FOOD RIOTS

OUR PREDICTIONS HAVE ALREADY COME TRUE……

The first food riots since the 2007-08 crisis have left seven people dead and at least 280 injured in Maputo, the Mozambican government said on Thursday. The unrest in the Mozambican capital followed the government’s decision to raise bread prices by 30 per cent. Protine foods have reached a record 20 year high price which places the basics beyond the billions in poverty to acquire. They are now beginning to starve from the recession at historic record levels of death. If you don’t have FOOD you move to TAKE IT. The move to TAKE is growing now as starvation reaches out nation to nation. The food contagion is an emergency of human proportions never seen, as to numbers, and the lack of compassion to resolve the issues at the emergency level. The smallest percentage of the world goes to rent DVD’s and buy a head of lettuce, while 1000 to one starve to death while the others watch Avitar. There has to be a BETTER way in cooperation to the mess of competitive capitalism? Read SHOCK DOCTRIN by Naomi Klein to learn more.

The riots have prompted concerns that food protests could spread across poor African countries that rely heavily on agricultural commodities imports. Discontent about rising prices for staples has already emerged in countries from Egypt to South Africa.

.Meat price surge fuels fears of food inflation – Sep-01.La Niña gathers herself to upset crop prices – Aug-16.Wheat price raises fear of food crisis – Aug-05.Fire ‘beast’ roams Russian forests – Aug-05..“Bread is the key item in the basket for ordinary people,” said Adriano Nuvunga, a political analyst in Maputo.

“People are worried that the rising costs have reached the point of no return.” Further violence in Maputo was possible, he said.

The 2007-08 food crisis, when the cost of agricultural commodities such as corn and rice hit a record high, sparked riots across scores of developing countries, particularly in Africa, from Egypt to Senegal.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s food index last month reached a two-year high on the back of rising cereal, sugar and meat prices, up almost 16 per cent since last year.

High food prices have been a key factor behind the calls by South African public sector unions for a large wage increase, which led to a strike this month.

Although official consumer price inflation for the year to June was only 4.2 per cent, food prices have been rising much more rapidly, said Sizwe Pamla of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union in South Africa.

“Look at Mozambique – we are sitting on a potential timebomb,” he said. “Too many workers are living from hand to mouth; the costs for poor people are skyrocketing.”

Across North Africa, newspapers have also carried reports of rising anger about food prices. The region relies heavily on wheat imports from Russia, which on Thursday extended an export ban on grains by 12 months to the end of next year.

The protest in Mozambique was aggravated by a rise of more than 10 per cent in the cost of both water and electricity.

Furthermore, petrol prices have gone up three times in two months in many African countries, pushing up the cost of transportation.

Mozambique’s gross domestic product increased by 7.2 per cent in the first half of this year, making it one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies. But that has done little to relieve the poverty of many of its people, analysts said.

Jakkie Cillers, director of South Africa’s Institute of Security Studies, said the growth has come mainly from a small number of large capital-intensive projects. “It has not translated into improvements in the life of ordinary Mozambicans,” he said. The average worker in the country was earning $37 (£19, €29) a month.

Mozambique was particularly vulnerable to violent protest because of the weakness of its civil society. “Avenues to express dissent are limited . . . it’s the result of the single-party post-liberation politics that we see in many African countries.”

CEO SPACE believes food riots like debt defaults will continue to spread. We also believe the recent “tiny” improvement in manufacturing output has no tie to demand as sales were not improved. Inventory depletion is not a sign of recovery when such depletion is being restored at levels not seen in years. Real growth….we’ll see. We’ll wait and see.

What do the seeds of a SUPER CRASH look like. Keep your eye on the ball folks.

Bernhard Dohrmann
Chairman

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