Generation Alpha are the group of young people born from 2012 to 2025. They are the youngest generation alive today. They are now in elementary school and middle school mostly. They are much younger than Generation Z. Generation Alpha's birth rates have fallen worldwide. Their childhood has been dominated by smart technology, social networks, and streaming services. Many of them have increased allergies as some can't eat peanuts including other foods. Some have health issues related to increased screen time. COVID-19 will impact this generation for years and decades to come. By 2025, Generation Alpha is expected to reach two billion human beings.
For comparison, the United Nations estimated that the human population was about 7.8 billion in 2020, up from 2.5 billion in 1950. Roughly three-quarters of all people reside in Africa and Asia in 2020. In fact, most human population growth comes from these two continents, as nations in Europe and the Americas tend to have too few children to replace themselves.
2018 was the first time when the number of people above 65 years of age (705 million) exceeded those between the ages of zero and four (680 million). If current trends continue, the ratio between these two age groups will top two by 2050. Fertility rates have been falling around the world due to rising standards of living, higher access to contraceptives, and more educational and economic opportunities. In fact, about half of all countries had sub-replacement fertility in the mid-2010s. The global average fertility rate in 1950 was 4.7 but dropped to 2.4 in 2017. However, this average masks the huge variation between countries. Niger has the world's highest fertility rate at 7.1 while Cyprus has one of the lowest at 1.0. In general, the more developed of countries, including much of Europe, the United States, South Korea, and Australia, tend to have lower fertility rates. People in such places tend to have children later and fewer of them. However, surveys conducted in developed economies suggest that women's desired family sizes tend to be higher than their completed fertility. Stagnant wages and eroding welfare programs are the contributing factors. While some countries, such as Sweden and Singapore, have tried various incentives to raise their fertility rates, such policies have not been particularly successful. Moreover, birth rates following the COVID-19 global pandemic might drop significantly due to economic recession. As a matter of fact, data from late 2020 and early 2021 suggests that despite hopes (or jokes) of a baby boom due to the lockdowns, precisely the opposite happened, at least in developed nations like France or the United States, but not necessarily developing ones, such as Brazil or Uganda.
Education is in fact one of the most important determinants of fertility. The more educated a woman is, the later she tends to have children, and fewer of them. At the same time, the global average life expectancy has gone from 52 in 1960 to 72 in 2017. Higher interest in education brings about an environment in which mortality rates fall, which in turn, increases population density. All these factors reduce fertility, as does cultural transmission. Increasing immigration is real, while policies that encourage people to have more children rarely succeed. Moreover, immigration continues to spread at the global level. During the early to mid-2010s, more babies were born to Christian mothers than to those of any other religion in the world, reflecting the fact that Christianity remained the most popular religion in existence. However, it was the Muslims who had a faster rate of growth. About 33% of the world's babies were born to Christians who made up 31% of the global population between 2010 and 2015, compared to 31% to Muslims, whose share of the human population was 24%. During the same period, the religiously unaffiliated (including atheists and agnostics) made up 16% of the population but gave birth to only 10% of the world's children. Nigeria is having massive population growth now. Africa's population growth in general has been increasing, its growth now higher than Asia.
Generation Alpha kids have experienced an increased role of being taught by teachers. They have an access to more digital learning. Some believe that more allergies among children is based on some parents keeping places too clean without allowing the body to adjust to new environments. Vaccination rates have dropped in the 2010's among all types of vaccines. Many in Generation Alpha have obesity and malnutrition. Many youngsters have a lack of vitamins and minerals. There is an increase of nearsightedness worldwide by regular use of electronic devices and eyestrain. Generation Alpha already have witness COVID-19, the evil Russian invasion of Ukraine, and other events. Generation Alpha will reach adulthood by the 2030's. By that time, the human population will be just under nine billion people. By that time, the world will have the highest ever proportion of people aged over 60, meaning we have an increasingly aging world population. According to Mark McCrindle, a social researcher from Australia, Generation Alpha will most likely delay standard life markers such as marriage, childbirth, and retirements, as did the previous generations. McCrindle estimated that Generation Alpha will make up 11% of the global workforce by 2030. He also predicted that they will live longer and have smaller families, and will be "the most formally educated generation ever, the most technology-supplied generation ever, and globally the wealthiest generation ever."
The United Nations forecasted that while the global average life expectancy would rise from 70 in 2015 to 83 in 2100, the ratio of people of working age to senior citizens would shrink due to falling fertility rates worldwide. By 2050, many nations in Asia, Europe, and Latin America would have fewer than two workers per retiree. U.N. figures show that, leaving out migration, all of Europe, Japan, and the United States were shrinking in the 2010s, but by 2050, 48 countries and territories would experience a population decline.
As of 2020, the latest demographic projections from the United Nations predict that there would be 8.5 billion people by 2030, 9.7 billion by 2050, and 10.9 billion by 2100. U.N. calculations assume countries with especially low fertility rates will see them rise to an average of 1.8 per woman. However, a 2020 study by researchers from Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington, published in the Lancet projected there would only be about 8.8 billion people by 2100, two billion fewer than what the U.N. predicted. Generation Alpha will carry the torch from previous generations to make their own legacies to make the world better.
One of the most important events in HBCU history was the October 2021 protest at Howard University. Many students in the university protested the mold, mice, and substandard conditions in campus residential buildings in the Blackburn Takeover. People demanded an improvement in their living situations and representation on the board of trustees. The Blackburn Takeover student protest at Howard University, in Washington, D.C., started on October 12, 2021. Leaders of the protest included people who are Aniyah Vines, Deja Redding, Jasmine Joof, Lettirose Cargill, Cherelle Muhammad, Tyler Davis, and Elishabeth Cunningham. Social media platforms promoted this event like Instagram and Twitter. The Live Movement, which is a HBCU coalition, helped in this protest by amplifying the protest. Students didn't want mice and flooding in their living spaces. About 150 students erected a tent city outside of the Blackburn University Center to demand strong improvements in the living conditions and representation on the university's board of trustees. The students desired the following 4 demands: a town hall with President Frederick and the entire student body, student trustee positions to be permanently reinstated on to the Board of Trustees of Howard University, a comprehensive housing plan to remedy all issues plaguing on campus and off campus housing, and academic, legal, and disciplinary immunity for all of the protesters involved. The university fought back, but the students won. The university claimed that as a result of the protest, Sodexho food service employees of the Blackburn café were laid off. Many people supported the student protest like Senator Elizabeth Warren, Reverend Jesse Jackson, rapper Gucci Mane, Debbie Allen, Martin Luther King III, Rev. William Barbert III, and local lawmakers (like At Large Councilmember Anita Bonds, Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George). Jasmine Joof, spokeswoman for the #BlackburnTakeover, said Monday that the agreement has effectively ended their protest. "We have achieved increased scrutiny, transparency and accountability," Joof told CNN. Rev. Jesse Jackson was on the campus of Howard to help mediate the situation between students and the Howard administration. The necessity for modern-up to date housing in any campus is always important to advance. After about one month, the Howard students reached an agreement with university officials. Wayne Frederick, the president of the historically Black college in Washington, DC, said Monday afternoon that the agreement between the school and the students who occupied Blackburn University Center over poor housing concerns is a "welcome step forward." The students of Howard University in 2021 and in 2022 represent a new era of social protest and advocacy for justice.
It is always important to celebrate past and modern-day STEM experts. These human beings used experiments, inventions, and other forms of research to build up our civilization. Their work will never be forgotten or omitted in the midst of book bans and anti-black history teachings common in Florida plus other places today in 2022. Black Excellence is ever real back then and today. It will continue in the future as well.
Granville Woods was one of the greatest STEM heroes in history. He lived from April 23, 1856 to January 30, 1910. He was an inventor who held more than 50 patents in the United States. Also, he was the first African American mechanical and electrical engineer after the Civil War. For years, Woods was self taught, so he worked on trains and streetcars. One of his greatest inventions was the device that he called the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph.
One of the greatest STEM experts in human history was Annie Easley. She lived from April 23, 1933 to June 25, 2011. She was a computer scientist, a mathematician, and a rocket scientist. She worked for the Lewis Research Center (now Glenn Research Center) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Easley was a leading member of the team that developed software for the Centaur rocket stage. That is why she was one of the first African Americans to work at NASA. By 2015, she was posthumously inducted into the Flenn Research Hall of Fame. On February 1, 2021, a crater on the moon was named after Easley by the IAU. Before the modern-day Civil Rights Movement, educational and career opportunities for African American children were very limited. Jim Crow apartheid existed, and Annie's mother told her that she could be anything. Her mother wanted Anie Easley to work at it. She encouraged Annie to get a strong, potent education. From 5th grade through high school, Annie attended Holy Family High School. She graduated valedictorian. When Annie Easley was young, she wanted to be a nurse, but at 16 she wanted to study pharmacy. By 1950, Easley enrolled classed at Xavier University in New Orleans. She majored in pharmacy for 2 years. By 1977, she earned her Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Cleveland State University.
In 1955, Easley read a story in a local newspaper about twin sisters who worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) as "computers." She applied for a job the next day and was hired two weeks later. Annie was one of four African Americans out of about 2500 employees. She started to work as a computer expert at the NACA Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboatory (which became NASA Lewis Research Center, 1958-1999, and later the John H. Glenn Research Center) in Cleveland, Ohio.
Later, she was a computer technician and mathematicians when electronic computers were being used at NASA. She completed internal specialization courses to be a professional. She was unfairly denied financial aid that other employees received for education, without explanation from the agency. She also noted that she did not feel that her pay was very high when she first started with two years of college. Although she was promised a GS-3 in her interview, her first paycheck was a GS-2, and when she questioned it she was told there were no more GS-3s available
Easley's outreach for minorities did not end with her volunteer work at college career days. At NASA she took upon herself to be an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) counselor. This was one of the formal ways that she helped her supervisors at NASA address discrimination complaints from all levels. She was also part of a recruitment effort on behalf of NASA for engineering students from numerous colleges
Her 34-year career included developing and implementing computer code that analyzed alternative power technologies, supported the Centaur high-energy upper rocket stage, determined solar, wind and energy projects, and identified energy conversion systems and alternative systems to solve energy problems. During the 1970s Easley worked on a project examining damage to the ozone layer. With massive cuts in the NASA space program, Easley began working on energy problems; her energy assignments included studies to determine the life use of storage batteries, such as those used in electric utility vehicles. Her computer applications have been used to identify energy conversion systems that offer the improvement over commercially available technologies. Following the energy crisis of the late 1970s Easley studied the economic advantages of co-generating power plants that obtained byproducts from coal and steam. After retiring in 1989, she remained an active participant in the Speaker's Bureau and the Business & Professional Women's association. Despite her long career and numerous contributions to research, she was cut out of NASA's promotional photos. In response to one such event, Easley responded by saying "I'm out here to do a job and I knew I had the ability to do it, and that's where my focus was, on getting the job done. I was not intentionally trying to be a pioneer." which showed that she placed her work and solving problems before everything else.
Sister Dr. Yvonne Cagle, and she is 62 years old. Dr. Cagle was born in West Point, New York. She is a physician, a professor, a retired Air Force colonel, and a former NASA Astronaut. She has been in NASA as an astronaut in 1996 being one of 6 African American women astronauts. Her birthdate was April 24, 1956. She graduated from Novato High School in Novato, California. She earned many degrees and joined the aviation industry too. Dr. Cagle graduated from San Franscisco State University in 1981 with a bachelor's degree in biochemistry. She was a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Washington in 1985. Dr. Cagle completed a transitional internship at Highland General Hospital in Oakland, California by 1985. By 1988, she received a certificate in Aerospace Medicine from the School of Aerospace Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base, Texas. Dr. Cagle completed a residency in family practice at Ghent FP at Eastern Virginia Medical School in 1992 plus received a certification as senior aviation medical examiner from the Federal Aviation Administration in 1995. She was an outstanding colonel at the Air Force too. She retired from the United States Air Force with the rank of Colonel in 2008. By 1989, she was a commissioned medical officer assigned to the 48th Tactical Hospital at the United Kingdom. Dr. Cagle was an astronaut by 1996 at NASA. She serves as the NASA liaison for exploration and space development with Singularity University. Dr. Cagle has taught STEM related subjects nationwide. Dr. Cagle has received many awards for years and decades like the Outstanding Young Women of America award, Honorary Ph.D. in Humanities from Fordham University, Air Force Achievement Medal, etc. In 2017, she brought Katherine Johnson to the stage at he Academy Awards. She was a TEDx speaker in 2018 on the subject of "Poetry of space" on Earth. Dr. Cagle is a living legend.
Rick Antonius Kittles is an expert STEM expert. He was born in Sylvania, Georgia, and he is an American biologist specializing in human genetics. People know him of pioneering work in tracing the ancestry of African American via DNA testing. He was raised in Central Islip, New York. He has B.S. degree in biology from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1989. He earned a Ph.D. in biology from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. by 1998. In 1990 he began his career as a teacher in several New York and Washington, D.C. area high schools. From approximately 1995 until 1999, as a researcher with the New York African Burial Ground Project (NYABGP), a federally funded project in New York City, in which Howard University researchers, led by anthropologist Michael Blakey, exhumed the remains of 408 African Americans from an 18th-century graveyard; Kittles gathered DNA samples from the remains and compared them with samples from a DNA database to determine from where in Africa the individuals buried in the graveyard had come.
Beginning in 1998, as he was completing his Ph.D. at George Washington University, Kittles was hired as an assistant professor of microbiology at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and also named director of the African American Hereditary Prostate Cancer (AAHPC) Study Network at the university's National Human Genome Center. Kittles also co-directed the molecular genetics unit of Howard University's National Human Genome Center. He served in these positions until 2004. Beginning in 2004, he served as an associate professor in the Department of Molecular Virology, Immunology & Medical Genetics at the Tzagournis Medical Research Facility of Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.
He is currently the leader of the Washington, D.C.-based African Ancestry Inc., a genetic testing service for determining individuals' African ancestry, which he co-founded with Gina Paige in February 2003. He also serves as an associate professor in the Department of Medicine and the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He found out that he descends from the Dakar, Senegal and Nigeria's Hausa people. He published works on genetic variation and prostate cancer genetics of African Americans. He has been featured in part 4 of the 2006 PBS series African American Lives (hosted by Henry Louis Gates). He was in part 4 of African American Lives 2. He was in the BBC Two films of Motherland: A Genetic Journey and Motherland – Moving On (released in 2003 and 2004, respectively). Kittles was one of the earliest geneticists to trace the ancestry of Africans through DNA testing. This led, as mentioned in the biography section, him to co-found the company African Ancestry Inc., which set out to be the leading advocate for tracing the ancestry of individuals with African descent. Now, Kittles and his team have been doing genetic sequencing trials to try and find variations in genes that affect a person's response to drugs. He has studies genetic ancestry, health disparities, and other issues for years (including sickle cell anemia, red blood cell immune response, breast cancer, colon cancer, and pulmonary hypertension).
I have always been progressive on economic issues throughout my life, even during the 1990's. Therefore, my core convictions are set in stone on economic views. The modern day capitalist system takes its influence from Adam Smith and other pro-capitalistic scholars. His book of The Wealth of Nations that teaches in the myth that some "invisible hand" can govern the modern day existence of economic forces. History and reality teach us that any economic system must have regulations and boundary lines. We know that the love of money is the root of all evil as mentioned by the Apostle Paul in the verse of 1 Timothy 6:9-10. Laissez faire theories have been refuted by the destruction of many lives by Reaganomics and supply side economics in general. When you get older, you see that the British East India Company back then and groups like the BIS promote laissez faire capitalism to divide humanity up, enrich the rich at the expense of the poor, and cause many economic injustices. Many people have so much lost faith in capitalism (which is a man-made economic system with imperfections), that they have gone into the totally restricted and atheistic Karl Marx (Marx was not only a religious bigot, but he was a racist too) form of Communism. There are alternatives. We can have universal health care, protections of civil liberties, endorsement of voting rights, and equality plus justice without the extremes of unrestricted Capitalism and Stalinist Communism. What brings economic prosperity deals with federal support for industries, a living wage, and having an economy that gives economic rights to workers (which causes the growth of unions, the increase of workplace protections, and the abolishment of discrimination). Regardless of the imperfections of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence (regardless of if its author didn't believe in equality) is right to say that all of the human race is created in the image of God, equal under God with endowed unalienable rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. It is the responsibility of human beings to invent, to make the world better, and to use creativity in enriching society in general. We are dedicated to the General Welfare. That is why Article 1, Section 8 gives Congress the right to promote taxes, and provide for the general welfare of the United States of America. That is the government's job. The federal government has the moral right to provide for the general welfare of human beings. After WWII, many far right conservatives promote the lie that any attempt of the federal government to promote the general welfare of the people is equivalent to making to ruin society. Economic justice means to oppose imperialism too.
One of the most underrated artists of human history was Augusta Savage. She lived in a time decades before the 21st century, but her impact in the culture of artistic expression was widespread. Augusta Savage was one of the most unsung artists in human history. She wanted her legacy to inspire younger, future generations to form sculptures, paintings, and other forms of works of art. By the 1930's, people worldwide knew her in Harlem as a sculptor, art teacher, and community art program director. Harlem is an epicenter of black glorious culture. Like many people, she was born in the south in Georgia. Later, Augusta Savage studied worldwide from America to Paris to cultivate her wisdom in art history and other aspects of designs. Her accomplishments existed by her own hard work, determination, and faith in justice. Savage worked in many jobs to provide for her own livelihood, but she never gave up on her dream to create sculptures. Gamin was a bust of her nephew. She wanted to portray accurate images of black human beings, because back in the day stereotypical images of people of black African descent were commonly promoted by racist individuals. Augusta Savage wanted that situation abolished completely. Savage was the first director of the Harlem Community Art Center and made a sculpture to represent the musical contributions of African Americans at New York World's Fair of 1939. During her later years, Augusta Savage taught children in local summer camps, wrote children's stories, wrote other stories, and produced portrait sculptures of tourists. She loved her daughter, and now we know more of her life. She was the icon of the arts.
By Timothy
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