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| Hunger in Haiti (and everywhere else) increasing rapidly | |
| 2008-04-18 | |
Haiti's 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 such as beans, corn and rice into closely guarded treasures. Saint Louis Meriska's children ate two spoonfuls of rice apiece as their only meal two days ago and then went without any food the following day. His eyes downcast, his own stomach empty, the unemployed father said forlornly, "They look at me and say, 'Papa, I'm hungry,' and I have to look away. It's humiliating and it makes you angry." | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #9 PRAVDA > SOUTH AMERICA UNITES AGZ USA'S PREDATORY INSTINCTS. Despite latent, alleged South Amer-specific criticisms and fears of the USA [CHavez], ARTICLE > INDIRECTLY STRONGLY HINTS THAT WOT > among other thingys, OWG-NWO WAR FOR/AGAINST MACKINDER'S WORLD ISLAND BTWN AMERICAS versus EURASIA, NEW WORLD versus OLD WORLD. broadly speaking, in this WAR FOR OWG-NWO its quite possible, even likely, that the MACKINDERIAN IDEAL WILL MANIFEST IN THE AMERICAS, with the latter becoming ONE GIANT UNIFIED ANDOR TRASN-CONTINENTAL COLLECTION OF PAN-AMERICAN FREE TRADE = SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES. You just know the Lefties + Marxists, etc. are gonna go ballistic. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-04-18 19:57 |
| #8 AT4170, when a farmer in Australia can earn $2000 per acre for wine grapes versus $240 per acre for rice, do you feel he has an obligation to raise rice? The thrust of the article seemed to be that it was the "price" of food rather than the scarcity of food that was the problem. Are the farmers of the West obligated to devote their resources to providing "cheap" food to countries that cannot or will not grow enough to feed their people? Should the Chinese be told they can't eat meat because it raises the price of grain to beggar nations? Many of these countries are pleased to let foreign aid groups feed their people so they can expend their resources on other things such as luxuries for the kleptocrats and arms for the military. The fact that birth rates are falling in the third world does not change the fact that they are two to four times that of the West. If they are unable or unwilling to accept the social, economic, and political changes required for self sufficiency and prefer to depend on the kindness of strangers, they have no right to complain when the strangers become tired of supporting their lifestyle. |
| Posted by: RWV 2008-04-18 13:18 |
| #7 Birth rates have been FALLING throughout the "3rd world" esp in Latin Am and Asia, more unevenly in sub-saharan africa. Birth rates fall AFTER a certain level of socio-economic development is reached, for a whole host of reasons. There has been no sudden surge in birth rates in the last couple of years that has caused this. Its a combination of a couple of things 1. The increased demand from countries like China, where newly rich folks are eating more meat, which takes more grain. This factor is NOT going away. 2. Bad weather - not global warming related (yet) but just bad luck. This factor should go away soon. 3. Misguided govt intervention in free markets - in particular ethanol mandates. Corn based ethanol, we should all be realizing by now, is NOT a very good idea. If the free market generates it thats one thing - but mandates to force or even subsidize ethanol usage are almost certainly poor public policy. Ethanol will become big when we start using non-food crops,waste, etc in a big way. |
| Posted by: Albemarle Thravitle4170 2008-04-18 09:57 |
| #6 To put this jeremiad in perspective, compare the birth rates in the countries facing "hunger" to the evil Western food-producing countries: (births per 1000) USA 14.2; Canada 10.8; Australia 12; Burkino Faso 45.3; Haiti 35.9; Somalia 44.6; Malaysia 22.6; El Salvador 26.1. See a trend? It is the height of hypocrisy, arrogance, and wishful thinking for these nations to expect the West to pay for their inability to discipline themselves to live within their resources, to subsidize their children at the expense of our own. My sympathy meter broke a long time ago. Most of their agricultural deficiencies come from government meddling (stupidity as in Rhodesia and regulations / subsidies / handouts / rations most other places). We can feed them for awhile, but unless serious efforts are made to fix the underlying problems, it is just wasted effort and prolonging the agony of the foolish. |
| Posted by: RWV 2008-04-18 09:40 |
| #5 And even as we see this develop all over the world, the Globalist crowd here tirelessly works to duplicate the effects. What is it about greed, you can never see the train till it's two feet from you. By their very nature they will not quit until they are carried away to the guillotine. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-04-18 08:57 |
| #4 Haitians have been starving my entire life (and I'm not young), yet there are more and more of them every year. You would think that at some point malnutrition would make a dent in fertility. |
| Posted by: Menhadden Snogum6713 2008-04-18 07:50 |
| #3 Told ya. |
| Posted by: Thomas Maltus 2008-04-18 05:24 |
| #2 RIAN > HUNGER LOOMS OVER THE WORLD. Interesting - Article blames not only the failure of World Experts-Economists to ACCURATELY PREDICT/FORECAST COMING GLOBAL CHALLENGES + ECONOMIC OVER-OPTIMISM, but also laments that a bad situation was made WORSE by MANY YEARS OF DEVOTING LARGE AMOUNTS OF RESOURCES [e.g. arable land] TO BIOFUEL = ALTERNATIVE FUELS INVESTMENT + PRODUCTION [e.g. CORN-BASED? ETHANOL]. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-04-18 01:16 |
| #1 NET > in CANADA, the Govt reportedly is paying Canadian farmers big $$$ to destroy their pig stocks, in order to prevent oversaturation of the pork meat market. Again, what are the Brits-Euros going to do? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-04-18 00:40 |