Family planning must be considered in full context
Although family planning is extremely important, it needs to be put into perspective. In many poor countries, people don’t have adequate access to family-planning information.
And even if they do, many poor people see their adult children as the only security the parents will have when they become old and sick. These problems are not being addressed.
It is also misleading to believe big families are the major cause of environmental problems. Years ago a CNN programme showed that a middle-class family of four in California was causing more environmental damage than a poor family of eight in a South American country.
One example would be when middle-class and wealthy people eat steaks or hamburgers, causing terrible environmental damage. The amount of plants being wasted on livestock could easily feed the world.
So to take the issue of family planning out of context and present it as the sole solution to these problems is nothing more than Western arrogance and hypocrisy.
Eric Bahrt
Chiang Mai
