Have a cunug, win a baabuur

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Make love for the Motherland and win a refrigerator

 

It is an official invitation to make love for the Motherland, with the added incentive of winning a new fridge.

 

Couples in Ulyanovsk, central Russia, were encouraged to take the day off work yesterday to indulge in some patriotic procreation. The Day of Conception was dreamt up by Sergei Morozov, regional governor, in response to Russia’s deepening demographic crisis.

 

Women who give birth exactly nine months later, on June 12, which is celebrated as Russia’s national day, can win money, televisions, fridges and even a car.

 

Mr Morozov justified the initiative as a way to promote family values in Russia, where the population is shrinking by 700,000 people a year because deaths outnumber births so heavily.

 

“If there’s a good, healthy atmosphere at home within the family, if the husband and wife both love each other and their child, they will be in good spirits and that will extend to the workplace. So there’ll be a healthy atmosphere throughout the country,” he said.

 

The governor’s infant incentive scheme, now in its third year, seems to be bearing fruit. The number of babies born on June 12 this year was three times higher than the daily average in Ulyanovsk, the regional capital, about 550 miles (900 kilometres) east of Moscow. A record 78 babies were born compared with the usual 26. Andrei Malykh, Ulyanovsk’s chief doctor, said: “The scheme is working. People want the prizes.”

 

It also appears to be having a knock-on effect. Officials said that the region’s birth rate so far this year was 4.5 per cent higher than the same period in 2006.

 

Yelena Yakovleva, a spokeswoman for the governor, said: “The initiative is directed at improving the demographic situation in the region. It’s normally something for the home — a fridge or a television set. It doesn’t matter if it’s a girl or a boy.”

 

While couples were drawing the curtains at home, regional officials organised concerts and exhibitions to promote pregnancy.

 

Psychologists and gynaecologists also travelled around the region on an “agit-train” to offer advice and encouragement. The Bolsheviks invented agit-trains to show propaganda films across Russia about the new Communist regime.

 

Officially called “Give Birth to a Patriot on Russia Day”, the contest’s top prize is awarded by a committee to the couple on qualities such as “respectability” and “commendable parenting”. The car they receive is a locally made SUV named the UAZ-Patriot.

 

Andrei and Irina Kartuzov won this year’s grand prize after the birth of their fourth baby. Mr Kartuzov said that they had been planning another child anyway when they heard about the competition, but said that it would encourage others to plunge into parenthood.

 

Russia needs the people badly. President Putin called the demographic crisis the most serious problem facing the country in his annual address to the nation last year. He has introduced cash subsidies to encourage women to have more than one child. They now receive payments of 250,000 rubles (£5,000) for a second and subsequent children.

 

Dmitri Medvedev, First Deputy Prime Minister, told a conference this week that Russia hoped to stabilise its population at about 142 million by 2015 and to expand it to 145 million by 2025. He admitted that Russia would shrink by 27 million to 115 million by 2025 unless present trends were reversed. This would lead to labour shortages and rising tax burdens as the population aged.

 

The USSR also had a tradition of awarding women the honour of “Hero Mothers” for having large families and Mr Morozov’s initiative drew criticism in some quarters as a return to Soviet traditions of directing people’s lives. Alexander Bragin, a human rights activist, told Noviye Izvestiya: “We’ve already sunk to the level where the governor is ordering us on what day to conceive a child and on what day to give birth.”

 

Conception day

------------

 

The desperation from Jabaan, Ruushka, Talyaaniga, Jarmalka, even Faransiiska, about their declining population, contributed primarily by low birth-rates -- heerkaas ayee maroyaan now, desperate for a future taxpayers by almost bribing their citizens to make babies.

 

Iyagaa immigration diiday, ee haka saarto. They used to laugh at Ingiriiska, sarcastically sometimes referring London as Londonistan. Who is laughing now?

[rudy-Diiriye]

just cunug no cunugta? ok, and who is the president of this country?

 

looks like hes got michael jackson disease!!

[Buuxo]

lool@fridges i wonder if they would be able to resell the prizes. Australia seems to have similar incentives.The baby-bonus as they call is slowly increasing ,it is around $4000 now. The government's slogan has become have one for yourself,one for your husband and one for the country. lOol that is only three, rather modest don't you think.

[Malika]

Lol,its sure is a clever way of getting folks to reproduce the next tax payers!

[-Lily-]

Originally posted by Tallpoppy:

lOol that is only three, rather modest don't you think.

Just how many are you intending on? Your own football team? Think of the planet!

[me]

Wikipedia waxay tidhi.

 

The population of Russia decreased from 149 million people in 1990 to 143 million people in 2005, a 4% decline. The World Bank predicts the population will decrease to 111 million by 2050, 32 million people less, a 22% decline.[8] Other demographers have issued starker predictions, estimating less than 100 million Russian citizens by 2050. Population decline in Russia has been compounded by large-scale emigration following the fall of the Soviet Union and a poor health care system.[9]

 

Provincial governments have begun offering special incentives to couples who procreate. In 2005 Sergei Morozov, the Governor of Ulyanovsk, made September 12 a provincial holiday, the "Day of Conception," on which couples are given half of the work day off to copulate. Mothers who give birth on June 12, Russia's national day, are rewarded with money and expensive consumer items. In the first round of the competition 311 women participated and 46 babies were born on the following September 12. Over 500 women participated in the second round in 2006 and 78 gave birth. The province's birth rate rose 4.5% between 2006 and 2007

Win a car won't help. They should ban the Vodka.

 

[Buuxo]

lool Lily , i am for big families,i am thinking of having between one and my own qabiil. but i don't know if would walk the walk.

[xiinfaniin]

Good policy...

[Zafir]

If only Putin knew the recourses available to him, odayada Somalia jooja 70 jir ku wada dhalaaya ayuu aruursan lahaa.

[Valenteenah.]

^ You do realise it's not the old men who actually have the babies, don't you?

[Baluug]

These countries are losing their own people fast because those people see children as a curse, not a blessing. And at the same time, some of these people have the nerve to complain about all the immigrants and their large families. Sorry guys. Don't like it, have 5 kids of your own! If not, STFU.

[Som@li]

Originally posted by Valenteenah:

^ You do realise it's not the old men who actually have the babies, don't you?

Val, What are you talking abt? :confused: I hope you are not insulting somali women?

[- Femme -]

If I was gonna be paid to have a child...that payment better be exceeding the amount I would have to spend raising that child until he/she is married and out of my house/hair.

 

Hadii kale...rip off!!!

[Kool_Kat]

Firinjeer here I come lee iga dheh...Waayaabee meesha firinjeer la'aan maa ka jirto...

 

You should see my friends giving me advise "naayaahe aniga afarteyda caruur $1000 baan bisha labaantakeeda iigu soo dhacdo, ee caruurta iska dabakeen saad lacag badan u hesho...Mexey tahay halkaan aad la ordeyso"...looool

 

It really cracks me up...Bal maka fikireen inta ani iga galeyso...kix kix kix...

[Aaliyyah]

You should see my friends giving me advise "naayaahe aniga afarteyda caruur $1000 baan bisha labaantakeeda iigu soo dhacdo, ee caruurta iska dabakeen saad lacag badan u hesho...Mexey tahay halkaan aad la ordeyso"...looool

Koot Kat tell me about it sis. There are many people who have kids just to get child benefits. However, they over look that certain responsibility that comes with having many kids.