I saw a surprising total
fertility rate (TFR) – the number of children that would be born per woman – statistics
from the World Factbook, released by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the
U.S. Among 224 countries, South Korea ranked 220th with 1.25 of TFR.
That means every Korean woman only gives birth to the average 1.25 number of
babies. There are only 4 countries that have lower TFR than South Korea: Hong
Kong (1.17), Taiwan (1.11), Macau (0.93), and Singapore (0.80). TFR in the U.S.
is 2.01, ranked 123rd; Sierra Leone is 4.83, ranked 19th;
and Tanzania is 4.95, ranked 17th. Interestingly enough, African
countries take up almost all top 50th ranks. Number one TFR country
is Niger (6.89), which means every woman has about 7 children.
<Country comparison: total
fertility rate>
While I was researching
TFR, I found shocking news that population in South Korea will begin to
decrease to 10 million in 120 years and eventually, Korean population would
become extinct in the year 2750. In other words, if a low birth rate in South
Korea would continue, the entire Korean population will disappear 736 years
later. Lowbirth and aging is a serious social issue in South Korea; David
Coleman, the Professor of Demography at University of Oxford already nominated
South Korea in 2006 for the first population extinction country in the future. That
is scary estimation. It must be really hard to raise children in South Korea
for several reasons.
However, the direct
opposite situation is happening in Africa. Who did associate happiness with
riches? Having about 5 children is normal to them. Every time I heard someone in
Africa has 5 children, I am so surprised how it is actually possible. What’s
most surprising was that African fathers all look young. Whenever I met male WV
African staff, I anticipated their ages should be around 20s. Literally, they
all looked like 20s. They had no distinct wrinkles on their faces, and their
hair style were all short, so they had a healthy appearance.
When I saw Mr. Musa for the
first time, I thought he must be late-20s. He was thin and small frame and
bald-headed, but somehow, I guessed he could be near my age. What a laugh! He turned
about to be 60s who had 10 children, 5 boys and 5 girls! When he was born, his
parents could not have his birth certificate, so nobody knew when exactly he
saw the light for the first time. So his official birthday was made by a rough
estimation; when he was born, the weather was not raining much, which indicated
the dry season, and the year was presumably 1950s. Deciding exact year and date
must have been tricky, but he decided his birthday by himself as 19 April 1950,
which was the same date as Sierra Leone’s independence day, 19 April 1961.
People feel happy when they
are told estimation of their age is lower than their actual age; but that one
would be at the most 5-6 years subtraction. But I miscalculated no less than 40
years of his ages…! After I came to Tanzania, I have met many WV male staff.
They were too, looked so young. Mr. Kilimba was also one of them. At some
point, I concluded that he must be late 20s, the similar age as me. What a
laugh! My anticipation was wrong again. One day, Mr. Kilimba and I were left in
the office, and I asked him whether he has a kid. He said, “I have 5!”
“Wow… really…?”
“Yes.”
At first, I could hardly
believe my ears because he usually joked with people. But at this time, he was
a serious look, so it could not be a joke. So I asked that how old the first
kid was.
“19.”
“Really…? Then, how old are YOU?”
Oh man… he was 49. I could
not even imagine he already had 5 kids and he was 49-year-old father. It was truly
amazing for me that having 5 children is normal to African people.
“Mr. Kilimba, you are the king of Father!”
I just wanted to say the
highest praise for his reproductive potential to him. He laughed and said,
“5 is not enough, I want 3 more! I will be the king
of king of father!”
Wow, that was the greedy
father. The more kids, the more happy life! This has great implication for people,
for country that has seriously low birth rate. We are all just trying to earn a
crust, so we are doing is only to feed ourselves, not sharing anything with
others. In the country where I was born, youth unemployment and prices are
always both high, so people could not even conceive the idea of having more
than one baby. But what is happening in Africa, Tanzania? This big difference
of TFR does not seem to be related to GDP. Are we not falling into extreme
egoism that only myself should eat well to live better? Or, how can we have children
as many as we want no matter what private expenditure for education makes life
difficult? It is complicated. I cannot still find out the correlation between level
of happiness and number of children, but at least, I believe that TFR should be
sufficient enough to maintain the existence of Korean tribes. Happy 5 TFR in
Africa attractively belies my old thought that ‘life is tough, but it is tougher when we have more children.’
If I may, I would want to
praise all of the King of Father!
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