2 Filipina record holders: 7 billionths, 6 billionth world children!!!

By CHITO DELA TORRE, delatorrechito@yahoo.com
November 2, 2011

Population experts predicted that the 7 billionth person would be born on October 31, 2011, with some of them saying the child would most likely come out in India.  Result: The 7 billionth child was born in Manila – a 2.5-kilogram (or 5.5 pounds) baby girl named Danica May Camacho – in midnight of last Sunday, October 30, 2011, at Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital, to mom Camille Dalura and Florante Camacho.

United Nations officials in the Philippines who were among television, radio and newspaper journalists watching and witnessing the progress of the event gave the 7 billionth child with a small cake.  Among the witnesses was the 1999 6 billionth child, also a Filipina now in grade six at 12, Lorrize Mae Guevarra.

In many parts of the world, authorities kept close to mothers who were expected to deliver a child between October 30 and 31 of this year.  Each country had groups of people ready with their own celebratory birth-welcome packages.

Before Danica May, our world had 6 billion 999 million warm body population, if statistics had not changed.  When Danica arrived, our population clocked off at exactly 7 billion. In the Philippines, our July 1, 2010 population stood at 94,013,200, which placed our country as number 12 in the list of most populated countries. China maintained its number one rank with a population of 1,339,724,852 (19.22 per cent of the total world population) as of November 1, 2010.  India had 1,210,193,422 last March 1 to place second, while the United States of America had 312,533,000  only two nights ago, seizing the third rank, followed by Indonesia (237,556,363 last May1, 2010).  Of the 233 countries listed by the United Nations, Niue and Tokelau in New Zealand each had a 1,000 population last July 1, 2011.  Last October 1, 2011, Spain, the most advanced country that colonized the Philippines 490 (4 centuries or 49 decades) years ago, fell far smaller than the Philippines with an official population estimate of only 46,162,02, less than one half of ours!

After Danica, as of 1 minute past October 31, 2011, the Philippines etched its newest population record: 94,013,201 (on a territorial area of 300,000 square kilometers), and planet Earth, 7,000,000,000!

In year 1 anno domini, the world had only 300 million people.  When Magellan circumnavigated the world, the population was only a little over 500 million. After the sporadic powder gun battles, in 1804, population clinched at 1 billion, and 123 years later (1927), it doubled, then 15 years after World War II ended, it reached 3 billion (that was 1960), growing to 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1987, and 6 billion in 1999.  Manila, which had 21,295,000 population to become the fifth largest urban area in the world, chalked up a population of 21,295,000 on Danica’s natal second – Tokyo-Yokohama in Japan was ranked no. 1 with a population of 36,690,000, followed by Delhi in India, Seoul-Incheon in South Korea and Jakarta of Indonesia. Vatican City, a city-state, ranked 193 with the smallest population of only 800 on an area of only 1 square kilometer!!!

But, look, these statistics could be contested, if any one will care to dispute UN’s.

We could argue that the world’s population is still too far from reaching 7 billion.  Reason: there had been numerous human deaths between March and October this year, from earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, landslides, maelstroms, cyclones, hurricanes, fires, wind and heat and wave surges, untreated diseases and common ailments, civil wars and other bloody skirmishes.  Add to the unascertained number of actual deaths, human disappearances in various circumstances.

Therefore, the 7 billion population claim is not accurate, and is utterly false.  It may not even be reached, for as long as each day 152,000 persons die.  Libya’s last recorded population before the rebels’ successful takeover of government was 6,546,000 (on an area of 1,759,540 sq. km).   As of 2011, the world had 8 deaths per 1,000 population as against 19 births per 1,000 population, while 55.3 million people die yearly versus 131.4 million births per year.  The expanded statistics (Worldwide Missions, The Harvest Fields.Statistics 2011, citing its own sources) says: 151,600 people die each day (vs 360,000 births per day), 6,316 people die each hour or 105 die each minute or 2 each second (vs 15,000 births per hour, 250 births per minute or 4 births per second).

Speaking of more deaths, in senseless bloodbaths, already 19 soldiers and 6 rebels died in Basilan.  This must have alarmed senator Chiz Escudero late last week.  The solon was prompted to remark that time has come for the government to review the strength and recruitment process of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.  The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) should conduct an immediate and total review of its actual troop strength versus its troop ceiling in the wake of the separate deadly clashes between government troops and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Basilan and Zamboanga Sibuga, Senator Escudero said.

“While we commend the gallantry and bravery of our troops for going head on in the battle field, we bewail the fact that they were outnumbered and outsmarted in a terrain most familiar to the enemies. Without adding anymore pain to our troops, we now beg the question what is our military's optimal force? Are we also filling in the yearly quota for military recruitment?” Escudero said.  The senator underscored the importance of this assessment to maximize the strength and potential of the troops in the frontline and readjust it to meet certain existing standard operating procedures in terms of troop augmentation and recruitment.

“We need to fill in the yearly quota for recruits so that yearly our forces get stronger and that our soldiers are not left out there like mice caught in a mouse trap, outnumbered by its enemies. As the country's guardians of democracy and Constitution, we need to give them enough physical, material and arsenal support to keep and improve their morale and efficiency,” Escudero stressed.  He said that the AFP is in a better position to know the situation in the battlefield need and should be able to refine its protocols given the blatant and bold moves by rogue elements against government troops, particularly in Mindanao.

“I urge the AFP and also the PNP to aggressively go out there and fill the yearly quotas for new recruits. Spend the budget intended for hiring new personnel. Don't let the old system prevail again where the allocation for hiring new personnel is scrimped on so that the amount can be converted into savings and diverted to line the pockets of some unscrupulous individuals. This has already cost so many lives and has orphaned thousands of wives and children,” Escudero said.

Finally, today, November 2 (a Wednesday), we should act as one in urging Congress to enact a law making ALL SOULS DAY a non-working regular holiday.  This is the only day in the Philippines when we honor the dead, and collectively search for the eternal peace of the resting souls of our departed loved ones.