In which the symbolic fifth billion child and the symbolic sixth billion child misunderstand the meaning of symbolism.

The seven billionth baby has been born, welcome to the world little one, whoever you are. That baby is not Danica May Camacho, the little cutie from The Phillippines who is one of several symbolic seventh billion babies. Danica is not the actual seventh billion baby to be born - she merely represents the idea that we are now 7 billion.

Perhaps someone should have explained the largely symbolic nature of this to the fifth billion child and the sixth billion child, because they are not very happy.

According to the Guardian:

Previous children picked out at birth by the UN to mark world population milestones have complained that the international body forgot about them later in life. Both 12-year-old Adnan Nevic of Bosnia Herzogovina, the sixth billionth baby, and Matej Gaspar from Croatia, who was number five billion, have complained that the UN chose them at birth then largely ignored them. "We saw Kofi Annan as almost like a godfather to him," Adnan's father, Jasminko, told the Guardian. Adnan said: "He held me up when I was two days old but since then we have heard nothing from them."

Read the full story here.

Mr. Annan, if you are reading this, please call Adnan and tell him that when you held him up at the age of two days old, you were not making a lifetime commitment that the UN would always be there in his life, but really only just using him for PR purposes. Please also explain to Adnan the meaning of the following words: this exploitation of cute little babies for purely symbolic reasons? Enough already.