14 Feb 2011

The world is hungry for change

All news media, both mainstream and alternate, seem to be focusing on the recent restive populations across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East through a political lens. "People want change," they say.

Yes, there is evidence that people somehow decided 'enough is enough'... But - why is it happening right across the world? Why now? What is it that really made people rise up after more than a quarter century of inertia? And it is obvious that it is ONLY the large numbers of people which prevented a harsh crackdown... So why were so many people desperate enough to risk their lives?

THE ANSWER IS AS SIMPLE AS IT IS FRIGHTENING. IT'S HUNGER.

On 22 January businessinsider.com posted "The 25 Countries Whose Governments Could Get Crushed By Food Price Inflation".

The circumstances may be vastly diverse, but twenty days later, by 11 February, two of the governments were down!

But exactly WHY is there hunger on the streets of nations across the world? According to the Financial Times website, "tight supplies, changing weather patterns and rising demand in emerging economies have all contributed to rising concerns about food security."

They are probably right too. But the venerable FT missed out possibly the single biggest contributor: FINANCIAL SPECULATION

This video explains how it is done...



stopgamblingonhunger.com has a list of 53 highly credible sources highlighting or acknowledging the fact that financial speculators played a large and significant role in the price hike of 2008.

They'd pumped in billions upon billions of dollars to inflate an unnatural speculative bubble in 2008.

(Click to enlarge)


According to Bart Chilton, one of the five voting members on the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC): "$200 billion of speculative money came into the market; institutional holdings, hedge funds, pension funds. We got extraordinary high prices. But there are now more speculative positions than in 2008 – we now have the highest speculative positions in history."

With few watching, hardly anyone caring, and no one capable of stopping them - the financiers are rolling out the next global tsunami.

Tighten you belts, ladies and gentlemen, we may be in for a rough ride. (And no, I didn't mean 'fasten your seatbelts'.)

UPDATE: "The Spark That Lit Egypt", is an excellent analysis of the complex web of factors that led to that uprising. The spark apparently was the cost of food shooting up from 40 to 48 percent of total income for an average Egyptian.

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