NSW North Coast braces itself for another hit as food prices continue to rise

According to FN Arena yesterday food prices rose by 1.7% in March, which was the biggest monthly rise in almost five years.

With the slowdown in consumer spending barely holding inflation in check and with that election promise millstone, tax cuts, just a few months away and likely to keep the inflation genie from ever getting back in the bottle this year; NSW North Coast fixed-income retirees and pensioners are beginning to worry that the second half of 2008 will see food poverty established in many households.

Memories of the Great Depression are still strong amongst the older folk and some are asking what went so wrong that a prosperous country like Australia should have again developed such a divide between the haves and havenots over the last 12 years.

Stories are also being told of less than a dozen ordinary unprocessed food items costing more than $50 at local supermarkets, and weekly shopping bills being 40-50% higher than three years ago.

Fifty dollars is around one-fifth of the total weekly income of many living in the Northern Rivers region.

A cynical George Bush advances US interests in the face of global food shortages

Two days ago US President George Bush announced increased food aid to assist with a global food shortage, partly caused by increased dedication of land to biofuel crops world-wide and in America $5 billion annually in domestic subsidies for bio-fuel production.

 

THE PRESIDENT:  In recent weeks, many have expressed concern about the significant increase in global food prices.  And I share this concern.  In some of the world's poorest nations, rising prices can mean the difference between getting a daily meal and going without food.

To address this problem, two weeks ago my administration announced that about $200 million in emergency food aid would be made available through a program at the Agriculture Department called the Emerson Trust.  But that's just the beginning of our efforts.  I think more needs to be done, and so today I am calling on Congress to provide an additional $770 million to support food aid and development programs.  Together, this amounts to nearly $1 billion in new funds to bolster global food security.  And with other food security assistance programs already in place, we're now projecting to spend nearly -- that we will spend nearly $5 billion in 2008 and 2009 to fight global hunger.

 

However this aid appears to come with an US export promotion component, increased pressure to allow US free trade across the globe, a push for abolition of tariffs and wider acceptance of GMO technology and crops.

 

The Emerson Trust of course deals only in US commodities, so that most of the extra $200 million will not boost the domestic economies of struggling countries but will flow back to benefit American agriculture.

As the trust also appears to use commodity releases to compensate for food crop shortages in the US, it would seem that its own large food bank may contribute to the global problem in the first place.

 

The US Government Accountability Office was critical in 2007 of the wasteful nature of the US food aid program and the fact that non-government organisations receiving American grain act as grain traders in poorer countries and sell-on the scarce resource to fund their own programs.

Over the past four years at least $500 million worth of food aid has been sold-on in this way.

Morris Iemma is so out of touch that....

Morris Iemma is so out of touch that if he and Costa are rolled over the privatisation of NSW power industry at this weekend's Labor state conference, then it is odds on that he will still attempt to push the sell-off through parliament because Caucus is also seemingly becoming irrelevant to the parliamentary Labor right.

"Moggy Musings" [Archived material from Boy the Wonder Cat]

Furry musing:
Bernard Salt, a self-styled demographer, says that in a few years about 30% of all Australians will live alone and that many will have companion animals instead of kids. He calls these households fur families.
I like it. Pets rule, O.K.!
You're my Hero musing:
This week Tuffy the Queensland kitten was rescued from the fatal clutches of a large python by her human, Ruth Butterworth, who was bitten twice and had her arm broken during the rescue. Ruth was a real hero and Tuffy is one lucky cat in March 2008.
An adoption musing:
Every week on the NSW North Coast a number of cats and dogs find themselves without a home.
If you want to do your bit and give one bundle of joy a new family, contact Happy Paws on 0419 404 766

Macklin concerned about people fleeing her policies

Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs Jenny Macklin is reported across the media as being concerned at the number of indigenous Australians who are voting with their feet and fleeing the draconian Northern Territory Intervention.

 

Well the only surprise here is that it has taken so long to happen. This current small population shift is bound to grow bigger over time.

Nobody wants to stay in places where government agencies and personnel treat you like second-class citizens. Where everyone is reduced to using a form of ration card, stripped of what little dignity has been afforded them and handled as though they are idiots.

 

Last night Radio Australia told the world that part of the NT population is moving.

Embarrassing for the Rudd Government, but twice as embarrassing for all those who voted for a change in government attitude and behaviour.

 

So what are you going to do now, Ms. Macklin. Forbid people to move out of Northern Territory indigenous townships without a signed pass? Then you will truly earn the title Jackboot Jenny.

 

The NT Intervention used a model and strategies which were bound to fail because they were based on forms of coercion and racism.

The Rudd Government needs to pull out of this approach completely or lose credibility. Not next week, not next month - now.

There are better ways to address the well-documented problems in rural and remote communities.

Canberra show pony or prime minister?

So now the Prime Minister has backed away from his fulsome support of Morris Iemma's daft idea to privatise NSW power supplies.

Rudders, you should never have backed this nag in the first place.

It was wrong to open your mouth (for the sake of a media moment) and put this state's essential services further at risk by supporting privatisation.

Trying to straddle the electric fence now, by telling Iemma he should 'negotiate' with the unions, is nothing but show pony prance.

Mate - it's time you decided if you are going to be a Labor prime minister in the finest tradition or if you are going to be a closet Liberal with a well-to-do wife.

Just to jog your memory a bit. The electorate voted for a Labor man.

Is Obama experiencing donor fatigue or is the race thang starting to bite?

In the space of two days the Obama for America team offered two 'gifts' if I contribute to the senator's campaign.

• To meet this deadline and celebrate our grassroots donors, we've created a special gift. Make a donation of $30 or more before midnight on Wednesday, April 30th, and receive a limited edition Vote for Change T-shirt

• To meet this deadline and celebrate our grassroots donors, we've created a special gift.Make a donation of $15 or more before midnight on Wednesday, April 30th, and receive a limited edition Vote for Change car magnet

I have to wonder if Barak Obama's constant drive for political donations is starting to hit the wall.

Or is the constant race thread underlying Clinton and McCain campaigning starting to bite into Obama's support base?

 

On MSNBC last Sunday.

 

McCain spoke with reporters in Miami Sunday afternoon at a press conference that had been hastily arranged late Friday night. The ostensible purpose of the event was to allow the presumptive GOP nominee to continue criticizing Obama for not supporting his gas tax holiday proposal.

But what was seemingly meant as another chapter in an ongoing series of criticism quickly moved toward the issue of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the North Carorlina Republican Party's continued commitment to airing an ad referencing Wright's comments in connection with Obama. Over the course of an 18-minute press conference McCain used Obama's name an average of once per minute -- many times in response to direct questions but almost every time in a disparaging context.

 

McCain's feeble defence of his covert support of this advertisement reported from a Democrats perspective here.