Category: Society

One of the key trends where population growth is concerned, is that it seems to be increasing exponentially, with more children being born per minute than a decade ago. Thanks to the various advances in the field of medicine, our average lifespan has increased. Earlier on, natural diseases and other calamities served a natural purpose by culling a certain percentage of our population but due to the various advances and strides, we have made both in the field of fetal treatment and vaccination, which has resulted in saving countless lives. One of the unexpected results of such a move is the impact on population growth which has trebled over the last two decades.

Of course, one could ask why we should be concerned about population growth and the fact is that we should be extremely worried about the same. The resources, that we consider essential to life are limited – be it potable water or energy. Both of these are limited and one of the negatives of population growth is that it will only be a matter of a few generations before demand fast outstrips the supply. As it is, more than half the world population, or about 3 billion live on less than two USD a day and have little or no access to adequate drinking water, health facilities or for that matter, adequate nourishment. And if our population keeps on growing unchecked at the same pace, it is not a question of ‘if’ but when, we run out of space, in more ways than one.

As of to date, there are several locations, across the world, starting with Ethiopia where famine is endemic and more of a way of life than an aberration. And if our population continues with the same exponential growth curve, it is only a matter of time before the whole world goes hungry. And of course, such a scenario would be a global disaster, leading to death and destruction all around. To put it in perspective, such a situation may even lead to an outbreak of hostilities over water resources or access to energy resources. In fact, the Gulf war was fought on the basis of the same and it Is not that unrealistic to imagine the same scenario taking place again.

This is not to imply that we should cull our population but that it is high time we took effective measures to both protect the public at large, our current resources and take initiatives to help educate the public about the dangers of overpopulation. At the same time, governments all over should start thinking outside the box and explore new sources for both potable water and energy – both of which are bare essentials, that we require to maintain our quality of life.  At the end of the day, we are responsible for our population growth and for managing the limited resources that we currently have access to, which is why we need to take effective action today to prevent the dangers of overpopulation from overwhelming our way of life itself.

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Fossil fuel is essentially fossilized organic compounds, that have been subjected to extremes of temperature and pressure, which results in these dead organisms (both flora and fauna) being transformed into oil, gas and coal. As a result of earth’s geological activity, this transformation takes place and this essentially becomes the fossil fuel. As mankind developed, we found a way to tap into these fossil fuels, located miles below the surface and use the same for energy, as well as other purposes. In fact, modern life as you know it happens to be based on the premise that the fuel supply would be endless. Well, it isn’t, the earth is fast running out of fossil fuels and the current supplies including the latest estimated reserves of oil and gas are supposed to last for another few decades.

The more moot question is what happens when we do run out of fossil fuels? This is why many governments are spending millions in research trying to come up with an alternate form of energy including exploring various ideas. But continued exploitation of fossil fuels has led to the release of methane, carbon dioxide gases into our atmosphere. Since industrialization, our dependence on fossil fuels has become more extensive and as a result, several billion metric tons of greenhouse gases have been pumped directly into the atmosphere, especially over the last few decades. This has resulted in the earth warming up, which has started to impact our weather. The mean daily temperature has gone up and has spiked over the last few years, resulting in both the polar ice caps being depleted. At this rate, even Greenland with its massive ice cap would be without its glacial cover, in less than forty years as would both the poles be.

Does the loss of polar ice caps mean that big a deal? In one word,  yes, for the polar caps contains fresh water and to put it in perspective, if the Greenland ice cap along with polar caps melt, it should raise the sea level by 200 feet. This would render most coastal areas uninhabitable and apart from this, it would cause widespread devastation, kill millions and render more homeless. And that’s just the start; as we use fossil fuels more, and the more greenhouse gases we pump into the atmosphere, our very fabric of life could come unhinged as temperatures start to soar on our planet.  With excess freshwater being released into the oceans, this will impact the weather and cause more freak weather phenomenon to take place, with increasing regularity. Apart from this, the runaway greenhouse effect will cause temperatures to shoot globally, leading to both crop failure as well as drying of available water resources, leading to all of the earth becoming transformed into a big dust bowl.  And as an icing on the cake, we may well have to get used to acid rain as well.

These are some of the negative effects of over-reliance on fossil fuels; it is high time that mankind devoted more resources and energy to try and tap an alternate source of energy, one which does not lead to earth getting toasted in the process,

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 One of the few nations to have instituted martial law as a normal process or state of affairs happens to be none other than the Philippines. The Philippines, ever since it got its independence nearly a century ago, has had to face circumstances wherein the rights of its citizens from civil rights, right to due process, privileges were all suspended. It should also be pointed out that the Philippine government of the time, instituted martial law after declaring emergency either for the whole nation or for sections of it, especially those considered as hostile to the government in question.

In retrospect, the declaration of emergency and the institution of martial law at the will of the executive set in place a precedent which continues to this day. It gave carte blanche to the head of the government, to declare an emergency with very little factual proof to back up the same. In fact, a few historians have even castigated some of the western nations for tolerating this sham of an emergency. In fact, many of the journalists covering these events had recorded evidence of police brutality being exercised against opposition members.

Some of the positive effects of martial law:

It should still be pointed out that during the last few decades’ rights from the civil war, riots did break out frequently. And the government of the day was able to quell these riots, institute law, and order, and ensure that life carried on as usual or near usual by imposing martial law. The martial law which came with an overreaching control over the resources of the state saw the Philippines utilized the same to strengthen its infrastructure and develop a robust economic model.

Some of the negative effects of the Martial law in the Philippines:

The frequent declaration of martial law did indeed set a bad precedent, one which President Marcos employed to great effect, by conferring on himself the powers of the legislative and the judiciary in 1972. The Philippines has seen several dictators come and go in the recent past, and yet, the urge for personal gratification at the cost of one’s freedom and democracy seems to run rife to this day. While earlier periods of emergency did have some factual basis resulting in the imposition, the later ones did not and Marcos took this as an opportunity to dismantle the very basis of the 1935 constitution. He went on to craft a constitution that declared certain groups, namely the communists as an enemy of the state. Keep in mind that some of the detractors of the Marcos regime and its trappings of aggrandization happened to be members of the communists’ party, who were often some of the chief opponents of Marcos. It was during this period that saw the disappearance of Marcos’ chief opponents and one can guess why.

However, with the 1973 constitution, democracy or a sort of democracy was restored with Marcos as the president with no end to his tenure in sight. Most of the human rights groups often consider this period to be one of the darkest because Marcos was now free to literally hunt out all his opponents under the guise of emergency and that’s exactly what he did.

Martial law, where one’s rights and privileges including fundamental rights are suspended and a curfew are instituted in place is something that most nations resort to as the last choice. But as far as the Philippines is concerned, that often seemed to be the very first thing that most of their leaders have opted for, which only goes on to show you that the Philippines is yet to come to terms with its own independence or for that matter, democracy.

Marcos went on to rule the nation until 1986 when he was forced to abdicate his office and was forced to leave on exile. After Marcos, there were at least a few other incidents of martial law where sections of Philippines was placed under martial law to subvert and even prevent riots, as well as opposition protests on some of the current government’s policies. But what became apparent shortly thereafter, was that there was an unofficial purge being carried out against non-Muslims in and around Mindanao, where even schools were bombed for one reason or the other. The Philippines government is yet to give any clear explanation for this other than to reaffirm the fact that emergencies or appearance of a civil unrest is enough to get the government of the day to impose martial law either on specific areas or on the nation as a whole. It is indeed a pity that the Philippines, despite its long independence, is yet to truly enjoy any and any opposition to the government of the day may well result in your civil rights being suspended indefinitely.

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All the world economies experience inflation to a certain extent or the other; no single country is exempt from the same. One of the side effects of inflation is the impact it has on the economy as a whole and is part of the whole inflation-deflation cycle. And it is during the inflation period, that the growth ramps up, but it also makes the economy less competitive than most.

A little inflation is often considered to be a good thing and is considered to be part of the normal process. However, Inflation, which incidentally can be hard to control, can impact the economy in the long run. A high inflation can pose a risk to growth and even cause the cost of basic products like food, oil, and water to shoot up along with medicine, essential services among others.

So the question you need to ask yourself is whether Inflation is necessary? The short answer is yes, for inflation can provide an impetus to growth which is why a little inflation is not just necessary but often viewed positively. The only downside is that without taking additional measures, the government often runs the risk of runaway inflation. Runaway inflation is what happened in places like Bolivia which lost 99% of its monetary value in less time than it took for the earth to complete one revolution around the sun. The fact remains that several governments have gotten their economic policies wrong, some more spectacularly than others and Bolivia is one such case. The rampant inflation was in four figures and the cost in human lives, employment, health, and economy is just incalculable. The scars of going through hyperinflation often last long which is why most governments pay special attention to the latest inflation data so that they do not make the same mistake.

The other downside to inflation is the resulting impact it can have on society as a whole; as the cost of basic prices shoots up, people start hoarding wealth since they would no longer trust the banks. While this is to be expected, this mistrust in the economy can be acute, especially during periods of hyperinflation; this eventually results in the breakdown of law and order. For example, Hyperinflation, where the prices of all goods rose by nearly 50% in a month was what happened, at the end of both world wars. Germany, in particular, was heavily impacted and this led to large-scale suffering for the survivors of the war, where it became next to impossible to even purchase basic food products like bread.  At last count, there were at least 57 documented cases of hyperinflation since the 17^th century which only goes on to prove that inflation can indeed have a large negative impact on both economy and society as a whole. This is why governments must be more proactive when it comes to curbing a resurgent inflationary trend and to bring it down to reasonable levels and thereby taking effective measures to protect the economy.

 

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