Gender Imbalance: How Does it really stack up?
Not for purposes of self aggrandisement or ego but more like apologising in advance.
Firstly, I do not consider myself a scholar or a journalist. Whilst I am university qualified in the Humanities and as such have had my fair amount of exposure to research, I do not consider myself "Scientific". In fact the only thing I really know about maths is how to spell it!
Notwithstanding that, I do attempt to verify sources and obtain some alternative views before committing finger to keyboard. Basic Class 101 stuff.
Secondly, and probably more importantly, I am Australian. "Why is that of importance?" I hear you ask yourself from your position in the clouds of the Internet.
Well Australians have a peculiar outlook on life.
It can be best summed up by an Aussie slang saying, to wit:
"She'll be right mate"
Loosely translated it means "don't worry it will all turn out OK in the end"
(Mostly used when the boss gets on your back over a deadline your response would be: a bemused look on your face and a "She'll be right mate" response.)
It is a very laid back attitude and highly beneficial for your blood pressure.
However (and there must always be an "however") there are some things that make you want to "DoYaBlock" (Aus sl,)
I have two regarding my "China Gazing". One is Tienanmen Square and the other is the west's preoccupation with , and in most cases misunderstanding, of China's Population Policy, erroneously referred to as the "One Child Policy".
Unlike Tienanmen Square where the Internet spikes around June 4 each year the "OCP" is constantly a topic everywhere you look..
I subscribe to Twilert which sends me a digest of Twitter topics daily. One that I subscribe to is on "OCP" Without fail ,day in day out, 365 days a year there are way over 100 references to China's "OCP".
Today I was pointed to the link shown here. Again one of the great bogymen of "OCP": "gender imbalance".
"It won't be right mate the world's gunna end" Is the cry of twitterers and articles published by some influential and leading agenda setters.
Harking back to my intro about not being a scholar or a mathematician I do possess, hopefully, some ability to assess an issue,.Let's look then at some thought starters on Gender Imbalance:
According to CIA World fact Book The sex ratio at birth in 2010 for China was 114 males per 100 females. By way of comparison the world average was 107, Australia was 106 and the U.S. was 105. Conclusion, ergo, there is an imbalance. However new born babies and their gender balance do not have social impacts. Babies also die. China has a very high infant mortality rate. many live births do not make adulthood.
Where gender imbalance can come into play as a social factor is when surviving babies reach adulthood in the 15-64 year age bracket. This is the important employment and sexually active and procreative period in a man's life.
Again according to CIA World Fact Book the sex ratio of people in the 15-64 age bracket is 106/100 for China, 103 for Australia and 100 for the U.S.
The bolter, therefore, has certainly come back to the field.
As, in the linked to article, some in the west feel that this gender imbalance will have very dire social consequences. They literally must drool over the very thought of gangs of lonely, testosterone fueled Chinese men raping and pillaging their way across the country. Men, congregating on street corners planning crime without the missus being there to control them (idle hands make for the devils work! cry the commentators).
Men befuddled by psychological trauma of not having a "cheese and kisses" (Aus sl,) to go home to!
Let me get serious for a moment. I know many men that for whatever reason have not married or are no longer married and not one of them is other than normal never having been driven to sexual assault and crime.
More telling against this commentary, so often pushed, is that there is in China a huge Mingong or migrant worker population numbering up to 200 million, mostly men in the prime of their life. Separated from wives and local girlfriends. Of course they, for many reasons, probably figure in crime statistics above the average but there is no epidemic of attributable crime relating to their spousal status.
These are just throw away thought starters.
I am not here to write a treatise on China's Population Policy that is for minds far greater than mine. But I just wish we in the west did not sensationalise things for the sake of attention grabbing headlines. Now on to Tienanmen Square.......
Unnatural Selection: Chinese and Indian Sex Ratios Are a Time Bomb - Council on Foreign Relations
Unlike Tienanmen Square where the Internet spikes around June 4 each year the "OCP" is constantly a topic everywhere you look..
I subscribe to Twilert which sends me a digest of Twitter topics daily. One that I subscribe to is on "OCP" Without fail ,day in day out, 365 days a year there are way over 100 references to China's "OCP".
Today I was pointed to the link shown here. Again one of the great bogymen of "OCP": "gender imbalance".
"It won't be right mate the world's gunna end" Is the cry of twitterers and articles published by some influential and leading agenda setters.
Harking back to my intro about not being a scholar or a mathematician I do possess, hopefully, some ability to assess an issue,.Let's look then at some thought starters on Gender Imbalance:
According to CIA World fact Book The sex ratio at birth in 2010 for China was 114 males per 100 females. By way of comparison the world average was 107, Australia was 106 and the U.S. was 105. Conclusion, ergo, there is an imbalance. However new born babies and their gender balance do not have social impacts. Babies also die. China has a very high infant mortality rate. many live births do not make adulthood.
Where gender imbalance can come into play as a social factor is when surviving babies reach adulthood in the 15-64 year age bracket. This is the important employment and sexually active and procreative period in a man's life.
Again according to CIA World Fact Book the sex ratio of people in the 15-64 age bracket is 106/100 for China, 103 for Australia and 100 for the U.S.
The bolter, therefore, has certainly come back to the field.
As, in the linked to article, some in the west feel that this gender imbalance will have very dire social consequences. They literally must drool over the very thought of gangs of lonely, testosterone fueled Chinese men raping and pillaging their way across the country. Men, congregating on street corners planning crime without the missus being there to control them (idle hands make for the devils work! cry the commentators).
Men befuddled by psychological trauma of not having a "cheese and kisses" (Aus sl,) to go home to!
Let me get serious for a moment. I know many men that for whatever reason have not married or are no longer married and not one of them is other than normal never having been driven to sexual assault and crime.
More telling against this commentary, so often pushed, is that there is in China a huge Mingong or migrant worker population numbering up to 200 million, mostly men in the prime of their life. Separated from wives and local girlfriends. Of course they, for many reasons, probably figure in crime statistics above the average but there is no epidemic of attributable crime relating to their spousal status.
These are just throw away thought starters.
I am not here to write a treatise on China's Population Policy that is for minds far greater than mine. But I just wish we in the west did not sensationalise things for the sake of attention grabbing headlines. Now on to Tienanmen Square.......
Unnatural Selection: Chinese and Indian Sex Ratios Are a Time Bomb - Council on Foreign Relations
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