Sunday, March 4, 2007

Another inconvenient truth

Response to China 'to punish' two-child rich
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6409519.stm
China is facing a serious problem which may lead to the chaos of the society. At present, the ratio between new born boys and girls are about 119.25 to 100. The meaning of the data is that, after a few decades, a large part of the boys will not have wives. In the article, it is called wifeless future for men.
The one child policy in China only allows 1 child for each couple, but the couples, who can afford the fine, will have 2 or more children. They are the elite of the society but they are the pioneers of breaking the law. This reminds me of an experience, during the activity organized by OSA, we were going along the road and the guidance was explaining the no parking area on the road and we could see many cars parking on the area. The guidance told us that the fine rules are only effective when people cannot afford the pay. For the car owners, they just pay for the fine and continue to park on the road. The familiar things are ironic.
After 20 years, when the boys grow up, they will find that peer girls are difficult to find. The children of the rich are at a better situation for they have more bright background. It is easier for them to compete with the children, of the people who are not so rich and/or successful, unless the children have more successful experience or other good features.
The men who cannot get wives are mostly from the lower part of the society. they don’t have money, good job, enough living space. They may become the potential harm of the society. They may form secret society to fight against the unfair of the society. They may try to insult others, turn over the government and do other things harmful. This might seems incredible but it may come true if the ratio continues to grow bigger.
The reason why the ratio is so big is because people always consider boys are better than girls. This is due to the impact of the traditional thinking that girls are no longer their children if they are married but boys can always be in the family. Another reason is the underreporting of the female birth. Even China have set up the policy that hospital cannot tell the mother the gender of the child, the profit of underreporting encourages the hospitals and clinics to break the law.
If the mind does not change, Chinese people cannot get away from the fact. The Chinese government is going to set up a policy that people can be able to have another child if the first child is a girl, they can have their second child. But this cannot stop the rich to have abortions. As a conclusion, Chinese government has to change the education from “one child is better and giving birth later” to “girls are also precious to the family”.