BILA SATU BINI LIMA ANAK

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

BILA SATU BINI LIMA ANAK

KARACHI: Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) said 15,000 new babies on Jan 1st

increase of over five million a year

not good omen for a country with miserably limited resources to run itself

demanded govt to formulate an effective policy to control population

rapid increase of population in Pakistan

15,000 babies in Pakistan on Jan 1 is alarming sign

450,000 births in a month and 5.4 million in a year

Pakistan among fastest population growth in the world

Pakistan population more than 200 million people

it would be fourth most populous nation in world

60% of population below 25 years

25 million children not going to school

90% population not provided with clean drinking water

Malnutrition big issue, food scarcity grave problem

unchecked rise in population is looming disaster

increasing population increasing health burden on country 

healthcare infrastructure deteriorated with passage of time

greater dangers due to a rapidly increasing population

only 3 public hospitals in Karachi decades ago when population 3.5 m 

now 25m people, not a single new hospital

the existing ones’ delivery system deteriorated

water was not enough

supply lines weakened 

sanitation system gone down

no schools for children whose number is on the rise

housing problem getting worse 

no transport system for a mega city of this size 

Same apply to rest of the country 

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2019

My comments : Well that is Pakistan. Too many babies being manufactured. 

I dont think Malaysia will ever have an ageing population. It is really wonderful to see so many kids running around. We see children everywhere.

But in Semenanjung Malaysia it is always differentiated by race, race, race. 

We see plenty of Malay kids, fewer Chinese kids and much less Indian kids.

The Chinese and many Indians have fewer children for a few reasons.  

The mom and dad must really have the time, energy and money to spend on children. So they think and plan carefully. 

The money part is important. 

Children take up a lot of money resources.  

Plus time and energy.

The Chinese and Indians are going for quality over quantity.  

Many Chinese and Indians opt for 'nuclear families' - two kids, maybe three.

So the parents can spend more time, more energy, more money, more resources to be spread over just two or three children.  Their children will also have better clothes, better tuition, involvement in hobbies, travel opportunities, activities etc which will all add up to their growing up as better persons.

Dr Muhd Khalid the economic advisor to the PM says that the average Chinese (or non Malay) child also inherits a minimum RM750,000 in assets from his or her parents. This is usually in the form of  the family house or apartment.  I think with property values increasing this inherited figure could go even higher. 

Meaning  many of  the  non Malay kids are already millionaires through inheritance. 

Of course if there are five kids or seven kids, then they will get less. 

We have two boys of our own. From early on we decided to let the boys travel. In their earlier years we took them all over the country - from Perlis to Sabah. Then later we took them to quite a few foreign countries.  While still studying, the boys also began travelling on their own to other countries in Europe, Australia and Asia. We thought of it as an investment in their future.  Travelling to other countries and observing other people has certainly widened their horizons. 

We were able to afford all this because we only had two kids of our own. If we had had four kids or five kids I dont think we could have afforded to  send them overseas as much.

It is no rocket science. The more kids you have the lesser they will get from you.

The more kids you have they will have to compete for your attention, for your money, for your time, for educational resources, clothes, toys and for everything.

In the modern, urban environment  kids must have maximum resource investment by their parents.  

In this regard there is another disaster going on among the Malays.  

There is still a population explosion among the Malays. 

This is actually quite serious and you folks are not paying enough attention to it.  Some will say 'It does not involve me'.  Well you are wrong. It does involve you.

The sekolah tahfiz are mushrooming.  Why?  They have actually become pusat pembuangan anak. Parents with too many kids, with no time to take care of kids are sending their kids to sekolah tahfiz.   They are cheap. For less than two hundred Ringgits a month, people can 'abandon' their kids in the care of these sekolah tahfiz.  Packed 40 to a room, eating whatever food they set on the table  [or floating in the dulang]  and left to the care of some dont-know-what-type of characters to teach and mould their kids.  

This is a relatively new phenomenon in Malaysia.

Another disaster in the making for the Malays.

Chinese and Indians do not have sekolah tahfiz - thanks be to all their gods. 

In Pantai Dalam where we have our business today and where we lived (more than 20 years ago) or owned apartments and been generally  present there since 1998, what our friendly Policemen shared with us 20 years ago has not changed.  

There are too many  children per household.  And when they are crammed inside those tiny low cost flats with only two or three rooms - then you have all sorts of sick stuff going on. 

Domestic violence,  gang behaviour, drugs, incest and all the other gejala happen not just because they are lower income but because there are too many kids per household.  

During the recent school break, young boys and girls on motorbikes were zooming up and down the new highway intersection that has at last opened. 

(By the way the new Pantai Sentral Intersection opened within TWO WEEKS after this blog highlighted the delays in the opening date. And I was correct - they were waiting for the Minister to officiate. The Deputy Minister of Works came to 'rasmikan' the new intersection. The power of the blogs again.) 

The kids have nowhere else to go. Certainly their parents had no means of sending them for two weeks in London and Paris - which would have given them a lifetime of memories.  Instead they were making a nuisance of themselves on the highway junction and showing the middle finger at anyone who hooted at them to get out of the way. 

Now we have made our home somewhere near  Bangi the 'bandar rahmatan lil alamin'.  This is a solidly middle class Malay neighborhood. Most of the people are civil servants with fixed incomes.  

They still have minimum four kids per couple.  

Even for two income families four kids cost a lot more money.

Overseas travel for the kids may not be possible.

Sekolah tahfiz at say RM350 per kid per month is more plausible.

This is what I see folks. 

Just more disasters in the making. 

Conclusion:  

A young Red Indian boy was talking to his father. He was asking his father why do Red Indians have really cool names like Running Deer, Two Feathers, Sitting Bull and stuff.  The father explained that it was Indian custom to name their children after events that happened when the child was conceived. Then father ended his explanation by asking his son 'Why do you ask Broken Rubber'?

Herein lies a message. Just like Pakistan, we need serious birth control.