“Pharaoh, king of Egypt commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.” …but when Moses’ mother saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months. But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank…” – Exodus 1:22 – 2:4
Moses was born in Egypt circa 1520 BC at a time when infanticide for male infants was mandatory, and where agents of the State would enter homes to ensure that the bloody task had been carried out. Today in China, the State is enforcing a very similar law, known as the one-child-policy, with the innocuous official title of the Family Planning Policy. The Chinese government themselves have admitted that “some 24 million Chinese men of marrying age will be unable to find a bride by the end of this decade because of the country’s one-child policy”. However encouraging news just in on Chinese parents who are bravely breaking the law…
As many as three million Chinese babies are hidden by their parents every year in order to get around the country’s one-child policy, a researcher has discovered. Since 1978, China’s government has limited each couple to one child, carrying out forced abortions and sterilizations, and monitoring women’s intra uterine devices to control the population. For parents violating the policy, the penalties can be harsh. Large fines are levied, houses are often demolished and offenders are sometimes jailed. In millions of cases, families are prepared to take the risk, according to research by Liang Zhongtang, a demographer and former member of the expert committee of China’s National Population and Family Planning Commission… (continue reading)
Interesting how history insists on repeating itself eh…
