baby boom part 2

I recently received an email with a picture of a 90 year old Indian farmer holding his new born son. Broken the Guinness World Record, they say. He already has 20 other children, numerous grandchildren & doesn't want to stop until he's reached 100 (assuming he's going to make it till then). Besides, at his age should he not be worrying about his heart? This is why India has a population crisis. We have 90 year olds still having children. His other explanation as to why he's sired & continues to sire is that he's irresistible & that women want him. (obviously Polygamy is not a concern nor an issue for him). And from the picture he was certainly no Brad Pitt or like any of those Bollywood actors. Far from it, actually. Well, he is pushing 91 & good looks start to deteriorate, even for men (take comfort ladies). In cases such as these, I think it's time to stop having children when you've already had a few & you're hitting, oh let's say 40?

Growing up, I was exposed to the family planning ads they ran on Indian TV about the limit of two children per family, although this was not & enforced, and obviously still isn't. It's just a guideline. After all India is a democracy & not a Communist regime like say, China, where the limit is one child per family & strictly enforced (I think). I haven't a clue as to what happens if you find yourself expecting a second. Needless to say, we are in the midst of another baby boom era.

Everyone I know is either pregnant or has recently had a baby. There's so many babies going around. For Canada, this is great because they're trying very hard to up the population. This was a topic of conversation with my mother & especially fitting because she's from the post war baby boom era. I asked her to list who else she thought was pregnant - family, friends etc. After counting a few together, she got exasperated & said, "Well, I don't know. That's your generation. No one from my generation is pregnant." Seriously! I'd hope not Mom, for I think we'd be in even bigger trouble if that were the case.

And even here in Bermuda - there's lots of babies everywhere you look. Not the tourist babies but the resident ones. Being such a small island, a common concern among the local expat population would be inbreeding. I never realised it but when you consider how many people of child bearing there are on the island that may share a common DNA strand, it's definitely a problem. I've heard that as a result, there is a high incidence of twins on the island. I'm not even sure if this is true. I tried looking this theory up but did not find much. Many locals that go away abroad for Undergrad studies meet their futures partners/spouses from different countries. A fair amount do decide to settle down on the island. While they do not attain Bermudian status right away, they are known as spouses of Bermudians (a post for another day). With the continuing increase of babies & influx of new residents (ex-pats included), Bermuda, like China & India, is soon going to be busting at the seams (yet another post for yet another day). But there's naught that can be done. Not for the short term, anyway.