. . .on a sinking ship of State.
The WaPo has a bleak article today on Russia's demographic future that places Putin's posturing in sad context. Reading the data, the question isn't one of greatness, but survival. The country is currently experiencing 170 deaths for every 100 births. The UN is estimating a 21 million person loss over the next 20 years as its "median variant."
I looked for an abortion tie-in, and wasn't surprised to find it. Back in the days of the Soviet Union, the UN estimates an average of 6 abortions per woman. So an infertility rate approaching 13% is comprehensible, though tragic.
The birth rate is no more suicidal than the rest of dying Europe's, but an incredibly high death rate exacerbates the problem. Putin would do better working toward an economic climate that allows young couples to marry and not live with their parents and a medical system that gets the incredibly high rates of STDs and heart attacks down to normal levels than worrying about Russia's "greatness." There's nothing "great" about a nation-sized graveyard.
Posted by Discoshaman at février 13, 2004 08:21 PM | TrackBack
SIX abortions PER WOMAN? That's both vile and heartbreaking.
Posted by: davie d at février 16, 2004 11:34 PMIt was estimated at between 6 and 7. Ukraine still has the world's highest abortion rate. Post-abortion counseling is probably one of the biggest mercy missions the church can provide in the former Soviet Union.
Posted by: Discoshaman at février 17, 2004 05:23 AMWowzer. That's unfathomable. I can't imagine what that does to a national soul. In the U.S., we know that there are multiple-post-abortive women dotting the landscape, but they're a clear minority, and the post-abortive mentality is not a dominant psychological state here. To think that nearly every woman is multiple-multiple post-abortive and that nearly every man is complicit in multiple abortions -- I can't even imagine what that's like.
Posted by: pentamom at février 17, 2004 04:50 PMThankfully, some of the PA material I'm familiar with has been translated into Russian and Ukrainian. One of the churches in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Ukraine has focused on mercy ministry through a Pregnancy Care Center, and post-abortion counseling. I don't know enough about the culture and women /here/ haven't talked with me about their abortions, so I don't know in what ways the impact is different than women in the States. But we do know that any sin disrupts our relationship with God and it is through Him alone that we understand His grace, healing and forgiveness.
Less people means more earth. Wanted children are children who will be raised well. Why should the earth bear more than we are willing to raise? Don't give me no Bible shit either, give me a good earthly reason why we should encourage people with no MEANS TO PROPERLY RAISE THEIR CHILDREN to have them ANYWAY??
You "Christians" seem to be all for bearing children, and yet all for gutting social welfare programs and all for the very capitalist system that has made a larger percentage of our world's children grow up in abject poverty. SHAME ON YOU ALL.
Paul Flint
PS: Did you think I'd forgotten you all?
Posted by: Paul Flint at mars 11, 2004 11:16 AMWell, I guess you're all too busy to respond to a world-view that refuses to live by your faithfully accepted belief-systems just on yer say-so. Or maybe you're all engaged in extended bouts of self-flagellation after repeated exposures to Mel Gibson's horrifically violent and probably accurate depiction of the human blood sacrifice that is the conrnerstone of your bizarre cult (not to mention Mel Gibson's biggest money-making scheme ever -- he keeps all the profits after the first 25 milion: PRAISE JESUS!). But if you're ever curious if there are any other incidents of "polishing the brass on sinking ships" going on while you're wring your hands over the millions of unborn maquiladora workers, you might check out this little article:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/033004D.shtml
Whatever,
Paul
Posted by: Paul Flint at mars 30, 2004 06:56 PM