-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- This is what happened when Russias elites and America's elites got to give Russians Coca-Cola and capitalism. Never trust your elites! Joshua2 -------- Original Message -------- Subject: 'Russia on the verge of demographic crisis' Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2000 22:08:14 -0600 (CST) From: Michael Eisenscher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Organization: ? To: undisclosed-recipients:; "People are in a bad mood and only thinking of survival. Health indicators are dropping. Few people want to bring children into this." - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - "The implications of this are catastrophic. The population of Asia is growing rapidly, while Russia's huge territory is becoming depopulated." - - - -- - - -- - - - - -- - - - - - - - -- -- -- - "Russians may feel they're all going to die anyway, so what's to lose?" ______________________________________________________ (Almost a decade of IMF/Harvard Business School- mandated "reforms" have led Russia to an impasse where, as the most recent figures indicate, the life expectancy of a Russian is 56 years - lower than most 'official' Third World nations.) Hindustan Times February 24, 2000 'Russia on the verge of demographic crisis' Fred Weir (Moscow, February 23) If the current steep population decline continues, Russia could, by mid-century, be incapable of manning its industry, supporting its senior citizens or defending its long Siberian frontier, say analysts. "Russia is on the verge of a demographic crisis because we don't have very many children being born," says Valentin Pokrovsky, head of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. "If this trend does not change within 20 years we will face serious economic and social difficulties." Russia's population has been plummeting for almost a decade, due to a post-Soviet cocktail of bad news: spiralling poverty, disease, pollution, accidents, alcoholism, war and political instability. As the former Soviet healthcare system collapsed, Russia was hit by new epidemics such as AIDS and drug-resistant tuberculosis, and saw the return of old diseases such as cholera, typhus and diphtheria. Alcoholism has skyrocketed. Nearly 35,000 Russians die of alcohol poisoning every year, compared to 300 in the United States. "People are in a bad mood, and only thinking of survival," says Vladimir Petukhov, an analyst with the Institute of Social and National Problems in Moscow. "Health indicators are dropping. Few want to bring children into this." The past year saw the biggest drop yet, according to a new report from the State Statistics Committee. Deaths outnumbered births in 1999 by 784,000, or half a percentage point. In the past 8 years, Russia's population has shrunk by 2.8 million, or more than two per cent, and now stands at 145.6 million people. Projections suggest there will be as few as 130 million Russians by 2020 if the trend continues. "The implications of this are catastrophic," says Yevgeny Zhilinsky, a demographer with the Institute of Population Economics in Moscow. "The population of Asia is growing rapidly, while Russia's huge territory is becoming depopulated." Russian women currently have an average of just 1.3 children each, far below the 2.1 kids per woman that would be needed to maintain the present population. Six of every 10 Russian marriages end in divorce, one of the world's highest rates. Experts say Russian women, who are well-educated and emancipated from tradition, are following their Western sisters in putting off childbirth into their thirties and then having fewer offspring. "We have this crushing paradox of First World family attitudes combined with Third World economic conditions, which is creating a terrible squeeze," says Mr Petukhov. There are now three Russians of working age for each pensioner, but experts say that figure could be reversed within 50 years. "Already there are labour shortages in some areas," says Mr Zhilinsky. "And this is happening in an economy that's in deep recession". Russian nationalists have been sounding the alarm for years, and warning that world's largest country may be unable to defend its vast empty spaces if it does not start raising new generations of soldiers. Murray Feshbach, one of the world's leading experts in Russian demography, warned in a recent conference that the population crisis could make Russians more dangerous to themselves and the world. "They might follow a leader who would be more prone to use nuclear weapons to redress the lack of conventional resources," he said. "Russians may feel they're all going to die anyway, so what's to lose?" <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soap-boxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. 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