Happy Mother's Day

Hi Ammara (incidently a name very dear to me)
Re:By simply walking through the Mayo Hospital Maternity ward, one can understand how good the conditions are there and the standard of healthcare. And these are the lucky ones who made it to a literate doctor, otherwise an illiterate midwife or perhaps some aunt and cousin was all she would have.)))

During my training, I spent time at Lady Wellington Hospital; it used to feel like the world had come to an end and with good reason too.

I am not sure what the answer is; sorry can't help. Anyone who has attempted to raise awareness of these issues were literally taken to the cleaners; just you wait 'til we get 'comparisons btw India/Pakistan, Muslim/Hindu' and by the end, we won't even know what the whole thing was actually about!

Good luck.....you'll need it

Excellent piece, ammara - a reality-check that we need so badly.
TS

Ammara, I'm selfishly regretting reading your article because it was so upsetting. These are issues that prey on my mind all the time, yet have to be pushed out to fit my own life in. Is this all life is meant to be for most of the world's population? This is what makes me wonder, where is God?

Re: # 3; nb, how is it going?

Re: "This is what makes me wonder, where is God?"

According to biblical 'calculations', the world is 6000 years old; we are living in the 7th millenium.

God is on a sabbatical! Let's leave him out of this, shall we?

As for the 'suffering', it goes on and is completely besides the point. As Richard Dawkins would say:

"The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all decent contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to compose this sentence, thousands of animals are being eaten alive, many others are running for their lives, whimpering with fear, others are slowly being devoured from within by rasping parasites, thousands of all kinds are dying of starvation, thirst, and disease. It must be so. If there ever is a time of plenty, this very fact will automatically lead to an increase in the population until the natural state of starvation and misery is restored. In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference."

Given all that, humans as a species have (at least in part) become above nature, or have some control over its workings. It is for the human species to get their act together and as it would appear, they can't or won't. Loose loose I am afraid.

Maybe Pakistan should enforce the one-child-per-family rule like China.
An equally important problem is that a lot of emphasis is placed on having children as soon as you get married. Further, the more you have the better. I know couples where the wife didn't think their marriage was truly accepted by the families unless they had a child. On top of this, if you pile on the weight of problems with actually concieving a child then one can't imagine how miserable life can be for a couple. Admittedly, women feel it more than men do.

Re: # 5; AKA201 mian,

We have a few issues here. Recently I saw a documentary about the 'poverty' and 'struggle for existence' in Cairo, Egypt. There was this couple trying to get sympathy from the world for not being able to 'provide' for their six children's future.

Question arose; bhale mian, if you couldn't provide, why the hell did you produce six children? but we are not allowed to ask this question.

Pakistan, despite the poor figures in Infant and Maternal mortality rates, has more than quadrupled in population since its inception; for crying out loud, if all those had survived, the 'ummatees' would have changed into the 'gogs and magogs' and taken over the bloody world! I don't know about you AKA201 but I don't particulary fancy living in that world; being a Paki myself, I only know too well!!

Like I said as humans we have to make these decisions ourselves for our future. God, or whatever his name is, has given us 'aqal' to make these decisions for a reason; if we choose to ignore that, we do so at our own peril....

Unfortunately it takes some dispassionate words to hammer in the message; enough of this political correctness business.....where is everyone today??

Very good article Ammara, it takes courage to step back and be objective concerning the dysfunction and downside of the condition, and social practices of any society. As with any problem facing humanity, we first MUST acknowledge that a problem exists before a solution can begin to be formulated.

With Pakistan having one of the highest birth and population growth rates in the wrold, the picture is getting bleak with each passing day. The multiplier and compounding effect of the phenomanon depicts itself in a variety of social evils.

Not to speak of China, the other countries in the region like India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have made significant inroads when it comes to arresting their population growth rates.A lot of this has to do with the earnest drives launched to increase the literacy rate and awareness of the masses.

Now its definitely our turn to move on.

Very Well Written.

scarce resources and increasing population is the biggest problem facing by pakistan.

Masses need to be educate is the only solution.

Divorces in India are no easy affair for the male. Gender-biased laws have been made since recently by Renuka, a notoriously feminist minister. When a woman is angry at a man and wants a divorce, she usually lies, and makes false charges to have him and his family jailed, without appeal or bail. Domestic Violence is hyped by feminist groups internationally, but this too is not borne out by studies, which attribute equal violence to the female too. Blackmail is norm - alongwith the emotional trauma of undergoing a divorce. In a corrupt system like India , that means a pot of money, and social ostracisation too – mind you, for a young, growing, citizen of the country. Divorces should surely be made easier and simpler than this?

Alimony causes even more financial commitment on the young male – whatever for? For the ‘crime' of divorcing? Some say that alimony could be an invitation for a female to divorce – and even marry in the first place! Alimony is surely a thing for the past generation of divorces?

A word on feminism here may be in order. Feminists take media sympathy from ‘facts’ that are controversial really. For eg., let us take female feticide. In reality, four times more adult men actually commit than women! Is it because women cannot bear to see their daughters grow up anything short of a princess? And the gender ratios that are quoted in India , cannot explain the widespreadedness of feticide, because in some countries, the proportion of males is actually less! And yet, feminists continue to use the media to gain sympathy – sometimes using genuine reasons ( like minority female literacy for eg.), to get unreasonable gains.

To counter the menace of feminism, we hardly have a Male Right Movement going in India yet. In addition, it is not fashionable to the media yet. Male Rights in western countries have gained some momentum in the past few years, though.

good article .best day to sympathies to mothers.

FIRST of all I would like to tell you that death is inevitable and the time for death is fixed..Well!you should be a Muslim to believe so,which I believe you are.So dont blame giving birth to a child causing deaths..rite!death is fixed and has to come to everyone..it even came to those queens who were sitting well guarded in their forts and those who never gave birth to a child...but eventually everyone has to die and giving birth is not to blame...i hope u get it ..or i hope time will teach u to be more realistic ...

To Ammara...
Ans: Nature had made human of this part of world very fertile. So will be the infant mortality rate. We have to accept that.

Re: # 12
the article doesnt state that giving birth leads to the death of the mother... it is the mismanagement and lack of good care during child-birth....
Death is indeed inevitable but not welcomed...
should we shut down the pharmaceutical companies on Earth because death is inevitable?
Should we deprive the diebetic from insulin and kidney patients from dialysis machine because death is inevitable..?
The lives can be saved...fr the good of the child and the entire family which misses the mother...

Re: # 13
A Pakistani woman has as many ovas (eggs) in her ovaries as a german or American.... the difference lies in the Government policies ...in the West Birth Control is more readily available...plus
Pakistan is a developing country and the child is welcomed as it becomes labourer within a few years of its birth... Also the mindset...big families are not welcomed in the West like they are in Pakistan....
Social factors contribute to increased population growth rather then biological ones... if someone believes that humans in Pakistan or South Asia are more fertile then the rest of the World then prove it with scientific evidence...or sme research carried out....on this topic...