Fresh Protests Erupt in Egypt

Last week Peacenik suggested that the protests sweeping across North Africa just might inspire some protests in North America. But it is very difficult to sweep Charlie Sheen off the front pages. And did you know that Jeff Goldblum is dating Patty Hearst's 26 year old daughter. Where oh where is the Symbionese Liberation Army? But the rioting in North Africa must mean something. Peacenik doesn't think it is about freedom. Any African regimes that topple will probably be replaced by equally corrupt and authoritarian regimes. Peacenik senses a whiff of anarchy in the air. Just good old simple rioting. For the sake of rioting. And Peacenik has been googling "how to prepare for arnarchy." You know, Charlie Sheen seems to be a bit of an anarchist. Is Charlie's behaviour the beginning of something else? Is Jeff Goldblum's? Has it started? The breakdown of society? Is North America already further gone than Egypt but we just don't recognize it? Peacenik is going to read People Magazine. Maybe you should too.

Thousands stream out of mosques to protest against President Mubarak's 30-year rule, defying a government crackdown.

Protests have erupted in cities across Egypt following Friday midday prayers, with angry demonstrators demanding an end to Hosni Mubarak's 30-year presidency. Tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets across the country, witnesses have said.

An Egyptian woman flees as Egyptian anti-riot policemen clash with protesters in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 28, 2011. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh, reporting from the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, said protesters streamed out of mosques shortly after prayers to chant slogans against Mubarak. Police responded immediately, firing tear gas to disperse the crowd.
Alexandria is a stronghold of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's technically banned but largest political opposition group, but Rageh said the crowds in the city predominantly consisted of "ordinary citizens".
"This is the same mosque where protests were held against police brutality in June after a 20-year-old man was beaten to death by police," she said. "It's very symbolic that the current protests are taking place at the same place all over again."
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Food Riots 2011

Garth Turner, in his blog www.greaterfool.ca, recommended that Peacenik stop reading doomer sites. Peacenik tried. But Peacenik's computer is infected with doomer links, google alerts, and Peacenik failed. Which brought Peacenik to this site. For two generations North American's have never really had to contend with shortages, other than of mood rings, and Wii games. But now there is a very real possibility that there will be food shortages. Nothing gets Peacenik's dander up quicker than being hungry or thirsty. 41 million people in the U.S. are on food stamps. When that number hits 44 million watch out. In Canada there is unprecedented demand from food banks. Will hunger be the black swan event that gets North American's off their arses? War hasn't. Bankruptcy hasn't. Unemployment hasn't. Racism hasn't. Will hunger?

The stunningly violent food riots in Tunisia and Algeria show just how quickly things can change. Just a few months ago, these two northern Africa nations were considered to be very stable, very peaceful and without any major problems. But now protesters are openly squaring off with police in the streets. Many of the protesters are throwing "fire bombs" or are shooting fireworks at the authorities, and the police are responding with a tremendous amount of violence themselves. In Algeria, several protesters have been killed by police and several others have actually set themselves on fire to protest the economic conditions. In Tunisia, more than 100 people have been killed and the president of that country actually had to flee for his life. But on a global scale, food shortages have not even gotten that bad yet. Yes, food prices are starting to go up and food supplies are a little bit tighter right now, but much worse times than these are coming. So what in the world are the cities of the world going to look like when we have a very serious food shortage? Just as we saw during the food riots of 2008, when people get to the point where they can't even feed themselves anymore, they tend to lose it. In the video posted below, you can really feel the desperation of these young Algerians as they riot in the streets...

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African Food Riots Spread To Persian Gulf As Oman Is Next; Adverse Implications For Oil Prices?

Is the world order unraveling? Had the fuse to world chaos been lit, as Peacenik speculated occurred in Tunisia last week? The world has now seen riots and self-immolations in Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Yemen and Egypt. And don't forget the riots in Greece and France. And the riots in England where his Royal Highness Prince Charles was almost assaulted over the rise in tuition costs. And with so much corn going into ethanol production, Mexico will probably soon see some very angry actors. Hungry, angry actors. And now Oman. And witness the speed with which these old sclerotic tyrannys fall. Prices continue to go up. Shortages are inevitable. Peacenik is cultivating Peaceniks' links to the Amish community. What are you doing?


While deadly protests in Africa have been largely ignored, because, well, they are in Africa, and they don't even have iPads there and Kindle WhisperNet coverage is spotty if any, the world may be forced to start paying just a little more attention as food riots get ever closer to the center of the oil extraction infrastructure in the Persian Gulf. From BBC Monitoring, which discusses the latest outbreak of protests sweeping Oman "Most participants in the protest were reluctant to be quoted as they were government employees. However, some said they protested against low salaries and soaring prices." Luckily, for now the protest is still peaceful. The thing about hunger is that it doesn't go away if you ignore it. And as Oman borders the UAE, all it takes is for the riots to jump one more border and then it gets interesting. And to all those observent enough to note that soaring prices continue to occur in countries with "growing unemployment" i.e., economic slack, and wonder how this is possible, after all the Fed said record slack can never lead to inflation, don't worry - you are certainly not alone.

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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.

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The Morality of the Stomach

Food Riots are Coming to the U.S.
www.counterpunch.org

By BINOY KAMPMARK

"I don’t want to alarm anybody, but maybe it’s time for Americans to start stockpiling food. No this is not a drill."

--Brett Arends

There is a time for food, and a time for ethical appraisals. This was the case even before Bertolt Brecht gave life to that expression in Die Driegroschen Oper. The time for a reasoned, coherent understanding for the growing food crisis is not just overdue, but seemingly past. Robert Zoellick of the World Bank, an organization often dedicated to flouting, rather than achieving its claimed goal of poverty reduction, stated the problem in Davos in January this year. ‘Hunger and malnutrition are the forgotten Millennium Development Goal.’

Global food prices have gone through the roof, terrifying the 3 billion or so people who live off less than $2 a day. This should terrify everybody else. In November, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization reported that food prices had suffered a 18 percent inflation in China, 13 percent in Indonesia and Pakistan, and 10 percent or more in Latin America, Russia and India. The devil in the detail is even more distressing: a doubling in the price of wheat, a twenty percent increase in the price of rice, an increase by half in maize prices.

Finger pointing is not always instructive. In this case, it may be. The US and various European countries are moving food crops into the bio-fuel business, itself an environmentally unsound business. This, in addition to encouraging developing countries to not merely ‘liberalize’ their agricultural sectors, but specialize in exporting specific cash crops (cotton, cocoa), has done wonders to precipitate the shortages. Consumption in developing economies, added to the vicissitudes of climate change, water availability, and rising fertilizer costs, are others.

Political stability is being undermined. Food shortages are proving endemic. Food riots are becoming common. Riots have been sparked in Cameroon, Egypt, Burkina Faso, Uzbekistan and Yemen. There have been riots over spiraling grain prices in Mauritania and Senegal. In Mexico City, mass protests were sparked by a price hike in tortillas. In Haiti, biscuits are being made from a mud compound. The Somali capital Mogadishu bore witness to the deaths of five people.

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punditman says...As the article points out, US Secretary of State Condi Rice, being a free-market fundamentalist fool, blames export caps from India and China. You see, in a radical move beyond her blinkered neo-con comprehension, these countries know that it may actually be important to feed their own populations first in times of crisis. This makes sense for any self-preserving government; a hungry population can become a very angry population, very quickly. She'd be wise to abide by this maxim (although I'm all but convinced that the Bush administration has sent the United States on several simultaneous suicide missions--wrecking the economy being just one of many).