contraceptives in third world countries.
my brother rented some alien movie called District 9 and chris decided he wanted to see it before it got sent back. I walked in about 20-ish minutes into it. the general setting is that a mother ship gets stalled over a city in south africa, and the government takes the aliens down and sets them up with some shacks to live in as a humanitarian effort. this is 20 years later, and the whole area is a slum because no one really wants anything to do with the aliens. right when I walk in, you see a guy filming a documentary of sorts.. he's a social worker to the aliens, and he's talking about how "we don't want them reproducing" and he goes on to destoy their, um gestational pods (or whatever they are) right there on the film, and right in front of the adult aliens who are likely the parents involved.
I found it kind of ironic, taking place in africa, where the same thing is effectively happening to humans. you've got entire populations being oppressed by their own governments, and then outsiders come along and say, hey we've got something for you! nope, not food. birth control! I've been through classes where nobody can figure out why these people are still having babies. I dunno, maybe it's because they don't want their entire population to die out in a generation or less? I mean, as horrible as it may be to watch your kids starve to death, there's probably some hope left somewhere in these people that there will be better times ahead, maybe not for them or their kids, but maybe their kids' kids? I can imagine knowing that 2 out of every 3 kids born will die before reaching adulthood (I made that number up, btw, as an example) might make people want to have more kids, not less. maybe that's just my speculation, but the fact that their governments have been unsuccessful in eradicating them entirely just yet seems to agree with me.
I found it kind of ironic, taking place in africa, where the same thing is effectively happening to humans. you've got entire populations being oppressed by their own governments, and then outsiders come along and say, hey we've got something for you! nope, not food. birth control! I've been through classes where nobody can figure out why these people are still having babies. I dunno, maybe it's because they don't want their entire population to die out in a generation or less? I mean, as horrible as it may be to watch your kids starve to death, there's probably some hope left somewhere in these people that there will be better times ahead, maybe not for them or their kids, but maybe their kids' kids? I can imagine knowing that 2 out of every 3 kids born will die before reaching adulthood (I made that number up, btw, as an example) might make people want to have more kids, not less. maybe that's just my speculation, but the fact that their governments have been unsuccessful in eradicating them entirely just yet seems to agree with me.