High Cost of Low Population

My last post made reference to China’s One Child Policy – a hugely complex and controversial topic, both in terms of implementation and outcome. As such, I’ll leave any real analysis to the people who actually know what they’re talking about. In this entry, however, I’d like to share a NY Times piece by Andrew Jacobs titled Chinese Hunger for Sons Fuels Boys’ Abductions. The emotional expose starts with two scenes in which two separate families were torn apart:

“Deng Huidong lost her 9-month-old son in the blink of an eye as a man
yanked him from the grip of his 7-year-old sister near the doorway of
their home. The car did not even stop as a pair of arms reached out the
window and grabbed the boy.

Sun Zuo, a gregarious 3 1/2-year-old, was lured off by someone with a
slice of mango and a toy car, an abduction that was captured by police
surveillance cameras.”

I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s like to have your kid snatched away from under your nose, only to be sold for relative pennies in the village or town next door. And then…to have the authorities ignore your pleas for help. This is truly a pitiful, unintended consequence of necessary population control.

Now that I think about it, maybe the reason the mother in yesterday’s video post was so apathetic to her son’s behavior is because she is trying to cultivate a terror child that nobody would dare take as his/her own. Possible?