Haitians riot, loot over food prices

[babsbunny]

http://www.rawstory.com/news/mochila/Haitians_riot_loot_over_food_prices_04082008.html

Hungry Haitians Storm Presidential Palace, Loot Businesses in Expanding Food Riots

JONATHAN M. KATZ
AP News

Apr 08, 2008 19:54 EST

Hungry Haitians stormed the presidential palace Tuesday to demand the resignation of President Rene Preval over soaring food prices and U.N. peacekeepers battled rioters with rubber bullets and tear gas.

Rioters were chased away from the presidential palace but by late afternoon had left trails of destruction across Port-au-Prince. Concrete barricades and burned-out cars blocked streets, while windows were smashed and buildings set on fire from the capital's center up through its densely populated hills.

Outnumbered U.N. peacekeepers watched as people looted businesses near the presidential palace, not budging from the building's perimeter. Nearby, but out of sight of authorities, another group swarmed a slow-moving car and tried to drag its female driver out the window.

[NightWatcher]

1. try typing "food riot" into google news search

is this where we are heading?

[ColbertWatcher]

2. They had this picture a few months ago...

Due to the rising cost of food, Haitians have resorted to eating food that contains mud. Women will fill round molds with a mixture of dirt, water, vegetable shortening and salt and set them on the roof to dry into what have been dubbed, "mud cookies". This woman makes mud cookies on the the roof of Fort Dimanche, a former prison in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 29 November, 2007.

?x=400&y=265&sig=SV1cM.20prQhNicaiPRlag--">AP Photo/Ariana Cubillo, Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 Yahoo All rights reserved.

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. !!!! No one should ever have to eat dirt :^(

[ColbertWatcher]

7. People all over Haiti were doing it apparently...

...they even shared recipes.

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. I know there are minerals in it, but there are also parasites and worms and bacteria and

heaven knows what-all else.

[ColbertWatcher]

10. There might be minerals in it...

...but that's only if the ground hasn't been stripped clean of every possible nutrient.

Check out this (edit:correction) satellite image of the island of Hispanola (the island Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic)

Guess which side is Haiti.

[scarletwoman]

3. Has the president said "Let them eat cake" yet?

Another lovely U.S. sponsored "democracy" at work...

[ColbertWatcher]

8. Their GOP-installed "president"...

...may have told them to eat cookies (see #2)

[scarletwoman]

11. Yeah, I saw that. I have no words.

So who exactly owns all the arable land in Haiti? How is that the people are unable to grow enough food to feed themselves?

If we humans can't overthrow the sociopaths that do nothing but oppress and murder us, what hope is there?

[ColbertWatcher]

12. Arable land in Haiti? See #10 n/t

[malaise]

4. It's going to spread across the region

This reminds me of the 1930s (I wasn't there but the riots and strikes started in Trinidad and spread as a result of food shortages and social conditions.

[gateley]

6. Coming soon to a city near you. nt