China = Genocide in Darfur

Just like the French MORAL HIGH ROAD against war in Iraq, which was in truth, a road covered in blood money for oil, China sucks up all the oil from Sudan, has signed on to Khartoum's program - stability = oil = China Happy.

Whatever it takes. Genocide in Sudan = China gets oil and is happy.

It is very nearly that simple. Those sorts who push for action in Sudan, will in most cases, be on the other side of action against Iraq, on the side of the French and Chinese who opposed action.

Yet this time, they are on the right side, and I cannot understand how. Their moral clocks are so out of whack, it is near mind-blowing that they get this.

The US needs to take stronger action, and push for world condemnation, push for a UN military action into Sudan, as Bishop Tutu has called for, and they must do it now.

Each day hundreds of lives are lost. Each day families ripped apart, never to be repaired. Each day, it is the end of the world for thousands of people - one way or another, and the UN does NOTHING but talk.

Talk = hundreds dead.

Military action = hundreds dead.

In both cases, innocents will die, BUT at the end of one is freedom. At the end of the other, is continued enslavement.







Uselessnations

British PM: Myanmar / Burma - Monsters

Britain's prime minister accused authorities in Myanmar of behaving inhumanely by preventing foreign aid from reaching victims, and said the country's regime cares more about its own survival than the welfare of its people.

"This is inhuman," Gordon Brown told the British Broadcasting Corp. in his strongest criticism yet of Myanmar's authoritarian government.

Brown said a natural disaster "is being made into a man-made catastrophe by the negligence, the neglect and the inhuman treatment of the Burmese people by a regime that is failing to act and to allow the international community to do what it wants to do."

Food and the Environment: Starve them to death - say the envirofreaks.

Save the planet Mr. Gore. Stop the use of fossil fuels. Switch to safer (they are not) agri-fuels. Yes, and as I have already mentioned several times, the damage is irreparable - the social, political, and human cost will be staggering.


April 19, 2008:
World food prices put Latin America against the ropes - Feature
Posted : Sat, 19 Apr 2008 04:31:06 GMT
Author : DPA

Buenos Aires - The impact of rising food prices on world markets is already putting Latin America against the ropes: as regional giant Brazil insists its focus on biofuels has nothing to do with the price increases, Mexico is bracing itself for a hard time, and others are dealing with riots. "Don't come tell me that (food) is expensive because of biodiesel," Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said this week. In the South American nation, the alternative to petrol is made from sugar.

"It is expensive because the world was not ready to see millions of Chinese eat, millions of Indians, Brazilians and Latin Americans eat three times a day," Lula said in a speech before the opening session of the 30th Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).


April 12, 2008. AP: IMF Head Warns About Food Prices

April 12, 2008: AP: Haiti: Unrest, rioting, food prices jump. UN police officer killed. Where is Danny Glover and whatshisnameonehitwonder.

Globally, food prices have risen 40 percent since mid-2007. Haiti is particularly affected because it imports nearly all of its food, including more than 80 percent of its rice. Once-productive farmland has been abandoned as farmers struggle to grow crops in soil devastated by erosion, deforestation, flooding and tropical storms.

The U.S. State Department has issued a statement banning government officials from traveling to Haiti and advised American citizens to consider leaving the Caribbean country. An estimated 19,000 U.S. citizens live in Haiti, most dual-nationals who live in the capital. More than 140 American citizens have been kidnapped since 2005, but few were short-term visitors, the U.S. Embassy said.

April 4, 2008. Now the concern over social unrest as rice prices jump

April 3, 2008. Corn prices rise and spike. Chicago Tribune.com.

MSNBC.com, March 14, 2008. Why Your Food is Costing More Money.

Scientific American - Sept 2007

Great articles on or about food.

Page 88 - The World is FAT. Most people in the developing world are now overweight than hungry.

That farmers produce enough food for every person on earth to eat enough BUT for political conflict, natural disasters, and rural poverty. We cannot fix the disasters that may befall us, but we can take action when political conflicts occur. rather than sitting on our butts and explaining how we cannot bring them democracy and its none of our business and it costs too much, we should instead understand it as a matter of international importance that we do intervene to bring stability to save people from starvation. It is a moral imperative. To not act is immoral.

In Brazil, 37% of adults are overweight or obese.
In Egypt, the number is 59%.
In Mexico, 70% are overweight or obese.
China - 28%.

Yet, 1/8 of the world's people do not have enough to eat - because of natural events (droughts) and political conflicts.

We must understand that failure to act will make us complicit in the deaths of the millions who will starve. It is not our right to sit by and watch because it does not affect us, because they are black, because they are not imminent threats. It is a moral imperative to use what resources we have to change the conditions even if it does mean military force. A million will starve or thousands may die.