Author: R J Adams

One of the primary causes of rising food prices throughout the world is the cost of crude oil. Neo-con World Bank president Robert Zoellick – hastily transplanted to the position by George W Bush when Wolfowitz crept away in shame – says it’s all down to Third World countries suddenly eating too much. But he’s wrong, of course. This is a crisis in the making five years, not the decades necessary for emerging economies to make a serious difference.

In fact, food shortages have come about so rapidly in Asia that no-one heard about them in the West until a few months ago.

So who, or what, is to blame?

Look at any graph of oil prices from 2003 to present day and you’d need an Abrams tank to negotiate the curve. In 2002, gas price at the pump was $1.35. Today, it’s $3.55….and rising. The Iraq war (Bush’s War) began in March 2003, as did the rise in oil prices. Today, the Iraq war (Bush’s War) continues to create mayhem in the Middle East, and the price of oil goes ever higher.

In 2002, George W Bush set in motion a crazy, unregulated system supposedly to create “……5.5 million more [minority] homeowners by 2010……”.^[1] To achieve this goal, he let loose the financial institutions on what we now know as the “Great Sub-Prime Mortgage Fiasco”. The resulting crisis was enough to tip America into a full-scale recession, and send banks and finance houses around the world into meltdown.

As a result, investors moved their money, large-scale, into the safer commodities markets, causing more pressure on food prices already under siege from crude oil hikes.

In January 2007, George W Bush mandated a seven-fold rise in the use of ethanol from corn and other vegetable matter by 2017^[2]. Such criminal irresponsibility in the face of surging oil prices, and knowing full well the state of the economy (which, at the time he was declaring as ‘good and healthy’) indicates Bush’s true interest in the world outside the United States.

Put simply, he has none, and is prepared to sacrifice thousands of non-American lives to starvation, in the pursuit of corporate wealth.

Bush’s reasoning behind increasing ethanol production was, by his own admission, to do away with US reliance on Middle Eastern oil (after all, Iraq’s oilfields weren’t exactly fulfilling the neo-con dream) but his doing so made it painfully obvious where the markets would end up. Farmers in the Mid-West moved over to ethanol-corn production en masse, creating the equivalent of yet another world recession, only this time in food.

When the American Mid-West can’t provide enough corn to feed its people and its animals, the whole world suffers.

The American vulture media has once again found something to feast upon. A few quick shots of Haitians rioting over food shortages switch rapidly to the appalling news that from today, Sam’s Club and other major retailers are limiting customers to only four 50lb bags of Basmati rice at one time. How long can this nation’s populace endure such horrendous hardship?

The media consumes every spare moment of late with ghastly tales of rocketing fuel prices, a sinking economy, Americans made homeless by bad mortgage deals, and the possibility of much worse to come. Yet, it never, ever, asks the question: who is to blame for it all?

Can there be anywhere else that the buck stops – other than at the desk of the one man responsible for the predicament faced by the world today? The leader of the nation that has created and maintains this crisis.

When asked about these present catastrophes, George W Bush and his minions repeatedly make vague reference to a ‘downturn in world markets’. They’re not lying. What they forget to mention is the ‘downturn’ results directly from their own failed policies; policies designed to make them extremely wealthy, America even more of a dictator state ruling the world, and greed the driving force that is leading this earth to the brink of disaster.

Today, the price of oil rose another three dollars. Analysts announced it was due directly to an incident in the Persian Gulf when an American vessel fired towards small boats in the area.^[3]

Clear evidence, then, of the cause of spiraling oil prices. One minor incident is all it takes to up the price – at three dollars a shot.

The only other question left unanswered by the American media is – who gets those three dollars per barrel?

^{[1] “One Heckuva Job”, Sparrow Chat, March 13th, 2008}

^{[2] “Ethanol Industry Gets a Boost From Bush”, Washington Post, January 25th, 2007}

^{[3] “Oil near $119 after report of Iranian boat firing”, MSNBC, April 25th, 2008}

Filed under: Oil, food, and Ethanol

It’s always been a policy at Sparrow Chat to answer individual comments, where time allows. With regard to the comments relating to the post below, I would like to take this opportunity, on the main page, to whole-heartedly (no pun intended) thank all of you who have left comments, and those who have emailed, sympathizing with our recent troubles and wishing me well for the future.

I am now fully recovered and feel in the best of health, indeed ten years younger than the old bugger who had begun to puff and blow each time he got out of his chair, less than one week ago. Such crises are a warning, however, and while I lived an active life until 2002, when I moved to America, I have slowly drifted into a more sedentary lifestyle, spending far too much time in front of the computer, and too little outside in the real world.

For me, it’s not easy living in Illinois, with its hot, humid summers and man-eating mosquitoes, quickly followed by the searing cold of mid-western winters. I once kept fit by climbing Welsh mountains and hiking trails, but there are no mountains in Illinois, and the only trails are through miles of cornfields and traveled by farm machinery.

In three years, we will move to either Maine or Upper Michigan, where the winters may be hard but the scenery wonderful, and the summers gentle. Until then, I must do whatever I can to stay fit and healthy.

This means there must be some minor changes at Sparrow Chat. Much as I enjoy commenting on your comments, I have decided that in future I will only do so when the content warrants it. After all, my greatest pleasure is reading them. Similarly, I endeavor to comment on many of the posts you write, even if only to add my own support for a view or observation. In future I will only comment when I feel I have something pertinent to add.

All writers appreciate feedback, and comments help provide that, but one of the best blogs on the internet, in my opinion, receives hardly any comments at all and yet must be read widely. I’m referring, of course, to the excellent “Vineyard Views” of one of my earliest blogging pals, Al DeVito.

Hopefully, by denying myself these simple pleasures I will leave time to keep fit and still write Sparrow Chat fairly regularly. One thing I can promise all my blogging friends out there, I’ll still be reading. So if you don’t hear from me quite so regularly, don’t assume I’m no longer perusing your pages.

Remember, you can’t escape me, I have your site feeds!

Once again, thank you all.

Filed under: Good friends

With the possible exception of the cemetery, almost any place would be a welcome escape if it prevented the viewing – the humiliation – of the United State’s three presidential candidates, as portrayed on a popular wrestling program last Monday evening.^[1]

Presumably, there must be many Americans who find this kind of thing amusing, enlightening, perhaps even an aid to resolution for those last-minute undecideds?

Frankly, to this more-conservative liberal, it sets the seal on how low America has allowed itself to sink, while still screaming from the rooftops of its ‘superlative’ world status.

I was spared all this hype, apart from a brief few moments caught on a recording of last night’s Daily Show, because I was in the hospital. Not wishing to bore with minute detail, but suffice to say I arrived at the ER with chest pains and within twenty-four hours my coronary artery was being fitted with a stent, following diagnosis of a 99% blockage.

It happens to thousands of people every week. There’s nothing unusual about it. Frankly, though, it gave me cause to speculate. You see, I’ve always kept reasonably fit; lived an outdoor lifestyle, never allowed my body an excess of things not good for it. Rarely has alcohol been abused, usually sticking to the occasional glass or two of red wine, even less frequent measure of good Scotch whisky. I don’t smoke. There is no whisper of genetic heart defect within my ancestry. In fact, most doctors would agree I was the most unlikely candidate for coronary artery disease.

I even, meticulously, swallowed a low-dose aspirin daily – just to err on the side of caution.

Consequently, when even the slightest exertion brought on a stinging pain behind the breastbone, I wrestled with it; told myself it could only be due to that one problem from which my body has ever suffered: esophageal acid reflux.

I was fortunate; a caring wife, insisting she drive me to the ER, “NOW!” cheated the Grim Reaper as cardiologists rapidly diagnosed a condition they colloquially refer to as the “Widow-Maker”. I was weeks, possibly only days away from a massive, and likely fatal, heart-attack.

It happens to thousands of people every week. I’ve known friends die from it, so suddenly they’re there one moment, gone the next.

I was fortunate. Had I listened solely to my own irresponsible, “That can’t ever happen to me,” I may not be writing these words now.

The truth is it can happen to anyone, however fit, however healthy their lifestyle, however free of heart disease their family tree.

If in doubt, get checked out. It’s a corny slogan, but it’s a damn sight more corny to die when you don’t have to.

You can do as I did, and Obama, Clinton, and McCain: hang about stupidly wrestling, or you can behave as the good US president would, by making when necessary a firm, positive, and right decision.
^{[1] “A Smackdown Among Presidential Candidates?” YouTube.}

Filed under: On the ropes