China Covets U.S. and UNFPA Monies
In an interview designed to “open up” China’s access to the “most coveted prize,” that is, a “bigger slice” of UNFPA funds, Madame Peng Peiyun, minister of the State Family Planning Commission of China since 1988, described UNFPA funds as being held “captive to U.S. whims.” What Peng describes as “U.S. whims” is U.S. congressional refusal to use taxpayer’s monies to fund UNFPA’s involvement in China’s coercive population policy.
Peng avoided a detailed discussion of China’s coercive policies. She framed the interview in terms of “laying to rest stories of coercion and human rights abuses,” while making the “rest of the world aware of the massive task China has undertaken.”
The image Peng paints is that of “a society which is reaching out to the West.” While she admitted that family size and economic incentives are “often, linked,” she insisted that China’s programs are misunderstood. “Today what a Chinese farmer wants most is to be rich,” said Peng. “We have slogans that promote this: Have fewer births, but plant more trees. Raise fewer children, but raise more pigs.”
Current leadership expects to reduce the total fertility ratio (TFR) to 2.1 by the year 2000. China intends to “stabilize,” that is, to reach and maintain a “constant population” level of 1.5 or 1.6 billion by the middle of the 21st century. Peng sees a “realistic target” as 1.3 billion by the year 2000.
China’s “family planning army” consists of 40 million members: the State Family Planning Commission employs 290,000 family planning workers and one million village volunteers; the Chinese Family Planning Association, an IPPF affiliate, maintains 900,000 local branches.
The Rockefeller foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Japanese Organization for Cooperation in Family Planning (JOICFP) as well as USAID-funded organizations such as the Pathfinder Fund, the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) and the Association for Voluntary Surgical Contraception (AVSC) “assist” China‘s programs (James Snyder, “China calling: The world’s biggest — and most controversial — family planning program may be opening to the West,” Family Planning World, Nov/Dec. 1992, 10).
American taxpayers must insist on answers to several primary questions: Why are USAID-funded corporations and U.S.-based foundations “assisting” China’s totalitarian fertility policies and human rights violations? Is American government trying to “put one over” on the American people by hiding its totalitarian commitments behind U.S. corporate identities? Does American government and foundation support of the “China model” have implications for present and future public/private partnerships directed against the American people (or anyone else)?
USAID — Happy Days are Here Again
The 1993 U.S. population appropriation of $350 million has been described as “a breath of new optimism” since it “boosts population assistance to $350 million, from less than $250 million during fiscal ‘92.” Sixty-five percent of the monies will go directly to USAID. The Agency’s “ambitious initiatives,” which have “languished” for lack of funds, will now be able to “expand significantly” according to Terrance Tiffany, director of USAID’s Office of Population.
USAID programs which have been revitalized under the increased budget include the “Big Country” program which doubles the amount of “population assistance” to the “17 largest countries” (see PRI Review, “Global Monitor,” Vol.2 No. 3, May/June 1992). The fiscal ‘93 bill also includes $800 million for the Development Fund for Africa (DFA), which includes population efforts, as well as $2 million for Romania’s “family planning” efforts.
House and Senate proposals dropped in order to avoid a presidential veto under the Bush Administration included $20 million earmarked for the United Nations Population Fund and language which would renounce the “Mexico City” policy (“USAID hits paydirt with 1993 population budget,” Family Planning World, Vol. 2, No, 6, Nov,/Dec. 1992, 1).
UNICEF “Owns Up” to Birth Control Promotion
The 41 member executive board of the United Nation’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has asked the organization to cooperate with the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) “to support family planning in the context of sustainable national health care systems.”
A recently concluded board meeting unanimously adopted a resolution requesting UNICEF to “contribute substantially” to the UNFPA-sponsored International Conference on Population and Development set to take place in 1994 in Cairo.
UNICEF director James Grant told the board meeting last month that UNICEF would work with UNFPA to spread knowledge and support program activities for successful family planning which he said was integral to safe motherhood (Thalif Deen, “UNICEF supports birth control despite Holy See,” Popline, Vol. 14, July/August 1992, 4).
RU-486 as Morning-After Pill
A study conducted by University of Edinburgh scientists claims the French abortion pill RU-486 “may be highly effective as a morning-after birth control pill.” Proponents of RU-486 hope that the new study will encourage Roussel-Uclaf to submit the drug for approval in the United States. They say, “If RU-486 were approved as a morning-after pill doctors would be able to prescribe it for abortions.” Planned Parenthood’s vice-president of medical affairs, Dr. Michael Pulicar saw the Edinburgh study as “immensely important” in relation to eventual U.S. approval (Family Planning World, Nov/Dec. 6).
Famine Created by Poor Planning Not Lack of Food
According to John Lupien, director of the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization, “The food supply and the farmers have actually kept up with growth and exceeded it.” The world now produces enough food to feed the entire world population and, in fact, there are 150 million fewer malnourished people in poorer countries than two decades ago in spite of the famine in Africa. In his report, “Food and nutrition: creating a well fed world,” Lupien says the number of well-fed people has increased in spite of the addition of 1.8 billion humans during the past 30 years. Food production has increased the amount of food available from 2,290 calories per day per person in 1961 to 2,700 calories in 1990. “Right now, there’s enough food to feed everyone, said Lupien, “if in fact it could get to the people who need it.”(October 1992, Associated Press, Washington, D.C.).
Mouse Cells as Hope for Diabetes Treatment
University of Texas researchers at Dallas have “modified cells from the mouse pituitary gland to contain the gene for insulin as well as a regulator gene sensitive to glucose.” The cells “mimick” the pancreas by producing insulin in response to glucose. “The cells were placed in a small hollow fiber that is wide enough for glucose and insulin, but not for the cells of the immune system” (“News on Developments,” Issues in Reproductive and Genetic Engineering, Vol. 5, No. 3, 1992, 284).
World Banks Funds “PHN”
World Bank lending for population, health and nutrition (PHN) increased from an average of US $500 million during 1987–89 to US $933 million in 1990, US $1.6 billion in 1991, and US $962 million in fiscal 1992, according to the World Bank’s Annual Report (IPPF Open File, October 1992).
U.N. Estimates that Number of Aged Will Double
The Population Division and the Office for Development Research and Policy Analysis of the United Nations Department for Economics and Social Development (DESD) have issued a report on population aging. The report estimates the number of people aged 65 and over will increase more than 2.5 times by 2025 — from 328 million in 1990 to 828 million by 2025 (World Population Monitoring 1991).
Quinacrine Used for Female Sterilization
Using a method reminiscent of Nazi sterilization programs, Indonesia sterilizes women with quinacrine pellets which are packed into the uterus near the tubal openings. One hundred women received three monthly insertions of 250 mg of quinacrine each and were followed at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after the third insertion, a total of 15 months in all. The Life Table failure rate was 3.1% and the continuation was 96% at one year. More than 20% of the women had amenorrhea by the third insertion, but most had returned to normal by one year. The researchers suggest larger trials.
The editor of Advances in Contraception, the publication in which this information was published, reports, “Indonesia has a very strong and coercive family planning policy. Women do not complain much and are expected to be compliant.” (T. Agoestina and I. Kusuma, “Clinical evaluation of Quinacrine pellets for chemical female sterilization,” Advances in Contraception, 8: 141–151 June 1992).
William H. Draper Fellowship Fund
Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health announced the creation of the “William H. Draper, Jr. Fellowship Program.” The Program will offer fellowships to students from the developing countries “who have potential to become leaders in family planning and related health communication.”
General William H. Draper, for whom the fellowship was named, was instrumental in establishing the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Population Crisis Committee, which he served as chairman from 1966–1974. In 1947–48 he was head of the U.S. Research Mission on Reparations to Japan. He returned to Japan in 1967, as senior adviser to International Planned Parenthood Federation, and assisted in the initiation of Japan’s international family planning program. This resulted in the founding of the Japanese Organization for International Cooperation (JOICFP) (Integration, December 1992 No. 34).
On Global Warming
“…MIT’s prestigious Technology Review was reporting on the publication of an exhaustive new study of worldwide temperatures since 1850 by MIT climatologists Reginald Newell, Jane Hsuing and Wu Zhongxiang. Its most striking conclusion: “There appears to have been little or no global warming over the past century.’ In fact the ocean temperature in the torrid 1980s was only…a quarter of a Fahrenheit degree higher than the average of the 1860s. Ocean temperature is now virtually the same as it was in the 1940s. Since two-thirds of the buildup of CO2 has taken place since 1940, the MIT data blow all of the global warming forecasts into a cocked hat” (Warren T. Brookes, “The global warming panic,” Forbes, 25 December 1989, 97).
Contraceptive Experiments on Women
Trials of Cyclofem, a once a month injectable [25mg depot-medroxyprogesterone plus 5mg estradiol cypionate) have been completed in Mexico. Similar trials are under way in Chile, Indonesia, Jamaica, Thailand, and Tunisia. Some 6000 women have now been recruited into these studies. Similar trials were to occur in Colombia, Costa Rica, and Peru in 1992. The technology for the manufacture of Cyclofem has been transferred to companies in Indonesia and Mexico (Progress in Human Reproduction Research, No. 22, 1992).
Artificial Womb Used for Goat Fetus in Japan
A 120-day-old goat fetus was placed in an artificial rubber womb after being removed from the mother by Japanese scientists. The womb was filled with 42 liters of fluid composed of sodium, potassium chloride, glucose and proteins and maintained at a temperature of 39.50 C.
One month after “delivery” the kid was still suffering from side effects caused by sedation used “in utero” to keep it from “being overactive” and “using too much oxygen” (“News On Developments,” Issues in Reproductive and Genetic Engineering, Vol. 5, No. 3, 1992, 275).
WHO Urges Investment in Aids Programs
Dr, Michael Merson, head of the WHO’s Global program on AIDS has called for multinational corporate investment in AIDS prevention programs. He said, “Anything that has the economic impact of this disease is going to hurt their sales.” Merson referred to Zimbabwe as an example. “One U.S. company with 10, 000 workers,” he said, “now have to hire 20 employees to retain 10” because of the effect of the disease (Cynthia Johnson, “WHO urges corporate investment in AIDS programmes,” Reuter, Yaounde, 10 December 1992).
Watch for A Re-Definition of “Coercion”
Worldwide objections to coercive population policies have resulted in the phenomena of the ‘coercers’ assuming an air of innocence while they lecture others on coercion. Steven Sinding of the Rockefeller Foundation established the parameters of the discussion, “Setting demographic targets could lead to use of coercive or often heavy-handed measures to induce women to use contraception…occasionally against their will.” Nafis Sadik speaking at the same conference, organized by the International Planned Parenthood Federation, mirrored Sindings reference to “targets.” “Programmers driven by the need to meet targets will inevitably skimp the essential elements of human contact between provider and acceptor, she said, “In the long run they build up opposition and rejection of the services being offered.”
The new parameters will obviously include a smiling, “personal contact” and obliteration of the word “target” from population policy (Seema Guha, “Experts warn against coercion in population control,” Reuter, New Delhi, 23 October 1992).
Normal Fluctuations in Food Supply
“Normal fluctuations in food supply, whether they relate to output or to terms in trade, must be addressed by other means, and population growth has little to do with them .… How the available food is distributed among the population will depend on the institutional arrangements relating to production and exchange .… The nature of transportation, storage, and distribution networks is also important. As shown by recent tragic events in Ethiopia, in the absence of such networks, food shipped by the rest of the world will not reach the starving. These elementary relations are elegantly elaborated in Sen (1981). It would appear from his analysis that the main cause of such episodes has not been shortage of food or rapid population growth, but colossal policy failures in areas unrelated to population growth” (T.N. Srinivasan, “Population and food,” Population Growth and Economic Development: Issues and Evidence, D. Gale Johnson and Ronald D. Lee, eds., University of Wisconsin Press, 1987, 24).
UNFPA Denies Backing Chinese Population Policy
Nafis Sadik, head of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), has denied that her agency continues to condone repressive and coercive family planning measures in China. Sadik said, “As a result of all the discussions with the Chinese authorities, the state family planning commission has now put out a new set of policy guidelines on their program and the main program is now “education and quality of services” (AAP, Australian News, 14 August 1992).
Catholic Pontiff Again Speaks on Sanctity
Speaking at a meeting of Italian gynecologists and obstetricians in Vatican City, Pope John Paul II said, “The Church condemns as a grave offense to human dignity the practices of sterilization, be they temporary or permanent. He added, “For this reason it does not permit the direct interruption of the reproductive process once it has begun and above all, rejects the various forms of abortion…whatever their motivation may be (Reuter, Vatican City, 5 December 1992).
Never Satisifed
“Zero Population Growth, Inc., which first set a flat no-growth curve as its goal, now advocates an unspecified population reduction. Negative Population Growth, Inc., another membership group, has set its goal as one-half the 1970 population of the planet, or less than two billion people, with all the nations sharing proportionately in the reduction” (Stewart Ogilvy, “Population,” Progress As If Survival Mattered: A Handbook for a Conserver Society, Hugh Nash, ed., San Francisco: Friends of the Earth, 1981, 69–70).
