Manila

Kevin's favourite capital of the week (May 25 2014): Manila, the capital of the Philippines.

I have been wanting to look further into Manila since I listened to Alan Weisman's book, Countdown, on overpopulation. He has a chapter in it devoted to the Philippines. There are a few statistics that Weisman mentions (and http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/the-philippines-population/ also spells out in alarming detail) that I also want to mention. First off, the Philippines population was about 17 million at its independence from the US in 1946 and, as of the latest census, now sits at just under 100 million. That is about a 5 fold increase in under 70 years. If current trends continue the population of the Philippines will be close to 450 million by the end of the this century (according to World Population review anyway). Now there are a lot of arguments over the effects of population on living standards and economic growth, but most tend to agree that too many children born to one family tend to bring down the living standards of all members of the family (due to a sharing out of the same amount of resources). The burgeoning population of the Philippines may have helped grow the economy but it seems likely that it has also hindered the spread of wealth and growth of the middle class out of poverty.

The main culprit of the unsustained growth of the population is the anti-contraception stance taken up by the Catholic Church and therefore many of the Philippines public figures. Though contraception was available throughout the Philippines (for a price), Manila itself has been under a contraception ban since 2000, leading to, many reports suggest, underground abortion clinics and other more dangerous and illegal forms of birth control, as well as black market selling of regular forms of birth control. Given that Manila is the most densely populated city on the planet, this appeared to be bad move by outside observers. So it is a relief to many in the Philippines that the Supreme Court struck down a challenge (by the Catholic Church in the Philippines) to the controversial law passed by President Benigno Aquino, in December 2012, that would make all contraception and sex education free to everyone in country. Most especially the poor, who can not afford any form of contraception. There has been political protests and wrangling over the law, which various governments have been trying to pass in some form for the past 16 years. There has been further promises of protests after the decision but the tone of the church appears to softening in some quarters of the Philippines, especially with the softer tone of the new Pope. Powerful members of the Catholic establishment have begun (even before Francis) to change their tone. This seems to be a hopeful sign.

While the Church claims that it is lack of jobs that causes poverty, even they must admit that the more people there are the more competition for jobs there will be, as well more competition for resources, even with in large family units. To say that this law will solve all of the Philippines myriad problems would be a gross oversimplification, but it is a step in the right direction, not just for the future of the country (in terms of things like equality and wealth distribution), but for the planet as a whole. At least, so I would like to believe based on the evidence that I have read, both for and against.