On The Third Hand

As the Philippines starts it’s annual celebration of Holy Week the population propagandists have taken the opportunity to spread a little “fertilizer” around the countryside. Human Life International (HLI), a pro-life group, have been holding a series of forums in country. Brian Clowes, research director of HLI, has used the opportunity to be critical of the Philippines efforts at population control. Not surprisingly, it’s all an evil plot cooked up by the United States. The evidence he cites is, to say the least, suspect:

He said the “Ligtas Buntis” program and the pending House Bill 3773, or the Responsible Parenthood and Population Management Act of 2005, can trace their roots back to the US National Security Memorandum 200 (NSM 200) issued by Henry Kissinger in early 1970, only declassified in the early 1990s, which stated that the “depopulation” of Third World countries should be the highest US foreign policy.

“What the document says is that the US needs a widespread access to lesser developed countries which could be jeopardized by a large population,” he said during the debunking the overpopulation myth forum at San Pedro Hospital yesterday.

As further “evidence” he says HB 3773 is not a Filipino bill because “reproductive health is mentioned 55 times and family planning 17 times, where are the Filipino values? Here, God was not mentioned at all.” I won’t waste time with this last statement except to say here, here and here are examples of God’s “terrestrial representitives” as they go about their business and the effect it has had on Philippine society.

Back to the 30 year old Memorandum 200 for a moment. Can anything be more absurd than dredging up this historical document as evidence for anything? The US has elected 7 presidents and 8 vice presidents since 1970, starting with Richard Nixon in 1969. Due to world events US foreign policy has had countless priorities in the last three decades yet Mr. Clowes wants the Filipino people to believe those set forth 35 years ago are still in effect - sadly, due to the pervasive nature of the Catholic Church here and some anti-US sentiment many will. It’s also obvious Clowes has chosen to ignore, or doesn’t understand his own propaganda, (Or worse, knows and believes his audience is so stupid they will believe it). The fact is, if this memo was “declassified in the early 1990s” as he states, and I have no reason to believe otherwise, it serves as proof the document is no longer in effect.

Until recently Ligaya Acosta has been the regional program manager for the governments Ligtas Buntis program. She has taken a leave of absense from that job in protest of the program. She joined the [HLI] group in touring the country to educate the public about Ligtas Buntis and HB 3773. She is an even more skillful propagandist than Mr. Clowes:

The timing of the Ligtas Buntis, she said, is also suspect because the program was only relayed to them on the third week of January but was implemented immediately on February1.

“It was meant to catch the Church off-guard,” she said.

She said the Philippines, with its 84 million population, is not as overpopulated as what the government wants the public to believe. “We have only 255 people per square kilometer, that’s much lesser than Singapore with 7,223 people per square kilometer,” she said. She added that Hong Kong has more than 5,000 per square kilometer, Thailand has 625 per square kilometer and the density of South Korea is 433 people per square kilometer.

There’s that word again, “Church,” and they are “off-guard” now. That’s an ugly proposition, and also irrelavant to the subject at hand. What is relevant is her incredulous method of determining population density. How can anyone with a lick of common sense use Hong Kong and Singapore as examples? They both share a relatively small area and exceptionally high urbanization with little open spaces. In short, they are the best examples of a “concrete jungle.”

The Philippines, by most measurements, is rated in the top 25 of all Southwest and East Asian countires in population density, (The Vatican, BTW is listed at #6 of the world’s cities with over 2000 people per square kilometer. Can you say pass the condoms please? end of snarky comment - ed).

The Philippine land mass is approximately 300,00sq kilometers. Much of that is uninhabitable. Not in the “desert sense,” but in accessability and availiability of infrastructure. It is the 21^st century, yet in 2001 the Congress of the Philippines enacted and President Arroyo signed into law Republic Act No. 9136 (pdf file). Part of that law under Section 1. DECLARATION OF POLICY, sub-para a reads: “To ensure and accelerate the total electrification of the country.” Four years later it’s still an ongoing project.

Add to that roads, access to clean water and education, and various other services the government should provide to it’s citizens and can’t because population is growing faster than the above named moonbats are willing to admit, or believe. Considering the religious origins of Human Life International and it’s many adherents, I offer this, which should be easily recognizable:

“…And Attai begat Nathan, and Nathan begat Zabad, And Zabad begat Ephlal, and Ephlal begat Obed, And Obed begat Jehu, and Jehu begat Azariah, And Azariah begat Helez, and Helez begat Eleasah, And Eleasah begat Sisamai, and Sisamai begat Shallum, And Shallum begat Jakamiah, and Jakamiah begat Elishama…” - The Bible, Chronicles

Who begat fanatics, moonbats and propagandists who will propagate any lie, misrepresentation, or perversion of the truth.

Cross posted within the Cranial Cavity