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November 26, 2006

Steyn on the fate of Europe

Mark Steyn, whose new bestseller American Alone makes the point that demography is destiny -- and the declining birthrates of Western Europe make the oncoming founding of Eurabia a certainty.

Further evidence of the suicide of the West is demonstrated in Steyn's latest column.

Fatma An-Najar, a 64-year-old grandmother ... had a livelier Thanksgiving than most grandmas. She marked the occasion by self-detonating in the town of Jebaliya, and, although all she had to show for splattering body parts over the neighborhood were three "lightly wounded" Israeli soldiers, she will have an honored place in the pantheon of Palestinian heroes. She was, according to the official statistician from the Hamas Book Of Records, the oldest Palestinian suicide bomber ever. And, naturally, her family's pleased as punch.

"We are really happy," her son Zuheir told Agence France-Presse. "She told us last night that she would do a suicide operation. She prepared her clothes for that operation, and we are proud. 'I don't want anything, only to die a martyr.' That's what she said."

Awww, bless the sweet l'il ol' biddy. She wouldn't have wanted to die a long lingering death in some old folks' home. This is the way she wanted to go: quick and painless, except for any Zionists in the immediate vicinity.

An-Najar gave birth to her first child at the age of 12. She had eight others. She had 41 grandchildren. Keep that family tree in mind. By contrast, in Spain, a 64-year old woman will have maybe one grandchild. That's four grandparents, one grandchild: a family tree with no branches.

One has to admire the moxie of the Palestinian Authority, solving their equivalent of the Social Security mess: have lots of kids, then blow the old folks to bits, with a few Yids as a bonus.

Grandma Splodey-Dope had 41 grandkids; my Eastern European Bubbie only had nine, but then she never was interested in becoming a bagel-noshing kamikaze kvetcher, either.

Apparently, my liberal Christian brethren are less interested in being fruitful and multiplying than their prolific Middle Eastern brothers and sisters.

The new Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first woman to run a national division of the Anglican Communion ... gave an interview to the New York Times revealing what passes for orthodoxy in this most flexible of faiths.

She was asked a simple enough question: "How many members of the Episcopal Church are there?"

"About 2.2 million," replied the presiding bishop. "It used to be larger percentage-wise, but Episcopalians tend to be better educated and tend to reproduce at lower rates than other denominations."

This was a bit of a jaw-dropper even for a New York Times hackette, so, with vague memories of God saying something about going forth and multiplying floating around the back of her head, a bewildered Deborah Solomon said: "Episcopalians aren't interested in replenishing their ranks by having children?"

"No," agreed Bishop Kate. "It's probably the opposite. We encourage people to pay attention to the stewardship of the earth and not use more than their portion."

[...]

Here's the question for Bishop Kate: If Fatma An-Najar has 41 grandchildren and a responsible "better educated" Episcopalian has one or two, into whose hands are we delivering "the stewardship of the earth"? If your crowd isn't around in any numbers, how much influence can they have in shaping the future?

It's the perfect metaphor for the whole Kyoto Treaty, Global Warming hooey: cripple our economies while ignoring the polluters of the Third World; prevent overpopulation, while less Earth-Day sympathetic peoples reproduce at a rate eight times higher than the enlightened Gaia-protecting Euros.

The meek won't inherit the Earth; the weak will bequeath it to those who would destroy us.

Posted by Mike Lief at November 26, 2006 10:05 PM | TrackBack

Comments

Only about 5% of Canada's land is arable. This is where most of the immigrants--driving over 80% of our population growth--choose to settle. I can see this here in Calgary, as what were once farms are now new, very dense subdivisions. More people and less food production. Little surprise that food prices continue to rise, in spite of the recession.

The 'green revolution' has us on borrowed time. Modern, intensive agriculture is heavilly dependant on irrigation, synthetic fertilizer and bees. Here in the Prairies, we're due for another dustbowl (they're cyclical events) and India is due to exhaust its groundwater reserves in roughly fifty years. Natural gas, used to make ammonium nitrate, keeps getting costlier. Colony collapse disorder has so decimated bees that 'bee rustlers' have taken to stealing and fencing hives--really. None of this bodes well for food prices in the future.

Developing societies, in particular, have too damn many children. Cultural preferences, not income, determine birthrates. When the Soviet government introduced mass vaccinations, full literacy and industrialization to Central Asia (along with crushing Hitler, one of their few good achievements), the birthrates of traditional Muslim families didn't change. The result was an INCREASE in population, helped by longer life-expectancy and lower infant mortality rates. Ultra Orthodox Jews in Israel--who don't pay taxes, nor serve in the army--have left secular Israelis to clean up their messes, as they continue to move their bulging families into illegal settlements, competing for land with Palestinians who also have very high birthrates. South Asia and Latin America, in particular, have irresponsibly-high birthrates and are the source of many immigrants to the 'North.'

The interethnic war in Sudan is the result of more people chasing fewer resources. As Africans and Arabs increase in number, Sudan loses more and more grazing land and water. Somehow, God isn't making more land or water; maybe people are no longer supposed to be so fruitful.

When you consider that the Axis powers started World War II because they needed 'breathing room,' the dire conditions in the heavilly-armed third world aren't pleasant to think about. There will be a South Asian Adolph Hitler, sooner or later, with nuclear weapons. Like Hitler, such a leader would promise his overcrowded, starving people (more overcrowded and starving than those of Germany, Italy and Japan, in 1939) lands to colonize. National security is as good a reason as the environment for promoting responsible population policies in the developing world.

The 'green' movement isn't exactly without fault. David Suzuki managed to sire FIVE children. The Sierra Club accepted over U.S.$100M (from David Gelbaum), with the caveat of not discussing immigration, or overpopulation. Supposedly, it's 'racist,' or 'imperialist' to restrict immigration, or tell third world people to have fewer kids.

The people driving the mass immigration movement are churches, ethno-political lobbies and land speculators/developers/builders. It's all about warm bodies. Churches need warm bodies to fill pews. Political parties need votes: the Liberals were infamous for importing voters, with the support of ethnic lobbies. Mostly, developers need a constant increase of home-dwellers (not necessarily buyers) to support 'growth.' The reasons given for mass immigration, like actuarial needs (keeping the pension system solvent) and labour shortages, are simply bogus.

You can't hide your head in the sand (or your religious text of choice). Overpopulation IS a problem.

Adam C. Sieracki

Posted by: Adam C. Sieracki at December 28, 2008 03:15 PM

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