- China blames loss of Olympics gold on colonialism
- Countries panic-buying food as world food prices surge
- 5th anniversary of first bailout
- Egypt-Israel agreement remains intact, amid military buildup in Sinai
- Pakistan's Imran Khan threatened by Taliban
China blames loss of Olympics gold on colonialism
Chinese swimming superstar Ye Shiwen holding her gold medal
China has not done as well earning gold medals as it did in 2008, when
the Olympics games were in Beijing. There have been some obvious
slights directed at the Chinese, which isn't surprising, in view of
the anti-Chinese xenophobia prior to the 2008 Olympics, (from 2008:
"Chinese embarrassment and anger grows over Tibet and Olympics"), and also in view of the
anti-West xenophobia that China exhibits on a daily basis. The
Chinese internet is a-buzz with contemptuous comments directed at the
West. Among them:
"So far, the UK has given to us three things: the
Opium War, the burning of the Summer Palace and the London
Olympics."
Nonetheless, China still leads the medal count (both gold and total).
Bloomberg
Countries panic-buying food as world food prices surge
Global prices for corn and whet rose 50% in July and July, aided by
the worst drought in the U.S. since 1956. More than half of all
U.S. counties - 1,584 in 32 states -- have been designated primary
disaster areas this growing season. There was no panic buying until
last week when Mexico, which suffered "tortilla riots" in 2007, began
making huge purchases of corn. Now a cascade effect may be taking
place, as Iran, Algeria and Jordan are all shopping for grain this
week.
The situation is going to continue to get worse, according to a BBC
interview with Abdolreza Abbassian, senior economist at the U.N. Food
and Agriculture Organization. When asked whether we would return to
the days of WW II when famine and food crises became the norm, he said
the following (my transcript):
"I hate to say this, but it's already a norm. We have
a billion people without food, so it's not doing that well, i'm
afraid. In fact, in more likelihood, if we don't do anything about
this, it's just going to get worse.
It is true that the Green Revolution helped us to keep pace with
the demand for a certain period of time. But if you look at the
yields now for major crops, they basically have flattened out.
Whatever we gained in that period, over the last two-three
decades, is basically going to give us just enough food to barely
meet demand, and this just not good enough."
AP and
Reuters and
BBC (MP3)
5th anniversary of first bailout
On August 9, 2007, central banks around the world launched the first
of many full scale bailouts. In my article, "US and European central banks inject billions in cash to stanch market meltdown", I quoted an e-mail message from a
web site reader:
"My father immigrated to the U.S. from Germany in the
20s and experienced the great depression in Pennsylvania. When I
was a teenager, he told me his generation would not cause another
depression because of what they experienced in the 30s. My father
would not borrow money - only purchased in cash. Just before his
death in 1962, he commented that the current generation was making
mistakes his generation had made, and another depression was
inevitable. What would he have said observing uncontrolled growth
of financial derivatives, and our massive, ever increasing,
unrepayable national debt? Having experienced hyper-inflation in
Germany, believe he would have said our national debt would be
repaid in drastically cheaper dollars."
I've actually gotten quite a few e-mail messages like this, from
people whose fathers or grandfathers warned them what was happening.
In the five years that have gone by, we've seen bigger and bigger
bailouts. The first bailout was only "billions," which seems like
chicken feed by today's standards, in this world where fraud and
extortion are the norm. You hear full-throated lies on CNBC about
stock valuations that anyone can refute simply by opening the Wall
Street Journal. You hear full-throated lies by politicians on all
sides on almost any subject. People don't realize how much the world
has changed since the 1990s, and how much more it's going to change by
2020.
Egypt-Israel agreement remains intact, amid military buildup in Sinai
A key provision of the landmark 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and
Israel was the demilitarization of Sinai, near Egypt's border with
Israel. There are strict limits on the number of troops that either
Israel or Egypt can move near the border, but now Israel is approving
a massive Egyptian military buildup near the border to fight the
militants who were responsible for the murderous ambush of Egyptian
soldiers over the weekend, killing 16. However, neither Israel nor
Egypt is talking about amending the peace agreement, since opening
negotiations would become a fierce political issue in both countries.
AP
Pakistan's Imran Khan threatened by Taliban
Imran Khan at rally last year (AFP)
Imran Khan, a Pashtun born in 1952, one of Pakistan's greatest cricket
players of all time, once voted as the "Sexiest Man of The Year" by
Australia Magazine Oz, turned to politics in the 1990s. He's now the
"hope and change" candidate in Pakistan, but he's running into trouble
with Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP - Pakistan Taliban) for calling
himself a "liberal." TTP leaders are denying stories that they've
threatened to kill him, but according to a spokesman:
"It's sure and clear that we don't have any sympathy
with Imran Khan, neither do we need his sympathy, as he himself
claims to be a liberal, and we see liberals as
infidels."
Khan has run a populist anti-American campaign that has drawn huge
crowds, particularly blaming the Americans for the Taliban terrorist
attacks in Pakistan. (Go figure.) Now that the Taliban are
threatening him, it'll be interesting to see whom he blames. AP
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