Tonight 854 million people will go to bed with an empty stomach even though enough food was produced to feed everyone. Aware of this sad reality, Pope Benedict XVI marked today's World Food Day by urging all countries to recognize food as a universal human right. In his message, the Pope noted that the right to food was enshrined in the Universal of Declaration of Human Rights, a document adopted by the UN in 1948. "A sense of solidarity, in which food is considered a universal right without distinction or discrimination, must develop in all the countries of the world. Our planet produced enough food to feed its entire population, and yet tonight 854 million people will go to bed with an empty stomach."
By Prince El Hassan bin Talal
"Payers not players" said Ariel Sharon of the EU, and Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan agrees that Europe's aid and investment spending is not what will bring peace to the region. He proposes an EU-backed Stability Charter that would give Europe a new and positive Middle East role. "It is vital that experience and commitment be framed in a vision for our region and that Europe's heritage of hope becomes a model for the peoples of the Middle East."
Prime Minister Olmert promised Orthodox Jewish leaders that Jerusalem was not up for discussion in forthcoming negotiations with the Palestinians. Despite the reassurance, the Orthodox Union still found Olmert's commitment unsatisfactory
When I hear mention of the "Clash of Civilizations," I don't know whether to laugh or to cry. To laugh, because it is such a silly notion. To cry, because it is liable to cause untold disasters. To cry even more, because our leaders are exploiting this slogan as a pretext for sabotaging any possibility of an Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation. It is just one more in a long line of pretexts.
The conflict between Turkey and the US over the question of military intervention by the Turkish military in northern Iraq is intensifying. On Monday the Turkish government approved and passed onto parliament a motion empowering the army to carry out military actions in neighboring Iraq. The Turkish parliament is due to vote on the measure Wednesday.
It is well known that Ankara is determined to prevent the emergence of an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq and also any annexation of the city of Kirkuk by the autonomous region of Kurdistan—an issue which is subject to a popular referendum at the end of the year. Kirkuk lies at the heart of the oil producing region in northern Iraq and its revenues would provide a Kurdish state with a solid financial basis. Large Turkmen and Assyrian minorities reside in Kirkuk, along with the Kurds and Arabs.
Washington fears that any Turkish military incursion could plunge the relatively calm north of Iraq into chaos and open up a new front between 2 traditional allies of the US—NATO member Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds.
Unilateral action by Turkey in Iraq could have "very grave consequences" and set a worrying precedent, Iraq's deputy prime minister has warned. He told the BBC such action could destabilise the region and prompt other neighbouring states to step in. "Any unilateral action by the Turkish military in violation of Iraqi border will be a terrible precedent for everybody. If Turkey as a neighbour of Iraq allows itself the right to intervene militarily in Iraq, what is there to prevent other neighbours from intervening?"
Giuliani & McCain:
Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain said Tuesday they would be prepared as president to use military force against Iran to prevent it from getting nuclear weapons. The presidential candidates spoke to the Republican Jewish Coalition.
A prominent journalist says the Minot B-52 incident, in which nukes were flown over the US, is hardly believable as just an "accident." When asked whether the bomber intended to attack a target outside the US, Lindorff said no one knows at this point. However, he mocked the 'window-dressing' investigations underway in the Pentagon, and one planned in Congress, to uncover the true reasons for flying nukes over several states in the US. He said Vice-President Cheney's "long-standing obsession" with attacking Iran is the true roots of US hostile policy towards Iran. The journalist also added that while the pro-Israel lobby, which favors war on Iran, certainly has a lot of power in the Bush administration; it is clear that military and business leaders of the country object to such measures against Tehran.
There has been a virtual media blackout on the conduct of major military exercises by both Russia and the US. Reminiscent of the Cold War, Russia and America are conducting major war games simultaneously. The Russian Air Force will be conducting major military exercises over a large part of its territory from the 16th to the 30th of October. These Russian exercises coincide chronologically with the conduct of major US sponsored war games under Vigilant Shield 08, which are slated to take place from the 15th to the 20th of October.
If there's a ground zero for the epic drought that's tightening its grip on the South, it's once-mighty Lake Lanier, the Atlanta water source that's now a relative puddle surrounded by acres of dusty red clay. This is a once-a-century drought. In the best estimate, without rain, metro-Atlanta has 120 days left of usable drinking water. Meanwhile, a drought parching much of the West and Southeast spread into the Mid-Atlantic area in September. At the end of September about 43% of the contiguous US was in moderate to extreme drought. Scientists have little reason to hope the drought will ease anytime soon.
Some analysts say record highs are only the beginning. Traders betting on rising global demand could push prices up further.
Foreigners dumped a record amount of long-term US securities amid August's market turmoil, raising the specter of a generalized flight from US assets and the dollar. During a period when the dollar was already on a long decline, the credit crunch, set off by concerns about the subprime mortgage market, appears to have made foreigners even more queasy about buying American. "Everything goes hand in hand, and this is a pretty ugly picture."
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, of Goldman Sachs, and his sidekick, Treasury Undersecretary for Domestic Finance ("Plunge Protection"), Robert Steel, also of Goldman Sachs, are trying to orchestrate a crazy $100 billion bailout scheme. Under the plan, all the top US and perhaps some British banks, will join to create a "receptacle," which will buy up the worthless so-called assets held by the "structured investment vehicles" of Citibank and many other banks. Although these mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations are worth nothing, the new "super-conduit" will lay out $100 billion to buy them at their current nominal value, or close to it, in order to try to sustain the lie that all the hedge funds and banks together, which hold trillions in such worthless "assets," are still solvent.
An article in www.bullionvault.com gives an impressive account of how hedge funds are plunging into commodity speculation, creating all sorts of new derivative instruments, cooking "a '70s-style inflation — or worse." "Wall Street and the City are suddenly piling into the commodity markets... The PhDs who cooked up the US housing bubble are now applying their haute finance skills to gearing up the cost of natural resources. Hence, the complexity of the very latest commodity offerings. Expect a side-order of inflation to reach your dining table as a result very soon!"
China now exerts enormous influence over the economies of virtually every country in the world, and a slight change in its domestic economic policy has the potential to send shockwaves rippling throughout the world. Nowhere is this more apparent - and frightening - then in China's economic relationship with the US, which is very much at the mercy of China when it comes to prices, wages, interest rates, most importantly, the value of the dollar.
In short, China has several economic "weapons" at its disposal for countering the US, ranging from the manipulation of its currency to the diversification of its burgeoning stock of forex reserves. It also has several less blunt options to choose from, such as enabling Chinese companies to compete more directly and effectively with US companies, and opposing the US in securing a domestic energy supply. On all of these fronts, the US is essentially being held hostage, since it has become so dependent on China as the world's factory. Ultimately, it seems unlikely that China will deliberately butt heads with the US unless it is first provoked [like when Tibet leader gets top US award!], but America should nonetheless be on its guard, since its economy hangs in the balance.
[WAR: I'm traveling back to Texas tomorrow morning, so there won't be a WAR.]
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