On Apr 18, 11:40=A0pm, joseywa...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(David P.) wrote:
> on 20 Apr 2007, Don Stockbauer <don-dumb...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> >"STAND BACK! =A0HE'S GOT A........
>
> > =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 POPULATION
BOMB!=
!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
> >Everybody, stay indoors. =A0Shelter in place. =A0Duct tape your
windows.
> >Bleat like sheep."
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/world/americas/18food.html
>
> Across Globe, Empty Bellies Bring Rising Anger
>
> By MARC LACEY
> Published: April 18, 2008
>
> ****T-AU-PRINCE, Haiti =97 Hunger bashed in
> the front gate of Haiti=92s presidential palace.
> Hunger poured onto the streets, burning tires
> and taking on soldiers and the police. Hunger
> sent the country=92s prime minister packing.
>
> Haiti=92s hunger, that burn in the belly that so
> many here feel, has become fiercer than
> ever in recent days as global food prices
> spiral out of reach, spiking as much as 45
> percent since the end of 2006 and turning
> Haitian staples like beans, corn and rice
> into closely guarded treasures.
>
> Saint Louis Meriska=92s children ate two
> spoonfuls of rice apiece as their only meal
> recently and then went without any food the
> following day. His eyes downcast, his own
> stomach empty, the unemployed father said
> forlornly, =93They look at me and say, =91Papa,
> I=92m hungry,=92 and I have to look away.
> It=92s humiliating and it makes you angry.=94
>
> That anger is palpable across the globe.
> The food crisis is not only being felt among
> the poor but is also eroding the gains of the
> working and middle cl*****, sowing volatile
> levels of discontent and putting new
> pressures on fragile governments.
>
> In Cairo, the military is being put to work
> baking bread as rising food prices threaten
> to become the spark that ignites wider anger
> at a repressive government. In Burkina Faso
> and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, food
> riots are breaking out as never before. In
> reasonably prosperous Malaysia, the ruling
> coalition was nearly ousted by voters who
> cited food and fuel price increases as their
> main concerns.
>
> =93It=92s the worst crisis of its kind in more than
> 30 years,=94 said Jeffrey D. Sachs, the
> economist and special adviser to the U. N.
> secretary general, Ban Ki-moon. =93It=92s a big
> deal and it=92s obviously threatening a lot of
> governments. There are a number of govern-
> ments on the ropes, and I think there=92s more
> political fallout to come.=94
>
> Indeed, as it roils developing nations, the
> spike in commodity prices =97 the biggest
> since the Nixon administration =97 has pitted
> the globe=92s poorer south against the relatively
> wealthy north, adding to demands for reform
> of rich nations=92 farm and environmental
> policies. But experts say there are few quick
> fixes to a crisis tied to so many factors, from
> strong demand for food from emerging
> economies like China=92s to rising oil prices
> to the diversion of food resources to make
> biofuels.
>
> There are no scripts on how to handle the
> crisis, either. In Asia, governments are
> putting in place measures to limit hoarding
> of rice after some shoppers panicked at
> price increases and bought up everything
> they could.
>
> Even in Thailand, which produces 10 million
> more tons of rice than it consumes and is
> the world=92s largest rice ex****ter, super-
> markets have placed signs limiting the
> amount of rice shoppers are allowed to
> purchase.
>
> But there is also plenty of nervousness and
> confusion about how best to proceed and
> just how bad the impact may ultimately be,
> particularly as already strapped gummints
> struggle to keep up their food subsidies.
>
> =91Scandalous Storm=92
>
> "This is a perfect storm," President El=EDas
> Antonio Saca of El Salvador said on Wed.
> at the World Economic Forum on Latin
> America in Canc=FAn, Mexico. "How long
> can we withstand the situation? We have
> to feed our people, and commodities are
> becoming scarce. This scandalous storm
> might become a hurricane that could upset
> not only our economies but also the stability
> of our countries."
>
> In Asia, if Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad
> Badawi of Malaysia steps down, which is
> looking increasingly likely amid postelection
> turmoil within his party, he may be that
> region=92s first high- profile political casualty
> of fuel and food price inflation.
>
> In Indonesia, fearing protests, the gummint
> recently revised its 2008 budget, increasing
> the amount it will spend on food subsidies
> by about $280 million.
>
> "The biggest concern is food riots," said
> H.S. Dillon, a former adviser to Indonesia=92s
> Ministry of Agriculture. Referring to small
> but widespread protests touched off by a
> rise in soybean prices in January, he said,
> "It has happened in the past and can
> happen again."
>
> Last month in Senegal, one of Africa=92s
> oldest and most stable democracies,
> police in riot gear beat and used tear gas
> against people protesting high food prices
> and later raided a television station that
> broadcast images of the event. Many
> Senegalese have expressed anger at
> President Abdoulaye Wade for spending
> lavishly on roads and five-star hotels for
> an Islamic summit meeting last month while
> many people are unable to afford rice or fish.
>
> "Why are these riots happening?" asked
> Arif Husain, senior food security analyst at
> the World Food Program, which has issued
> urgent appeals for donations. "The human
> instinct is to survive, and people are going
> to do no matter what to survive. And if you=92re
> hungry you get angry quicker."
>
> Leaders who ignore the rage do so at their
> own risk. President Ren=E9 Pr=E9val of Haiti
> appeared to taunt the populace as the
> chorus of complaints about la vie ch=E8re -
> the expensive life - grew. =A0 He said if
> Haitians could afford cellphones, which
> many do carry, they should be able to feed
> their families. "If there is a protest against
> the rising prices," he said, "come get me
> at the palace and I will demonstrate with you."
>
> When they came, filled with rage and by
> the thousands, he huddled inside and his
> presidential guards, with United Nations
> peacekeeping troops, rebuffed them.
> Within days, opposition lawmakers had
> voted out Mr. Pr=E9val=92s prime minister,
> Jacques-=C9douard Alexis, forcing him to
> reconstitute his government. Fragile in
> even the best of times, Haiti=92s population
> and politics are now both simmering.
>
> "Why were we surprised?" asked Patrick
> =C9lie, a Haitian political activist who followed
> the food riots in Africa earlier in the year
> and feared they might come to Haiti.
> "When something is coming your way all
> the way from Burkina Faso you should
> see it coming. What we had was like a
> can of gasoline that the government left
> for someone to light a match to it."
>
> Dwindling Menus
>
> The rising prices are altering menus, and
> not for the better. In India, people are
> scrimping on milk for their children. Daily
> bowls of dal are getting thinner, as a bag
> of lentils is stretched across a few more meals.
>
> Maninder Chand, an auto-rickshaw driver
> in New Delhi, said his family had given up
> eating meat altogether for the last several
> weeks.
>
> Another rickshaw driver, Ravinder Kumar
> Gupta, said his wife had stopped seasoning
> their daily lentils, their chief source of protein,
> with the usual onion and spices because
> the price of cooking oil was now out of reach.
> These days, they eat bowls of watery, tasteless
> dal, seasoned only with salt.
>
> Down Cairo=92s Hafziyah Street, peddlers
> selling food from behind wood carts bark
> out their prices. But few customers can
> afford their fish or chicken, which bake in
> the hot sun. Food prices have doubled in
> two months.
>
> Ahmed Abul Gheit, 25, sat on a cheap,
> stained wooden chair by his own pile of
> rotting tomatoes. "We can=92t even find food,"
> he said, looking over at his friend Sobhy
> Abdullah, 50. Then raising his hands toward
> the sky, as if in prayer, he said, "May God
> take the guy I have in mind."
>
> Mr. Abdullah nodded, knowing full well
> that the "guy" was President Hosni Mubarak.
>
> The government=92s ability to address the
> crisis is limited, however. It already spends
> more on subsidies, including gasoline and
> bread, than on education & health combined.
>
> "If all the people rise, then the government
> will resolve this," said Raisa Fikry, 50, whose
> husband receives a pension equal to about
> $83 a month, as she shopped for vegetables.
> "But everyone has to rise together. People
> get scared. But we will all have to rise together."
>
> It is the kind of talk that has prompted the
> government to treat its economic woes as
> a security threat, dispatching riot forces with
> a strict warning that anyone who takes to the
> streets will be dealt with harshly.
>
> Niger does not need to be reminded that
> hungry citizens overthrow governments.
> The country=92s first postcolonial president,
> Hamani Diori, was toppled amid allegations
> of rampant corruption in 1974 as millions
> starved during a drought.
>
> More recently, in 2005, it was mass protests
> in Niamey, the Nigerien capital, that made
> the government sit up and take notice of that
> year=92s food crisis, which was caused by a
> complex mix of poor rains, locust infestation
> and market manipulation by traders.
>
> "As a result of that experience the gummint
> created a cabinet-level ministry to deal with
> the high cost of living," said Moustapha Kadi,
> an activist who helped organize marches in
> 2005. "So when prices went up this year the
> government acted quickly to remove tariffs
> on rice, which everyone eats. That quick
> action has kept people from taking to the
> streets."
>
> The Poor Eat Mud
>
> In Haiti, where three-quarters of the pop.
> earns less than $2 a day and one in five
> children is chronically malnourished, the
> one business booming amid all the gloom
> is the selling of patties made of mud, oil
> and sugar, typically consumed only by the
> most destitute.
>
> "It=92s salty and it has butter and you don=92t
> know you=92re eating dirt," said Olwich
> Louis Jeune, 24, who has taken to eating
> them more often in recent months. "It makes
> your stomach quiet down."
>
> But the grumbling in Haiti these days is
> no longer confined to the stomach. It is
> now spray-painted on walls of the capital
> and shouted by demonstrators.
>
> In recent days, Mr. Pr=E9val has patched
> together a response, using international aid
> money and price reductions by im****ters to
> cut the price of a sack of rice by about 15 %.
> He has also trimmed the salaries of some
> top officials. But those are considered
> tem****ary measures.
>
> Real solutions will take years. Haiti, its
> agriculture industry in shambles, needs to
> better feed itself. Outside investment is the
> key, although that requires stability, not the
> sort of widespread looting and violence that
> the Haitian food riots have fostered.
>
> Meanwhile, most of the poorest of the poor
> suffer silently, too weak for activism or too
> busy raising the next generation of hungry.
> In the sprawling slum of Haiti=92s Cit=E9 Soleil,
> Placide Simone, 29, offered one of her five
> offspring to a stranger. "Take one," she said,
> cradling a listless baby and motioning toward
> four rail-thin toddlers, none of whom had
> eaten that day. "You pick. Just feed them."
>
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D
> =A0"Endeavor to persevere"
>
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D
well i'm not to suprised to see Famine manifesting hish pestilential
ass across the planet... it's shapin' up to one heck of an harmaggedon
this go round isn't it?
when the zombies really do start rampaging, gets your guns and make
sure you gotz lots of mojo too.
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