Opinion
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July 8, 2016 (Human Life International) — Population control groups are taking advantage of a leadership transition period in Tanzania, and are intensifying their activities in the country. Their mission is a frightening one: reducing the number of poor people in order to reduce poverty. This outrageous and backwards strategy is awkwardly promoted under the false name of women’s empowerment and choice, the preferred choices being abortion, contraception, and sterilization.

Infiltrating the Schools

The new president of Tanzania has not yet clearly stated his philosophy on population and development. This has given population control organizations like Marie Stopes International, Population Services International, United Nations Fund for Population Activities, UMATI, Care International, and the White Ribbon Alliance the opportunity to push contraception and sterilization in the country.

Their first goal is often to infiltrate the school system. This comes from an older strategic approach first crafted by US Secretary of Defense Henry Kissinger in his infamous 1974 (then-) confidential document NSSM-200, in which population control was considered key to securing sufficient natural resources for the United States. In the security memorandum, Kissinger expressed the basic idea about indoctrinating children: “Concentrating on the education and indoctrination of the rising generation of children regarding the desirability of smaller family size.” Sadly, this makes sense: children are often more vulnerable to propaganda than adults are.

Population control has won over the minds and hearts of many college students already, and the anti-life movement is now targeting elementary and high school students. They are also ravaging the villages with their talk of “family planning” and “child and maternal health” services. Most villagers do not know the geopolitical history of eugenics-based policies designed to keep their population down so that they can be more easily controlled.

Eugenics and Eliminating the Poor

Eugenic population control ideas and ideology originated long before 1974, and were quite openly promoted by the progressive elite from Margaret Sanger to Adolf Hitler. But it was not until Kissinger’s document that “aid” and “development” were specifically tied to population control in US policy.

This document and its very clear recommendations might sound like “conspiracy theory” to some, but it is actually a matter of public record, as NSSM-200 is available to this day on the USAID web site. The detailed security document was written by Kissinger in collaboration with the CIA, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Departments of State, Defense, and Agriculture. It is quite explicit in making its case that the purpose of population control is to reduce the growth of less developed countries, with the rapidly growing population of these countries presented in chapter three of the document as a “threat to U.S. security”:

The U.S. economy will require large and increasing amounts of minerals from abroad, especially from less developed countries…. Wherever a lessening of population pressures through reduced birthrates can increase the prospects for such stability, population policy becomes relevant to resource supplies and to the economic interests of the United States.

In NSSM-200 the case is weakly made that population control is also in the best interests of less developed countries, though getting them on board would require propaganda tactics and non-governmental “aid” agencies and intermediaries in order to avoid the impression that the powerful were suppressing poor nations. After all, high population means fewer resources to go around for everyone, right?

Nowhere in the now-declassified document is the obvious position put forth: More people also means more farmers producing food, more children being educated, more young minds eager to become teachers, doctors, and leaders. People are not only, as is assumed in this document, consumers of scarce resources craved by the powerful, they are producers and innovators. Like love, resources are not divided among an increased population, they are multiplied with it.

The Real Reason Behind Population Control

A Tanzanian citizen today who wonders why wealthy nations want his family to stop having children might also notice that missing in the CIA and Dr. Kissinger’s “security” reasoning is the fact that many of the most prosperous countries have high population densities. Tanzania’s population density of 109 people per square mile is somewhat higher than that of the United States at 84, but is less than China at 142 per square mile, Germany at 235 per square mile, and the United Kingdom at 650 per square mile. High population density is obviously not a hindrance to development.

NSSM-200 makes it crystal clear that the United States, the United Nations, and many other powerful stakeholders should work together to keep Africa’s population low because rising population would threaten their control of the resources of these countries. Forty-two years later the same corrupt logic still informs US development policy: A higher population in Tanzania might mean Tanzanians taking control of their own government, and taking control of their exports. World powers are more comfortable when the power is in their own hands.

For a comprehensive analysis of NSSM-200 and its implications today, see this article by HLI’s director of research and education, Brian Clowes, Ph.D.

Contraceptives Are Worse than Just Unnecessary

Poverty is a serious issue in Tanzania, which is why those who promote population control under the guise of family planning and health services are slowly winning over the people. But in a country where many people are living on less than $1.25 a day, where health care, education, and job opportunities are sorely needed, the distribution of contraceptives that endanger women’s health and increase the risk of STDs is hardly a priority. Like many African nations, Tanzania needs infrastructure: good roads, a reliable electric supply, clean water and much better health care. And it is in Tanzania’s best interests to cut ties with the perpetual aid industry that always has population control strings attached, and hold its government accountable to creating the conditions necessary for true sustainable development and human flourishing.

Too many women have been physically and emotionally hurt by corrupt population control companies like Marie Stopes, IPPF, and the others.

If the United States and the United Nations wanted to help less developed countries they would place much more emphasis on education, infrastructure, democratic reforms, and the protection of property rights.

Pro-Life Tanzania in the Media

The evil behind the population control must be combated by prayer and education. Emil Hagamu, HLI’s regional director for English-speaking Africa is trying to prove what should be common sense. Eradicating poverty does not justify eliminating the poor, and “solving” population growth will not solve poverty.

Emil and Pro-Life Tanzania are making use of the media to spread the message of Life. Emil writes for three Tanzanian newspapers — Kiongozi, Tumaini Letu, and Dira, and produces weekly talk shows on Radio Tumaini and Maria. Using these platforms, Emil is making the case that Africans can implement their own development and take control of their country by raising the future generation. He is encouraging men and women to push for better health services, including pre-natal and post-natal services, and improvement in education — one that emphasizes moral and intellectual standards instead of sexual gratification and sterile sex. He is encouraging Tanzanians to protect what they already have, a love of Life and children.

Pro-Life Tanzania is empowering women, giving them knowledge of their bodies so they can control their fertility in harmony with nature. The long-acting reversible contraceptives (eg Depo Provera, Implanon, IUDs) that are in vogue now among population controllers too often take control out of the hands of women and put it into the hands of organizations that make money by sterilizing Africans. These dangerous and dehumanizing drugs and devices do nothing to empower women, but only aid their objectification by men who often have little concern for their overall well-being.

Building a Better Future

Emil has been working in Tanzania for over twenty years, fighting those who still advance the ideology that informed NSSM-200 and still infects the modern aid and development industry. With your continued prayers and support, Pro-Life Tanzania will continue in its fight for the unborn, for women, and for Africans to control their own authentic, integral development.

Reprinted with permission from Human Life International.