ï m> THE NEW WORLD ORDER AND DEMOGRAPHIC SECURITY by Michel SCHOOYANS University of Louvain, Belgium Houston, April 15th 1993. Everybody knows the common saying about excess of population in poor countries. They say that underdeveloped countries are poor because they hâve too many children. Were they to hâve fewer children, they would be in position to give them better éducation, and they would enjoy a higher standard ofliving. Poor people don't understand that excessive offspring is a décisive hindrance to their development. So they hâve to be educated, and they should imitate the developed and rich countries. The population of thèse countries is wise in having a low fertility rate. This favours and encourages the wealth of nations. So they say that poor-people should hâve the wisdom of imitating the rich societies, reducing their birth and fertility rates. If tfce persuasive campaigns fail, the Public Authorities should hâve the right, and even the obligation, of taking steps to force the poor to eut their birth rate. They add that this is the priority décision that must be taken in order to better the living standards in underdeveloped countries. Before discussing this very cômmonplace statement, we should recall some data from 1992, published in the World Population Data Sheet by the Population Référence Bureau, in Washington DC. According to "this authoritative source, the average number of children born to women of fertility âge (that is the total fertility rate) should be of 6,1 children in Africa; 3,9 in Asia; 3,4 in Latin America, whereas an average of 2,1 children by women is sufficient to assure and guarantee the maintenance of the population. We must immediately observe, however, that ail the developed countries hâve an average of less than 2,1 children per woman: 2,0 in the United States; 1,6 in Europe; 1,5 in Japan. I hâve no intention of entering, hère, into an explanation about those démographie questions. But I want at least to mention two things, before entering into some political considérations.
a) As is évident, human society is facing two distinct démographie issues. On the one hand, the Third World has no problem in renewing its population, despite sustained high mortality rates, especially child and maternai mortality. On the other hand, the developed countries are below the level indispensable for the renewal of their populations. Besides, one fact must be emphasized, although it is generally hidden or ignored, namely that the fertility rate of the Third World, which was 6,1 at the beginning of the fifties, has been regularly decreasing since then, and is now below 4,0. b) The second thing that I will mention is that we hâve very différent situations. For example, Brazil where I lived very happily for ten years has natural resources among the most important in the world; and its démographie density is less than 18 inhabitants to the square kilomètre. Yet it is, globally speaking, an underdeveloped country. In contrast, my country Belgium, like Switzerland has almost no natural resources but has a démographie density of 320 inhabitants to the square kilomètre. Such a détail suggests that it is nonsense to take for granted that there is some determinist relation between population and wealth. Thus F. Wertham an American specialist in thèse matters is right when he writes that «They are not poor because they are too many, but they are tbo many because they are poor». According to this paradoxical statement, this author means that poverty has its very source in the inability of men and nations to face and solve their problems of food, health, éducation, etc. But fortunately we hâve the possibility of intervening in such situations of poverty, improving chiefly by means of éducation the abilities of men to face the challenges that spring both from natural and social conditions. This is confirmed by another world famous American economist, Julian Simon. This specialist has demonstrated what many previous authors had asserted, namely that man is the «ultimate resource», and that the primary problem is that man should be able thanks to his initiative, liberty and intelligence to increase the wealth that is at his disposai in the world. Nevertheless, we witness the dramatic spreading of so-called «developing programs» for the Third World, which présent as a priority a totally effective démographie réduction, by means of contraceptive campaigns, sterilization campaigns and abortion campaigns. Again, the Brazilian case is most significant. We read in the Final Report of Parliament's Commission of Inquiry about Sterilization (Brasilia, D.F., October 1992) that «considering the methods used by Brazilian women
of fertility âge, sterilization reaches 44%, it being the most common method». We also learn, from the World Health Organization, that Brazil is responsible for 10% of the abortions in the World, which means that at least according to WHO 6 million abortions are performed each year in Brazil. What is happening in Brazil is a mère example of what is occurring in developing countries. As we study thèse problems, it is quickly apparent that such campaigns don't aim at «helping» poor countries in their development, but atcontaining their population, cutting down their démographie dynamics. What is occurring is very simple to understand. The rich countries are perceiving the démographie dynamics of the Third World as a threat to their security. Public Authority of the rich countries, including the USA, are considering that their security is the foundation of their rights. With this purpose, they don't ever hesitate in using some of the most important international organizations in order to achieve their aim. I explain this point in a second lecture on Abortion as a Political Issue. For the time being, I want to explain a very basic topic. During the cold war, was developed a very famous doctrine, namely the National Security Doctrine. This doctrine inspired, for almost forty years, the foreign policies of the US, and has been welcomed, adopted and adapted in nearby ail Latin American nations, as well as in other countries outside the Western Hémisphère. Now that the communist block has totally collapsed, the former doctrine of national security needs to be reformulated. In this reformulation, one of the main assertions of the former doctrine must be refashioned, namely that contemporary war is total warfare. This means that nowadays, war has varying aspects: it is a political process, or an économie challenge, or a military engagement, or even a psychological and sdentific issue. Thus, first of ail, we must consider the old question, taking into account the new world configuration. This question is: Which, at this very moment, is the pre-eminent antagonism? Who are our potential or actual enemies? How do we prevent their émergence? According to documents easily available and according to récent articles published by the Washington Post, after the décline of the communist System, such questions are at the very heart of the North American Government's préoccupations, and they are shared, at least to some extent, by other rich countries.
To speak frankly, this implies that we are witnessing a fantastic reformulation of the doctrine of Manifest Destiny. I beg you to give spécial attention to this major point of my talk. At présent, people of poor countries represent 80% of the world's population. Instead of caring for their development and instead of sharing with them knowledge and technology, rich people consider that due to their numerical importance, the poor are a major threat to their security. As a matter of fact, this means that from the point of view of the rich, we are in a situation of war, and even of total warfare, no longer between East and West, but between North and South. Now, in classical warfare, the main issue was military superiority, and today, military means always can be used, as we saw in the Gulf War. But for other fields where National Security is concerned, it generally will be more suitable to use both psychological and scientific procédures. Psychological means using a psychological strategy to create a demand for anti-fertility campaigns, the aim of which is to subject the potential enemy to our will. Scientific means that a poor population may be destroyed if its physical capacity of transmitting human life is targeted. By such a procédure, potential enemies simply will not exist. For them, after psychological conditioning, sterility will be the rule, through contraception, tubal ligature and vasectomy. And should someone survive those preventative obstacles, he could be killed in the mother's womb. Furthermore, thanks to this new form of total warfare, it will be possible to reconsider the traditional conception oifrontiers. And speaking hère in Houston, formerly belonging to Mexico, I hope you will catch exactly what I intend to explain. There always existed in the States a fascination for the frontier, this moving part of the land reached by the explorers, who intended to replace the natives sometimes killing them in order to transfer to their own benefit the natural resources that the «indigenous» people were notable they say to exploit properly. Thus, having read MacPherson about the Civil War, one must conclude that the présent aggressions against human life are a key-aspect of geopolitical strategy of World domination. Imperialism today is not merely apolitical, or économie, or military issue. It is ail this, but, according to the «potential enemy» who must be controlled, today imperialism is, more than ever, a psychological and scientific issue. Today, the richest people of the World make use of much more discrète but efficient means of mass destruction than nuclear armaments. Biology, medicine, but also
demography and agronomy, and their respective technologies, are being used as weapons against the poor rather than against poverty. This new imperialism has his own ideology, which inspires the «New World Order» or the «New International Order». I call this the «Ideology of Démographie Security». According to this ideology, men and women of poor countries should be offered anti-life facilities, and they are told that sterilization and abortion are among the «new human rights» they hâve. But this typically neomalthusian thesis is used hère as a fiât lie, the sole function of which is to hide the real truth that the primary aim of the rich is following Malthus' recommendation to check the growth of the poor population. Hère in Houston, where so many people of so many countries and cultures hâve corne together, we must protest energetically against such a reformulation of Manifest Destiny, or Lebensraum, because it leads to totalitarian messianisml We must remember that rich countries reduced their fertility, birth and mortality rates, by improving their educational standards and by appropriate and effective légal social engineering. Sponsored by rich nations, the mass-castration in the Third World reveals a radical déniai of justice and solidarity. In my opinion, this is the biggest scandai in human history and cries out to heaven for vengeancel What is occurring now reminds us of what happened two thousands years ago. At that time, a fairly tyrannical king was ruling, called Herod. He was quivering out of fear for his own security. He was frightened because he had heard John the Baptist announcing novelty and the drawn of a New World. And so he resolved to kill the Prophet and ail the new born under two years old. Nowadays, we are confronted with the most cruel génocide of ail times. From Houston and after our Convention, we must denounce the Herods of our time\ Houston, April 15th 1993. Michel SCHOOYANS