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FREEDOMWAYS                                       FIRST QUARTER 1972

growth they will be unable to satisfy the prerequisites for even an unhampered national development. With monotonous regularity, India is cited as the classic example of an impoverished nation whose food consumption exceeds the nation's productive capacity. In bygone years, China was the model par excellence—but times have changed! Omitted from this sweeping generalization is any mention or explanation provided for the seeming paradox that prevails during each food crisis in India wherein certain states have a bountiful food supply while other face famine. Nor is mention made of the role of certain landowners in India who block irrigation projects to prevent peasant farmers from utilizing improved farming methods. Furthermore, no satisfactory explanations are offered to clarify the reason why India, with a population density of 365 inhabitants per square mile, is in continuous food deficit while Holland and Belgium, with population densities of 855 and 650 per square mile respectively, have food surpluses. In Bolivia an average of one individual occupies every square mile of earth while 440 British occupy an equivalent amount of territory. Hunger stalks the Bolivian peasant while obesity is an important health concern in Britain. Wherever similar comparisons are made, we observe that the food debtor nations are those who are economically indigent and the food creditor nations possess economic and industrial vigor. To argue that large populations per se hinder economic development is equally specious for it fails to account for the impressive economic resurgence of Japan (population density 640 per square mile) after World War II.

On the contrary, an important problem in many African countries is the paucity of people. Dr. Alfred Quenum, Regional Director for Africa of the World Health Organization and a distinguished African physician, has written, "in the majority of African countries, the problem is essentially one of under-population."  He is keenly aware of the fact that Mali, an enormous country of over 1.2 million square kilometers has barely 5 million inhabitants, or Botswana, with a land area roughly equal to that of France, has a population less than one million. On the basis of his interpretation of demographic information on Africa, he has concluded that, "if one considers the resources of Africa, and the considerable area of uncultivated fertile land, it becomes apparent that the problem is not one of overpopulation, but rather one of the inadequate utilization of resources, human as well as natural. For this reason countries of Africa should be on their guard against certain kinds of international activity and over-simplified and in some cases dubious propaganda" (italics mine). 

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