tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8441439.post113993583333310086..comments2023-11-19T17:31:49.939+00:00Comments on Bristling Badger: credit where it's dueUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8441439.post-1141809797747975452006-03-08T09:23:00.000+00:002006-03-08T09:23:00.000+00:00to highlight the us' relaxed and enlightened appro...to highlight the us' relaxed and enlightened approach to sex education, abortion laws and the rest, south dacota have just<A HREF="http://goldfishnation.blogspot.com/2006/03/south-dakota-tightens-abortion-laws.html" REL="nofollow">tightened up their laws</A>.zoehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01308200573937625129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8441439.post-1140776191565898562006-02-24T10:16:00.000+00:002006-02-24T10:16:00.000+00:00Hey Jane, less of the self-depracation! One woman ...Hey Jane, less of the self-depracation! One woman at a time is probably the only effective way of tackling this stuff.<BR/><BR/>Perhaps beyond that there's a place for the feminist consciousness raising group like in the 70s, but really anything that tries to do a load of people at once will, by definition, be impersonal and so disempowering for those who have a lack of individual worth.<BR/><BR/>The overpopulation issue isn't just something that governments fail to tackle. Hell, governments don't want to tackle anything except how to maintain their power. The really frightening thing is how *nobody* wants to mention overpopulation.<BR/><BR/>I know people who are committed lifelong environmentalists who worry about recycling every last scrap of paper, yet have deliberately had children. It's like worrying about switching off your lightbulbs whilst driving a fuckin Hummer! <BR/><BR/>And yet it's considered very bad form for me to mention overpopulation and its attendant overconsumption, I'm supposed to be happy for them.<BR/><BR/>We understand this idea with cats and dogs: if we give them great health care and a guaranteed food supply then they'll overbreed, so the responsible thing is to neuter them. Somehow we don't apply that to humans, yet the cats/dogs thing isn't a metaphor, it's a straightforward comparison.<BR/><BR/>People deliberately having babies are like people who won't neuter their cats and wanting me to be happy about them bringing new kittens into a world where there are too many cats fucking up our wildlife and we have millions of unwanted kittens already.<BR/><BR/>Climate change has been around in the background of public consciousness for a decade or two, peak oil has finally come through in the last year, but the other big imminent threat is overpopulation and it's just being ignored.<BR/><BR/>Perhaps its because they're figuring ways to make a business opporutnity out of the first two (at least in the short term, which is all business is interested in), whereas having less consumers cannot make business sense.<BR/><BR/>To have any serious chance of worthwhile survival then, we not only have to come up with solutions to these problems, we have to dismantle the paradigm that allows them to get so bad, we have to tackle and demolish capitalism, the concept of perpetual economic growth, and all large concentrations of power.<BR/><BR/>Enormous and impossible as it sounds, it's the only thing that gives us a fighting chance. Do recognise that empowering people individually - giving them a sense of control over their lives, of personal worth and of having the right to affect the things that affect them - is the key first step in this. So, like I say, less of the self-depracation Jane!merrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10959849087751101034noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8441439.post-1140729164735296932006-02-23T21:12:00.000+00:002006-02-23T21:12:00.000+00:00I agree wholeheartedly that 'we need to tackle the...I agree wholeheartedly that 'we need to tackle the ideas and circumstances of those who see getting pregnant as their only way of achieving something worthwhile'.<BR/><BR/>I work for a women's organisation which is trying - in our own small way, one woman at a time - to do exactly that, but without tackling the overarching problem of women's poverty and lack of aspiration we're pissing in the wind to a certain extent. Still, any effort has to be worthwhile.<BR/><BR/>Ah, Merrick! don't get me started on the global overpopulation issue. It's terrifying and virtually no governments to dare tackle it.Jane Tomlinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06320661268856831052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8441439.post-1140720261463190912006-02-23T18:44:00.000+00:002006-02-23T18:44:00.000+00:00Jane, I just wondered if I'd missed anything cos t...Jane, I just wondered if I'd missed anything cos the DfID is for the most part a mechanism for fucking over the world's poor. Seeing something so benevolent made me wonder where the catch is. Rather like the 'debt forgiveness' that is actually just a lever to force open the markets of the poor nations to private capital.<BR/><BR/>I agree that teenage mums are not necessarily worse than other mums. What George Monbiot points out about them being more prone to drug addiction and depression is going to be at least partly caused by the stigmatising they receive. It's the stigmatising that wants addressing as much as anything.<BR/><BR/>But by the same token, I think we need to tackle the ideas and circumstances of those who see getting pregnant as their only way of achieving something worthwhile and having some kind of status.<BR/><BR/>And certainly, 'irresponsible' is definitely the word for anyone - teenage or otherwise - from our society who deliberately gets pregnant. <BR/><BR/>Anyone seen how overstuffed the world's orphanages are? To have a planned child is tantaount to abandoning an unwanted child that's already here.<BR/><BR/>Anyone think there aren't enough Western consumers yet? The meltdown we're going to get from climate change and the decline of oil production is going to make the second half of this centruy a very ugly place, with far too many humans in it. It is not an act of love to put someone you care about into that. Quite the opposite.merrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10959849087751101034noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8441439.post-1140718738118125012006-02-23T18:18:00.000+00:002006-02-23T18:18:00.000+00:00No, I don't think you have missed anything, Merric...No, I don't think you have missed anything, Merrick. This government has done a great deal to try to reduce the teenage pregnancy rates (Teenage Pregnancy Strategy, SureStart programmes and such like) but still needs to do more. Like some thorough sex education from an early age which is more than about just biology. More than anything, society has to stop hounding teenage women who choose to have their babies as 'irresponsible' or 'bad' mums. Just because they're young and made a 'mistake' doesn't make them bad mums. For many young women, having a baby is the only way can achieve something independent and worthwhile and gives them some kind of status.<BR/><BR/>And the fact is, no-one is ever going to stop young people having sex.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com