Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Arab dictatorships: double whammy

The Arab World is much more important to global food security than people usually think. The prevailing wisdom is that these are chronically and irremediably food insecure regions and that they are dependent on food imports and that they will continue to be. This may hold some truth in it as the region is water deficient and cannot rely on rainfall for feeding its population especially in view of shifting diets. BUT the region holds two major resources without which global food production and trade would plummet: oil and phosphorus. Read this article:

In his statement, Prof White pointed out that at present, the regions and specifically Morocco enjoy a near-monopoly hold of the world' high quality phosphate rock supply as he stressed that "even a temporary disruption to the supply of phosphate on the world market can have serious ramifications for nations' food security." 
But what a double whammy the Arab World has put itself/been put in: Not only does the Empire control its food supply, via trade and mega-corporations, but the Arab dictatorships have delivered to the Empire the key to their resources which are then used to produce the food it is held hostage with. Luckily all of this is changing, and one big mover of the protests in Egypt is not only the price of food, it is the rejection by people of a deal to sell Israel natural gas at a fraction of the international price when the people of Egypt have to pay full price! One day soon we shall control our oil and gas and phosphorus and establish fair trading conditions with the world. This is why the end of Arab dictatorships, plutocracies, corruptocracies is an absolute necessity. 

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