

". . . AN GULLIVER RETURNS"

\--In Search of Utopia--

BOOK 5--SMASHWORDS EDITION

OUR VISIT TO SINGALING

by

Lemuel Gulliver XVI as told to Jacqueline Slow

© 2008 ISBN 978-0-9823076-0-1

Dear friends—Obviously I wrote this series to be read from Book 1 to the end, but silly me! Readers often begin with what sounds interesting to them. This may leave them unaware of the characters, my friends and I. So let me introduce us. We were boyhood friends, as wild and as close as geese heading south for the winter. But our university educations split us philosophically like a drop of quicksilver hitting the floor. But like those balls of mercury, when brought together, they again become one. As have we.

 Ray became a Catholic priest and moved far to the right of where our teenage liberalism had bound us. Ray calls himself a neo-conservative. We think he is a reactionary.

  Lee slid to the left of our adolescent leanings, and somewhere along the line became an atheist. Lee is a lawyer.

  Concannon, Con for short, retired from his very successful business. I guess his business experience moved him a bit to the right, to conservatism—a conservative just to the right of the middle.

  Then there's me. I think I'm pretty much a middle of the roader—except for my passion to save our planet by reducing our population before global warming, massive poverty and far-reaching famines decimate our humanity. Hope this introduction makes our discussions make a bit more sense. LG

THE COUNTRY OF SINGALING

From one of the two most advanced countries of the world to the other. Singaling, just off the Malay Peninsula, tooled its philosophy from its successful island neighbor, Singapore. I had visited Singapore a few times before my flight, but had never touched foot on Singaling. We arrived on an early Monday morning and were surprised to have the Prime Minister meet us in person. Father Ray, my reactionary priest buddy, Lee, our atheistic lawyer friend, and Con our conservative comrade—four close friends for forty years are eager to continue our journey.

  —"Mr. Yuen, good morning. I'm delighted that you took your precious time to meet our scraggly clan. We are so excited to be here and learn about your country."

 —"Commander, we are honored that you have included our fair land in your itinerary."

 -"We are honored that you extended your kind invitation."

 —"Your bags will be sent to your hotel and I can give you a tour of our capitol city if you would like. Just step into my limo and we'll be off."

As we toured the streets of the capitol city I was reminded of the country I had just left. The magnificent buildings were monuments to the most creative thoughts of modern architecture. The pastel hued apartments were a colorful backdrop for the glass, wood, brick, and steel buildings which were the hub of the world's most prosperous nation.

But what impressed me most was the cleanliness of the place. I swear by the gods of Tide and Tidy Bowl that I never saw a single piece of litter on the ground. There were no graffiti on the walls, no gum on the sidewalks. Of course gum chewing carries a thousand dollar fine in this country so the habit has become less and less fashionable. I do wonder, though, what do teen-age girls do with their mouths between sentences. In my dear home town of Los Angeles the "valley girls" would definitely suffer withdrawal pains should their beloved chewy companion be suddenly jerked from their lips.

Singaling enjoyed a long economic head start over Kino and is still leading the Asian derby in finance and trade. Again, the Asian intelligence and work ethic have pushed it far past its rivals in the West. Population control was probably a major factor in its rise, but was not as essential to its economic miracle as it had been for China..

Even back in the early 1980's Singaling had begun a program for population control. It began with allowing every couple two children. If they chose to have other children the parents, not the state, were responsible for paying the education bills for the additional children. The state laid down an additional detriment to additional children. If the parents had a third child, the state would not lend them money for a home. These rules kept most families to two or fewer heirs.

Singapore, Singaling's country cousin, or cousin country, had cut births to such a degree that it began importing labor from countries like Bangladesh to do the lowest level work. Major corporations set up shop and dropped wages to maximize profits. Low paid Singaporeans took the same wage drop as immigrants. This prompted the government to think about reducing the rich-poor gap. But such communistic ideas have as yet had little effect on this free enterpriset power. In contrast, Singaling has emphasized the importance of producing only at the top tier of the economic echelons.

Sociologists tell us that it takes 2.2 children per family to keep the population stable. By limiting families to only two children a society might insure itself of a declining population. In Singaling the population has dropped as its economy has increased. This is not surprising because we have found for a number of years that the educated classes of most societies have fewer children. It seems that for a many people the joys and challenges of business, politics, and the professions are often greater than the joys and challenges of parenthood.

The liberation of women around the world has allowed them to run from their homes and compete with men in every field. And while traditions die hard, and the happy expectation of parenthood hides within most of our breasts, the economic advantages of having children have disappeared and the realities of the true costs of a child play on the minds of all intelligent parents. Before I became a solar-naut the cost of having a child for a middle class couple in my country was more than $100,000 to get the child to college age. When considering the costs of food and lodging, clothing, medical bills, a larger house, and the salary which the caretaking parent had to give up to stay home--it is easy to understand how expensive a child is. Now, with the inflation rate approaching 25% in the U.S., it costs millions to raise a child through high school. And to send that child to college doubles that.

While doing its best to discourage an increased birthrate, Singaling went a bit farther. It long ago decided to attempt to increase the level of intelligence of its population. The attempt at eugenics was aimed at getting the highly educated women, those who were having fewer children, to become multiple mothers. Free education through the doctoral level was guaranteed for their children, if they qualified academically. Paid maternity or paternity leave was offered or up to five years. The caretaking parent, whether father or mother, was offered additional education for advanced college degrees after the children were in school. These were powerful incentives aimed at increasing the quality of the population while decreasing the quantity.

The Singalingians were, even then, on the right track for developing a modern economic force and reducing the ecological concerns which had long engulfed our planet. Working drones were not needed in our earthly hive. Even in the 1970's machines could do the work of many high school graduates.

It struck me over the years of visiting the former Soviet Union that little old ladies were given jobs sweeping the streets with their long brooms, while in my country a single person at the controls of a mechanical street sweeper did the work of thousands of little old ladies in a single day. Machines plucked and packed the fruits of our orchards eliminating the imported laborers of the earlier days. Even in the 80's robots welded our new car bodies pushing those human welders out of the factories and into other jobs. Electric trains took the shovels from the coal shoveling firemen on the old English trains. And how many years was it before the British government was able to get rid of those firemen who were being paid but had no coal to shovel?

Certainly there were jobs for high school graduates as nurses aids in the homes for the aged. There were jobs as housekeepers and gardeners. There were jobs making up the rooms in hotels and working in fast food emporiums. But the efficiency of technology had taken over most of the work of the stoop labor farmers, the conductors on busses, and many of the jobs of the building trades. Increased technology had given us better building materials and cheaper methods of construction. Consequently many of the painters and carpenters were no longer needed. The same thing happened in other trades. Most printing jobs were done from a computer disk--not from typesetters.. And this technological evolution has accelerated to the point that many countries have unemployment rates of over 50% now in 2020.

The result of the production of too many babies, and babies without the intellectual capacities to profit from the advanced educations available today, has resulted in a population a third larger than the 6 billion that existed before my voyage. Added to this is the fact that medical science has been able to extend the life spans of a great number of people. So we have far more people living, but far fewer working. Many workers have then been taxed to the point where it isn't worth working. That is why so many of the highly trained professionals of today have emigrated to the advanced population controlled societies such as Kino and Singaling.

To reduce the lower level intellects, the government of Singaling offered heavy financial rewards for sterilization. First they developed a highly refined intelligence test. Everyone took a version of the test every year in school. We can compare it to our Intelligence Quotient (IQ) tests. While their tests and scales were different from ours, perhaps it can be better understood in our terms.

The results of the tests were put on a scale like the bell shaped curve which we use for sampling populations. They then offered financial incentives for those on the lower end of the scale to voluntarily undergo sterilization. For males or females with no children for every point on the IQ scale that a person was below 110--a point at which the top 18% of the intelligence group is separated from the bottom 82%--the state offered three months of salary or $10,000, whichever was greater. Not many people near the 110 level took advantage of this. But by the time you got to the 100 level--the point which half of the people in the population are above and half below, you were rewarded with 2 1/2 years salary or $100,000. This became a highly desirable alternative for many people. Of course those very low on the intelligence scale could be rewarded with many hundreds of thousands of Singaling dollars. Just think how many watches and rings, and clothes and toys, you could buy with so much money. If a person took advantage of the financial offer after having had a child, the sterilization stipend was reduced by 75%.

In societies where the severely mentally impaired are institutionalized, the costs are exorbitant. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent for each patient. Singaling significantly reduced its caretaking expenses for this often genetically transmitted intellectual anchor. The rewards for sterilization saved far more money than they cost because their caretaking expenses dropped so dramatically. And of course the children not born because of the sterilizations would not have children, so the world's future burden was lightened.

While the money paid in these incentives came from taxes, it went right back into the society which produced the goods, so nothing was lost. The tax rate, in fact, became progressively less and less of a citizen's income. Welfare spending was almost non-existent, as was spending on jails and prisons. Education expenses were high, but the return on the investment in education was so great that it paid for itself quickly. Singaling had developed a perpetual motion machine in the financial arena. It had high incomes but low taxes. It had happy people and almost no crime. It was the closest thing I've seen to a utopia.

I was privileged to have an audience with the Minister of Population of Singaling. She told me about how they had extended their earlier efforts of population control. Today a license to have a child costs two months wages and cannot be obtained until after a stable relationship has been shown to exist for five years. The prospective parents are generally at least 30 years old.

Naturally courses in child rearing are required. These are offered in the universities and in other schools and are sponsored by the government. The courses range from the highly technological aspects of heredity and disease control, to the more personal aspects of relationships such as loving and caretaking.

But the government has gone a step farther in certifying a person to be ready for parenthood. The authorities have developed a test on loving which every hopeful parent must pass successfully. The test not only registers one's knowledge of how to love and what a loving reaction would be in a number of situations, it is accompanied by practical observation of the person to determine whether the prospective parent has the types of inferiority feelings that are so often associated with needing to beat another person down--either physically or psychologically.

It seems that most people have a drive for power, for success, for domination, that is usually fueled by their inferiorities which were often developed because they were not loved as children. So the lack of a loving parent begets another unloving parent and the cycle continues. Child beating, spousal beating, gang killings, and I think even sarcasm, generally find their origins in a lack of a loving home. The Singalingians are attempting to stop that cycle and I applaud their quest.

In their efforts to stop pre-marital pregnancies they have made it illegal for a couple to have sex until they are 18, unless married. The punishment for violating this is 6 months in jail, a large fine, and 20 strokes with the cane administered by a martial arts master. There are also strong traditional proscriptions against pre-marital sex. Together these laws and rules have been highly effective in reducing teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

If a pregnancy does occur either an abortion or an adoption will be arranged. The biological parents, being unlicensed to have children, cannot keep the child. The government may, after testing the biological parents for intelligence and genetic problems, decide that the baby may be worthwhile. If so the baby is kept for adoption by those who have passed the licensing test but have been unable to conceive. If the parents do not pass the test, the fetus is aborted and the parents are sterilized. And neither of those parents will ever be able to obtain a license to have a child.

The Singalingians, as their neighbors in Singapore, are quite adamant that the laws which are to benefit society will be adhered to by the members of that society. And while those who might choose to leave this advanced country are free to go, there are few countries willing to take in anyone who cannot contribute economically. The massive overpopulation which is choking the earth today does not allow for most people to move to greener pastures--unless they can bring their own seeds and fertilizer. Immigration for all but the exceptional has been cut off in every developed country today.

If unmarried people over 18 want to have sex their license fee is one week's salary. They then receive free condoms and spermicidal, anti-disease creams. There is a strong governmental desire to stop the spread of AIDS and the other pandemic sexually transmitted diseases that have killed so many millions of people throughout the world. In Singaling the government wants a high quality of children--then when born, they want to keep them, and keep them healthy.

The rewards of living in Singaling outnumber the frustrations of the short sighted self centered desires which most people on the planet hold. Every family owns an attractive high technology house. Parks and recreation facilities are found throughout the cities. The high incomes of the workers allow travel and vacations in the finest resorts of the world. Indeed the Singalingians, per capita, spend more money on vacations and travel than do the inhabitants of any other country. The self-centered desires which do exist are amply satisfied.

But are they happy? "Yes" is the nearly universal answer. They are the most prosperous people on earth. They hold the interesting and challenging jobs necessary to keep their country as the intellectual and scientific leader of nations. And they are raising the most intelligent and loved children on the globe. They have done this through a strong social value system that praises intelligence and rewards education. This is so different from my country which has mired in the mud of self centered desires and 'rights' and has lost its role as the scientific and intellectual leader of the world. As an American I am greatly saddened, but as a citizen of the world and of the cosmos I must shout a strong "hurrah" for those who have sought the higher ground--and won it.

Singaling has joined Singapore in its Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology. Researchers from around the world clamor to be allowed to work in either country to find the cures that science will uncover. For more than 15 years stem cells have been harvested and available for export throughout the world. Singapore established itself as a leader in stem cell research and Singaling has gladly joined it. Research is speeding along on Alzheimer's, Parkinsons, many cancers, diabetes, and a number of other diseases and handicaps. And the two governments are the leading investors in the projects. The financial brakes the Bush administration applied in the U.S. floored the accelerators of other advanced nations when they realized that the major medical researching country had had its tires shot out. American researchers and other medical leaders streamed into southeast Asia for its open door policy for immigrant geniuses. The election of the highly intelligent Barak Obama was not enough to keep all of the intelligentsia. The American depression had sapped its economy of the necessary funds for research. Putting the voters to work, and getting the banks working had to be the priorities.

I understand that in Singaling the shift in interest to medicine is somewhat economic, since the electronics manufacturing industry, that once was its bread and butter, has taken a bit of a financial hit. But the shift here was not slowed by nebulous religious thinking that has hampered the U.S., that new methods of medical research are somehow against the will of God. Also, the quick profits that American companies usually seek is not a factor in the minds of the Oriental leaders whose multi-millennial history is not based on the pragmatism of profit found in the West. But, as you might expect, profits followed and multiplied as incredible cures were discovered.

As you might also expect, this efficiency of ideal and process did not come from copying the'special interests' government of our country. We may call our government a democracy, but our leaders can be chosen without a majority vote. Sixteen of our presidents have been elected without a majority. Two of them twice, Bill Clinton and Woodrow Wilson. Most have been rather undistinguished, but Abe Lincoln and John Kennedy are generally well thought of. In fact Lincoln usually ranks as our best leader. But then, George W. Bush, our worst leader, was also a minority president. Guess it just shows that a democratic system is a hit or miss system for choosing a leader. I wonder if we should just let Las Vegas set the odds on who would be the best leader, then go with that!

It is effective people-oriented leadership that is essential for a modern society. Plato's philosopher kings set a standard, but few leaders want to follow the thinking of an oligarchy. They want to man the tiller alone.

Lee Kuan Yew, the 'father of Singapore' was a highly effective leader. After Singapore was expelled from Malaysia in 1965, the British educated leader led a population of Chinese, Malays and Indians to developone of the top economies in the world. Without natural resources it was a seemingly impossible task requiring insightful leadership and the hard work of the population. Along the way he suppressed some free speech, held a lid on the press, sued and jailed some rivals, and often suppressed other freedoms that we in the West deem essential. But if it is results you want, an orderly highly functioning society with an outstanding economy, you can't argue. Pragmatism, rather than an idealistic ideology, has been the secret of Singapore and China. The question is do you want to focus on ends or means. If the end justifies the means, the development of these Asian economies are hallmarks to that concept.

In the West we are facing similar questions. Does increased security that may save our lives warrant invasions of our privacy, like cameras placed throughout a city or having to undergo searches at airports. 'Ends versus means' will become more and more of a problem as life and death issues from terrorism, global warming, increasing crime and population aging become more threatening to us all.

But back to my city tour. Mr. Yuen let me take in the city and be lost in my thoughts. He finally broke his silence and brought me back to reality.

THE AGING WORKFORCE

 —"Commander, I know you are concerned with population problems. Aging and its attendant problems are a major drag on modern societies and their economic and social systems."

 —"No question about that. We discussed some of the problems and solutions with Dr. Wang in Kino."

 —"You just have to keep workers in the trenches. Everyone but the Western governments think that our life-spans will increase. The early retirement incentives you Westerners are using to make way for younger workers are counterproductive. You just have to reduce the number of potential young workers. We recognized that some years ago. Your pension planners are making promises they can't keep. The advances in medical science are so great that people are not wearing out as early as they used to. If knees hurt, put in new ones. Intestinal problems?, fix them with stem cells. Alzheimer's?, dissolve the plaques with medication. We have tried to minimize the early retirement problem two ways. We reduce young workers by licensing parents and we give large financial incentives to those who want to leave this life through euthanasia. They usually bequeath their accrued pension money to their child.

"Your Western youth must now save more and spend less. They must pay for the medical and retirement expenses of your current retirees while saving more to pay for their own medical and retirement expenses. (1)

"As medical technology increases the cost of treatments, both governments and individuals have to determine just what payments they will make. If a 99 year old retired coal miner needs a new heart at a cost of $200,000, should the government pay it all? Should the individual pay part? We found that when the government paid all the expenses the individuals were more likely to have the procedure done. If the individual was required to pay for part, through his purchased insurance or his savings, he was less likely to have the procedure. When there is no cost, there is a nearly universal patient eagerness for treatment.

"I'm sure you know about the graduated insurance premiums that Kino has. We have some similar ideas. We have incremental increases for dangerous practices such as--smoking, excess alcohol consumption, moving traffic violations, even sport participation. Of course some sports carry much higher dangers than others. On the plus side, we have positive adjustments to the insurance for positive health habits. Swimming a kilometer four days a week is very positive and reduces insurance premiums. Soccer has positive effects from its aerobic conditioning but negative effects from the potential leg and head traumas, so it results in a net negative for one's insurance premiums.

"Like Kino, we let the individual choose, but then don't bail him out if he didn't prepare for the unfortunate illnesses and accidents that are always possible. In spite of the fact that we self-centered people would like the government to take care of us all, no society can afford it today. But it does make for a popular topic on the campaign trails in your country.

"But it's not only about health care. Public pension funds have been insolvent for years. Politicians in democracies like to promise more benefits along with lower taxes. A fanciful fantasy without fiscal foundations. It's Mother Goose without her accountant! Longer lives, earlier retirements, higher pensions--the things that dreams are made of!

"It's getting worse in all developed countries as people are working about 40 years then are retired for 20 or more years. To make the pension fund pay for itself a worker would have to contribute about half as much every month as he or she would get when retired. So from a monthly gross pay, assuming that a worker wanted a retirement income of 75% of his working wages, there would be about a 35% deduction for a pension, an income tax deduction of say 20%, and a deduction for future medical insurance. This would leave about 25 to 40% of the worker's gross wages—or about half of what he would make when retired. Not a huge financial incentive to work."

"We have no forced retirement. This saved us hundreds of billions of dollars. Just look at the UK's pension problems. Public sector pensions in the UK amount to about a trillion pounds. That's two trillion dollars. This is paid from tax receipts These unpaid pension liabilities are equivalent to about 40 thousand pounds per household. Another way of saying it is that it is about 80% of a year's gross domestic product.

"More and more people at retirement age want to work. A friend of mine at the California State University joyfully goes to work every day at 85. He is an outstanding teacher and is still coaching an intercollegiate sports team. I met a world class medical professor in his 80s at Tromso University in Norway. He was forced to retire at 70 but works daily at his old job. The university pays for his office and laboratory, but he is working for 65% of his former pay and doesn't share in the pay raises of the other professors. Another Norwegian professor of my acquaintance was forced into an undesired retirement at 70. But there was no one to teach her classes or work with her doctoral students so she was hired as a consultant, at more than her previous pay. So with her pension, she was costing the state about twice what she would have cost if she had been allowed to avoid retirement. The Scandinavian rationalization was that his retirement made room for a young assistant professor. But about fifteen years ago Norway removed the retirement requirements. It saved on pensions and kept talented experienced professionals in their jobs and .so profited doubly.

"In Singaling we have always allowed talented people to stay in their jobs and earn professorial wages. If we needed another professor or administrator we would hire him or her—and we don't have near the money that Norway has. I don't know why your politicians think that people must be forced into retirement so that young people can get jobs to pay for those who are already retired. If happy workers don't retire there is no need to have other people working. We pay them their normal wages with raises. Of course having people working past their retirement ages saves the country money since it isn't paying them pensions. "

 —"I've seen the statistics on European and American workers between the ages of 50 and 70. At 50 about 90% of men were working. By 70 almost no men in Belgium worked but in Japan 50% were still working. In Belgium even by age 60 only 25% of men were working. But in Japan 75% are working at 60.

"In 2000 when I left, in the U.S. ten people joined the work force for every six who left. By 202510 new workers will enter the workforce for every 13 who leave. We have to keep more older workers in the workforce. I understand that you give them a percentage of their retirement pension if they work, starting at age 70."

 —"Right. It is a non-taxable partial pension and increases every year—up to 50% by age 85. Because most of our people enjoy their work, they stay. We have tried to do as Arnold Toynbee suggested. 'The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.' Did you know that in your own country the number of people working after 65 is increasing seven times faster than the over-65 population. Finances are often a factor, but enjoyment is also a factor."

 —"We certainly have a problem with the so called 'baby boomers'. There are so many of them. After the Second World War the fertility rate went up to 3.8 during the twenty years after the war. That started impacting Social Security and Medicare about ten years ago. Today, in 2025, the impact is meteoric. It is not only their dipping into the social purse, they are often looking for more handouts from the government. And their voting block has real power. They are pushing hard for anti-aging medications and opportunities. They want to live longer and better.

"A major problem is to find the causes and cures for Alzheimer's, arthritis, cancers and all the other problems that end life or make life less bearable. So far we haven't been able to eliminate the age-old mental and physical effects of living longer. Living forever doesn't mean being eternally youthful. It reminds me of Homer's recounting the Greek myth of the Trojan Tithonus who was granted eternal life by Zeus. He didn't die, but his body and mind continued to age. Senility left him as a babbling skin-wrapped skeleton. Is this what we all have in store? In the U.S. we have had a 500% increase in people over 85 in the last seventy years.

"I always wondered why the fairer sex, who outlive us by several years, are allowed an earlier retirement. Seems to me that they should be required to retire later! I guess it's just another example of fuzzy thinking by our actuarially ignorant lawmakers."

 —"Don't forget disability retirements. I have some lawyer friends that make a living getting mental and physical disability retirements for their clients. 'Stress' retirements are a common way of getting a full retirement at a much earlier age. And the truth is that many are not disabled and could easily work at another job—in fact many take on a second job after getting their disability retirement."

 —"It is your Western liberal thinking that assumes that everyone is honest and everyone is entitled to whatever they want. Our more autocratic administration in our representative democracy doesn't require that we give any benefits without an unqualified and justified reason. We are charitable, but not stupid! Look at Germany where two-thirds of the men have retired before the legal age through disability and other such loopholes. Over a third of Englishmen and over a quarter of Dutchmen have also taken such early retirements.

"We are now operating under these retirement provisions and they are working. We gear pensions to our life expectancies and our pension contributions. Retirement at age 70 is at 60% of earnings. For every year of earlier retirement the pension is reduced by 6%. For every year of later retirement the pension is increased by 6%. We decided that for the good of our nation's economy we can't penalize work. We must not penalize those who want to work past retirement age.

"In just five years, by 2030, 20% of your U.S. population will be over 65. Your increasing population drives cars more, sits in traffic more, creates more global warming and increases the wait time in traffic. There's nothing good about your increasing population—and you think you are the world leader, the super power."

 —"You're preaching to the choir Mr. Yuen. But you are right that the more people we have the greater the increases in government expenses, about a half trillion dollars has been allocated for highways to handle the increased traffic."

 —"At least some of your people are buying pollution free vehicles from us or from China. We are so far ahead of your people with fuel cells, natural gas and photovoltaic power. Some years ago the Beijing government listed developing clean fuel autos as one of its major priorities We had preceded them by several years.

ROBOTS

"As you have seen, robots are a major part of our economy. We not only create and manufacture them, we use them extensively. It started with using them to manufacture and package our electronic products many years ago. Then we developed them in larger versions to manufacture autos and airplanes. Then we got into the humanoid business. Our humanoids are waiters, guards, cleaners, teaching assistants, carpenters, cashiers, and a whole lot of other things. We are perfecting many of the previous medical uses of robots for surgery. They do the work of physiotherapists in exercising stroke and other paralysis victims. They work many more hours a day than the live therapists can. So the patients get 6 hours of therapy instead of just a half hour. Robots do the work of most high school graduates and many college educated people.

"Hospitals, nursing homes, hotels, restaurants, in fact many of the service industries, profit from the use of robots, costs are reduced, and efficiency is increased. They are essential to reducing the burgeoning expenses of modern health care.

"Along with Japan and some very creative people in your country we are making manual labor a thing of the past so we don't need the low level workers that are being popped out of the willing wombs of Third World women. For Japan it is a godsend as a way of substituting for the unborn workers that the Japanese needed.

"As you can see, our economy is far more multi-dimensional than is Kino's. They lead the world in photovoltaic solar power and fresh water nanotechnology. We are still into telecommunications and computers, but we are among the world's leaders in non-polluting transportation and a number of robotics possibilities. And as a peace loving nation it is strange that we are a major researcher and producer of surveillance and tactical robots. Our solar powered robot controlled drones are spying the world for a number of countries.

"Your Department of Defense has been our major customer. Both air surveillance and ground work. The Iraq War ruined the American public's tolerance for real soldiers driving mined roads and being shot at while making door to door searches. Maybe the next war will be our robots against their robots. So we will have even less need for real people.

"On the home front, for years we have had robots that understand simple language. Now we are working on robots deciphering non-verbal language, like one's tone of voice or understanding arm and hand movements. We are humanizing the plastic souls of the rambling robots. The questions now revolve around whether to get rid of their rollers and give them legs, and just how human we want them to look and act. Too much reality often fosters fear. Not enough reality also fosters fear and a lack of confidence. So just how far do we go on the path between the basic metal armed rolling barrel and the reality of Disney's standing, moving, talking Abe Lincoln at Disneyland.

"Korea has been a leader in the domestic uses of robots. Today every Korean home has at least one robot. Among other things they teach the children math, science and English. We use their robotics technology extensively."

 —"Korea leads in a lot of electronic areas. The country was the first to have border to border wi-fi. Everyone has a camera phone. Heck, the security is better than in the UK with all their cameras. But that's another issue. Let's get back to workers. Do you allow guest workers?"

GUEST WORKERS

 —"Guest workers are allowed when needed. Some are low skilled and work in restaurants, hotels and in the fields in jobs where we don't have robotic help. All are tested for IQ, if high they can be trained in high level areas, like computer science or medicine. They get the same pay for the same work as our citizens. They have two taxes deducted from their pay. One is to pay for our older retired workers. All workers in the country pay this tax until we are on an effective 'pay as you go' program. But the guest workers also pay a second retirement tax that is for their own retirement. It is taken with them, with interest, when they leave the country after they are no longer needed.

"Guest workers are not allowed to have children or have their families with them. They are not allowed citizenship. On the other hand we do invite some high level researchers into the country. They are sometimes, but rarely, allowed to apply for citizenship."

 —"I know that your country has followed Singapore's earlier approach to population control for some time. Can you give me an idea of what their program is?"

POPULATION CONTROL

SINGAPORE'S PROBLEM

 —"Lee Kuan Yew was the greatest national leader of the last few centuries. In his 31 years as Singapore's leader he transformed the country to a modern industrial power. Singapore should not exist. It has no natural resources, only a stalwart work ethic and a workable vision.

"As Lee said, 'Singapore's strength is that it is ideology free and it is pragmatic.' An orderly, progressive, and economically strong country was his goal. If a theory worked he continued it, if it didn't he modified it or discarded it. His approach was undoubtedly the major successful tooling of a society-based modern utopia. Communistic socialism was tried by the Soviet Union, China and a few other countries. But it was never successful. Trying to take Karl Marx's 19th Century library generated ideas and fit them into the realities of the economically diverse 20th or 21st Century couldn't work.

"In today's world the pragmatism of America, formulated philosophically in the works of Charles Sanders Peirce, William James and John Dewey, gave guidance for a system of government based on scientific principles. And I think that Singapore surpassed the U.S. in its use of a pragmatic approach to developing an ideal society.

"I would guess that you might disagree with me. Many Americans disagree with our ban on public gum chewing. Maybe we wouldn't have had to ban it if self-centered people didn't leave their used gum under tables and chairs in public places or spit it out on public sidewalks and streets. There is no question that our country is cleaner because of it. We don't rank gum chewing as a basic freedom. We want order—this will upset selfish people who are concerned only with their own pleasure. But there is much more societal happiness and contentment when selfish individuals are curbed for the good of the whole society.

"Mr. Lee's later concern was in building dikes to prevent the flooding that global warming will bring. Half of the island could be submerged. With his son, who is now the president, he keeps looking for ways to bring money to the island. Although he is against gambling, he looked to bring in casinos to make the island a vacation destination. But he wants to keep out the other negatives that follow gambling enterprises, like prostitution and organized crime.

"Mr. Lee felt that the president should be the highest paid person in the country. The current president makes $2 million a year. That's eight times what your president makes. Do you have a question Lee?"

 —"From your founding president Lee Kwan Yew on, your presidents have been worth it. I can think of only a few of our presidents who were worth what we paid them!"

 \--"You may have a point there, Lee. We are also paying our president a great deal because Singaling, like Singapore, is vulnerable to so many factors, like the world economy and the rise of China's economy. To survive and progress some things have to be controlled. Freedom of speech and of the press are lovely ideals, but the energy used to answer the critics can be better used to advance the society. We only have so many people and so many hours in a day. If we use them to fight capital punishment or animal rights, we can't use them to make business plans or obtain foreign financing. I think that some countries are so busy chasing their political tails that they can't move forward. Your lawyers, journalists and media headliners keep too many of you focused on the periphery and you forget your main goals—having a happy and productive society. You just can't have everything. Do you want the matching accessories or the dress, do you want the relish or the hamburger, do you want the alloy wheels or the Volkswagen? It would be nice to have everything, but no society has the assets, the personnel or the time to do it all. We opted for the basics.

."Ask our citizens whether they would trade our high quality schools, health care and incomes for more gum chewing. Just look at your country. Would your national debt be less, your stock market higher, your dollar worth more, your individual buying power more if you hadn't borrowed from China to finance your recent wars and tax breaks? Your leaders didn't look at the long term trends and possible outcomes, you focused on the immediate political interests. Look what it has done to your economy and your international prestige!

"While China develops relationships in Africa and Asia, your country is busy antagonizing one of the world's major religions. We look to survive and prosper. Is that wrong Commander?

"And our pragmatism permeates other areas as well. For example, homosexuality is accepted as a way to control the birthrate. Still we don't allow homosexual parades. It would be a parade with no real purpose.

"Our values are rapidly changing. Confucian values served us well for 2500 yeas, but today's children have left them behind. And that's not necessarily bad. But we have to bring with us the less affluent, who are more likely to hold both the old quasi-religious Asian ideas and to be less socially concerned. They are the ones we aimed our laws at when we prohibited spitting or throwing garbage on the street. We had to pull them into the future. The difficult part was getting the people to change their habits so that they behaved more like first-world citizens, not like third-world citizens spitting and littering all over the place. It all happened because we were poor. If we were rich in natural resources we couldn't have pulled people up like we did. People had to progress through their own efforts, with our help. They needed guidance.

"We have learned much from Singapore about population control. Since the mid-1960s, Singapore's government has attempted to control the country's population growth rate with a combination of publicity, monetary and other incentives and disincentives. As in other more advanced countries, the drop in death rates and the typical high birth rates showed a national growth rate of 3.4% with an additional 1% from immigration . This was over sixty years ago. By 1965 the growth rate dropped to 2.5%. But it was still too high.

"The government increasingly saw population growth as a negative for living standards so it stepped up its efforts. It saw that more children just increased the expenses of more schools and more medical facilities. It also realized that it would have to provide more jobs for more people. When Singapore separated from Malaysia in 1965 it became more aggressive in population control. It set up the Family Planning and Population Board which was responsible for public education on family planning. Birthrates fell until the mid-seventies, then began to rise as the wartime baby boomers reached child bearing age.

"In 1970 abortion and sterilization were legalized. Population disincentives were instituted.

When a third child was born to a couple, hospitals charged more for the birth, maternity leaves were denied to government employees, and there were no more tax deductions after two children. There were no longer preferences for public housing for larger families.

"On the incentive side, smaller families got preferential enrollment in the best schools. Single children and children whose parents had been sterilized got higher priorities. Voluntary sterilization was rewarded with a week of paid vacation and a priority for education and housing. Along with these incentives, publicity campaigns urged parents to 'Stop at Two.' There was also the strong message that large families threatened the future security of the family. Poor people were also targeted because the penalties affected the poor even more than the rich. They were encouraged to use their limited resources on the couple or on only one child—increasing the chances that the one child would eventually escape their poverty.

"Fertility declined to the replacement level in the mid-70s then continued declining. As happens when population decreases, income increases, education levels rise, women become more important in the work force as their maternal duties evaporate, and infectious diseases decrease.

"In 1988 Singapore's population hit a low and has continued to drop. It hit 1.4 per woman and was headed for Hong Kong's level of 1.1. As educated women are allowed into the workforce, and find it more rewarding than cleaning toilets and small noses, the burden of motherhood falls primarily to those whose major accomplishments are non-academic but rather athletic,--primarily bedroom gymnastics. Globalization has often increased the cost of living. This is another reason to forego having children who cost a great deal and opt for income rather than outgo, for vacations rather than home additions and for relaxing evenings rather than helping with homework and solving the days problems of school.

"With more than 50% of Singaporean women in the work force, and over 80% of Singaling women working, you can see why the fertility rates are low. This not only affects motherhood and child raising, it also affects eldercare. Women used to have the caretaking responsibilities for both ends of the age spectrum, and everything in between. Today society must provide the caretaking for most people.

"Since the eighties the Singapore government has panicked over the possibility of a reduction of the real Singaporeans. Like your country where you fear the reduction of your Anglo population. The Britons, the Germans, the French, the Chinese all espouse the wish to keep their populations as ethnically pure as possible while their native populations are reducing and their perceived economic needs are increasing. Forget the idea that all men are brothers or that we all are products of the same African origin.

"So the low rate of population growth began to concern the pragmatic government because it did not want to rely on immigration to fill the possible population void in fifty years. College educated women were much less likely to give up their interesting jobs to become barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. Marriage for the male university graduates was more likely to be with less educated women. Typically men, because of their typical gross insecurity, marry below their station. Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew exposed this national problem in 1983 when pointing out the necessity of marrying best to best and producing even higher level offspring.. He then offered preferential education to the offspring of college educated women. To help this along the government established a Social Development Unit to act as matchmaker for unmarried university graduates. At the same time he offered $10,000 to less educated women if they would be sterilized after the birth of their second child. Certainly a wise approach to voluntary eugenics.

"A few years later the preferences for children of the educated ran into a wall of unpopularity. The government abandoned the idea, then in another year or two the government decided it now needed more children so the 'Stop at two' motto was replaced with 'Have three or more if you can afford it." Government incentives were reversed to reward larger families. Tax rebates were given for third children. Subsidies for daycare were initiated and priorities for education and housing were now being given to larger families. Paid maternity leave reappeared. Abortion and sterilization were discouraged. But because of later marriages, the lack of desire of successfully employed people to change their lives, and a general lack of fascination with parenthood, the fertility rate dropped to 1.45. The same factors that exist in other economically developed countries were also present in Singapore. The disappointed government warned the people about going 'passively extinct.' More publicity emerged, this time telling of the joys of marriage and parenthood.. By 1989 a $20,000 tax rebate was announced for a fourth child.

"The more recent Singaporean slant is that having children is now a duty to your society and yourself. Some members of parliament call non-parents irresponsible. While the government has been using carrots to cajole the reticent re-populators, it is now using the stick to beat those who made personal decisions to not have children to make societal decisions to have them. It has been suggested that childless couples be forced to make extra contributions toward their old age needs because they won't have children to take care of them."

SINGALING _'S POPULATION CONTROL_

"In Singaling we realize that we must do our part to reduce world population. So while we lament the loss of our natives, we were never ethnically pure. Like Singapore we were Chinese, Indians and Malays. We have always had our fair share of Europeans and Americans. As our population has decreased we have been lowering the bar for immigration. By that I don't mean reducing requirements, in fact we have been raising them. We are just allowing more people to apply."

  —"What kinds of requirements have you put in place?"

  —"We are still in the process of formalizing our new requirements. But we put education and demonstrated high level scientific output highest. As a non-religious society we don't accept highly religious people, particularly those who believe they have the true religion and will try to convert our citizens or who will agitate to make our country into a religious country. It just invites problems. If things are otherwise equal in terms of their desirability, we give preference to Asians, particularly to Chinese and Indians. It has been obvious throughout history that we all want our families and our societies to be as similarly ethnic as we can. Familiarity doesn't breed contempt, it breeds contentment.

"If people have immigrated and integrated into our society we might invite them to apply for citizenship. It is our decision, not theirs. They would have to demonstrate that they accept our Asian respect for authority and order. If they are too concerned with individual rights they won't fit in. We want the whole society to evolve in terms of rights and freedoms, while keeping the societal goals of order and productivity foremost.

"But we aim for contented happy people. We are not just about economic leadership. People need

meaningful relationships with each other. They also need to feel that they are part of the government, the whole society. We want loving relationships between husbands and wives, or between partners. We want parents and children close throughout their lives. People need to have good friends. We emphasize developing caring relationships. We do it in schools and in the media. We use your Dr. Bill Cosby as a paragon as to what can be accomplished in a family and in a society. In fact we have used him as a consultant in our educational and parenting programs in helping us to develop both a curriculum and methodology for teaching. We want to take the teachings of Confucius to the next level.

"As you know the internet and the Western media keep pushing the selfish motivations. These conflict with the greater societal goals. And the outcomes for the individual are much greater in a well ordered caring society than in a laissez faire anarchy."

 —"We just spent a number of hours with Dr. Wang in Kino discussing such conflicts between the self and the society."

 —"Yes, I know her well. We have consulted with her. She has recognized and approved of what we are doing.

"Traditional Asian values, actually Chinese values, have been called upon—just as your country's leaders bring up religion to make their points. But we don't accept the ancient values that don't make sense today. For example, the words of Mencius have been vomited from the past to remind us that of all the major duties we should have to our society 'not having descendents is the worst.'

"Other leaders call on the tradition of 'a baby being a product of love' and that every marriage that has love must have children. Forget looking at the financial and psychological costs, just do it. Don't bother to look at the research that shows that for most people children cause more economic pain than pleasure. To combat this, some legislators proposed television dramas showing the joys of parenting. Clearly they wanted to use the most effective political techniques to change the minds of the reticent reproducers.

"It made me wonder whether any babies are the goal, or just loved babies who are products of stable relationships. I also noted that it was the male parliamentarians, not the females, who were pushing the procreation cart. I wondered what their wives' opinions were. Since women bear the brunt of pregnancy and most of the work of child raising it is easy to see why men are so much more pro-children!

"Because we are so much influenced by Singapore I wanted to show where they were then discuss how we have approached the problem. Our young people also are not as preoccupied with parenthood as were their parents. So our birthrate has dropped. The difference with us is that we are more cosmopolitan in our thinking.

"In Singaling we are not so concerned with being ethnically pure. We are more concerned about economic progress and the future of the world. We therefore are more likely to allow immigration. But we don't take in everybody. First they have to apply as one needed in our economic system. If they are approved they must learn both English and Chinese. We send them the materials they need to learn the languages. They are also tested on their knowledge of our customs, history and philosophy. Then they have to be ready to immerse themselves in our society and to integrate totally. We are not looking for a diverse population. Immigrants' backgrounds give us enough diversity.. We definitely don't want religious or cultural groups protesting our reality, a reality with which we all are quite satisfied. Also, it is only on rare occasions that an immigrant can become a citizen.

"You know we also have licensing for parenting. Ours is a bit different from Kino's. We want to allow licenses to every level of our society. We don't want to be accused of genocide or eugenics. But admittedly it is more difficult for the poorer people to meet the financial requirements. As I mentioned we have government paid voluntary sterilization. But we also have financial grants from the government for those who are exceptionally qualified for pareenthood.

_"_ _Some might call it genocide for Africans or Latin Americans if licenses were required in those area, but when food becomes more expensive because of increased fertilizer prices due to higher priced petrochemicals, when gasoline prices rise because of scarcity of oil, food will go to the wealthy so the poor people will experience more famine than they already do. They die one way or the other. And it may be their own fault since only Africa and Latin America more than doubled their percentage of the world's population during the last century. It is no surprise that these are Third World areas dominated by the religions of Abraham."_

 —"Certainly the short sighted leaders in those regions will call it genocide. But aren't you worried about losing your native population?"

 —"Certainly we are saddened by the state of the world's overpopulation and we would like to keep our own population stable or increasing, but we have to look at the world's situation. Somebody has to take the lead in putting their money where their mouth is. All those people lamenting the overpopulation problem but unwilling to look into their own backyards need someone to lead. We hope we are the leader. It's like global warming, it needs to be reduced just don't tell me what kind of car to drive, how much to drive it and don't make me change my home thermostat to alter my comfort zone! People need leadership to take them out of their selfish closets and bring them to the reality of global destruction and the possible end of the human race. Hopefully it is not too late. It makes me wonder about the intelligence of those billions of human ostriches who seem to think that tomorrow will be like yesterday--a yesterday with no global warming, no terrorism, no famines, no water shortages, no nuclear threats. That 'once upon a time' era may not have been utopian, but it certainly didn't hold the specter of destruction that today's world holds. We are just trying to be that wee voice from the wilderness that holds an example of what might be. Hopefully other countries will follow our lead. Certainly the higher incomes and better lives of China, Kino, Singapore and Singaling should show the world that economic success is much more easily obtained with a reduced population.

LICENSING

"A baby is a bouncing bundle of physical and emotional needs. It has no capacity to give. I've heard of parents in your country wanting a baby so that someone will love them. Or wanting a baby to carry on the family name. Or your famous playgirl Paris Hilton who announced shortly after serving some jail time that she wanted a baby because it would make her grow up. Then there are those women who get pregnant to keep a man in a relationship. Some parents have said that they wanted grandchildren for their own parents—and were often pressured by their parents. These are the most selfish and ridiculous reasons imaginable for adding a hopefully 'human' being.

"There will be an increased cost to society to monitor and enforce the licensing laws but the cost will be far less than if the children were allowed to be born. The cost of education, is about $10.000 per year through the secondary level of schooling and more than double that for higher education. Fewer babies will result in less expenditure for juvenile and adult criminal court expense, fewer jail inmates --at a savings of $25,000 per year, less money spent on drug and alcohol abuse and many other societal expenses. These expenses will be reduced not only because there will be fewer babies born, but if the parental license requirements are even somewhat effective. The percentage of drug abusers, alcoholics, criminals and poor learners should be much less than today. Therefore the percent of wages taken as taxes for education, environmental control, anti-social activities, et cetera, would be much less than before. This would mean that either there could be a great reduction in taxes or that the tax money could be spent for other things like parks and recreation activities, free higher educational opportunities for all the citizens, more artistic and cultural opportunities, and so forth.

"We want our children growing up in a nurturing loving family so that they can become loving parents themselves. But we also want them to be successful in some endeavor that is socially useful. We think that the criterion set out by both Sigmund Freud and Ashley Montagu is essential—people should have the ability to love and work. These are the essentials of mental and societal health. Yes Mr. Con"

 —"It's just Con, sir. My last name is Concannon, but everybody has always called me Con. In California we require a valid identification to prevent anyone under 21 from trying to buy alcohol, and you or I could go to jail for providing alcohol to a minor, but 12 year olds are having babies, and being sent home with them. Something isn't quite right about our society's priorities. Ya Ray."

 —"All that said, I would question the priorities, and agenda, of anyone who seriously pushes for forced contraception or tubal ligation or licensing of the right to reproduce. But I do agree that we, as a society, need to do more to prepare people to become parents, to give them more information."

LICENSE REQUIREMENTS

 —"Commander, you wonder about our parent licensing. First, no immigrants may have children. Beyond that we have a two tier level of requirements. The first level evaluates the financial, relationship and physical potentials of the potential parents. The next level deals with making sure that potential parents have the knowledge necessary to be effective parents and the ability to love so that they can put it all into practice.

"The first level looks at a number of easily evaluated criteria. While here in Singaling it is possible to get a license at age 25, we encourage people to wait several more years before applying. Thirty is our normal threshold age. You don't just pop out of puberty and automatically become ready for parenthood. Most people at 25 are still not mature enough to parent. They might be ready to provide the physical needs of child care, but the mental potential of most 25 year olds to provide for the psychological needs of the child is likely to be lacking. We don't want immature people to be parents. We don't want babies raising babies as is often found in the U.S.A. Our modern society requires so much more of our citizens that the duties of parenthood are much greater than they have ever been. Parenthood should therefore be recognized as being the most important profession in the world. Consequently, as we license other professions we think parenthood is even more important than any other profession.

"We also have a top age that is considered. The chance for abnormalities increases with the age of either parent. Autism, dwarfism and schizophrenia increase when the fathers reach their mid-forties.

A number of other muscle and bone problems increase too. The chance of having an abnormal child if you are under 40 is 3%, in fathers over 40 it increases to 4% and increases with increasing age.

"We have a license fee equal to two months of one potential parent's salary. It is returned if the license is not granted, or if the couple raises the child it is returned with 10% compound interest when the child graduates from college and has had a clean ethical and legal record.Then we give the parents a 6 month vacation at government expense. The license provides insurance in case the financial abilities of the parents are compromised in later years. Financial ability is an obvious essential for parenthood. I'm appalled that you don't recognize this in the U.S. I have heard the calls there for universal health coverage where the proponents plea that millions of children do not have health coverage. That should have been taken care of before they were born, with a license fee.

"A stable relationship of at least 5 years is required. It need not be a legal marriage but it must be registered with the state. There is strong evidence that children raised with 2 parents have a better chance to be well adjusted and to avoid violent behavior.

"Among the other factors evaluated are: are the potential parents employed, does either own a gun, has either threatened or attempted suicide, has either threatened or harmed other children, does either have a drinking or drug problem, is either person jealous? Was violence a part of his or her family upbringing and if so is there evidence that the possible negative effects have been eliminated through counseling. Is there a history of diabetes, cholesterol or heart problems, Alzheimer's, cancers. Is there evidence of psychosis, especially bipolar, schizophrenic or depressive disorders. All of these factors are easily discoverable through our national health registry. Gene testing is available for prospective parents and testing for mutations is available once a licensed mother is pregnant.

"In your country the number of diagnosed bipolar children and adolescents has gone up 40 times in the last ten years. Even if half were possibly misdiagnosed, that's an incredible number of cases.(2) Since there is a great deal of evidence that the tendencies for bipolar problems are inherited, we want to reduce their incidence.

"We are constantly studying and analyzing the necessities of modern parenthood in order to make the licensing requirements and the parental education more effective and meaningful. Since there is probably no job in the world more important or with more varied demands than being a parent, we can't leave it up to luck and accident to produce the citizens of tomorrow. We often change our licensing criteria, our educational training and our ongoing parental support based on our continuing research.

PARENT EDUCATION

"At the second level we have classes and tests in a number of areas important for parenting. There are classes in nutrition, in physiology, in child psychology, in teaching methods and similar areas. If people want to take the tests without taking the classes this is possible.

"Our major hurdle is in evaluating people's ability to love. We believe that love is helping someone to be the best they can be. That includes lots of possible areas. It includes a raft of physical, mental and emotional areas. I am certain that Dr. Chan will fill you in on this when you meet him tomorrow.

"The classes and tests we require just provide information on what a growing child needs, it doesn't guarantee that the child will be provided with what it needs by its caring parents. We require that prospective parents spend a week in a nursery school, a week in an elementary school and a week in an old people's home. We observe them for their kindness and their appropriate caring responses.

"Along with having certain mental and financial abilities, we have the potential parents sign a contract in which they promise that they will provide the child with the physical and mental necessities to become the best that they can be and that they will not neglect or abuse the child physically or mentally. This gives the state a contractual promise that if broken can result in the state taking the child. There are nearly always potential adopting parents who have the license, but do not have the biological abilities to have children.. There are also many who want additional children. So there are plenty of potential adopters.

"Probably no factor is more important for the health of a society than a parent. Certainly teachers and coaches are important, but no one approaches the parent in terms of being essential for an effectively functioning society.

AFTER THE BIRTH

"All newborns have a biochip inserted in a clavicle. All citizens and immigrants have them also.

At any time we can tell where they are. The chip has all of their medical history. If there were a crime, it can put them at the scene of a crime, or clear them. It acts as an internal passport. Obviously if a person doesn't have a chip or a visitor's visa we know they are illegally in our country.

"We strongly encourage breast feeding unless there is a medical reason not to. We agree with Margaret Mead when she said that 'The feeding bottle made possible the establishment of total impersonality from time of birth, and so an infancy without tenderness or warmth.' There is no substitute for long warm physical contact for an infant. And your Ashley Montagu emphasized the point when he wrote 'We know from the observations of a number of physicians and investigators that love is an essential part of the nourishment of every baby and that unless he is loved he will not develop as a healthy organism psychologically, spiritually or physically. Even though he is physically well nurtured, he may nevertheless waste away and die.'

"Once the child is born we have some rules to assist the parents in giving the child the best possible loving environment. As opposed to the Nordic idea of giving each parent several months off to care for the child, usually six to nine months for the mother and three to six for the father, we give the mother one month off after the birth, then we give a half day off to each parent for nine months. We believe that both parents must bond to the child but we also believe that each parent is bonded to our economy. If a person is an important figure in an industry, that industry will suffer if the person is absent for several months. If the person were a carpenter or grocery checker there would be no problem if they were absent from work for several months. But if he or she was important in the administration of the government or a business there would be severe problems in their not being involved in the ongoing process of the work. The same would be true of researchers. We have to strike an effective balance between the needs of the baby as a future citizen of our society and the effective ongoing requirements of our economy and our societal needs.

"It is strongly recommended that every family has dinner together five nights a week to instill family values. We allow no other activities between 6 and 7 PM—no youth league sports, no TV, no concerts.

"We have some other requirements for our children. They must play outside 2 hours a day. And we allow no organized youth sport until a child is at least 12 years old. When they watch TV it will only be on one of the four state sponsored channels. There are some cartoons, but they always have a good message. We never have cartoon characters dropped off cliffs, run over by trucks, shot, or exposed to any other violence. We have interesting child oriented TV programs in world and national history, various sciences, and plays. They are entertaining but educational."

 —"I've always been told that a parent is not a person to lean on but a person who makes leaning unnecessary. If it is a parent's job to develop an independent child, rather that mold the child into a special social image, how do you do that?"

 —"We educate the parents to do this at appropriate ages. Then the schools' curricula is geared to develop independence at the appropriate ages. Of course there is no standard age for each level of independence. For example, learning to cross the street by oneself might be appropriate for some children at seven but for others not until age ten. The same might be applied to making one's school lunch or cleaning one's room.

"Another thing is that we want the parents to emphasize praising the positive things that a child does. Criticism, especially if it is constant, can kill the child's spirit and make children less sure of themselves. This will then hinder the development of independence. Along these lines we emphasize that the child will tend to imitate what they see. There is a time to talk to your child to make him or her understand a concept, such as what is the correct way to interact with playmates, but yelling at a child for every problem will probably just create a child who yells."

 —"What happens if people have an unlicensed child?"

 —"They have the option of emigrating to a country that will have them, they can give up the child to adoption and both parents will have to serve six months in jail. I'm not aware of an unlicensed child ever having been born because of the accessibility to contraceptives and abortions—and our strong sex education programs. I should mention that childless couples, heterosexual and homosexuals, are given a large tax break because of their help in reducing population."

 —"As you know I am for licensing parents, but how did you get it to happen nationally?"

 —"It is the most natural and rational approach to take. Many countries have laws to protect children in some situations. We, as you, have laws requiring car seats and laws to require that parents not lock their children in cars when they go shopping. We require that they go to school. Schools may require vaccinations to protect the child from a diseased child.

"In the last century the United States has enacted laws covering child labor, child-abuse, compulsory education and child custody and support. They have also instituted juvenile and family courts. The governments have increased the number of duties parents have toward children regarding their safety and their education. The governments are trying to lock the barn doors after the horses are out. It should be obvious to all that the prevention of child abuse and endangerment should begin before conception. But rather than just looking at the negatives of uncaring and ignorant parents, we must look at giving children the best possible start in life. Whether we look at children's human rights as individuals or just what is best for the society—screening potential parents and helping them to be loving caregivers is best for society and best for the children.. It makes sense in every way--financially it costs much less to have law abiding non-drugged people. Socially we have concerned people who have been loved, and politically we have intelligent citizens. So it's a win-win-win situation. It just goes against tradition. and people naturally want to accept tradition rather than to change, even if change is more intelligent. It's back to the self-centered versus society-based assumptions."

 -"It's like the difference between progress and change. Golf clubs are far better today but golfers don't score better. Progressive ideas that are good for the society usually have an uphill battle. That's why authoritarian regimes can make things happen more quickly. But the authoritarian regimes have to have plans that are good for the society. The Communist Soviet Union didn't have a workable plan. The Chinese Communists did, at least Deng did. Russia went backward economically after their revolution. China leapt forward economically after its one child policy.

"Nay-sayers will curse that those teenagers and adults who are being denied children are having their civil and human rights are violated. Advocates will champion the civil and human rights of the children, the better life of the country's citizens, and the world's population reduction and its ecological gains. The question is whether the state should step in after the child is damaged as it can do now, or to try to prevent the damage. The next question would be whether the state should seek only to eliminate the worst potential parents or whether it should attempt to limit childbearing to the best and most concerned potential parents.

"In the animal world there is often a shunning of the less than ideal and a favoritism for the ideal. Pandas often leave their young, favoring one. Birds may also favor one chick and abandon the others.

The runt of the litter is ignored. I wonder how often this happens with human parents. I haven't seen any studies on this, but I have observed it. Most of us want to avoid having that runt and yearn for the pick of the litter.

"Research on child raising is summarized monthly and sent to all parents. It is our national trait to plan for the future—to anticipate trouble before it occurs rather than solving the problem after it arrives. Strategic planning is the rule.

"In Singaling we have extensive testing of children from an early age to ascertain if they have special talents, particularly in mathematics, music, the arts, sports, language facility. This helps the parents to help and encourage the child in these areas.We aren't encouraging what the Chinese are doing, like identifying table tennis talents at age 4 or 5 then sending them on to special schools to develop their talent, until the very best are at a super elite school for the sport.

"If a relationship break-up occurs and one parent finds a new partner, that partner must apply for a license if he or she is going to move in with the parent and child. If the test isn't passed the child goes permanently to the other biological parent. Your own American research shows that children living with a couple in which one adult is not the biological parent is fifty times more likely to be killed, injured or sexually abused by the unrelated adult than a child living with both biological parents.(3)"

OBJECTIONS TO PARENT LICENSING

 \--"Did you come up against the common objections to licensing? The ideas that children belong to their parents and that God said be fruitful and multiply."

 —"Well yes. You have those on the right saying that government should never enter into the family's domain. Then on the left they say that the government shouldn't impinge on individual freedom.

"Of course these same objections can be made to any licensing. People don't complain about licensing dentists, drivers or attorneys. Demonstrated competence is obviously needed and so it is accepted. I wonder if people complained when barbers were no longer allowed to do surgery. Not many people object to child abuse laws or mandatory education.

"I think the first problem is that we have to evaluate what jobs are most important to our society. Parents, doctors, cosmetologists, taxi drivers, psychologists, etc. Of these, I think parenting is the most important, but it is the only one that doesn't require a license. It requires no education. It needs only sex between two people, who may not even be consenting. They may still be in elementary school. They may be drug addicts. They may be psychotic. Their only competence is that they can produce sperm and ova. That's about the same as licensing a lawyer only because he can say 'I object,' or licensing a cosmetologist because she can hold a comb.

"Probably different criteria will evolve once licensing is accepted. That could be the difference between just separating out the worse possible risks for parenting or trying to separate out the best potential parents, as we have done.

"I may not have mentioned that people denied licenses would have an appeals process, including the courts. This is the same for other state licenses."

FEMALE EQUALITY AND ECONOMIC USEFULNESS

 \--"Probably the best parenting control procedures have evolved as female equality has occurred, particularly in the educational and work fields. That, along with contraceptives and abortions, makes it easy for those not interested in parenting to avoid it."

 —"The problem in your country is that often the least qualified potential parents don't use these methods. How equal is the ghetto drug abuser who prefers spending her money on crack rather than contraceptives. It seems that your social outlook is increasing the percentage of babies born to the least able mothers. Then your government pays them to keep and raise the baby or babies!"

TRADITION AND MALE POWER

 —"Male power and insecurity have throughout history advocated keeping women subservient. Women were possessions not equals. They could be beaten without reason. Look at the old Chinese saying 'clubbing produces virtuous wives.' Or the Spanish 'to keep your wife on the rails, beat her—and if she goes off the rails, beat her.' Or the old English rub 'women, like gongs, should be beaten regularly.'

"I know we have brought up the inequality of Muslim women and their often terrible treatment. But we have to remember that women, especially wives and daughters, are beaten in most societies. I know it relates to men's need for power. We find wife beating crossing every social and religious group. I have certainly seen enough of this in the courtroom. But women are fighting back in courts and in person. In fact at least one in ten spousal beatings have the husband at the wrong end of the fist.

"Female equality threatens the power needs of men. This keeps female inequality the rule in most of the world. Even when democracy enters the political system men generally get the voting rights long before women do. In the democratic U.S. only 10% of the senators are women. Contrast that with the Scandinavian countries where the percentage of women in government approaches 50%.

"Now with more women than men in college, the glass ceiling is being penetrated in business, politics and in academia. Eventual motherhood was an anchor that held down all women, even the avowedly single women, denying them equal opportunities for success. But now the higher educations of women have profound implications for the economy, society, families and democracy.

"The problem here, like Japan, has been that even though the laws advocate gender equality in the workplace, the realities are that when women have children they can't work as many hours, they may be absent from work when the child is sick, they have to leave work by 5 or 6 to pick up the child from childcare. Consequently the promotions were more likely to come to those men and women who can work full time or more. What we have done is a two-fold remedy. First, the fathers must alternate with the mothers on taking time off work for child care necessities. Normally, however, the day care teachers and nurses can handle emergencies like sickness or accidents.

"Then secondly, we give credit toward promotions for licensed parents. Our promotional requirements are as objective as we can make them. In addition to giving points for being a parent, we include points for one's education, points for recent updating of skills, personality testing, evaluations of co-workers, annual job evaluations, special job performances such as developing a labor saving strategy or developing new insights into products or production, sick leave time and a number of lesser criteria. We do not count time off for children's needs against the criteria for promotion.

"Women have risen to be the top political leader in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Latvia, Norway, Finland, Liberia, Mozambique, Germany, Ireland, UK, Argentina and the Philippines. Only Saudi Arabia and Morocco have no female representatives in their governments. Sweden leads with 45% of the Parliament being women.

"Mohammad's wife drove camels but modern day Muslim women cannot drive cars.

The Koran, like any other scriptures or legal writings, can be interpreted differently. In the case of the Koran it can liberate women or keep them submissive to the will of men. In Afghanistan 60% of women are forced to marry against their will, and 60% of those are under 16.

"Women are not allowed to perform priestly duties in the Mormon Church. Neither were African-Americans men until a new revelation in 1978 allowed it. This revelation occurred after years of having many of the best football and basketball players at the major Mormon university, Brigham Young University, being Afro-American."

 \--"It seems that the second class citizenship doesn't bother all women. Many Christian and Muslim women are apparently quite content in their secondary and inferior roles. It is the superior women who want equality and the inferior men who fight it. How long are we going to repeat 'women's place is in the home' or 'father knows best'. When will we look at a person's individual potential and their potential for the society. What a shame that backward traditions shackle modern societies.

"Remember a few years ago when Japan almost re-wrote the law to allow a female accession to the throne. It seemed that the princesses were blamed for not producing a son—but everyone knows that the male Y chromosome is in the sperm. Women carry only female X chromosomes.

"You will go into that in much greater detail when you talk with Dr. Chan later on. But I'm sure you can see that women often tolerate it because tradition often reinforces the need to be married as the ultimate goal of a woman. So being married satisfies her need for power. Consequently she endures one evil for a greater psychological good."

 —"It is not Islam that is against women, but rather some of its reactionary interpreters. In Pakistan, a nuclear power, we still have two honor killings a day, rape happens hourly yet, according to Surah 24:4, unless a woman can produce four male witnesses who actually witnessed the act she is jailed for having had illicit sex.

"When Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize he related that 97% of his customers were women. This had irritated the men and the mullahs who said that taking money from the bank was against their religion. But he pointed out that in the history of Islam women had been warriors and business people, like Mohammed's first wife. Religions tend to protect the status quo of the society, even as it shifts markedly."

THE REALITIES OF FEMALE SUBJUGATION

 —"The realities are that women have been proving themselves in every area, from national leadership in prime ministerial positions to leadership in every scientific and business field. Women are still pushing against the glass ceilings, ceilings that are much higher in the less developed countries, but they are not all that much lower in most Western countries.

"In nearby Malaysia we are seeing some equality creeping into Islam. The rise of female Koran reciters has grown following the path of the famous Maria Ulfah, whose father encouraged her to have equal status with men. Her rise to the top as a scholar and lecturer has swept up many girls and women in her wake. Islam, like Christianity, is not anti-women. Both religions have merely been tools of the tornado of tradition. And like a tornado, a few breaths in the opposite direction don't stop it. It needs a hurricane of ecclesiastical change to stop or reverse it.

"Keeping women out of the high levels of the work force or the government limits a society's potential. Women have risen to lead counties like India, Pakistan, Israel, Liberia, Germany, Norway, Chile, Finland. They wouldn't be there if they didn't have the ability. And it's hard to believe that they would be worse than men, in fact, so far they have generally done much better. When looking down through the glass ceiling we see that it magnifies the injustices done to women and has held our societies captive to customs.

"The gains vary with the country. For example in Algeria the majority of lawyers and judges are women, yet in your US, college educated women average only 70 to 75% of what college educated men earn. Whatever the society, we believe that the advice of your Benjamin Franklin is essential. He said

'Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society.'

"It is rather unfair that throughout the world most of the hard work is done by the women and most of the decisions are made by the men. Yet we see women in Muslim countries often asking for equality but wanting the state to follow sharia, with its repression of women in many areas of life. The feminists of the West are not expressing the universal desire of women when they seek absolute equality. Because for many Muslims the law of Allah, as they understand it, is seen as more vital and necessary than any secular law.

"But the law of god sometimes works in the opposite way. When Queen Hatsheput ascended the throne of Egypt 3500 years ago, after her husband and half-brother King Thutmose II died, she proclaimed herself king—since she was descended from the god Amun."

 —"Just what is it that women want?"

 —"That seems to vary with the woman. Some are afraid to change their lot. Marriage, motherhood and mutilation may be enough. Some want only voting rights. Some want equality in every area. And some want superiority."

 —"I hear that in Iran women aren't even able to watch football games. I guess that's a way of keeping them superior to men."

 —"It's often a social class thing, with religion merely giving the rationalization, just like in all of the traditional major religions. For women--a lack of status, an object of ridicule and violence, a servant or slave, all are common with the blessings of the scriptures. It seems that real equality comes when religion reduces or disappears."

 —"It's more than social class. Even college educated women, both Muslim and Christian, often put up with abuse out of a feeling of duty, or their fear of disappointing their parents or their religious community, or out of fear of losing their man.

"Arranged marriages are still common in cultures like the Muslim and Hindu. And even worse, suspected indiscretions of Muslim girls, even in modern Western countries, are often punished by death at the hands of male family members.

"For many years, the Muslim community did not face the issues. Women suffered in silence and fear. Even today, many imams think it could never happen in their mosque because Islam gives equal rights to men and women. But the myths in Muslim society are that men are superior and violence is permitted. Consequently when socially conscious men attempt to educate the others they are confronted by the deeply ingrained idea that men are superior and have the right to beat their wives.

"It's not just a Muslim problem. Men in every country and in every social class may beat their wives. And many wives fight back, or even attack first. I guess that between tradition and the modern media we all have permission to hit first and ask questions later."

 —"Much of our foreign aid money is earmarked for aiding female equality in the Third World. Not only is equality of opportunity a basic human right, it is a major key to population control. Being able to say 'no' is essential for human happiness. Whether its saying 'no' to being a child bride or an unconsenting partner in an arranged marriage. Being a child bride removes a child from school and condemns her to a life of continual pregnancies, ignorance and poverty. And her virginity may be shattered with an HIV infection, since you probably know of the common African belief that AIDS can be cured by having sex with a virgin.

"There are forty-nine countries, mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, that have child bride problems. While many brides are under ten, many are 15, the age when the Virgin Mary heard of her virgin birth—at least that's what the Ethiopian Orthodox Church tells them."

 —"When there is insecurity in a society, due to war, poverty, depression or a threat to the 'manhood' of a significant percentage of the men, any opportunity for power is welcomed. Whether it be a resurgence of fundamental religion or a resurgence of the 'me Tarzan, you Jane' superiority needs, women usually feel the brunt of the cloak of psychological weakness of the non-successful men.

"Keeping women subjugated and uneducated keeps the society from functioning on all 8 cylinders. This keeps the society more impoverished and the men feeling more inferior so they have more need for 'whipping boys', or should we say 'whipping girls.'

"The Western culture and media are huge threats to the impoverished or unsuccessful male. Successful women, rich countries, dashing heroes all strike terror into the hearts of the great majority of males whose bravado blankets their huge inferiority complexes.

"The clerics in Iran blocked a Parliament passed acceptance of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. This is another example of the reactionary approach of some religious leaders to humanitarian pronouncements of the world society. But there were some conservative women who feared being forced to appear with men in public swimming pools and baths. But our American government was just as reactionary in not ratifying the convention.

"Pakistan's General Musharraf was also taken to task for siding with human rights groups who were trying to overturn the Shariah laws put in place 25 years earlier by a former dictator. Included in these laws was what you just mentioned Con, the provision that a rape victim needed testimony in court by four pious Muslim male witnesses to prove her case, otherwise she might have to suffer public whipping or death by stoning as an adulterer. Another law required death by stoning for one who blasphemed Islam."

 —"But the more educated men and women in the Middle East are generally pushing for women's equality and democracy. Politicians, scholars and non-governmental organizations agree that social reform and democratization will improve the status of women in the Middle East. Women are driving forward democratic freedoms as they fight for their individual rights in societies in which traditional standards are more important. They are demanding changes in divorce laws and traditions and in the custody of children. They want more economic rights. They also want to put an end to 'honor killings' and female genital mutilation.

"It's sad to say, but the practices don't die at the border when immigrants come to countries which don't allow the abusive behavior. So Turks in Germany, the Pakistanis in Norway, and many other social groups often continue the practices of arranged marriage, honor killings, the inequality of the genders, and spousal beatings."

 \--"It's like so many other religions or bodies of law, you can often find quite different ideas. For example, the Koran often finds women to have only half of the value of men. 'In terms of inheritance daughters are worth only half of sons' says Surah 4:11. These evaluations are made by God says Surah 4:12 On the other hand, tradition tells us that when Muhammad was asked by a man 'Who is most deserving of friendly care' and the Prophet, according to Abu Hurairah, replied 'Your mother.' The man then asked who came next and the Prophet replied 'Your mother.' The man asked who came next and the prophet again replied, 'Your mother.' He again asked who came next and the prophet replied, "Your father." And last of all? And the Prophet replied, 'Your nearest relatives.'

"The UN has called for women's rights as being equal to the rights of men. The democratic thinking is that if men can do it, women should be able to--whether it is an equal right to vote or a right to equal justice in a law court, or even the right to participate in sports. It has been shown that where women are a viable part of the political and economic systems the societies function more efficiently and the society becomes more economically prosperous. But male dominated traditions and male dominated governments are not about to hop off their perches. One way is to keep women subservient and illiterate. There is no better way to slow or stop their chances for true equality of opportunity.

"As with every revolutionary idea, the leaders often suffer. In the West, feminists were often ridiculed. Sometimes jobs were lost. In the more primitive countries or countries with some reactionary laws, death or dismemberment can be the price paid. U.S. doctors killed by anti-abortion evangelicals is an example. In the Muslim world women are persecuted for seeking equal rights. In Afghanistan three women were stoned to death by warlords for working for a micro-credit organization. In India a social worker had her hands chopped off for counseling villagers against child marriage. In Pakistan a woman was stripped and beaten after she organized some marathons in which women could compete with men. President Musharraf then changed that to make such punishment illegal. In Iraq a woman had her hair cut off and acid thrown on her face and legs for defying Allah's law that requires that women wear a veil. The fact that the Koran doesn't mention wearing a veil as essential, doesn't matter. After all, God must approve of whatever is done in His name. Shariah law, on the other hand, does require that female faces be concealed."

 —"I always wondered what parliament and executive signed into law the Shariah."

 —"I'm sure that as a lawyer you well know that Shariah includes a tradition of judicial rulings from a number of sources, including the Koran. It is not a code of laws applicable to all Muslims. There are those who want it to be universal, those who want to keep parts of it, and those who want to junk the whole concept.

"And the commander just mentioned The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which was adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly. It is often described as an international bill of rights for women. Consisting of a preamble and 30 articles, it defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination. It defines discrimination against women as '...any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field.' For those states that have signed it, is supposed to make women the political, social and economic equals of men. It also gives women reproductive rights."

 —"We have touched on this before, but where do we draw the line? What human rights do any of us have? What are the rights of murderers or of 100 year old massive stroke victims? What about AIDS orphans? Terrorists? Young women? 80 year old illiterate women? Do they all have the same rights? Do they lose rights if they choose to be anti-social? Do they lose rights if they have not performed economically? Obviously the society cannot afford the economic costs of what some consider their rights! Since there is not enough money, what rights can we not afford? Rights to an education? Universal health care? Retirement? The cost of equal legal rights? God hasn't sprinkled million dollar bills like manna on the desert!"  
 —"You're right Lee. There is usually a financial cost for political ideas-- for voting, for court justice, for education, for just about everything. If you want the right to buy a car, you better have the money or good credit. If the UN wants to give people a right, it had better make sure the individual countries will pay for it. But how much would it really cost society to have laws against domestic violence?"

 —"Well there would be the enforcement costs, court costs, imprisonment, and things like that."

 \-- "Ray why does the Pope fight against equal rights for women?"

 —"Feminism breaks the covenant with God in which the husband and wife have their traditional roles. Feminism makes the family appear to be a homosexual relationship with two male roles. And further, calling for the elimination of woman's subjugation brings with it antagonism against the church." (4)  
 —"Of course when Muslims are criticized today it is the conservative or reactionary people and practices that are called into question. It's the same with Protestant Evangelicals, Catholics and Mormons. The more conservative, or I should say the more reactionary the philosophy, the more it tends to favor a literal interpretation of their scriptures which are interpreted by the highest ranking men in the religion. Their critics are the religious and non-religious people who rely on more democratic philosophies and religions that are usually strongly influenced by the philosophers of the Enlightenment period. It is particularly true when those ideas have been legalized in the more modern economic societies that emphasize freedom. Of course the concept of political freedom has often been seen by the socially irresponsible people to include the license to do anything—use harmful drugs, enjoy promiscuous sex, steal, or break the Golden Rule. This socially and religious irresponsible behavior of many people pushes others toward the more conservative religions. No section of the Koran precludes the development of women and children. Many modern Muslims work to make people understand the law of the Koran, rather than hold beliefs that are non-Koranic and which counter the progress of society."

 —"Even in equalitarian Europe things aren't as good as we might expect. It's the same story, if a woman wants a full time career, motherhood or the expectation of motherhood, can lock the doors of career success for many. Yes, you do have that occasional woman, like Gro Harland Bruntland of Norway with her four children, her MD degree and her successful multi-term stints as Norway's prime Minister and her years as Director General of the World Health Organization. But she was an exception."

 —"Women's relative physical weakness, and their propensity towards pregnancy, has made it possible for men to dominate them throughout history. Men were usually sexually free but women were required to be chaste at marriage and to remain subject to one man, unless he decided to share her. Naturally when traditions became established, society bolstered them, then religion sanctified them. Women, as property, had few rights to other property. Women have been, and many still are, controlled by the various religions. God doesn't like change."

 —"Ya, like He accepted pornography for the ancient Greeks and Romans, but He changed his mind for modern day America." And the nearly universal idea that women are nurturing and men are not, guides many women in choosing nursing and primary school teaching as professions. The idea even follows us to the courts where women are generally awarded child custody and are often not punished to the same extent as men for similar crimes.

"Certainly there is more economic opportunity for women today, but in Europe mothers are given up to a year of fully paid maternity benefits, in some countries even more. Staying home to raise their children can bring the family an additional 800 euros per month. This reward keeps women in their homes when that year could have been used to further their vocational careers."

 —"But in the 'States' we don't have the maternity benefits. Children suffer from not being close to their mothers."

 —"If motherhood is a woman's, and a society's, major concern then extensive maternity benefits make sense. But if a woman prefers the challenges of the economic world or the society is concerned with greater economic success, maternity benefits are counterproductive. In the UK only a third of the high level decision makers, like legislators and high level government and business management, are women. In the U.S. it is 45%. In Sweden it is only 29%. In the U.S. women make up 65% of the work force but in the EU it is only 57%. More workers certainly helps the economy."

 —"Many economists believe that Europe has been too good to women, so good that it keeps many from succeeding in the business and political worlds. While women represent about half of all college graduates, the generous maternity and child care benefits pull them from the work force and many never get back into the power job track that they were on. Enticements for working women in America, such as flexible time schedules and working from home, are usually not available in Europe, even though they may save the company money. On the other hand, at British Telecom home working and flexible time have saved the company about $20 million in fuel costs a year.

"In Europe the only options for working mothers are often only in part time jobs, where women average 40% less pay than men. Another option is working in the public sector. Half of Swedish women work in the public sector. Compare this with 30% in the UK and 19% in the U.S."

 —"So the obstacles for women seem to vary from culture to culture. The glass ceiling seems to change only in its height from the floor."

 \--"It looks like we have a couple of major questions to settle. One is what is the best approach economically for the society, the other is whether the world really needs more babies."

 —"You are looking at it only from a societal viewpoint. Certainly God wants more babies to be born. Then you have the self centered questions, such as does a woman want to spend more time at home raising her children. But that is insignificant compared to God's wishes."

 —"Then there is that other self centered motivation. Does she want to get back to work as soon as possible after the birth, maybe two to six months after? If so we need a grandmother or competent day care facilities. Some businesses and governmental entities, like universities, have their own day care facilities where the mothers can visit their children several times a day. They may even nurse them there."

 \-- "If the economy needs the mothers in the work force the lawmakers might consider not penalizing the family's second income. They might also do as France has done, equalizing pay for equal jobs. We did this in Singaling many years ago. For licensed parents there is the requirement that men take half of the nine month paid maternity leave. We got the idea from Iceland, where women can take a nine month paid maternity leave and fathers get three months. In Norway it is eleven months for one parent and one for the other. But as I mentioned, our parents split the day, but neither is reduced in salary for their half day at work and half day at home schedule.

"You may be aware that Norway has for years had a law requiring at least a 40% representation of the minority gender on all boards, civil and business. So on boards dominated by women, at least 40% of the board members must be men and on boards dominated by men, at least 40% must be women. Norway works very hard at societal equality."

CONSERVATION

ENERGY

 —"Tell us a bit more about your country. I know you are very advanced in many areas. How about your approaches to conserving energy?"

 —"Well, the conservation issue is essential. Our homes are built with overhangs over the windows that block out the warm summer sun that rides high in the sky, but let in the winter rays from the lower trajectory winter sun. This helps to warm our homes. For years we have used only LED lighting. The lights last 100,000 hours and their electricity use is insignificant.

"In our larger buildings we often have tunnels through the building with several windmills in each tunnel. Our strong prevailing winds provide a good deal of electricity for that building. Of course all of our buildings, homes and businesses use the colored solar panel photovoltaic siding developed in Kino. These supply from 50 to 100% of the average home's electrical needs."

 —"Isn't the photovoltaic siding very expensive."

 —"Yes, but the price drops yearly as the research in China and Kino advances by leaps and bounds.

"Electricity and gasoline costs to the consumer include the costs to make the production of CO2 carbon neutral. We increase a driver's taxes on the amount used over a basic set allocation for each driver. So 50 gallons of gasoline or 1000 kilowatts is charged at the basic offsetting rate. Over that amount the taxes go up geometrically. We also have a high tax on firewood and heating oil.

"It is our law that all electronics must shut off if not used for 15 minutes. No standby TV, no stay on all night computers or screens. No electronic products can be sold here is they don't comply with the law. You can't believe the savings in electrical production and the reduction of CO2 emissions.

WATER CONSERVATION

"We have significantly reduced our use of fresh water. We clean ourselves and our homes without water. Electro-static machines replace bathroom showers, dishwashers and clothes washers and dryers. When we do use water, our shower and bath water is filtered, purified and stored for the next shower or bath.

"Most lawns are made of recycled plastic. The grass is both cool and realistic. We use bamboo for landscaping. It is far better than trees for sequestering carbon

"Our toilets are chemical so we don't use gallons of fresh water to flush away a half pint of urine or a few ounces of fecal material. After a month or so of use, sea water is used to flush away the biodegradable chemicals and the contents of the toilet storage bin. The sewage solids are then sterilized and processed into fertilizer for farming, oxygen regenerating green belts, and animal feed. You will see many of our environmental advances on your visit.

"Like our electrical power billing, water costs to each home is incremental. The home owner pays a minimal water bill for each person in the house. This minimum covers drinking water, cooking use and water used for basic personal cleaning. After that amount the bill increases geometrically depending on how much water is used. If people take long showers or fill their bathtubs daily, they pay significantly more for that water. If they have a swimming pool or use a great deal of water for landscaping, they pay a big premium for that.

"We have improved on the machine that pulls water vapor from the air. Many homes and businesses have one. This cuts down on the water vapor in the atmosphere, so it reduces global warming, and it is a source for fresh water.

"As we develop more efficient hydrogen fuel cells we need more pure water. Non-polluting vehicles are not taxed. Gasoline powered cars are taxed heavily, and the tax rate goes up yearly. It doesn't pay to drive a gasoline powered vehicle, but a few people still do. But in five years they won't be legal.

"Solar powered cars are getting closer to a reality. Right now they are supplemented by a super battery. The electrical power comes from a photovoltaic converter on the roof of the vehicle and the silicone based photovoltaic car paint. We have just developed a photovoltaic road covering that can transmit electricity to the vehicles through a strap that hangs from the electric motor. If this works as well as we think it will, we will use it on all our major highways.

"Out trains are solar powered. We use silicone based photovoltaic plates on the top of all of our trains and stations, but most of the electric power comes from the electricity producing cells between the tracks all over the country. We generate so much electricity that the excess goes to homes and businesses.

HOW SOCIETY WORKS

POLITICAL SYSTEM

"We do come much closer to allowing a true democracy than you have. We still have a representative government, but we allow the people to vote on many issues. Every day, at midnight, 6 AM, noon and 6 PM there is a government program that gives the plusses and minuses of an issue. The people then vote by email or by a button on the TV. They can also register new ideas that were not brought up on the TV programming. The new ideas, both for and against the proposed law, are then added to the next program and to the internet discussion of the question. This gives everyone a real input into the political life of our country.

"Eloquence is a danger to the democratic state. People who can persuade, by lies or by using uncertainties as facts, can entice the electorate to choose them. The knowledge of the masses is limited, the knowledge of those in government is much greater, but may not be true. Our government Truth Office searches continually for evidence on both sides of an issue and convey the evidence to the citizens.

"We also have the requirement that the cost of a program must be attached to the proposal. It may be suggested that new taxes be raised, and if so, what taxes. Or perhaps a current government program is suggested to be reduced or eliminated. Or it may be some kind of a combination of new taxes and old program cutting. We want to eliminate the pork barrel spending that you habitually find in your society. If there are special interests, their true colors must be made visible.

"We have attempted to be like Lycurgus, who before setting up the laws of Sparta, traveled widely—to Asia, Egypt, Crete, to find laws that were just and that would work for his people.. Of course it was convenient that the Oracle at Delphi, in its infinite wisdom, helped him in some legal areas. We don't have any oracles here in Singaling, consequently we must look forward like China not back like the religious right in America or the fundamentalist Muslims, Catholics and Mormons.

JUSTICE

"Our justice system is a bit different from yours. You try to protect both the individual and the society. We want to protect the innocent and the society. In your country highly paid lawyers can use psychological tricks to sway a jury. In our country if you are guilty we want you punished. We have developed an injection that takes away all inhibitions and requires the truth from any question asked a prisoner. It may be used on potential terrorists, murderers, and other criminals. It replaces the lie detector that is not always accurate. Your system of justice does not require a person or a spouse to testify. We want the truth. And as you say, 'if you can't do the time, don't do the crime.'

SAFETY AS A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT.

"If there is a basic human right my guess is that it would be safety. We want our people safe from worry about being harmed physically or mentally. For that reason we delete from the internet the sites that show bomb making, pornography, and other violence producing and dehumanizing stimuli.

"This has prompted some of your human rights advocates to criticize our laws. They see all curtailing of potential human impulses as abridgements of human rights. We emphasize the peacefulness of our society.

"As you know there are no rights unless a country gives them. The United Nations or other groups may advocate rights for women and children, but they are meaningless unless granted by the society. So a society may not allow women to vote or drive a car. It may or may not require schooling for its children. And as you have observed for years, European and American governments have been sending back unwanted illegal immigrants in spite of the illegals claiming that their human rights are being abused. As Thomas Hobbes observed centuries ago, the state must have absolute power to protect us from each other. We have no natural rights."(5)

 —"The area of human rights is generally a state concern. The state decides what the rights are and gives us the rights if it wants to. But sometimes the state joins with other states to determine what rights the various citizens or non-citizens should have. The United Nations and the Council of Europe or the European Union are such unions of countries.

"In 1998 the Council of Europe amended the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms which was originally passed in 1950. It regionalized the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948.

"The European Declaration included the right to life, the prohibition of torture and slavery, the right to marry and found a family, and other such rights. But the writers of the document put some boundaries on these rights. Military service and normal civic obligations were excluded from the areas of right to life or freedom from slavery. Liberty and security were guaranteed except when a person is in legal detention for a crime, according to Article 5, or in the armed services. So the writers didn't allow individuals the rights to do anything they wanted if it interfered with what the state felt was in its interests. You could still conscript youths to fight a war they didn't approve of, even if it interfered with their right to life, liberty and security, or was considered to be slavery by the conscript.

"The societies were given permission to interfere with an exercise of these rights if it is 'in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.' Of course judges can overlook one part of the Declaration when it interferes with allowing rights granted in another section of the Declaration.

"Men and women of marriageable age have the right to marry and to found a family, according to the national laws governing the exercise of this right. So, Wreck, your licensing ideas wouldn't fly under European law for married people. But I guess you could still have licenses for unmarried people.

"In 2007 the European Court of Human Rights overruled courts and administrators in the UK who had rejected a plea of a convicted murderer and his ex-prisoner wife to avail themselves of artificial insemination so they could be parents..(6) The potential mother was 49 years old. Her chances of conceiving were therefore significantly reduced, so they asked the prison authorities to provide them with the avenue of artificial insemination. They were refused at every step in the UK and their appeal to the appellate court in the UK was rejected unanimously."

"The Human Rights Court granted the Dickson couple the right to artificial insemination to allow them to be parents. It wasn't as though the murderer was really a bad guy. Although he had shown signs of a violent temper throughout his life, but was only convicted when he beat and kicked a man to death because the victim wouldn't give him a pack of cigarettes. We might assume from this that he didn't have a huge amount of respect for life."

 —"What was the reason for wanting the baby? Was it so that he would have a better chance for parole after serving 15 years of his life sentence? Was it so that she would have something to do in the outside world while awaiting his possible parole? Was it the hope that a child might cement their marriage?"

 —"This never came up, and probably would have infringed on their rights if it had been asked in court. And, of course, you wouldn't expect the true answer to such a question, only the most acceptable answer.

"Anyway, the government had to supply them with legal aid, at a cost of about 20,000 Euros."

 —"Did the European court consider the increased chances for birth defects such as Downs syndrome that increase significantly with age. Statistics stop at the 40+ range because few women will have children at age 50 as will Mrs. Dickson if the insemination is successful."

 —"Judges are not medical experts, so they wouldn't consider such things. They merely look at the laws, then apply them in terms of their own prejudices and basic assumptions. I think that the British rulings made more sense.

"In denying their application, the Home Secretary didn't mention birth defects but he cited the criteria used in making a decision to allow prisoners to use artificial insemination. Among the factors considered are:

\-- whether the couple were in a well established and stable relationship prior to imprisonment which is likely to subsist after the prisoner's release

\-- whether there is any evidence to suggest that the couple's domestic circumstances and the arrangements for the welfare of the child are satisfactory, including the length of time for which the child might expect to be without a father or mother

\-- whether, having regard to the prisoner's history, antecedents and other relevant factors there is evidence to suggest that it would not be in the public interest to provide artificial insemination facilities in a particular case."

"In this case there had been no cohabitation or stable relationship: there was no guarantee that the father would ever be released; and, given the violence of the father, there was a question as to whether the child would be born into a stable and loving home. The European court's only concern was that adults should be free to do what they want to do, even if imprisoned, even if the country might have to provide financially for the child, whose father might be in prison for life.

"Since the new European prison rules strongly favor rehabilitation over punishment, prisoners are encouraged to develop their sense of responsibility and are encouraged to develop those attitudes and skills that will assist them to return to society with the best chance of leading law-abiding and self-supporting lives after their release. With these ideas in mind, the 2006 Rules for prisoners stated that persons deprived of their liberty retain all rights that are not lawfully taken away by the decision sentencing them or remanding them in custody. Then the life in prison was to approximate as closely as possible the positive aspects of life in the community, and thirdly, all detention shall be managed so as to facilitate the reintegration into free society of persons who have been deprived of their liberty. So punishment and the removal of rights are out, and granting privileges now become rights, even if the society has to pay for them. You get financial rights even if you have no finances and you get societal rights even if you have violated other people's societal rights. In the Dickson case society had to pay the prisoner and his wife 5,000 Euros in damages because the British government had violated their rights."

 —"That right to have a child sure flies in the face of my crusade to license parents to make certain that the child has what it needs to develop to the maximum. I guess the European approach is to forget the potential child's happiness, and the best interests of the child, and to forget the financial costs to the societies. Any adult's self centered wishes may now take precedence over the needs of the society. And the British society certainly has plenty of extra cash to supply the child with schooling, medical care, and any other expenses that the parents can't meet! However the wife did have property worth 200,000 pounds.

"At any rate, parenthood should be seen as a responsibility, not a right. It carries with it a number of duties and requires a selfless and loving potential on the part of the parent."

 —"Because of the twelve to five vote of the court, all European national laws must be changed to allow all prisoners the right to have babies. Of course the Declaration can be changed to reduce some rights of prisoners. Or perhaps some nations can opt out of the jurisdiction of the court.

"The Dicksons relied on Article 8 of the Convention on Human rights. Article 8 states that everyone has a right to their private and family life and that a public authority cannot interfere with that right except where it is necessary for national security, public safety, the national well-being of the country, the prevention of crime or disorder, the protection of health and morals or the protection of the rights of others.

"The judgment of the court was that the rights of prisoners often need to be expanded and that rehabilitation was more important than punishment. The British government had said that punishment was a reason for imprisonment. What a novel and unprecedented idea! But the court found that the Convention allowed only that the freedom to move where one wished, could be taken away. Other freedoms still existed for prisoners. A state had to justify the limitations of other rights.

"In Paragraph 54 the court's decision held that 'The suggestion that the best interests of the child were relevant to the grant of facilities was offensive, inappropriate, paternalistic and unconvincing: it was the thin edge of the wedge as regards judging who should become parents and who should be born (7) it was inconsistent with the principle of rehabilitation; it was unconvincing and injurious to assume that being raised by a single parent was necessarily not in the child's best interests; and the interests of the child as a justification was specious as it suggested that the only way to protect that child's interest was to ensure it was never born. These arguments were also insulting to single parents and, indeed, against domestic legal developments which minimized this factor in its jurisprudence in other non-prisoner artificial insemination cases (8) This effectively put the burden on the parent to prove that he or she could be a good parent, including financially. In any event, the domestic body competent to make decisions regarding human fertilization was the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority which body should have been competent to determine if the applicants were suitable candidates for artificial insemination.'"

 -"So the commonly held concept that decisions should be made in the 'best interests of the child' were considered irrelevant. It is obvious that the judges are not updated on the factors that influence child raising. Child psychologists and sociologists have a diametrically opposite point of view—a point of view based on empirical evidence."

 —"The court then ruled that there must be considerable justification to refuse artificial insemination." (9)

 —"In the world there are so many millions of people afraid for their lives. There's not enough room for them all. Maybe we should just 'nuke' a bunch of cruel dictators. But that might just bring on more terrorism. It's a shame that we can't allow everyone to be safe. Just look at women who don't want to be genitally mutilated, another country can't grant asylum just because a person doesn't like a law or a custom in their own country. Asylum can only be granted when there is a real fear of death from some external force."

HEALTH CARE

 —"We have patterned our health care system after Kino's, so it is nearly diametrically opposed to your U.S. system. Our people pay about a thousand dollars a year for coverage. That is equivalent to the U.S. bureaucratic overhead expenses, before you even pay a claim. Our people average paying about $700 a year for co-payments. This is less than a third of what you pay in your country. The world often looks to you for efficiency, but you really missed the boat on health care. You pay more per person for health care than any country."

 —"I don't know about your system, but I have experienced the systems in Canada, Norway and the UK, and I'll take ours. I remember in Canada having to go for an MRI at 4 o'clock in the morning, because the machine ran 24 hours. I could have had a normal daily appointment but it would have taken weeks to get it. When I lived in Norway it took me weeks to get a normal doctor's appointment. I could have gone to the clinics but they were inconvenient to get to and I might be required to wait 5 or 6 hours for the doctor. In the UK a knee surgery might take years to get, while in California it would take a week or two. The extra cost is definitely worth it for me."

 \--"Now let me tell you a bit about our education system. We are a nation based on empirical science and social values. Consequently our education is based on these premises. Let's work with what we can prove, not play with what we can't disprove. We should start education without a God hypothesis, then let people think their way into their beliefs.

"Every child gets a new solar powered computer every 5 years and upgrades when necessary to allow them to be on top of technology. Much of their education is delivered over the internet. Educational games teach them our English language along with Chinese, math and science, history and the other necessary natural and social sciences. As John Dewey and Rousseau advocated, education should be enjoyable and pertinent. Their computer learning is geared to be pertinent and enjoyable. Of course they are tested on the content and the application of the curriculum to living in our society. When our children go to school it is more than just educational skill learning. They learn to interact socially. They do group learning. And they are taught about the arts and physical education and team sports. A major concern of our state education as well as our parenting guidance is to develop a child's self esteem. We each must learn to value ourselves. We can't live enjoyable lives until we enjoy ourselves as people. In valuing ourselves we will value our time and will use it to the fullest. People who don't vale themselves and their time are content to entertain themselves hypnotized by the innards of electronic boxes. Those who value themselves and their time will use that time to make themselves and their societies better and more complete. Bread and circuses will not suffice for self actualized people. They want to be truly human—to achieve in appreciation, understanding and service.

"As our students grow older they learn logic as a way to look at problems. They certainly have to understand basic assumptions. So it's important to study philosophy and religions. We believe, with Francis Bacon, that knowledge is power.

"They go to school 280 days a year, just like Singapore. You can imagine that it is easily possible to learn more with more school days. I don't know why your country sticks to the 180 day school year that made sense when you were an agricultural nation and the children had to help with the summer harvest. Last time I looked there wasn't much wheat growing in the streets of New York City or Los Angeles.

"I'm sure you are aware that the advanced Asian nations like Singaling, Singapore, South Korea and Japan consistently outperform the U.S. and Europe in both math and science.(10) Although recently Finland cracked the top spot in science in one set of international tests.

"We Asians place a very high value on education. I know that many of your upper class families share this concern, but you do have a high percentage of parents who don't seem to care. And I recently saw that your daily time in math classes has been decreasing, while most of the world was increasing them. (10a) As your society seems to be going 'over the hill' your citizens seem to think they can get more with less effort. Get a tax break today and don't worry that you will be paying it off for years in other taxes. Take your illicit drugs, and don't worry that they may ruin your life later. Study less math and hope that you can lead the world in science. You are dreamers."

 —"I know that the international testing shows that your Asian countries do better on math and science tests than most of our schools in the West. But I wonder if part of the reason isn't that you don't have the illegal immigrant problem that so many countries have."

 —"That may account for part of it but our schools allot more time to math and science and parents push their children hard in these areas. They often hire tutors to foster the learning.

"We do have something special for the children and youth when they are not in school. We copied something from the Soviet society. They built Young Pioneer Palaces. The Young Pioneers were the future of their society. They were something like the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. The palaces offered a large number of intellectual, practical and recreational activities. Children could learn sports, astronomy, tailoring, advanced mathematics, dance, and scores of other pastimes. We think it was the best thing the Soviets did. We are ecstatic with our copying of a great idea.

ETHICS

"You in the West are so imbued with the idea that you can do whatever you want under some democratic idea that everyone is free to think what they want and do what they want. We would call this 'license' not 'freedom.' We expect responsibility to accompany freedom. I had heard some time ago that there was an idea that your freedom to swing your fist stops at my nose. Is that true?"

 —"We discussed that with Dr. Wang. Only five people on our nine person Supreme Court have the power to define, then redefine, freedoms, like freedom of speech. The problem is that in their effort to maximize freedom of political speech, they often leave the door open to other societal ills. I don't know how allowing virtual child pornography and senseless violence in the media helps to make it a better society when it increases rape and violence in the society."

 —"When you are trying to fill 200 television channels with 24/7 programs, open several new films a week, and sell as many recordings as you can-- you have to rely on writers with little imagination. Crash cars, yell 'kill the cops', shoot people 12 times with their six-shooter. Writing good jokes or exciting stories with high ethical standards is difficult. And as long as your people will watch anything and making money is the concern of the video producers, you get what the laws will allow, not what is good for society.

"I am aware that occasionally you ban a video game, but it always seems to become available on the internet. I remember one that was banned in both the UK and the US. It was nothing but senseless killings of an unbelievably violent nature, perpetrated by a madman. We don't allow such programs to find their way here. And if they did no one would watch them because they are ethically revolting.

"Before we enacted our laws we looked at the research. What we found was that there are four major types of theories concerning viewing violence. One is that it arouses people to duplicate the violence that we are viewing. If, as some people think, we are basically violent beings, then this theory is possible. A second theory is that we are learning how our world works, and should work, by observation. This 'social learning' theory makes it normal to be violent if we view it enough. A third theory is that seeing violence makes it more permissible to do—even if our mothers and ministers tell us to avoid being violent. A fourth theory is that watching violence may make us less violent, that we are somehow expending our violent feelings by watching violence on a screen.

"We duplicated experiments that had been done in other countries, such as yours, and found that child and teen violence was definitely increased by watching violence. Even adult violence was increased, but not to the same extent. So we have banned it. If we ever get into a war we may regret it because our soldiers won't be as prone to violence as yours, but we will definitely have a more peaceful society in the meantime.

"We wonder why your film producers insist on producing violent films when the research indicates that violence is not necessarily more popular than other types of stories such as comedies, romances or adventure stories."

 —"I believe that it is so much easier for writers to create excitement through car crashes and shooting or fighting than through comedy or lessons in ethics. Look at the most popular TV show ever. 'Mash.' It showed the results of violence and continually showed its absurdity, in a backdrop of humor. 'The Cosby Show' used comedy to make positive points in ethics and child psychology. 'All in the Family' used humor to attack reactionary political thinking."

 \--"Very true, Wreck. We also found that small children usually see the individual scenes as whole and complete. If a bad guy kills somebody, that's the end of the story. They don't understand that the bad guy usually gets caught at the end of the film.

"We are not ready to declare that being ethical is genetically or environmentally determined. We know that in your country studies have shown evidence for both. But to the degree that it might be learned, we want to foster ethical behavior so we have no violent films.

"We agree with your psychologist Bandura that much of children's behavior is learned by the behavior they see, whether in real life or in the media. It is clear from the studies that very small children can learn violent behavior by watching it on TV. We make our laws for the protection of our children based on the best scientific findings available, not by what expensive lawyers are able to talk politically appointed judges into doing in the name of freedom of speech for media moguls whose major aim is to make money. Our sole aim is to develop the most peaceful and productive society possible.

"It is strange that some television executives say that their programming doesn't change behavior, while they are seeking millions of dollars from advertisers with the express purpose of changing people's behavior. How is it that twenty seconds of television advertising time, showing how bright your teeth will be with Colgate, will change people's behavior, but the ensuing fifty minutes of murders and mayhem will not make any behavioral changes? Scientific research clearly validates the behavioral changes the advertisers want. But it also validates that the media violence changes the viewers' behavior."

 \--"Japan has a great deal of sex and violence in its media, but has a much lower incidence of rape, murder and crime than the U.S."

 —"It seems that they may see the action through a different cultural lens. It may be that the violence is primarily done by the villain against the hero. It may be that pain resulting from the violence is more commonly shown. It may be that the violence is associated with bad people and is not appropriate in society.

"Your research has identified several factors that provide a link between violent television programming and aggressive behavior in children. The first deals with the absence of consequences associated with acts of violence on television. Some children may get the idea that violence is the best response to a frustrating situation. A second factor may be that the heroes are rewarded for their violent actions. A third factor is that when children watch violence they can become desensitized to it.

"We laugh that you search airline passengers for flasks of water but you allow unlimited guns, and overlook the 20,000 yearly gun murders and the 60,000 other gun victims who are merely injured. Is this surprising when 80% of your Saturday morning children's programs have violent themes with 5 or 6 violent scenes per hour? Even your cartoons have violent scenes about every 3 minutes. Your average 12 year old has witnessed 100,000 acts of violence on TV, including 20,000 murders. Six years later these figures are doubled.

"This will probably make them better killers in your frequent wars, but it may also make them more ready to be more brutal spouse and child beaters as well as more violent street criminals.

"Just as watching games and films is most often merely killing time. It is not just killing time, but doing it in a way that may be potentially harmful for the viewer—killing their societal values. We encourage our recreation to be physically active: playing a game, singing, playing an instrument, and such. When we do enjoy passive recreation we want that event to be meaningful, showing courage, intelligence, creativity and so forth. Reading a good book, watching the Para-Olympics, seeing programs of history or discovery, or meaningful debate programs should expand our mental horizons."

 —"I see parents afraid to let their children play alone in their front yards, because of the chance that they might be kidnapped. So they keep them indoors watching violent films and video games with no fear of their learning to be violent. Yet the chances for learning violent behavior are rather high. And that behavior may be exhibited many years later.(11) Violent video games can cause people to have more aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors; and decrease empathetic, helpful behaviors with peers." (12)

 —"Your own studies show that as your children become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others, they are more likely to harm others and they tend to become afraid of their world. They may learn that the world may mistreat them and that a physically aggressive stance is an acceptable way of dealing with problems. These are not the kinds of attitudes we want from our children or adults in Singaling.

"We have cartoons and films, but they all have positive moral lessons. Look at your favorite fairy tales—the big bad wolf in Little Red Riding Hood; the wicked step mothers and step sisters, like in Cinderella; Hans Christian Anderson's poor little match girl freezing to death; Snow White's wicked stepmother; the list goes on and on. And even your favorite lullaby has the bough breaking and the baby and cradle falling to the ground. What are you trying to teach?

"Our major films show the lives of composers, philosophers, artists and others who show courage and intellect. There is violence in some of our historical films. You couldn't have a biography of Napoleon without a little blood letting!

AMATEUR AND PROFESSIONAL SPORTS

"As long as we are on the subject of entertainment, we don't idolize or pay those people you call celebrities. If people want to pretend they are other people in films or on the stage, if they want to kick a ball, throw a ball through a hoop or run fast, that is all well and good. We just don't pay them for it. They are amateurs. They do it for the love of the activity. It makes no sense to us to pay millions of dollars and to accord celebrity status to people playing ball games or actors who are only pretending to be somebody else. Why is it in the West that people accord such high status to watching people play? The rock band singer makes millions while he is damaging people's hearing by scarring their tympanic membranes with loud cacophonic sounds that stop the flow of endorphins. Few athletes hold the status of idealistic heroes anymore. It's not only their outrageous salaries but also their bad publicity.

"When your toilet is clogged would you prefer a trained plumber or a basketball player. When your computer loses its hard drive will you hire Michael Jackson to sing for you or find a competent computer repair person. Who is more valuable to the society?

"When it comes to bread and circuses we don't mind paying for the bread, but the circus performers are not that critical. We believe that people should be entertained with reading, high level television and films, and participation in things like sport and art and music. But not just watching people sing, act or play, we think it's a waste of time and money.

"The way you pay everybody associated with films very high salaries, then when the people are not employed, which is most of the time, movie extras and backstage people collect unemployment compensation. Work a few days then collect six months of unemployment benefits. This is counterproductive for a society that is trying to produce valuable information or products. It may be OK for societies who want to make money by entertaining others. But that's not us. Pro athletes and actors should be paid less here than janitors because their contributions to society are nil and they are performing their recreational pastimes as jobs. I remember some years ago that actress Angelina Jolie, whom I have always admired, said 'I have a stupid income for what I do.' Obviously she is one of the smart ones."

 —"I think Juvenal said it all a few thousand years ago when he noted that people need only bread and circuses to keep them content. They only want the Jonas Salks when they are threatened by disease and the Thomas Jeffersons when they can no longer live under oppression. It goes back to what we discussed earlier, many people have self centered desires that they want right now. Our future is not a concern for most of our population. For so many of our citizens watching a football game is more important than watching a presidential debate or a news program. It's a sad state."

 —"As I said we don't pay people to follow a recreational pursuit, like acting, dancing or sports. We have one soccer player, who was an amateur here, playing professionally for Arsenal in the Premier League. And we have three actors who have left for professional careers abroad, two in India and one in Hollywood. We think that your people have attached 'star-hood' wrongly to people like athletes and actors. Our celebrities and stars are the engineers, outstanding teachers and effective political leaders.

"Sports are kept in a minor role, essential for recreation and physical fitness but not for national or local identity. When people are given too much status for what they do, whether kicking goals, hitting or throwing a ball, or running, they think they are above everyone else—look at European soccer or American basketball or football. While some athletes may be unaffected by the fame, and certainly many fulfill their power drives thru sport, it should not be seen as the highest achievement in a society. The same is true for actors and many popular musicians. But it also holds for many in business or in government. Fame should come from a job well done in a socially valuable area. Political, athletic or artistic achievement do not give status in themselves. The athlete who rapes or uses illegal drugs; the actor who expresses political or religious ideas based on opinion but not critical thinking, but expresses it as though it comes from God, because of the actor's celebrity; the businessman who bribes or cheats; the politician who uses the office for personal gain in the present or future—all are seen as anti-social or anti-intellectual in our society.

"Recreational pastimes like sports, acting, singing and dancing are encouraged but not paid. They carry no celebrity. As Juvenal observed, as the citizens of the empire abdicated their civic duties and the Roman empire was decaying from their neglect, they lived only for bread and circuses. As he said '.. Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions - everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.' We must continue to work at developing our society positively. We don't want it to die from within, as Toynbee warned that it will.

"Our people are well informed on what society has found to be valuable. We use a version of John Stuart Mill's hedonistic calculus. For example, Mozart is a real positive. We play Baroque music while we learn. We know that some classical music is very positive to mental health.

"We think it's absurd when you Western countries grant citizenship to African runners just because they win medals. We don't rank running fast nearly as high as research abilities, business acumen, or even reading ability. Is this wrong? Or do you think that sport is the guiding activity of the universe?

"We also don't want adults overly involved in youth sports. In your country you have many of your youth play adult sports, nearly always coached by untrained parents. You have small children, as young as eight, playing full tackle football. You have six year old girls taking weekly cheer leading, dance and gymnastic programs and competing in high level competition. The same is true swimming where 2 hour a day workouts are held five or six days a week, then having weekend long competitions. It is the same in sport after sport. We think children should be children. They should play. If children want to compete, that is fine, but they set the rules. In our country children organize their programs. We merely supply the parks, the equipment and the recreation directors."

  —"I agree with you on the incompetent coaching. So many seem to think that you must coach by yelling and sarcasm. As an old coach I have often been appalled by the behavior of youth coaches. It seems that if they can't teach, they scream out of frustration.. Those who are good coaches will understand the theory and fundamentals of the sport and the psychological and educational methods that are appropriate to learn.. He or she teaches. People who don't understand sport psychology think that yelling motivates. It generally does just the opposite. In fact motivation in athletes is a year long stimulation. The yelling or the 'fight talk" is called arousal in psychological terms and its effects, if positive, last less than ten minutes. But it seems that some people think that is what coaching is all about.

"I visited some friends in San Diego and watched their nine year old playing flag football. A father-coach called the offensive plays, he had made a book with the plays drawn out. Another father-coach did the same with the defense. The children had fun, but might they have had more fun if the fathers had taught them how to throw and catch, showed them some pass patterns, then let the kids play the mental as well as the physical game?"

  \--"Our observation of American parents' behavior is that for many, winning is the only concern. We hear of parents attacking other parents, coaches and referees. Children, when left alone, are more concerned with playing fairly. If a child doesn't play fair, usually the other children won't play with him. Children want fair 'play.' Adults, particularly American adults, want to win—often at any cost. The Soviet Union and the East Block countries took it several steps farther in Olympic competition with their doping. While they also led the world in many legal performance enhancing areas, like biomechanics and sport psychology, it wasn't enough to do it ethically, so they developed the most effective sports drugging programs in the world. Consequently a major international sports' expense is collecting and analyzing blood and urine at training facilities and competitions. This takes a huge percentage of the money that could have gone to youth sports programs, such as the development of facilities and programs."

 —"There is another area that is a major concern in high level coaching. It is the area of sexual harassment and sexual abuse in sport. It can range from using sexual innuendos and 'put downs' to rape. Telling girls that they shouldn't play a man's sport, like soccer, is harassing behavior.

While sports have their problems, sexual harassment is not as great as it is in educational and business settings. (13) The research in various countries shows that the more sexual harassment and abuse in a country in general, the more it is reflected in sports. Africa, all of Asia, and former East Block countries are among the worst."

  Lee, how do you define sexual harassment?"

  —"Legally and psychologically it is defined as: unwanted physical contact such as, pinching, hugging, fondling, being kissed against one's will, etc. Secondly we have repeated unwanted sexually suggestive glances, comments, teasing and jokes, about one's body, clothes, or private life. And thirdly, ridiculing of one's sport performance and of you as an athlete because of your gender or sexuality. Sexual abuse is something else. It goes as far as rape or attempted rape, and quite often statutory rape.

"You are probably like me, thinking that sports are something special --that they should be played at a highly ethical level, that fair play is the soul of real sport, and that sport should be the beacon for our societies. With this in mind, the International Olympic Committee takes the lead in many sports related issues, like doping and sexual harassment. Several years ago the IOC sent a directive to the national Olympic committees to make them aware of the extensive problems in the area of gender harassment and to do something about it. Is this a problem here in Singaling?"

 —"It is less of a problem here since we became aware of it. We have programs in business and in the recreational areas that lay out the ground rules for appropriate behavior. I know that China and Japan have had some real problems in this area. We have worked hard to avoid them."

CLOTHING

 \--"I have a question in another area Mr. Yuen. I haven't seen a man with a coat or tie or a woman in high heels. But everyone is so colorfully dressed in bright colored silks or other comfortable material"

 —"We aim to be colorful, comfortable and attractive. We understand how you in the West adopted ties. Apparently before buttons and zippers were invented you had to tie your collars together to keep out the cold air. But when that practical use was no longer necessary you kept the tradition of a strip of cloth around the neck. Then that tie became the only colorful piece of clothing for men. Your drab suits and colorless shirts were accented by that narrow strip of color tumbling down the chest while pretending to hold the collar together while it was actually a button that was doing that job. And even the button was unnecessary because your rooms were warm so a tight shirt was really an unnecessary inconvenience. Then we saw this ridiculous tradition picked up by the politicians and businessmen in every country. Chinese and Indians often abandoned their practical and colorful vestments for the stolid look-alike power uniform of the West. We refused to follow the lemmings of a fashion that we deem as impractical and uncomfortable..

"We understand that a well tailored suit can cover the physical inadequacies of men who are too fat or too thin. Pad the shoulders, narrow the shoulders, pleat the pants, wear suspenders under your coat to hold your beltline above your obese belly.

"Meanwhile your women can dress colorfully and imaginatively. Of course they often wear impractical high heeled shoes just to make their legs look longer. But the extended angle of the ankle unhealthily shortens the connective tissue in the calf muscle, often making it painful to stand bare footed. So we don't think that is all that smart.

"We laugh at your formal attire. All the men dressed as identical Emperor penguins while the ladies express a rainbow of colors in their jeweled and sequined gowns. It's so different from the animal world where the male is the main show. Just look at the color of the peacock contrasted with the drabness of the peahen or the full maned lion with his denuded wife. We feel that comfort, color and style should be the hallmarks of our dress. Our scriptures don't require us to do penance by wearing drab and uncomfortable clothes.

"Then there's nothing that looks more ridiculous than the cross dressing judges and lawyers in British courts. Are the white wigs supposed to make them look older and wiser? Then there is the religious garb of so many Christian priests and ministers. We don't think that clothes should be able to give unearned respect. It seems that so often what you see is not what you get. I have yet to see a piece of cloth that makes one wiser or holier. More feared, maybe! That's why the Ku Klux Klan wear those white robes and hoods. I don't think it makes them look wiser or holier either. It's just more washing and ironing for their household slaves!"

 \--"I agree. In my home city of Los Angeles 'California casual' has been making inroads for years. Professors seldom wear ties. Movie moguls cut deal in their sandals. And if they must wear monkey suits to their jobs they dress down for parties. I've noticed in Norway they tend to do the opposite. They often work tie-less. Even most of the television hosts follow this pattern. But they don the coat and tie for evening get-togethers, even for casual parties.

"I have a mental picture of a friend of mine who lived at the beach. He drove to work in his vintage Mercedes in his shorts and sandals. Then in the parking garage of his Century City office he would change to the mandatory coat and tie and hop in the elevator to his office, where he managed two billion dollars in pension funds. I remember when he had his housewarming party for a new house on Broadbeach Road in Malibu his rule was that anyone with shoes would lose them to the beach bonfire.

"My father told me that when he first taught at UCLA everyone wore coats and ties. So did he for the first three weeks. Then he left the coat home for two weeks. Then he took off the tie but kept his shirt buttoned. Then after a few weeks he was in an open throated sport shirt. Within a month half of the faculty of his department followed his lead. Traditions die hard and often too slowly. I wonder if we will ever see the lions of Fleet Street and Wall Street in shorts and flip flops in the August heat?"

 \--"Probably be a cold day in Hell when that happens!"

NO ALCOHOL

 \---"You might be interested in our psychoactive drug policy. Alcohol, of course, is a drug. If alcohol had been invented today it would not be allowed. We don't encourage it. It seems that you in the West always have a reason to drink: it was a good day, it was a bad day, we're celebrating, we are commiserating, I've just met old friends, I have no friends. For many of your people it has become a part of their lifestyle.

"The younger you are when you start to drink, the greater the chance of addiction. Injury to the nervous system is much greater than once thought, particularly for young drinkers. The hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in learning, seems to affect general learning and is probably responsible for blackouts after a night of drinking—because the brain has failed to 'learn' what was going on during a time period when the person was drinking.

"It has been known for a long time that the cerebral cortex is affected by alcohol, partially because it has such a large blood supply so more alcohol in the blood does more damage.

"The average European drinks eleven liters of pure alcohol each year. That's about 275 liters of beer or 100 liters of wine per year. This is about two and a half times the world average. Over 25% of deaths to European males between the ages of 15 and 30 are alcohol related. There is certainly ample evidence from your country and from Europe that alcohol causes a large number of social problems, from murder and domestic violence to work related problems and a lack of production.

"Our government looks to see what is best for us. For example smoking tobacco was never claimed to be healthy. Of course in the beginning we didn't know how harmful it was. But with athletes and movie stars smoking it was certainly a glamorous habit fifty years ago.. Of course we didn't know then that the withdrawal from tobacco addiction is the second most difficult type of withdrawal, after cocaine. This is because the nicotine stimulates the 'upper' neurotransmitters, like epinephrine, giving the brain a happy jolt, while at the same time it mimics the neurotransmitter acetylcholine which calms the person. Consequently you have an upper and a downer effect at the same time—energy and calmness. As with any psychoactive drug the withdrawal is opposite the effect of the drug. Heroin or alcohol depress the brain's functions making mental problems diminish. But withdrawal from these drugs results in an overexcitement of the body resulting in muscle tension, headaches, vomiting, et cetera. On the other hand a stimulant drug like cocaine or methamphetamine will excite the brain, often in an orgasmic delight. But withdrawal depresses the brain and body with extreme fatigue, anxiety, sleepiness and possibly paranoid delusions. The upper effects of nicotine are nowhere near as strong as those of cocaine and its relaxing effects are nowhere near as overpowering as heroin. But the withdrawal from nicotine gives both an upper withdrawal, more mild than cocaine, and at the same time a downer withdrawal, milder than heroin or alcohol. But the combination of the two at the same time, which no other drug exhibits, makes nicotine withdrawal extremely difficult for one who is truly addicted.

"Other psychoactive drugs are also illegal. But where there is a medical use it is allowed, but tightly controlled.

PARTNERSHIPS—HOMOSEXUAL AND HETEROSEXUAL

"We are extremely hopeful that people will form stable relationships. We have a state run computer dating program for heterosexuals and homosexuals. It is free to all single people. We list interests, education, jobs, health information and anything that will clarify the questions about who you are and who your potential partner might be. Both homosexual and heterosexual relationships hold the same status. In fact, if the homosexuals are voluntarily childless, we hold them quite dearly in our nation.

"We are very guarded to the possibility of sexually transmitted diseases and of pregnancies. Every year at the mandatory physical exam those with no disease are given a card to indicate their health. Because of our health education programs, people interested in a sexual relationship generally do a mutual check of cards because not many people want to take a chance on contracting chlamydia, AIDS, gonorrhea or any of the other mucous membrane diseases.

"If people decide to live together a notification form of a couple's intent to live together is required. Our government just wants to know where people are. We don't prevent any live-in relations, but we think that people should be aware of the health of the other person and any criminal record. In their notification to the government the individuals must mark any areas in which a contract is implied or intended. Such questions as: is your partner permitted to make health decisions for you if you are not able? Is any of your property to be willed to your partner if you die? Is there a financial agreement if the partnership ceases? If so what is the agreement?

"Health insurance is part of the societal financial structure and is attached to one's work, so it is generally not a factor in partnership agreements. However if one partner does not work, the other may choose to pay for medical or dental benefits for the partner. Pension rights for one could be negotiated and paid for by the other. They would not automatically flow to a non-working spouse, as is becoming the case in your country.

"We think your special rights of marriage, such as tax deductions and pension and health benefits for people, whatever their sex, is absurd and socially counterproductive in terms of your state budget. Why should anyone living together have any more societal benefits than people living alone?

"To rescind the partnership, one of the couple must send an official notification of its termination to the state. On the other hand to apply for a license to have a child you must have been living together legally for at least five years. In rare instances a single person may be granted a license to have a child. It might be for an adoption or it could be for an artificial insemination possibility.

"If a relationship breaks up there is no spousal support or community property. Every person has had the right to education and has had the ability to succeed in a job. We don't look at a partnership or a marriage as indentured servitude, slavery or any other ancient arrangement. So there's no reason to pay somebody who voluntarily lived with you. We have a tradition that the individuals each buy the furniture and appliances. That way, if a break up occurs they know who owns what. Can you imagine how much money your court systems would save if you didn't have people going to judges for every issue?

"I don't know where these would fit into your search for utopia, Commander. We certainly haven't tried to abolish the family, as Plato and others have advocated. We have the material advantages that most utopians have advocated, and we have kept a good deal of liberty."

 —"I don't think the United States is ready for such legal equality. The religious basis that is so common in society is bound to the Old Testament idea of women as chattel, although no one would ever admit it. But what other reason can you give for when a woman divorces after a short marriage and may get lifetime spousal support? On the other hand, what was written into the laws to protect the so-called 'weaker sex' is often being turned on its head by less successful husbands married to economically successful women. They too can get spousal support! It has always seemed unfair to me, no matter whose bull is gored.

"Child custody is another fouled up area of the law. Children used to belong to the father. No matter how bad he was he got the kids. Then the mother was seen as best for younger children, no matter how bad she was. Now the best interests of the child are supposed to be primary. Male judges tend to be pro-mother, but female judges are often pro-father. They realize that all women are not angels."

 —"There's another change in American marriage views regarding children. While they were once the, or a, prime reason for marriage, that is less often the case. The marriage partnership has now become primary for most couples. And though many enjoy their children and find them a source of pride and fulfillment, children are way down the list in terms of people evaluating their marital happiness. Ahead of their joy in their parenthood they list such factors as faithfulness, a happy sexual relationship, household chore-sharing, economic factors such as adequate income and good housing, common religious beliefs, and shared tastes and interests.(14) So Mr. Yuen, it seems that your partnership idea is definitely the beacon for couple's happiness. Kids are definitely optional."

GLOBALIZATION AND DEREGULATION

 —"President Yuen, what about your economy?"

 \--"When your Western leaders developed the impetus for globalization and deregulation it worked well for those of us in Asia. Some countries profited from their hard work, like China and Vietnam, and others from their education, technology and English skills like India and us.

"Globalization has been a blessing for the consumer but a curse for the Western worker. Low skilled jobs suffered. Making clothes and shoes or furniture can be done cheaper in underdeveloped countries like China, Vietnam and Thailand. So someone on the globe is working, but European and American low skilled workers are losing work, unless they can learn new skills.

"Globalization has given more English speaking Indians more jobs in a number of areas, from technical computer support to international hotel reservations. The previously low paid but well educated Irish picked up the same kinds of jobs and became centers for international airline reservations and even cartooning.. Ireland rose from being a poor European country to one of the richest and was rated the best place to live in the world. The post World War II 'give me because I'm entitled' attitude is being forced to change.

"Singapore has felt the goring of globalization. The rich are getting richer but the laboring classes have experienced a drop in wages, due in part to immigrants working cheaper than natives. Also many of the foreign made goods are imported cheaper than they could make them. This has been especially true of electronics where Singapore had been a major producer. To ease the financial burden on the working poor the government gave them $800 a piece annually.

"In Singaling our immigration policies have kept out the low level workers while our robotics have made each of our human workers more productive. Consequently our wages have stayed relatively high. Also, the major beneficiaries of globalization have been the bankers and the multi-national giant corporations. They are held in check by our economy. Our national bank's profits go back into the society. And our emphasis on research and development reaps us profits from those same multi-nationals.

IMMIGRATION IS ILLEGAL

"We have seen the problems that you in the West have experienced from both asylum seekers and the legal and illegal immigration of laborers. You eventually started getting tough but it was far too late."

 \-- "Then legal and illegal migration often creates social and economic problems. If there are such things as human rights, does the person who can't find meaningful employment in his own country have some kind of a right to go to another country and possibly take a job from a working citizen by working for lower wages? Whose rights are we talking about?"

 —"We've decided that it is the rights of our society that are primary. It seems that other societies are finally seeing it as we do. In fact more societies are working on eliminating unwanted immigration. Several European governments are changing from being charitable and accepting, and are moving towards self preservation and peace in their cities."

 \--"I remember talking to an illegal migrant, he said if you put a dam up, people go around it. And the truth is that it's impossible to wall off the borders and stop all the ocean going immigrant hauling boats. I can see that in Singaling migration is not so attractive because you have few low wage jobs. But in Europe and the States there are still plenty of jobs for unskilled and skilled workers. But as those jobs are reduced and the migrants can't qualify for other jobs the floods of immigrants from different places, faiths, races and cultures will be left to turn their anger on each other and, very likely, on the promised lands where the economic promises had died.

"We talked about that a bit with Dr. Wang. But what do you see as the problems for you."

 —"Well, obviously, people you don't want are a problem. We don't have the same problems as most of you in the West do. We have almost no jobs for unskilled workers. We don't have an agricultural industry here, so we don't need pickers and farm hands. Thanks to Japanese robotics and our own robotic technology developments, we have no need for busboys, dishwashers, housecleaners, or unskilled construction workers. So we don't have jobs waiting for unskilled immigrants.. Our frowning on Western religions discourages many Muslims and Catholics from coming. And illegal immigrants are denied our health and welfare facilities. However people with valid visas are entitled to free emergency care.

"Unlike some countries, we believe that it isn't our responsibility to care for citizens of countries that haven't controlled their own birthrates and haven't developed adequate economies. We understand that it's not the fault of the children, but its not our responsibility either. And the U.S., Canada and Western Europe can't possibly handle all the Latin Americans, Africans, south Asians, even the former East Bloc citizens. When you've tried to assimilate them into the low level occupations they have bankrupted your social welfare systems. And because the illegals are nearly always from lower social classes you get more violent crime and more gang activity. Social unrest happens because there are not enough jobs for everyone, and the wages drop for your citizens because an illegal immigrant will work cheaper, and usually longer. There's no question that many are very good workers. But they cost you much more than you save.

"We hold our citizens responsible for their own actions: for child bearing, for sexual activity, for deciding on their own health insurance and retirement needs. Why should we not hold people outside of our country equally responsible if they want to join our society?"

 —"Your ideas are certainly different from mine. I think we must be merciful to all of the children of God."

 —"Ray, I must ask you, if there were a bank robber sentenced to 20 years imprisonment, would you be willing to serve his sentence? If a millionaire investor lost his million dollars in a deal gone sour, would you give him the million? Would your Pope give him a million? Both unfortunates are responsible for their situations. But few would relieve them of the consequences of their actions. We feel the same if people overpopulate, or if they don't use some of their income for health insurance or retirement pensions. We operate on the premise that people have at least some free will and can make responsible decisions if given adequate information.

INTEGRATION BARRIERS

"Immigrants, particularly the Muslims, do not want to accept the religion, or humanistic philosophies, or the clothing styles of the indigenous populations. This may cause frictions with the natives. Catholics and Mormons may blend in, because they usually dress like the native population, and they are more likely to blend in physically—if not theologically.

"With illegals the crime rate goes up. In Spain Latin American gangs are causing problems. In Greece it is the Albanians. In Norway it is the Lithuanians and Pakistanis. In France, the North Africans. Every European country is a home to unwanted immigrants. As in most countries, the lower social classes are more likely to be physically violent. Knifings and shootings, gang activities, and homelessness are more likely to be associated with illegal immigrants who are generally of a lower social class. Whether it is the Muslims being forced out of the former Yugoslavia or Somalia or Catholics forced out of Ethiopia, it is a sad situation but no country can be all things to all people. It is a shame that the accident of birth condemns so many to a hell on Earth. Our foreign aid is geared to reducing those accidents and making potential parents, and their nation, responsible.

"There is more to the illegal migrant worker problem than just taking the jobs of the citizens. In Russia, where they need more workers, there is a huge prejudice against non-Russians. So it is different from the West where the illegals may be taking the jobs of the natives. Social prejudices don't necessarily have their bases in the economic needs of the society."

 —"When Allah chooses not to provide for Muslims in their own countries and God does not provide for the Christians, should we conclude that Allah has decided to provide for His people in other countries? If so, should he pay for the economic losses to the accepting countries? Or are we generous humans usurping God's authority when he has provided poverty to thin out the population-- but some people don't accept His will.

"When Kofi Annan was still leading the UN he said that immigration or global migration, should help not harm all countries. It benefits the receiving country, the country left and the migrants. Because many societies are aging the migrants can add the necessary workers. He called for easing of naturalization and visa requirements. He obviously wasn't considering all the problems attendant to his view. He was looking primarily at unskilled workers and not seeing the total costs to the accepting society. More than $200 billion was taken from the economies of the countries where the migrants worked and sent back to their Third World homelands, so the accepting countries' economies did not get the full value of the wages since they were not infused into its consumer economy or deposited in the local banks. Add this to the other social and economic costs and you have a net negative of hundreds of billions of dollars for the accepting countries."

 —"Let's not forget people moving from very poor countries to poor countries—from Haiti to the Dominican Republic, from Nicaragua to Costa Rica, from Nepal to India, from Myanmar to Thailand. This even happens in Africa, so it's not all poor to rich immigration. The World Bank estimates that over 70 million people have migrated from very poor to poor countries. That's almost as many as the 85 million who have moved from poor to richer countries.

"And don't forget that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is the son of a Hungarian immigrant."

 —"But the father was not a low class worker. He was a minor aristocrat in Hungary. He was escaping the Nazis. So his son had a bit of 'cultural capital' to work with. Don't get me wrong Con, some immigrants are very positive for the society.

POSITIVE IMMIGRANTS

"Indian doctors and information technology engineers enhance a society. They can't be compared with the uneducated laborers from Central America. The times have changed since the 1800s when we needed Irish and Chinese laborers to build the railroads—and much of the rest of the country."

 —"We recently took in a woman who is an outstanding professor at the university and has just won the Nobel Prize for physics. Do we want her as a citizen? Most likely! On the other hand if there is a man with five children has been given temporary asylum from his warring country. He works in construction. Two of his children are in prison here. Do we want him as a citizen? Definitely not.

"You probably are well aware of the findings of your census bureau. The net fiscal deficit of illegal aliens was over $10 billion a year in the U.S.. And if amnesty was granted it would rise to $30 billion a year. No country can afford that financial loss—then add the potential of criminality and you have billions of reasons to clamp down on illegal immigration.

COSTS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

"Your own research shows that on average, the costs that illegal households impose on federal coffers are less than half that of other households, but their tax payments are only one-fourth that of other households. Consequently illegals cost thousands more per household no matter how the figures are manipulated. Although legalization would increase average tax payments by 77 percent, average costs would rise by 118 percent. (15)

"The costs that unskilled immigrants impose simply reflect the nature of the modern American economy and welfare state. Earlier migrations needed unskilled workers while the social welfare expenses were minimal.  
"The solutions we settled on in Singaling are threefold. We take in a few guest workers who have no chance of citizenship. Second, we help to develop businesses in their home countries. Third we help them to reduce their populations so that they don't need to leave their home countries. If their parents had children who are unneeded in their society, must we make up for their parents' lack of foresight? It's unfair that all children do not have equal opportunities. Can your country take in all the children of the world who are underprivileged?"

 —"Obviously not. Those that we didn't invite in are breaking our societal bank. But the kids are certainly not at fault for their parents' stupidity and selfishness. That's another reason that each society should limit population rather than asking other countries to relieve their problems."

POLITICS OF OVERPOPULATED COUNTRIES

 —"Did you hear that the president of Mexico financed a public relations campaign in the U.S. to try to change American negative opinions of illegal Mexican immigrants. He said the situation had become 'intolerable'. I can understand his concern. The illegals have sent back an estimated $23 billion a year to bolster the lagging Mexican economy. Next to oil, the money from America is the highest source of national income. It amounts to about $4000 per illegal immigrant. I wonder if the president's energy and money would have been better spent on national family planning or developing his own national economy."

WAGES AND STRIKES

 —"We expect people to be self-centered and your democracies to cater to that selfishness. But often, with globalization, the wages are being reduced while the cost of living keeps rising. It's not the same as the old days when workers could strike for more wages and shorter hours and get them because there was nobody else to do the work. Now it is easily outsourced. Auto workers in Detroit strike so the company moves its plants to Latin America.

"You have seen these problems in the U.S. Your government borrowed trillions of dollars to give tax breaks, fight a war and give your citizens more of whatever they wanted. The borrowing reduced the value of your dollar. Consequently your cost of imports like oil, food and Toyotas went up. So you had inflation. At the same time you had a smaller part of your workforce working. This gave you a recession. So you had the worst of possible worlds. The forces of recession made it more difficult for people to pay their bills, so you had increased bankruptcies and mortgage foreclosures. This dropped the value of businesses and the stock market dropped. This further reduced the value of your dollar and made imported goods even more expensive.

"More babies to support and educate, immigrants sending money out of the country where it doesn't feed your economy, more people retiring and using your Medicare entitlements and the cheap imports that were not made by Americans—all contribute to your woes. Luckily your politicians have the answers. Borrow more money to give everyone a tax break. Talk to the oil producers about producing more oil and selling it for less. That's a great deal if you can get it but not all oil producers are in the charity business. Bring in more illegal workers to make it appear that costs are down. Get the votes of the taxpayers and the consumers while you're digging their financial graves. Get into public office then feather your own financial nest.

"Keep looking for the free lunch. But the 'job for life' idea, prevalent in France, Japan and parts of Scandinavia is breaking down. Societal needs change.

"As haircuts cost more, more people cut their own hair. As traditional old line airline prices go up, low cost airlines enter the picture. You give up free meals and drinks and uniformed flight attendants and opt for no meals, fewer attendants and no uniforms—but you save 50% or more.

"In a recent strike of Norwegian Scandinavian Airlines System flight attendants, who were already making more in salary than teachers in California, gave them more money and fewer hours of work. They opened the door even wider for the low cost Norwegian Airlines to make even more inroads into the Norwegian flying public's dollar. Sometimes in striking for what you want you hit yourself in the wallet.

SOCIAL CLASS

"Our social class structure is based largely on education and whether the person is contributing to society? This is essential. Salaries here are pretty much performance based. As we said earlier, singers, actors and professional athletes are paid little. They are superfluous to the society. Top pay goes to the president, then the legislators and judges. Successful business executives also can earn a great deal. These are followed by professors and teachers, researchers, medical doctors, etc. Lawyers are far down the list, except for the government lawyers.

"Social mobility occurs because superior people emerge within the culture and rise to the top. Edison, Einstein, Lincoln and Obama are such people. But it also occurs because the structures of society change. Computers and the Internet emerged as essentials for advanced societies and the people in those fields bypassed the traditional societal elites of governors and generals and moved ahead of other business people to lead society. Bill Gates of Microsoft and the founders of Google are such people.

HAPPINESS IS THE GOAL

"Our main concern in Singaling is to have happy citizens in a vibrant productive society. As I mentioned earlier, being able to love and to work are the essentials of mental health. We have looked at what the wise people have said and gauged that against our society and what we are trying to do.

"Certainly thinking through our ethics and living them is important. Gandhi said 'Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.' Real happiness comes from doing something constructive. And we think, for most people, being in a loving relationship is very important.

"Being happy is not only enjoyable but it's healthy. Being happy makes your immune system healthier and reduces the chance of disease, but it also reduces the stress hormone cortisol which is a negative, since it seems to increase the chances of heart disease and some cancers. And women have even a greater advantage from being happy. Two inflammatory elements, C-reactive protein and interleukin 6, were also lower.(16) Our potential for happiness is partially hereditary, but it is also dependent on social relationships and a fulfilling life. Once we have educated our population and when we licensed parents to have a baby, it is our governmental duty to do all that we can to open the doors to happiness by encouraging social relationships and fulfilling lives. Certainly we don't live by bread alone, and we don't want to rely on circuses to entertain ourselves. Happiness comes from within and from our social 'betweens' and 'amongs'. We need intellectual and social stimulation. I think that this is the major job of government.

"I think that too often people are forced to play Sisyphus continually pushing their potentials up the hill, but government can lighten the load by leveling the hill or using more of our potentials—therefore lightening the load. After all we don't have the eternity that Sisyphus was cursed with, we have only our lifetimes. By fostering the use of the potentials of our citizens we gain as a society while they gain as individuals.

"On your deathbed it will be the memories of the good that you've done, how you have thought out and lived your values, and your experience of the beauties of human history, not your money, that will give you comfort and a feeling that you have lived a worthwhile life.

"I'm sure you know about Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs: physiological, safety, esteem, love and self actualization. Our government works to bring our citizens successfully through each of these levels."

 —"I must plead ignorance to Maslow's ideas. Can you explain them in greater detail?"

 —"I would rather that you hear it from Dr. Chan. He is the expert in psychology and you will meet him tomorrow."

  "Lee, I hope you are healthy and have no worries. You don't have ulcers do you?"

 —"I don't have ulcers, Ray, but people tell me I'm a carrier."

 —"Mr. Yuen, thank you so much for your insights and your explaining your system. Is it true that as with Plato's Republic one's country influences what is good and bad, beautiful and ugly?

 —"To a large degree that's true. But we leave room for the creation of beauty and truth, like in the Golden Age of Athens. We want to expose our citizens to the best that the various civilizations have cherished, in science, art, music, philosophy, but we leave room for individual creativity that advances our civilization and enhances our individual enjoyment for our short stay on our planet.

"We think we have the closest thing to a modern utopia that is possible. If you can think of ways we can improve our state we will certainly listen. After all utopia is a process not a place. It must be an evolving notion of how best to live, a pragmatic progress toward perfection."

NOTES

1. Wise, David. "Facing the Age Wave and Economic Policy: Fixing Public Pension Systems with Healthcare in the Wings. Fiscal Studies: 26:1 (2005) pp. 5-34

2. Archives of General Psychiatry, Sept. 2007

3. American Academy of Pediatrics, vol. 116, 2005

4. Washington Times, August 1, 2004

5. Leviathon, 1651

6. Dickson v. United Kingdom, 2007

7. Codd, "Regulating Reproduction: Prisoners' Families, Artificial Insemination and Human Rights" (2006) EHRLR 1

8. R v. Blood [1997] 2 WLR 806 and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Deceased Fathers) Act 2003)

9. para 52

10. Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, 2007, Reported in NY Times, Nov. 14, 2007

10a. Brookings Institution report, 2007

11. Congressional Public Health Summit, 2000

12. Anderson, C.A. (2004). "An update on the effects of violent video games. "Journal of Adolescence 27, 113-122. Gentile, D. A. & Anderson, C. A. (2003). "Violent video games: The newest media violence hazard." In D. A. Gentile (Ed.), Media violence and children. (p131-152). Westport, CT: Praeger Publishing.

13. Research of Drs. Kari Fasting and Celia Brackenridge

14. Pew Research Center report July 1, 2007

15. Inspector General's Office of the Department of Treasury, 2004

16. Steptoe, A. American Journal of Epidemiology, 2007

