Word: poorer
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...contrast, a collapse of the Uruguay Round would undoubtedly lead to greater friction between major trading nations and increase the chances that the world will splinter into giant, exclusionary trading blocs. The negative consequences would not end there. The stability of poorer nations, including emerging East European democracies that will rely heavily on exports, would be seriously undermined. So would the chances of organizing alliances to deal with such international crises as the face-off in the Persian Gulf. A breakthrough is still possible, Hills declares, "because the upside is so fantastic and the downside of failure is so grim...
Eventually, Saudi Arabia and the equally feudal emirates, sheikdoms and sultanates of the gulf (Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates -- and Kuwait, if Saddam Hussein lets go) will also have to share more of their oil riches with the poorer Arab states, through investment and development aid. The bitter resentment of their wealth and isolation, fanned but not originated by Saddam Hussein, has come as a salutary shock to their rulers. Some may be realizing too that it is unhealthy for as much as 60% of their populations to be composed of foreign workers (Palestinians, Pakistanis, Egyptians, Filipinos...
...scarcity of fresh water for agriculture makes famines more likely every year. The world consumes more food than it produces, and yet there are few places to turn for additional cropland. Only by drawing on international stockpiles of grain have poorer countries averted widespread starvation. But those supplies are being depleted. From 1987 to 1989, the world's stock of grain fell from a 101-day surplus to a 54-day one. A drought in the U.S. breadbasket could rapidly lead to a global food calamity...
...Saudi Arabia and the other gulf states, issuing a call for the overthrow of the "Emirs of oil." Ever since his capture of Kuwait, Saddam has played on Arab xenophobia and proclaimed himself the leader of a campaign to redistribute Arab wealth from the rich gulf monarchies to the poorer republics, or at least to Iraq...
Yugoslavia's poorer, heavily subsidized southern republics, Macedonia and Montenegro, are far less enthusiastic about a breakup. They may yet join Serbia in resisting such a move, or enlist in a new political grouping with Belgrade as its base. Further disintegration could also lead to aggressive new moves by Serbia, which has said repeatedly that in the event of the federation's breakup, it will redraw its borders. That would probably mean an attempt to annex Kosovo and a struggle with Croatia over the future of the republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where 33% of the people are Serbs...