Posted on 04/14/2008 3:47:38 PM PDT by rightwinggoth
The idea of the starving masses driven by their desperation to take to the streets and overthrow the ancien regime has seemed impossibly quaint since capitalism triumphed so decisively in the Cold War. Since then, the spectacle of hunger sparking revolutionary violence has been the stuff of Broadway musicals rather than the real world of politics. And yet, the headlines of the past month suggest that skyrocketing food prices are threatening the stability of a growing number of governments around the world. Ironically, it may be the very success of capitalism in transforming regions previously restrained by various forms of socialism that has helped create the new crisis.
No mention of despots using starvation as a weapon.
Zimbabwe and North Korea get no mention.
Couple million died in north korea from starvation.
Oil’s up, what, 900%?
Maybe we can do a trade.
We should say, “Unless we can get some oil from you fellas, you’ll have to grow your own food. Now, what do you say?”
French Revolution Worldwide,?
The reason officials such as Zoellick are sounding the alarm may be that the food crisis, and its attendant political risks, are not likely to be resolved or contained by the laissez-faire operation of capitalism's market forces. Government intervention on behalf of the poor - so out of fashion during globalization's roaring '90s and the current decade - may be about to make a comeback.
I call BS. We've given bushels of aid all over the world.
Great way todecrease the "surplus" population or reming recalcitrant citizens who is the boss.
Uh okay, but why?
we'll see who needs who
Such as shifting corn away from food to biofuel production? Just as the red Mao Tse Tung was responsible for the famine that followed the il-planned "Great Leap Forward", the American Red, Al Gore, with his short-sighted advocacy of pursuing bio-fuel production must bear a very large share of the responsibility for this one.
What do you base that on?
In Haiti it’s due to incompetence of the government. No one in Haiti should starve as they have the perfect year-round growing climate, chickens thrive there, and the sea has fish and shrimp a plenty.
In the Pacific Northwest, where I live, if you have a fishing and hunting license plus a backyard big enough for a 20X40 foot vegetable garden, you need never go hungry.
One of Haiti’s big problems is erosion — the best soil has washed out to the sea.
Most of the people who are starving live on rice and beans or wheat. Corn and cane sugar, used for ethanol production, isn’t a factor. That’s just politics, attempting to make wealthy countries feel guilty for something we didn’t do wrong.
Have you seen pictures of that? A friend of mine from Haiti, who is now a U.S. citizen, says that is greatly exagerated. The problem is lack of policing, as thugs go around stealing food from those who produce their own.
...Zimbabwe, North Korea...
The Ukrainians starved under Stalin and the Great Leap Forward in China didn’t overturn those regimes.
Hunger only leads to revolution when the citizens have guns and go hunting bureaucrats because they ran out of edible game.
Hear,hear! Specific areas w/o enough food (starvation) are "acts of God". But huge areas w/o little-to-no food (famine) are, as you pointed out, acts of deliberate government action.
http://geology.com/world/haiti-satellite-image.shtml
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/445.html
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