A Message for the New Leader, with all due respect.

We have had a new leader of the Catholic church .

His name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

His early schooling was as a Jesuit. I read about the Jesuits. This does not fill me with hope. Ignatius of Loyola was the founder of the Jesuit order. A quotation is ascribed to Ignatius, which goes like this: "What seems to me white, I will believe black, if the hierarchal Church so defines" .

These words, in my opinion, go a long ways to explain the problem with religion. Ignatius was 500 years ago, but I continue to see this black versus white issue on display.

The new Pope does show, so far, that he may be more liberal than his predecessors. He appears more humble and prepared to listen. His brain is not locked. I want to talk to him. This may not be a realistic, but I think this man would be disappointed if I felt it was hopeless to even try.

I will use my YouSendIt and deliver this page to his home. If this is not received, maybe someone will see and bring to his attention.

I want to talk about the problem of the number of homo sapiens on this planet.

I will start with some quotations from genesis:

God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth."

 "The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered"

" Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything."

I don't think the writer, 2000 years ago had any idea where his words were going. They were widely read and accepted as literally true, like the rest of Genesis, by the greater part of Western Europe. They seemed to give license. The earth and all its creatures were placed here for the benefit of humankind. Most of us continue to follow this premise.

Populations of humans increase most rapidly where they are least able to be supported. Crop failures due to drought or internal conflicts regularly cause famine. More fortunate countries often try to supply food and medicine. The vigor of the starving people improves transiently and there is another upward surge in the population then another bigger famine. We regularly see the pictures of the swollen bellies, and emaciated bodies; people living in absolute misery.

Lets say you came home, and saw water flowing out from under your front door, and on opening the door, the entire house was flooded. You left a tap open in the upstairs bathroom and the sink had been overflowing for three hours. What would you do first?  Go for a dry mop and a bucket  and start trying to soak it up? No. I think you would turn off the tap.

OK. We need to turn off the tap.

Here is an excerpt from some Catholic literature:

"The Church has always taught the intrinsic evil of contraception, that is, of every marital act intentionally rendered unfruitful. This teaching is to be held as definitive and irreformable. Contraception is gravely opposed to marital chastity; it is contrary to the good of the transmission of life (the procreative aspect of matrimony), and to the reciprocal self-giving of the spouses (the unitive aspect of matrimony); it harms true love and denies the sovereign role of God in the transmission of human life."

With all due respect:  The meter has run out on this kind of stuff.

I have also read words to this effect:  " Using a barrier or medicine to prevent conception is akin to murder of the child before it is conceived."

Sexual reproduction is about biology. In the natural world, sperm and egg are produced in huge excess and fusion of the sperm and egg seldom occurs. Pollen drifts in the wind and never finds the stigma. Sea creatures release millions of sperm and ova into the ocean currents, most of which never unite. Our vertebrate cousins have a higher conception rate but many more are born than can survive. Like Mr. Darwin said. Infant mortality rates are prodigious. One in 10,000 Sea Turtle eggs becomes an adult. The young of both predator and prey are killed, abandoned, starve, in double figure percentages. This is what happened to early homo species, and for most of the time on earth, for homo sapiens. But now, the only Homo species has escaped these constraints.  By using his larger brain.

Now, we need to use this brain to get out of this problem.

In all fairness, the Catholic Church is not totally responsible for the crisis in human population.

However, they are not really pitching in to help solve the problem. This is where I am hoping the Pope will turn out to be a man for the ages.

He needs to see that black is black and white is white. He said he wants to help the poor. He said he is concerned about the environment. Good. This is where population checks in. Don't create more poor. Environmental issues and population are in lock-step. He needs to help turn off the tap.

This is what he needs to say. No more apologies are needed.

"My friends, the earth has a problem. We are the problem. We need to stop the increase in our numbers. I see that many of you have already been trying. Bless you for your concern and your discipline. No censure will come to your table. We need to educate. We need to block conception by whatever method is available to us. Please do not rely on abortion. Let us improve the quality of our own lives. Let us preserve, to the best of our ability, this planet and all life that shares it with us."

Jorge, if you can say this, your followers will love you all the more.

And you will have have seen it, clear as black and white.

Message to the United Nations 2012 Manchester Guardian

Ｉam a girl. if you educate me I could save the world.

The famine is the first to be declared since 2011 in Somalia, where more than a quarter of a million people are estimated to have died between October 2010 and April 2012.
Mr. O’Brien also told the Security Council that more than 17 million Yemenis were “food insecure” — which means they lack a reliable supply — and 6.8 million were “one step away from famine.”
The country’s population is roughly 25 million.
Many simply cannot afford to buy food, Mr. O’Brien said, and more than a million civil servants have not been paid for months, pushing more people toward acute hunger and worse.
“Families are increasingly marrying off their young daughters to have someone else care for them, and often use the dowry to pay for basic necessities,” he said.

Somalia and three other countries desperately need aid to save more than 20 million people from starvation and diseases, the United Nations said.

The UN pleaded with the world to come to the rescue of Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia and northeast Nigeria.
"We stand at a critical point in history. Already at the beginning of the year we are facing the largest humanitarian crisis since the creation of the UN," UN humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien said Friday.
"Now, more than 20 million people across four countries face starvation and famine. Without collective and coordinated global efforts, people will simply starve to death. Many more will suffer and die from disease."

The global birth rate has been declining since a peak 0f 6.0 in 1960. That billion is mostly still alive. The current average birth rate of 2.4 is encouraging but will still allow a slow increase.

Countries still hovering at the 5-6 range are, you guessed it, Somalia, Yemen, Sudan and Niger.

The answer is to just send them truckloads of food? Send medical teams to try to save marasmic infants? Where there is conflict, sell weapons to both sides to keep the fighting going? Send missionaries?

None of the above.

These countries are prototypical failed states. Their affairs need to be taken over by an appointed administration with no vested interest. Blockade the import of further weapons and all ammunition. When the conflict stops, then:

Send the medical teams. Their goals?

1, provide food to those who need it.. Solve the issue of clean water. Treat endemic diseases. Set up an effective program for contraception. [one pregnancy/family] Like China.

2. Develope a program for the education of children. Emphasis on educating the girls.

Pollution, population and starvation; go hand in hand.

New Delhi  Environmental pollution, from filthy air and contaminated water, is killing more people every year than all war and violence in the world. More than natural disasters, AIDS, tuberculosis, and Malaria combined.