![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Apr. 10th, 2008
Hey.
Normally the news doesn't get under my skin so much...I'm so tired of the politicking and the polarization of the issues and the hype and that. So even though I feel about as aware as anybody these days, I was reminded today about the fact that I can still be "blindsided" by the state of the world.
The current case: food.
On tonight's news was a piece about how there has been a sudden shock in food prices worldwide. This week, there were food riots on four different continents. The causes are manifold: fuel costs effecting transport and production; changes in land use (crops being grown for energy sources rather than sustenance, loss of farmland due to the need for population "living room", etc.); have nations out-demanding the have-not ones and cornering markets; embargos by some producer states...
Remember me saying that I live a pathetic life in American terms but like a prince in Global ones? This look at the rest of the world brought it home. But at the same time, I feel incredibly helpless too. I don't know if there's anything I could do to help anybody else in a meaningful manner. The needs are too great; my own resources are on a razor's edge; too many efforts turn out to be counter-productive farces; I don't think I have the right to make anybody do anything, even from here!
And the locust days are just beginning. Things look to be on the verge of getting a lot worse yet.
I'm pretty sure I can eat for a while. How about you?
FP
Normally the news doesn't get under my skin so much...I'm so tired of the politicking and the polarization of the issues and the hype and that. So even though I feel about as aware as anybody these days, I was reminded today about the fact that I can still be "blindsided" by the state of the world.
The current case: food.
On tonight's news was a piece about how there has been a sudden shock in food prices worldwide. This week, there were food riots on four different continents. The causes are manifold: fuel costs effecting transport and production; changes in land use (crops being grown for energy sources rather than sustenance, loss of farmland due to the need for population "living room", etc.); have nations out-demanding the have-not ones and cornering markets; embargos by some producer states...
Remember me saying that I live a pathetic life in American terms but like a prince in Global ones? This look at the rest of the world brought it home. But at the same time, I feel incredibly helpless too. I don't know if there's anything I could do to help anybody else in a meaningful manner. The needs are too great; my own resources are on a razor's edge; too many efforts turn out to be counter-productive farces; I don't think I have the right to make anybody do anything, even from here!
And the locust days are just beginning. Things look to be on the verge of getting a lot worse yet.
I'm pretty sure I can eat for a while. How about you?
FP