Gaza Suffering- Families struggle for food

Gaza residents talk about hardship; The UN will resume relief operations only after receiving guarantees on security of personnel from the Israeli army.
Locked inside the coastal slice of land, just 40 kilometres (24 miles) long and up to 12 kilometres wide, with next to no food getting in each day, 1.5 million people are battling to find enough to keep their families alive.

Starving Zimbabweans mix cow dung with their food

Zimbabwe's official inflation rate stands at 231,000,000%. In all probability this is an underestimate of the real inflation rate. The Zimbabwean Dollar is practically worthless. It is estimated that more than 80% of the country's population lives on less than $1.5 dollars a day whilst 50% is chronically malnourished. Cholera has spread from the cities to rural areas whilst an anthrax outbreak has also been reported in Hurungwe 300km north of the capital, Harare. Local government services have in many cases collapsed. Raw sewage frequently seeps out onto streets and there are widespread sanitation problems.
Now comes a report from Caritas which states that Zimbabweans are mixing cow dung with their food.

Zimbabwe's economy, agriculture, its education and healthcare systems have virtually collapsed. Caritas staff in rural Zimbabwe are reporting that families are mixing their dwindling food supplies with cow dung to stave off hunger. Caritas Internationalis Secretary General Lesley-Anne Knight said, “Our staff say that people in Zimbabwe are dropping dead on the streets from Cholera. They’ve witnessed people mixing cow dung with what’s left of their food to make it go further. This is poverty at its most dehumanising.”

Caritas aid operations are planning to ramp up across the country with hunger likely to increase after poor harvests. A Caritas survey in the areas it works in October found 70 to 90 percent of households going hungry depending on the area and the rest on the brink of starving. At least 5.1 million people are facing starvation out of a population of 13 million people. Nearly 14,000 cases of Cholera have been reported. It’s unknown how people living with HIV and AIDS are surviving without either the necessary medicines or the necessary level of nutrition that is key to the effectiveness of anti-retroviral treatment.......

The international community must maintain the pressure on Zimbabwe for an end to this crisis. We must also prepare ourselves for the implosion of the country and the catastrophe that will mean in terms of human suffering across the region. Zimbabwe’s neighbours must address the xenophobia directed at Zimbabwean refugees in their own countries.....

Mugabe clings to power whilst the international community stands idly by.

Munster is Irelands rust belt: Large areas of the province are an industrial wasteland

The inhabitants of the province of Munster are a quiet people. They have tolerated too much. Traditionally farming food processing and fishing have been mainstays of the provinces economy. In recent years these industries have been blitzed.
Food processing has undergone rationalisation and closures. EU interference and Government failure at EU level wiped out the sugar beet industry and led to the closure of the Mallow sugar beet plant. Fishermen labour under increasingly harsh Government and EU impositions.

Beef, dairy and chicken farming have been crippled by production restrictions and increased Government and EU environmental regulation. Much of the environmental regulation is to put it mildly nonsensical-a product of imbecilish minds. These industries are steadily being regulated out of existence. Yet beef producers in countries such as Brazil are largely exempt from such impositions. Indeed were it not for President Sarkozy’s dogged resistance at the WTO talks 50,000 Irish farmers would have gone out of business whilst another 50,000 employed in spin off industries would have landed on the scrap heap

Chicken has flooded into Ireland from Brazil, Thailand et al. Much of this is relabelled as Irish. The consumer is being hoodwinked. Indeed much of the imported chicken is not even fresh. It often lacks traceability. Spiralling feed costs, loopholes in our food labelling legislation and harsh Government regulation have all but wiped out the chicken industry. Poultry processors such as Castlemahon (Co. Limerick) and Cappoquin Chickens have gone out of business.
A large belt from Mallow (Co. Cork) to Dungarvan (Co. Waterford) is now an industrial wasteland. It is Irelands new rust belt. Food processing industries in towns such as Mallow, Mitchelstown, Cappoquin and Dungarvan have been decimated. Other towns such as Fermoy and Youghal are industrial wastelands.

The Government has failed to protect the indigenous food industry. It will live to rue the day as the dole cues swell.
There is a mistaken assumption in Government quarters that service industries will replace agriculture and food processing. Apparently it is Government policy to trade Irish agriculture in return for access to markets in Asia, South America and Australia for services and industry.

Burma- It is time for Military Intervention by the US, UK and France to ensure delivery and distribution of humanitatian aid

Almost two weeks have passed since Cyclone Nargis struck Burma. But aid and relief agencies forecast that less than 30 % of victims are reachable and that less than 10 % of foods and aids have been distributed. Millions of survivors are still waiting in the flooded swamps crippled by disease and starvation. Meanwhile the international community is still waiting at the gate to donate money and foodstuffs.

Today EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said before an emergency meeting of EU ministers in Brussels that the international community should use all possible means to deliver aid to victims of the Burma cyclone.
He also stated that the United Nations charter could be used to facilitate the delivery of foreign aid to Burma if as seems likely the Burmese Junta continues to obstruct delivery of foreign aid.

Nearly three years ago at a summit celebrating the UN’s 60th birthday, 171 nations agreed that they would intervene, forcefully if necessary, if a state failed to protect its own people. So the UN promised that- if a government abused or neglected its own people-it would step in. Apparently there would be no more genocides such as those witnessed in Rwanda.
Unfortunately the UN has failed to fulfil its promise and Javier Solana's comments are too little too late. The time for talking has ended.

It is now time for the US, the UK and France to intervene militarily to ensure delivery and distribution of foreign aid. The Bush regime would go out on a high. This would mark a high point in the Bush Presidency. It would also help negative much of the bad publicity emanating from Iraq. It would be a win win situation for the US and the people of Burma.
It is now or never.
As the following illustrates the Butchers of Rangoon are beyond redemption.
According to Mizzima News

"military rulers imposed new restrictions on foreign and Burmese aid workers trying to enter the country's cyclone-hit Irrawaddy Delta. They have also banned journalists and the use of cameras.The secret order was told to Burmese businessmen – who are assigned to help with the reconstruction of Rangoon and the Irrawaddy Delta – on Tuesday by Prime Minister Lt-Gen Thein Sein during a meeting at the Rangoon Military Command.A source close to the military told Mizzima, "Thein Sein yesterday stated that no foreigners will be allowed to go to the delta. Even for these [Burmese] companies, no cameras will be allowed."…………