Which city has the greatest population density? This fact came out of a documentary on BBC World the other evening. I

I've seen a couple of Manilla documentaries on the BBC. The squalor is appalling and as a result, I'm in no hurry at all to visit the Philippines.

 

This is also a fine example of the worst effects of Vatican birth control policies. The whole world could be like this, if the rest of us were dumb enough to listen to their rhetoric.

This is also a fine example of the worst effects of Vatican birth control policies.

To that, I say "Amen!" China has come in for all sorts of criticism for its one-child-per-family policy, but without it, the 1.4 billion population would be over 2 billion by now. The Philippines rate of population increase is staggering - from 27 million in 1960 to an estimated 99 million in 2010.

 

No doubt, any discussion of Vatican policy re birth control will be met with accusations of Catholic bashing. But I cannot see any valid reason for a policy which relies totally on abstinence to control not only population, but also the spread of HIV. A dogma fashioned in the first few centuries after Christ is not necessarily applicable in the 21st century - in my view. Indeed, all Protestant churches shared Catholic dogma until they changed that dogma around 1930.