Amazon.com Widgets

Thursday, April 10, 2008

In PJ Media, "Sandmonkey" describes recent riots in Egypt:

It all started two days ago, when a nationwide strike was called by a number of political parties and worker movements to protest their low income, the skyrocketing cost of living, and the open corruption and blatant nepotism of the Egyptian government. All eyes that day were on Mahalla, which was supposed to kick-start the strike by having its 30,000 textile factory workers go to the factory and stage a sit-in. The security forces in charge immediately rounded up the strike leaders, pressuring some of the weaker ones to accept a compromise. They also arrested and isolated every other strike organizer who wouldn't budge. The government forced the workers to work at the point of a gun, and announced that the strike was canceled. This rang true until the workers got off work and found their union leaders detained and arrested. They then started confronting the security forces, which lead to clashes that lasted till midnight that day and led to two casualties and some 95 arrests.

Egypt_food
[* photos from added by .ed]

The following day, yesterday, around 2,000 demonstrators demonstrated peacefully in front of the police station, demanding the release of their detained co-workers, relatives, and friends. The Egyptian police responded by shooting rubber bullets and tear gas at the demonstrators, and attacking them physically. When word of this reached the demonstrators' family members and friends, they responded by taking to the streets and attacking the security forces wherever they could find them. The people threw rocks at the security forces, destroyed their cars, and tore down the pictures of Mubarak all over the city. The security forces continued shooting and arresting people, all the while sending plain-clothed police thugs to destroy stores and ransack schools. This was done in order to make it look like as if the people were destroying everything in their path and had to be cracked down on and stopped. The death toll rose to 5 the second night (including a 12 year-old and a 15 year-old), while the arrest total rose to 195. Countless people were injured.

police_bash_truck
Egyptian police wrecking a truck

The news of what took place in Mahalla is now spreading all over Egypt, with the pictures of their stand against state forces circulating across the internet. There is a sense of dread among those who are following the news. They fear what will happen to those who dare revolt against the government and wonder whether or not the spirit of their revolt will survive the crackdown. There are also those who fear that the severity of the clampdown will frighten the people into complicity and discourage them from revolting again.

While you can find news about what's happening in Egypt, most media sources blame it on 'food riots' - and most media sources have no pictures of Egyptian police wrecking trucks.

Food riots seem to be happening around the world on a near-daily basis lately. Foreign Policy reports:

U.N. peacekeepers fired rubber bullets and tear gas at an angry mob that tried to storm the National Palace in the Hatian capital, Port-au-Prince today. Riots began in Haiti last Wednesday and five people have already been killed in the violence. According to Reuters, the price of rice has doubled over the last six months and Haiti's poor are growing desperate.

Here's a fairly alarming video of UN peacekeepers firing at apparently unarmed demonstrators

More on the Haitian protests:

"We are hungry! He must go!" protesters shouted as they tried to break into the presidential palace by charging its gates with a rolling dumpster. Moments later, Brazilian soldiers in blue U.N. helmets arrived on jeeps and assault vehicles, firing rubber bullets and tear gas canisters and forcing protesters away from the gates...

...The protesters also are demanding the departure of the 9,000 U.N. peacekeepers, whom they blame in part for rising food prices. The peacekeepers came to Haiti in 2004 to quell the chaos that followed the ouster of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

In this video, Haitian Prime Minister Alexis blamed "drug dealers" for manipulating the protests. He also says that "when they blame the UN for the high cost of living, the Haitian government does not pay the UN's budget." Apparently Haitians have been unhappy about the UN occupation of their country for some time.

An increase in the price of rice is causing unrest in Asia. In their 'food riot watch'.** Foreign policy notes that other riots worldwide have been sparked by shortages of palm oil.

The Chinese are buying up large supplies of palm oil. It's also being used as a biofuel.

Is the current demand for biofuels the source of the crisis? According to the "Socialist Worker", the problem is caused by a combination of "neo-liberalism", the falling dollar and ethanol-based speculation.

However, the Economic Times of India believes that we can have both food and fuel, if we improve agricultural productivity.

Although some of the same environmentalists who raised fears about global warming also strongly oppose genetically modified foods, these so-called frankenfoods could be part of the solution.

As we see in Egypt and in Haiti, the problems are more complicated than a food shortage. It's not clear what's causing the food shortages and higher prices, but the fact that food riots are occurring on a near-daily basis worldwide definitely deserves more attention than it's been getting.

** link thanks to Double Plus Ungood

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Search


Archives
[an error occurred while processing this directive] [an error occurred while processing this directive]