Really? - when I saw the headline, I thought of the three or so billion people in Asia, and how it might be a good thing if they don't double their population.
Your wonkiness might be assuming too strong a position in your mind if the AIDS crisis is the first thing that pops to mind. If the headline was, "Japanese sex tourists need billions of condoms" or "Asian sex workers short on condoms," sure - AIDS crisis.
My responses are conditioned to a certain extent by what I've been paying attention to most recently. That is, coverage of the African AIDS holocaust (for that is what it is) has elided somewhat with coverage of the spread of AIDS in Asia, and not just among the sex tourists/workers you mention. I've been reading more on that than on the growing population crisis which is the other big demographic story of the day.
My read: China faces an AIDS epidemic of Congolese proportions (not to pick on the Congo), which could render the population explosion more or less moot, especially in the massive, remote interior.
So you are seeing the population explosion as an immediate problem-- which it is. But only if China et. al. are lucky enough to escape a catastrophic AIDS pandemic. Let's pray that they don't have both at once, and in fact escape both entirely. There's too much suffering in the world without insult added to injury.
(It strikes me that my Cassandraesque) doomsaying is almost a Hobson's Choice: death, except you get to pick your own slow horrible method.)
Buckethead, I'm not sure I
Buckethead, I'm not sure I follow. The AIDS crisis was the first thing to my mind.
Really? - when I saw the
Really? - when I saw the headline, I thought of the three or so billion people in Asia, and how it might be a good thing if they don't double their population.
Your wonkiness might be assuming too strong a position in your mind if the AIDS crisis is the first thing that pops to mind. If the headline was, "Japanese sex tourists need billions of condoms" or "Asian sex workers short on condoms," sure - AIDS crisis.
Fair enough.
Fair enough.
My responses are conditioned to a certain extent by what I've been paying attention to most recently. That is, coverage of the African AIDS holocaust (for that is what it is) has elided somewhat with coverage of the spread of AIDS in Asia, and not just among the sex tourists/workers you mention. I've been reading more on that than on the growing population crisis which is the other big demographic story of the day.
My read: China faces an AIDS epidemic of Congolese proportions (not to pick on the Congo), which could render the population explosion more or less moot, especially in the massive, remote interior.
So you are seeing the population explosion as an immediate problem-- which it is. But only if China et. al. are lucky enough to escape a catastrophic AIDS pandemic. Let's pray that they don't have both at once, and in fact escape both entirely. There's too much suffering in the world without insult added to injury.
(It strikes me that my Cassandraesque) doomsaying is almost a Hobson's Choice: death, except you get to pick your own slow horrible method.)