Should we celebrate, mourn, or dread the symbollic birth of the world's 7 billionth baby that took place today?
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14 comments:
In the picture in the newspaper link, did anyone else notice the hair on the baby's forehead and arms and shoulders? No, that's not a picture of a baby werewolf.
The hair is called 'lanugo' - it's an atavistic trait (like babies with tails) that some human infants are born with. The hair falls off in a few weeks. (Makes you wonder just how hairy our distant ancestors actually were)
Firstly, I would like to extend my warm wishes to the family. The arrival of a new-born is worth celebrating - even if the 7th billion baby symbolizes the world on the brink of shortage of resources.
To mourn or dread her birth is rather unjust to the baby. She didn't ask to be born at that period of time. She didn't ask to be the 7th billion baby. She didn't ask to attract the public's eye.
However, this should be an eye-opener for us. With such an overwhelming amount of occupants, can the Earth's resources suffice? It doesn't matter what the population is - if we don't start taking care of the Earth, starvation or pollution will be the end of us. In fact, even with excessive production of food and luxuries, millions still go to bed famished. Millions don't have shelter. Millions die of diseases.
With that said, shouldn't OUR birth, OUR existence, OUR greed, OUR ignorance, be frowned upon?
I agree completely with Aqilah on every single point she has raised. I recently read a brilliant article on how it isn't the people that have made the world so hard to sustain - in fact, natural increases in the world's population are hard to control - but it's the corporate world that has begun exploiting the vast population on this planet.
It's really not in my place to carry out a heavy judgement regarding such a topic but I as a person hearing, "The 7 billionth baby was born today!", is something that merely widens my eyes, strikes an image to my mind, but doesn't exactly draw much of my attention.
Though, having thought about it for some time, I have come to think: "Gosh.. Tomorrow another baby will be born. So are they going to put that in the headlines of newspapers as well?”
Even though the birth of the 7 billionth baby is per say, 'significant' to the world in some sort of way. You shouldn't expect or question, "Is tomorrow the day where new born babies would cease to be born?".
Life as they say comes to full circle - eventually - where we are born then we all die, whether or not we like this fact.
I could go on about the high birth rate and low death rate, the global economy and lack of world resources that this new born baby may contribute and impact, but in short, I guess what I'm trying to say is that there are just more mind puzzling things that are currently revolving around the globe and that should be looked into more closely, than the statistically found 7 billionth birth of a baby.
Some people think the idea is awesome. “Wow, the 7 billionth baby! Cool. I wonder if I’d be related to the 8 billionth baby that’d be born?” While others hit some sort of paranoia and go through all the marco and micro study of world resources because they fear there might just be too many people in the world with not enough to live by.
I know I may sound blunt but my approach to this topic is subtle.
Babies are born every day at almost every minute, and now that the 7 billionth baby was born, the world had to take it into mass recognition?
If you ask me, sometimes you just need to somehow whack people in the face with some striking headline, so they could see what’s been right in front of their noses all along, and point out the obvious, because the artificial, materialistic and modern world has clouded their minds with so much trivial, personal dilemmas, that they have grown ignorant about such world facts, and only now are they globally raising such awareness and starting to care about such cases.
Hahahah. Sorry, my post is too long. I had to vent out my thoughts in one-go :P
That is one lucky hairy baby!
Celebrating the birth of baby wouldn't be such a problem, yet the fact that it's the 7 Billionth baby should raise awareness to the people of the world about the over population. If the 7 billionth baby was born in 2011, how many people will exist in the next 10 years.
I'm not saying people shouldn't have babies anymore, yet most this particular baby should allow us to think responsibly.
first of all it would've been amazing if that was a baby warewolf , but since it's not just hearing it's the 7th billion baby makes me wonder what on earth are we thinking , we just hit 7 billion and soon enough the 10th billion baby will be born and god knows i will not be celebrating that day , that is if i'm still alive but for now , although he/she is the 7th billion , to his/her family he/she is the first and we all should celebrate and be happy.......for NOW!
Like Aqilah said,to mourn or dread the birth of a baby would be simply inhumane.
Celebrating the birth of a baby sounds just about right.For the people who say they cannot really celebrate the birth of the 7th billion baby because he/she represents the rapid growth leading to overpopulation,as you are rigth that the population is growing fast we should keep to mind that 7 billion people can fit into the state of California.
So i think its safe to say we have enough resources for now.
7 is considered to be a lucky number in some countries, so who knows? Maybe the little baby will turn out to be an international hero and prolong the earth's life from inevitable destruction?
Now that there are over 7 billion people in the world it does raise questions over resources and over population. The issue isn't really land, because, as Nnamdi pointed out, the whole world's population can fit in to California. The real problem is resources. People around the world are in constant search for new and alternative resources. As the population grows the supply of resources we have shortens, certain luxuries might become even rarer or more expensive in a few years time.
7 billion may sound like a big number now, but by the time we are Mr. Robert's age it will sound slightly miniscule (no offense Mr. Roberts)
As it happens, I've come across a short clip that says it all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc4HxPxNrZ0
"Its not space that we need. We need balance."
^ Fab video, Raya! Thanks for posting.
A bit of all three. Its amazing it was counted as the 7 billionth baby but what about those people that die because they are extremely poor and cannot afford medical treatments. Shouldn't we look at them too? The world can't manage to look after those people but they can handle a population increase.
Apparently, by 2050 the population may reach 9.5 billion, what will happen then.
Poor baby, has to live as a cause of mourning for the rest of his life. Personally, I dont think it's fair for us to dread this event. It's a celebration. This date marks the birth of an individual who definitely will contribute towards making a difference in this world, like the the other 6,999,999,999,999
Instead of grieving for this significant blessing to a couple, we should rather take it as a wakeup call. A reminder that we should vigilantly exploit our resources and make the population more aware of what is happening to our earth. Leaders from all around the world must cooperate to end all the acts that lead to Global Warming and similar catastrophes.
Wow, 7 billionth baby. Now that's an achievement. Although it is quite shocking, I don't think it should be that much of a deal. Why are we even keeping track of ourselves? Whatever happens to us and the human race, it will not be in our hands and it never will be. There is nothing we can do to prevent it happening and we can't change it to be in our favour although this may have been.
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