A New Wave of Food Riots Swamps South Asia Amid Floods

Food riots as floods swamp South Asia

By Sharat Pradhan

Fri Aug 22, 2008 8:24am EDT

LUCKNOW, India (Reuters) – Flood victims demanding food and shelter beat up government officials in India on Friday as monsoon rains spread misery among millions of people across South Asia and forced thousands from their homes.

People take shelter at the road side as floodwaters from the Saptakoshi River created havoc in Sunsari August 21, 2008. Wednesday.REUTERS/Jitendra Khadka. Image may be subject to copyright.

Rising rivers have crumpled embankments, swamped farmlands and destroyed homes, killing almost 1,000 people since the monsoon rains began in June. More …

Stranded people make their way through flood waters in the eastern Indian state of Bihar August 22, 2008. Flood victims demanding food and shelter beat up government officials in India on Friday as monsoon rains spread misery among millions of people across South Asia and forced thousands from their homes.  REUTERS/Krishna Murari Kishan. Image may be subject to copyright.

Season’s Death Toll

• India: about 1,000 people;
• Nepal: up to 100;
• Bangladesh as many as 50.

Other casualty

• Up to 10,000 flood victims treated for water-borne diseases.

Displaced

• Up to one half of a million people have been displaced in Bangladesh, Nepal and India in last week alone.

Related News Links

• Food riots as floods swamp South Asia

Do the Poor Have Human Rights?

What Has Soaring Food and Fuel Prices Got to Do with Human Rights?

Whose fault is it If the poor can’t afford food? Give them more money and you create a bigger problem: Inflation.

It’s not the job of your government to control these things you know, they have more important things to do: National security and the Economy (!)

The poor don’t come with engines and wheels; you can’t drive them like cars. Why should they get all the grains at dirt cheap prices, when biofuels bring in a decent profit and help turn the wheels?

Neither the UN nor the so-called global relief organizations seem to care about the plight of the world’s poor. So, once again, do the poor have human rights?

Related Links:

• We Need Food!
• Rome food protesters demand rethink (Video report)
• Human right to food denied in Haiti: Preliminary findings of the fact-finding mission

Buffet the Poor

Warren Buffet: World’s biggest moneybag [AND CO2 producer]

The United States is in a recession, one that will be longer and deeper than most people expect, said Warren Buffet, the world’s biggest moneybag.

“[T]he people are already feeling the effects,” said Buffet. “It will be deeper and last longer than many think.”

The world’s moneybags have only one goal in mind: To make more money than everyone else, despite the environmental and social consequences. “If the world were falling apart I’d still invest in companies,” Buffet said.

Warren Buffet listens to a question during a news conference in Madrid May 21, 2008. REUTERS/Andrea Comas. Image may be subject to copyright. See RTSF fair Use Notice!

Invariably, they blame someone else for the ills they create. Buffet, as usual, blamed the derivatives market.

“It’s not right that hundreds of thousands of jobs are being eliminated, that entire industrial sectors in the real economy are being wiped out by financial bets even though the sectors are actually in good health.”

Buffet bemoans the “lack of effective controls,” as if the system ever had any.

“That’s the problem,” he said. “You can’t steer it, you can’t regulate it anymore. You can’t get the genie back in the bottle.”

Thank you for Lesson One, economy 101, Mr “B,” and may you live long enough to witness the full scale of the environmental and social catastrophes, the impact of your lot’s casino economy on the world. May you live in interesting times!

Related Fact:

• Warren Buffet’s Net Worth: $62.0billion [Warren Buffet produced at least 30.628MMT of CO2 in 2007]
• Combined Net Worth of World’s Richest 100 : $1,725 billion
• No. of World’s Billionaires : 1,125
• Combined Net Worth of World’s Billionaires : $4,384 billion (source)
• No. of people who live on less than $2 per day: About 4 billion (Source)

Related Links:

• Buffet the Climate!
• If the world were falling apart!

• Emerging Food Crisis
• Food Riots Grip Egypt, Haiti, El Salvador
• Where Is All the Money?
• Out of Control: War Costs May Total $2.4 Trillion
• The Death of Homo Sapiens Sapiens (Part 1)

• World Poverty Index
• Poverty Index
• State of Our World

• Part 4. Exponential Growth Economy and Oil
• Food: Worse times ahead
• China Under Siege
• Wal-Mart, the Panther Chameleon and Josef Fritzl
• Nature: An NPO

buffy