re- de generation

I m one who looks for trends..indicators, general occurances and happenings that can lead to certain events or pointers towards the future… not a soothsayer but an intuitive probe trying to create connections between things. my connections do not necessarily have any quantitative relationships, conclusive evidence or hard facts even- its as intuitive as it can get and sometimes one-dimensional as I feel it to be sometimes.

The world is undergoing changes- I feel it boiling inside, waiting to burst. I read so often about global warming, climate change and its effects. I m not getting into it any of the paraphernalia that gets associated with such phenomena- however, what does all of it point towards?? how are we human beings changing as a whole?? There are so many positive things happening and twice the negatives (I m pessimistic- im sure an optimist would write the opposite).

I recently read- China to have 30 million bachelors in a decade. At first glance, it doesn’t sound like much. What it implied (subsequently from the article) was that Chinese men would not be able to find spouses for themselves in 10 years time due to various reasons.

For starters, the problem is one of the side effects on the famously infamous “one –child” norm. Chinese (like the traditional Indian) believes that having a boy/male child is a boon as compared to a female since the boy, subsequently grows up to become a man will take of the parents, change their nappies, etc etc… hence leading to female infanticide (through illegal ultrasonic detections) and abortions. A few villages in China already face a stringent shortage of women (There are - this, incidentally is not a phenomenon that is restricted to the Asian giant alone. India faces a similar problem, albeit not to such extremities. I had also heard of villages in the country not having women for its bachelors- in fact, coming to think of it, there is even a movie that tackles this issue that my friend described to me.

So lesser the women, the more the problems… these occurrences/trends can be observed in developing economies. Interestingly, in the other side of the world, in Europe (and to an extent, North America) the demographics are as startling and contrasting as it can get. The social dynamics and setup in these continents have led to demographics that indicate a negative growth rate as far as population of the youth is concerned. i.e. Europeans refuse to have babies since the no. of marriages over the last few decades has dramatically reduced leading to an increase in higher age groups and obviously resulted in the decline of youth. Countries like Japan have 60% of their population (I think) above the age of 60. Such nations are providing incentives to their citizens to marry and reproduce. (personally, I just think there should be a partnership chalked out between the east and the west where all the unmarried youths from this side go populate the other side and help increase the number !!)

I think there’s a fine balance in this imbalance… firstly, the developing economies have a bludgeoning population growth which it is trying hard to restrain. Contrastingly, the west is experiencing the exact reverse. The same west was (and is) responsible for all the hullabaloo that goes around in the form of “global warming” while the developing nations are beginning to ring their cashiers and add to the whole glory which constitutes mankind. It looks like all these aspects (I know its very generalized) are very intricately connected and if one attempts to look at the big picture, the balance is found.

I wonder though- what really is balance?..................

P.S.

Although not directly related to the above (attempt at an) entry, I recommend that readers watch the movie “children of men”, released last year which is a very interesting concept that can well be expected in the coming decades. And once you do, try relating it to the issues I outlined……. perhaps it will make sense, perhaps it won’t….