The Ncar East in the 21st Century

Kenichi Ohmae: Macht der Triade, Wiesbaden 1985;

John Friedmann: The World city Hypothesis (in Development

and Change 17, p. 69-83, 1996. Both papers are

early surveys of the world system and its core-regions.

Older data after M. & E. Wohlfahrt: Das neue /fgypten;

Berlin 1962, p. 375; recent figures after Fisher-Wcltalmanach

and other statistics.

Robert Malthus a British philosopher stated some 250

years ago that populations would grow at a geometric

rate (exponentially) whereas their means of subsistence

increase only arithmetically. Nature and human society

provide the calamities that keep populations in check.

This thesis might find confirmation in the Near East. A

solution of the population problems through emigration

of the necessary numbers will be impossible.

Hijrah means 'emigration' and is known from the prophet

Mohammed's emigration to Medinah. In Arabia

this term is used generally for migrations