The Chinese Worker: Runner Up as Time’s Person of the Year 2009
The number 8 is sacred in China; in fact, it is the number that all important things revolve around. We all know what happened on August 8th, 2008 at 8:08PM.
However, there’s another more important aspect of the number 8 in China today. The Chinese have a word for it: baoba. Baoba means “protect eight,” the 8% annual economic growth rate that officials believe is critical to ensuring social stability. So when the world is in an economic slump, most people thought 8% was unattainable.
But China has done it and it remains the world’s fastest-growing major economy.
8% has been protected and the credit goes to the millions of Chinese workers; that is why the Chinese workers were nominated as the Time’s Person of the Year 2009.
Millions of Chinese workers leave their families behind to head for coastal cities such as Shenzhen and Guangzhou to work in factories that supply the world most of its goods. In and near these factories, according to Time, are “the people who are leading the world to economic recovery: Chinese men and women, their struggles in the past, their thoughts on the present and their eyes on the future.”
Do you believe the Chinese workers should be Time’s Person of the Year? What sacrifices does China have to make to obtain 8% or above year after year.
China’s One-child Policy to Save the World?
Zhao Baige, vice minister of China's National Population and Family Planning Commission, linked China's one-child policy to emissions reduction at the recent UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen.
Zhao stated that "the [Chinese] policy on family planning proves to be a great success; it not only contributes to reduction of global emission, but also provides experiences for other countries - developing countries in particular - in their pursuit for coordinated and sustainable development."
Zhao's statement is not without merits.
The intelligence behind this is the following:
-If only one child per female was born as of now, the world's population would drop from its current 6.5 billion to 5.5 billion by 2050, according to a study done for scientific academy Vienna Institute of Demography.
-By 2075, there would be 3.43 billion humans on the planet. This would have immediate positive effects on the world's forests, other species, the oceans, atmospheric quality and living standards.
-Doing nothing, by contrast, will result in an unsustainable population of nine billion by 2050.
Less people mean less resources being used up and as a result, less global emission. Moreover, the cost of implementing a one-child policy is drastically less than the cost to develop new technologies to curb the emission and global warming problem.
However, should people forgo a basic individual right to alleviate the current global warming issue? After all, the basic definition of life is the ability to reproduce.
Critics of the one-child policy say "it not only deprives individuals the right to choose how many children they want, but also gives rise to an array of human rights abuses including forced abortion and sterilization, infanticide, sex-selective abortions and the levying of punitive fines or loss of jobs for policy violators."
What's your take on this issue? Do you think population control will be an effective method to combat environmental degradation?