Theos-Talk Archives (May 1999ar Message tt00079)

> <<The idea that people are starving because the world is overpopulated,
> and therefore we should question whether it is helpful to give them food
> somehow places the blame of overpopulation on those who are starving. >>
>
> Duh???  Who would you point the finger at, Peter? Is it my
> fault that people are starving in Africa?
 <snip>
> When people have more children than they can support, they starve.
> This basic fact of nature is part of what we call karma, not to
> mention common sense. I thought we Theosophists were supposed
> to work along with nature?
>
> (I suppose you can tell that I am a strong believer
> in birth control :-))
>
> Jerry S.

Jerry,

I don't agree that your statement is "common sense" for the reasons I
offered in the post you refer to above, namely:

"Actually, many of the countries where famine is rife are not overpopulated.
The famine is often related to a complexity of reasons such as weather (lack
of rain, or floods), economic and political conditions, civil wars and so
on."

Birth control is not going to protect them from year after year of droughts,
the horrors of civil wars where hundreds of thousands have been murdered -
resulting in a country that is crippled both economically and ecologically.

Even in those places where famine and over-population go together, what good
does pointing the finger at anyone do?  Are the children born to parents who
couldn't support them to be blamed for the fact the parents didn't use
contraceptives and also can't feed them?  Shall we simply say it is the
childrens' Karma and on the basis of what you call "common sense" leave them
to starve?  When people are crushed and buried alive by the earthquakes and
cyclones in the USA that too is Karma.  Will you also leave them to suffer
and die because of that?  How is that "working along with nature"?

We in the west have the finances, food, skills, knowledge and many other
resources to help our less fortunate 'brothers' in the world to help
themselves.   It is no doubt an incredibly difficult task. Yet we could say
that it is just as much our Karma to use those resources for the welfare of
the many as it is their karma to be born into the conditions of physical
suffering and hardship.

...Peter


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