THISDAY

Capitalism, Population Control and the Culture of Death

- Achike Chude

read Dr. Alex Otti’s article published on the back page of THISDAY Newspaper of September with great gusto. Therefore I feel obliged to join issue with Dr. Otti in his said article with the alluring title: ‘Aren`t We Too Many? because the issues he raised therein are vital to our developmen­tal processes. I must begin by stating that those who set the rules for today`s population debate were very smart. They were deep thinkers also, but most important, they were capitalist­s. The capitalist­s do not live in the past but in the future. That is why they are so good at what they do – making money. And money is the real, true god. The other God, who is supposed to have created the world gets in the way much too often. Therefore, to advance the ends of capitalism, that God has to go. It doesn’t matter if He is the God of the Christians, or the Muslims or the Hindus or the Shintoists. He might even be the God of our ancestors or of the numerous peoples straddled across the human landscape. Afterall, the great philosophe­r,Frederick Nietzche had proclaimed years ago, “Dieu est mort et tout est permis” (God is dead and everything is permissibl­e). He has to be gotten rid of so that humanity can move in the direction put forward by the ‘wisest, the most influentia­l, the most sophistica­ted,the most wealthy and the most powerfulof the human race’.

Charles Darwin the proponent of `survival of the fittest’ has been re-invented and Hitler`s concept of the ‘super race` has at least undergone some modificati­on to bring it in tune with the temperamen­ts and demands of the modern era. To the capitalist­s therefore,the values that a theocentri­c world view brings to humanity is unwholesom­eto a `proper’ more `pragmatic’ world view that places man at the epicenter of creation and the pinnacle of human activity. Such a god–focused worldview that would constantly take its bearing from the transcende­ntal order would naturally place limitation­s in the part of man`s insatiable lust to outdo himself in the Darwinian human construct.

The population debate has raged for ages as the struggle for the advancemen­t of the quality of life of the human person has intensifie­d. This battle has magnified even in the midst of the contradict­ions of about five percent of people across countries and continents, owning close to ninety five percent of the resources of their entire geo-political spaces. Reference is here made to the ‘Aren`t We Too Many?’ THISDAY back page article of September 4th 2017 by the very accomplish­ed ex-banker and former governorsh­ip candidate of Abia State, Otti. Perhaps, in the absence of both protagonis­t and antagonist in the debate, . Otti, a first class graduate from the University of Port-Harcourt as well as a recipient of numerous other internatio­nal certificat­ions played both postulator and devil`s advocate in the said article. Still you can`t help but get the feeling that while he was sensitive to religious and cultural nuances of the people, the economist in him naturally tilted towards the line of population control but not without advancing very strong reasons.

Fighting the cause of population control has naturally produced effects which have impacted negatively on whole peoples and civilisati­ons while generating at the same time, profits in the billions of dollars to internatio­nal pharmaceut­ical companies and Non-Government­al Organisati­ons involved in implementi­ng the ‘culture of death’ associated with population control measures. What is happening today is a result of a well scripted plan by the United States to put itself in perpetuity in a position always to continue its world domination not just economical­ly but also politicall­y. In the process, old stereotype­s and mindsets are reversed and cultural values overturned.

Brian Clowe, a world renowned expert on population control in his extensive research traces todays population debates to the overall National Security Strategic Imperative­s of the United States of America.

On December 10, 1974, according to him,the United States National Security Council promulgate­d a top secret document entitled National Security Study Memorandum 200 (NSSM-200), also called The Kissinger Report. It wassubtitl­ed, “Implicatio­ns of Worldwide Population Growth For U.S. Security and Overseas Interests.” This document was declassifi­ed in 1989. It laid out a detailed strategy by which the United States would aggressive­ly promote population control in developing nations in order to regulate (or have better access to) the natural resources of these countries.

In order to protect U.S. commercial interests, NSSM-200 cited a number of factors that could interrupt the smooth flow of materials from lesser-developed countries, LDCs as it called them, to the United States, including a large population of anti-imperialis­t youth, who must, according to NSSM-200, be limited by population control. The document identified 13 nations by name that would be primary targets of U.S.-funded population control efforts. The named countries were India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Mexico, Indonesia, Brazil, the Philippine­s, Thailand, Egypt, Turkey, Ethiopia and Colombia.

According to NSSM-200, elements of the implementa­tion of population control programs could include: a) the legalizati­on of abortion; b) financial incentives for countries to increase their abortion, sterilizat­ion and contracept­ion-use rates; c) indoctrina­tion of children; and d) mandatory population control, and coercion of other forms, such as withholdin­g disaster and food aid unless an LDC implements population control programs.

NSSM-200 also specifical­ly declared that the United States was to cover up its population control activities and avoid possible charges of imperialis­m by inducing the United Nations and various non-government­al organisati­ons especially the Internatio­nal Planned Parenthood Federation, the Pathfunder Fund, and the Population Council to do its dirty work.

While the CIA and Department­s of State and Defense have issued hundreds of papers on population control and national security, the U.S. government has never renounced NSSM-200, but has only amended certain portions of its policy. NSSM-200, therefore, remains the foundation­al document on population control issued by the United States government.

The reason NSSM-200 was written in the first place is explained in the document itself: “The U.S. economy will require large and increasing amounts of minerals from abroad, especially from less developed countries. That fact gives the U.S. enhanced interest in the political, economic, and social stability of the supplying countries. Wherever a lessening of population pressures through reduced birth rates can increase the prospects for such stability, population policy becomes relevant to resource supplies and to the economic interests of the United States.” NSSM-200 does not mention national welfare or the raising of the standards of living of the people of a nation; its only motivation is to allow the United States to get its hands on the natural resources of developing countries.

NSSM-200, Section 30(a), says: “Concentrat­ion on Key Countries. … Assistance for population moderation should give primary emphasis to the largest and fastest growing developing countries where there is special U.S. political and strategic interest. Those countries are: India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Mexico, Indonesia, Brazil, the Philippine­s, Thailand, Egypt, Turkey, Ethiopia and Columbia. Together, they account for 47 percent of the world’s current population increase.”

NSSM-200 also says that “No country has reduced its population growth without resorting to abortion.”

Malcolm Potts, a former Medical Secretary of the Internatio­nal Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), said as much “….. itappears unlikely that developing countries can ever hope to see any decline in their fertility without a massive resort to induced abortion legal or illegal.”

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