One could add that the Syrian population has doubled in a generation despite losing millions to emigration, terror and war (according to worldometer).
Arnold Hottinger, the famous near East correspondent of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung for many decades told me in 2015, that the Syrian civil war was also caused by lack of water, desperate farmers flooding into towns with resulting unrests. He told me that in his view the Assad regime had handled these unrests in an inept way. And that that water situation and the dangers were the same in Iran and Egypt which could also explode anytime.
There seems a plethora of potential limiting factors in the region. Türkiye holds the majority water source for Mesopotamia.
The curious case over the last 30 years seems to have been Lebanon, which appears to have been able very recently to modernise / urbanise into the petroleum age (perhaps like Spain earlier into the EU?), even this late in the cycle of urbanisation and demographics and even with conditional access to resources? Lebanon now looks to be the key prize for finally taking out a unified Syrian state, which now looks more like war bands than the base for a relatively stable niche mafia rent collecting parasite in the underbelly of modernised dysfunctions?
My reference to Lebanon needs correction. I was misled after seeing film recording the extent of the damage inflicted recently by Israeli bombing on clearly modern 'upscale' urban developments in Beirut and the coast, and by the apparent extensive ownership of motor cars. The World Bank report 2024 tells a different story; one of 'consumption poverty' rising x3 to 44% of the population and of decreasing standards since the economic crisis from ~ 2012. There is increasing scarcity of urban potable water and a serious lack of water for waste / sanitation management. The proposed WB financed dam collecting seasonal water for Beirut seems permanently on hold because of government paralysis over the last more than 12 years. The spill-over from Syria since before 2012 looks to have been critical.
The Head of HTS, a.k.a. "ISIS," a.k.a. "Al Qaeda," which overthrew Syrian President Bashar Assad, is Jewish, and graduated from the Islamic School of Jurisprudence, in Tel Aviv.
According to Israel's YNET News, Abu Muhammed Al-Jawlani was born Yonatan Avi-David, and is a Mossad Mole.
I suppose is something linked to the "Resources Curse" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse) because I feel like the real problem of "cheap" welt is that is independent on real skills and capacity of humans so encourage the most destructive habit: corruption, exploit, violence are cheap and works because once you become a lord workers are spendable and interchangeable, so your only skill needed is to keep the sheep in check. Your well-being as lord is granted by buying what you need from other societies, and you really didn't need a productive and diversified economy: complex productive economy need people with value that can overpower the lord using the value of their skill so is detrimental to the role of the lord as shepherd. Look at Saudi and see the path, skilled oil workers are foreign..
I suppose that religion usually call for poverty to sidestep this mechanic, the meaning is subtle but powerful because didn't mean necessary that is not having access to but not to not personally possess: monks can have taken a vow of poverty but can build a monastery, stuff it, grow food and make a lot of different other hi revenue stuff (usually healing and skilled work in the past) still not personally owning or have the right of claiming anything, if they move to other places they bring nothing if not given them from their peers.
A path similar is seen on the work of St Francis, his monks didn't have but as order they have access to a lot and usually did a lot. Sometimes they had made a mess, but usually made them a well accepted and sought after community to have nearby, offering a big pack of services for free (is tradition to gift them something, but it's not asked for).
As side note, wealth is only a human way of thinking linked to the concept of something that can be accumulated forever, nature didn't have anything that is like money: food is the "money" of nature and preserving it is behind of capability of animals, some can work around this for a season at best (es. squirrel) but is impossible to "save" food for years... usually.
Humans had a way, grain can be saved and wealth was grain (or rice) based, history tells us that ancients used grain as we use money: as a reserve of value and as a universal measure of good and services.
Thank you for another great input.
One could add that the Syrian population has doubled in a generation despite losing millions to emigration, terror and war (according to worldometer).
Arnold Hottinger, the famous near East correspondent of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung for many decades told me in 2015, that the Syrian civil war was also caused by lack of water, desperate farmers flooding into towns with resulting unrests. He told me that in his view the Assad regime had handled these unrests in an inept way. And that that water situation and the dangers were the same in Iran and Egypt which could also explode anytime.
That, too.... indeed
Israel appropriated the water from the Golan, a big water grab.
Agree with Lukas... great input.
There seems a plethora of potential limiting factors in the region. Türkiye holds the majority water source for Mesopotamia.
The curious case over the last 30 years seems to have been Lebanon, which appears to have been able very recently to modernise / urbanise into the petroleum age (perhaps like Spain earlier into the EU?), even this late in the cycle of urbanisation and demographics and even with conditional access to resources? Lebanon now looks to be the key prize for finally taking out a unified Syrian state, which now looks more like war bands than the base for a relatively stable niche mafia rent collecting parasite in the underbelly of modernised dysfunctions?
My reference to Lebanon needs correction. I was misled after seeing film recording the extent of the damage inflicted recently by Israeli bombing on clearly modern 'upscale' urban developments in Beirut and the coast, and by the apparent extensive ownership of motor cars. The World Bank report 2024 tells a different story; one of 'consumption poverty' rising x3 to 44% of the population and of decreasing standards since the economic crisis from ~ 2012. There is increasing scarcity of urban potable water and a serious lack of water for waste / sanitation management. The proposed WB financed dam collecting seasonal water for Beirut seems permanently on hold because of government paralysis over the last more than 12 years. The spill-over from Syria since before 2012 looks to have been critical.
I thought that the oil-producing province of Syria was occupied by USA or USA-aligned forces.
It is. But it produces very little. Nothing that can change the game.
https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/news-selections/world-news/al-jawlani-head-of-hts-that-overthrew-syria-president-is-jewish
The Head of HTS, a.k.a. "ISIS," a.k.a. "Al Qaeda," which overthrew Syrian President Bashar Assad, is Jewish, and graduated from the Islamic School of Jurisprudence, in Tel Aviv.
According to Israel's YNET News, Abu Muhammed Al-Jawlani was born Yonatan Avi-David, and is a Mossad Mole.
I suppose is something linked to the "Resources Curse" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse) because I feel like the real problem of "cheap" welt is that is independent on real skills and capacity of humans so encourage the most destructive habit: corruption, exploit, violence are cheap and works because once you become a lord workers are spendable and interchangeable, so your only skill needed is to keep the sheep in check. Your well-being as lord is granted by buying what you need from other societies, and you really didn't need a productive and diversified economy: complex productive economy need people with value that can overpower the lord using the value of their skill so is detrimental to the role of the lord as shepherd. Look at Saudi and see the path, skilled oil workers are foreign..
I suppose that religion usually call for poverty to sidestep this mechanic, the meaning is subtle but powerful because didn't mean necessary that is not having access to but not to not personally possess: monks can have taken a vow of poverty but can build a monastery, stuff it, grow food and make a lot of different other hi revenue stuff (usually healing and skilled work in the past) still not personally owning or have the right of claiming anything, if they move to other places they bring nothing if not given them from their peers.
A path similar is seen on the work of St Francis, his monks didn't have but as order they have access to a lot and usually did a lot. Sometimes they had made a mess, but usually made them a well accepted and sought after community to have nearby, offering a big pack of services for free (is tradition to gift them something, but it's not asked for).
As side note, wealth is only a human way of thinking linked to the concept of something that can be accumulated forever, nature didn't have anything that is like money: food is the "money" of nature and preserving it is behind of capability of animals, some can work around this for a season at best (es. squirrel) but is impossible to "save" food for years... usually.
Humans had a way, grain can be saved and wealth was grain (or rice) based, history tells us that ancients used grain as we use money: as a reserve of value and as a universal measure of good and services.
Can you explain why you call it the Dutch Disease. What did the Netherlands experience that was similar?
The Dutch Disease occurs when an economy becomes too dependent on a single resource. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease
Actually, Holland might not be that far from suffering from the Syrian disease too...