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How I Became a Third World Studier
Henry Hamburger
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Our beloved three-country region has had its 45-year economic quadrupling wiped out, per capita, by a quadrupling of population. I had an unusual opportunity to talk about this situation in public in Kenya very recently and would welcome hearing from anyone else concerned about this issue henryjh@verizon.net. The story begins in July-05 as I left Kakamega, capital of Western Province and home both to Kakamega High School where I taught 1963-65 and to the province's new public university, Western University of Science and Technology, where I had just spent a couple of days visiting, giving a colloquium and leading a seminar. As I was departing, my hostess, the deputy head, gave me the Call for Papers of a conference to be held there in November. Not being in the right field nor about to think of returning so soon, I nevertheless looked it over politely and noticed a session title that could be interpreted to include my pet topic, the detrimental effects for individuals, communities and countries, notably Kenya, of high fertility rates and rapid population growth. And so it came to pass that a computer scientist became a presenter at the 6th Kenya meeting of the Association of Third World Studies. This activity became part of a delightful and productive three-week circuit sojourn that Ed Schmidt and I took around Lake Victoria, making site visits to TEAA-assisted secondary schools. The founder-president and a vice president of the Population Media Center agreed to co-author with me. PMC has a culturally sound, media-based strategy for influencing family size, one that they have deployed successfully in several densely populated countries, drawing almost entirely on in-country talent and resources. Speaking in the session on Tradition, Gender and Family Values, I began with a personal observation about opportunities missed -- specifically at Kakamega HS and more generally in Kenya -- because of population growth, moved on to relate my concerns to the session topic and finally told them about PMC's methodology. All of this relates to TEAA and our assistance to secondary schools. We should continue undaunted, but it's a fact that our efforts are being diluted by the burgeoning educational needs that high birthrates continue to create. That's why I've been working on both issues. A more basic and immediate impact is implicit in the most recent news topic from Kenya. The drought, which so saddens us all, is occurring in the pastoral part of the country where the desired and actual number of children per woman is still in the 8-9 range. (Nationally, the actual rate is just under 5). Cow population either keeps pace or doesn't, and either way it's a disaster. The problem "has been exacerbated by total overgrazing everywhere, which leads to environmental degradation." Here are the web addresses for the paper, the trip, PMC, TEAA and the above concluding quote, all clickable from here:
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