Blog/Week 6

I was browsing the New York Times online page, and I noticed a particular article with the date of May 2007. The article title was "Harsh Birth Control Steps Fuel Violence in China." I know we have talked over and over about China and the one-child policy, but I was still shocked to see a report on behaviors such as forced abortion and sterilization so recently. In fact, it's hard for me to understand how the one-child policy could have even ever been in effect--in the eighties, or now. My Western and individualist mind just can't wrap itself around the concept that someone could tell me how me children I am allowed to have, and when/if I have more, they could be aborted, or I could be forced to have my tubes tied. It just baffles me. Apparently it baffled some of the locals in the Guangxi Autonomous Region in southwestern China, too, because they spent four days burning offices and destroying government property because of it (according to the NYT article).

In some ways, I suppose I partially understand or agree with the need for population control. I understand that China is a growing nation that cannot really accommodate all of its people. But there are so many places in the world that are uninhabited. Perhaps they are uninhabited because they are uninhabitable, but with modern technology, there has to be a way for us to live in more places than we ever have before. Keeping that in mind, it's my opinion that the one-child policy has more to do with politics, power, and control than it does with maintaining a healthy population. When it really comes down to it, the one-child policy puts limits on human rights. I don't think its fair.