Prig-sticking
Sir: I refer to Charles Moore's 'Another voice' in your 18 May issue (only just arrived in these benighted parts, even with the modern blessings of airmail).
Having served for ten years with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations in Africa and Asia, I feel I have earned the right to respond to the outrageous tarradiddle of his statements.
First, a world that has more than dou-
LETTERS
bled its population over my lifetime is not the same today as it was then. Hence it is wildly illogical to say that because in- creases in human numbers over that period have been associated with increased living standards per head, the same will occur in the future. The frontiers of wilderness upon which man practised his ingenuity have enormously decreased; and I for one prefer it as it was then to as it is now.
Second, 'a fall in population has almost invariably produced greater poverty' — what arrant demographic poppycock. Poverty certainly causes a drop in popula- tion, as even a cursory familiarity with the literature demonstrates. A short reading course on the fallacies of correlations would prevent Mr Moore from perpetrat- ing such an unfortunate naivety.
Finally, what self-satisfied, sanctimo- nious priggishness is displayed in his penultimate paragraph. We can indeed have a great effect on whether the people of Bangladesh live or die, by assisting them to reduce their total population to a point where they can weather the cyclonic disas- ters to which the region is routinely prone, by following the intent, if not the specifics, of Sir Nicholas Fairbairn. And if Charles Moore suggests the inhabitants of Bang- ladesh prefer to live as they do rather than in western affluence, my experience enti- tles me to give him the lie direct, and call him either a fool or a rogue. From the evidence he presents in his article, I suspect the former.
Which is not to say that I would prefer Sir Nicholas to Charles Moore at my dinner table. As it said in 1066 and All That in another context, Charles Moore is Wrong but Romantic, while Sir Nicholas is Right but Repulsive.
George Lines
17 Lismore Road, Skipton, Victoria, Australia
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