On the milestone of 7 billion world population...

Oct 31 came and went. Yes, it's mostly symbolic, for it marks the date when the world population was established to have reached seven billion. It's a rather scary thought, seven billion mouths to feed.

It's taken humans millennia to reach the first-billion mark. But with the advance in technology and medicine, population growth has accelerated at a much faster clip. Still, we're always told, there is more than enough food on earth to feed 8 or even 9 billion population. With the current growth projectile, it won't take too long before the earth reaches the mark of 9 billion population, and oil would probably run out by then, together with the extinct species. What are we do to? Even if we don't have to deal with that today, somewhere down the road, our future generations will have to face the music. I can't say I relish the thought of kicking the can down the road for our future generations to deal with.

Population growth is a sensitive issue. It's a good thing afterall...or is it? One measure to measure how well a country is doing, is infant mortality rate. The lower, the better, for obvious reason. Modern medicine prolongs the lives of many elderly too, some even against their own will, all in the name of humanity. Natural disasters have to be dealt with. Wars are to be avoided. Human lives are to be saved at all costs, again for obvious reasons.

Sometimes, though, in the dead of night when sleep would not come, I would look up and wonder if those are really such good ideas. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a nazi or anything close to that. Of course we need to save lives, even though it runs counter to nature. There are people who would have died of strokes. There are harsh weather and elements like drought that would have naturally prevented population growth from going out of control (eg. Africa). But no one wants to see anyone dying. I can resolutely say, I don't. So, we save as many lives as we can, rather than seeing innocent children dying in front of our eyes due to preventable illnesses or lack of food. It's all for good causes.

And then, we have seven billions...

Perhaps I'm just one helpless lowly individual who don't deal pressing world issues. On a personal level, population growth sounds like a good thing to me. It sounds good on a macro-economic level too. But it doesn't sound right from an environmental perspective. There is one Chinese saying that goes something like this: If China continues to rise, the Chinese would one day eat all the exotic animals and seafood to extinction. While you might find that saying racist or discriminatory, except that it's not. The Chinese themselves know it, but with 1.3 billion others out there, the extinction threats to species is always someone else's problem. Or so the thinking goes....

I probably won't see the next billion in my lifetime. I certainly hope not.

But then, if we should help one another for the sake of humanity, what are we to do to upkeep our duty as the custodian of Mother Earth? On this, I do know the answer, which is population control.

The Chinese saw it coming, and had it right. While the western countries did all the condemning they want, China implements its one-child policy with gusto. Sure, it's harsh. But then, isn't it better to limit pregnancy and childbirth, rather than to wait for the babies to arrive, only to smother them to death or give them up for adoption, as India would often do? When the general populace is educated enough, they would realize that a controlled population (in numbers) is a much better option that having too many mouths to feed. Just ask the ethnic Chinese in Hong Kong, who decades ago used to have the same mentality as the mainland Chinese in having as big a family as one can have. These days, the Hong Kong Chinese would more than willingly limit their family size to 1-2 children at most, or even no child at all. If the Chinese in rural areas do not see the reasons in that, the the central government will impose its will on them. That sounds harsh, but the Chinese has it right on this: If it has to be done, it has to be done; and it might as well be now.

Along the same reason, I find it maddening for the self-righteous conservative right-wingers like GOP and the Vatican, rejecting the notion of birth control. While I feel uncomfortable about full endorsement of abortion (particularly full-term abortion), I don't see any issues in birth control at all.

If only the rest of the world, like Africa and the Middle East, and even India and China, would see reasons in practicing birth control voluntarily, our future generations might not face as dire a consequence in the depleting and dwindling natural resources that Mother Earth would provide us.

On Greece, and the slo-mo train wreck of the Euro debt crisis...

Quite often, watching what unfolds in Europe and how the Euro bloc deals with the sovereign debt crisis is like the watching an unavoidable train wreck in slo-mo. Every few weeks, Germany and France would present some sort of plans, the markets would get a boost for a day or two and then they'll tank again.

The latest plan is supposed to be a triumph for Merkel and Sarkozy, wrestling a 50 per cent haircut from bondholders. Markets seem to like it. It's announced on a Thursday, with a boost for a day on Friday. And then, the markets tank again the following Monday when the news came out that the Greek prime minister intends to call for a referendum for the public to decide whether they want to accept this latest bailout plan and to stay with Euro as their national currency or not.

Germany and France must be furious, having worked so hard, wrestled so many arms to get to this deal in order to try to save Greece from default, only to have Greece seemingly reneg'ed on it. But I see it a little differently. The call for referendum is such master stroke.

The Greek general public has been staging protests and riots to vote their disapproval of the austerity programs and budget cuts that must be pushed through in order to pay down the sovereign debt. The public generally loves staying with Euro, and Greece in general has benefited greatly from joining Euro, with borrowing rate going down substantially in the past decade. That allows its economy to grow without really addressing the underlying issue of poor productivity and required reforms to make the country more efficient and productive. With the recession in its third year now, Greece can delay the pain no more.

The public blames the government for bringing on the pain from necessary austerity measures, but is the government really the only one to blame? Everyone has been drinking the Euro kool-aid, thinking the money spigot will never run dry. Nobody wants to check the worst-case scenario in which the government can no longer borrow, nor can the private sector. The money has to come from somewhere.

The Greek prime minister must have realized that this latest bailout plan will only last for a short period of time, and then the next batch of sovereign debts are going to come due, and then Greece will have to go begging to Germany, France, and maybe even China, again. Rather than having the ruling party take the blame for all things ill, this referendum is going to put the onus back on the people. Do they really want to be rescued, and with that, tightening their belts drastically? Do they really want to stay with Euro and endure all these pains? If the vote is yes, then they're all in it together. There's no more blaming of the Greek government alone in forcing the austerity measures on its people, because the people have voted 'yes.' There is no more blame of Germany either, for imposing harsh terms on them either, because they have accepted the fate. But if they vote 'no,' then the current Greek government will go down.

In a way, it's probably fitting, that we should see such thermonuclear option. Afterall, it's the ultimate democratic gesture, in a country where all western democracy found its seeds. The people have to decide. The ruling parties are no smarter than the collective wisdom. No one should be imposing anything on the people. If you ask my opinion, I'd say, the move is brilliant.

Obviously, the outcome is likely to be messy, with huge uncertainty and overhang. But, hey, democracy is messy. Nobody expects democracy to be clean and neat. If they do, they would all go to China where the elite Politburo decides everything in the country. Most analysts and governments disagree with the proposed referendum because they want more certainty, and they don't want to hear the possibility that a majority of Greeks would rather risk leaving Euro than to suffer under the austerity measures for years (even decades) to come. As Arab Spring and even the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have shown us, sometimes what the people want do not necessarily equate a political palatable solution to foreign governments.

Greece is not alone in the mess. Italy and Spain are scarier and much bigger version of the sovereign debt mess. Germany and France would want (and need) to save Greece and beyond since the banking and financial systems in the countries are so intertwined and connected so tightly with the government debts. If Greece defaults or Euro breaks up (with some of the countries quitting the Euro currency), the ramifications would be huge for the global markets.

I'm not sure how it'd play out, but I don't feel like being in the stock markets right now.