Has UNCTAD gone crazy?

I was reading about the world summit on the global food crisis that is taking place in Rome with great interest when I was shocked to read this news report about the United Nations Conference on Trade And Development (UNCTAD) blaming India and China for the rising food prices.

UNCTAD’s Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi said at the summit, ”As rising demand for food resulting from economic growth in such countries as China and India has combined with droughts and high energy prices, the basic cost of food has climbed 54 per cent in the past 12 months.”

The folks at UNCTAD should either find a way to increase food production or they should blame the developed countries and not India and China . . .

Image: www.healthline.com

The President of the USA, George W. Bush said something similar recently, but one could dismiss it as a meaningless statement from a differently disabled duck of a President who is nearing the end of his political career. But such a statement coming from someone like the Secretary-General of UNCTAD is very surprising indeed. What surprises one even more is the fact that Supachai Panitchpakdi is from Thailand, a country that is similar to India and China in several ways, except land area.

What does the UNCTAD Secretary-General’s statement mean? It means that India and China are pushing up world food prices because of increased demand for food products in the two Asian giants. It means that the developed countries can get away with the utterly wasteful lifestyle of their citizens, but the two Asian countries must not aim to get rid of hunger in their countries. It means that the citizens of India and China should not buy adequate food but the developed countries can get away with burning large quantities of grains to keep prices under control while millions of people are starving in Africa. It means that India and China should not attempt to get rid of poverty and undernourishment in their countries but the developed world can get away with unfair trade practices that are robbing millions of Africans of what is rightfully theirs. In short, it means that India and China should perpetually keep their citizens in poverty to enable the citizens of the developed countries of the world get away with their wasteful lifestyles! To sum it up in three words, despicable double standards!

I do not know about China, but let me present a few facts about my beloved country:

# While the food and fuel consumption of the middle classes and above (about 300 million) has increased because of economic growth, there are hundreds of millions of people who still live in poverty in India. Their calorific intake is quite low and they use very little fuel – kerosene/LPG (in urban areas) and firewood/charcoal/bio-gas (in rural areas) for cooking, no fuel for heating – except for a few states that need heating only in winter, India is a hot tropical country that needs no heating, and very little fuel for their vehicles as they use public transport or bicycles or small mopeds for commuting. So even if one takes the average food and fuel consumption of Indians, it is way, way behind the developed countries. Actually, it would be closer to the poor countries of the world. So why the hell should UNCTAD blame India?

# India’s population has a large percentage of vegetarians. I do not have any figures for this, but I am sure that India would have the highest percentage of vegetarians among all the countries of the world, unlike China whose population is mostly non-vegetarian. So how the hell can UNCTAD blame India for rising food prices around the world?

# India is largely self-sufficient in food production and is even a net exporter of food. So how the hell can India be responsible for rising food prices around the world?

The developed countries are responsible for the rising prices of fuel and not India . . .

Image: www.classiccarrestorationparts.com

# India is the second largest two-wheeler market in the world, after China, but 99% of those two wheelers are ultra fuel efficient, low capacity (with an engine capacity of less than 200cc), low emissions motorcycles, scooters and mopeds. India’s emission norms are quite strict, just a notch below those of the E.U. and much, much better than those in China. Also, electric scooters are becoming very popular in India these days.

# India’s car ownership figure is 7 per 1000, compared to China’s 10 per 1000, Mexico’s 142 per 1000, South Korea’s 218 per 1000, Qatar’s 335 per 1000, Japan’s 441 per 1000, the USA’s 465 per 1000, Germany’s 546 per 1000, Canada’s 561 per 1000, Italy’s 590 per 1000, New Zealand’s 592 per 1000 and Luxembourg’s 647 per 1000. So who the hell is UNCTAD trying to fool?

# About 80% of the cars sold in India are eco-friendly, fuel-efficient, compact cars that meet the government norms for small cars – less than 4m in length with an engine capacity of less than 1200cc for petrol/gasoline engined cars and less than 1500cc for diesel engined cars. Though there is no weight limit for small cars, almost all compact cars weigh less than 1150kg. Compare this with the ugly, humungous, fuel-guzzling, fume-spewing cars, SUVs and pick-up trucks that litter the roads of North America. How the hell can UNCTAD blame India for rising fuel prices around the world when the fault lies with the developed countries?

# Thanks to the government’s policy of encouraging compact car production, India is all set to become the global hub for the design, development and manufacture of compact but spacious and comfortable, light but safe, ultra fuel efficient, ultra low emissions and affordable cars like the Tata Nano. One international car manufacturer who was churning out ugly, humungous, fuel-guzzling and fume-spewing SUVs and pick-up trucks has been forced to shut down four plants that manufacture such vehicles due to rising fuel prices. Tata Motors has aggressive plans to market the Nano in the E.U., African, Latin American and ASEAN markets, so now there is a mad scramble by international (and Indian) car manufacturers to develop their own cars that adhere to the ‘nano’car philosophy of affordable, fuel-efficient, eco-friendly, safe and comfortable personal transport. So why the hell should UNCTAD blame India? If anything, they should thank India for showing the way forward to the rest of the world!

I am also surprised by the United Nations’ Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s statement that countries should not put export bans in place. That is a ridiculous statement from the UN Secretary-General. What does Mr. Moon want food exporting countries to do? Let the rising food prices lead to food riots within their countries? In times of crises, Mr. Moon, it is every country for itself and its people! Afterall, democracy is supposed to be a government of the people, by the people and for the people of that country!

If UNCTAD still wants to blame India for the ills of the world that are caused by the utterly wasteful lifestyles of the citizens of the developed countries, then it is time for the world to throw out that organisation lock, stock and barrel and find more competent people to do the job!

Bio-diesel in India: from the tree to the tank!

A Spanish/Latin American blogger friend of mine has a blog dedicated to alternate fuels called Jatrophaonline. He invited me to share links and posts about alternate energy sources. I am delighted to join him in his mission to write blog posts about alternate fuels. This post is the first one in a series dedicated to alternate sources of energy.

The prime sources of bio-fuel are bio-ethanol extracted from molasses used in Spark Ignition engines that use petrol/gasoline as fuel and bio-diesel extracted from Jatropha curcas used in Compression Ignition engines that use high speed diesel as fuel. There are many other promising and sustainable sources from which bio-fuels can be extracted. One of them is the Pongamia pinnata tree.

Flowers of the Pongamia pinnata . . .

Image:Wikimedia commons

Pongamia pinnata is the binomial name for a tree that one may have come across daily, especially if you live in South India. It is known by many common names but let us use the genus name Pongamia for ease of understanding. This tree is a part of folklore in South India. According to South Indian lore, if you have a Pongamia tree in your backyard and sit under it every day, you will receive the nourishment and vitality you need to overcome problems caused by extremes of wind, water, or fire. This bit of folklore may prove to be prophetic. The Pongamia tree has the potential for transforming the struggling villages of today into tomorrow’s havens of prosperity and tranquility, and at the same time, restoring their rich heritage of rural self-sufficiency. I provide some more information about the Pongamia tree, its characteristics and the traditional uses of the tree. The information has been taken from Wikipedia.

Pongamia is a deciduous tree that grows to about 15-25 metres in height with a large canopy that spreads equally wide. The leaves are a soft, shiny burgundy in early summer and mature to a glossy, deep green as the season progresses. Small clusters of white, purple, and pink flowers blossom on their branches throughout the year, maturing into brown seed pods. The tree is well suited to intense heat and sunlight and its dense network of lateral roots and its thick, long taproot make it drought tolerant. The dense shade it provides slows the evaporation of surface water and its root structures promote nitrogen fixation, which moves nutrients from the air into the soil. Withstanding temperatures slightly below 0°C to 50°C and annual rainfall of 5–25 dm, the tree grows wild on sandy and rocky soils, including oolitic limestone, but will grow in most soil types, even with its roots in salt water.

Known by many names, it is a leguminous tree that’s well-adapted to arid zones and has many traditional uses. It is often used for landscaping purposes as a windbreak or for shade due to the large canopy and showy fragrant flowers. The bark can be used to make twine or rope and it also yields a black gum that is used to treat wounds caused by poisonous fish. The flowers are used by gardeners as compost for plants requiring rich nutrients. Although all parts of the plant are toxic and will induce nausea and vomiting if eaten, the fruits and sprouts, along with the seeds, are used in many traditional remedies. Juices from the plant, as well as the oil, are antiseptic and resistant to pests. In addition the Pongam tree has the rare property of producing seeds of 25-35% lipid content. The seed oil is an important asset of this tree having been used as lamp oil, in soap making, and as a lubricant for thousands of years. This oil is rapidly gaining popularity as an important source of fuel for diesel engines.

It is obvious from the above information that, like Jatropha curcas, Pongamia pinnata has a great potential to be used as a sustainable source of extracting bio-diesel. Pongamia does not have to be grown on agricultural land at all. It can be cultivated on a large scale in areas that are unfit for cultivating food crops. It can also be grown on the margins of roads and fields and in backyard gardens. This hardy tree not only provides shade from the harsh sun, but also has been used for so many other purposes traditionally. And with the rising global oil prices caused by peak oil demand and depleting mineral oil sources, trees like the Pongamia that were always there could find a new use.

Rudolf Diesel, the German engineer who invented the Compression Ignition engine that was named after him, actually designed his engine to run on vegetable oil and not mineral oil. Now, with mineral oil sources getting depleted at a fast rate, it looks like diesel engines will have to go back to the very oil that he used to run his first engine. I salute the great visionary, Rudolf Diesel, an engineer who was way ahead of his times.

Mother Nature always has an answer to our prayers! Our beautiful Earth has more than enough to satisfy the need of everyone but not enough to satisfy the greed of even a few!

You can download and read a wonderful article in pdf format called Seeds of Hope by Ishan Tigunait.

Rice price rise may lead to rice riots!

Though the title mentions rice, this post is all about the rise in prices of staples (rice tops the list of staples) that has caused serious unrest in several parts of the world. Haiti’s government was thrown out and there were food riots in several parts of Africa and sporadic violence in other parts of the world. Even supermarkets in developed countries have begun rationing rice to their customers. Click on the link to read the post I wrote a few days ago about a looming disaster for many of our planetizens.

Paella is a very popular rice dish in Spain . . .

Image: www.flickr.com/ptc24

World leaders have woken up to this serious threat to the well-being of all Earthlings. The issue has become so serious that the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon has said that the U.N. and its affiliated organisations will set up a task force that will be headed by the Secretary-General himself. For more information, read this article on the site of Associated Press.

The U.N. has realised that rising food prices are a serious threat to growth and security and world peace itself. Development would be set back by seven years if this situation is not tackled immediately. Even a person like the World Bank President has warned that rising food prices would push 100 million into poverty and those who are already poor will suffer terribly. Read more about the threat to development goals in this article from Reuters.

The most heartening fact is that the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development feels that farm aid and fair trade is the key to solving this extremely urgent problem. I am delighted that someone has finally managed to call a spade a spade! Read more in this article.

I am shocked by the double standards of the ill-informed guys in the so-called ‘mainstream’ media who think that farm aid and small loan waivers for small and marginal farmers are ‘election sops’ while waiving multi-million dollar loans for corporate entities that are facing a crisis due to the deliberate mismanagement by the top brass is an act of ‘offering incentives’ for growth. Despicable double standards!

I think the time has come for the whole world to unite and put an end to the notorious ‘free market capitalism’ that has led the world to the present situation. ‘Free trade’ that is neither free nor fair should be replaced by fair trade! ‘Free market capitalism’ must be replaced by an economic system that is harmony with the universal ethical principles of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity and Human Rights!

May all concepts that are opposed to those four principles perish! May such concepts be completely annihilated as humankind searches for ways to solve the present food crisis!

My previous article on the food crisis:

Here comes the horseman riding the black horse!

Here comes the horseman riding the black horse!

I am not a believer in any religion. A spiritual friend left a comment on one of my previous posts about putting an end to war. It got me thinking because he wrote about The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse mentioned in The Bible. Please click on this link to find out more about The Four Horsemen.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Victor Vasnetsov(1887)

Image: Wikimedia Commons

The third horseman, riding the black horse, is called Famine. The black colour of the third horse could be a symbol of famine. Its rider holds a scale, which could be a representation of the ’scales of pitiless justice’ which commonly represent inequality and corruption. Some religious interpreters may believe that the black horse stands for capitalism.

I tend to agree with them, though I keep my distance from any religion. I believe the rider on the black horse represents the evil forces of ‘free market capitalism’.

Let us take a look at what those evil forces have done to our beautiful planet and a majority of her inhabitants. Take a look at this wikipedia article about the escalating food price crisis on the planet.

Hunger and rioting in different countries

Capitalism is all about the love of money. Money by itself is not bad as we cannot go back to the barter system but I have heard this a few times, “The love of money is the root of all evil“. Well, there is no harm in loving money either, as everyone has a right to lead a decent life in this imperfect world, but once people begin to love money so much that the idea of oxymoronous ‘free market capitalism’ begins to replace humanity in their hearts, the following is the result.

Haiti witnessed violent food riots in April because the prices of staples went up 50% since 2007 and the price of fuel tripled in four months.

Violence erupted in Indonesia where prices of staples and fuel doubled since January.

A boy was shot dead in Egypt by the police during violent demonstrations against rising food prices on April 8.

The Philippines is facing a severe shortage of rice, the country’s main staple.

Abidjan, the capital of Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire) erupted on March 31 due to food shortages.

In Cameroon, seven lives were lost during protests against rising inflation.

Twenty four people were arrested and tortured for daring to protest against rising food and fuel prices in Senegal.

Over one hundred people were arrested in several cities of Burkina Faso.

One person was killed and thirteen were wounded in food riots in Yemen.

Four persons were killed in Mozambique in ‘food and fuel riots’.

Latin Americans met in Brasilia to confront the rising prices of food and fuel that has resulted in sporadic violence in the region.

South Africa and the South Asian countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are facing unrest due to the escalating prices of food and fuel.

Rising food prices have not spared the United States either. Faced with a ’slowdown’ in the economy that may result in job losses, twenty eight million people may receive food stamps from the government in order to ensure that they do not go to bed hungry.

In India, there was sporadic violence in a few areas due to food scarcity. Parliament was rocked by the issue of spiralling inflation(though it may not be high when compared to other countries) that is affecting everyone in the country with the poorest taking a brutal beating. This has forced the central and state governments to take a slew of measures to control food prices. Forward trading in essential commodities was banned and the export of rice(except basmati rice) has been banned. The government is planning to create strategic food reserves to make sure the country does not witness violence over the issue of the price of staples. The Reserve Bank of India is also planning to take a few measures to control galloping inflation.

What does all this mean to people who are not badly affected by rising prices? Ofcourse, everyone has to eat and most people use fuel in their vehicles so almost everyone notices the rise in prices of what they consume. But they may not be aware of what it means to the least fortunate who barely manage to eke out a living, for whom it may mean skipping a meal altogether or cutting down on what they consume which was insufficient in any case for the hard labour they put in to earn daily wages.

On the other hand, we have the forces of ‘free market capitalism’ who want to divert corn to produce bio-ethanol and convert vast swathes of farmlands that are used for growing food crops to cultivate ‘bio-fuel crops’ to produce fuels to power their fuel guzzling, fume spewing vehicles.

Bio-fuels are not a problem as long as they are produced from crops grown on wastelands(like bio-diesel obtained from Jatropha in India) or if they are produced from the byproducts of other industries(like bio-ethanol obtained from molasses in Brazil) or from waste oils(like bio-diesel obtained from used cooking oil in Malta) and some other cases.

Diverting food crops and edible oil for bio-fuel production when millions of people are facing food shortages around the world is a crime against humankind. Cultivating ‘bio-fuel crops’ on farms where food crops were previously cultivated when people are forced to go to bed hungry is a crime against humanity.

But it does not matter to those who have decided that the sacrosanct concept of the ‘global free market’ will take care of everything. It does not matter to such people if millions around the world face food shortages and hundreds are killed in ‘food riots’.

Jesus Christ! Please save their souls from ‘free market capitalism’. I can only hope that they realise that feudalism, ‘free market capitalism’, monarchy and other such nonsensical concepts deserve to be thrown into the sewer before it is too late.

Marie Antoinette would have been proud of the ‘free market capitalists’. She is believed to have said this about the poor, “If they don’t have bread, let them eat cake!”

The modern day Marie Antoinettes would say, “If they don’t have porridge, let them eat pizza!”

The French Revolutionaries put Marie Antoinette to death by the guillotine. I can only hope that the present ‘Food Rioters’ put monarchy, feudalism, ‘free market capitalism’ and other evil concepts to death by the guillotine or by any other method.

(I am totally opposed to the death penalty, so I do not want any person to be put to death, even if he is a notorious criminal. I only want evil concepts and ideas to be put to death so that everyone on the planet can lead a happy life.)

I prefer to be associated with the concepts that enrich the hearts of people, rather than those that promise them diamonds! Only a minority of people on this planet are in clover! I always prefer to call a spade a spade!

India Budget 2008-09: Good but not good enough!

The Indian Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, tabled the central government’s budget for the financial year 2008-2009 in the Lower House of Parliament yesterday (February 29,2008). You can read about the highlights of the budget on this link and download the full text of the Finance Minister’s speech in pdf format from this link. This post will concentrate mainly on the impact on the agriculture sector apart from a few other important features.

Agriculture

The most important feature of the budget was a Rs.60,000 crore (600 billion INR/10 billion EUR/15 billion USD) debt-relief package for farmers. You can find the details on the two links given above. While this is a welcome step and was greeted with jubilation by farmers across the country, let us find out if this would be enough to tide over the agrarian crisis and pull agriculture from the brink of disaster.

Agrarian crisis

It is a well known fact that India is in the grip of a severe agrarian crisis that has led to farmers (mainly those cultivating cash crops) committing suicide in droves across the country. Unable to cope with rising input costs, erratic monsoons (seasonal winds that bring adequate rain – much of Indian agriculture depends on the two monsoons: the South-West Monsoon and the North-East Monsoon), ridiculously low minimum support price for certain crops, a falling water table that means increased fuel and sometimes electricity charges to draw groundwater, shortage of good quality fertilisers, pests that develop resistance to pesticides, generally disastrous trials with genetically modified crops, lack of agricultural credit and crop insurance, natural disasters like floods, changing weather patterns due to global warming, lack of modern techniques in agriculture, lack of access to the market, exploitation by middlemen and above all a total neglect of agriculture and rural areas by successive governments, farmers in different parts of the country are driven to the edge of the  cliff.

They are forced to borrow money from moneylenders at shockingly usurious rates of interest (the moneylenders sometimes confiscate the land of farmers if they fail to pay up). To compound the problem, health-care is almost non-existent in the rural areas and the state sponsored health-care system is on the verge of collapse in the urban areas. So farmers are also forced to cough up massive amounts of money for medical care in private hospitals. The poor farmers have no hope left and they consume the pesticides that have become useless against the pests but are sufficiently toxic to claim a human life.

The Magsaysay award winner and Rural Affairs Editor of The Hindu - a respected English language broadsheet, P. Sainath, has covered the agrarian crisis in his series of articles in The Hindu and its sister magazine The Frontline (a fortnightly) and also in his book Everybody loves a good drought.

The Finance Minister seems to have taken a cue from the move of the government of his home state (Tamil Nadu). As soon as it came to power, the state government waived farm loans to the tune of Rs.6680 crore (66.8 billion INR/1.1 billion EUR/1.67 billion USD) taken from co-operative banks across the state of Tamil Nadu. This was a part of fulfilling poll promises made by the ruling party before the state election. The ruling Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) in the state of TN is a part of the ruling coalition at the centre-the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). The move of the state government was widely welcomed by farmers at the time just as the present move of the central government has been welcomed by farmers across the country. But is this the solution to the agrarian crisis that seems to be getting worse by the day?

The farm loan waiver comes at a time when farmers are in distress across the country. It should therefore be welcomed by all. But one should also spare a thought for the farmers who have taken loans from the usurious moneylenders as they were not entitled to loans from banks because of their poor loan repayment record. These farmers are the ones who are on the verge of committing suicide. While any relief for the beleaguered agriculture sector is welcome, I hope the governments across the country concentrate on striking at the root cause of the problem rather than finding stop-gap solutions, however welcome they may be at the moment. It is about time that the country concentrates on making the agriculture and allied sectors profitable, especially for small and marginal farmers as that alone would be the solution to most of the problems that India is facing at the moment. Struggling India should be turned into Shining India. There simply can be no other way forward.

Income tax benefits

The Finance Minister has also raised the exemption limit for income tax across the board – for men to Rs.1.50 lakh p.a.(150,000 INR/2470 EUR/3750 USD), for women to Rs.1.80 lakh p.a.(180,000 INR/2960 EUR/4500 USD) and for senior citizens to Rs.2.25 lakh p.a.(225,000 INR/3700 EUR/5620 USD). There are also some other benefits that are sure to be welcomed by the middle classes.

So, is this budget a preparation for an early general election? Or is it a late fulfillment of promises made to the common man before the last one? Only time will tell!