Yemen’s men are the obstacle! [Archives:2005/806/Letters to the Editor]

Richard Rubright
[email protected]
This is in response to the article “Population Bomb”. The complete an utter disregard for family planning and contraception in the article demonstrates just how little will be done to stop the population explosion.

At a growth rate of 4% of population there is no way that the economic development of Yemen will ever keep pace with the population increase. The situation gets worse as time passes because the population growth is exponential, not linear.

The only way to reduce population (and this has been true in every country) growth to manageable levels is to promote contraception and family planning. This however will empower women at the expense of men.

Women will determine if they have a child, and will determine the size of the family (even if she is happy with just having one girl). Yemeni men will not be comfortable or accept this.

Therefore, as the article stated, people will talk about economic improvement, and education (note: not education that gives women control) and will ignore the issues that are so hard to deal with culturally for Arabs. And in the end there will be famine and a crumbling society because birth rates will not decline while at the same time economic prosperity will.
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