More people who confuse "normal" with "right"

[conuly]

Unfortunately, in this country, it's not normal for one year olds to still be nursing. Tabloids are infamous for lying, of course, and should be commended for this rare occasion of truth.

"How could something natural be not normal?"

Very simply. Clothing? Unnatural. But going naked is not normal. Shoes? Unnatural. Being barefoot is better for (most people's) feet anyway. But it's also, in most cases, not normal. Our infant mortality rate? A VERY GOOD THING. Normal. But not natural at all. The natural infant mortality rate was much higher.

*sighs*

English, people, if it's your native language, please treat it with respect.

*grins* Reminds me of a book I read when I was younger... One More River. Remember that? Girl emigrates to Israel, lives on a kibbutz? Yeah. At one point, another girl calls a guy "just not normal" to mean that she thinks he's hot.

Comments

[conuly]

Yes, I know it's higher than it ought to be, but I'm still going to hold by the statement that it's a Good Thing since it's lower than what it would be naturally.

And now I've confused myself! I guess I was just saying that our infant mortality rate is neither natural nor normal when compared with other industrialized nations.

Makes sense :) If you average industrialized and third-world nations together, I wonder where we'd be...

[priyatelka.livejournal.com]

That's a very good question and I'd like to know the answer, too, so I'm going to look into it.

Sorry about the mini-speech, I'm a huge chilbirth rights advocate and I couldn't help saying something.

Your statement does hold as a good thing, it is lower than it would be naturally. I just find it interesting that if we intervene a little we get a better rate than when we intervene a lot so it makes me curious about how much "natural" or "unnatural" is okay?

[conuly]

how much "natural" or "unnatural" is okay?

It's good until the costs exceed the benefits. Simple.

[priyatelka.livejournal.com]

We rank 184 out of 225. Japan has the lowest, Mozambique has the highest.

I don't want to average it out myself, too tired, and I couldn't find a site that did it for me, but the ranking gives us some idea.

The rates for 2003 can be found here:

http://www.photius.com/rankings/infant_mortality_rate_1.html

[conuly]

That really, really, sucks. We're not in the top 50%. Well, of course, SOMEbody has to be at the bottom - it's just arrogance that I'm surprised we're so close to it.

[priyatelka.livejournal.com]

Well, we don't wanna be number one on this list, it goes backwards from worst infant mortality rates to best. 1 being the worst.

We should be close to the bottom, but at this point there are 41 countries who have better rates than we do.

[conuly]

Oh, okay. That's better (for kids here, not for kids elsewhere).

[priyatelka.livejournal.com]

Sorry I wasn't more clear about the way the ranking went. Forgot you weren't looking at the page with me.