When I write or speak about falling child mortality in Africa today, I can be sure I will get a response along exactly these Malthusian lines: but surely it's a bad thing if you stop poor people dying? What's the good of bringing economic growth to Africa: they will only have more babies - and more cars. Better to be cruel to be kind. Let's call it Malthusian misanthropy. And it is 180 degrees wrong. The way to get population growth to slow, it turns out, is to keep babies alive, to bring health, prosperity and education to all. There