Pénombre, la vie publique du nombre

Births : Russia is in the red

In the May 28, 1996 edition of Libération, a national daily paper, a report by the UN Population Fund is presented by a certain “M.L.C.” (Movement for the Liberation of Couples ?) as follows : “Europe, North America and Japan do indeed have low birth rates, sometimes down to zero in countries such as Germany, or negative, as in Russia”. We were aware that the German have few children, but to the point of not having any at all... As for Holy Russia, it is discovering anti-babies, made of anti-matter, naturally, the count of which is represented by a negative number.

Victor Descombres
August 1996

 
Penumbra, 2001 June