Hunger is coming. and it will make the covid crisis look like child's play.
Dr. C actually has a video about it: Like myself, he has worked public health in poor countries and knows the relationship between hunger/ malnutrition and health.
What happens in the Ukraine will affect the world's ability to feed itself (that wheat goes to much of the Middle East, and has done so for over two milleneum). And then there is the potash/ fertilizer problem. And of course, Russia supplies LPG for much of Europe, who, thanks to green policies, shut down their own nuclear and coal plants, and stopped fracking or pumping to use their own petroleum resources.
The reporting about the war in the Ukraine is full of propaganda and rah rah rah by folks who up to two years ago were anti war.
But even (ex banker/writer) Spengler notes it was an un necessary war. link
voting would have allowed a peaceful separation from the Ukraine, and Russia could have gotten back the areas that were never part of the Ukraine.
and now that the adverse effects are finally being seen by the world, we see Kissinger and now Biden saying huh maybe we should make peace.
Yup that sounds about right.
but will they settle it before Turkey and Egypt have a food crisis?
for us here in Asia, the problem is that another pull back/war failure by Biden will be seen as weakness by China, who will probably move on Taiwan (although the perception of a Russian victory might stop them from claiming Siberia for a couple of years).
This will of course affect the Philippines.
But right now the problem is our economy: unemployment, inflation, the lack of fertilizer (and what is available is much more expensive... even organic fertilizer prices have skyrocketed) and of course there has been a huge increase in the price of petroleum products.
Let me fill you in on what is happening in our rural area, which is one of the major rice growing areas here.
We are preparing the fields to plant the rice crop, and money is short.
We grow organic rice and sell it under our our product name, but with the problem of shipping it to Manila during the epidemic, we also planted some regular rice and sold it to a rice dealer to insure we had some income.
In the past, she was reliable, but for the last (winter crop) harvest, her check bounced, so we are left without about one third of our income from last year.
The rice business is complicated because the Philippines is not self sufficient in rice and imports a lot: and alas a lot of what is imported is cheaper than what the local farmers grow, so local farmers can't make ends meet.
The same problem occurs with onions, which are a big crop in our area,
and we also ran into problems when we raised broiler chieckens: imported chicken was cheaper, so we barely made ends meet, so when a typhoon destroyed our chicken houses a few years ago, we simply didn't rebuild them.
in other words, globalization hurts us, and it doesn't help that some businessmen/politicians can make a lot of profit importing cheap stuff that destroys local industry and farms.
Sigh.
We are preparing the fields for the next rice crop: and since much of our product (i.e. the organic rice) is subcontracted to local farmers, that means we lend them our handplows and/or fix what they have, and also lend them money to buy diesel to run the farm equipment.
The problem: Diesel, gasoline, and LPG prices have gone up, meaning the farm machinery will be more expensive to run, and although usually the rain is sufficient for the summer crop, if irrigation is needed, they will have to buy diesel to run the pumps.
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| https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/Philippines/diesel_prices/ |
then there is basic problems of transportation. No, not gas guzzling SUVs but farm trucks and tricycles.
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| - daily overload.. |
Locals in our area usually go around with motorcycles with side cars: aka Tricycles. For longer trips, they use buses and jeepneys. And so when the price of petroleum products go up, so does the cost of commuting to work, school. shopping, etc.
and for cooking, most people use LPG (aka propane) gas, and that price has gone up from 580 to almost 900 pesos for about a month supply. Electric rates have also gone up.
So you can see that inflation is hurting folks, and unless the economy starts up (including jobs for overseas workers) there will be problems.
Which is one reason that BongBong Marcos won: because his opponant was echoing the green agenda and the sexual policies pushed by the Yankees. And the stupid Catholic bishops here backed her: they are so busy worshipping Pope Francis'and his green agenda they don't see how this policy will push millions of working class folk back into poverty.
Shit, the bishops even told people not to invest in fossil fuels because global warming. Never mind that this merely means the prices of (imported) petroleum products will go up, and the poor will suffer. And of course, China will happily take over our petroleum resources in the West Philippine sea (although I suspect Bong Bong will make them allow us to keep a pittance of the profit).
Sigh.
in the meanwhile, while the press was full of the latest criminal mass murder and the kerfuffle of two narcissistic movie stars suing each other, Davos man is planning to take us over.
ZeroHedge, which many call a conspiracy site, has a summary of what is being said there.
and they are not then only ones who notice that these unelected elites plan to tell us how to live.
hmm... is it fake news to actually quote what these bozos say?
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