The stock market is up. The oil prices are up. The food prices are up. Consumer income is down. Workers are unemployed. Home owners are upside down and under water. Home values are down and deflating. Foreclosures are up.
Interesting thing is that the food costs and hunger problems now surfacing from the middle east as a major cause of unrest and revolution are causing the oil prices to rise. Oil prices rising will exacerbate the rising food costs here in the USA and around the world. Is there a circle of unrest that will only intensify.
The link below is to an excellent article on the problem:
Food Prices Shoot Up – Contribute To Unrest In Middle East (Video)
NBC News devoted a substantial segment of time during this evening’s broadcast to the crisis of rising food prices. Reports of the unrest breaking out all over the middle east have included the observation that poverty and the high cost of food have contributed to the desparation of those wanting change in the excesses of dictators and kings. The latter eat well while food comprises huge percentages of the poor’s budget with nothing left for anything else. The average American family budget devotes just 9% to food. This may be about to change according to this video report from Brian Williams:
Revelations – Climate Change – Merchants – High Food Prices
6:5 When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6 Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds[a] of wheat for a day’s wages,[b] and six pounds[c] of barley for a day’s wages,[d] and do not damage the oil and the wine!”
The global positioning of the United States financially and militarily has been focused on the world oil reserves. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are all about the importance of not allowing damage to the flow of oil from the middle east. We rationalize the need to support dictators and kings for our own purposes. Those who oppress and control their populations suit our selfish interest in oil just fine. Why is it so hard to imagine accurately the reason the United States is not liked by the people of that part of the world. The crowds in Eygpt have not yet focused their attention much on an anti-American theme. That is fortunate. Maybe they realized just how much the Egyptian military is tied to the American military, as reports in this country have made clear.
Mubarak kept his emergency military law in place for thirty years while the United States made him a billionaire. Did the price of passage through the Suez Canal and peace with Israel include oppression of the Egyptian population for all those years? Is this the new form of slavery of men and women today? And where is the interest in the human rights of those the United States allows to be held captive? Where is that shining light
Egyptian Protestors Demand Freedom
on a hill? It stayed hidden for thirty years until the people kicked over the table under which it has been hidden.
We keep blowing and going, bombing and fighting, polluting the earth and scoffing at scientists who try to warn us of the contribution man is making to the looming climate-change disaster. Reports are beginning to come out that we have waited too late. The report on NBC Nightly News pointed to the markets and its engine of speculation as adding to the cause of rising food prices. The merchants of the world are watching and what will they see?
Revelations Chapter 18 (NIV)
11 “The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes anymore— 12 cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; 13 cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and human beings sold as slaves.
14 “They will say, ‘The fruit you longed for is gone from you. All your luxury and splendor have vanished, never to be recovered.’ 15 The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her will stand far off, terrified at her torment. They will weep and mourn 16 and cry out:
“‘Woe! Woe to you, great city,
dressed in fine linen, purple and scarlet,
and glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls!
17 In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin!’
Huffington Post published an exclusive video interview with Erik Rasmusen on the “Epidemic of Climate Change”. He is one of a hundred journalist named among those most influential. Here is the discussion about the way such change impacts the world. Perhaps many have not considered just how sensitive the societies of the world actually are and how they will react to the disasters to come.
The link below features video interview of Tim Armstrong of AOL and Arianna Huffington. This is a great development for both organizations in my judgement. Last week there was a lot of fuss and stir about the introduction of News Corp.’s new App for iPad — The Daily. This is Rupert Murdoch with more of his genius in trying to corner all market that is news, or rather agenda and opinion pushing maybe. It is too early to tell what will become of either Murdoch’s new approach to a so-called daily news for iPad or how the new acquisition of Huffington Post will position itself in the internet content mix.
Nevertheless, I am excited with anticipation that the AOL – Huffington Post mix will provide for some excellent content and make fabulous use of the social media market. I can’t wait for their new iPad application that is sure to be coming soon.
Karen Drinkard – Owner, Reagan Reporters
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Huffington Post
A leading progressive news aggregator with broad category coverage that covers the gambit internet living and activity.
Locust Fork News Journal
National and Alabama news and editorials by publisher, editor and journalist Glynn Wilson. The site has the progressive flavor of an Alabamian.
