Thoughts on the Bulgeoning World Population

This essay is dedicated to my beloved Sarah who has been an unfailing infuence in the creation of it...

Why is it that the most extravagantly important evolution in human history,

the geometric explosion of its population, merits such skimpy splash in the
print and electronic media? Journalism is such an exaggeration of an
exaggeration, that one might think journalists, experts in dealing with
exaggeration, should have found by now some niche to harp upon this
irregularity we willy-nilly refer to as “population growth.” Are they
ignorant? (I certainly do not mean to say that all journalists are obtuse!) Is
this quandary something that will be dealt with when it will be too late—at
the last minute? Let us examine a brief list of population growth and some
of its estimated increments in the years to come:

1960.....3,000,000,000 people
1970.....3,700,000,000 people
1980.....4,458,000,000 people
1990.....5,330,000,000 people
2000.....6,145,000,000 people
2010.....6,958,000,000 people
2030.....8,600,000,000 people
2050.....9,800,000,000 people
2100...11,200,000,000 people

[www.worldometers.info/worldpopulation]

The estimated 2018 populations for the following countries are:

China..........1,415,045,928
India...........1,354,051,854
USA.............326,766,745
Indonesia......266.794,980
Brazil.............210,867,954
Pakistan........200,813,818
Nigeria...........195,875,237
Bangladesh....166,368,149
Russia............143,964,709
 Mexico...........130,759,074

[www.worldometers.info/world-population-by-country]

According to United Nations' statistics, sixty percent of the global

population lives in Asia; 16% in Africa; 10% in Europe; 9% in Latin America
and the Caribbean; and, 5% in Northern America. Africa is the fastest
growing continent. In the next 30 years, the Dark Continent is projected to
double its population from an estimated 1,200,000,000 to 2,400,000,000
people. The population of Russia, the largest country in the world, is
decreasing. Also, European nations, in general, have decreasing
populations. Some might think Russia is too cold to live in, and the same
might be said of Canada whose population in 2018 will be 36,899,465
people. Not really so many for the world's second largest country which,
incidentally, hosts the marvellous Vancouver—famous throughout the
world for its comeliness—but protected from the ferce winters of eastern
Canada by the Rocky mountains.

I have lived on three continents—actually four continents if I would

include Asia where I was stationed in the United States' Army for one year
during the Vietnam “War”—Northern America, Southern America, and
Europe. I prefer to relate my experiences about Venezuela and Italy, rather
than refect on the DisUnited States now that so much of it has left my
memory, but which, when I left it for good in 1975, has enabled me fnally
to come to understand it the more being away from it and in Venezuela and
Italy where I have contrasted it more objectively.

I arrived in Venezuela, Caracas, on the thirty-frst of December, 1975. In

1977, the population of Venezuela was 14,130,000. In 2018, the population
of Venezuela is 32,381,221, and this fgure represents 0.42% of the world's
population. In the early 1970s in Venezuela, 60% of its population was
under 18 years of age! Kids were all over the place...in hordes of 6, 7, and 8,
they roamed the streets of Caracas selling tissues, prophylactics, pens,
pencils, always trying to scrounge some loose change to buy food for their
families...there were no schools to accommodate them...in 1975, the price
of a barrel of oil was $12.21, so not too many schools or hospitals could be
constructed...in a bunch, these boys would enter a hardware store and
plead for or steal duck tape to wrap around newspaper sheets they had
moulded into a ball to play football with...many store owners would keep
their front doors locked to keep the obstinate rowdies from entering their
establishments...youngsters were at every street corner, and there was no
way one would not be accosted, up to at least fve times a day, walking in
downtown Caracas...these little shavers were hardcore human little beings,
and were not the sissifed children I would come across in Italy—little
pantywaists coddled by their parents, aunts and uncles, parents' in-laws,
and the ever-present, suffocating grandparents.

The population of Italy, when I arrived here on 1 May 1983, was 56,560,000.
In 2018, it is 59,290,969. Nevertheless, it must be noted that Italians are
decreasing in population, per se, and immigrants from Albania, Romania,
Ukraine, Peru, and Africa (Senegal, Nigeria, Morocco, Tunisia) are settling
more and more in Italy, yet only constitute 5% of the total Italian
population...one would need 32 Italies to equal the size of the DisUnited
States...recently, an article in the Italian newspaper, la Repubblica (13 April
2018), reported that within ten years there will be one million less students
in Italian schools, and that 36,721 classes throughout Italy will be
eliminated...one cannot walk through the center of Firenze (Florence)
without being solicited for sunglasses, tissues, cigarette lighters, fake
artwork, fake bags and shoes, and even drugs—especially in the
evenings...assaults perpetrated against women are more frequent than in
past years...no work is available for most of the immigrants, and unlike in
Germany and other northern European countries, there is no effort to
insert immigrants, mostly uneducated individuals, into learning programs
that could teach them certain skills no longer offered by the Italians
themselves...populist groups and right-wing gangs are often violently
opposed to the integration of foreigners—especially Africans, naturally...the
Roman Catholic church offers pious words and soup kitchens uselessly
attempting to instil some appearance of décor on behalf of all
concerned...the police have their hands full and clamour that they are
underpaid and do not possess the proper materiel to do their jobs...the
Italian government is trying to establish diplomatic and commercial ties
with Africa—something that should have been done hundreds of years
before—horrifed at the coming 2,400,000,000 population of Africa
predicted for the next thirty years...stymied with denatality, an almost
€3,000,000,000,000 debt, and an infrastructure decaying now for hundreds
of years, Italy is every day encouraging its youth to abandon, more and
more, The Boot.

This “world drama” bodes ill for all inhabitants on this our planet. There is
never reason, I believe, to despair entirely because necessity is the mother
of invention. Still, it is time we all wake up to certain realities we can now
adjust to avoid further trouble that might come in the future. Politicians
must be alerted to our concern for a more altruistic way of living. We must
cherish what we believe to be beautiful about things and our fellows. We
must help others. We must live frugally (Schopenhauer). Another idea
would be to foster a non-religious ethics that would appeal to all people—
even of diverse religious convictions—so that we might follow a more
vigorous path to working in peace and good will among all of us. This is not
an idea; this is a necessity.

Authored by Anthony St. John

3 May MMXVIII
Calenzano, Italy
www.scribd.com/thewordwarrior
Twitter: @thewordwarrior

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