Food Riots escalate in Egypt and Haiti Mexico Africa Argetina

[lovuian]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=346939

Anyone who has any doubt about just how interdependent the world has become should look at the food riots in Haiti and Egypt.

They may be half a world apart but they are the same riots, triggered for the same reason — record world prices for staple foods. The same riots have also occurred in Cameroon, in Mauritania, in Ivory Coast and elsewhere in West Africa. In southern Yemen, tanks were deployed in several towns after protesters took to the streets to vent their anger at soaring prices — wheat up 100 percent, rice and vegetable oil up 20 percent.

There have been riots too in West Bengal, India and in Mexico. There have been strikes in Argentina; there is a strike in Burkina Faso; there are shortages in Venezuela and there has even been a pasta boycott in Italy to draw attention to rocketing prices. In Saudi Arabia, people have experienced the problem of soaring prices.

A primary cause of those sky-high prices for bread, maize, rice, meat, dairy products and the like is the soaring price of oil. The high price of oil has forced up transport and other production costs. The price is being paid by the world’s poorest people — people such as the Haitians and the Egyptians. It has also encouraged farmers, particularly in the US that provides 70 percent of the world’s maize exports, to divert from food production into biofuel crops. With at least a 20 percent drop in maize supplies (maize being a major animal feed), this diversion has further pushed up meat and dairy prices.
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The people of the World are getting very angry

[rwenos]

1. Food Riots = Bad Sign in Any Culture

Any political scientist or sociologist will tell you the single best predictor for social unrest and/or real street revolution is riots over the food supply. Remember the French Revolution? Started over a tax on bread, and Marie Antoinette's famous "Then let them eat brioche!"

Bad sign. Very bad sign.

[scarletwoman]

2. Torches and pitchforks time.

There's more of us (the proles) than there are of them -- the global monied elite who profit off the destruction of other peoples' livelihoods.

Eventually, the piper must be paid.

sw

[The Doctor.]

6. Creepy, but true.

They always get dragged into the streets in the end.... always.

[lovuian]

3. the poor around the world are starving

they are already slaves but now starving ones

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Two points bout this

this is the perfect recipe for revolutions, of the violent kind...

And how long until the hungry reach for the pitchforks here?

The policies leading to these things around the world, are in place in the States

Oh and did I mention the last major wave of revolution was over hunger? (I know most people don't get this but the Russian Revolution of 1917 was partly due to this... and so were the cirisis in the 1920s in Europe and we ALMOST had a revolution here in the 1930s... FDR saved capitalism from itself)

[happyslug]

7. But revolutions occur AFTER such events run they course

Thus the French Revolution started in 1789, but the worse year for the French Famine was two years before in 1787. The worse year for Russia in WWI was 1916, situation was improving in 1917, when BOTH revolutions occur. China's CiviL War did NOT Break out while the Japanese was attacking China in the 1930s and 1940s, but after the Japanese had withdrawn from China (i.e. 1946 the ear started, the Japanese had Surrender to the US on September 1, 1945).

We can go even further back, the worse years for the Roman Empire was in the mid 200s, but no reforms took place till those revolts were put down and Diocletian became Emperor (Followed by Constantine who continued the Reforms). This stabilized the Roman World for 60 years till another set of disasters occurred leading to the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West (and its survival in the East for another 1000 years). After the Viking and Hungary raids diminished in the early 900s, Western Europe adopted Feudalism (Dropping what remained of Roman Imperial land ownership policy in Western Europe). The worse years of the "Dark Ages" was during the 800s as the Vikings raided as far south as Italy, and the Hungarians moved into present day Hungary and raided as far West as France (and the Moors re-invaded Spain and raided Italy and Southern France). Once these three attacks were stopped, Europe reformed itself, adopting Feudalism so that people who controlled the land also had to protect the people working the land (If they did not, such lords would be replaced by overlords that would). This reformed Continued during the 900s and into the 1000s (Being completed iN England only after the Conquest in 1066).

Notice the reform occurred AFTER the disaster had run its course. Reform was more an effort to prevent such disasters from occurring again then to solve the problem of the Disaster. The same with the upcoming food problem, as long as the price of Food is going up, expect problems but no radical change. Once the food price hike has run its course, then expect radical problems as people demand that Society change to make sure such a disaster does NOT occur again.

[Hannah Bell]

5. A Rice Crisis Is Boiling

<<Rice is life itself in Southeast Asia, and this year there is not enough to go around. Freakishly bad weather last year has turned the region's usual bare sufficiency into severe shortage. The result: smuggling, hoarding, soaring prices and hungry people...>>

Monday, Jul. 02, 1973

Commonalities with today? Oil shock, stock market decline, commodities speculation, gold soaring.

[Lasher]

8. Food riots, all over the world.

What have we come to? This just breaks my heart.

[Karenina]

9. It's your STOMACH and those of your loved ones

you need to concern yourself with now! ;-)

[lovuian]

10. k&R

:kick: