All very valid points Steven. But the rising population is a global
issue which we are ignoring. The world has added a billion people
in the last 12 years. Meantime some expert on the radio just
yesterday, says that Australia cut all funding of family planning
programmes in the third world in the late 90s, for political
reasons. I can only assume that lobbying by the Catholics
Sen Harradine etc, was highly successfull.

So even we are ignoring the elephant in the global room.

All very sad really, but I guess humans need pain to learn the
hard way. So that is what it will be

An excellent article. I knew some of these details but this puts it all in context.
The bottom line - the Middle East countries need to modernise their economies and make themselves attractive to investment.
And Australia needs to keep producing a lot of food to help prevent prices from rising too high, otherwise a lot of people in the Middle East will starve.

Hi Yabby

I agree that population, food and water are all global issues. However they appear to be coming to a head rather rapidly in what happens to be a rather volatile region.

given the state of the world, what can be done, practically, about rising population?

developing countries are not interested in birth control as they are busily adding up the money coming from future tax payers

most religions (all?) don't have any limits on birth, in fact, some encourage folks to go hard at the reproduction thing

so short of nothing happening to reduce population, till we reach some sort of tipping point (I hate that too) is there anything that can be done?

the useless UN seem to be the biggest hope, but are probably the biggest hindrance, since it is so political

Steven Meyer:

...“Since the turn of the new millennium, The pace of structural reforms, including fiscal, monetary policies, privatization and new business legislations, helped Egypt to move towards a more market-oriented economy and prompted increased foreign investment. The reforms and policies have strengthened macroeconomic annual growth results which averaged 5% annually but the government largely failed to equitably share the wealth and the benefits of growth have failed to trickle down to improve economic conditions for the broader population, especially with the growing problem of unemployment and underemployment among youth under the age of 30 years”

...The above is pasted from Wikipedia; where the article goes on to quote a growth rate of 2% pa as a consequence of the political upheaval this year. Interestingly, Australia has a projected growth rate of barely 3%pa this year with political stability.

...Are you sure you are on the right track in your article? I for one have heard all your quotes before, and correct they may be in part, but do not seem to me to reflect the total picture for Egypt. More reflecting is the consequence of graft and corruption destroying the fabric of life for the average Egyptian, would you not agree?

Steven, I can’t agree with the supporting comments so far or with your overall conclusions. This is a very thin assessment and too readily draws to the conclusions that ME issues revolve around water, food and population. They always will of course but these are symptoms and not causes.

The prime causes of anything and everything in the nations to which you refer are mal-administration. There are many examples of this you have failed to address at all.

Let’s take Egypt for example. The construction of the Aswan Dam in the 1950’s changed forever the rejuvenation of the Nile by the annual flood. The productive land has diminished ever since and many food producers are forced to use fertilizers on ever shrinking land. The western banks are now being inundated by sand from the Sahara, it pours over former arable land in enormous waves. On the eastern shore the canal running parallel to the Nile from the old city of Thebes to Cairo is blocked, no longer navigable and so low that irrigation is now done by pumping water up to the irrigation gates.

North of Cairo the delta remains fertile and productive however, the region and its produce are largely boycotted because it is seen as Christianic. The only contact between regional peoples seems to be the Muslims spitting on the Christians in the Souks and streets. The splendid news suburbs north of Cairo are modern brick and tile homes, sadly there are very few occupants but as of July last year, they were still building. Power demand for this area is being provided by a new power station funded by loans from the EU.

There is nothing I saw on my last tour to indicate other than mal-administration as a prime cause.

I can agree that changes at the top are unlikely to bring much change, certainly in the short to medium term. Like a whole list of failed states in that neighborhood, rapid change could only happen if the West does for them what it does at home with failed companies, put them under receivership.