Plenitude
The creative power of 8 billion people, plus news from Iraq and elsewhere
A baby girl in the Phillippines became the symbolic 8 billionth person on the planet, as global population reached a new milestone, just 11 years after it crossed the 7 billion mark. Vinice Mabansag was born at 1:29 a.m. local time in Manila, just as the United Nations projected the latest population record had been passed.
Fewer than 1 billion people lived on Earth until 1804, but improvements in public health, nutrition, and medicine (see this chart on child mortality rates worldwide) all have led to an accelerating increase. In my lifetime global population has more than doubled, but demographers expect that trend to peak in the 2080s.
Welcome to this weekend edition of Globe Trot. The familiar handwringing about a population explosion is more muted than in, say, the 1970s, and some even will say that 8 billion people is just fine. Such discussions lead me to the excellent essay by Gilbert Meilaender, “The Meaning of the Presence of Children”:
The formation of a family is most truly human, a sign of health, when it springs from what Gabriel Marcel called “an experience of plenitude.” To conceive, bear, and rear a child ought to be an affirmation and a recognition: affirmation of the good of life that we ourselves were given; recognition that this life bears its own creative power to which we should be faithful.
Qatar: On the eve of the World Cup, just how did the most important sports event in the world get to Qatar? Plus, fans say football without beer isn’t football.
Iran: Protesters have burned down the house of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic republic during its 1979 revolution.
Iraq: This month an American aid worker was shot dead in Baghdad. Stephen Troell worked for the local Global English Institute, which operates under the umbrella of Texas-based Millennial Relief and Development Services. The 45-year-old Knoxville, Tenn., native and Temple Baptist Church member had served with his family in Iraq 15 years. In a statement the family said:
Stephen often quoted the words of two Moravian young men who gave their lives for the cause. We echo them again: “May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of his suffering.”
The U.S. consulate in northern Iraq issued a security alert yesterday:
[The U.S.] is monitoring credible open-source reports of potential Turkish military action in northern Syria and northern Iraq in the coming days.
Threats from Turkey follow a terror attack in downtown Istanbul (Turkey’s largest city) that killed six and wounded about 80 last Sunday. Turkey blames the Kurdish PKK for being behind the attack, and police have arrested 17 people, plus five in Bulgaria, while threatening action against Kurdish areas of Iraq and Syria.
Top U.S. military and diplomatic officials met with Iraqi officials in Bahrain today, pledging to continue a strategic partnership. And the Kurdish-led authorities in northeast Syria are taking the threats seriously.
Meanwhile, Iran has repeatedly struck Iraqi areas over Kurdish support for protests that began with the September death of Mahsa Amini, who was Kurdish. The United States this week condemned Iran’s ongoing missile and drone attacks, saying it will “defend our interests and partners in the region.”
Israel: Three fathers were killed and others injured in a terrorist attack in the West Bank after a Palestinian terrorist stabbed a security guard near the Ariel Jewish settlement. He then hijacked multiple cars in a killing spree. One of the off-duty soldiers who killed the terrorist was heading to a memorial for a man killed in a terror attack last month.
Panama: A reporter’s journey along a 70-mile stretch in the Darién Gap reveals a dangerous migrant route to the U.S. border that today is a traffic jam.
“The glory of God, giant and sacred,” she croaked through tears [after getting separated from her mother]. “He carries me in his arms.”
UK: Durham Cathedral in northern England, built by Norman conquerors and recently voted the “best building in the world,” may be a tribute to Islamic and Byzantine influence as much as to Romanesque architecture.
Readers write: Elizabeth Kendal commented after I posted last week her guide to prayers for the persecuted church—
My heart's desire is to see churches praying for the persecuted at every opportunity—privately, in small groups, in worship services, just for a minute or two—as a normal part of intercessory prayers for the Church. I honestly believe it would be transformative, both in our churches, and on ‘the battle field.’ One day was fine in 1998 (when WEF/WEA launched the International Day of Prayer) but not today.
I’m reading… Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford
And listening to… Poor Bishop Hooper’s EveryPsalm project. Let everything that breathes praise the Lord.