Monday, July 2, 2007

Putting out fire with gasoline

This is not exactly about food, farming and rural society, but I had to link to it: how the gasoline cartel operates in Lebanon, part 1 of 2. Absolutely fascinating. Please read it to see how warlords and merchants of Lebanon are linked.

Listen to this:

"The net income of the gasoline trade in Lebanon is close to $250 millions. It is politically distributed, among a small lobby second in power only to the banking sector lobby.

The handful of importers also own 80% of the retail trade, which allows them to multiply their benefits and control the whole supply chain."

In arabic

1 comment:

Bedouina said...

Of course it's related. Farming and food are based on the oil economy now. Until Lebanon goes carbon neutral, or "post-carbon" as somebody I know referred to Cuba, gasoline cartels are completely linked to food production. You can't feed the Lebanese without oil (or the Americans or anybody else) so gasoline cartels are totally part of the picture.

But you knew that.