The Current Discussion: Australia is suffering from a drought of men - about 100,000 of them, most of whom have gone overseas to travel and work. China has the opposite problem - a shortage of women. Which is the more worrisome problem? Should we be worrying about a "depopulation bomb?"

When Syria declared its independence in 1946, an optimistic Prime Minister Jamil Mardam Bey famously declared:

"Syria has been subjected to more trial since the armistice (in 1918) than any other Near Eastern country. All is not lost, however, there is room for hope. The territory we have been left with, greater than the area covered by Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland put together, is a vast playing field for our young people and for their entrepreneurial spirit. The Syrian soil is fertile, we produce cereals, cotton, fruit. We have oil. Our artisans are some of the most ingenious in the world. Our people are sober, tough, resigned and hard-working. Syrians are found all over the world, and everywhere they occupy important positions. The past and the future are ours. We have every reason to believe that Syria will survive."

Mardam Bey never imagined that Syrians would start flocking out of Syria in large numbers as a result of the never-ending coups and counter-coups that shocked Damascus starting in 1949, and climaxed with the ill-fated Syrian-Egyptian Union of 1958. The only logical thing for an optimist like him was for Syrians to learn, live, work, and die in Syria. He never imagined that one day, during his life-time, major depopulation would start in Damascus.

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