to have them, resulting in overpopulation, infanticide, feticide and overall death and poverty. The girls receive no education, they work. The money that should be used for education goes to their dowry. Their job is to get married. The abuse rate is very high in poor areas. The girls grow up thinking that they are there to serve their husband, as their mothers did. They go along with whatever their husbands want. This has been going on forever in India, and its not changing, even though it surely should.
Even though the high abortion rate is horrible, it opens all sorts of new job opportunities in the sexist world. People selling all sorts of nonsense to ensure male children. People pray to every god they know to give them sons. “Through a son, a man conquers the world.” People being to rely more on technology rather than gods: ultra sound. From this comes an even higher rate of infanticide. One study showed that out of at least 8000 abortions, only one was a girl. The desire for a boy child is insane. 2 babies are born every single second in India, and this is partially because they want at least one son. But this of course leads to overpopulation. But people are too narrow-minded and blinded for the want for sons to see that. But the orphanages are truly feeling the neglect of the girls. They are full of them. And the population rises.
In places like Nepal, kids die every day from malnutrition, sicknesses and other things. But does this stop the population from rising? On the contrary. People feel the need to have more kids after losing some. They just continue to have more, and they still do not know how to stop. They have no recuperation time in between pregnancies, they cannot afford to support the kids that they have, and most of the time they end up being malnourished, and often times have stunted growth. The deformities get passed on from generation to generation. The parents work themselves too hard to feed themselves and their kids and end up having bad health as a result. And still the population rises.
But at least there is slight hope. The governments of different nations are trying to help, some of them, and in few countries, it is working. Overpopulation is the root of many, many problems that we face today. We need to put an end to it. That may be easy to say, but it is much, much harder in reality. The government has made mistakes in the past, and they are not willing to make the same ones again. If this is not stopped though, who knows what the world will come to? So many deaths as a result of simply wanting sons, among other things. Hopefully it will get better before it is too late.
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Post by meehye on Nov 21, 2007 11:38:59 GMT 5.5
Documentary summary
20. Nov. 07 MEEHYE ROH Developing Nation Mr. Hewett
I saw one documentary which about the developing nation. That is about over population. This happens is in Mexico, India and China which is developing countries. So this documentary show that what problems of the over population are and why is kinds happen in those country and what government do about that. This documentary shows all kinds of these things. What are problems of over population? First, one country have lots of people so there are lots of air, water and noisy pollution because of many people have cars, motorcycle and auto rickshaw. It makes lots of air pollution. Moreover, India dose not have any enough water and people make lots of water pollution. And the dirty water which is people used that dirty water goes to the ocean so it is really problem. And then there have big gab between poor and rich people. So some people work by machine and go by cars but some people work by hands and go by walk. And lots of poor people sleep on the street because they do not have any house at all. One day more than thousands people die because of diseases or no food or lots of bad people whose throw the small stone and burgers. And then if poor people do not have any money for education their children so they educated only boys so girls also want to have education but they cannot because their parents does not allow to do that. even though, when girls are sick, when they really sick that time only see the doctor but when boys are sick little bit but they directly go to the doctor because they think that boys are important also throw away small babies because they do not have any money or ability to take care about those babies. India lots of that happen. And then why this happen coming out? Mainly, poor people do not know how to stop having babies. So women are continuously having babies or they want to have boys but if who have only girl so they are having babies till boys come out. Or, the religion, people think that god give babies so they never do erased babies or have pills, nothing. Even though, they have lots of babies and they do not want baby any more because they think that babies are creature which god gives to people. The teens have problem of having babies, the poor people who live on the street they says that they have boyfriend and they had sex but they did not worry about having babies because if they have babies than they will born babies. They do not care about the sexual partner and having babies. One shock thing is that one man has five wives and three more girlfriends in Mexico that is really shock. A man thinks that he is a king and he can have many women and having sex and having babies. What about women, they did not doing anything because they also know that their husband have many women but they cannot do anything. It is really crap! How come men do that to his wives? Women are just like sex object. It is really bad thing to women. I was really angry when I see this part of documentary. Like this kinds of thing they have babies a lot so it makes over population. What government doing about that? They have a doctor and people can surgery not having babies both men and women. so they can stop having babies. And some health doctor or nurse comes to poor village and they teach that how to stop having babies and they give free condom and pills to women or men. So they can stop that having babies. Government want to those kinds of system so they make that. Also they make free education and health care to poor village so they try to safe their children.
I think this is really good but I do not understand why people want to only boys. Boys are really helpful? Are they helping parents a lot? I do not think so because when I see my made, her bother and father always make trouble. So I do not think so because girls are also really smarter than boys. They can get better job and more smart. And then even though, girls are really good. However, In Korea, when my parents was young, that time also they did same thing like India so people want to have boys so it was really problem because boys always think that girls are stupid and just like sex object. So it is really problem with that. And I hope that women also can use their own right so people have to respect them.
I think that the government do really good job because in India, it has lots of poor people so they help them so it is really good for poor people. They want to have education but they do not have any enough money so they cannot have education so it is really good for them. When I went to ‘developing nation field trip’ I saw many poor people and they want to have their money and education so Government build school for poor people so it is really good. I saw these kinds happen in India. So I hope that poor people have really better life.
And the other own, many babies die because they are poor and they cannot control them but they cannot do any thing so if poor people get better so no more babies death, so Government have to help all the poor people. But actually they cannot do that because in India, China, there have lots of poor people so they cannot taking care of all the people so I think that they have to find other way to do that. When my father was young that time also In Korea, they have some campaign that makes babies only own. So India is like when Korea was. So it is makes me really surprised.
Anyway, this documentary is really helpful and if people saw this documentary then they will know many people need help so I hope they have to think about these serious problems and people have to think how we can help them and they have to get better life.
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Post by sohee on Nov 21, 2007 11:39:23 GMT 5.5
So Hee Lee Developing Nations 11.20.2007 Period 4
-Summary As we all know well, there are lots of serious problems in the world and this CNN Video talks about those problems really well. The problems that this CNN Video talks about are the problems that we don’t think about and actually we don’t want to think about as Mr.Hewett said. This video contains about 20 chapters and talks about women’s rights, men’s rights, children education, baby’s born and death, over population, environmental problem, and etc which are the serious problem especially in Developing Nations such as India and China.
In this world, billions of people are on the edge of the survival. They have almost no food to eat, no money to buy something, and only some clothes to wear. They said they are happy when they wake up and feel that they are alive. Some of them feel fortune when they have at least a meal in a day. But the serious problem for them is they have too many children to take care, educate, and feed. Although the governments are trying to help the poor people, it reaches only for few people. And because they also have to save money for dowry, education money, and life money, they can’t take care of all the children that they have. Then, they decide to leave their babies somewhere especially the girl children. Here, we can see the sexual distinction. If they only have money to send one of their children to the school, they will choose the boy child to go to school. Then the girl children have to work while the boys are studying and in the future, the girls are not able to get any job because they don’t know how to write, and how to read. Based on this video, in 1990s, 25% of the girl children died before 15 year-old because the parents don’t have money to take care of them but the boys. Now, more than 300 children are dying everyday.
Many people are trying to have small family and looking for a way to have few children but they don’t know how. Also they think they have to accept the children because the babies are the god’s gift. When they have baby, they check whether that baby is girl or boy, and if that baby is girl, they just kill that girl and try one more time to get a boy child. They are Son Manias and it’s one of the main problems of huge population. In this video, they mention that 2 babies born in every 3 seconds in India. But the most important thing is that the problem is not about how many people there are, but how much impact each person has. Also the governments tried more for the over population. In Catholic, they made a program called birth control, and the other people and government also made family planning program and etc. Also the governments forced the people to do the surgery that makes women not to pregnant, and people were angry at the government. And with no choice and no solution, they will continue to have big family.
In this video, they also talked about women’s and men’s rights. In India, China, Indonesia, or the other countries, the women are lack of power and voice. On the other hands, the men are strong and they can do whatever they want. They can have as many wives as they want and they are like the kings and boss in the world. So women have to do whatever the men want. There’s no choice for the women. They have to marry with a man if the man wants. Sometimes after the man got dowry from the woman, they do the kitchen fire. This is becoming a serious problem. In developed countries, there is almost no problem with women’s rights but in developing countries, there are. So we all have to be responsible and find the solution for it.
-Reflection This video is the most shocked video that I have ever seen. But it was the most helpful video for me to understand what is becoming a serious problem in the world and I realize that there are lots of problems which we don’t know and people don’t mention about it. After finished watching this video, I thought the developed countries must help the developing countries because without their helps, the developing countries can’t solve these problems and if they don’t solve this problem, then it will be the world problem not only for the developing nations. Also we all have to try to remove the gap between rich people and poor people and developed countries and developing or undeveloped countries. In addition, as I said above, we have to collaborate and be responsible about these problems.
If we don’t try to solve the problems about women’s rights, men’s rights, children education, baby’s born and death, over population, environmental problem, and etc, the world will be in danger. I think this is the time that we all have to be one not separate. And we all know that if we collaborate, we can solve the problems.
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Post by sujata on Nov 21, 2007 11:40:14 GMT 5.5
Sujata Mahtaney Developing Nations November 20, 2007
Summary and Self-reflection on Documentary – The People Bomb (CNN)
The documentary, Special Reports, which was a show by the channel CNN, was very upsetting but eye opening to a few very important issues in the world today. Living the sheltered life that we do, most of us are probably unaware of what’s happening in poor and developing nations, where people face problems like poverty, sexism, lack of education etc. A very important thing this documentary covered was the lack of sex education, where many teens couldn’t afford to go to school, and were uneducated about sex. It also talked about family planning. Another important issue it addressed was religion and the fact that culture doesn’t chance easily. It also talks about problems in mega cities.
This documentary begins with a few facts, on issues that it addresses later on. It was shocking to find out that fifty percent of America’s women work, but only one out of twenty have executive posts in their jobs. It also mentioned that there is a possibility that there will be approximately fourteen billion people living on this earth in half a century.
Over population is a big issue in the world today, and will become a bigger issue in the future. Over population is not just about how many people there are in a region, but the impact of the people. It depends on the resources people used and the impact they made on the environment. An example that the documentary used was a family of four, which live in an American suburb used more resources that a poor family of eight in Nepal. A fact that the documentary mentioned was that 240 million people in America drive cars, which shows the impact of the people. This obviously means America is over populated too, because the resources American’s use make the same impact on the environment as a densely populated nation somewhere in a developing nation, due to the number of people those nations have.
It then moves on to talk about mega cities, where rapid urbanization was taking place. They found that poor people died on the streets every night, and what lived in the hearts of people was fear. Many people that couldn’t afford houses lived on streets in places like Brazil, and every night all that the people could pray for, was to not get run over by a car that night.
It then talks about a very important issue, abortion. The example, or place that the documentary used was Ethiopia. Due to the lack of sex education there, since it is an impoverished nation, made issues like abortions very difficult there. Though the government tries to help the poor, it cannot get to all the little villages to make that change. Since abortions were illegal in Ethiopia, people risked their lives at an abortion. The facilities weren’t clean, and many women died from abortions. Women were told that if they gave birth only to girls, their in-laws would call them useless. Out of eight-thousand abortions only one was a boy,
It then moved on to the issue of sexism, and son mania, where India was the place they brought it up. In many Indian families, especially in the rural areas, girls had no voice or power. Girls were always taught that they come after their brothers or other men around them. They were considered unimportant. Due to this low status of women, female feticide and infanticide the world population will end up being imbalanced. The documentary also shows us a hostel for underprivileged girls in India, and how they learnt a lot more and had a much better life in this hostel away from their male dominated families. The documentary also voices how women should be taught to think for themselves, and make their own decisions The scriptures of Hinduism also state that for a parent to enter heaven, the son must burn the body. This importance they give sons is just insane.
Another important issue relating to women is dowry. A big reason many poor families didn’t want girls was because they’d need to save up a huge sum of money to pay the groom’s family when their child is ready to be wed. This is an unfair practice but many cultures do still practice it, and women get treated really badly by their in-laws if the dowry they bring is not good enough. Another big issue relating to dowries were kitchen fires, where men took dowries from their wives, and then burned them, reporting it to be an accident in the kitchen.
Culture plays a huge role in this sexism, and in many cultures women are considered inferior. It’s possible to change the mindset of a few people but to change cultures take a long time. People prayed for sons, and believed in all sorts of things to have sons, for example they would use special herbs to make sure their newborn was a son. Another thing the documentary showed us was a woman who claimed to be able to talk with the Hindu God, Shiva, the creator, and determine the sex of the child. . Many families started using advanced technologies like ultra-sound to prevent unwanted girls. After a while, the government of India decided to ban ultra-sound due to the purposes it was used for. It was stated that in most orphanages, you’d find only girls.
A reason that world is becoming so overpopulated is that people believe that children are security to them in their old age. Many people on poor nations couldn’t afford to take their children to clinics if they were sick, or for regular visits. Since many parents weren’t sure if their children would make it or not, they had many kids for their own safety. Although it is security, having many children is also unsafe because if the gap between two children is less than twenty-four months in can hurt either the child or the mother’s health. Many children were undernourished since their parents couldn’t afford to feed them a balanced diet everyday. In Nepal, many children got infected and one out of five children dies by the age of give. They have stunted growth, and do not look their age. Many families also wished they had less children, but can do nothing about them at this point of time.
This documentary also talks about sterilization and forced sterilization. Many people were forced or tricked into this surgery, to make sure they can’t have more children. This also led to the death of many, since they weren’t treated properly. Governments in many parts of the world claim to work on improving the status of women, but it doesn’t seem like much is being done about it. They want to educate women, and improve medical facilities. They also do want to control the population though.
The poor considered all the children the got from God, and therefore chose not to kill any of them. Many children in Manila died due to bad living conditions. Since 80% of the Philippines were Roman Catholic, they didn’t believe in contraception, since their church says it’s a sin. Latin America, being the largest Roman Catholic region, still allowed the government to educate people on family planning and gave free contraception. Unfortunately, this didn’t reach everyone though. People claimed that they would feel bad for the children they have since life is hard for them, but still didn’t use birth control.
In Bolivia, they have polices discover dead infants on the roads or sidewalks everyday. Bolivia is South America’s poorest country, with highest birth rate. They showed us a woman, in the documentary that was 41 years old, with ten children and pregnant with her eleventh. People like her don’t want more children, but don’t have a choice since they don’t use birth control or don’t decide when they have sex. They cannot time it in a way that works, because it’s entirely up to their husbands. The problem in Bolivia is more poverty then overpopulation though.
There were camps set up, and people had targets to get more than 21 women to use birth control. The government needs to enlighten these women, and needs to teach them to make their own decisions, and the correct ones.
It also talks about Mexico. An example of a Mexican man, called Antonio is what they use. According to Antonio, he has a very stressful job and only sex relaxes him. He therefore very openly cheats on his wife with many other women. This is what a common Mexican man is like according to the Documentary – no responsibility and a lot of children. Thanks to people like this, they have many plays in Mexico, to educate the younger generation to get the message across that infidelity isn’t the right thing, and that men should stick with one woman. It also talks about contraception, which means abstinence or the use of condoms. The birth control pill only prevents unwanted pregnancies but no diseases like AIDS.
According to me, this documentary was very upsetting and disturbing, which has come to the extent that in a few scenes I needed to shut my eyes. I think it is really sad how people are uneducated about an issue as important as sex and abortions. The abortion part was also scary, because I had no idea before this that an abortion is similar to taking a risk and is not always safe. It is also important for women to get more involved in family planning programs because it affects them the most. I also think it’s important for the health organization needs to get in touch with more people, because although it’s not easy, it is probably easier than those people getting in touch with such organizations. What I found really surprising was teen sex, because although educated teens do have sex, I didn’t think uneducated teens really knew much about it. Besides from what I know, in India girls aren’t allowed to loose their virginity till they get married in rural areas, but I guess it was different in places like Brazil.
What really disappointed me, and continues to, is the way girls are treated. Although this isn’t a new issue to me, it’s affected me more each time I look into it. I think people have no right to treat girls the way they do, and have no right to kill them. The girl child being less important than a boy child really frustrates me, and I wish I could make a change in this aspect, because it is one that really affects me.
The want for many children, being a security is understandable, but needs to stop at a point. The way female children are treated really needs to be changed. And I really hope that more people get educated about sex, and that in the near future our world’s population can be controlled, just so that the ones living can live better lives.
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Post by arpitav on Nov 21, 2007 11:43:41 GMT 5.5
The documentary we watched was all about the people bomb. Many points that were brought up are points that many people don’t think about and don’t like to think about; several people just ignore them or avoid them because they are uncomfortable talking about it. One important point that was brought up is overpopulation. When they said overpopulation, they don’t just mean the amount of people, they mean the impact those people have on the earth and economy. If a family of 3-4 lives in the city and a family of 7-8 people lives in the villages or slums, the family of 3-4 has more impact because they are the ones using all the energy and electricity, and they are the ones throwing away trash, and hence it is leading to the depletion of fossil fuels. The industrialized world holds only ¼ of the people on the planet, however ¾ of the energy that is being consumed, is being consumed by that ¼. Another important point that was brought up was back-alley abortions and the status of women. Women don’t have power and they don’t have a voice. Female children are considered to be second rate to sons. Why do they have to have a son, I mean girls can do anything boys can do. Women would find out the sex of their baby and then have an abortion if the fetus was a female fetus. Since most of these women couldn’t afford a professional abortion, they had a back-alley abortion. Hundreds of thousands of women die by these back-alley abortions. Some surgeons said that they performed at least 10 abortions a month Out of 8,000 abortions only one was a boy. If they don’t have an abortion they kill the child minutes after it’s born and claim its death to death during childbirth. Otherwise they abandon the child; sometimes the baby is just left there and dies, but other times they end up in orphanages. Most of the children in orphanages are girls, and this is one of the reasons as to why. If the mother didn’t have an abortion and they didn’t give up the kid and they kept it they just kept reproducing babies until they had a boy. This was a contributing factor to the people bomb. Another major point is that men rule the house. Women are not allowed to say or do anything against their husbands. This entire video was extremely hard to watch. It was upsetting to see how many people used abortion just because of the sex of their baby, and it was even more disturbing to see how they had the procedure done. A lot of the instruments weren’t even sterilized. Many women got ill or died because of this. I felt so helpless watching this. Also, it was really disturbing to see how men treated women, even their wives. They treated them as objects. Also a lot of the images were a little disturbing to watch, especially the abortions. As I was watching this video I was thinking to myself, “What in the world is wrong with people? They kill or let the child die just because it is a girl? Now I am adopted but until I heard this, I never thought that the reason I was in an orphanage was because of my sex. While I was watching this section of the video I was thinking to myself, is this the reason I don’t know my biological parents, or is it just a coincidence?” This video was so depressing, but we can’t deny it isn’t true.
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Post by pyeonchan on Nov 21, 2007 11:45:25 GMT 5.5
The documentary video that the class watched for 4 days sharply showed the issues that the developing nations have faced through decades. The issues that were shown in the video were really sad and sorrowful to watch, because the circumstances that the people in the developing nations have faced were so terrible than I expected before watching the video. Even though the video was produced about 20 years ago, any issues that the video brought up were not fixed and changed at all.
I was firstly surprised at the fact that the industrialized and developed world was overpopulated regardless of its numbers of population in the country. I also realized that I was one who created the impact on overpopulation, because perhaps I used much more resources and created negative effects on the environment than the people living in developing world. However, after considering a few points, I feel the problem of overpopulation seems to be very difficult to solve due to the gaps between haves and have-nots. In order to resolve this issue, we cannot force the people living in the overpopulated world to give up their normal life, and it is also impossible to encourage the people to stop using resources to keep the status quo. The movement made by have-nots, the steps to make mega cities in the world, can be interpreted to be the part of ‘overpopulated’ area to get many types of benefits such as higher quality of educations.
The women’s status in the society was quite familiar topics that I have faced before. In Ethiopia, many women had been dead while operations for abolition. The women who did not have the opportunity to get the sexual education cannot prevent the pregnancy. The government cannot make any differences in abolition rate whether the abolition is legal or illegal, but it is pretty obvious that the countries that have prohibited the abolition cannot provide the perfect circumstances for the emergency situation while operation. Furthermore, most girls in India cannot go to school and lose the chance to be educated, but they are forced to work hard to earn money. The sexual discriminations, which have been explored in most of the oriental world, were much serious than what I experienced. Even though Korea still remains the traditions and practices about the sexual discrimination, it has been improved tremendously. Even some Korean men think that there is a discrimination and social restriction to men such as the military duty. The expectations, hoping to get son rather than daughter, also exist in Korea, especially in old generations, but the maniac tendency for son seems to be higher in India and China.
Without proper sexual educations, most developing nations have shown high birth rate as well as high death rate of young children. At least 20% of babies died before 5 years in Bangladesh, because the young girls/boys always suffer from the lack of nutrients. Even they do not grow properly, so they do not look like an adult after they become. This is not something that I experienced before. I couldn’t see that people suffered due to the food shortages and lack of nutrients. The terms for 6 months after eating all grains that was produced the last year, people need to fight with hunger. Some people try to have fewer babies in order to concentrate on fewer babies and invest on them. However, as a means of reducing the birth rate, the Indian government forced people sterilize by tricking people. Even though its whole process is easy for men, the people who suffered were women. Women were not treated with dignity at all. This was such a dehumanizing policy of government for me, and it also seemed to interrupt human rights in many ways.
The conflict between the religious faith and real life makes women difficult to do abortion as well. The Roman Catholic strongly claimed that people cannot give up the god’s children. Including the Roman Catholic, many religions banned the abortion. Nevertheless, considering the circumstances that people face, people in the developing nations need to do abortion, because they cannot support the babies in many ways.
On the other hand, in some areas of world such as Bolivia, people do not have a choice – they need to give up their babies regardless of its religion. People can get the basic knowledge from local clinic, but the countryside is more difficult to get the service because of isolation. It looks too harsh for me to have no choice for their babies. Due to the poverty, people even lose the chance to choose their own way. However, the Chinese also do not have the choice that can only have one child in one family. To reduce the population, the Chinese government has applied this policy for a long time, and it already settled down in China, especially in city. Whereas the countryside cannot apply the same ideas due to the need for manpower. What they do in the countryside is generally farming which need a lot of manpower. Therefore, it cannot be applied to the countryside, and the Chinese government may have to find another way to achieve their goal in the countryside. What people generally think about China is that China should be focused on the development and industrialization but not the family plan. I also totally agree with the idea that it is time for caring about the development and the environmental problems caused by the rapid industrialization.
India, which is located on the similar circumstances, has been changed a lot, especially in Kerala State. The women tried to provide better educations to the children, so they do the operation to be sterilized. The rights of women also look much better than any other regions in India. Most girls go to school like the boys. Many people in Kerala believe the Christianity, and active social movements also help to solve the issues. Once I went Kerala, they were much cleaner than where I have lived, and the social activities of women look much better than any other developing areas. Kerala can be a good example how to approach to the developed area without any negative reactions from people. It is also one of the steps that the developing world needs to go through. Even though many issues that were shown in video was not solved for 20 years, I hope these desperate circumstances will be resolved soon.
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Post by miriam on Nov 21, 2007 11:46:05 GMT 5.5
At the very beginning of the documentary we watched one of the first things I remember was a statement made by some African village people in Nepal. “Every African woman should have children.” This is a huge problem as overpopulation is a huge problem. However, every person interprets the word overpopulation differently. Many think that it means many families with many children, nevertheless, people have got to be fully aware of the fact that it is not necessarily the size of a family that matters but the impact that this family and their life standard is having on the world - while comparing a small family living in the USA with a large family living in Nepal this fact became extremely clear. The family in the USA consisted of the parents and two children, nevertheless, with their entire expensive gadget they were a greater “threat” to the world than a family of eight (six children). The Americans had electricity in every single room in their house, whereas the Nepalese family used fire to cook and candles to light their house at night. The American children had entertainment such as video games/play station whereas the Nepalese children worked all day in order to have a meal at night. The American family of four had two cars, whereas the Nepalese family of eight had none, they walked everywhere, no matter how far, no matter what the weather – nevertheless if you think about it this kind of makes sense, for the Americans their whole life is built up around cars or other means of transportation, whereas in Nepal (maybe not as much as in America but still quite a bit) their lives have evolved around no means of transportation, most things are near by and the things that aren’t near by people of the village don’t usually have to go to as everything that people in a village need to survive is in the area. This results in villages becoming more and more isolated from the bigger cities as well as from one another. An additional difference in the affect that these two families have on the Earth is their wastefulness. In America the family has got, for example, plastic wrappers, bottles, left over food, cans, paper, and electronics which they throw away every day/month. Taking a look at the same things, in Nepal the family hasn’t got plastic wrappers, bottles, cans, or electronics, all left over food that is no longer edible to humans is given to their animals, and any paper (or wood for that matter) they can find they use for fuel. So to me this has proven the point that it does not necessarily matter how big a family is, but what impact that family and its life standard is having on the world.
In Ethiopia one of the problem concerning family planning and the one that I think is one of the most important one is that the new generation knows absolutely nothing about birth control so families jut get bigger and bigger, consequently, as the share of the less fortunate in the population grows, so do their problems. One attempt by the government to reduce these problems was by making abortions illegal. However, this had dramatic consequence, more and more people (especially teenager) were having illegal alleyway abortions which leaves many women dead (either as a result of an infection or because of starvation as there are too many mouths to feed, this results in there being too much of a strain on the body so that it can not survive the abortion) and even more in a hospital. The reason for these abortions is mainly unwanted pregnancies which are the result of sex information programs not reaching everybody. Nevertheless, most people still believe that it is the will of god how many children you have and that you should have as many children as god want you to have in order to have as many on as possible. Just like the girls have got to marry the man her parents select for her and she has got to give her husband a son as it is said that if a son does not light the funeral pyre then the parents won’t get into heaven, also another point for having to on is that if you don’t the husband can kick you out.
The next part of the documentary dealt with Girl in India. Personally I find that this topic and the information we got that explained it was quite shocking. While the boys go to school the girls stay at home … and work. When the boys come home from school they start to play, while the girls stay at home … and work. The girls work and work and work all day long and when one of the boy comes back home from school the reporter speaks to him about his sisters and he has got the gut to ay “The girls stay at home all day while we have to go to school.” The girl wash the dishes, wash the clothes, work on the field clean the house, they do all the work that they can manage and at the end of the day it isn’t even appreciated one bit. From the moment a girl in that society opens her eyes till the moment she close them she is told that she isn’t good enough, simply because she’s a girl. Girls are put second class to the men and they are treated that way by their brothers, fathers, husbands, and even their own mothers – she teaches her daughter to do exactly a her brother, father, or husband wishes as her mother taught her the same thing and her mother mother taught her mother the same thing … ect. As a result of this a girl elf image becomes so destroyed that they do it, they do exactly as their told because they have been raised not to think for themselves but to let the men in their lives control them. So what is going on here in India?? Clearly, sexism!! Parts of the Indian society have been drilled so hard to have boys that one out of eight thousand abortions was a boy and that isn’t even counting infanticide. Some people even say that when a man has a son he has conquered the world, this is one reason why infanticide is happening. Most of the times once a wife is pregnant they go to check the sex of a baby, if it is a boy, he lives, if it is a girl … abortion. Unfortunately some people are too poor to have the sex check which results in families waiting until the child is born and if it is a girl it “died during child birth” – infanticide.
Personally, I thought that the next ‘chapter’ was extremely horrifying. It was called “When Babies Die”. The statistics that this documentary gave us about Nepal babies were shocking. One out of five babies die before they reach the age of five and three hundred and fifty die every day. This is the reason why their families are so large, there is a great chance of your child dying and everybody wants to have children that can take care of them when they grow old. So seeing as adults want to have as many children as possible the mothers are getting one child after another without waiting twenty four month in between each baby which result in the body of the mother not getting the chance to recover, this endangers all the lives involved – the mother, the baby that is already born as well as the baby that the mother is having next.
The Fall Out was a governments last desperate hope of getting India’s population under control. What the government did was it forced or tricked people into getting sterilized. The way that they tricked people into getting sterilized would be to offer the poor people money or land, yet what the people got was a piece of paper, no family, no money, and no land. Nowadays sterilization is still an option but it is no longer forced or sugar coated with dead end promises. Nevertheless, many woman (this is, in my opinion, is another sign of sexism as the operation for woman is much riskier than it is for men) that have this operation done get seriously sick from infections or die due to the unhygienic circumstances of the operation and the not sterilized equipment used.
Scavenging to survive. About twenty thousand people live on Smoky Mountain (a rubbish dump) and since they do not have a steady income and do not know whether they are going to eat that night or not they can not afford a large family, unfortunately, to complicate these peoples troubled lives contraception is considered a sin as we are “All Gods Children”, so all family planning programs are allowed to teach is how to try and avoid sex on high fertility days. Unfortunately this doesn’t always work, that’s when you get cases of infanticide.
In Bolivia they have “No Choice”, there is a vicious circle going on which is making the poor sink deeper and deeper into poverty. The poor do not know anything about contraceptives so they have many children and they become even poorer generation after generation after generation.
“The Price of Success” is the next part in the documentary and it states the fact that Jakarta is a leading role model when it comes to family control. Jakarta has in fact managed to conduct such amazing contraceptives program that poverty has been decreased by two thirds which I for my part find extraordinary.
This next part of the documentary is one of the parts that I was shocked about the most. It is called “The Aftermath” and is set in Mexico. I was appalled by so many things in this “chapter”, one of them was that adultery is not frown upon by men and their wives know it, they know that their husband is cheating on them and they don’t do anything about it one of the woman even said “What am I meant to do about it ?? I get mad for a while and then that’s it.” Exactly that attitude makes the men think that they are in charge. The reporter walked around on the street and asked a few men who was in charge at home and one of the answers I remember so clearly it was an American man and he said “HAHA I’m the boss” and the tone that he said it in was as if he thought that it would be absurd to think otherwise, after this man there were many more who said similar things, making clear that we understood that they were the head of the house. Nevertheless, Mexico is improving in reference to contraception as it has got a new program which shows women as well as men point of view about unwanted pregnancies and I was positively surprised when the reporter interviewed some of the boys at one of the schools that this play is performing in and the students said things like “If my girlfriend gets pregnant I want to take up responsibility for the baby and not just leave her to struggle with it all alone”.
Another good example is China. Its one child policy has worked extremely well in some places, however, not in all. Some families had a girl so they wanted to have another child in order to have a boy which once again shows how idly sexism is spread. The reason why the one child policy even started was because China realized that parents can provide extras, so now people are thinking that China should be focusing more on economic growth and less on family planning.
India has indeed got a victory. The Indian town Kerala has got the lowest infant death rate, the highest life expectancy, women outnumber men and it educates woman fully. Sadly there are obviously also down sides to this amazing Kerala, it has got the highest unemployment and has therefore got a high suicide rate.
Looking at this Documentary as a whole, I think that it covered so many topics just about enough to understand it but not too much so that you get confused. I personally think that it was a good documentary and I would encourage people to watch it.
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Post by hawklim on Nov 21, 2007 11:46:33 GMT 5.5
Hawk Lim 20/11/07 Dev. Nation The People Bomb The world in twentieth century changed many things of human life. The developments in medical study, weapons and science. Now, the people living in early twenty first century, there are many differences between people who have and people who do not have. People trying to change the world again in this century, but what is the main thing is what kind of change will affect people more than just making them living in flat world? On the other hand, what else should be decreased? The documentary was based on the research during 1980s, in rural parts of India, Africa, China and America. The documentary mentioned about the family planning for the future (Too many mouths to feed), problem causes with the changing of government governing the country (China’s major problem becoming a democratic country), and Africa’s suffering because of new diseases (AIDs discovered during that time). Well, the problem they mentioned with America was nothing, but to compare themselves with the countries that have problems. It showed how perfect America is, with these kinds of problems such as family planning, governmental systems and medical cares. As a documentary went on, I could realize even though the 20years did not really make the changes for the world for people who do not have rather than people who have everything and living peacefully. In the other world where I have never been is still suffering because of poor, hunger and family planning. This documentary made me to think again about the importance of nationality, family planning, and health. When I live safe and sufficient life with my family, there are still people lost their lives because of family planning. When I can go to pharmacy and get the medicines, there are people who cannot get it because of money and transportation or who have terminated diseases. World brought many changes for poor and whoever living in the third world. However, there are still many people who need help of government and who need new family to keep them safe. It can happen to the people in America even though America is calling as the No.1 country. It is like a random thing. We do not know what will happen to us even in one second. Will I have heart attack suddenly or will I go for Novel prize? However, everything is up to you for your next generation.
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Post by eliasse on Nov 21, 2007 11:46:43 GMT 5.5
The population Bomb
Today the big problem of overpopulation is a real bomb that kills thousand of children and women everyday.
I was shocked of how is terrible the life of these people. The documentary talked about the difference that there are between the American families, that are living in normal houses, with cars, televisions etc. While a poor person doesn’t have anything except a home made by pieces of woods linked together. Also it tells about the over population, the major disadvantages are for the poor people, the example that showed was on an American family. The American family was with just two sons, while a poor family on the poorest state of the world have 5 children, and no money to support them. So the problems that are related to the overpopulations are a lots, for example cities with overpopulation are always poor cities, and the continue increasing of the population, comport traffic chaos, and also problems related at the crime. When poor people don’t have anything to eat at and no money, they became criminals or began to sell drugs to earn some money. I was disgusted at the idea that young girls had two or three children, and if they wants to abort, sometimes can happen that a not complete operation can comport the death of the woman that were trying to survive. In Mega cities like New York, or San Paolo have two faces, one that is always showed like a very rich city, gigantic hotels, lots of rich people, etc.. And on the other face poor children that try to survive by be pickpocket. Everyday many young boys are killed by criminals, or a robber that wants money from them. Many people are trying to understand how there could be these poverty in the world. Many ecologists had already given an answer by saying that if we premise that these people can’t find a job, or to increase their possibility in mode to make them more hopes for the future. If we will try on this way maybe these people will reach the position that we have today. However this thing is not happen and poverty still be a high problem that included continents and places like: Africa, South and a little part of North America, Asia, in many part of Europe, so in all world there is poverty, where there are rich things there are always poor things, this contrast begins million of years ago, and still today. Like this place there is also new Delhi, that everyday has many problems related about the poverty. IN these city women already have one or two children just at the age of 17 or 18 years. So there still be a high level of overpopulation, and many families have too many children to grow up. They also know that without an improve of the state; the population will not be a strong nation; however they still live on their ideas and no more. Another problem for these people is the education; many children can’t go to school because it’s too expensive for them, so they should live in ignorant. For women the education is very important, because with that they are independent, and free from everything. The biggest problem is related on the religion; in India if a family have a woman, the parents during the marriage should give gifts to the new husband, this thing is related on the old Hindi traditions, so the problem is that for each 2 children that born in one second, there are always female, so this thing comport lots of troubles that many times arrive at the death of the baby that was just borne, the count of babies death after just born in one year in India can arrive at the number of 350 babies. Also with this number of children that are born in a second is very hard for women to survive with these conditions. Sometime are verified cases of women without money and 10 children to growth. India also suffers a big crisis in 1976 to 1979. Many newspaper’s houses sent their journalist to interview these people to show at the entire globe how the life of these people is. I think that these things can be possible only if we can premise, my opinion is that we have to be same, so if someone needs help, we should help him or her, so the collaboration can be a very good way to take off the poverty in the world. Kerala has a different situation, here families are living in better condition, most of the children are receiving an education, and also they can get free food in the school, so this can increase the opportunities of more education. But there is a very high life expectancy, and women usually are sterilized, sometimes with the force and some without force, so these women can’t have so many babies and increase the hopeless of these families for a better future. From what I saw, I could understand that today most of the parts of the world are poor, lets say that almost all world is poor, maybe on 6 billions some are rich, but more than half are poor, and still poor because are too low the people that are trying to give a better future, new chances to make a different world. I think that with the money we don’t have just to buy, money can also useful to help people that doesn’t have them, or provide food for poor nations in mode to save many life, specially the children’s life. Now we have to think about these ideas and try to be more generous with the future.
However the situation in Filippines is same to India, lots of overpopulation, families without money, and the unique centre for the assistance for these people is just an old house without any kinds of things for the assistance. In some areas of north India just in a small area around 13 million of people are living in desperate conditions, and the number of their children increases day by day. On another state called Bolivia the situation isn’t, this is the poorest state of all South America, with an high under develop, and under population that is consider form many people, a ghost state, and many of these women are living in ignorance, and isolated from the rest of the world.
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Post by sofiekh on Nov 21, 2007 23:29:58 GMT 5.5
Summary:
Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world and they have one of the highest population rates. There are living 28.287.147 people in Nepal and more than half of them are poor. The USA is a developed country with a little group of people there are under the poor line. They have a big group of people in the middle class. This is something that will make a country developed. In the documentary they are comparing a middle class family in the US and a poor family in Nepal. the family in the US has two children, the family in Nepal has a lot of children. The family from the USA is actually using more electricity, using a car; they do not recycle like the family in Nepal does. The family in Nepal is recycling everything because they do not have anything if do not do it. The use candles instead of electricity and they are cooking their dinner on the ground. This shows that the poor people are the most environmental friendly and not the middle class family in the USA. In the cities where there live many people (more than 5 millions) are there a lot of troubles; lots of drugs, babies and criminality. In the ‘mega city’ there are tons of people who are living on the streets and they are mostly taking drugs and drinking. The women don’t know how to protect themselves so they get a lot of babies and that will just make the city even bigger. When people are taking drugs or drinking it is easier for them to do crime and that is what happens in the ‘mega cities’. So if the people in the city increase, the crimes will increase too. It is simple to write, but it is hard to make a reality. In the rural areas in the developing countries, there will be a lot of women who have many children. Maybe they don’t want four children, but they never knew that there was something to prevent the pregnancy. If they knew they were pregnant and they already had 5 children they would find an illegal doctor to abort their child. The doctor could be a man who took the first year of college, but never finished. If a woman went to an illegal doctor she will have about fifty percents change to survive. So there were companies like red cross that went to these rural areas and started to introduce ‘the pill’ , but even if they gave them protection, the women would never use it, because their religion says they can’t do anything to prevent pregnancy! The girls are the lowest ones. When you go out in the rural areas in India, you will see mostly boys go to school and girls who are staying at home. This is very common in India and other parts of the developing world. The schools will be dominated by boys and the homes will be girls and women. The women are not working and the girls are not going to school. They are not building up a life on their own; they are building up a life from their men. The man decides what they can do and how they do it. He is on many ways ‘the alpha dog’ And the women can not question anything, because they are second class to the man. The girls will be raised at home by their mothers; they will learn how to be a good wife and how to keep the house clean. When the girls reach the age of 12 they are mature enough to get a husband. The family is saving all their money on the girls to give to the groom’s family. The groom’s family will decide if it is a good wife to their son. Sons are a big issue in the developing world. Families with fifteen girls are still trying to get boys. That is a big issue in China and India. In India there are born 1 boy each third second. Families don’t want girls because they are to no help. Boys can go to school; help with work, the families don’t have to pay for them when they get married. The big problem is that when couples get pregnant they can see what sex the baby is. If it is a girl, they will normally get an abortion and if it is a boy they will keep it. there are eight thousands abortions a year only one of them was a boy. If India do not change the way of living it will slow down the development of the country. In Nepal there are a lot of dead between babies. If a woman got a baby and she doesn’t want it she will just throw it out. Sometimes she leaves her baby at the river side so the water can take it away. A lot of women are getting pregnant out of marriage and they can’t keep the baby so they will just hide it or kill it. most of the women want many children because it is like a security for her. When she gets old her children can help her and she can relax. Women will stay pregnant their whole life because that is just the tradition. The babies will not be healthy because the mother is not healthy. And it is a challenge for the organizations to give aid to the villages in the mountains, because it is so hard to go there. In India 1995 the government decided to start to operate people (sterilize them) men got it done without knowing it and even after 10 years they are still mad over it, because they want to make a family, they want children to play with, and they wants someone to gave their family name to. The hate the government for it and can’t see how it was necessary. It was mostly the poor people who got it done. The doctors did it poorly and the women often died of an infection. In some religions it is a sin to take birth control pills and anything else to prevent pregnancy. But some poor families could see that it was wrong with many children so she counted the dates. They knew it was stupid with more than 4 children, they knew that they couldn’t live if they ad more, but if she got pregnant, she had to take the child as a gift and not get an abortion. Bolivia is the poorest country in South America with the heighest birthrate. The doctors had to break down the old traditions to show the women that they have to take birth control pills. In Indonesia they are taking a big step ahead the developed world. They launched one of the biggest family programs. Women have now three children, half of what their mothers had. In Mexico they are trying to educate young men to take care, by show how it is to be a woman and how they feel. But men in Mexico with no mistresses are rare. The government has decided not to help the older generation, but is looking more on the young men. In china the year of the monkey is a good year for young couples to get babies. in the country side where seventy five percents of the population lives are there more boys than girls. They say that sons can work and they pass on the family’s name. China is trying to make this rule saying “one family, one child” they are trying to reduce the population but if a family got a girl as a first child, they could try again to get a boy. India has the highest rate of unemployment. When women are educated they will have their own thoughts and will be big in the working world.
Reflection:
This documentary is mostly about how bad men are and all the issues about women and children. It was hard to see the suffering families and the suffering children. The children were not welcome but they came anyways, and the family did not care about it. They knew that they would suffer, but they said it was god’s gift to them. How can it be god’s gift, when they have a big chance to die within a year and they will be suffering their whole life, because of the poor life they had? The way that the women just dumped their girl babies, because they were just too much trouble, it was shocking to see and hear.
This documentary showed how women should be and how they need to be by the mans side all the time. I think that is stupid. Women have rights and they have the right to choose who they are going to be with and how they will create their life. Women are independent humans! And don’t need a man. When I saw the man in Mexico who owned a company and he had a new girlfriend every week, and he still had a wife the wife said: “I know what he does, but there are nothing I can do about it” the first thing I thought of after this quotation was: get a divorce! He had children with every woman and he did not care about it. His wife was probably not educated and she probably did not have a job. So if she wanted a divorce, she would be the person who losses in the last, because how can she feed three children with no money and no work? That is the biggest issue in the world; uneducated women and how they can live without a man if they are not educated. Will this problem ever be solved in the developing countries? They way that they don’t want girls and they will just get an abortion if it was a girl was hard to see because: why? What is wrong with girls? And why can’t women be independent? Do they need to be with the same man their whole life? I know this is only happening in rural areas in the developing world, but how can we show people that the ways they are living need some improvements. In this documentary is the world not flat!
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Post by rahel on Nov 22, 2007 13:02:08 GMT 5.5
Documentary Rahel Gross Reflection-Summary The documentary we watched in class was mostly about the population and it also had a lot to do with family planning. It takes place in many different countries which are developing. The documentary tells us things that we should take notice of and things that we can help with. It not only made for us to watch and have fun, but for us to learn about the other half from where we live, of the world the side where people suffer and the side which just is falling behind the flat world as Friedman would say. This side is known to us as the unflat world. In a developing nation everybody wants a lot of children at the same time everybody wants education for them and everybody wants them to have better lives as their parents. But they do not realize that because they have so many children they are becoming poorer. Life is hard everybody agrees and say so but don't the people make their own life harder by taking or getting more and more children if they can't even give a proper life to them? Many countries have too many people but what would happen to them? Look at China for example they wanted more people and look at them now. Many countries still want more people. Why can't countries learn from other countries mistakes? Does it always have to happen to them before they can learn from it? China even though it is a big country has too much population. The problem is that many people in the developing countries do not know how to prevent children or stop them from coming and the governments are not doing enough to inform people of what can be done. Many cultures have the saying that there has to be a boy in the family because they are the only ones who can keep the family going. If families have only girls what most of them would do is get children until a boy is born. Well, that’s what the poor families would do who cannot afford birth control. Parents say that children are the joy of one’s life. But if you have a lot of children would their still be joy? Having little children is fun but after crossing a certain age it’s just going to be a fight to live going through huge food shortage and bills that have to be paid. That doesn't sound to me as if it were a huge joy and I think parents do figure that out when they are in the middle of the chaos. So many girls say that they would rather like to be boys because they have a much better standing in life and don't have to do all the household. The boys are much more respected and if the parents get a girl baby they are always like, “O well it’s just another girl”. If it were a boy then the parents would be jumping up in joy and there would be a huge party if they can afford it. Mothers say that a women’s place is with a husband. Is this true? Yes, of course educated women have a better life everybody says that but do they do anything to get women educated? No, they don't do much at all it is always just the boys who can get it. So many girls abortion happens because nobody really wants them they want only sons and that’s what they pray for. India: In India about 8000 abortions took place and only one of which was a boy. People say about India that it is congested, noisy and filthy. In the orphanages there are mostly girls found and that shows how very unwanted they are and how little importance is shown towards them. There are more than 350 babies dyeing everyday alone only in India. People leave their unwanted girl babies where two rivers meet and next to them they put their clothes in remembrance. It is said that the only reason that parents need children is for security. Well and in India it seems that husbands want a child all the time without a gap just continuation. Most of the children grow up unhealthy because their mother is suffering because there is just too much of labour. Now in India families are actually telling others that if you look up to having a better life use family planning as your strategy. I think this is finally a good thing as there are already so many people suffering from the lack of family planning especially here in India. Nepal: About Nepal it is said that it is a 13th century country showed into a 20th century world. So many families in Nepal have too many children, and now all of them regret this, and they wish to have fewer children. The government forced the people here to get sterilized because that was the only method to reduce population they thought. Due to this so many people died and also the women were just forced with a little violence and lying. This caused the people to become very angry and some people still are today as the documentary showed us. People actually believe the lies of the government because they would do anything to get a better life, at any rate. Every time a new born child cries out the pressure on these kinds of countries hardens. 1000 hungry mouths join the population everyday in this country. It is just unbelievable. I think nobody can believe what is happening today in the world it is just so crazy and sad in many ways. Philippines: 20% of the women here use birth control. This is not much at all compared to what you would expect. But it is a start to becoming much more developed and if they would educate people and tell them that something like this exists then even more people would use it because they know it is for the better. Too few people have too little of the wealth and that in a way is a problem. People say life is hard and according to the documentary a women doesn’t want to have too many children because she pities them and knows that they will just suffer. But even mothers who have more children will still love them because they are gifts from god. People say here that they should give life instead of preventing it. But why do they say this if they know that by giving life you will just make them suffer. Looking around at the world today would you still say that you want to give life even with all this suffering going on? Would you want more people to suffer then their already are? It’s basically only a question of survival they should only take how many that can be afforded and if more then you will just feel bad about the suffering. Bolivia: This is a country of extreme. It has the highest population but is at the same time the poorest in South America. Family planning is not a priority if they want they can stop it, or government will help. It’s very difficult to deliver sources because almost the whole country is in villages which are unreachable. Life is unchanged since 1941, and most of the families live in rural areas. When the husbands mostly come home from work they demand to have sex and because the women are so shy and keep themselves backward they just go with what their husbands say because in a way they are scared. Poverty, isolation and ignorance stops the women. In Bolivia especially there is a huge problem with extreme poverty. They want more women always, but can they take care of the women they now have? Indonesia: It’s the poorest nation and 60% of it lives in slums. Their hope of a good future stands low. In the slums huge malls are planning to come up, but they still need to take care of their population to get it all balanced out. Everybody who lives here as a target that they want to follow and will not give up before reaching it. 3 children are allowed in average poverty cut by 2/3. The government launched birth control parties or safaris are very colourful. The people are not motivated but forced by the government. The government works very hard to get the confidence of the people and they are now trying to educate women so that they can make their own and good choices. What this country has realized is that if you don't reduce population then at the end you will stand in a cage. Indonesia’s plan on what they are aiming for sounds very good and the thing that shocked me is that they actually looked at their 'real' country the one with poverty and all that. That is what they are aiming for to change not the other side of the country. But the things that are awaiting them on this big journey are hard and difficult to overcome. But it’s still an experiment that every country as to go through sooner or later. Mexico City: A country of young lovers everywhere it just cannot stop men go on......and on. So many men have sex with another woman every day, these kinds of people are seen as a threat to the future. Men who don't do this are rare and this is actually the result of people who lack education. Men have to be the boss not women, if they don't listen the men just hit them, but is is really that way? Why do you think it is so? I really don't agree to this at all. Parents want to give the children that what was missing in their lives and help them which will also make the parents happier. China: Its the most populated country in the world and the homes of the peoples bomb. 17 million people are added to China each year. They have this time called monkey and it is said that, that is a good time to have babies. The cost of living is rising almost each day and the living at the same time is very scarce in China. The younger generation says that one child is good and its also a rule. The older generation though does not agree to this at all then they think that one child is bad and that it also brings bad luck. The population crisis is gone worse in China and the one child policy has gone down. In 1890 this produced a world cry which resulted in violation and this is not what the government wants so at the moment they have relaxed the one child policy but they have to be careful because so many children are born each day. The only thing China is looking at, at the moment is population but what’s more important in their case are the economic problems. An old Chinese’s saying is “more children, more happiness”. But is this true? Isn’t it at the moment the total opposite? Kerala: It has the lowest birth rate taking place in India. Even though it’s one of the world’s poorest nations it focuses on health and education and that is the reason of why it is going so well. It is the only places in the world were women outnumber men. There is a huge employment and suicide bombs. Almost all the children go to school here and they have a lot of education. What shocked me most was that most of the people that get educated are women. What they prove is that when fewer children die families are smaller. Most of the people here own their own land which gives them security. The mortality rate has gone down and the health rate has gone up which is very good. The challenge for the world is how to copy Kerala’s family planning success. Enough of the summary. The world need to be more concerned about women because if so many girl babies die then their will soon be so little that there would end up a bad result at the end. The governments have done to little to help or support their countries in providing more education. They let the people down and then they get very angry at them. It is a very sad thing that so few people are willing to stop this. Everybody always says “ooooooo how sad” but that’s all we do by sitting there and saying that doesn't change anything at all. If everybody says it’s so sad then why do you never do anything to stop or reduce it. For example by building up stations for education for the poor. That would already use a lot of drama in that area.
My opinion on this documentary is that yes it was good that we could see the truth that is going on out there in the world. But by seeing all this it makes me sad and angry and I want to help them getting a better life and education. Yes it does make us realize that this is going on but what does it change? By saying that they kill their babies I don't think they actually do this on purpose I think it’s really an important issue that comes from the culture or religion. I can't imagine wanting them to kill their children I think they are forced to do so. If I would be able to change something it would be that boys as well as girls should be kept and respected. When they talked about Nepal they made their point so clear that I could really feel what those people were feeling and I could smell the garbage and hear the noise the same way as if i were actually there. Yes this is sad very sad and it makes me guilty because by us having fun here there are 1000 of people who are at the verge of dyeing and who are just totally suffering. Also though in a way it is good that we learn about this so that we actually don't make the same mistakes. What I don't understand is that why do women still have sex if so many people have suffered from it? Why do they keep going on and making the same mistakes over and over? By one person suffering can't the others learn from that and make their lives better according in not making the same mistakes as they did. They should not let themselves cause their heart so much misery and ours to.
This is a song by Kelly Clarkson and I think it has a lot to do with my opinion because it clearly states my point. The song is called Because of You: Because of you i will not make the same mistakes that you did, I will not let myself cause my heart so much misery, I will not break the way you did, you fell so hard I've learned the hard way to never let it get that far, because of you, I never stay to far from the sidewalk, because of you I learned to play on the safe side so I don't get hurt, because of you I find it hard to trust not only me, but everyone around me, because of you I am afraid I lose my way and it's not too long before you point it out, I cannot cry because I know that's weakness in your eyes I’m forced to fake a smile, a laugh, every day of my life, my heart can't possibly break when it wasn't even whole to start with, I watched you die, I heard you cry every night in your sleep, I was so young you should have known better than to lean on me, you never thought of anyone else, you just saw your pain and now cry in the middle of the night, for the same d**n thing, because of you I am afraid, I am ashamed of life because it's empty, because of you....... Well this clearly states my opinion. The only thing I would say now is that if you have a chance of helping these people please do because you will feel happy that you did it. When you hear about it in the news then you could actually say that you helped these people and not only watched. Well I hope the government starts helping these people and giving women more education. Even though this is very sad and governments think so to why don't they start doing something against this?
Why do countries want more children if the others around them are suffering and cannot do anything against it? Why aren’t countries able to help each other by telling them of what may be a good idea and what not. Many countries have experimented more in the topic of population and therefore know more than others. That could help both sides because both sides can learn new methods of stopping or getting more population by not letting the people suffer. By letting the people suffer the countries loose the peoples trust in them. That would make things even worse. So I just wish countries as well as people good luck and a better life.
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