THROUGH UNTRUE By FR. ROLAND V. DELA ROSA, O.P. Fr. Rolando V. Dela Rosa, O.P. We are strange creatures because we are the only species on this planet who have such a rabid death wish. First we lament why there are so many human beings in the world. Thanks to birth control and other abortifacient procedures, drugs, and gadgets, we have succeeded in depopulating many parts of the world to the point of extinction, and increasing the number of old people. According to the United Nations World Population Prospects, the number of people above 60 years would quadruple by 2050, from about 600 million to almost two billion.  In 2002, one in every 10 persons was 60 years old or older, but by 2050, the rate will be one in every five persons!  In one UN-sponsored international assembly on aging, many delegates from developed countries complained that young people are working double time to support the old-age benefits and pension plans of senior citizens. If we come to think of it, a rapidly aging population is a problem mainly among developed countries where high birth rate is seen as the sure path to economic woes, while low birth rate spells industrial progress, high GDP, and emancipation of women. In Western Europe, thanks to the widespread use of contraceptive devices and procedures, fewer and fewer children are born. The population rate in many Western European countries is below replacement level. In the 1990s, the European Community population growth rate was already approaching zero. Germany’s population has been in decline since 1974, while the United Kingdom, Belgium, Luxembourg and Denmark have experienced zero growth since the beginning of the 1980. It is not improbable that before the advent of the next century, native Western Europeans shall have vanished because of what the French demographer Michèle Tribalat calls a "process of demographic substitution." Immigrants and refugees from other countries are quickly replacing the original European population. Asian countries that have aggressively adopted the birth control programs of developed nations also face the prospect of extinction and rapidly aging population. Birth rates in Japan, Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, and even Sri Lanka are below replacement levels. China’s census in the year 2000 places its birthrate at 1.6, roughly below what is needed to sustain its aging population. In poorer countries, people don’t grow old. They die young.  In Niger, Africa, the life expectacy is only 59.6 years; in Hong Kong and Japan, people live to a ripe age of 84. The UN must recognize the close connection between the problem of an aging population and the problem of low birth rate. The lack of babies and the over-abundance of senior citizens reinforce each other. Today’s Solemnity of the Santo Niño is a good occasion to remind ourselves that children are not clutter. A child is a proof that God has not yet despaired of creating new human beings. Our stubborn pesistence to obstruct His initiative might transform our world into a place inhabited by old people so obsessed with security and comfort, that they feel threatened by the birth of a child and the fact that their old neighbors are not dying quickly enough.