Southwest Asia and North Africa
This is the section of the world extending from Morocco in North Africa to Afghanistan in the Southwest Asia at the point where Europe, Africa, and Asia meet. This has been called the land of contrasts due its diversity in physical characteristics, climate, religion, economic development and culture. However it is not only the place where civilization began right from religion (major monotheistic religions began here i.e. Christianity, Islam and Judaism), agriculture and development of writing ideas and knowledge, but also, the world’s major production of fossil fuel is found here (68% of the world’s fossil fuels).
This region is basically composed of desert and semi desert land dotted by small sections of green land where water is found. This therefore makes water a very crucial resource in the region and its patchy distribution has greatly affected the region’s various aspects of life including culture and politics. Another important resource that characterizes the region is fossil fuel resources with its distribution again affecting the regions various aspects of life (Rowntree, Lewis, Price & Wyckoff, 2008). This discussion focuses on how distribution of fossil fuels in this region has affected its economic development.
Distribution of fossil fuels and economic growth
The main resource for this region is oil which is unevenly distributed between countries with some having huge oil reserves and others with little reserves. Countries with oil deposits include Israel, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, United Arabs Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Qatar and Libya. Countries such as UAE, Libya, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Algeria has the most developed oil reserves in the region while Morocco and Sudan have build up few of their reserves mainly due to two decades of civil war in Sudan and lack of resources in Morocco.
Among the countries with highly developed oil reserves Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and UAE are the highest revenue earners from the exportation of crude oil. This income is however not evenly distributed within individual countries as rural people and foreign workers remain poor. Political instability and long wars in countries such as Algeria and Iran has seen them reap little benefits in terms of development as a result of oil deposits. Other countries in the region such as Israel and Turkey do not rely entirely on oil for development as their economies are greatly expanded (Dean, 2004).
The distribution of oil and natural gases in the North Africa and Southwest Asia is unbalanced. The Persian Gulf region has large deposits of oil and since the international requirements for petroleum has gone up resulting to high accumulation of wealth for the gulf countries. This means high economic development and as a result higher living standards for the people in these countries than in the rest of lower potential countries.
This disparity in income and living standards are also witnessed within individual countries as the minority benefit more from incomes from the oil than the majority of the population especially in rural areas according to Dean, (2004). The countries with oil wealth have also developed their infrastructure such as telecommunications, schools, transportation hotels and tourist attraction sites such the UAE Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Bahrain, Qatar and Israel.
Urbanization rates are also high in countries with oil and highest within countries with highest potential. Urbanization in this region has a long history since the beginning of human civilization in Mesopotamia around 3500 B.C and in Egypt around 3000 B.C. which was mainly due to the discovery and growth of agriculture. Then with the growth of trade around 2000 B.C these became religion centers (Dean, 2004).
In the 20th century, urban enters have become the critical points of economic development and growth as wealth from the oil has transforming these urban centers to modern cities with modern infrastructure such as skyscrapers, transportation systems and travel and tourism facilities. Migration to the cities and urban areas has also increased as people move from all corners of the world to working oil fields have also seen them grow. Low wage workers from other Asian countries such as China, Philippines and other neighboring countries have increased in cities around oil fields. Guest workers from European countries such as Germany and even from Turkey have increased (World Bank, 2008).
An important point in the discussion of oil distribution and economic growth in the region is the conflicts and tensions existing between countries or within some countries. These have in one or more ways affected the exploitation of oil and economic development of the affected countries. In Sudan for example, two decades of civil war between the South and North have led to underdevelopment of their oil reserves which have in turn have seen it lag behind among the North African countries with oil.
In Iraq, the country with the largest oil deposits, political instability followed by occupation by US forces have torn the country apart leaving the people poor and unable to develop their oil reserves (Rowntree, Lewis, Price & Wyckoff, 2008).
Conclusion
The distribution of fossil fuels in Southwest Asia and North Africa has affected the economic development of this region in several ways. The resource is unevenly distributed within the region with some having huge deposits and others small deposits and therefore affects the level of economic development. Urbanization has also intensified in oil rich regions in the 20th century. Conflicts and tensions exist in the region mainly over the resource exploitation which has hampered its development and overall economic growth.
Reference List
Dean, L. (2004). Regional Surveys of the World: The Middle East and North Africa 2004. The Gresham Press.
Rowntree, L., Lewis, M., Price, M & Wyckoff, W. (2008). Globalization and Diversity: Geography of the Changing World. Pearson/Prentice-Hall.
World Bank. (2008). MENA Economic Developments and Prospects: Regional Integration for Global Competitiveness. Web.