The price of food is at the heart of this wave of revolutions
Twenty years ago, things were more manageable. When grain production collapsed in the Soviet Union during the 1980s and what had been one of the world's greatest grain exporters became a net importer, the resulting surges of anger brought down the whole Communist system within a couple of years â but stopped there. Today there are no such firebreaks, and thanks to digital communications, events happen much faster.
For the poor of the Middle East, the price shocks at the start of this year were like experiencing a second killer earthquake in three years â but unlike with an earthquake, there was someone you could blame. So angry were the food price protesters in Tunisia that, after Mohamed Bouazizi set fire to himself, President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali declared a state of emergency and promised to reduce the price of food. But it was too little, too late: by mid-January he was gone.
In these poor countries, food purchases can consume 70 per cent of income. The result, when prices of flour and grains shoot up by 30 per cent, is extreme distress â the sort of distress that sends people out into the streets in fury.
Tunisia's turmoil, warned The Washington Post as the toppled president flew off into exile, "has economists worried that we may be seeing the beginning of a second wave of global food riots". As we know now, it turned out somewhat differently. Food riots in 2008, revolutions in 2011 â what, where, who is next?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...art-of-this-wave-of-revolutions-2226896.html#
Twenty years ago, things were more manageable. When grain production collapsed in the Soviet Union during the 1980s and what had been one of the world's greatest grain exporters became a net importer, the resulting surges of anger brought down the whole Communist system within a couple of years â but stopped there. Today there are no such firebreaks, and thanks to digital communications, events happen much faster.
For the poor of the Middle East, the price shocks at the start of this year were like experiencing a second killer earthquake in three years â but unlike with an earthquake, there was someone you could blame. So angry were the food price protesters in Tunisia that, after Mohamed Bouazizi set fire to himself, President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali declared a state of emergency and promised to reduce the price of food. But it was too little, too late: by mid-January he was gone.
In these poor countries, food purchases can consume 70 per cent of income. The result, when prices of flour and grains shoot up by 30 per cent, is extreme distress â the sort of distress that sends people out into the streets in fury.
Tunisia's turmoil, warned The Washington Post as the toppled president flew off into exile, "has economists worried that we may be seeing the beginning of a second wave of global food riots". As we know now, it turned out somewhat differently. Food riots in 2008, revolutions in 2011 â what, where, who is next?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...art-of-this-wave-of-revolutions-2226896.html#
