[Cet article est extrait du hors-série n°91 de Courrier international consacré à “la bombe démographique mondiale”].
They have nothing against children. Quite the contrary. On paper, they could soon become parents. Except that they doubt. In Switzerland, nearly 90,000 births were recorded in 2021, unheard of since 1972, despite a fertility rate that has remained stable and low – 1.5 children per woman – for fifty years.
But today, part of a youth of age, even in the desire to procreate, is caught up in a disconcerting game of mental Tetris. Between the pieces of “couple love” and of “professional and personal growth” – already complex –, that of the “future of the world” remains suspended. Climate change puts the earth in danger, once again denounced the IPCC in its report on Monday [publié le 4 avril dernier], the health crisis has not had time to bow out as civilians are massacred in Ukraine. Therefore, what to do… Give life in the midst of chaos? Is it wise, legitimate, selfish, necessary, unconscious, altruistic?
Moving away from the “capitalist and consumerist” system
First, there are the decided. Those who, at their Tetris, have found a drastic solution: say no to babies. Vincent and Nathalia, 34-year-old Genevans, have been in a relationship for twenty years. They consider that they do not need to procreate, neither for themselves nor “for the world”. They explain
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Source of the article
Time (Geneva)Born in March 1998 from the merger of New Daily, from Geneva Journal and some Lausanne Gazette, this centre-right title, popular with executives, presents itself as the benchmark daily newspaper in French-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland.
It devotes a large part to international news but also economic and cultural. Originally financed by private bankers in Geneva, it has been under the control of the Zurich press group Ringier since April 2015. Time can count on numerous collaborations, in particular with The evening in Belgium, The world et The Tribune in France and The New York Times in the USA.
Its site is well supplied; you can consult the latest news dispatches and some web exclusives. Certain articles from the daily newspaper are accessible on the site the day before their publication in the evening, with the complete summary of the next day’s edition. A good number of articles are however not available free of charge.
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