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Letters

Birth Control
Two days ago, I heard in the TV news about Macron's visit to Niger and his meeting with the president of that country. The main topic of their discussion was the security problem, Niger being one of the hotbeds of Islamist terrorist activities. Niger is also one of the countries in Africa from where and through which young African migrants travel to Libya on their way to Europe.

I also heard Macron say that he knows that Niger's biggest problem is demography. So he promised, according to the TV newscaster to give not only military aid but also aid for birth control. I checked up in the internet, where I found that the total fertility rate (TFR) of Niger is 7.1 children per woman and population growth rate is 3.3% per annum.

I was delighted. Finally, I thought somebody is telling the Nigerieni and its leader the unpleasant truth. However, I also found it bad that the Nigerieni themselves did not hit upon the idea of doing something about excessive population growth, that it had to be the president of the erstwhile colonial power who uttered this truth. But if nobody else does that, then better the president of imperialist France than nobody.

It is also good that at least one leader of Europe is doing this. After all the huge flow of unwanted migrants into Europe is only bolstering up the chances of the fascist parties to win the next election.
Saral Sarkar,
Germany

Frontier
Vol. 50, No.29, Jan 21 - 27, 2017