Monday, April 19, 2010

Violating Quotas

No gentle admonishment, this forced sterilization. The state does its mental shoulder-shrug; it had, after all, proclaimed to its population what it was prepared to expect from its general edict; one child per family; in the rural areas if a girl child was first born, another child - hoping for a male - would be acceptable. Of course that one-child-per-family order does mean that a lot of fetuses are aborted, and some baby girls set aside for Heaven while their parents try again, for a boy.

It's a cultural thing. People value boy children, male babies far more than they do girls. Pity that, since China now has an over-abundance of males seeking - desperately seeking - mates, and since there is an under-supply of females, they will be destined to live out their lives mate less. On the other hand, that means a lessening of the population. No wife, no children. Something to become accustomed to, even if it does gainsay human nature.

The need to procreate is inbred in all animals, no less humans. It forms part of humankind's pact with nature; the ultimate need to survive through the transmission of one's genes. Beijing is serious, quite serious about this. A country, even one as geographically vast as China, must control the size of its population, for it becomes increasingly more difficult to govern a population rising steadily above its current 1.3-billion.

All those people needing housing, food, education, and above all, employment. When employment is scarce, the other necessities become even scarcer. The population becomes restive, resentful, poses a threat to order and security and this cannot be tolerated. Therefore, those too-fertile, too-obstinate men and women who have deliberately violated China's birth control policies must be punished.

And their punishment become a signal to all that Beijing is not amused and its policies may not be ignored. This is no trifling matter. Human rights and entitlements? Well, some sacrifices are required for the greater good. Which is why a team of doctors has been dispatched to Puning county in Guangdong Province for the purpose of sterilizing those couples who have defied government edict.

This 20-day campaign at rectification of illegal over-population purposes to complete 9,559 sterilizations. Puning, with its population of 2.24 million people, represents the most populous county in the province. Those who have refused to submit to sterilization will be coerced; their relatives, including elderly parents, will be detained until the malefactors present themselves.

Those being detained are nicely entertained by lectures on the required limits of family sizes and the necessity thereof. One child? Stop. Just stop. Halt all further aspirations toward increased parenthood. Family planning is an imperative. People are so bloody-mindedly obstinate.

And it's all for their own good.

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