High Birthrate may trap African in poverty

I was reading a story in theU.K paper The Guardian about how the sky rocketing birth rate in many African countries may mire them in long term poverty. The average birthrate in Niger is 8 children per woman, imagine that in a country like Niger which is one of the poorest countries in the world, politically unstable and is constantly plagued by droughts. Add a burgeoning population and you have a recipe for long term poverty and conflict over scarce resources. Somalia and Uganda are not far behind the list with birthrates of 7 and 6.9 children per woman.

One major contributing factor is that very few women in those countries have access to birth control. I remember there was a time when Kenya had one of the highest fertility rates in the world but thanks to a well orchestrated birth control campaign those figures fell to manageable levels. It also doesnt help that in many of these high birth rate countries, culture encourages women to have many children as a sign of fertility ignoring the difficulty in providing for all of them.

International organisations also seem to be ignoring the rapid increasing population and instead of dealing with reproductive health issues are caught up in poverty and HIV issues. It is of utmost importance that birth control which is now affordable (a 3 month supply of birth control pills is $0.25 only) be made available to women. Men should be made to use condoms but empowering women in such situations is a plus.

It is only by managing population numbers can issues such as healthcare, access to clean water, AIDS, economy and other issues can be dealt with in an effective manner before the growing population of many of these countries render their governements’ efforts null. African countries have enough problems and adding more people to the equation will not improve things at all.

Short break, tatoos in Benin, the circus and other things

I have decided to try moving my blog to blogger Beta.They said they’d mail me when they’re done so I decided to stretch my cyber legs in my summer crib.

Anyway, onto other things.It seems tatoos are the new craze with Benin women.Henna and traditional scars have always been beautiful but tatoos are overly dependant on the skill of the artist.I have seen some hideous and garish tatoos in my time.It also doesnt helpt that many of these women are having these tatoos because of the American influence.I have seen loads and loads of tatoos on black women here in the states so I guess their African sisters have decided not to be left behind.The thing they should be aware of, is the fact is that tatoos are permanent and dont look so good when your skin becomes flabby and begins to sag with the passage of time.

In other news it seems Madame Ngilu took exception to Mr Michuki’s statement in reference to her intention to leave the ruling coalition if the President joined NARC Kenya.Instead of calling a press conference or meeting him to discuss the issue she goes ahead to storm his office, he in turn is no better as he dismissed her protest as a tribal jig.If these are the people Kenyans have to make decisions of national importance no wonder the country is underdeveloped.

Fall weather is finally kicking in!No more sweltering summer heat!In fact there were some light showers this morning!Things are indeed looking up!But the sad thing is that means winter is near.Oh well, I guess we cant have it all, can we?Time to go buy those heaters and jackets!