Global Food Shortage–Blame Shifting

The price of rice has increased more than 90 percent in the past year, and several Asian nations have cut off rice exports for fear their supply will run dry.

Investors and food suppliers are doing nothing to mitigate the situation. Similar to our oil industry, these profit-seeking hounds have bought up rice and sold it at higher than market value, only contributing to the high prices.

Food riots have riddled Indonesia, the Philippines, Ethiopia and Haiti. Bangladeshi textile workers have been protesting. Demand in China and India is on the rise due to increasing populations. Japanese markets are in an uproar as hagglers fight for the right to purchase their next meal.

Key United Nations development agencies are going to be meeting in Switzerland to discuss the matter. After weeks of leaders sitting on the sidelines, watching their people fight over rice grains or giving their last savings to buy enough to feed their family for a few days, they’ve finally found the sensibilities to take action.

Biofuels are partly to blame. A lot of grain that could be used for food is being transformed into fuel. Not to mention that industrializing nations have an increased demand for higher quality foods and meat products, and livestock eat a lot of grain.

Now, I’m sure the question is: Why does this matter? I’m not pointing fingers and blaming anyone for being ignorant, because it’s impossible for one to know what’s going on in the world if it’s not being reported on.

The coverage I’ve found has been little more than analysis and feeble calls for supply and demand to be re-examined. The blame falls on a lack of price caps and poor leadership. But this food shortage will make its way here. Our farmers have already been trapped in subsidies here in the States. They are able to undersell their grain to make a small profit, but in these struggling nations, fields are lying fallow because they cannot afford to farm them.

It’s about time the UN decided to sit down and chat about this. Our hope is that they will decide that there is more at stake here than profits, mob affiliations or additions to their mansions. We only have one world, but is there enough of it to sustain all of our high-cost demands? Everyone wants a bigger piece of the pie, but there isn’t enough to go around.

Mugabe’s Temper Leaves 10 Dead?!

Robert Mugabe, former president of Zimbabwe, has thrown enough hissy-fits that I might as well call him a girl. Maybe if I invited him over and we painted each other’s toenails or curled each other’s hair he might calm down for a second.

He and his Zanu-PF party have dominated Zimbabwean politics since their independence from British rule in 1980. But with a new election finished and the results tallied and painfully clear, Mugabe is clinging to his power seat for dear life. Morgan Tsvangirai, Movement for Democratic Change opposition leader, has been adamant that he won the election fair and square, that the numbers don’t lie and that Mugabe called a recount because he is a sore loser. So, it went to court.

Ruffled feathers and flustered political leaders aside, Zimbabweans are still scuffling over the issue. The Associated Press reported that 10 people were killed and 3,000 families have been forced from their homes since the election due to violence and hospitalization for their injuries.

According to exit poll results, Mugabe lost by 60 percent. But nobody is supposed to know that, or they might end up with an angry Mugabe under their bed. Not kidding, he knows everything that goes on within his borders.

But there is more at stake here than Zimbabweans and their well being. The idea of democracy in Africa is hanging by a thread. There is the possibility for an upsurge of unrest within this crisis, and one man is holding all the strings.

Mugabe, you are not the next Julius Caesar. How many people have to die before you realize your selfishness is out of control?