As the deaths mount from the deadly earthquakes in India one question rising is how the nations could have possibly built safe infratsructure for a such a quickly growing population.
The answer is they could not.
That growth, which happened because elites exploit population growth for cheap labor, constant consumers, and a growing tax base, set the stage for the deaths. They and the United Nations took a hands off approach in the face of pronatalism and patriarchy literally killing women because they made money from it.
The count will grow.
It was the job of the United Nations to stop unsustainable growth and the ways it drives the climate crisis and inequity because that culture of growth blocks families from having and raising kids in compliance with the Children’s Rights Convention, and large families in the past violate the right of future parents from having children in safe ecological conditions.
The Secretary General did not do his job, but supported elites, and people like his son benefitted – with a privileged life while other children suffer and die.
Because no nation has properly adhered to its obligations in this regard through just and sustainable family policies, a fact evidenced by the climate crisis, we cannot assume we operate from a place of legitimacy. Instead of preparing children for meaningful roles in their democracies, the world has historically treated children as inputs of economic growth, or as bodies to expand undemocratic political structures like those in Syria, Turkey and Russia.
In other words, to properly assess costs and benefits we have to first become groups of people capable of doing so in a way that is actually inclusive and reflective of the group constituents. This is simply the ideal of the “we,” in “We the People.” The ideal political we, meaning fundamental power relations defined by the goals of the Children’s Convention, is the primary baseline. We cannot think of, or describe, an ecological outcome that is not first contingent upon family planning outcomes, on at least five levels.
TAKE ACTION:
It’s time his son pay what he owes to ensure all children a Fair Start in life. Urge him to do so.
