[Vnbiz] Food shortage and international security

[Tran Dinh Hoanh]

Dear Brother Phong,

I didn't see anything about the warning of a potential terrorist attack (as
I wrote) in the link you provided, except one word 'security."  Yes, food
"riots" automatically means "security," riot every much means
insecurity.

But I am talking about something very specific that the world may be
sideblinded-- other countries because of their own instability and the US
because of its election infighting.  If you see any article specifically
about that, I would love to read.  And I hope that someone
will take this issue seriously, and not waiting till things blow up on their
face.

Have a great day!

Hoanh
_____________

On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 2:14 PM, <Hong-Phong_Pho at ita.doc.gov> wrote:

> [ Vietnam Business Forum ]
>
>
>
> Dear anh Hoanh,
> What news sources are you reading?
> There are all kinds of appeals and warnings out there from the WFP to the
> UN Secretary General.
> The concern is great enough to put bio-fuel (ethanol using corn) out of
> favor.
> Even Pres. Bush (a big supporter of bio-fue) have had to recognize the
> crisis and allocate resources for food aid.
>
> http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0154468120080502?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
> Best,
> HPP
>
>
>
>   *"Tran Dinh Hoanh" <tdhoanh at gmail.com>*
> Sent by: vnbiz-bounces at mail.saigon.com
>
> 05/09/2008 11:44 PM   Please respond to
> vnbiz at vietlinks.net
>
>    To
> vnbiz at vietlinks.net  cc
>   Subject
> [Vnbiz] Food shortage and international security
>
>
>
>
> [ Vietnam Business Forum ]
>
> Dear CACC,
>
> Food shortage is generating many riots around the world.  Three days ago a
> riots killed 2 persons in Somalia.  North Korea is reported to face
> potential mass starvation.  Myanmar is just hit by a cyclone in addition to
> its existing problem.  These are added to riots from Haiti, Egypt,
> Bangladesh, demonstration in Philippines.  (See news articles below).  The
> list will continue to grow every day.  As riots and political instability
> break out in so many poor and developing countries of the world, the state
> of the world security is in serious problem.  I am  talking out loud about
> this concern here.  Probably 7, 8 months from now, political and military
> analysts around the world will start to say the same thing.  (Right now, it
> seems no one pays attention to it yet. I haven't seen any article.  If
> anyone sees one, please kindly let me know).
>
> What food shortage is doing is to create serious social and political
> unrest in many countries of the world.  Many governments are and will be too
> busy taking care of their internal unrest and saving the government's own
> political life.  They will have no time to worry about other things.  So who
> will benefit from all this?
>
> The answer is:  Many dark elements will benefit, but the most prominent
> dark element is international terrorism organizations--Al Queda and the
> like.  This will be the perfect chance for them to secure good bases around
> the world--every country  in political turmoil, especially country with some
> muslim population, is a good place to build a new, or strengthen an
> existing, terrrorist base.  And in doing so, in addition to misinterpreted
> Koran verses, they will have the great propaganda weapon that "We, the
> world, go hungry because the US and its infidel allies have been putting
> corn into the gas tanks instead of the human stomach."
>
> I would guess that, in this kind of environment, it would only takes these
> organizations 6 months to double their global strength organizationally. And
> I am sure that they have started working already (uless they are absolutely
> stupid.  But these guys are super-intelligent!).   Close to the US
> presidential election day in November 2008, if they want to affect the US
> election (and I think they would), they would have enough strength to pull a
> series of attacks across the globe about 2 weeks before the US election day.
>
>
> I hope that this is too farfetched and I will be wrong.  But this is so
> logically clear in my mind and the ease and the possibility are so high that
> I decide I should post here as a prediction and I will give it 75% chance of
> being true.  (But I am praying that it will be false).
>
> Have a great day!
>
> Hoanh
> _________
>
> *
> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/06/MNG1P10HEP.DTL
> *<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/06/MNG1P10HEP.DTL>
>
> *2 killed in Somalia food riots*
>
> Tuesday, May 6, 2008
>
> Troops fired into tens of thousands of rioting Somalis on Monday, killing
> two people in the latest eruption of violence over soaring food prices
> around the world.
>
> Wielding thick sticks and hurling stones that smashed the windshields of
> several cars and buses, the rioters jammed the narrow streets of the Somali
> capital, screaming, "Down with those suffocating us!"
>
>
>
> *http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/04/14/world.food.crisis/*<http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/04/14/world.food.crisis/>
> *Riots, instability spread as food prices skyrocket*
>
> *(CNN)* -- Riots from Haiti to Bangladesh to Egypt over the soaring costs
> of basic foods have brought the issue to a boiling point and catapulted it
> to the forefront of the world's attention, the head of an agency focused on
> global development said Monday.
>
> Bangladeshi demonstrators chant slogans against high food prices during
> weekend protests.
>
> "This is the world's big story," said Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia
> University's Earth Institute.
>
> "The finance ministers were in shock, almost in panic this weekend," he
> said on CNN's "American Morning," in a reference to top economic officials
> who gathered in Washington. "There are riots all over the world in the poor
> countries ... and, of course, our own poor are feeling it in the United
> States."
>
> World Bank President Robert Zoellick has said the surging costs could mean
> "seven lost years" in the fight against worldwide poverty.
>
> "While many are worrying about filling their gas tanks, many others around
> the world are struggling to fill their stomachs, and it is getting more and
> more difficult every day," Zoellick said late last week in a speech opening
> meetings with finance ministers. [image: Video]*Watch what world leaders
> are doing to solve the problem »*<http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/04/14/world.food.crisis/#cnnSTCVideo>
>
> "The international community must fill the at least $500 million food gap
> identified by the U.N.'s World Food Programme to meet emergency needs," he
> said. "Governments should be able to come up with this assistance and come
> up with it now."
>
> The White House announced Monday evening that an estimated $200 million in
> emergency food aid would be made available through the U.S. Agency for
> International Development.
>
> "This additional food aid will address the impact of rising commodity
> prices on U.S. emergency food aid programs, and be used to meet
> unanticipated food aid needs in Africa and elsewhere," the White House said
> in a news release.
>
> "In just two months," Zoellick said in his speech, "rice prices have
> skyrocketed to near historical levels, rising by around 75 percent globally
> and more in some markets, with more likely to come. In Bangladesh, a
> 2-kilogram bag of rice ... now consumes about half of the daily income of a
> poor family."
>
> The price of wheat has jumped 120 percent in the past year, he said --
> meaning that the price of a loaf of bread has more than doubled in places
> where the poor spend as much as 75 percent of their income on food.
>
> "This is not just about meals forgone today or about increasing social
> unrest. This is about lost learning potential for children and adults in the
> future, stunted intellectual and physical growth," Zoellick said.
>
> Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary
> Fund, also spoke at the joint IMF-World Bank spring meeting.
>
> "If food prices go on as they are today, then the consequences on the
> population in a large set of countries ... will be terrible," he said.
>
> He added that "disruptions may occur in the economic environment ... so
> that at the end of the day most governments, having done well during the
> last five or 10 years, will see what they have done totally destroyed, and
> their legitimacy facing the population destroyed also."
>
> In *Haiti* <http://topics.cnn.com/topics/haiti>, the prime minister was
> kicked out of office Saturday, and hospital beds are filled with wounded
> following riots sparked by food prices. [image: Video]*Watch Haitians riot
> over food prices »*<http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/04/14/world.food.crisis/#cnnSTCVideo>
>
> The World Bank announced a $10 million grant from the United States for
> Haiti to help the government assist poor families.
>
> In Egypt, rioters have burned cars and destroyed windows of numerous
> buildings as police in riot gear have tried to quell protests.
>
> Images from *Bangladesh* <http://topics.cnn.com/topics/bangladesh> and
> Mozambique tell a similar story.
>
> In the United States and other Western nations, more and more poor
> families are feeling the pinch. In recent days, presidential candidates have
> paid increasing attention to the cost of food, often citing it on the stump.
>
> The issue is also fueling a rising debate over how much the rising prices
> can be blamed on ethanol production. The basic argument is that because
> ethanol comes from corn, the push to replace some traditional fuels with
> ethanol has created a new demand for corn that has thrown off world food
> prices.
>
> Jean Ziegler, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, has called
> using food crops to create ethanol "a crime against humanity."
>
> "We've been putting our food into the gas tank -- this corn-to-ethanol
> subsidy which our government is doing really makes little sense," said
> Columbia University's Sachs.
>
> Former President Clinton, at a campaign stop for his wife in Pennsylvania
> over the weekend, said, "Corn is the single most inefficient way to produce
> ethanol because it uses a lot of energy and because it drives up the price
> of food."
>
> Some environmental groups reject the focus on ethanol in examining food
> prices.
>
> "The contrived food vs. fuel debate has reared its ugly head once again,"
> the Renewable Fuels Association says on its Web site, adding that "numerous
> statistical analyses have demonstrated that the price of oil -- not corn
> prices or ethanol production -- has the greatest impact on consumer food
> prices because it is integral to virtually every phase of food production,
> from processing to packaging to transportation."
>
> Analysts agree the cost of fuel is among the reasons for the skyrocketing
> prices.
>
> Another major reason is rising demand, particularly in places in the midst
> of a population boom, such as China and India.
>
> Also, said Sachs, "climate shocks" are damaging food supply in parts of
> the world. "You add it all together: Demand is soaring, supply has been cut
> back, food has been diverted into the gas tank. It's added up to a price
> explosion.
>
> *http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hYO1tBKVYBkP1cCFc8ZUg1g_1jlQ*<http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hYO1tBKVYBkP1cCFc8ZUg1g_1jlQ>
>
> *Aid group warns of N Korea famine*
>
> 19 hours ago
>
> North Koreans are dying because of food shortages in rural areas and a
> massive famine is just a matter of time, a South Korean aid group has said.
>
> The food situation is as bad as the famine that hit the country in the
> mid-1990s, which left as many as two million people dead, Seoul-based Good
> Friends - a Buddhist-affiliated group that sends food and other aid to the
> North - cited an unidentified North Korean official as saying.
>
> Good Friends also quoted Kim Ki-nam, 39, a resident of Sariwon, south of
> Pyongyang, as saying one or two deaths were happening every day in rural
> areas around the city.
>
> North Korea has relied on foreign assistance to help feed its 23 million
> people since the mid-90s.
>
> This year's food situation has worsened because last year's harvests were
> hampered by devastating floods.
>
> The North also has refused to ask for help from South Korea after a new
> conservative government took office in February that has been critical of
> the Pyongyang regime.
>
> The aid group urged North Korea to acknowledge the situation's seriousness
> and ask for international help to prevent massive famine. It also urged
> South Korea to soften its position on the North and offer aid without
> waiting for Pyongyang's request.
>
> The US has offered to provide food and held talks this week in North Korea
> over how to guarantee aid gets to the needy. North Korea said the talks were
> "in-depth and good."
>
> The World Food Programme warned last month the North faces a food crisis,
> saying the country's annual food deficit is expected to nearly double from
> 2007 to 1.83 million tons.
>
> The UN agency estimated 6.5 million people were short of food, and the
> number could rise if shortages were not addressed.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Tran Dinh Hoanh, Esq., LLB, JD
> Washington DC _______________________________________________
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-- 
Tran Dinh Hoanh, Esq., LLB, JD
Washington DC
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