Kuwait: Urban and medical ecology

Geoforum

89

9/72

Reviews

FFRENCH, (1971):

E., and Allan G. HILL

Geoffrey

Kuwait:

A Geomedical

Urban and Medical

Study.

XIII,

Ecology.

124 pp., 61 figs.,

standard to the ‘new geography’. perhaps inevitably

authors are fairly easily discernible,

26 text figs., 56 tables, 3 maps. Berlin/Heidel-

have combined

berg/New

volume which is extremely

York:

Monograph

Springer Verlag. Geomedical

Series of Heidelberger

der Wissenschaften,

Akademie

Vol. 4. Cloth DM 58,-;

Although

the writings of the two

makes a valuable contribution ture of the country.

and

Disease’ should have such an extensive general introduction

they

very well to produce a short informative

be asked why chapter VII on ‘Health

and

to the litera-

The list of chapter

including a section de-

voted to a definition

of medical geography,

which this reviewer,

at least, finds unaccept-

able: “Medical

geography

of the distribution,

habits and

US $ 16.80.

headings gives some indication

With volumes already published on Libya,

population

Afghanistan

ization of Kuwait; early history of Kuwait;

(e.g. III and IV) are not at all. Moreover,

economic

is difficult

ing variety of the contents: and Ethiopia,

Monograph

the Geomedical

Series of the Geomedical

search Unit of the Heidelberg

Re-

Academy

of

Sciences (under the general editorship Professor Dr. Helmut

J. JUSATZ)

established an excellent a considerable geography

has already

reputation

contribution

of

and made

both to medical

and to arid zone studies. Whereas

growth

in Kuwait;

treatment

and Ethiopia

- the volume under review

square kilometres

with only 16,000

and 467,000

last census in 1965.

people at the

Consequently

volume is less concerned

Illustrated

of photographs, numerous

school nutrition

development, have affected

them and what lessons may be learnt for countries,

sectionalized

to understand

are presented

because, as the is not alone as

a ‘boom’ state and offers a useful testing

the absence of an index prevents a simple

health; and air

check). These criticisms,

however,

tion to the literature

of Kuwait

medical geography.

this volume contains

John I. CLARKE,

Durham

if

ranging from sex ratios and to sexual deviation

and the

high incidence of cigarette smoking, these are integrated

posed in the introduction in the conclusion.

and

by a number of themes and synthesised

The most significant

these is undoubtedly

of

the special urban and

RIKITAKE,T. Mechanics;

(Hrsg.) (1970): Tectonophysics,

Issue), S. 97-300.

desert has caused a dramatic

transformation

voked rapid population

from tradition

during the

scale construction

Kuwait world,

of

economic

giving

the highest per capita income in the rapid urbanization,

migration Kuwaitis

large-scale im-

(so that there are now more nonthan Kuwaitis)

and ‘dualistic’

trasts within the economy, structure.

society and urban

the spread of the oil industry

in the region is such that Kuwait more than the archetype Persian (or Arabian) The authorship

for the whole

Gulf. is the former

of the Kuwait

Oil

and the other a young lecturer in of the University

of Aberdeen

growth

segregation ofthe

various peoples who have been attracted this small state. Certainly rather than assimilation

of these peoples is

heraus-

ist eine internationale

Biihne fiir Tektonik

und Geologie

Physik des Erdinneren.

und

Hier werden nun

Ergebnisse des 2. Internationalen iiber Erdbebenmechanismen

Symposium

vorgestellt,

handelte sich urn ein von verschiedenen

offered

wissenschaftlichen

by the reviewer concerns its organiza-

tion, which has some curiosities. unusual, for example,

for chapter

and causes of urbanization

I of a geo-

in general and in

the Middle East in particular, surprising that chapter ization of Kuwait’

It is perhaps

to deal with the nature but it is more

II entitled

‘The Urban-

does not consider this

topic at all, but only ‘the physical and economic factors underlying

using a number of techniques,

problems facing

Die dieses Sonder-(doppel)-heft gebende Zeitschrift

The only serious criticism of this volume

tion’: (1) the environment,

ment of Kuwait

Elsevier

Hfl. 22.50.

getragen in Madrid im September

who wrote his Ph. D. thesis (for the Uni-

such as factor analysis, which have become

Amsterdam:

Kuwait.

versity of Durham)

on the urban develop-

to

the co-existence

one of the most important

Earthquake

9, 2/3 (Special

and large-

but have resulted in socio-

and residential

medical monograph

as one author

Chief Medical Officer Geography

is now no

of this volume is academically

very appropriate, Company

con-

But as the authors suggest in their

introduction,

addi-

and of

by

Publishing Company.

century,

do not detract

from the usefulness of this important

selection

and also supplemented

of soils in the text (though

medical problems caused by the massive in-

course of the twentieth

map of

when there appears to

flux of capital and migrants, which have pro-

to modernity

it

why the readers

with a large coloured

the soils of Kuwait,

oil in this small segment of the Arabian

ground for theories. The exploitation

while others

be no mention

A wide variety of topics are mentioned,

in the way that economic

authors point out, Kuwait

Then some chapters (e.g. V and

VI) are extremely

tuber-

with three maps of

references,

world”.

in all parts of the

illness;

heat illness and

many text figures and an excellent

only briefly,

other developing

psychiatric

diseases of communities

much to interest both specialist and layman.

this

with descriptions

and modernization

medicine

geology and soils at 1:500,000,

of spatial patterns of disease and health than urbanization

popula-

services; trauma,

the haemoglobinopathies;

topography,

and

the ecology of daily

desert survival; occupational

very extensive territories scrutinises a micro-state

in Kuwait;

culosis and toxoplasmosis;

pollution.

Libya, Afghanistan

of Kuwait;

life; health and disease; preventive

the first three volumes in this series examined -

urbanization

in the Middle East; urban-

development

tion growth

of the surpris-

is the knowledge

ecology,

Kuwait

sources, (3) power, (4) agriculture,

,.*

urbaniza-

(2) water re(5) fish-

mg and (6) mineral resources. It may also

fakulativen

Organisationen

Zuschnittes

siertes Treffen, der Problemkreis “man-made

Es

inter-

gemeinsam organi-

bei dem die Betonung

Erdbeben-Vorhersage

vor-

1969.

lag. Daneben

kiinstlicher

earthquakes”,

auf

stand

Erdeben

(engl.

franz. ctseismes

artificiels))). Schon im Editorial

RIKITAKE’s

wird ein Dberblick

iiber die insgesamt 13

Arbeiten

von Autoren

(S. 97-99)

aus 7 Nationen

ge-

geben. Es handelt sich urn einen Arbeitsbericht von Geophysikern.

Das gesamte

Heft ist insofern leicht iiberschaubar,

als die