Letters To The Six Billionth World Citizen

Birth dodger / Ariel Dorfman --Imagine there's no heaven / Salman Rushdie --Lullaby for Ntombizana Atoo / Antjie Krog --Disney blanket / Maryse Condé --I always return home / Nawal El Saadawi --Everything is possible / Connie Palmen --Mouse experiment / Pramoedya Ananta Toer --Millennium letter / Buchi Emecheta --Let us leave the forest, and head for the horizon / Duong Thu Huong --Farewell / Dubravka Ugresǐc --Who gave them the right? / György Konrád --God's crisis board / Marianne Fredriksson --Right to rave / Eduardo Galeano --It is better to be a dolphin / Meir Shalev.The world's population has doubled since 1960 and reached 6 billion in 1999. Women are having fewer children than ever before but due to large families in the past there are now more women of childbearing age. Population growth has slowed from 2.4% to 1.3%, but global population is still rising by about 78 million people per year. There are over a billion young people between ages 15 and 24. The decisions they are going to make in life--based on the choices they will have--on reproductive, productive and consumptive issues will, to a large extent, determine the fate of our planet. In this booklet, entitled “Letters to the Six Billionth World Citizen,” authors from all religions of the world have written passionate letters to the six billionth person. Their letters provide young people with advice on education and the means to make responsible and informed choices with regard to their sexual and reproductive lives.