Make love not war by Allen Lockington

Submitted by AllenL on Sat, 16/01/2010 - 7:30am

We read lately that there will soon be a baby boom. Is there a reason? Are we reliving the hippy era - Make Love Not War?

Having many children is usually associated with poverty. And my interpretation is there are many idle poor people around. Many of them end up in squatter settlements and we have to bring in Save the Children Fund and other NGOs that go looking for the poorest of the poor. Why do we need foreign aid, can’t we help ourselves. But a friendly phone call from a friend who said that the authorities i.e. Social Welfare Department, relevant NGOs, Health Department etc can assist by telling people who can’t afford to have a child to think before having sex. Pardon me if I am too harsh, but that is the reality. Brining up a child is expensive and to pay for him or her to reach class six is a huge effort. From class seven up to tertiary institutions is another story.

If you come to my area and similar densely populated areas, you will see toddlers running around half naked and uculuka. During the school holidays walking through my neighborhood I couldn’t help wonder how much it would cost parents to send the children to school feed and clothe them. Let alone send them to USP.

But the reality here is to educate our people and tell them to economize and maybe condomise, if there is such a word.