"Before you add another baby, make sure his needs are secured"

[Kenneth Westling]

The increasingly pressing problem of population growth has been growing faster as ever in Egypt, but unfortunately the speed at which it is growing is faster than the economy can support. The population has nearly doubled since 1981, 82 million of its people are squashed in urban areas near the Nile, which is roughly the size of Switzerland, which is home to 7.5 million.

"Before you add another baby, make sure his needs are secured," ran the slogan, adding to a string of campaigns over 30 years to encourage family planning. Mubarak told a government-sponsored population conference that cutting population growth was urgent.

Mubarak tends to avoid mentioning a specific number of children but the government says it prefers a family with two.

Source: International Herald Tribune

[Erle Frayne Argonza]

Nice campaign! Pro-baby!