The Blog’s two Social Causes: Update

On Sunday July 17, I posted the blog on two social commitments I would want readers who can, to participate in helping to promote. Last week, I was giddy with hope when I checked the blog as I often do quite a few times daily – time and circumstances permitting – and found we have succeeded in funding TWO MINUTES OF CANCER RESEARCH.  This may be too little to rejoice over but I think it shows that readers of this blog will respond even further.

Now, I do not know how much a minute of research into cancer costs but the US brands that support the work of  Stand Up 2 Cancer research contribute to the funding each time a person commits to one of the community projects listed once you click on the logo.  I say a big thank you to the person(s) who have made the contribution of time and effort towards our Cause.  I’m looking forward to getting more hits on the Counter so that we have very few zeros.  We all must Stand Up 2 the scourge by aiding research effort that brands are ready to pitch in to as their own commitments to community giving back.

A few days after the SU2C  Counter erased the first zero, someone who knows me sent me  50 British Pounds cash in the mail, an amount that I’ve left in its envelope and which I will personally deliver to Ipetumodu this coming month because unlike in the States and, perhaps some other countries, mailing cash in Nigeria means that money will most likely be lost for ever.

While the donors, a couple, will remain anonymous to readers, their names and address will be known to the Sisters of the Holy Spirit at Ipetumodu for their records as well as a reference for acknowledgement.  A list of donors will also be available on the Admin Section of this Blog.

Wiring money around the world these days is so easy that I would prefer that donors communicate directly with the Maternity Hospital directly.  Western Union is redeemable for cash at thousands of banks in Nigeria.  Checks or cheques can also be addressed directly to  the Maternity.  You can also decide – as the couple that gave GBP50 has informed me – to give in installments.  While you can and may give anonymously, it would be nice also let me know so that we can know how successful our drive is going.

One last [several] word(s)!  A reader sent me an email wondering if contributing to child deliveries with Nigeria’s run-away population figures is not condoning the same problem.  Well, while I think Nigeria is headed for serious problems – and that is saying a lot considering the problems on her hand right now – preventing maternal deaths and the development of healthy babies from pre-births are different from aiding and abetting irresponsible population growth.

There are quite some NGOs that are very active in population control in Nigeria like the Ibadan-based Association for Reproductive Health with Mrs. Delano and Professor Ladipo, perhaps among others as the facilitators and there are leaders in world population control, including the World Health Organization, the UN FPA that are active in Nigeria.

I think if there’s a problem holding back an aggressive fight of Nigeria’s runaway train of population growth, it is government will to come out clearly on the need to stem the trend.  A population of 60 million under fifty years ago is now – nobody really knows the exact figure in spite of tons of money WASTED on successive head counts – in the neighborhood of 200 million.

Americans talk of “political correctness” when issues are dressed in other garbs just to please a part of the country’s population.  Well, Nigeria IS the home of political correctness in every thing, tops among which is probably population control.  No government wants to champion the acceptance of what would bring the country to the modern era.  Her citizens may be ultra liberal in certain social norms but there are also areas where the country is in step with countries like Saudi Arabia.  India’s population is also a runaway train but the country did fight – and still does to some extent – the root of population explosion decades back through its male population.  If Turkey’s Kemal Ataturk, regarded as Father of Modern Turkey – he was also a Moslem – had wanted to be politically correct, he would not have fashioned the constitution that brought his Moslem state to the modern era.

While one man-one woman unions abound these days especially in the mostly Christian South and Middle Belt, no agency would cut off your water or power supply or access to schooling for your kids as in China if a man has five children with the one wife and, as is also common, another three or more children by a woman outside the marriage.  This is why there will never be water and electricity for all in Nigeria – at least in my life time and perhaps beyond – because infrastructure development cannot keep pace with population growth.

I’m not aware of any Nigerian government that has tried to even MILDLY attack the problem by, say, promoting small families through billboards that extol and show the joy and advantages of such because  those in power have apparently never really believed such is necessary to the development of the country.  What is more, Nigeria’s biggest problem – corruption – has a deep root in the huge families that most men in power house, feed, clothe, educate, etcetera.

Women dying from childbirth is NOT an acceptable population control method.  This is why the Ipetumodu Maternity Hospital needs your help.