Prices going up, China threatens war, but hey, it's party time

 big family reunion at the wedding of one of our cousins. Joy will pick up two of Robin's kids Friday, and some of the other relatives are here already. They will be married at our local church and then have a big party at a local venue.

I visited some of them today but will probably skip the wedding: I am getting stronger (hey, I made it through mass on Sunday) but not up to the party.

Is it post Dengue syndrome or old age? since I am recovering slowly I suspect it is the former.

In the meanwhile, there might be a rice problem here: kuya will be replanting the fields next week if the fields dry out a bit. (no typhoon in the forcast so only monsoon rains to cope with).

A lot of areas are having the same problems, so the price of rice is going up.

this will continue until the harvest in the fall. To make things worse, some countries are limiting rice exports (e.g. India)

While traders expected the mid-October harvest season in the region to boost local supply, rice prices would not likely go down because of existing rice export restrictions from India that have been keeping up the rice prices coming from Vietnam, a major source of rice imported to the Philippines, said Bacus. 

Diesel is going up (used for farm machinery, drying, milling, and transporting rice to market) meaning that the price of rice will go up for consumers and our profit margin will shrink. 

El Niño and the damage left by Typhoon #EgayPH have become a key concern of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. who said the Philippines would have to import rice again. Read this story by @AdrianINQ to know more. #INQFocus https://t.co/bo2Zgf9NgG

— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) August 7, 2023

Sigh.

and in the meanwhile, China is increasing their aggression against the Philippines in the west Philippine sea.

With the US showing weakness, and China having internal problems with floods and corruption, will they decide to pull a wag the dog scenerio? 

The #CCP has declared a “people’s war” war on #America—a declaration with great significance in #China—so we should acknowledge the situation and declare that regime to be our “enemy.” This determination would, among other things, facilitate application of our treason statute.

— Gordon G. Chang (@GordonGChang) August 6, 2023