Friday, February 11, 2011

Has any one noticed?

Has anyone noticed that none of the Egyptian demonstrators interviewed on Al Jazeera or other channels talks about food prices? Everybody talks about dignity, freedom and the end of tyranny. People do not live by bread alone and bringing down food prices will not prevent our profound desire for emancipation. Meanwhile much of the foreign press keeps attributing the Arab uprising to escalating food prices. They can't understand the speeches, the comuniques, the chants and the slogans. 


"The recent political unrest in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen illustrate that food price spikes are more than a blip on the Chicago board of trade, and we need to take it seriously. No one wants 2011 to be a repeat of the 2008 global food crisis when riots in 33 countries pushed more than 100 million people into deeper poverty. But one thing is certain: without action to address the underlying causes of the global food crisis, history is destined to repeat itself." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marie-clarke-brill/when-a-spark-ignites-fire_b_820163.html

and here

"The dramatic rise in food prices is fueling a great deal of discontent in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere. It's a deep undercurrent propelling many of the poor, who face prospects of starvation to resort to the streets and to violence. According to the United Nation's Food Agency (Food and Agriculture Organization -- FAO) world food prices are up for the 7th month in a row and are likely to surpass the record high reached in December 2010." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-alvarez/food-egypt-and-wall-stree_b_818434.html

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