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Egypt: Funda- mental Questions Tahseen Basbar International Herald Tribune The Census of April 1987 put the total at 50 million. It took about 50 years for the population to double, between 1897 & 1947. Then it doubled again with 30 years between 1947 & 1976. To appreciate the political significance of the change one has to look at the figure for 1976 to 1986. In those 10 years, the country's population grew by a staggering 12 million — more than the population of Jordan, Israel, the West Bank & Gaza combined. In fact greater Cairo today has 10 million people which makes it one of the 3 most populous cities in the world along with Tokyo and Mexico City. This huge population increase is taking place in an area that is limited to about 4 % of the surface of Egypt — an area that is green and arable. To compensate, the green fields are being squeezed by the spread of urban settlements on the West side of the Nile, while the newly reclaimed areas are on marginal land in the desert. Of the adult population 4.7 % have a university degree. Women represent 25 % of the university population. The census profile shows that illiteracy has been reduced to 49.4 % of the population 57.2 % in 1976. This represents real progress in education but also reveals that after 35 years of revolution, basic literacy remains an elusive goal. The generation of 1940's was politicized as it lived through the end of British occupation and the monarchy; the disappearance of the big landowners, and the beginning of struggle over Palestine. Out of that experience came the revolution of 1952, the rise of Arab nationalism & political independence. President Nasser's championing of the cause of the disinherited brought the beginning of Arab socialism. These were the refoules of the pre-Nasser generation. Today, it is, 30 years after Suez, 20 years after the trauma of the Six-Day War and 16 years after the death of Nasser. His heritage is more a halo back-drop than a living political force to the new generation. Nasser's place as the spokesman of the poor and the [UNCLEAR] privilege is still vacant, but his program is convincing only to the Nasserite. The new generation has a different agenda. The defeat of 1967 was a shock to the generation that endured it, leading to faith in the Nasserite program but not necessarily in Nasser himself. Young Egyptians started to ask serious questions & search for answers. Ahmed El-Banna, one of the leaders of the Ikhwan The Moslem Brotherhood, is the son of Hassan El- Banna, who founded the organization in 1928. The elder El-Banna was shot to death in 1949 in Cairo street by officers of the royal police in civilian clothes for a series of murders, including that of the prime minister, were blamed on the Brotherhood. The younger El-Banna was a journalist before winning a seat in the assembly. The IKHWAW was in turn favored as a counter-weight to the secular Wafd, and then repressed by King Farouk. Nasser and then repressed by Nasser, opposed and then favored as a weapon against the secular left. Today, under President Hosni Mubarak, they have become a principal force in the Assembly.