I have already blogged extensively on the current food price crisis affecting mostly poor countries. Now, via Le Monde, we learn, unsurprisingly, that riots have exploded in parts of Africa in response to the cost of food.

L’Afrique piégée par la flambée des prix des aliments
LE MONDE | 04.04.08

©  Read more 

Via the Independent,

“A deal has been agreed that will place a financial value on rainforests – paying, for the first time, for their upkeep as “utilities” that provide vital services such as rainfall generation, carbon storage and climate regulation.  Read more 

“Aid does not work” is a meme we often hear when it comes to development. Actually, it is a pronouncement made by people who would like foreign aid to stop and see it as “one of these failed government projects.” Aid does work under proper conditions, but quite often, as Jeffrey Sachs has demonstrated, aid does not work because of the donor countries who either do not live up to their commitment or actually set up aid to benefit themselves without much consideration for the people that are supposed to be helped. Two stories in the news highlight these problems.  Read more 

When she was first lady of Arkansas, Hillary Clinton did not just organize tea parties (contrary to what passes now for “common knowledge”). She had heard of a Bangladeshi economist who had introduced a great idea to help people out of poverty in Bangladesh and she thought his ideas might help the poor in Arkansas. The economist was Muhammad Yunus and the idea was microcredit. She was instrumental in introducing Yunus to Bill Clinton and they developed a program of microcredit in Arkansas. Yunus mentions her in every one of his books (with photos).  Read more 

IRIN has done a tremendous job reporting on the global nature of child trafficking… in general media indifference. First stop, Mozambique:

“A truck packed with 40 children was intercepted in the central Mozambican province of Manica this week, sparking concern over increased child trafficking and the urgent need for effective legislation to address the problem.”  Read more 

Hate the players and the game

She speaks Cebuano, Tagalog, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, and English – never finished the sixth grade – and gives head like a dream. This is what she tells me as I bum a square. A Marlboro light that smokes like a filter-less camel – we’ll talk about that later.

She left the province to come to Manila to find work because there was no money at home. At sixteen she and her childhood sweetheart had their twins. By the time they were four he was married with a child on the way and she answered an ad for a massage parlor.  Read more 

I was cruising through the sphere today and wandered off into Kos. I usually don’t. I’ve been trying to reformulate my worldview. I found one of my axiomatic themes (geography determines economy) at Political Cortex. The change in climate, the development of quantum, photonic, encryption, simulated brains, feudal intellectual property rights, massive capital domination by a disproportionate few, not to mention electronic voting.  Read more 

Pat Buchanan may have a point. After the election fever has died down and the Democrats have stopped back slapping and get in the game, we still have a problem. The growing inequality in the economy and the dilemma of Globalization are creating shockwaves of resistance within the rank and file of America. Between the growing scarcity of natural resources, the exponential increase in demand as three billion people come on line as consumers, and America’s addiction to hegemony there is a growing nationalism that is increasingly xenophobic and essentialist – we have work to do  Read more 

Yesterday the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago mercantile exchange signed a deal to join forces and remove one of the last real time governors (regulator) on the global economy setting the stage and putting in the last mechanisms for a massive redistribution of wealth.  Read more