Corruption? It’s everywhere. Population pressure? Yes, that too. Tourism floundering? Same story. Three problems, neatly labelled, compartmentalised. Pick one, argue about it, blame the government, move on. But that’s the easy way out. If you treat them as separate, you miss the forest for the trees. You don’t have to dig far to find the real power. A rigid cultural code silently decides what’s allowed, what’s forbidden and what’s excused.

Consider population growth. Rapid population increase is not an accident. It is the outcome of a culture that treats contraception with suspicion. Family planning is equated with moral decline. In such a society, large families are normal, restraint is stigmatised, and women’s autonomy is constrained by moral expectation rather than personal choice. It is true that governments have failed to manage population effectively. But when birth control is portrayed as sinful or “unnatural,” policy collapses under social pressure. Resistance is enormous. Consider the polio vaccination campaigns. Don’t they require armed guards to vaccinate children? That isn’t just a governance glitch; it is cultural pushback. The consequences? Overcrowded schools, strained hospitals and a perpetual scarcity. When every household is larger than........

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