68 SOCIAL SCIENTIST
purposes. The world military expenditure has increased to 500 billion dollars in 1980 and world trade of arms has also grown phenomenally. Huge resources are wasted in these unproductive activities. For maintaining their own sovereignty, the UDCs are compelled to spend substantial parts of this GNP in acquiring arms. After the deployment of missiles in Western Europe the arms race has reached a stage where the existence of human life on this planet is threatened.
Castro thus gives an extremely well documented and elaborate account of the methods of neo-colonical exploitation by which the DCCs are transferring the burdens of their crisis on to the shoulders of the UDCs. As a result hunger, poverty, insecurity, inflation, widening gulf between rich and poor countries and growing unemployment have become some of the permanent features of the capitalist world. The rate of growth of population is 2.6 percent in the UDCs while it is 0.6 percent in the DCCs. The gap in per capita incomes is more than 40 times. If the present trends continue, it will take 40000 years to bridge this gap. 40 million people die every year in UDCs due to hunger and malnutrition. One third of the population in urban areas is living without a roof and proper sanitation facilities. In the absence of proper medical facilities, life expectancy is also low and 650 million people are suffering from chronic diseases. Literacy in UDC is only 28 per cent. Mass communication media of these countries like radio, television, news agencies etc, are also mainly dominated by the DCCs.
The imposition of military governments and the suppression of democratic movements in so many countries has become the common practice of imperialism. The infiltration in educational and religious institutions has created so many social and cultural problems in Third' World countries. With the overflow of western culture, even some rich and healthy traditions in UDCs have started to vanish; all these implications however have not been dealt with in as great a detail as the economic aspects of imperialist exploitation.
The author stresses the need for forming a strong and united front against imperialism in which the Third World countries have to play a most crucial role. The most important question relates to the need for increasing co-operation within these countries in the various economic, social, cultural and political fields and for combating imperialist warmongering. The book is an outstanding contribution towards a study of imperialism and provides a rich wealth of material, which also indicates the directions for further research.
KULWANT SINGH RANA
Research Associate, Department of Commerce and Business Administration, H.P. University, Simla.