Un Alarmed By Surge In Hiv Cases Among Rp Youth

[TheMason]

Wow, I seem to have hit a raw nerve. Birth control is not the same as abortion so I think your comments are uncalled for and you must have the two confused. Maybe you read the intent of my post wrong. Abortion might be considered murder but killing people is insane, unless they deserve killing in the name of self defense. :yes: What I was talking about is the churches stand on birth control so while the items may be available, people are probably ashamed to buy them because they do not wish to be judged by their fellow Filipinos in the stores they have to buy them from. Maybe you know better because you are actually there and I am just reading forums and the news but your Thou shall not kill comment is over the top IMO and you may be more burnt out on the Philippines than you think you are.

My statement was deliberately over the top to illustrate my point. I don't think the Church or its teachings are primary causes for the population problems. I think the Church gets a disproportionate amount of blame for the population problems. There are many other predominantly Catholic countries where the birth rate is not out of control and population growth is not an issue. If you're talking about the Philippines alone, the birth rate in Mindanao is the highest in the country, yet that area has a far larger percentage of non-Catholics in it. The Philippines overall birth rate per 1000 is 22.8. Northern Mindanao is at 26.5 and The Autonomous Muslim region of Mindanao is at 32.2. (source: Philippines 2000 census)If the Church teachings are a significant factor in overpopulation, why does the birth rate go up as the percentage of Catholic's decreases?If the Church teachings are a significant factor in overpopulation, why don't Ireland, Italy, and Mexico have out of control population growth? They are also predominantly Catholic nations, shouldn't they have sky-high population growth as well? (Birth rates for Italy, Ireland, and Mexico are 8.36, 14.33, and 20.04, respectively source: CIA Factbook)India's birth rate is 22.22 and their sure aren't too many Catholics in that country. What is the driver there if not the Church? (CIA Factbook)The nerve you hit is the one that is tired of knee-jerk, ill-informed responses blaming the Church for the social ills of the Philippines.Poverty is the primary driver of population growth. If you can decrease the number of people in poverty the birth rate declines as well. The problem in the Philippines is that poverty is increasing, not decreasing. Rather than altering the faith of the population, the solution lies in finding ways to leverage the Church's belief in charity and community to solve the poverty problem. Rather than bashing the Church for its teachings, figure out how to harness its strengths. Unfortunately, the politicos are not too interested in helping the poor of this country. Until that changes, poverty and population will continue to spiral out of control regardless of Church teachings.

I do not think you are getting my point, Filipinos seem to be overly religious and almost all that I have communicated with keep talking about Gods will or God brought us together and they make a point of telling me that they go to church a few time a week. While I do believe that some in some other countries may also take religion to the extreme, I do not think that they seem to take it to the extreme that most Filipinos I met or read about seem to, and especially the poor ones who live in the Philippines and would most likely be more ashamed to buy condoms or go against what the church says when compared to some of those countries you mentioned. I guess I will find out first hand soon enough but even in the US some Catholics that take their religion to the extreme seem to have way too many kids compared to what they can afford and their kids suffer because of their refusal to use protection to limit the amount of their children. We all know there is Gods will and then there is what we can control on our own in our lives and I do not think the Church should tell us to not do the things that might make our lives better and poor people sure do not need so many mouths to feed and no one should take the chances of getting AIDS by having unprotected sex until they really know who they are having that sex with.

I'll agree to disagree with you about the factors that drive AIDS and overpopulation.You are right that the Church plays a far bigger role in people's lives than in the US. It has a huge influence on virtually all aspects of life here. Unfortunately, I don't think they use their power wisely. They focus on politics and reproductive health quite a bit but don't seem to do much to help the poor of the country. The 'haves' in the Philippines, including the Church, really don't care about the 'have nots' too much. I think foreigners spend more time and effort helping the poor people here than Filipinos do.The central role that religion plays in people's lives here is one of the things I like the most about the country. If you want to see a great example of the differences in how religion is viewed in the US and Philippines, head to SM (and other stores) at noon time. They recite the Hail Mary prayer over the loudspeaker at the stroke of noon every day. When they do, many people stop and bow their head. Even the less devout generally remain silent out of respect. Now, think about what would happen if they played Hail Mary over the loudspeaker in Wal-Mart in the US. You would have people suing for infringing on their religous rights, boycotts of the store, and intentional disrespect while the prayer was being recited. Sure, the Church gets it wrong sometimes. It is a human institution and is not infallible. However, given a choice between how the US and the Philippines handles faith in day to day life, I'll take the Philippines approach no questions asked.

[tom_shor]

What do you think are the contributing causes of this?MANILA, Philippines