I looked at amazon, and there is a book, History of the Arabs. It might be interesting to know how their social system affected production.Originally Posted by Laworkerbee
Though the principles of the Kaiserreich hardly went hand in hand with the principles of a democratic republic.
No doubt that the current situation in Egypt isn't a complete copy of the Wiemar Republic however I can't help but find simalarities and indeed agree that the Germans actually had a better chance of accepting democratic principles than the Egyptians do right now.
Democratic values were part of the German society, democratic values are not part of the Egyptian.
Hence my acute skepticism.
I think the reasons for that are complex:
1/ No natality control policy = strong increase of the population. (I read somewhere that since Mubbarak's fall, the population increased by 2 more millions mouths to feed! With the Islamists now in power, this trend won't be curbed.
2/ No policy of development of the territory. The overwhelmed majority of the 80 million citizens live in the Delta. This territory, that is also the only one with fertile soils and water, represents a surface of something about 2.5-3 times the territory of Israel. Yet, it is overcrowded with 12 times the population. This comes of course at the expense of the fertile land, while the rest of Egypt's huge territory remains a desert free of inhabitants.
3/ For a large extend, the agriculture technologies used remain the same like under the Pharaons. Primitive irrigation systems and animals used as labor force. Israel has the technology to help them to flourish their deserts but you know they don't want it.
4/ There are also probably cultural reasons for all this.
Last edited by Camera; 05-29-2012 at 06:45 PM.
I see, but my point is there is no way you can compare Weimar and today's Egypt.
I can vaguely see why one would compare Weimar (a stillborn social-democracy with probably the most advanced legal outlinings of the era in Europe) with the current Egyptian Arab Republic. However the First Reich was somewhat similar, moreso than the Weimar republic, with the rural accents and nationalist ideas.
Non travelling week usually one, but a travelling week I can down as many as three. I'm going to look for "Poverty and pauperization in Urban Egypt. A preliminary inquiry" first as it seems well suited to the question at hand.
Agreed.
Though in this case nationalism seems to be replaced by Islamism.
So you were serious about the book.
Absolutely, do you know of an author for "History of the Arabs"? I'm finding more than one and don't want to waste money on something biased.
Lawb: The overall disparity between before and after the Socialist shabang.
p. 14 of the source.
The basic trend for food crops going down the Egyptians have turned to Cotton (cash crop by excellence, but also great water spoiler and cause of salinity. The control over crop rotation being in the hand of the Government (who unlocks the irrigation knot) non-halal dealings have prevailed.The agrarian reform law of 1952 provided that no one might hold more than 190 feddans for farming and that each landholder must either farm the land himself or rent it under specified conditions. Up to 95 additional feddans might be held if the owner had children, and additional land had to be sold to the government. In 1961, the upper limit of landholding was reduced to 100 feddans, and no person was allowed to lease more than 50 feddans (1 feddan = 0.42 hectares). Compensation to the former owners was in bonds bearing a low rate of interest, redeemable within 40 years. A law enacted in 1969 reduced landholdings by one person to 50 feddans. By the mid-1980s, 90% of all land titles were for holdings of less than five feddans, and about 300,000 families, or 8% of the rural population, had received land under the agrarian reform program. According to a 1990 agricultural census, there were some three million small land holdings, almost 96% of which were under five feddans (2.1 hectares/5.2 acres). Since the late 1980s, many reforms attempting to deregulate agriculture by liberalizing input and output prices and by eliminating crop area controls have been initiated. As a result, the gap between world and domestic prices for Egyptian agricultural commodities has been closed.
The Second Plan involved FAO funding and was at around 20 bln egyptian pounds. FAO withdrew its funding after the land reclamation from desert hit issues after issue.Irrigation plays a major role in a country the very livelihood of which depends upon a single river. Most ambitious of all the irrigation projects is that of the Aswan High Dam, completed in 1971. A report published in March 1975 by the National Council for Production and Economic Affairs indicated that the dam had proved successful in controlling floodwaters and ensuring continuous water supplies, but that water consumption had been excessive and would have to be controlled. Some valuable land was lost below the dam because the flow of Nile silt was stopped, and increased salinity remains a problem. Further, five years of drought in the Ethiopian highlands—the source of the Nile River's water—caused the water level of Lake Nasser, the Aswan High Dam's reservoir, to drop to the lowest level ever in 1987. In 1996, however, the level of water behind the High Dam and in Lake Nasser reached the highest level since the completion of the dam. Despite this unusual abundance of water supply, Egypt can only utilize 55.5 billion cu m (1.96 trillion cu ft) annually, according to the Nile Basin Agreement signed in 1959 between Egypt and Sudan. Another spectacular project designed to address the water scarcity problem is the New Valley (the "second Nile"), aimed at development of the large artesian water supplies underlying the oases of the Western Desert. Total investment in agriculture and land reclamation for the government's Third Plan (1993–1997) wasE£16,963 million.
Overall Egypt suffers from a State withdraw from the Agro-business. Which in return deregulates the overall scheme of water consumption. Small producers use water to their needs. Big cotton cultures use it as well. The family lots are caught inbetween and general foreign foodstuff nails the Egyptian agricultural sector.
The issues are less of modernization, than of rationalization. A cotton bubble in the 90s completely fvcked up the balance. The cotton market went south and the Egyptian producers were caught with their pants down.
Productivity is exceptionally high in the Delta and long the Nile (3 crops a year not unusual). The issue is also the pricing. The surplus in wheat production world wide causes the prices to plunge and thus kills the home production.
Last edited by KoTeMoRe; 05-29-2012 at 07:02 PM.
Edit: Wrong Thread
IS that is an AD HH? Wrong thread?
I dont really, but I have read this one, http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Arab-Hi.../dp/0700716505
Its about Historiography and not history itself, but Its good and written by an Arab historian.
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