As part of my studies in the Asia Pacific Leadership Program in Honolulu, we have to come up with questions surrounding what we deem to be important regional core issues (RCI). The following piece was produced in late September in relation to my RCI question: “Is education the key to lowering high birth rates in developing countries and reducing global population problems?”

During our Discussion Group last week about Risk, it was interesting to see where global population growth will mostly come from over the next 39 years – developing countries (see graph below, taken from the Understanding Risk reading, Page 20).

The stress this growth will put on the planet, its creatures, environments and our ability to produce and distribute adequate food and water for these people will no doubt be one of humanity’s greatest challenges.

Populations in developed countries between now and 2050 pretty much stays steady. These countries have much more advanced and accessible education systems whose students typically go on to have few children, typically about two per couple according to most global studies. It’s logical to then suggest that education is the most effective tool to lowering high birth rates in developing countries and reducing global population problems.

While many organizations, governments and NGOs spend millions of dollars each year on food, water management, environmental and other programs in developing countries, these bodies should focus all their energies on educating the struggling masses far and wide. Educate them at basic and universally deserved levels: primary and secondary. As they learn math, language, social studies and basic sciences, it will empower them to think about other issues, grapple with them and contextualize larger issues such as population growth and the stress it puts on the planet and more importantly their communities.

Population growth and the basic stress its growth places on the planet and everyone’s accessibility to food and water is paramount to our survival as a species. Radically redefining how all Earth’s citizens understand this issue is our duty and the most effective tool to do so is by providing basic education to all as quickly as possible. Our future literally depends on it.

This is a Think Piece I wrote on October 6, 2011, as part of my studies in the Asia Pacific Leadership Program at the East West Center in Honolulu, HI. I’m enjoying a sabbatical from life at the best travel company on the planet, Smiling Albino. Enjoy!

Americans are coming out in force as of late, questioning not only their economic place in the world, but more importantly in their own
country. The economic decline and inevitable reality that America and the west are soon to no longer be top of the world’s economic heap seems to be slowly sinking in – perhaps more gradually than it should have.

Occupy Wall Street, a small group of fringe-of-society rag-tags, has grown considerably in the last few weeks into a movement that’s gaining momentum and international interest. Tired of being unemployed, in debt and dramatically economically separated from the small American elite, this growing movement that’s now supported by several unions is making their stated cause heard: “Occupy Wall Street is a leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants.”

While still relatively small, a few hundred protestors have been occupying areas around Wall Street for the past few weeks but their unhappiness is spreading throughout America thanks in part to a sister organization Occupy Together whose mandate is, “To provide people with information about events that are organizing, ongoing, and building across the U.S. as we, the 99%, take action against the
greed and corruption of the 1%.” They claim to be organizing ‘Meetups’ in 445 cities across the world, mostly on October 6, 2011, to unite the global 99% against the greedy 1%.

Whether these organizations will gain national let alone international momentum remains to be seen. Their goal to create a more equal distribution of wealth is a societal shift for the ages, but one that America may need to make if they are to keep their place among the world’s most important and dominate economies. Will the west wake to reality, adjust and rebalance to a stark new reality and lifestyle? The last 50 years would say not, but all movements start somewhere and this one’s but a few weeks old.