Posted on 02/01/2011 8:29:56 AM PST by ventanax5
Even Islamists have to eat. It is unclear whether President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt will survive, or whether his nationalist regime will be replaced by an Islamist, democratic, or authoritarian state. What is certain is that it will be a failed state. Amid the speculation about the shape of Arab politics to come, a handful of observers, for example economist Nourel Roubini, have pointed to the obvious: Wheat prices have almost doubled in the past year.
Egypt is the world's largest wheat importer, beholden to foreign providers for nearly half its total food consumption. Half of
Egyptians live on less than $2 a day. Food comprises almost half the country's consumer price index, and much more than half of spending for the poorer half of the country. This will get worse, not better.
(Excerpt) Read more at atimes.com ...
If the world ditched middle eastern oil, their population levels would fall to pre 1800s levels and they would return to tribal warfare over damp spots in the desert.
I kinda like the sound of it.
Eqypt was once the breadbasket of the Mediterranean world. Some of the problem is that the farmers must sell to the government at the dictated price, destroying the incentives to produce, and to develope and improve farm land. Then there is the Aswan dam, which ended the annual Nile flooding, which enriched the soil, which, I have heard, is now seriously depleted.
Let em eat bullets.
Egypt has risen and fallen for centuries.
While the focus seems to be on Egypt by our pretty limited media. It is only one of a string of governments being overturned in the area. Tunis, Jordan, Syria is in deep crisis, Serbia, Turkey, Egypt Somalia.
South of Egypt tribes are being decimated. There is much more going on then Egypt.
The only reason I can think the stock market is going up is that the USA is the only place to put your money as you leave these countries.
I would seriously miss Egyptian cotton, and I say that as a cotton farmer. Pima is nice, but Egyptian cotton towels are the best. :)
If an Islamist Egyptian government makes a credible existential threat against Israel, that will cease to be a problem.
[....]
That is not a Muslim view (the practice is rare in Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan), but an Egyptian Muslim view. In the most fundamental matters, President and Mrs Mubarak are incomparably more enlightened than the Egyptian public. Three-quarters of acts of genital mutilation in Egypt are executed by physicians.
What does that say about the character of the country's middle class?”
It says that whatever is coming in Egypt is not going to be good.
*ping*
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
..................
Or, we could ditch the bone-idle bums sitting on all that oil, plant the Flag, and let the world know we’re not in charge of all of it — no Arabs, no Moslems.
We think alike.
I couldn’t agree more. I was going to post one of these, but I’ve got real-life stuff to do (we’re told to expect inch-an-hour snow tonight).
http://allafrica.com/stories/201101200872.html
http://www.mareeg.com/fidsan.php?sid=18507&tirsan=3
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/01/the_clock_is_ticking_in_somali.html
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Term-Extended-for-Somali-Parliament-Amid-Sharp-International-Criticism-114967924.html
http://www.garoweonline.com/artman2/publish/Somalia_27/Somalia_Puntland_s_Break_with_the_T_F_G_and_the_International_Crisis_Group_s_Draft_Report.shtml
Great minds.........
I’m convinced obama wanted this to happen he wants Mubarek out. The World Bank, the CIA had reports about the food situation as well. You know what they say control the food control the people. There’s more then one way to control the food, i.e., price. That foreign aid we shouldn’t be forced to give in the first place at least could have been doled out in food. Since we can’t just wipe these monsters that treat women like that from the face of the Earth a real leader would have been watching this situation and worked with other world leaders to see that it didn’t get out of hand. Sarkozy even met with obama about food inflation. That ignorant Geithner said inflation’s not a problem.
As World Becomes Zimbabwefied, Cotton Futures Surge 17% In One Month
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/world-becomes-zimbabwefied-cotton-futures-surge-17-one-month
Panic Buying After USDA Report Sends Cotton Prices Soaring
Chinese Take a Cotton to Hoarding
Wow!
Cotton closed even higher today at $1.72/pound. Last year, to get half of that was a good living. Thanks for the articles.
Egypt has gone from a population of 16 million prior to World War 2, to 80 million today. They’ve bred themselves into poverty and famine.
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