Mozambique -- Another "Lord of the Flies" Nation

Capitalistic democracies do not face food shortages or food riots. It's that simple. Nothing prevents Mozambique from becoming a breadbasket. The Zambezi River flows through part of the country, providing water for crops. Meanwhile the nation has abundant natural resources to exploit and trade on world markets.

The problems? Mozambique is a nation of children. The median age of the population is 17. Life expectancy is 41. AIDS is rampant. Over 12% of the population is infected. Literacy is low. Things are bad and probably getting worse.

The country is desperate for adult leadership.


Fears grow over global food supply

Published: September 2 2010

Two days of unrest in Maputo, Mozambique, left seven people dead and 280 injured after the government decided to raise bread prices by 30%

Wheat prices rose further on Friday in the wake of Russia’s decision to extend its grain export ban by 12 months, raising fears about a return to the food shortages and riots of 2007-08.

In Mozambique, where a 30 per cent rise in bread prices triggered riots on Wednesday and Thursday, the government said seven people had been killed and 288 wounded.

Vladimir Putin’s announcement on Thursday extended an export ban first introduced last month until late December 2011, sending wheat and other cereals prices to a near two-year high. It came as the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation called an emergency meeting to discuss the wheat shortage.

In Maputo, trade and industry minister Antonio Fernandes told a national radio station on Friday that the riots had caused 122m meticais ($3.3m) of damage. Police opened fire on demonstrators after thousands turned out to protest against the price hikes, burning tyres and looting food warehouses.

Although agricultural officials and traders insist that wheat and other crop supplies are more abundant than in 2007-08, officials fear the food riots could spread.

Wheat prices remained high on Friday morning. Futures in Chicago were up 1.5 per cent at $6.91 a bushel, while European wheat futures remained at historically high levels above €230 a tonne, just shy of last month’s two-year high of €236. Wheat prices have surged nearly 70 per cent since January, and analysts forecast further rises after Russia’s decision and concerns about weather damage to Australia’s crop.

The crop problems in Russia, which suffered its worst drought on record this summer, and elsewhere, have heaped pressure on US farmers to supply the world’s wheat. The US Department of Agriculture has increased its estimates for US wheat exports to $8bn for the current crop year.

The 2007-08 food shortages, the most severe in 30 years, set off riots in countries from Bangladesh to Mexico, and helped to trigger the collapse of governments in Haiti and Madagascar.

The FAO said that “the concern about a possible repeat of the 2007-08 food crisis” had resulted in “an enormous number” of inquiries from member countries. “The purpose of holding this meeting is for exporting and importing countries to engage.”

Russia is traditionally the world’s fourth-largest wheat exporter, and the export ban has already forced importers in the Middle East and North Africa, the biggest buyers, to seek supplies in Europe and the US.

Mr Putin said Moscow could “only consider lifting the export ban after next year’s crop has been harvested and we have clarity on the grain balances”. He added that the decision to extend the ban was intended to “end unnecessary anxiety and to ensure a stable and predict-able business environment for market participants”.

“This is quite serious,” said Abdolreza Abbassian, of the FAO in Rome. “Two years in a row without Russian exports creates quite a disturbance.” Dan Manternach, chief wheat economist at Doane Agricultural Services in St Louis, added: “This is a wake-up call for importing nations about the reliability of Russia.”

Jakkie Cilliers, director of South Africa’s Institute of Security Studies, said there was concern over a repeat of the protests of 2008: “That certainly strengthened a return of the military in politics in Africa.”

Don't Try This at Home

Oops. How surprised were the pirates when their bullets bounced harmlessly off the hull of the USS Nicholas? The price of ignorance can be high, especially when it involves the counterpunching force a US naval vessel can throw at a hapless attacker, like these pirates.

US Navy Captures Suspected Pirates Off African

AP NAIROBI, Kenya (April 1) -- The small gang of Somali pirates fired on an approaching ship, hoping their midnight attack would bring them millions in ransom. The ragtag bandits, though, had taken on far more than they could handle: a U.S. warship.

The USS Nicholas, a guided missile frigate, was tracking the pirates when they opened fire early Thursday in Indian Ocean waters, the U.S. military said. The Nicholas, which saw combat in the first Gulf War, returned fire and disabled the skiff.

Navy personnel later boarded and detained three suspects. The Americans found two more bandits on a nearby mothership and later sank the skiff.

The USS Nicholas came under fire from pirates Thursday in the Indian Ocean. The frigate disabled the pirates' boat and captured them. It was not the first attack against a Navy ship, but it underscored the fact that most pirates aren't terribly sophisticated, said Roger Middleton, a piracy expert at the British think tank Chatham House.

"If you think of the kind of young men who are doing this, they go out into the middle of the ocean in a tiny boat. They might not always make rational decisions, and they often attack things that are bigger than they should (attack)," said Middleton.

"It's also quite possible that they don't have a full understanding of the targets they are attacking. Perhaps they just see a big ship they think is a worth a lot of money," he said.

International naval forces have stepped up their enforcement of the waters off East Africa in an effort to thwart a growing pirate trade. Thursday's attack took place between the coast of Kenya and the island nation of Seychelles, said Navy Lt. Patrick Foughty, a spokesman.

Last May, pirates chased a U.S. Navy warship and fired small arms at it. The ship, which had recently served as a prison for captured pirates, increased speed and evaded the attack. French and Dutch naval ships also have been attacked by pirates.

Thursday's attack came just shy of a year since pirates attacked the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama and took American Richard Phillips hostage. Phillips was rescued five days later when Navy SEAL snipers shot three pirates in a lifeboat.

The U.S. Africa Command said the five pirates seized Thursday would remain in U.S. custody on board the frigate for now. The Nicholas is home-ported in Norfolk, Va.

Foughty, the Navy spokesman, said it wasn't yet clear what would be done with the pirate suspects. Doug Burnett, a maritime expert in the global law firm Squire, Sanders and Dempsey, said the five should be charged with piracy and tried in the United States.

"After all, attacking a Navy warship is a pretty obvious pirate cause of action. But the U.S. has not been consistent in trying pirates," he said. "The one for the Maersk Alabama is on trial in New York. But others have been let off or sent to Kenya for trial."

Experts say piracy will continue to be a problem until an effective government is established on Somalia's lawless shores. The country has not had a functioning government for 19 years.

Dictators Never Learn

What is it with Obama and the world's dictators? Is it news to him that dictators oppose democracy, freedom, capitalism, pluralism and general prosperity because those factors are bad for guys who are into oppressive domination of hapless populations?

Americans have the quaint idea that putting the bad kids in a class with good kids will result in some of the good rubbing off on the bad. Has this idea ever worked? Will the thugs running North Korea learn any lessons from South Korea and Japan? The Korean War ended 56 years ago. Will North Korea ever admit something's not working? Will the world ever concede that Dear Leader is a psychopath?

Meanwhile, what process usually brings a major overhaul to poor governmental practices? Lots of people like to claim War is Not the Answer. But history says it is. Moreover, history suggests that without gunfire, dictators will continue to dictate and oppress millions -- actually billions -- of unfortunate people. Furthermore, history shows that gunfire is a common element to regime change, that is, changing one dictator for another.

Therefore, if democracy, freedom, capitalism, pluralism and prosperity are to arrive, the gunfire has to come from those who believe in them. It's nothing but naive wishfulness to hope that Muslims in the middle east or thugs in Africa are going to embrace high-minded goals aimed at lifting billions out of misery and poverty. Sadly, Obama, as the following article shows, is willing to improve life for dictators

US President Barack Obama said Monday that the United States cannot impose its values on other countries, but argued that principles such as democracy and the rule of law were universal.
In an interview with the BBC ahead of a visit first to Saudi Arabia and Egypt and then Europe, Obama said the United States must lead by example -- which firstly meant closing the Guantanamo Bay detention camp on Cuba.

"The danger I think is when the United States or any country thinks that we can simply impose these values on another country with a different history and a different culture," the president told the broadcaster.

But he stressed: "Democracy, rule of law, freedom of speech, freedom of religion -- those are not simply principles of the West to be hoisted on these countries, but rather what I believe to be universal principles that they can embrace and affirm as part of their national identity."

Obama said he would be "encouraging" countries on his trip to promote these values, but added: "I think the thing that we can do most importantly is serve as a good role model.

"And that's why closing Guantanamo, from my perspective, as difficult as it is, is important.

"Because part of what we want to affirm to the world is that these are values that are important even when it's hard, even especially when it's hard, and not just when it's easy."

Obama has vowed to close the camp by January 22, 2010, but his plans have faced reluctance from other countries to take in the prisoners and stern domestic opposition to transferring them to US soil.