Pakistan: Taliban buying children for suicide attacks

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/07/07/pakistan.child.bombers/index.html

In our quest to be accepted, look at bigger problems young people are facing in this world. When the population out strips resources this is the behavior that humans resort to.

Quote from: lisagurl on July 07, 2009, 04:52:31 PMWhen the population out strips resources this is the behavior that humans resort to.

Fortunately, our population is due to stop growing altogether once the world has become completely industrialized. In fact, we should enter a period of contraction, which is long overdue. Industrialization is the only long-term strategy that is likely to be effective.

QuoteFortunately, our population is due to stop growing altogether once the world has become completely industrialized.

Not if religion has anything to do with it.

Quote from: lisagurl on July 08, 2009, 03:03:46 PM
Not if religion has anything to do with it.

WHOSE??

QuoteWhen the population out strips resources this is the behavior that humans resort to.

This holy war is not over lack of resources.  It is jihad over the elimination of infidels, and the take back of Isreal.    Remember many of these jihadists are supported with abundant resources from Saudi, Yemen, Dubai, and other Oil Rich nations. 

Think of it this way everytime you put a Dollar's worth of gas, you are putting money into an Arab hand that may redistribrute his wealth to a jihadist Terrorist.   

Daisy

Quote from: lisagurl on July 08, 2009, 03:03:46 PM
Not if religion has anything to do with it.

Religion doesn't have much to do with the problem. The problem is rooted in the fact that their economies suck.

QuoteThink of it this way every time you put a Dollar's worth of gas

Better yet every time people get high.

QuoteReligion doesn't have much to do with the problem.

The Christian religion preaches " Go forth and Multiply" then there is the abortion issue and birth control, suicide, etc

Quote from: lisagurl on July 08, 2009, 05:40:00 PMThe Christian religion preaches " Go forth and Multiply"

A comfortable rate of female literacy combined with a style of economy that is highly accessible to women (ZOMG!!! CAPITALISM!) tends to result in this command being almost universally ignored.

Quotethen there is the abortion issue and birth control, suicide, etc.

Grrrr. Yeah, these issues tend to annoy me. However, I don't think that abortion does much to slow the birth rate. Birth control, though, is a horse of a different color. I still can't believe religious orgs that try to "condemn" things like condoms and birth control pills. So...incredibly...stupid.

Religion, while it can be argued to be a contributing factor, is not the cause of overpopulation.
Overpopulation is not the reason why children can be bought and/or used as soldiers, it's been done throughout history, even in eras where there existed significantly less human beings.

Overpopulation isn't the big bogey man you think it is lisagurl.
There's a genuine concern that many central European countries aren't producing enough children to support their basic work force and many other nations are noticing their statistics shifting in that direction.
And if we examine how much food is thrown away in the western world, for an array of reasons, we can see that we are actually producing enough food to feed "everyone" if it was shared equally, with room to spare. The reason that we aren't sharing equally is not just greed. Shipping food long distances isn't always conceivable. The reason people starve is because They can't raise enough food for themselves in their countries, not because there's just too many people.

QuoteThey can't raise enough food for themselves in their countries, not because there's just too many people.

Then the population is too large. The earth does not have enough resources to ship food around the world and it does not grow on places like Australia which is too dry. It would use too much resources to make unsalted water to grow food. Mean while many other places where they are growing food are depleting the soil with chemicals and already are seeing the reduced effects of over farming.

Read " Collapse"

Easter Island striped its land that could support 800, at a population of 2000 they all starved leaving less than 100.

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Post Merge: July 09, 2009, 08:11:06 PM

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I understand Iceland is adding another Aluminum plant that will deplete Iceland's geothermal energy in the south in 70 years.

Religion doesn't have much to do with the problem. The problem is rooted in the fact that their economies suck.

Odd though that not all of the people who are in poverty don't think that way.  Total fail.

If a region in the world cannot sustain the population in that region, then historically the famine would rationalize the population.  These days, it's really tough to stand by idly watching people starve, even if our intervention in natural population pressures is ultimately unproductive.  If we take our understandable empathy out of the equation, do folks here think intervention via aid etc. is the right or wrong strategy?

On a lighter note, I have noticed that there is a loose correlation between family size and tv ownership in developing countries.  While in Sri Lanka, I saw that families without a tv (often without electricity) had large numbers of offspring - well there's not much else to do when the sun sets.  Those with a tv had less, maybe because they got addicted to watching telly instead of humping?  Perhaps the solution to over-population in the developing world is to air-drop clockwork tv's (the next thing from the clockwork radio & torch)?

In fact there are large numbers of person in the US without TV, they tend to be like, successful, and make far beyond average income. Odd hunh?

Quote from: tekla on July 10, 2009, 12:57:49 AM
In fact there are large numbers of person in the US without TV, they tend to be like, successful, and make far beyond average income. Odd hunh?

That figures   Based on my experience of yankee teevee where the long tracts of commercials are broken up by short segments of a tv show - segments so brief it would barely fill the attention span of a strobe-lit goldfish

Based on my experience, it's just that some people have better things to do.

Yeah I know, I'm just in a silly mood this morning - forgive my facetiousness. I don't actually watch tv at home either, except maybe for the odd bit of news or a particular science program I may be interested in.

QuoteIf we take our understandable empathy out of the equation, do folks here think intervention via aid etc. is the right or wrong strategy?

That would depend on the plan and the intended and realized results of the aid.  It is better to give the tools than the finished product. But if there is no factual plan of long term stability then being emotional only prolongs the suffering.

Quote from: tekla on July 10, 2009, 12:57:49 AM
In fact there are large numbers of person in the US without TV, they tend to be like, successful, and make far beyond average income. Odd hunh?

Probably because they are like me: the constant noise drives them insane to the point that they eventually curl up on the floor, moaning and clutching at their skulls. In any case, just in case you missed our friend's point, he was referring to the fact that you and Lisa are commiting the fallacy of cum hoc ergo propter hoc. Religion is no more to blame for overpopulation than a shortage of television sets.

For two things to co-occur does not make one responsible for the other. Say there is some construction going on outside your apartment window. Okay, maybe you don't live in an apartment, but relax: this is a hypothetical situation. But say that, everytime a man yells, "fire in the hole!" you hear an explosion. Does this mean that something is going to explode if you step out the door and yell, "fire in the hole"? Or does this mysterious incantation only work for certain people who come to construction sites? Or perhaps the incantation requires the assistance of a magical wand? If you really investigate what is going on, though, you will eventually realize that he is yelling this "incantation" to let everyone know to clear out the way. Correlation does not equate to causation.

On the other hand, an excessive birth rate AND religious extremism can BOTH result from a broken or ineffective education system. A heavily agricultural, tribal society relies heavily upon the labors of young people, who have higher levels of energy and tend to be easier to bully into cooperation. A very war-like society considers itself to be in competition to "out-produce" its "enemy," and they go about this "population war" in the same way that their ancient ancestors did for thousands of years.

The solution to the problem is to avoid military conflicts with the underdeveloped world, and spend that money INSTEAD on helping them to develop a viable education system. I say we send books, not bombs. Maybe a good project for any good college would be to start sending used textbooks overseas, to countries where there is always a shortage of decent educational material. As far as I am concerned, it is really education that makes the difference.

QuoteAs far as I am concerned, it is really education that makes the difference.

It is had to educate someone who believes that education is witchcraft or a western plot especially with an empty stomach and no clean water. They believe God will provide.
It should be interesting when you try to make a living.

Quote from: lisagurl on July 10, 2009, 01:42:53 PMIt is had to educate someone who believes that education is witchcraft or a western plot

That's not the whole Islamic world, Lisa. If you gave the average Muslim, even the most throwback, desert-dwelling tribesman, a textbook on physics or chemistry, most of them are not apt to think, "wizardry." They might think it's boring, but most of them would be delighted to hear about the idea that, if they make their kids read it, maybe they'll get to go to a big, fancy, American college one day. They might be superstitious, but they aren't stupid.

Quoteespecially with an empty stomach and no clean water.

The Taliban people are probably just smoking a lot of opium. Have you thought of that? They're really nothing but a bunch of drug lords, really. If you could get the people around them to understand this, to understand they are a bunch of dope-pushing thugs and NOT answering the call of Islam, and this wouldn't take long by the way, all those impoverished, backwards tribespeople would alllll get together, and they would go out and hack these guys into a billion pieces. Maybe some of them are illiterate, but they ain't necessarily stupid.

Quote from: daisybelle on July 08, 2009, 04:00:52 PM
This holy war is not over lack of resources.  It is jihad over the elimination of infidels, and the take back of Isreal.    Remember many of these jihadists are supported with abundant resources from Saudi, Yemen, Dubai, and other Oil Rich nations. 

You're making it seem as if it's one sided.  How pretentious.