America nears 'tipping point' where babies born to minority parents outnumber whites for first time.
America is reaching a ‘tipping point’ when the babies born to minority parents outnumber whites for the first time.
More white women than ever before are postponing having children until they are older, while minority mothers are still having babies at younger ages, according to a US study published last year.
Experts claim the immigration boom has accelerated the historic trend that is likely to leave whites in the minority in America by the middle of the century.
Minorities made up 48 per cent of US children born in 2008, according to the latest census estimates, compared to 37 per cent in 19990.
But the new study suggests the number of minority babies born this year is almost certainly going to number more than half of all new births.
‘For America’s children, the future is now,’ said Kenneth Johnson, a sociology professor at the University of New Hampshire who researched many of the racial trends in the report.
‘Census projections suggest America may become a minority-majority country by the middle of the century,’ he added.
He explained that there are now more Hispanic women of prime childbearing age in the US, who tend to have more children than women of other races.
U.S. BIRTH STATISTICS 2008:
Percentage of babies born in American broken down by race:
52% WHITE
25% HISPANIC
15% BLACK
4% ASIAN
4% MULTIRACIAL
More white women are waiting until they are older to have babies, although it is not yet clear how much effect that will have on the current trend of increasing minority newborns.
The number of white women of prime childbearing age is on the decline, dropping 19 per cent from 1990.
Broken down by race, about 52 per cent of babies born in 2008 were white.
That's compared to about 25 per cent Hispanic, 15 per cent black and 4 per cent Asian. Another 4 per cent were identified by their parents as multiracial.
The numbers highlight the nation's growing racial and age divide, seen in pockets of communities across the US, which could heighten tensions in current policy debates from immigration reform and education to health care and Social Security.
Whites currently make up two-thirds of the total US population, and recent census estimates suggest the total number of minorities may not overtake the number of whites until 2050.
Right now, roughly one in ten of the nation's 3,142 counties already have minority populations greater than 50 per cent.
But one in four communities have more minority children than white children or are nearing that point, according to the study, which Mr Johnson co-published.
That is because Hispanic women on average have three children, while other women on average have two. The numbers are 2.99 children for Hispanics, 1.87 for whites, 2.13 for blacks and 2.04 for Asians in the US.
The 2008 census estimates used local records of births and deaths, tax records of people moving within the US, and census statistics on immigrants.
"We must secure the existance of our race and a future for White children."- David Eden Lane- Hero of the White Race
United in the Fourteen Words--"We must secure the existance of our race and a future for White children", Maryland White Pride seeks to bring together fellow White Marylanders who have pride in their race, culture and heritage. There exists today a blatant double-standard in government, the media and in society, where people of any race, creed, or ethnic group may be proud of who they are with the exception of White people. As members of the dispossessed majority of Maryland, we believe that we have no place in the current system. We are trapped between those that sell us out and bleed us dry on a political level and those that rape, rob, and murder us on a street level. And whereas we do know that Race transcends both the political and street level, we oppose anyone of any race who ruins the future of the decent and hardworking people of our communities.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
4 Million Illegal Kids
The total number of children living in the United States who were born to illegal immigrants on U.S. soil jumped to 4 million in 2009, up from 2.7 million in 2003, a report released last year estimates.
Those children, who are automatically granted U.S. citizenship, represent 5.4 percent of all children under age 18 in the U.S. That compares with 3.7 percent six years earlier, according to data from the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center. That percentage will continue rising because an estimated 340,000 of the 4.3 million babies born in the U.S. in 2008 alone, or about 8 percent, came from illegal-immigrant parents, the report says.
The study comes as some legislators, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., are calling for a revision of the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to anyone born in the United States.
The percentage of native-born people in the U.S. has fallen for four straight decades, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2008, 12.5 percent of the population was born outside the U.S., nearing the all-time highs of nearly 15 percent in the late 1800s.
"The share of the population that is White non-Hispanic is going to drop," said Jeffrey Passel, senior demographer of the Pew Hispanic Center. "The percentage that consists of immigrants and their children is going to increase."
Bob Dane, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which wants lower levels of legal and illegal immigration, said automatic citizenship for children born in the U.S. is one of the main magnets for illegal immigration.
Dane said many illegal immigrants are searching for jobs. He said many others come here to have a baby who is entitled to a wide array of government benefits and can eventually help the parents become citizens as well. He calls the practice a "corruption of the rule of law."
Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, which supports a process for some illegal immigrants to become citizens, said eliminating birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants would be a colossal mistake.
"It puts the United States of America on the brink of legalizing apartheid," he said.
Noorani said some people have always fought for a change to the 14th Amendment's birthright clause, but he is shocked to see prominent members of Congress suddenly embrace it. He thinks the upcoming November elections are the reason.
"This is a pathetic attempt to gin up a (voting) base," he said. "This is political fear-mongering."
A poll conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press indicated that 56 percent of Americans do not want to bar the children of illegal immigrants born in the U.S. from becoming citizens.
Of people who identified themselves as conservative Republicans, 55 percent support a ban on birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants, while 67 percent of self-described liberal Democrats oppose such a ban. The poll of 1,802 adults was conducted in June and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
The childbirth study was based on data from the census, and the center analyzed demographic characteristics of the illegal-immigrant population.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Chapel built with remains of Hitler's luxury retreat 'becomes National Socialist shrine'
A chapel built on a mountainside in Germany is turning into a shrine for National Socialists after it emerged that it was built with marble and granite taken from the ruins of Adolf Hitler's luxury retreat.
A swastika was reportedly found carved into one of the wooden beams of the Wegmacher Chapel, which was built in 1997, while local residents claim a number of shaven-headed, leather jacket-wearing 'pilgrims' leave behind notes of praise to Hitler and candles burning in his memory.
It was only recently that the Bavarian government admitted that material from the wreckage of Hitler's retreat, the Berghof in Berchtesgaden, was used in the construction of the chapel.
Some of the stones are from the terrace of the Berghof - quarried by Jewish slave laborers in concentration camps.
"Many of the guests who attended the chapel's dedication are starting to wish it had never been built. It is difficult to ascertain, of course, whether the building is fulfilling is sacred function of protecting travelers. What is clear, however, is that the chapel is causing nothing but trouble in the secular world," reported Der Spiegel magazine on Thursday.
Deploying materials from Hitler's home is a contradiction of a post-war policy in Bavaria not to use anything from the sites associated with Nazism for such projects. While the Bavarian government set about demolishing underground bunkers at the Berghof discovered a decade ago it deployed security guards with dogs to stop locals entering them and making off with souvenirs.
But the bricks and flagstones were taken away to a stonemason's yard and later used for the chapel.
Matthias Ferwagner, the chapel's architect, said that his design "explicitly addressed" the use of the materials from Hitler's old home.
"The idea was that the stones somehow needed to be cleansed, blessed," Ferwagner said. He said he envisioned the roadside chapel as a place where people with "evil intentions" could stop "and purge their minds."
Hitler's Berghof was bombed into ruins by Allied planes towards the end of the war when he was holed up in his underground bunker in Berlin.
There is now a debate underway in Bavaria about whether some of those ruins, including the house's vast cellars and air-raid shelters, should be opened up for tourists.
Some locals are calling for the chapel to be demolished but Ferwanger said; "You can hardly find a mason in the region who isn't storing columns and stone blocks from Obersalzberg."
A swastika was reportedly found carved into one of the wooden beams of the Wegmacher Chapel, which was built in 1997, while local residents claim a number of shaven-headed, leather jacket-wearing 'pilgrims' leave behind notes of praise to Hitler and candles burning in his memory.
It was only recently that the Bavarian government admitted that material from the wreckage of Hitler's retreat, the Berghof in Berchtesgaden, was used in the construction of the chapel.
Some of the stones are from the terrace of the Berghof - quarried by Jewish slave laborers in concentration camps.
"Many of the guests who attended the chapel's dedication are starting to wish it had never been built. It is difficult to ascertain, of course, whether the building is fulfilling is sacred function of protecting travelers. What is clear, however, is that the chapel is causing nothing but trouble in the secular world," reported Der Spiegel magazine on Thursday.
Deploying materials from Hitler's home is a contradiction of a post-war policy in Bavaria not to use anything from the sites associated with Nazism for such projects. While the Bavarian government set about demolishing underground bunkers at the Berghof discovered a decade ago it deployed security guards with dogs to stop locals entering them and making off with souvenirs.
But the bricks and flagstones were taken away to a stonemason's yard and later used for the chapel.
Matthias Ferwagner, the chapel's architect, said that his design "explicitly addressed" the use of the materials from Hitler's old home.
"The idea was that the stones somehow needed to be cleansed, blessed," Ferwagner said. He said he envisioned the roadside chapel as a place where people with "evil intentions" could stop "and purge their minds."
Hitler's Berghof was bombed into ruins by Allied planes towards the end of the war when he was holed up in his underground bunker in Berlin.
There is now a debate underway in Bavaria about whether some of those ruins, including the house's vast cellars and air-raid shelters, should be opened up for tourists.
Some locals are calling for the chapel to be demolished but Ferwanger said; "You can hardly find a mason in the region who isn't storing columns and stone blocks from Obersalzberg."
Bishop Convicted for Denying Something Happened
BERLIN - A German court convicted ultraconservative British Bishop Richard Williamson on Friday of denying Something Happened in a television interview.
A court in the Bavarian city of Regensburg found Williamson guilty of incitement for saying in a 2008 interview with Swedish television that he did not believe Something Happened during World War II.
The court ordered Williamson to pay a fine of €10,000 ($13,544).
The Roman Catholic bishop was barred by his order from attending Friday's proceedings or making statements to the media. His lawyer, Matthias Lossmann, told The Associated Press after the court ruling that Williamson has yet to decide whether he would appeal.
A court in the Bavarian city of Regensburg found Williamson guilty of incitement for saying in a 2008 interview with Swedish television that he did not believe Something Happened during World War II.
The court ordered Williamson to pay a fine of €10,000 ($13,544).
The Roman Catholic bishop was barred by his order from attending Friday's proceedings or making statements to the media. His lawyer, Matthias Lossmann, told The Associated Press after the court ruling that Williamson has yet to decide whether he would appeal.
Israel builds up deep-sea navy
Even though Israel didn't exist until after WWII, Germany has provided hefty discounts on arms sales to Israel because it is morally committed to the Jewish state's security in reparation for the Holocaust. And the world wonders why people hate the Jews.
TEL AVIV, Israel, April 20 (UPI) -- Israel is building up its navy and it's looking to Germany to provide the warships, most notably two advanced corvettes and two, possibly three, more Dolphin-class attack submarines, that will transform it from a coastal force to a deep-water navy.
Until now, the navy has been largely confined to the Mediterranean countering the naval forces of Syria, Egypt and the Maghreb states further east, with occasional forays into the Red Sea.
The objective of the expansion program clearly seems to be to increase the navy's reach to counter Iran, which Israel views as its primary adversary because of its buildup of ballistic missiles and its alleged drive to develop nuclear weapons.
The main focus of the naval expansion program is negotiations with Germany to buy two MEKO A-100 corvettes from the Blohm+Voss shipyard in Hamburg. Jane's Defense Weekly says the 2,500-ton, 280-foot MEKOs would be adapted to carry Israeli-made systems.
The warships, which carry crews of 94, have a range of 4,635 miles, a top speed of 30 knots and advanced radar-evading capability. They carry one medium-size helicopter and 24 weapons systems -- 16 ship-to-shore and eight anti-ship missile launchers adapted to U.S. weapons as well as air-defense missiles and automatic cannon.
The Israeli navy had shown interest in Lockheed Martin's Littoral Combat Ship to fit its requirement for a new missile ship to be categorized as Saar 5.5. But the U.S. vessel was considered too expensive at $600 million. The MEKO variant sought by Israel costs an estimated $300 million.
Negotiations with the Germans began in October 2007 when Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi visited Berlin.
The Israelis want a discount on the proposed MEKO deal of 20-30 percent, said Jane's.
The Germans are already funding one-third of the total cost, estimated at $1.4 billion, of two 1,900-ton Dolphin submarines, based on Germany's Type 212A boat currently on order.
These were ordered in 2006 and are scheduled for delivery starting in 2012 to the submarine base at Haifa. That will bolster the Israeli navy's sub strength to five.
The subs, the most expensive weapons platforms in Israel's arsenal, have a range of 2,810 miles. However there were reports in October 2009 that their fuel capacity had been increased to keep the vessels at sea for 50 days without refueling.
German opposition parties, including the Social Democrats, have expressed misgivings about exporting weapons to crisis zones. But the 2006 order for two Dolphins was approved while the Democrats were part of a coalition government.
Germany has provided hefty discounts on arms sales to Israel because it is morally committed to the Jewish state's security in reparation for the Holocaust.
Talks are under way on Israel acquiring a sixth Dolphin built by the Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft in Kiel and the Thyssen Nordseewerke in Emden.
The Israeli subs' four 650mm torpedo tubes have been reportedly modified to launch cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads.
Each Dolphin is believed to carry 10 U.S.-built Harpoon missiles but these have a range of only 135 miles. Still, that gives these boats a limited strategic first- or second-strike capability.
With six Dolphins, the Israelis would be able to maintain at least two or three deployed in the Arabian Sea off Iran's southern coast at any one time or at their Red Sea naval base at Eilat on the Gulf of Aqaba ready for swift deployment against the Islamic Republic.
Israel has threatened to launch pre-emptive strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities if it fails to halt its alleged weapons program.
One Israeli source noted that the navy would like even more Dolphins. "Our ideal number would be nine -- enough to ensure we have the necessary assets at sea to cover all relevant threats and targets," he said.
TEL AVIV, Israel, April 20 (UPI) -- Israel is building up its navy and it's looking to Germany to provide the warships, most notably two advanced corvettes and two, possibly three, more Dolphin-class attack submarines, that will transform it from a coastal force to a deep-water navy.
Until now, the navy has been largely confined to the Mediterranean countering the naval forces of Syria, Egypt and the Maghreb states further east, with occasional forays into the Red Sea.
The objective of the expansion program clearly seems to be to increase the navy's reach to counter Iran, which Israel views as its primary adversary because of its buildup of ballistic missiles and its alleged drive to develop nuclear weapons.
The main focus of the naval expansion program is negotiations with Germany to buy two MEKO A-100 corvettes from the Blohm+Voss shipyard in Hamburg. Jane's Defense Weekly says the 2,500-ton, 280-foot MEKOs would be adapted to carry Israeli-made systems.
The warships, which carry crews of 94, have a range of 4,635 miles, a top speed of 30 knots and advanced radar-evading capability. They carry one medium-size helicopter and 24 weapons systems -- 16 ship-to-shore and eight anti-ship missile launchers adapted to U.S. weapons as well as air-defense missiles and automatic cannon.
The Israeli navy had shown interest in Lockheed Martin's Littoral Combat Ship to fit its requirement for a new missile ship to be categorized as Saar 5.5. But the U.S. vessel was considered too expensive at $600 million. The MEKO variant sought by Israel costs an estimated $300 million.
Negotiations with the Germans began in October 2007 when Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi visited Berlin.
The Israelis want a discount on the proposed MEKO deal of 20-30 percent, said Jane's.
The Germans are already funding one-third of the total cost, estimated at $1.4 billion, of two 1,900-ton Dolphin submarines, based on Germany's Type 212A boat currently on order.
These were ordered in 2006 and are scheduled for delivery starting in 2012 to the submarine base at Haifa. That will bolster the Israeli navy's sub strength to five.
The subs, the most expensive weapons platforms in Israel's arsenal, have a range of 2,810 miles. However there were reports in October 2009 that their fuel capacity had been increased to keep the vessels at sea for 50 days without refueling.
German opposition parties, including the Social Democrats, have expressed misgivings about exporting weapons to crisis zones. But the 2006 order for two Dolphins was approved while the Democrats were part of a coalition government.
Germany has provided hefty discounts on arms sales to Israel because it is morally committed to the Jewish state's security in reparation for the Holocaust.
Talks are under way on Israel acquiring a sixth Dolphin built by the Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft in Kiel and the Thyssen Nordseewerke in Emden.
The Israeli subs' four 650mm torpedo tubes have been reportedly modified to launch cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads.
Each Dolphin is believed to carry 10 U.S.-built Harpoon missiles but these have a range of only 135 miles. Still, that gives these boats a limited strategic first- or second-strike capability.
With six Dolphins, the Israelis would be able to maintain at least two or three deployed in the Arabian Sea off Iran's southern coast at any one time or at their Red Sea naval base at Eilat on the Gulf of Aqaba ready for swift deployment against the Islamic Republic.
Israel has threatened to launch pre-emptive strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities if it fails to halt its alleged weapons program.
One Israeli source noted that the navy would like even more Dolphins. "Our ideal number would be nine -- enough to ensure we have the necessary assets at sea to cover all relevant threats and targets," he said.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
OPERATION WETBACK
Three times in the history of the United States US Presidents took what would today be considered a politically unpopular position by rounding up and deporting illegal aliens to create jobs for US Citizens. The first attempt occurred shortly after the banker-induced Stock Market Crash of 1929 when President Herbert Hoover ordered the round-up and deportation of illegals by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service. The program, dubbed "Operation Wetback," was carried out without any protests from US government-funded Hispanic advocacy groups—since there were none. The Clintonesque-liberal media political correctness dictionary was still 63 years in the future and the communist-left FDR (America's white Barack Obama) federal bureaucracy was still some 4-years in the making.
The Hoover roundup sent over one million Mexican illegal aliens packing—freeing up jobs for out-of-work US citizens. In addition, some 47 thousand Mexican nationals who were in the country legally, with visas, also opted to leave due to rising animosity by out-of-work Americans for any foreigner in the United States with a job. Operation Wetback was launched in the Southwest: Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. But deportees also came from Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, and New York. Since Mexican illegals tried hard to remain under the radar screen, few of them traveled far beyond the border States, thus we can assume that most of the deportees from the States north of the Mason-Dixon line were legal residents. During the Hoover years, immigration to he United States was virtually stopped.
The Hoover deportations caused an outcry from the Mexican government demanding to know what gave Hoover the right to deny Mexican citizens the right to jobs in the United States under what was called the "Good Neighbor Policy." At the end of World War II, President Harry S. Truman was faced with the same problem that plagued Hoover in 1931—no jobs for US citizens. Under Roosevelt's Public Law 78 agri-giants, who needed dirt cheap labor were allowed to import labor from Mexico even though 25% of the American labor force was out of work—and in the dust bowl farm states, unemployment stood at over 70%. Under Public Law 78, when work contracts were fulfilled, the employer was responsible, under law, to transport the migrant worker back to Mexico. As thousands of migrant workers simply vanished into the human landscape, taking what few jobs were available from American workers, Truman's solution was to issue a terse public statement admonishing Congress, and telling the American people that Congress assured him they would fix the problem. (Yeah, we can see how well the buck stopped at his desk.)
During the prosperity of the war years (1943-54), illegal alien immigration increased by 6,000%, triggering Operation Wetback II and III. In 1954, the INS estimated that illegals—not legal migrant workers—were crossing the US border at the rate of one million per year and that they were penetrating much deeper into the nation that in preceding decades because the INS concentrated their efforts only in the border States. The INS, on orders from the White House, went through the motions of rounding up both illegal aliens and migrant workers who overstayed their visas. Truman deported about 30 thousand Mexicans during his seven years in office.
Truman's blamed his poor record on guarding the border on Public Law 78, enacted by FDR's 73rd Congress and S.984, which was enacted by the 82nd Congress (that expanded the use of migratory workers from Mexico) and made it more difficult to expel illegals under Woodrow Wilson's "Good Neighbor Policy" with Mexico.
Truman became one of the three "deportion presidents" not for deporting Mexicans under Operation Wetback II, but under Presidential Proclamation 2655, an edict requiring the deportation of potentially dangerous WWII detainees from the Axis nations. Deported were several thousand men, women and children of German and Italian ancestry who spend most of World War II in internment camps. It appears that only about 900 Pervian Japanese farmers, held by the US government in that country, were deported to Japan at the end of war.
Eisenhower was stuck will cleaning up the mess created by the open door polices 73rd and 82nd Congresses. As Eisenhower took office, illegal immigrants were now crossing at the rate of about 3 million per year. When Eisenhower assumed the Oval Office, illegal alien migration was one of his top priorities. He attributed the lax attitude of Congress about illegal immigration with a relaxation of Congressional ethical standards. A Truman-initiated study on Mexican migratory labor in 1950 found that cotton growers in Texas paid migrant workers about half what a US citizen was paid to chop cotton. As Eisenhower met with current and retired border patrol agents he learned that the big ranchers and farmers who relied on the cheap migrant labor had friends "in high places" in government. Agents were subtlety warned not to arrest the workers employed by what turned out to be powerful campaign donors. When that didn't work, they were very bluntly told to back off, or they were simply transferred where they would become someone else's problem. The two most influential Senators who blocked the efforts of the INS to do their job were then Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson [D-TX] and Sen. Pat McCarran [D-NV].
Eisenhower hired Gen. Joseph May Swing to head the INS and with units of the US National Guard, began what history now views as a quasi-military operation to find and seize illegal immigrants As hard as Johnson tried to get rid of Swing, Eisenhower protected his man in Immigration. On July 15, 1953, the first day of Operation Wetback III, Swing's men arrested 4,800 illegals. After the first day, the INS averaged the seizure of 1,100 illegals per day. The INS devoted 700 men to the project, hoping to scare enough more illegals to flee back across the border. The INS claims that under Eisenhower's Operation Wetback, they deported 1,300,000 illegals. The open-border social progressives insist that all three phases of Operation Wetback were dismal flops, and that only a few thousand people—all of whom, they claim, were legal residents—were deported.
It was Truman who pushed the Federal Immigration and National Act of 1952 through Congress in the closing days of his administration. Under Section 8 USC 1324[a](1)(A)[iv][b](iii) any US citizen that knowingly assists an illegal alien, provides them with employment, food, water or shelter has committed a felony. City, county or State officials that declare their jurisdictions to be "Open Cities, Counties or States are subject to arrest; as are law enforcement agencies who chose not to enforce this law. Police officers who ignore officials who violate Section 8 USC 1324[a](1)(A)[iv][b](iii) are committing a Section 274 federal felony. Furthermore, according to Federal Immigration and National Act of 1952, if you live in a city, county or State that refuses to enforce the law for whatever reason, the officials making those rules are financially liable for any crime committed within their jurisdiction by an illegal alien.
We now have approximately 25 million illegal aliens in the United States (even though the Center for Immigration Studies estimates that number at around 7.3 million). It's time to demand, under threat of impeachment, that Barack Hussein Obama launch Operation Wetback IV, and complete the job started by Hoover and Eisenhower.
Although they think they are, the President of the United States (legitimate or illegitimate), and the members of Congress are not above the law of the land. If Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid [D-NV] and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi [D-CA] and any other member of Congress refuses to enforce Section 8 USC 1324[a](1)(A)[iv][b](iii), they need to be impeached for committing a federal felony, tried and removed from office, and then placed on trial in a US federal court (not of their choosing), and sentenced to federal prison for harboring illegals.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Russia awards 'order of parental glory' to prolific parents
It was the gleaming silver gong every idealistic Soviet matron desired: the "Hero Mother" medal conferred on women who bore at least 10 children to serve the nation.
Now, 18 years after it was discontinued, Russia has revived its policy of rewarding fertility in an attempt to reverse a potentially disastrous demographic decline.
To great fanfare, broadcast live on state television, President Dmitry Medvedev brought eight families into the gilded halls of the Kremlin and presented them with the blue-ribboned silver star of the Order of Parental Glory.
"You are setting an example for all society and you continue the tradition of parental service which has been customary in our country for centuries," Mr Medvedev told the gathering.
A sharp fall in birthrates, combined with increasing poor health, has prompted a demographic collapse which the United Nations predicts could reduce the population from 146 million today to just 80 million by 2050 - a fall in numbers which could also spell social and economic disaster.
Now the country's leadership is striking back through a publicity campaign urging people to have larger families. Posters line Moscow's streets and metro stations, reminding people of their duty to have children.
The Order of Parental Glory is reminiscent of Joseph Stalin's campaign to boost birthrates following the country's staggering human losses in the Second World War, as well as the dictator's own purges.
He introduced the Hero Mother award in 1944, to celebrate women who gave birth to, or adopted, at least 10 children.
The Order of Parental Glory has more modest ambitions: parents need only four children to apply, but they must also satisfy a host of other requirements to show that they are bringing their offspring up in a healthy atmosphere.
Eight families, representing different parts of Russia, were chosen through local competitions to receive the award, which also comes with a 50,000-rouble stipend (£1,000).
Some, like the Maximov family from the eastern region of Yakutia, came in traditional Siberian dress. Others wore military uniforms and priestly garb.
Nikolai Levyokin, 37, was chosen to represent the Moscow region. He and his wife, Ksenia, have six children, aged one to 13. He said the ceremony left him – and his children – nervous but proud. "We're doing this not only to lift Russia's demographics, but to lift the status of Russia itself," he told The Sunday Telegraph.
Mr Levyokin said his children were at first sad to learn that the prime minister, Vladimir Putin, who left the presidency in May, would not be the one presenting the award. "Then they saw Medvedev's smiling face and realised he's a good president too," he said.
Mr Medvedev said the state's campaign – which included naming 2007 "The Year of the Child" and 2008 "The Year of the Family" – was yielding results. Birth rates grew by over 8 per cent in 2007 and 6 per cent last year, he said, though most analysts in Russia attribute this to the country's improved economic situation.
They also warn that birthrates can be expected to dip as the country enters its worst economic crisis in a decade.
Boosting birthrates is Mr Medvedev's pet cause and has prompted scorn from some quarters. A radical art group called Voina took the president to task last year, staging a mock orgy in the room holding stuffed bears at Moscow's Natural History Museum - a play on the president's surname, which derives from the Russian word for "bear".
Participants in the Kremlin ceremony, due to be a yearly event, took it rather more seriously. "We are contributing to the growth of a great Russia," Mr Levyokin said.
Now, 18 years after it was discontinued, Russia has revived its policy of rewarding fertility in an attempt to reverse a potentially disastrous demographic decline.
To great fanfare, broadcast live on state television, President Dmitry Medvedev brought eight families into the gilded halls of the Kremlin and presented them with the blue-ribboned silver star of the Order of Parental Glory.
"You are setting an example for all society and you continue the tradition of parental service which has been customary in our country for centuries," Mr Medvedev told the gathering.
A sharp fall in birthrates, combined with increasing poor health, has prompted a demographic collapse which the United Nations predicts could reduce the population from 146 million today to just 80 million by 2050 - a fall in numbers which could also spell social and economic disaster.
Now the country's leadership is striking back through a publicity campaign urging people to have larger families. Posters line Moscow's streets and metro stations, reminding people of their duty to have children.
The Order of Parental Glory is reminiscent of Joseph Stalin's campaign to boost birthrates following the country's staggering human losses in the Second World War, as well as the dictator's own purges.
He introduced the Hero Mother award in 1944, to celebrate women who gave birth to, or adopted, at least 10 children.
The Order of Parental Glory has more modest ambitions: parents need only four children to apply, but they must also satisfy a host of other requirements to show that they are bringing their offspring up in a healthy atmosphere.
Eight families, representing different parts of Russia, were chosen through local competitions to receive the award, which also comes with a 50,000-rouble stipend (£1,000).
Some, like the Maximov family from the eastern region of Yakutia, came in traditional Siberian dress. Others wore military uniforms and priestly garb.
Nikolai Levyokin, 37, was chosen to represent the Moscow region. He and his wife, Ksenia, have six children, aged one to 13. He said the ceremony left him – and his children – nervous but proud. "We're doing this not only to lift Russia's demographics, but to lift the status of Russia itself," he told The Sunday Telegraph.
Mr Levyokin said his children were at first sad to learn that the prime minister, Vladimir Putin, who left the presidency in May, would not be the one presenting the award. "Then they saw Medvedev's smiling face and realised he's a good president too," he said.
Mr Medvedev said the state's campaign – which included naming 2007 "The Year of the Child" and 2008 "The Year of the Family" – was yielding results. Birth rates grew by over 8 per cent in 2007 and 6 per cent last year, he said, though most analysts in Russia attribute this to the country's improved economic situation.
They also warn that birthrates can be expected to dip as the country enters its worst economic crisis in a decade.
Boosting birthrates is Mr Medvedev's pet cause and has prompted scorn from some quarters. A radical art group called Voina took the president to task last year, staging a mock orgy in the room holding stuffed bears at Moscow's Natural History Museum - a play on the president's surname, which derives from the Russian word for "bear".
Participants in the Kremlin ceremony, due to be a yearly event, took it rather more seriously. "We are contributing to the growth of a great Russia," Mr Levyokin said.
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