Tens of thousands riot in Mogadishu in eruption of anger over food prices

[struggle4progress]

Source: The Independent (UK)

By Mohamed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu
Tuesday, 6 May 2008

Troops have fired into tens of thousands of rioting Somalis, killing two people in the latest eruption of anger over high food prices in Africa, witnesses said.

In the capital Mogadishu, protesters marched against the refusal of traders to accept old 1,000-shilling notes, blaming them and a growing number of counterfeiters for rising food costs ...

In Mogadishu, the price of a kilogram of corn meal has risen from 12 cents (6p) in January to 25 cents. Another staple, rice, has gone up in that time from $26 to $47.50 for a 50kg sack. Food prices also have been affected by the plummeting Somali shilling, which lost nearly half its value this year, dropping from 17,000 shillings to the US dollar to 30,000 amid growing insecurity and a market clogged with counterfeit notes ...

The UN food security unit warned last week that half of Somalia's seven million population faces famine. It blamed an enduring drought as well as soaring food prices. Food protests have also erupted in three other African countries, including Senegal, whose President, Abdoulaye Wade, called for the UN to dismantle its Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). He said he had long called for the Rome-based organisation to be transferred to Africa ...

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/tens-of-thousands-riot-in-mogadishu-in-eruption-of-anger-over-food-prices-821614.html

[Mojorabbit]

1. This is really getting out of hand

Someone has to take these commodity traders on. people should not be able to make a fortune off of people starving.

[KillCapitalism]

6. Wouldn't this be fun...

to round up all the commodity traders and let the rioters have at them.}(

[ShockediSay]

2. Betca this is only the beginning of a worldwide crisis

The haves and the have nots to the worst extreme.

And if someone's family is starving, who can blame them
for taking matters into their own hands. Not for me to
judge.

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

3. I posted this column, earlier today, about this very subject...

...although not too many peopled read it.

Making Huge Profits As People Starve.."Food riots are shaking the world..."

from http://www.saneramblings.com - posted with the author's permission

Food riots are shaking the world. Prices have skyrocketed so fast, millions of people can't afford even basic staples like rice, beans and bread. They and their children are starving.

To understand what's happening and its consequences to you and me, I created Benji, a little 7-year-old Egyptian boy. Benji is a head shorter then a typical American boy his age, his cheeks are sunken and his clothes hang loose from his small frame.

"Why don't we have enough food," Benji asked as his tummy rumbled with hunger. "My dad works hard six days a week and yet he and my mother barely have enough food to feed our family two small meals a day."

"It's because of the continuing fall of the American dollar," I replied. "Like oil, most food in the world markets is traded for dollars but except for America, often the people growing the food now want to be paid in stronger currencies like the Euro or the Yen. As the dollar keeps losing its value so does the amount of food your dad's paycheck will buy."

"But America is a great place my dad told me," answered Benji. "He said they grow far more food than any other place in the world. Often they even grow too much food."

"That's true Benji," I replied. "But giant American companies grow most of this food and because so many people now need it, they want to make as much money from it as they can."

"Oh," answered Benji with a confused look on his face. "Don't they know how hungry we are?" Embarrassed, I struggled to find the right words to tell him as I knew many of these firms are announcing gigantic profits.

"They know," I replied. "But Benji try to understand. These firms are in business to make as much money as they can for their shareholders, their management and their employees and for the big firms that buy and sell their stock."

"Do their shareholders and the others wait in long lines for food," Benji asked. "No they don't," I replied. "And they are all very well fed."

"Can't they spare anything for us," Benji asked. "I guess not," I said softly. "But the American government could. However there's so much food in America that it actually pays farmers not to grow it."

This confused Benji. "If the American government pays for it, why don't they let them grow it and send it to us and to other hungry people," he asked. I didn't know how to answer his question.

I thought about the consequences of mass starvation in a world where some have plenty. The extreme bitterness it will cause and the brutal revenge some will want to take against those who sit in apathy and silence as men, women and the most vulnerable of all, the children and the elderly die from hunger and hunger related diseases.

"Benji," I responded. "They could send food to you and to the other hungry people in the world if the American people asked them to. I believe when Americans learn how desperate your situation is, they will ask them, starting with those who read this message, for each of us can help make a difference."

For the first time in our conversation he smiled. "There is hope Benji," I added, as I hugged him. "People really do care."

[calimary]

4. Wow! Really brings it home vividly.

Thanks for posting this. It makes people think.

[lonestarnot]

7. Excellent creation!

:applause:

[Lorien]

12. "People really do care"

yeah, liberals like us. But we have virtually no Representatives in Washington.And Mainstream America? They care more about who wins "Dancing with the Stars" than whether or not "Benji" and ten million more like him die.

[Eugene]

5. Food prices trigger second day of Mogadishu riots - Reuters

Source: Reuters

Food prices trigger second day of Mogadishu riots
Tue May 6, 2008 10:42am EDT

By Abdi Sheikh and Abdi Mohamed

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Angry Mogadishu residents protested
for a second day on Tuesday against food traders who
rejected old currency notes, blocking roads and stoning cars.

Witnesses said at least one storekeeper was stabbed by
protesters after one demonstrator was shot and killed on
Monday.

"I'm hungry and yet cannot even buy food," Abdifatah Hussein,
25, told Reuters, clutching a bunch of Somali shillings. "I fear
we might start eating one another. We will never stop
protesting until traders accept the notes."

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL0511343220080506

[lonestarnot]

8. "I fear we might start eating one another."

[provis99]

9. lack of food has more to do with Somalia lacking a central government

when the government breaks down, and the countryside is crawling with bandits raiding farms, farmers have little incentive to plant crops. Somalia's food crises break out every time the central government is weak; has little to do with the outside world.

[freedomnorth]

10. Thank Bush for breaking down somali goverment.

However this might have something to do with food prices skyrocketing on global market. After all we live in global capitalism nowadays, wich Somalia is de facto part of too. There were food riots in Haiti. And as this article stated, other countries in africa as well.

[Nihil]

11. Sounds familiar ...

Remind me: which country (not Somalia) had helicopters killing
Somali civilians in the last few weeks and trumpeting the deaths
as a "victory against the rebels"?

[raccoon]

13. Is the corporate MSM covering any of this? Inquiring minds want to know. nt

[noonwitch]

14. Somalia is hardly a nation where starvation and food shortages are rare

I wouldn't say there was a world-wide food shortage because of food shortages in countries that always have shortages.


The less-developed countries need a strategy that helps them develop more diverse food supplies, so that they are not so dependent on rice as the main staple. Charities like Heifer, INT., are good, because not only do they help people get livestock, they also teach them farming techniques and help them get set up.

Having access to dairy cows can help a great deal, if the land can support dairy farming. Chickens, too-eggs and dairy can get you by, and kids need the protein from those items.