Tuesday, April 29, 2008

FOOD CRISIS: ‘The greatest demonstration of the historical failure of the capitalist model’

By Ian Angus

“If the government cannot lower the cost of living it simply has to leave. If the police and UN troops want to shoot at us, that’s OK, because in the end, if we are not killed by bullets, we’ll die of hunger.” — A demonstrator in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

In Haiti, where most people get 22% fewer calories than the minimum needed for good health, some are staving off their hunger pangs by eating “mud biscuits” made by mixing clay and water with a bit of vegetable oil and salt.[1]

Meanwhile, in Canada, the federal government is currently paying $225 for each pig killed in a mass cull of breeding swine, as part of a plan to reduce hog production. Hog farmers, squeezed by low hog prices and high feed costs, have responded so enthusiastically that the kill will likely use up all the allocated funds before the program ends in September.

Some of the slaughtered hogs may be given to local Food Banks, but most will be destroyed or made into pet food. None will go to Haiti.

This is the brutal world of capitalist agriculture — a world where some people destroy food because prices are too low, and others literally eat dirt because food prices are too high.

Record prices for staple foods

We are in the midst of an unprecedented worldwide food price inflation that has driven prices to their highest levels in decades. The increases affect most kinds of food, but in particular the most important staples — wheat, corn, and rice.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization says that between March 2007 and March 2008 prices of cereals increased 88%, oils and fats 106%, and dairy 48%. The FAO food price index as a whole rose 57% in one year — and most of the increase occurred in the past few months.

Another source, the World Bank, says that that in the 36 months ending February 2008, global wheat prices rose 181% and overall global food prices increased by 83%. The Bank expects most food prices to remain well above 2004 levels until at least 2015.

The most popular grade of Thailand rice sold for $198 a tonne five years ago and $323 a tonne a year ago. On April 24, the price hit $1,000.

Increases are even greater on local markets — in Haiti, the market price of a 50 kilo bag of rice doubled in one week at the end of March.

These increases are catastrophic for the 2.6 billion people around the world who live on less than US$2 a day and spend 60% to 80% of their incomes on food. Hundreds of millions cannot afford to eat.

This month, the hungry fought back.

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Friday, April 25, 2008

China Tops US for Internet Population Lead

Steven Schwankert, IDG News Service


China has proclaimed itself the world's largest Internet market, with 221 million Internet users, state media reported Thursday.

The Ministry of Information Industry (MII) cited statistics from the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC), a quasi-government organization that reports to the MII. China reached the magic mark at the end of February, English-language newspaper China Daily reported. In March, Beijing-based telecommunications consultancy and research firm BDA China reported that China had overtaken the U.S. in total Internet users.


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Sunday, April 20, 2008

The Politics of History and LGU Websites

While the Bicol Region is rich in culture, it is also poor in written history. The last written account was about some events of the second World War. After which, quoting Norman Owen, “Bikol history virtually came to an end”.

It cannot be said, though, that the Bicol Region became too drowsy during the American occupation until it finally closed its eyes and slept after World War II. As a matter of fact, the Bicolanos were as politically active during the post-Japanese liberation era as they were during the Spanish and American periods. Oral accounts say that from 1945, Bicolanos started to be more cohesive that they were noted to vote as a bloc in the national legislative bodies. This behavior were also seen and felt culturally that Region V was referred to by the Bicolanos not as a region but as a province. For instance, whenever a Bicolano is asked as to his province of origin, his answer would always be “Bicol” and not Camarines Sur, nor Albay, nor Catanduanes, etc. Even today, this remains the most common answer.

But despite this cohesiveness, how come nobody thought of “waking up in the night” and writing some sort of a Bikolano history? Or shall we say: Somebody did wake up, wrote a diary, but a modern day Spanish conquistador took over a political fiefdom called “the local government unit or LGU” and burned his diary to ashes?

Looking at the case of the LGU websites, there is more evidence to believe that nobody slept, afterall. It’s just that politics came to play and erased or buried into oblivion the traces of the accomplishments of the previous politicians. A survey of Bicol-based LGU websites show, for instance, that only the incumbents and their accomplishments are recorded as if they have the exclusive right to the domain name (the name of the site) as well as the host (i.e., the server where the data and everything about the site is housed). This is forgiveable if the site was set-up only during their incumbency or when the new local chief executive caused the purchase of space for hosting thus necessitating the revamp of the site to comply with the hosting requirements. The problem, 90-percent of LGU websites were constructed either in 2001 or 2002 and with the help of the National Computer Center (NCC). This means, if the polity is active in replacing their officials, at least two or three mayors already took over the city or municipal government.

In addition to the fact that almost all websites were constructed with the help of the NCC, the “dot-gov-dot-ph” domain name, as well as the hosting site, were also availed of from the said national computer agency. And these were done through the mayors during the 2001-2002 period. In a sense, there is no reason why records of the mayors during those times should be erased.

Well, Count Galeazzo Ciano may be right in saying that “victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan”. Mayors who lost their posts either through elections or term limits are losers and as such, they deserve what is due. But the problem here is not only the lack of giving credit where credit is due but also the lack of having a sense of history for the immediately preceeding period. For this reason, newly elected politicians tend to re-invent the wheel. Instead of realizing the un-finished agenda of the past administrations, newly elected politicians tend to develop new programs, start with new projects and after three years, finish their terms without having any accomplishments. And then they complain that three years is not enough. If they lost their bids for re-election, the cycle begins again.

Worse, the lack of a sense of history also has an effect to the younger generations. For example, in a mock poll conducted asking who the governor of Albay was prior to Al Francis Bichara, only two out of ten can give the corret answer. And moving backwards from Romeo Salalima, a historical blackhole appears. Even the websites do not contain information regarding this. Not even any data about Jose Maria Penaranda to whom the bust and the Freedom Park in the Albay District is dedicated.

So what then is the use of the LGU websites? Nothing but for the publication of the propaganda materials of the incumbents. And when these incumbents lost his or her grip of political power, so goes the memory regarding his accomplishments. For this reason, it is not impossible to expect that the written history of the Bicol Region will remain as elusive as before.###


(A version of this article will appear in the newspaper, Albay Journal. This article may also be accessed at http://biklish.wordpress.com)

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Thursday, April 17, 2008

The Price of Rice Protectionism

The global price of rice is soaring, and for the Philippines – the world's largest importer of rice annually – that's bad news. Food queues and fears of riots are real fears. But this is a problem of Manila's own making.

Alone among World Trade Organization member nations, the Philippines imposes quantitative restrictions on rice imports, implemented by a government monopoly. Since the 1970s, the state-owned and controlled National Food Authority (NFA) has maintained tight controls on rice imports. This policy has stood in sharp contrast to other countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Bangladesh, which have abolished, privatized or sharply reduced the authority and scale of their food monopolies – and enjoyed more efficient production and cheaper consumer prices.

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Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Philippines: Addressing the Food Security Issue

When Filipino-born Eduardo San Juan developed the design for the lunar rover of Apollo 15, he was the one who got paid. But when the Philippines helped design the technology for producing rice, the Filipinos are the ones who have to pay a larger price. No, the problem is not with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) for the organization had been very supportive in helping develop and further improve the varieties of the country's staple food. The problem lies with the Philippine government for it wasted all the opportunities that could have made the lives of millions of Filipinos a lot easier.

Once again, the Philippines is on the brink of a looming crisis: Hunger. Sitting president Gloria Arroyo, however, denies this but food rationing – to the point of using indelible inks just to ensure that rice is distributed or sold fairly – cannot tell a palatable lie. Even one of her agriculture spokesmen admits the reality of the impending food shortage and adds that rice sufficiency will only be at 92% this year.

Or maybe, Mrs. Arroyo would just like to be consistent with her Orwellian talks. While she assures the public that there is no shortage, she exhorts of conserving rice. While she talks of a rice supply that is enough, she discusses with foreign countries the possibility of exporting the staple food to the Philippines. And while she prides with rice stocks, she unveils her plans of lifting the rice import quota as well as opening up of the ports for more and more rice importation. And these she does at the time when the people are already feeling the burden of increased prices of rice due to limited supply.

But worse than the Orwellian talks is Mrs. Arroyo's announcement of a multi-billion-peso plan to improve the agriculture sector to solve the impending food security issue – a plan which raises brows and draws wrinkles in the foreheads as it involves a large amount of money amounting from P36 billion to P49 billion. In the first place, what had happened to the Jocjoc Bolante “liquified” fertilizer scandal? The NBN-ZTE multi-million dollar scandal? And, lately, the Quedancor grand swine scandal? To add the list, rumors are also circulating lately that the Philippine Coconut Authority has misappropriated the salt fertilizer fund supposedly to be distributed to the coconuts farmers. Another billion-peso scandal?

More than the fiscal transparency issues, however, is the issue on the soundness of the multi-billion-peso agriculture plan. Based on the announcements of Mrs. Arroyo, the budget for the agricultural sector development will be mostly spent for fertilizer, irrigation and infrastructure, education and research, credits for farmers, and distribution of higher-yielding seeds. While these items may directly increase agricultural yield, the real problem confronting the agriculture sector, however, will remain un-addressed. And this problem is the lack of clear and concrete government policies protecting the farmlands, uplifting the farmers and improving their welfare. For example, until now there is no law that regulates as well as penalizes excessive conversion of agricultural lots to residential or commercial areas. The once famous Banaue Rice Terraces, for instance, is now rapidly becoming a housing terraces and nobody is doing anything to abate this. The lands along the Maharlika Highway from Daraga, Albay to Naga City, Camarines Sur are now rapidly turning from productive rice fields to commercial and residential areas. Similarly, the agricultural lands in Rizal, Bulacan, Cavite and Laguna are also being developed to accommodate more and more housing projects. These, in addition to a number of others, therefore leads to the questions: Where is the Comprehensive National Land Use Plan? And where are the provisions that will punish the perpetrators of illegal or irregular land conversions?

Second, the Philippines also lacks a law that uplifts the lives and reputation of the farmers. For this reason they seem to remain as lower class citizens – a treatment which is exactly the opposite of the treatment being given to the farmers in the United States and in most parts of Europe. Compared to the farmers, Filipino overseas contract workers or popularly known as OFWs are a little luckier. At least there are a number of agencies that help them: the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, the Department of Foreign Affairs, and the Philippine embassies around the world. In addition, whenever OFWs are on the point of death, they have Mrs. Arroyo or Vice President Noli De Castro begging for mercy. In fact, they are even considered as heroes inspite of the fact that they are plain and simple slaves in foreign lands. Is it because OFWs earn dollars while local farmers do not?

Third, there is also lesser attention given to rice smugglers which is one of the biggest dis-incentive for the farmers. The Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG), for instance, have even concentrated on running after smuggled cars rather than after rice smugglers. Imported rice, especially if smuggled, is far cheaper than what is locally produced. Hence, when the smuggled rice and that which is locally grown are sold in the market side by side, the buyers would logically prefer the smuggled one being cheaper. If the locally grown is left unsold, the farmers would therefore reconsider planting more in the succeeding planting seasons.

Of course, there is also minimal or no attention given to rice cartels and rice hoarders. Worse, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap and the Arroyo Government as a whole, are in complete denial as to the existence of these scrupulous groups and individuals. Hence, the impossibility of addressing the problem. As a principle in the field of medicine goes, a sickness cannot be cured if the physicians do not believe that it really exists.

Addressing the food security should not be a short but a long term concern. Realistically speaking, it cannot even be considered a sole concern of the government as it also involves the people and the whole State as a whole. But since the government is the one in-charged to do the steering, it should open its eyes and accept the realities of the situation. For instance, the problem is not all about money. It also involves transparency in managing the resources; proper discretion and knowledge in the passage and enaction of policies that eliminate, or at least minimize, the roots of the problem; and fair and dedicated implementation of the same. Otherwise, the problem will just be recursive, cyclical and never-ending. If this happens, the efforts undertaken and the resources utilized will again remain nothing but wasted opportunities.

(A version of this article also came out in the April 7, 2008 issue of the Albay Journal.

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Tuesday, April 8, 2008

India most affected by US economic slowdown

By Swati Prasad, ZDNet Asia

When the United States sneezes, the world catches a cold--so the adage goes. That could prove particularly true for India's IT and IT-enabled services (IT-ITES) industry, where the United States accounts for the largest share--at over 50 percent--of the Indian software and outsourcing market.

"The U.S. slowdown will impact the smaller IT-ITES firms more," Hari Rajagopalachari, executive director at PricewaterhouseCoopers India, told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail interview. In fact, he added, it may lead to increased consolidation in the small and midsize industry segment.

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