Free Republic

Bartering is Back in North Korea By Yoo Gwan Hee, from South Pyongan in 2008 [2010-01-20 16:27 ] As predicted by experts on North Korea’s economy, since the authorities have yet to officially release state prices, the North Korean people are now surviving by bartering. A defector, who spoke with his family in North Hamkyung Province on Tuesday, reported the news to the Daily NK, “I called my family to send some money to them as I had heard they were in trouble, and they told me that the current situation is unspeakably terrible. They live only by bartering with...

Before currency reform, food price in Pyongyang and Chongjin (in old denomination per kg) Between Sept. and Nov., 2009, rice: 1800~2400 won, corn: 800~1100 won After currency reform, rice price in Pyongyang and Chongjin (in new denomination per kg) date rice pricein new won contributing factor Dec.2009 1st ~ 9th  20~ 25 government institutes currency reform1 new won = 100 old won 10~15th  30~ 45 price in new currency would not settle properly, and price rises 20~30th  50~ 60 Public Security impose ban on the use of foreign currency on Dec. 28; price rises Jan.2010  1st~5th  80~120 price doubled...

North Korea 'struggling against civil unrest' The revaluation of the won has led to rampant inflation and civil disorder Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Editor The North Korean dictatorship is struggling to contain civil unrest and runaway inflation caused by a drastic revaluation of its won currency, which is threatening new food shortages in the already hungry nation, according to reports in South Korea. /snip Agents of the People’s Safety Agency (PSA), which is conducting a so-called “Fifty Day Battle” against illegal enterprise, were reported to have been attacked and driven away as they sought out market activity in the city...

Violence in N.Korea as hunger woes mount: reports AFP February 3, 2010, 1:15 am SEOUL (AFP) - Angry North Koreans have attacked security agents as hunger woes mount following a crackdown on free-market trade, according to reports on Tuesday from groups in Seoul with contacts in the communist state. Social unrest and riots have flared since a shock currency revaluation by Pyongyang last November worsened shortages of food and other goods for an increasingly desperate population, they said. /snip "Therefore, people are taking revenge on agents, since they feel so desperate that regardless of their actions, they will die," the...

A new survey indicates that nearly one in five US households could not afford to buy enough food at least once during the past year. An anti-hunger group said the poll found 18.2 percent of households reported "food hardship" -- lacking money to buy enough food -- in 2009. The figure reflects a higher percentage than the government's "food insecurity" rating of 14.6 percent of households, or 49 million people, in 2008. "There are no hunger-free areas of America," Jim Weill of the Food Research and Action Center was quoted as saying by Reuters. He added that he hoped President...

Looters have broken into U.N. food warehouses in Haiti's crumbled capital, an official said Friday, as security and logistical challenges mounted for groups trying to feed at least 2 million people reeling from a devastating earthquake. The U.N. World Food Program had 15,000 tons of food aid in Haiti prior to Tuesday's 7.0-magnitude earthquake, stocks designed for hurricane relief. Spokeswoman Emilia Casella said local partners reported that the U.N. warehouse in Port-au-Prince's Cite Soleil neighborhood was looted but the agency did not know how much aid was stolen or exactly when it was taken.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti It was lunchtime in one of Haiti's worst slums, and Charlene Dumas was eating mud. With food prices rising, Haiti's poorest can't afford even a daily plate of rice, and some take desperate measures to fill their bellies. Charlene, 16 with a 1-month-old son, has come to rely on a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs: cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau. The mud has long been prized by pregnant women and children here as an antacid and source of calcium. But in places like Cite Soleil, the oceanside slum where Charlene shares...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - It was lunchtime in one of Haiti's worst slums, and Charlene Dumas was eating mud. With food prices rising, Haiti's poorest can't afford even a daily plate of rice, and some take desperate measures to fill their bellies. Charlene, 16 with a 1-month-old son, has come to rely on a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs: cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau. The mud has long been prized by pregnant women and children here as an antacid and source of calcium. But in places like Cite Soleil, the oceanside slum where Charlene...

Haiti facing 'major food crisis' Malnutrition is widespread in Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world Haiti faces a "major crisis" if the international community does not increase food aid to the country, the UN's food agency has warned. The World Food Programme director for the region, Pedro Medrano, said Haiti required more help to feed its poor. He appealed for $54m (£27m) in new funding to counter food prices which have risen sharply around the world. At least six people were killed in Haiti last month as protests over rising prices turned violent. The prices of wheat,...

Heavy snow in parts of the Midwest could cause as much as 100 million bushels of the 2009 corn crop to be lost. According to analysts in several Corn Belt states, a significant number of acres were yet to be harvested when snow came in December. Now, with the storm that struck the first week of January adding more snow, a lot of the corn still in the field will be there for the rest of the winter. It likely won't be harvested until spring and significant yield loss will occur.

01-09-2010 21:52 Kim Jong-il Determined to Feed His People North Korea's paramount leader Kim Jong-il is reportedly determined to realize his father's will, which he has so far failed to achieve: feeding the people. "I am resolute in my determination to enhance people's living standards in the shortest possible time so that they don't have to envy the life of people in other countries," he said, according to a North Korea's official Web site, Uriminjokkiri. Kim's father, Kim Il-sung, was a famous guerilla fighter against the Japanese colonial occupiers and founded the nation. Kim Il-sung left a will that called...

Obesity is a disease of excess, but a new study suggests that a few obese patients are actually lacking something--a piece of one of their chromosomes. The loss might remove a gene that helps the body manage blood sugar and appetite. Obesity runs in families, and researchers have identified several genetic variants that seem to boost the odds of becoming obese. However, these variants only explain a minority of cases. In the last decade, researchers have discovered that genetic differences among people can stem from lost or duplicated sections of chromosomes, called copy number variants (CNVs). Because of CNVs, for...

Anti-hunger aromas that make one feel full could help fight the global obesity epidemic, scientists now suggest. Everyone is familiar with scents that arouse the appetite, as well as odors that turn the stomach. But apparently molecules that make up a food's aroma can also activate areas of the brain that trigger the feeling of fullness. As people chew food, scents wafting up to the back of the nose from inside the mouth help quench the sensation of hunger, food technologist Rianne Ruijschop at NIZO Food Research in Ede, The Netherlands, and her colleagues found. "These were quite unexpected results,"...

Christian Children's Fund is changing its name to ChildFund International. The board of directors of the worldwide relief organization voted this week on the change as part of a new strategy. The new name aims to reflect the charity's worldwide reach and its affiliation with the ChildFund Alliance, a coalition that includes 11 other international organizations that help children living in poverty. Chief executive Anne Lyman Goddard said Friday that the name change, which takes effect July 1, will standardize the ChildFund name globally among groups that work to connect donors to programs that help children. "Now working under different...

Nearly one in four children in the United States lived in a home that suffered from food insecurity in 2008, according to new data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In total, 16.7 million children, or 22.5 percent, were from families that had difficulty putting enough food on the table last year. That’s 4.3 million more children than in 2007. “Child hunger is not just a casualty of the recession,” commented the Rev. David Beckmann, president of the Christian anti-poverty group Bread for the World, in response to the data. “It was a problem before the recession, and unless we...

Hunger in U.S. at a 14-year high NYT: 1 in 7 households struggles to put enough food on table During his campaign, President Obama promised to eliminate hunger among American children by 2015. The administration has yet to offer a detailed plan to do so, and the report on Monday underscored the daunting dimensions of the challenge. By Brian Knowlton Nov . 16, 2009 WASHINGTON - The number of Americans who lacked reliable access to sufficient food shot up last year to its highest point since the government began surveying in 1995, the Agriculture Department reported on Monday. In its...

More than 36.2 million Americans – 11 percent of U.S. households – suffer from food insecurity. That is, their access to enough food is limited by a lack of money and other resources. -- More than 35 million Americans – one out of nine – are receiving food stamps, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. -- 17.5 percent of rural households with children are food insecure.

Bill Gates took on the Famine Lobby while addressing a forum on the world food supply in Iowa. Speaking at the World Food Prize Symposium in Des Moines, Gates took aim at the chorus of environmental leftists and organic food advocates who believe Africans should starve rather than eat genetically modified (GM) foods. “Some voices are instantly hostile to any emphasis on productivity. They act as if there is no emergency, even though in the poorest, hungriest places on earth, population is growing faster than productivity,” he said.The opposition is significant, because Gates is left-of-center himself. The Bill and Melinda...

NAIROBI, Kenya – Parents in some of Africa's poorest countries are cutting back on school, clothes and basic medical care just to give their children a meal once a day, experts say. Still, it is not enough. A record 1 billion people worldwide are hungry and a new report says the number will increase if governments do not spend more on agriculture. According to the U.N. food agency, which issued the report, 30 countries now require emergency aid, including 20 in Africa. The trend continues despite a goal set by world leaders nine years ago to cut the number of...

Will the silent tears or the loud crying ever stop?Look at the eyes, gentle reader, the photographers have captured the pain, the hunger, the shame, the fear, the horror... The UN was supposed to alleviate such problems and usher in a new era of peace and prosperity. It has failed miserably! Precisely because of its all inclusiveness. “Would that include Nazi Germany if it existed today?” I asked him. “Why, yes,” he replied, “a sovereign state is a sovereign state.” The UN makes no demands that its members show even the most minimal regard for human rights or even human...