The continuing rapid growth of world population, particularly in the developing countries, is described. "The backward social and economic environment is not able to keep pace with the growing population. The result is an increasing population pressure which finds its expression in unemployment, hunger, the depletion of...nature, deforestation as well as migration, uncontrolled expansion of the cities and slum-building. These problems [already have] global dimensions and their aggravation is expected in the next 30 years. Our civilisation is exposed to these global risks. And we have no practicable conception for solving them." (SUMMARY IN ENG)
"For decades Algeria has had one of the highest population growth rates in the world, arising directly from a steady gap between deathrates and birthrates. The reasons are of a complex social, economic and cultural kind, such as high infant mortality, traditionally early marriage, family models largely determined by religion, the common practice of child labour and other factors. As a consequence of the mismatch between economic and demographic growth the society is confronted by growing mass unemployment, underemployment, food supply problems, housing shortages and ecological crises. The critical economic situation in the eighties reduced the prospects for constraining the population explosion by quickly conquering socioeconomic underdevelopment. Nowadays Algeria is deliberately following a programme for family planning, which is also supported to a certain extent by the Islamic clergy." (SUMMARY IN ENG)
Along with the threat of atomic war, the chronic poverty of 3/4 of the world's population is a further aspect of the crisis of today's civilization. Underdevelopment and backwardness are not identical concepts, as the latter is rooted in traditional, manual agricultural production that over 300 years of colonial capitalistic production upset without transforming by using colonies for raw material production and eventually after the First World War for industrial production. Today 75% of peasant families in Latin America and 97% in Africa cultivate their land using backward traditional methods, and 60% of land in developing countries is owned by large estate landlords. Vaccination against epidemics and public health measures of new independent countries lowered mortality without a corresponding reduction of fertility resulting in increasing population and a youthful structure. The number of women in reproductive age was 397 million in 1956, rose to 812 million in 1985, and is expected to soar to over 1.7 billion by 2025. Even if the birth rate were to drop to 18.6/1000 by 2025 as the UN estimates, this will continue the increase of world population for decades. The disturbance of the demoeconomical balance, the inability to absorb the ever increasing population is the dilemma of developing countries. The number of unemployed will rise to 800 million by 2000 from 500 million in 1989. There are 600 million malnourished people, and every year 14-15 million die because of deficient diet and hunger. The shortage of land leads to deforestation: 12% of tropical forests will be cut down by 2000 and desert areas will triple. Peasants displaced by modern agricultural mass production and landlessness flock to cities expanding the numbers of paupers that are easy to radicalize by adventurers who could resort to solutions by atomic blackmail.
Demographic, social, and economic problems confronting developing countries are discussed. Issues addressed include differences between former and current demographic transitions, factors influencing the balance of mortality and fertility, the effects of foreign capital on traditional economies, the introduction of modern production techniques and the means of lowering mortality, strains on local food supplies, and the inability of developed countries to absorb their own potential work forces.
