The loom doom

"In the short term, a decline in food and basic commodity prices has relieved pressure on Arab consumers. Many of the oil-rich gulf states such as Saudi Arabia built up huge cash reserves and sovereign wealth funds during the time of peak oil prices that will help them weather the downturn.

But trouble looms. The French energy giant Total predicts global demand for oil will drop by 2 million barrels a day. Economists say a decline in remittances from Arabs in the West and the Persian Gulf countries and a sharp drop in commodity prices will eventually increase unemployment and unrest in economically fragile countries such as Lebanon, Yemen, Egypt and Jordan. The International Monetary Fund has predicted declines in the growth of gross domestic product across the Arab world for 2009. Analysts say North African nations dependent on trade with a faltering Europe will also be hurt."

Sanctions work

"A report published Sunday in the Hebrew-language business paper 'The Marker', 21% of Israeli exporters say that they have been directly impacted by a boycott of Israeli products since the beginning of 2009.
...

The Israeli website:

http://www.whoprofits.org

has been maintaining and updating a database of companies that either profit from the Israeli occupation or export products that come from Israeli settlements. The global BDS Movement has called for a boycott of these companies."

Japan

"The farmers who work the paddies are graying and dwindling in number. Abandoned, overgrown plots are a common sight. Because of how small their farms are and how far rice prices have fallen, many farmers find it impossible to make ends meet.

“Japanese agriculture has no money, no youth, no future,” said one farmer, Hitoshi Suzuki, 57, who stood on his 450-year-old family farm as an icy wind blew from the sea." (Thanks D.)

Adam's apples and Eve's undies

An interesting (Arabic) article in Al Hayat: Israel is courting the Syrians through offers of "economic normalization". First step: increase of the quantity of apples allowed to be exported from the Golan to Syria, and the transformation of Majdel Shams into a formal "border" point. The next offer is to import from Syria cotton clothing and underwear to replace Chinese imports. The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie takes a whole new dimension. (Fabulous book, click on the cover to read)

Seven million away

Yemen: Seven million people below the poverty line. 40% of the rural people are poor (Al Hayat)

Eat the view

"Just days after First Lady Michelle Obama broke ground for a vegetable garden on the White House lawn, California's first lady announced that Sacramento is getting a public edible garden too."

Herbal treatment

"Authorities shut down a clinic Saturday for promoting unlicensed sexual enhancement medication and weight loss pills on a satellite channel. ...A customer would come in with a complaint, usually obesity or sexual dysfunction, and then the clinic would hook the patient up on the phone with a remote 'physician' in Lebanon, who would listen to the complaint and then prescribe a certain blend of herbs for treatment. The patient would be told to obtain the medicine from the clinic only, nowhere else."

The biggest

"The Damascus Gate restaurant benefits from its proximity to the shrine of Sayyida Zeinab, the granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad and a major attraction for Shia tourists from Lebanon, Iran and Iraq. Fatima Abbas from Lebanon says she visits the restaurant every time she comes to the shrine. “We come here because it’s so big and it’s so famous,” she tells me, eating dessert while her husband smokes a hubble bubble pipe. “The food is good, especially the kabseh [Saudi-style rice]. “It’s not as good as Lebanese food, but Syria is famous for its sweets.” "

Thanks

"Washington has donated $1.5 million to help a humanitarian organization destroy conventional weapons spread across Lebanon's south, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut said Thursday.The Mines Advisory Group (MAG) will use the funds, donated by the State Department's Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, to dispatch expert teams to at least eight regions in the south and to "survey some 680,000 square meters of land.""

Thanks for the thought but wouldn't it have been better not to give the cluster bombs to the Israelis to start with?

Badael-Alternatives

Badael-Alternaives in Al-Akhbar today: my editorial on the world water forum and Lebanon's addiction to privatization. Muhammad Muhsin writes about vegeterianism in Lebanon and Rana Hayek on how vegetables and fruits ain't what they used to be.

We do better when we're equal

Lynsey Hanley reviews Wilkinson and Picket's book: The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better.

"We are rich enough. Economic growth has done as much as it can to improve material conditions in the developed countries, and in some cases appears to be damaging health. If Britain were instead to concentrate on making its citizens' incomes as equal as those of people in Japan and Scandinavia, we could each have seven extra weeks' holiday a year, we would be thinner, we would each live a year or so longer, and we'd trust each other more."

Can someone send a copy to all members of the Lebanese government and parliament who are still stuck in antediluvian liberalism?

With a little help from my friends

"DOHA: The Indonesian government is encouraging Qatari businessmen to invest on rice farmlands through joint venture project to meet the demands of quality rice for consumption in the Middle East, according to a top official of the Indonesian Embassy here. "

Seeds of change

"The political aspect becomes apparent when talking to Rami Zurayk. People are, to this professor of Ecosystem Management at AUB, inseparable from plants. Zurayk was overseeing events at AREC and said that if the volunteers were to take one thing away from their day at the farm, it is that, “AUB is a place that feels very strongly that it has a social responsibility. It is not only a teaching institution; it also contributes to human wellbeing… Today we have planted seeds,” he said, “literally and figuratively.” He explained that the trees cultivated on the project are used in joint projects with municipalities in which communities agreed to look after trees in exchange for some green space in their village. This was important because, although environmental awareness is increasing in Lebanon, “environmental concerns alone do not create a country… Environmental justice is part of social justice. We cannot create large green spaces that are not available to everyone.”"

Alice Fordham on tree planting in AREC.

The official position of the current Lebanese government, represented by a key minister of the majority:

"The Market is the basis of the development and evolution of societies. It is a choice we cannot go back on. There are no justifications for refusing to hand over public facilities to the private sector."

Free

I wrote this short article on freediving and the ban affecting it for the sports page of Al Akhbar.

The naked truth

"The men, from Deir Istiya southwest of Nablus, were on their way to tend lands west of the village that are sandwiched between two Israeli settlements, Ariel and Immanu’el. The men all had permits to access the land, but were accosted by a group of at least 15 armed Israeli settlers and prevented from passing into their land.

Israeli troops intervened in the settler-farmer standoff by forcing the Palestinians to remove their clothes, then turning them away from the land.

Local resident Raed Hamdan witnessed the incident. “We own the lands in this area and it belongs to the people of Deir Istiya but the Israeli troops came to the area and forced the young men to strip and searched them with great humiliation despite that they hold special permits to reach their lands.”" (Thanks Marcy)

This blog provides a blow by blow account of the World Water Forum.

The Obama inspired food and farming: real change?

"Although unit sales of organic food have leveled off and even declined lately, compared with a year earlier, the mood among those crowded into the conference room was upbeat as they waited for a private screening of a documentary called "Food Inc." — a withering critique of agribusiness and industrially produced food. They also gathered to relish their changing political fortunes under the administration of President Barack Obama.


"This has never been just about business," said Gary Hirshberg, chief executive of Stonyfield Farm, the maker of organic yogurt. "We are here to change the world. We dreamt for decades of having this moment."" (Thanks Yaz)

What Gary forgets to tell us is that the organic Stoneyfield is owned by giant company Danone. Check this earlier post.

Water foul

There's been a lot of activity around the latest world water forum (WWF, not to be confused with the other WWF) taking place in Istanbul. I blogged an appeal from La Via Campesina (who are always right on these issues, let it be known) and here's a piece from AFP titled "Activists slam water forum". Marcy sent me a link to an opinion piece in the Independent by the president of Coca Cola Great Britain. Please read and then read the comments. If you ever need to illustrate "greenwashing" you know where to go. To put things in context (my context, of course) here's a link to a ite called water justice where one can find lots of resources about the role of multinationals in trying to control fresh water. Normal: fresh water is a very scarce resource, and we all need it. Check the latest Bond movie for more on the topic and my post on the subject. And for those who like things to be a bit more academic, check the site of the Transnational Institute wher you will find the Water Justice Turkey declaration, as well as good reference on effective public-public parterships in water.

"Confirming once again the illegitimacy of the World Water Forum, we denounce the Ministerial Statement because it does not recognize water as a universal human right nor exclude it from global trade agreements. In addition the draft resolution ignores the failure of privatization to guarantee the access to water for all, and does not take into account those positive recommendations proposed by the insufficient European Parliamentary Resolution."

The end of food

"Responding to reports that the Obamas would be planting arugula, Pollan said he specifically warned the president against planting the leafy lettuce. "I said be careful about arugula or you'll be accused of elitism."" (Thanks Marcy)