I spent some time this evening exploring an interesting tool provided by the British Broadcasting Corporation, based on a variety of sources of research on population growth and sustainability of resources. It highlights the fact that within the coming few weeks, Earth's population is anticipated to break the 7 billion mark. That's about 2 billion more than existed on the planet when I was born, which was about 2 billion more than had been here when my mom was. In the past 50 years, the population of our planet has more than doubled, and while research has advanced to make great strides toward the development of sustainable resources, we're still using entirely more than an expansion as we're currently seeing can accomodate.
I suppose the (kind of) good news is that the countries sucking up the large majority of these resources (America being a great contributor to this use) are not the ones with the most rapidly expanding population. For the most part, countries where people use the least are the developing nations in which people have learned to make do and are now experiencing great advances in known medicine, sustaining life longer, while birth control has not yet caught on sufficiently to allow populations to remain stagnant.
There are exceptions, though. There are countries in our world, where, despite an impressive ability to conserve resources, use what is available, and live comfortably with little money to spend and minimal natural resources at their disposal, population is declining rapidly. Moldova tops this particular list.*
With the most rapidly shrinking population of any country in the world today, the population of the Republic of Moldova becomes smaller by just over a hundred people per day. It seems a peculiar phenomenon, I'm sure, from a distance, but up close, it's more bizarre still.
Had someone asked me before seeing this website how rapidly the population here is diminishing, I'd have had no idea, other than that it's assuredly a noticeable change, and it is most certainly not growing. Putting a number in correlation with the things I see every day, though, gives a bit of clarity to a somber picture.
In the school where I teach, more students live apart from their parents than with them. While many scenarios consist of children who reside with grandparents, aunts and uncles, or close family friends, a sizable number of them live without an adult in the household, generally leaving teenage siblings, mostly sisters, to care for the younger members of their families. Needless to say, it's a scenario not conducive to the well-being of any of those involved.
I attribute circumstances like these to much of the negativity I see in the attitudes of young people within my school. Most will tell you they are unlikely ever to be able to leave Moldova, more will express that they desire to do so, very few seem confident that changes could take place here to improve the country they've been born and raised in. Poverty is commonplace, education is lacking efficacy and certifications in viability in the world, opportunities are few, and a stunning proportion of people work their entire lives never saving enough to afford their own homes or to survive someday upon a pension.
Interestingly enough, though, Moldova and its neighbors, the "transition countries of Eastern Europe" are grouped not among the developing or least developed, but among developed nations such as the United States and the nations of western Europe. To me, this sounds promising. The growth that has occurred here in a very short period. (Moldova, after all, just celebrated the twentieth anniversary of its independence at the end of this summer.)
It pains me to wonder what people think when they feel so defeated that they believe their children's only hope for a quality life is to leave their children behind in search of work that pays enough to raise children on. I can help wonder exactly what a Moldovan teen raising her siblings with parents working abroad sees, looking ahead to the future.
If I had my say, I'd put visions ahead of these children.
The first I'd place would be the vision of people working together to create opportunities. Opportunity, after all, comes to those who seek it, not to those who wait for it to arise. I believe that if the people in this country who are just now at the start of their lives made it a priority and a goal to form connections and relationships with organizations and businesses outside the country, those who have the resources Moldova, in many ways, lacks, great things could be brought into the country. Jobs could be created, money could be drawn into the country rather than sent from abroad, and possibilities would expand.
The next I'd want to place is a view of the future in light of what is available at present. I've seen incredible creativity among my students, ingenuity the likes of which I've never dreamed among my elders, and among my peers, an ability to bear great deals of adult responsibility with dignity, grace, and unparalleled capability. Moldovan soil grows grapes that snap in your teeth, and the people know how to turn it into wine of every imaginable, delicious variety. Moldovan fields are vast, fertile, and have been worked carefully for years by families who, if they were to develop cooperatives or collaborate with larger organizations, I don't doubt could find much greater revenue than they do in the street markets in Moldovan towns.
Most important of the treasures of this tiny country, though, are the people, who are strong in ways I never knew were possible. The children wear their coats in the unheated schoolrooms. Elderly women reap corn stalks from the fields bent over small, dull tools. Communities come together to help one another in whatever ways they can. Then, at the end of the day, the end of the season, the end of the week, or on any imaginable occasion, they join each other in celebrations with vast spreads of traditional food, dancing, song, laughter, stories, and (needless to say) a fair helping of home-brewed wine. Happiness and the joy of family and community underlie the culture, allowing a warm glow to shine through all the adversity visible at Moldova's surface.
Finally, I'd want to offer these young people a view of Moldova's potential for the future in light of its past. While Moldova has a long way to come in many respects, it is a country that has seen great adversity but has still made very impressive strides and advancements since its inception and, more recently, since its break from communist rule. The country has been governed by dictators and plagued by class war as a part of the Soviet Union. It has struggled to gain economic footing as an independent state. It sees to this day the remnants of Communist rule and the corruption which still impedes many of its greatest efforts.
The Moldovan ground, however, that has yielded great deals of adversity and pain has yielded a people who, while a bit battle-worn, are little worse for the wear. Technology has advanced by extraordinary lengths**. Schools are making evident progress in the gradual incorporation of more modern methods and the training of more progressive new teachers. Help from outside resources such as the Peace Corps is being accepted, often with open arms by organizations ranging from local government to schools and hospitals to small farms and NGOs. Many of these groups are working to improve the way of life of minorities, women and children who have suffered domestic violence, and those involved or at risk of human trafficking. Progress may not always be as fast as what we'd hope to see, but it is, all the same, undeniably taking place.
While it can't be ignored that I routinely walk past buildings no longer inhabited or cared for, standing like concrete skeletons of a population no longer bold enough to risk the struggles of a challenging way of life; while I, doubtless, see students in my classroom who know nothing of basic discipline because they are being raised without the guidance of parents; I can't help but see a community that, in its roots, holds incredible and indelible strength. This strength has brought Moldova forward from a difficult past, and I know that it has the power, so long as those who possess it can recognize it (perhaps with a bit of help) to carry this culture into a bright future.
I like to think that some day, I'll look at Moldova a bit the way a mother does of her grown child. I want to see the progress its made, in time, and know, however small my influence may have been, that I helped. I'll take great pride, someday, in knowing that the children whose lives I was a part of knew at least one person who believed they could make changes that would allow them to raise families for generations to come on the same rich soil that has supported countless generations before them.
It's a pleasant thought-- makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside without even a sip of that wine I mentioned.
*Incidentally, another list Moldova tops is per capita alcohol consumption (about ten times America's). Perhaps there's some correlation...
**Well, at least these folks are near the top of one list for something positive-- internet access speed.
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