Welcome to the new Russian game show, Let’s Make a Baby! Win a fabulous appliance, or maybe even a new home! Small print: win or lose, you have to keep the baby…
It turns out, the governor of a Russian province has urged couples to skip work today and make love instead, to help boost a low birth-rate. And, if a woman gives birth in exactly nine months, she will qualify for a prize, maybe even a new home. I am not making this up.
It’s normally something for the home - a fridge or a television set, the Ulyanovsk regional press office said. I guess to show they’re keeping up with all those cutting edge, progressive, new millennium ideas, the press person added, It doesn’t matter if it’s a girl or a boy. James Kilner reports:
Women pose with their newborn babies in the central hospital of the city Ulyanovsk, September 12, 2007. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin
Trackback
13 comments so far
Personally, I would insist on photographic evidence. And at least one member of the couple has to be holding today’s newspaper (reading it is optional, but acceptable).
- Posted by John C AbellYou’d have to throw in a little something extra to convince me to have a 3rd…like maybe free plastic surgery…or a free lifetime membership at a spa….or maybe a free nanny….or maybe you’d have to promise me all those things all at once and maybe then, MAYBE I’d consider having another baby.
Nah. I’m not doing that again.
- Posted by KWell, If I had to wear those robes, no thanks!
- Posted by Lady WeaselThankfully I’ll never have to make that decision. And I fully agree with John exept for one problem. What if the child was born early?
- Posted by K FJohn one problem. What if they have the child before the date and then take the picture on the day with the paper etc?
- Posted by K FDamn. Posted twice. Sorry guys.
- Posted by K FPosted twice and youre apologizing? Heck, in this blog thats just getting started Come back often.
- Posted by Robert BaslerDoesn’t look as if the girls in the picture are exactly overjoyed by the results of the National Make Whoopee Day.
- Posted by bloggoBob not a good idea to give me Carte Blance over a blog for posting comments. You never know where thats gonna go but I guarantee you it wont be somewhere good.
- Posted by K FWasn’t there a story a few years back in Russia about a woman who, um, lent out her husband to the neighbourhood women for the same purpose?
An enterprising man could combine the two stories and end up with quite a few refrigerators.
- Posted by CharleneInteresting game, Professor Falken, where the only way to lose is not to play.
- Posted by Shawn HendricksDear Provincial Governor,
I have heard the heart rending story. Low birth rates are indeed a saddening statistic to be attached to an area you must hold very dear. I may have a solution to your problem. Institute government provided dental care, brushes, floss and toothpaste. You might be surprised at the suddenly inclining population curve. Add soap and deodorant and you should be well on your way to a sudden statistical increase. I know that if I was in your region, it would certainly increase my reproductive urge.
Your friend in procreation,
Shawn
- Posted by Shawn HendricksI’m picturing province-wide ‘Spuds.’ It’s anything but pretty.
- Posted by Shawn Hendricks