Well,
countries like Taiwan have been warned.
They have been told long ago that they
are committing demographic suicide.
With their birth rates below replacement
level, their race will eventually die
out.
Monetary
incentives may help, but these can no
longer overturn the accepted culture
of death, which includes living only
for oneself and enjoying life to the
full. This culture of selfishness has
no place for babies, considered burdens
to one's career and recreation.
Taiwan and other such countries need
to look to how they can keep their economies
going and sustain their aging populations.
I have a suggestion: import a race that
basically is kind, loving, selfless,
hard-working. Import Filipinos. But
bring in whole families, that can help
renew the whole society.
Our large population is a boon not a
bane. Even if we all just were able
to stay in the Philippines, if only
there is social justice and true Christianity,
there are more than enough resources
to sustain us. But it seems God also
wants Filipinos to spread the faith
throughout the world. And so poverty
makes our people go to other lands.
In the mysterious plan of God, making
use of affliction and redemptive suffering,
we have become a people who are "poor
yet enriching many" (2 Cor 6:10).
"Listen, my beloved brothers. Did
not God choose those who are poor in
the world to be rich in faith and heirs
of the kingdom that he promised to those
who love him?" (Jas 2:5). Philippines,
embrace your destiny!
Taiwan
Considers Cash for Births as Fertility
Rate Dips to World’s Lowest
By
Hilary White
April
8, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com)
– The government of Taiwan announced
last week that it will consider paying
couples cash bonuses to have more children,
after it was revealed that the country
has one of the lowest birth rates in
the world.
The
government is considering a proposal
that will offer couples the equivalent
of U.S. $160 a month for all children
under the age of three. The Interior
Ministry said in a statement that there
are fears of a loss of economic productivity
and manpower shortages should the birth
rate continue to fall.
“The
ministry hopes to raise the public's
willingness to have children with measures
that help them look after their children
and improve their living standards,”
the statement said.
As
part of the government’s plan
to increase births, the Interior Ministry
has launched an online contest, offering
the equivalent of US $1,250, one million
Taiwanese dollars, for an advertising
slogan that will increase the country’s
disastrously low birth rate. “We
are seeking a creative slogan that would
appeal to the public and make everybody
want to have children.”
Taiwan,
with a population of approximately 23
million, has one of the lowest birth
rates in the world, estimated between
1.14 and 1.12 children born per woman.
The country’s population growth
rate has slid from 0.64 per cent in
2000 to 0.23 per cent in 2009. In 2009,
only 191,310 babies were born in Taiwan,
down almost four per cent from 2008.
The
China Times Newspaper said that Lao
Song Elementary School in Taipei, which
set a world record in 1966 as the school
with the most pupils at 11,000, now
only has 778.
The
governance of Taiwan, known formally
as the Republic of China, is under dispute,
with a nationalist movement working
for independence from the People’s
Republic of China, which has governed
the island state since the end of World
War II. Since that time, Taiwan has
developed into one of the four economic
“Asian Tigers,” along with
Singapore, South Korea, and Hong Kong.
With this economic boom, however, has
come the same fall in birth rates that
has characterized the developed countries
of the west.
"For
to me to live is Christ, and to die
is gain." (Phil 1:21)