In what I deem a
controversial program, a Colombian man and heir to a dairy business in Bogota- Erwin Goggel- is giving peasants free land in Colombia in exchange for one thing: getting sterilized. I use the word 'free' loosely because the peasants first have to undergo surgery- the men have a vasectomy and the women have to get their tubes tied, albeit all at Goggel's expense.
Goggel's goal is to alleviate poverty amongst the peasants, citing the well known notion that poverty is generational and hard to escape within a family. He sees excessive birth rates as part of the problem and states that poverty is directly proportional to the size of the peasant family. His solution: give them 9 acres of land to have invasive surgery performed. By doing so, he wants to create a stable home environment for the existing children and allow the families to have land to sustain themselves from without the worry of having another member to feed with already stretched budgets.
The controversy? (Besides the invasive surgery?) Goggel doesn't actually give the peasants land deeds but instead gives them permission to squat on the $50,000 worth of land he purchased. He's afraid that if the peasants had the land deeds, they would be tempted to sell them and return to their "roofless" and unstable lives.
Whether or not we agree with Goggel's tactics (my verdict is still out), there are cold, hard facts that support at least the spirit of his program. Colombia's birthrate is higher that the rest of Latin America's already high average and about 50% more than the United States' and almost
half of the population is living below the poverty line. But aren't there better ways to address the problem? What are your thoughts?
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Online Source:
LA Times
* World: Locales around the world including Big Ben (image), the Sydney Opera House, and New York’s Times Square briefly shut off their lights Saturday night as part of Earth Hour 2010.
