Clashes Rise in Tunisia as Protesters Are Tear-Gassed and Thousands Demand Resignation of President

Tunisia. Where dat? What does this mean to anybody? Peacenik's google alerts about food shortages are swamping Peacenik's inbox. What kind of match will it take to get food riots going in your neighbourhood. The cost of food is already skyrocketing. Unemployment is very high. Homelessness is growing. If you were sitting under some overpass, cold, hungry, with no money and no access to food, do you think you might be motivated to protest. Riots are like viruses. They are infectious. They can sweep across the globe in an eye blink. You think North America is immune? Peacenik doesn't.

Police have fired tear gas at protesters outside the interior ministry in the Tunisian capital, Tunis, activists say.

Protesters chant slogans against President Zine El Abidine Ben Aliin during a demonstration in Tunis, Friday, Jan. 14, 2011. Thousands of angry demonstrators marched through Tunisia's capital Friday, demanding the resignation of the country's autocratic leader a day after he appeared on TV to try to stop deadly riots that have swept the North African nation. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

"We heard shots, I believe they were shooting in the air but for sure they were shooting [tear] gas bombs, and they are trying to disperse and spread people," Youssef Gaigi, an activist at the scene, told Al Jazeera.

"There were some clashes, police on their bikes and cars hitting people. Things quickly changed. Before, this morning things were totally peaceful, we had people from all social classes, we had people from everywhere come here to Tunis and now they just decided to use violence."

The protesters are seeking the immediate resignation of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the president, and are refusing to disperse until he steps down.

Read on...

Household Dry Food Storage Guide

Posted by Jason Bradford on January 21, 2009

Given that I may have frightened some readers (and validated others) with my post on Scenario 2020 about a breakdown in the "Just-in-Time" delivery system, I thought it would be kind to talk a bit about preparation for transportation hiccups, specifically regarding food supplies.

This is a brief guide on how to estimate the amounts of staple, calorie dense, foods to be stored at a household scale. People choose to store food for a number of reasons, including being prepared for an emergency situation and saving money. Knowing some basic facts about human needs and the nutrient density of different kinds of food can help a family create a food buffer. However, people consume a great variety of food, and so planning for a household also requires accounting for special dietary needs and preferences.

Read on...

Since Peacenik has been recommending stocking up on groceries Peacenik thought it would be a good idea to share this food storage guide.

Moscow Grocery Shelves Increasingly Empty

For a generation of Russians who queued daily in the snow for the most basic of staples, the symbolism of a bare supermarket shelf is so powerful that it could potentially destroy the reputation of Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, as saviour of the world's largest country.

The shortages are not yet widespread. Even so, goods have begun to vanish from dozens of Moscow supermarkets over the past fortnight.

At a branch of the supermarket chain Samokhval in southwestern Moscow, a handful of shoppers pushed their trolleys through empty rows of shelves that once groaned under the weight of imported wares.

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Peacenik got this story from his "empty grocery shelves" google alert. These alerts make Peacenik increasingly nervous. Peacnik expects to track the geographic distribution of these alerts in the days ahead. Peacenik expects to track the alerts right around the world, right to Peacenik's corner store. Have you been to a grocery store today?

Scenario 2020: The Future of Food in Mendocino County

Posted by Jason Bradford on January 5, 2009 - 9:27am

Why weren’t the trucks running? I’ll give a quick overview of what led up to the Little Death.

Let’s start with the credit market break down in 2008. What followed was a plunge in the volume and reliability of global trade. Without access to the free flow of credit, countries experienced food and fuel shortages. People began rioting.

We saw how developing countries were in profound crisis, but most of us didn’t imagine how those awful scenes would so quickly be in our own neighborhoods too.

Everyone knows the story…Pakistan devolved into anarchy and was unable to keep all of its nuclear weapons secure. Several went missing and the world didn't find out where they went until it was too late.

South-Central Asia and the Middle East were on fire.

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Peacenik likes reading futuristic scenarios. This one by Jason Bradford highlights what will happen to food supplies in the event of oil shortages. Peacenik's Google Alert for empty grocery shelves continues to alert but not alarm. Is it worth stockpiling food if looters loot? Is it worth stockpiling if everyone has to redistribute their food? Is hoarding bad? When the grocery shelves do empty, where do you want to be? Peacenik thinks Guelph, with a large Amish community nearby, is a good place to be. Peacenik's solar flashlight is fully charged.

Supermarkets' emergency plans to keep shelves full

• Retailers fear collapse of lines of supply
• Bailiffs prepare for busiest Christmas as shops go under

Zoe Wood, retail correspondent

Fears that scores of supermarket suppliers will go bust next year have led the country's major chains to draw up emergency plans to replace them, The Observer can reveal.
Separately, on the high street, bailiffs are getting ready for their busiest Christmas ever, with a slew of retailers expected to go into administration.

Supermarket chain Asda, led by Andy Bond, is working on 'worst-case scenarios' across the board - combing its supplier base and examining alternatives to them. 'Suppliers are under a lot of pressure and there will be casualties,' said a senior executive at another store chain, which has already stepped in to pay troubled suppliers ahead of schedule. 'We need each other, it is not a zero-sum game.'

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This is the article that panicked Peacenik yesterday into setting up a Google Alert. Peacenik has to confess that Peacenik's search strategy yesterday may have been too precise. Peacenik has received no alerts since yesterday. After re-reading this article Peacenik is going to add another alert: +food +shortages. Again Peacenik will share the results of Peacenik's early warning system with Punditman readers. But Peacenik is not in a state of total panic. Peacenik has not purchased a portable water filtration system yet. Peacenik has however gotten a few bags of rice.

Change You Won't Believe

by Jim Kunstler

The peak oil story has not been nullified by the scramble to unload every asset for cash -- including whomping gobs of oil contracts -- during this desperate season of bank liquidation. The main implication of the peak oil story is that we won't be able to generate the kind of economic growth that defined our way of life for decades because the primary energy resources needed for it will be contracting.

Just as global oil production peaked, our economy evolved into a morbid hypertrophy, and the chief manifestation of it was the suburban sprawl-building fiesta that has now climaxed in the real estate bust. By the early 21st century, when so much American manufacturing had been swapped out to Asia, there was no business left except sprawl-building -- a manifold tragedy which wrecked the banks that financed it, and left the ordinary people mortgaged to it with ruinous liabilities.

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Peacenik has mentioned in the past that Peacenik is concerned about shortages at the grocery stores and beer stores. This raises the question about how one should try to prepare for sudden shortages. Will there be warning signs? Will there be alarms? Should Peacenik start preparing for shortages now? When is it too late? Quite independent of Peacenik's concern, are weekend reports of shortages, unrelated to bankruptcy, in a food store in Florida. Major food suppliers in the U.K. are about to go bankrupt. Kunstler and Ilargi both mention the probability of food shortages in the near future.

Peacenik will share his strategy. Peacenik set up a Google Alert for +"grocery shelves" +empty. Decide what your comfort level is. If this search returns a couple of alerts a week, all is probably well. If the search starts returning 10 or 20 alerts a week, it is time to head for the grocery store. Peacenik will see you there in the bulk food department.