By Sam Aola Ooko •
June 16, 2008
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“Khotso, pula, nala.”
“Peace, rain, prosperity.”
When there is peace and rain people live happier because they will not be fighting; they will plough their fields and will have food. - African proverb.
Listening to Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni at any forum has never been boring. He can make his audiences jeer and laugh at the same time but not without drama at times. Museveni is both loved and hated by many because of his straight talking. But that is not to say he does so all the time.
One such time was at a recent Commonwealth leaders meeting in London where he happily laughed off the current global food crisis.
What seems good riddance for his small landlocked nation in east Africa has been boggling minds elsewhere and governments from Argentina to Senegal, from Egypt to South Africa, have grappled with riots of sorts over high prices of food. In Haiti, it cost the political life of a prime minister who had to vacate office for failing to soften the hunger pangs of his people.
By Levi Novey •
May 20, 2008
This past weekend, a major summit was held in Lima, Peru between leaders of European Union countries and also Latin American and Caribbean countries. Numerous agenda items were on the table, but the overall focuses of the meetings were upon the global food crisis, climate change, poverty, and potential trade agreements. Of course, what would an international summit be without some
- good, old-fashioned name-calling to put everyone on edge before hand
- a President attending a “rival summit” and taking time to go play some football! (Soccer for Americans.)
- and an uninspiring finish where seemingly little got accomplished, but yet we can hold onto hope because there are plans to keep the conversation going.
By Beth Bader •
April 15, 2008
© Patrick Laverdant | Dreamstime.com
Consumers in the United States struggle with prices rising as much as forty percent for grains and twenty-five percent for eggs, eighty percent for dairy and double-digit increases for other staples. The situation has led to a record number of individuals seeking assistance from food banks nationwide. Globally, however, the crisis has taken on life and death consequences.
As prices have risen, fifty and even three hundred percent in areas like Sierra Leone, these areas have experienced food riots. The growing lists of nations that have had food price protests and riots in the last six months includes Mexico, Haiti, Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Cameroon, Yemen, Indonesia, Uzbekistan and Pakistan.
The situation resulted from what some experts call “a perfect storm” of factors combined; oil prices, the use of farmland for ethanol instead of food, Australia’s drought, crop disease, climate change, U.S. economy, and the growth of a more meat-intensive diet worldwide.
