That population decrease for Africa, and perhaps other countries, was reasoned, informed and deliberate.
https://x.com/aeberman12/status/1843693670723457379
That population decrease for Africa, and perhaps other countries, was reasoned, informed and deliberate.
Art, That drop for Africa from 1980 was a deliberate policy of the countries and international development community. I worked at Georgetown University Center for Population Research (1980, 1981, 1982) with USAID Africa Bureau to make 50 year population projections – so social and economic impacts could be modeled and discussed openly – for all African countries, then all countries. The models were used for dialog with countries so they would make informed choices. The limits to growth, The Global Year 2000 Report (Gerald Barney), integrated planning – those were all fairly open and deliberate efforts to quantitatively model what will likely happen. Then let the countries decide.
I spent (1983, 1984, 1985) as an Intergovernmental Personnel Act federal employee at USAID Bureau for Program and Policy Coordination to build, with Annette Binnendijk and others, an integrated Economic and Social Database for all countries, for planning, evaluation and monitoring. I put the many separated databases together so all of it could be used as one. Not forcing everyone to take years to learn the eclectic individual datasets. I tried to change training for international development and country workers so they knew how to use low cost computers and models.
Then I spent (1986, 1987, 1988) as Director of the Famine Early Warning System (FEWS.net) to bring together real time data on all countries in Africa to monitor, evaluate, project he potential for famine, and then intervene where possible. Bill Trayfors (USAID Africa) and Jonathan Olsson (State) were the fund raisers and motivators. I directed the staff, integrated the systems and built a low cost, sustainable technology for real time global monitoring and intervention.
I consider FEWS and the ESDB efforts to be failures. Because the countries and the UN, still do not stop genocides, wars and takings. They wait to pick up the pieces, and use the “emergencies” to ask for donations.
The global monitoring of FEWS has become popular and is seen in many places. I think those methods are part of the UN networks now.
But most of the deaths from famine are from displaced people, armed conflicts, regional wars and inter-country wars. Deliberate human effort to take lands and eliminate political opponents or people “in the way”. The technical part of finding what is happening is not that hard. Been there done that. But the UN and countries refuse to intervene in countries, even ones decimated by armed conflict and evil governments.
After I left FEWS, I went to Phillips Petroleum, first to help them put 3S technologies for geophysical data onto microcomputers. Then in Business Intelligence for the early global climate change meetings, Clean Air, MTBE, ozone, hydrogen economy, alternative fuels. I was in the background doing the climate, emissions and financial models. I wanted to recommend integrating the economic, social, technological financial, government and other data and models with the climate and weather and geophysical data. I still work on that for the Internet Foundation.
For the last 26 years with the Internet Foundation, I traced out all the data, models and groups using the Internet. I encourage global open formats for sharing human knowledge for the survival of the human and related species. I am monitoring global networks and wars, poverty and all the things the UN is supposed to be doing. I found ways to greatly accelerate learning and integration of global knowledge. I found ways to sustainably make the Internet support “all written and spoken human and domain specific languages”. For 5.4 Billion humans using the Internet and then 2.8 Billion more.
I was going to make the Internet Foundation a global Foundation to independently monitor the UN, countries, industries and groups using the Internet. Today I would add “to independently monitor AI groups” and “monitor and intervene in global conflicts”, Monitor groups using the Internet to assure they back up their promises. Including countries, the UN, many “non-profits”, social media and global corporation using the Internet.
But early one morning I was in the small library of the Foundation Center in Washington DC a few blocks from the White House – reading and planning for a global Internet Foundation – when I was interrupted. That was 11 Sep 2001.
Richard Collins, The Internet Foundation
