Yahoo –AFP,
Angus Mackinnon, September 2, 2016
An Italian government campaign urging young couples to "get on with it" to boost the country's flagging birthrate has been pulled after a furious backlash on social media.
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| Italy has the lowest birthrate in the European Union and one of the lowest in the world |
An Italian government campaign urging young couples to "get on with it" to boost the country's flagging birthrate has been pulled after a furious backlash on social media.
Health
Minister Beatrice Lorenzin said Friday she had ordered changes to the online
campaign after a series of captioned images intended to promote an upcoming
Fertility Day were slammed as patronising, sexist and hectoring.
The biggest
outcry was over an image of a fraught-looking young woman touching her stomach
with one hand and holding an egg-timer in the other, with the sand running
away.
"Beauty
has no age. But fertility does," said the caption, widely criticised for
implying women delaying pregnancy had only themselves to blame if they ended up
childless.
Men were
not treated any more sensitively. A picture of rotting banana skin was deployed
to make the point that: "Male fertility is much more vulnerable than you
might think."
That was
making a similar point to a picture of a man holding a cigarette with the
warning: "Don't let your sperm go up in smoke."
Another
image shows a wading bird on the edge of a nest, imploring surfers to:
"Get a move on! Don't wait for the stork."
The tweets,
released to promote a Fertility Day planned for September 22, quickly went
viral -- the initial incredulous reaction being amplified by a swell of support
for Lorenzin from pro-family groups.
'Demographic suicide'
Criticism
of the campaign focused on the numerous obstacles to having children in Italy,
including high unemployment, low wages, weak maternity rights and inadequate
childcare provision.
One of the
most popular tweets was a cartoon by Virgilio Natola showing a female hand
holding up a pregnancy test kit bearing the result: "Go abroad and find
yourself a job."
 |
A total of
485,000 babies were born in Italy last year, a record low and
less than half
the level of the 1960s
|
Others
cited Italy's falling birthrate as a serious problem.
"The
criticisms of #fertilityday are ridiculous," tweeted Comitato Articolo 26,
one of the groups involved in organising recent "Family Days" in
opposition to legislation on gay civil unions.
"In
the country of demographic suicide, a lot, lot more should be done."
Announcing
a review of the campaign, Lorenzin said: "We did not intend to offend or
provoke anyone. If the message has not gone across as we we would have liked,
we will change it."
Lorenzin, a
practising Catholic, was left looking isolated after Prime Minister Matteo
Renzi appeared to criticise the campaign.
"As
far as I know, none of my friends had their kids after seeing an advert,"
he said in a radio interview on Thursday.
Italy has
the lowest birthrate in the European Union and one of the lowest in the world,
with only eight babies born for every 1,000 residents in 2015, according to EU
figures released in July.
A total of
485,000 babies were born in the country last year, a record low and less than
half the level of the 1960s.
Lorenzin
warned earlier this year that the current "catastrophic decline"
would reduce the number of newborns to 350,000 within a decade unless action is
taken to reverse the trend.
She has
proposed doubling "baby bonus" child benefits to encourage more
couples to start families and existing parents to expand theirs.
Related Article:
"Recalibration of Free Choice"– Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth, 4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical) 8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)
“… 3 - Longer Life is Going to Happen, But…
Here is one that is a review. We keep bringing it up because Humans don't believe it. If you're going to start living longer, there are those who are frightened that there will be overpopulation. You've seen the way it is so far, and the geometric progression of mathematics is absolute and you cannot change it. So if you look at the population of the earth and how much it has shifted in the last two decades, it's frightening to you. What would change that progression?
The answer is simple, but requires a change in thinking. The answer is a civilization on the planet who understands a new survival scenario. Instead of a basic population who has been told to have a lot of children to enhance the race [old survival], they begin to understand the logic of a new scenario. The Akashic wisdom of the ages will start to creep in with a basic survival scenario shift. Not every single woman will look at herself and say, "The clock is ticking," but instead can say, "I have been a mother 14 times in a row. I'm going to sit this one out." It's a woman who understands that there is no loss or guilt in this, and actually feels that the new survival attribute is to keep the family small or not at all! Also, as we have said before, even those who are currently ignorant of population control will figure out what is causing babies to be born [Kryon joke].
Part of the new Africa will be education and healing, and eventually a zero population growth, just like some of the first-world nations currently have. Those who are currently tied to a spiritual doctrine will actually have that doctrine changed (watch for it) regarding Human birth. Then they will be able to make free choice that is appropriate even within the establishment of organized religion. You see, things are going to change where common sense will say, "Perhaps it would help the planet if I didn't have children or perhaps just one child." Then the obvious, "Perhaps I can exist economically better and be wiser with just one. It will help the one!" Watch for these changes. For those of you who are steeped in the tradition of the doctrines and would say that sounds outrageously impossible, I give you the new coming pope [Kryon smile]. For those of you who feel that uncontrolled procreation is inevitable, I encourage you to see statistics you haven't seen or didn't care to look at yet about what first-world countries have already accomplished on their own, without any mandates. It's already happening. That was number three.….”
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