Bob Marley
Recently in Haiti, the rising cost of food was the spark that ignited riots and ultimately the ouster of the Prime Minster. Food riots, it turns out, are a common occurrence around the world, but most of us have never heard about it. The mainstream media, in my opinion, has not reported on this story with the level of coverage it deserves.
For every ten thousand mentions of the daughter of a hotel baron, their might be a peep about people losing their cool because they are hungry. Would we care if CNN did cover the story diligently and kept us aware of how people in poor countries are struggling to eat? Between work, the kids, the laundry, dinner, that show I like and sleep, I'm not sure we would. But, the point is we should.
Haiti can be likened to the proverbial canary in a coal mine. The poorest among us are the first to feel the pain of the rise in the price of rice, wheat and corn. If we had been paying attention in 2007 and 2008 we would have seen eruptions of hungry people in a long list of poor and developing countries.
In 2008 there were food riots in the following places.
Burkina Faso ( formerly Upper Volta) 2-22-2008 , Riots break out in the second and third largest cities of this central African country. A 65% rise in the cost of both fuel and food is said to be the cause.
Cameroon, West Africa – 2-8-2009 Food riots.
Egypt, April 8th, 2008. A child is killed after violent demonstrations in the city of Mahalla. The cause of the protest is the cost of food.
Haiti, 4-12-2008 , food riots cause the ouster of Prime Minister Jacques Eduardo Alexis by the Haitian Senate. The 50 % increase in the cost of basic food stuffs is at the core of the unrest.
India, West Bengal, 2007 India bans the export of all rice except for the premium Basmati variety in an attempt to quell growing fears of rice shortages.
Mozambique, riots break out in the city of Maputo in mid February. Officials are at odds if the rioters are upset about the rise in the cost of fuel or food. They apparently failed to see the connection between the two commodities.
Senegal, 3-31-08 and again on 4-26-08 “food” riots break out in the capital city of Dakar.
Somalia- 5-5-2008 , reports of thousands of rioters are hard to confirm but entirely believable.
Yemen, food riots March of 2008.
In Dhaka, Bangladesh thousands of workers rioted in protest of declining wages and high food prices.
Remember Bangladesh? Good people around the world supported concerts in the 70's to raise money to help the poor people of this low lying Asian country overcome their struggle to feed themselves. In 2002 Bangladesh was able to feed it self. They were self sufficient until 2008 when rising cost of fuel weakened Bangladeshi agricultural enterprises dependent on cheap fuel to maintain production levels. Bangladesh has 150 million people within it's borders and experts claim that 30 million may go hungry in the coming years.
In part 2 of this series, we examined the origins of the Codex Alimentarius and how it has gained unprecedented power even though it is simply a “trade advisory board”. If you took the time to view the video at the bottom of part two, you now know the dangers of Codex. If you didn't take the time to view that video, you may still be in the dark.
There are people around the world that can not take their daily food for granted. They have a different set of priorities than us in the first world. However, we are all in the same situation and they, the poor, are the first to feel the changes that have been gradually imposed on us.
In part three I will introduce you to a pseudo-science called Eugenics, you may have heard of this “science” before. I believe it is at the heart of the convulsions we are experiencing and will be behind the seizures we will surely encounter in the near future, if we allow it to transpire.
Eugenics
The American Heritage dictionary defines Eugenics as “the study of hereditary improvement of the human race by controlled selective breeding”. To some this sounds innocuous but others know that there are many branches of the Eugenics tree and the fruit of that tree are all tainted, dangerous and inherently evil.
The History of Eugenics has it's roots in the writings of one Thomas Malthus who wrote “ An Essay on the Principals of Population” in 1798, anonymously. Malthus was a Christian reverend and his ideas gave birth to a population control movement in the years to follow.
The Malthusian Growth Model attempted to show that population growth will always out pace the ability of the earth to produce food enough to sustain an un-checked population. The exponential growth rate of the poor would always out pace societies ability to feed them. He was against charity for the poor because it would only encourage the undesirable classes of man to increase there numbers and
thereby spread the blight of poverty to more and more people.
Malthus stated that population growth is held within the limits of resources available by two factors
1) Positive restraints, ones which raised the rate of death through war, famine and epidemic and
2) Preventive restraints such as “ abortion, birth control, prostitution, postponement of marriage, and celibacy. “
His writings include a theory of how increasing wages affects population growth by fostering an environment which increase the birth rate, while at the same time degrading the rate of death. His writings inspired civic and business leaders to control the birth rate if they could and to keep wages low to protect the poor from themselves.
Many men built on Malthusian theories over the years. Most notable are Sir Francis Galton, a British statistician and Mr. Charles B. Davenport, American biologist.
By the 1900's the “science” of Eugenics was a area of much interest to the wealthy, educated classes of Europe and America. It was thought to be the road map to a perfected world, where the best genetics would be fostered, nurtured and advanced, while the undesirable traits of humans could be systematically cleansed from the face of the earth.
In Cold Springs Harbor New York a Eugenics Center for Research was endowed by the Carnegie Foundation and soon, Eugenics began to explain to it's adherents the reasons for all of societies ills. Bad genes.
Charles Davenport carried out experiments with plants and animals and with the help of a man named Harry Laughlin, they published findings which influenced public policy. Soon eugenic inspired laws were every where.
Laws which mandated involuntary sterilization of the “feeble” minded, criminally inclined and mentally ill. There were already laws on the books of many states which forbade inter-racial marriages but the wave of eugenics hysteria made the penalties more draconian.
The aim was to stop the propagation of all undesirable human traits. Those traits were most often found in the brown,black and red skinned races but there were plenty of white skinned undesirables as well.
They were the poor, the repeat offender petty criminal, the promiscuous un-educated Appalachian girl, the moron and idiot. Both terms that were created by the Eugenics movement to describe degrees of uselessness. It is reported that during the heyday of these laws more than 60,000 American were forcibly sterilized. The true numbers of victims of these policies is likely more.
The underlying lynch pins in the theories of eugenics were capitalism and white supremacy.
The eugenics researchers were being funded by the “robber baron” industrialist and master capitalist of their time. The belief in the value of eugenic programs along with a standing belief in white supremacy was so well woven into the privileged classes minds that eugenics only served to provide scientific corroboration of their deep seated beliefs. Justification to any action that could combat the advance of bad bloodlines and defective genes.
In Germany, eugenics laws were crafted to make wise the practice of euthanasia of the elderly and ill and then the handicapped and mentally ill, soon the epileptic and autistic were subjected to the iron hand of “sound science”. The Nazis wholehearted acceptance of the science of eugenics would allow them to carry out genocide without as much as a second thought. The science was the final word on what was accepted and what was destroyed.
The fortunes made by the owners of large corporations had funded this research which declared the well bred Anglo to be the epitome of genetic superiority and other races, to be undesirable and expendable. The Rockefeller foundation supported eugenics research, as did many of the families that had made fortunes in the emerging super industries of railroad, oil, chemical and pharmaceutical.
Alexander Bell believed in it. Oliver Wendel Homes, the supreme court justice believed in it. As did the royal families of Europe and rich families across America.
Margret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, believed in eugenics and did her part by placing her abortion clinics in predominantly black areas , in hopes of curbing the birth rate of blacks. Richard Nixon was caught on tape discussing his own eugenic theories and declaring that abortion was necessary to prevent “a black and a white” from having babies.
Prescott Bush, a US Senator and father to one American President and grandfather to another was a early supporter of Planned Parenthood. Prescott Bush also had ties to Nazi Germany through his involvement with the Hamburg American Shipping lines which provided free transport from Germany to America for German eugenicist to attend the Second International Conference on Eugenics held in New York in 1921.
The list of powerful American families involved in the implementation of eugenic based programs is astounding. It reveals the ideology behind the powers that be. The underbelly of their stated beliefs.
We have looked at Monsanto, patent holder of “Round up” and “ Round up ready Seeds", we learned about IG Farben and Codex Alimentarius and the Eugenics movement, food riots and how here in the US every sampled fish from 300 streams is tainted with mercury.
To spend time explaining to you the dangers of modern fast food and highly processed, prepackaged , nitrate laden processed meats and dairy products full of bovine growth hormones and sub-clinical doses of antibiotics , seems like telling you what you already know. Perhaps you are not aware of how our diets affect our bodies, Google it, it won't take you long to come up to speed.
We in the first world have an entirely different relationship with our food then our brothers in the third world. We often live to eat, rather then eat to live.
The number of fatal illness which can be either prevented or mitigated by a modification of our diet is many. Most doctors agree certain eating habits contribute to the number of cancer and diabetes patients in America. Obesity is an epidemic among our children and middle aged Americans are fatter then ever. Americans are well aware of the value of fresh fruit and vegetables and how saturated animal fats clog our arteries and make us fat. But we are slow to change our habits. We enjoy our food.
Many of us do eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and lean meat and skinless chicken and fish. We watch our portions and condiments, drink wheat grass and Aloe Vera juices and yet we have among the worst health of any of the developed first world countries. Why is that?
In the poorer regions of the planet people are dying to eat and we in the west are allowing what we eat to kill us.
What is wrong with our food? Why does the EU opt to pay a 125 million dollar fine rather than let American Beef enter Europe? What is the nutritional ramification of genetically modified organism?
Why do we Americans spend 3.7 billion dollars a year on energy drinks and pick me ups?
These and other questions will be answered in Part 4: The Connections and the Connected .
Below is a talk by Edwin Black, author of "War on the Weak" a book about eugenics.
If you view this you will gain valuable insight into the history, practice and goals of Eugenics.
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