Egypt: Protests Turn Violent as Pro-Mubarak Forces Attack

Come on Obama, do something right and help these people.

 

Egypt's food problem isn't some WTO conspiracy, it doesn't meet it's own what production because it has a very limited amount of room in which to grow anything in along the Nile and Egypt's population has grown tremendously in the pat 40 years, both greatly increasing the demand for food while decreasing precious agricultural land in an extremely densely populated nation. Egypt's share of the percent of wheat or anything else it imports is not going to go down regardless of who leads the nation.

*edit*
In fact Egypt's wheat production in comparison to the amount of area it has under wheat cultivation is actually pretty damn high, in fact only France, Britain and the Netherlands seems to be higher.
http://www.nue.okstate.edu/Crop_Information/World_Wheat_Production.htm

 

That's terrible, animals should not be used to fight human wars.

I heard that the US is now trying to interact with countries over there via facebook and twitter so that they can get an idea of what's going on.

 

Try again, damn pesky fact, market reforms lead to huge increases in production
http://www.ifpri.org/publication/adjustment-wheat-production-market-reform-egypt?print

Sorry that facts aren't fitting the agenda.

*edit*
Also as anyone economist, actually anyone who made it to Economics and international trade 101 will tell you, the influx of hard currency into a nation is pretty vital to continued economic development, relying completely on tourism and the Suze canal isn't exactly wise.

 

I know, I just thought that I would bring it up. CNN talked about it this morning, US authorities are interacting with Egyptians via those two sites.

The US it seems refused to have those two sites in particular shut down or unused in that part of the world.

 

I highly doubt this turn of events is a 'grassroots' sort of thing. How likely is it that prisident fucktits over there is behind all this voilence?

Maybe this is a nationially selfish way to look at this, but I sort of see this as Americas chance to prove we can do good in the world and not just act out of our own imperialistic self-interest.

I'm still trying to believe Obama is a good guy, I'm probably even going to vote for him again but he needs to stop being such a bitch worrying about his image or clout and take some sort of humanitarian action right the fuck now.

 

All those US speeches have been in the interest of protecting the US's assets in Egypt and that part of the world. The US doesn't actually give a shit about the Egyptian people.

 

I'm an American and I care deeply about their struggle.

 

If you mean those in government, we agree.

 

you got me on and edit, I didn't want to sway the main topic here

 

Adding to my post for the second page, aside from the fact market reforms lead to much greater productivity, farmers are allowed to choose what they grow and who they sell to. Selling crops to international markets brings in much needed hard currency into the nation. Yeah there's hungry people in Egypt, there's hungry people everywhere, but without a free market, one, there'd be no foreign investment in your agricultural sector which is extremely important in a place like Egypt, and no exports would mean no hard currency which is vital to the functioning and economic growth of a nation.
This is why economics is called the dismal science, no matter what you do, even the right options are going to leave some people screwed.

Fun fact, most people in Egypt aren't starving. In fact Egypt has one of the highest per capita caloric intakes in the world
http://statinfo.biz/geomap.aspx?act=7753&lang=2
It's just if you're already spending 3/4 of your disposable income on food, and prices are skyrocketing it tends to tick people off.

On top of it, this isn't unique to Egypt, it's all over the world, wheat prices are rising dramatically in places like the US and Britain too, we just don't really notice it, and as evil as they might come off, giant grocery chains often absorb the costs of basic goods so we literally never see it. Hence why a loaf of stop n shop bread still cost $2 despite the fact wheat futures have risen dramatically and effect every country. Floods have destroyed crops in Australia and India, the great plains are going through a drought, and Russia and Ukraine put a stop on its exports. Ironically Russia probably helped spur revolution in Egypt from that one action.
*edit*
In fact wheat futures on US markets have near doubled in the past year, yet I doubt anyone here has paid notice to the extra $1.50 they're spending on whatever

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business/market_data/commodities/158426/twelve_month.stm