Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Survival Strategy

I deeply regret not buying a Phd thesis published as a book I saw in a second-hand shop wherein the author of the piece speculated that having many children in Haiti was not bad as a strategy for a poor woman as basically the possibility of at least one child out-living the parent increased with the number of children; so that in a poor country with little or no Social Services the parent/mother has some means of support in Old Age. Or so I gleaned from a quick flick through the book.
So to jump to today's News where in an Inner-City area the mother of seven was in the habit of leaving the children in charge of the oldest- a 14yr-old boy without leaving any food- this mind you from KN - not known for the reliability of its news - http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2012/06/06/baby-dies-starvation-suspected/
Along with the two previous examples of bad parenting:  http://gtobserver.blogspot.com/2012/04/outrageous-storystories-of-poverty-and.html I wondered about this aforementioned strategy. Having come from a farming background where large families were the norm in order not have to pay for Labour - better education led to subsequent families getting smaller.
Someone pointed out, don't know whether it's true, that the area with the largest growing population was Africa not India as I thought. The Nigerian Minister of Education recently complained that the system could not afford the education of all children if large families continued to be the norm - there is supposed to be free Primary Education in Nigeria. Here in Guyana, I am a bit alarmed to see the amount of drop-outs from High School and the lack of concern with erratic attendance of the primary Schoolers - parents apparently not caring about their children's future -seeing the older ones as mere unpaid help, in the past week a Jamaican mother allegedly holding down her 15yr old to be raped saying 'little sex wouldn't kill you' when the man supporting her financially wanted to have sex with the 15yr old daughter who objected.
In the meantime-- employers not finding the help they want at the price they want are now looking towards other countries for Labour!



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